Tales from the Teepee Volume 6: Jerry Browne

December 6, 1988 was the end of an era. I was 9 years old and my favorite Indian was Julio Franco. I emulated his batting stance, and always listened for the guy at old Municipal Stadium to yell "JUUUUUUUUUUUULIOOOOOOOOO." When the Tribe shipped fan favorite Franco off to the Texas Rangers for Oddibe McDowell, Pete O'Brien, and Jerry Browne. I was upset. The club spun the deal as getting three starters for one, which was true. But two of the starters that were sent back stunk badly, and one guy was mediocre. His name was Jerry Browne.

"The Governor" was one of the few MLB players born in the US Virgin Islands, succeeding Jose Morales. His best year as a Tribesmen was his first year, when he batted .299 with 5 homeruns and 45 RBI. He was only 23 at the time, viewed as a top prospect to some. Browne's next two years were less than stellar, leading to his subsequent release at the ripe old age of 25. Jerry bounced around for 4 more seasons, evolving into a utility player. He ended his career with the Florida Marlins.

Was Jerry Browne good? Not at all, but he was the best player in the horrendous trade of the 1989 All-Star second basement and eventual batting champion. Julio ended up playing until he was 50, and Jerry played until he was 29. Despite this glaring difference, The Governor will always have his magical 1989 season where the team finished with 73 wins.

Ugly Series Win

The Indians won their third series of the season Thursday, defeating the Seattle Mariners 3-2 in 11 innings. Bullpen issues and poor hitting were prevalent throughout the 3 games, but the Tribe will take it. Today's lineup was an abomination, almost like Manger Eric Wedge put the names of the 9 starters in a hat and pulled out the order. Next game I would expect Casey Blake to lead off since he has batted in every other position. The Closer role seems to be in flux again. The team has been carrying 2 pitchers on the roster that before Tuesday had not pitched in 2 weeks. It really is amazing the Indians are only a game under .500, but we can attribute that to the outstanding starting pitching.

Timely hitting was again an issue in two of the games, but we all know what can cure a batting slump. May seems to be a pretty manageable schedule to rattle off a few winning streaks, heavy on home games. Also, no teams in the AL Central have been able to run away with the division. I predict that the Indians will have a very solid month of May, and be at the top of the standings come June 1st. The team cannot possibly hit worse than they have so far in 2008, so let's hope for the momentum to build.

Here were some of the Highlights:

Grady Sizemore: 4-11, 4 Runs, 4 Walks, 1 HR, 2 RBI. It gives me a warm feeling seeing Grady at the top of the order. Some say he strikes out too much, but the guys just produces. They do not have a better leadoff alternative, so I will take him batting first every time. No other Indians would I rather have up in a clutch spot than him and Victor Martinez.

Franklin Gutierrez: 6-13, 3 RBI's. Continues to rake, I will give him a pass on his awful at bat in the 11th Thursday. Need him desperately at the end of the lineup.

Cliff "The Stopper" Lee: 6 IP, 8 hits, 3 earned runs, 3 K's. Has stopped 3 three game losing streaks. If he keeps it up, the Tribe will never lose 4 games consecutively. AL pitcher of the month for April.

Asdrubal Cabrera: 1-11, Game winning RBI Thursday. Hit like garbage for 28 innings, came up huge in the 11th. Hopefully this will ignite his bat.

Areas of Concern:

Casey Blake: 2-11, 1 golden sombrero (4K's in 1 game). Needs to quickly regrow the beard, almost single-handidly lost the game Thursday. Looked pitiful in his at bat in the 9th, and blatantly missed a throwout by Victor Martinez that allowed the Mariners to tie the game. I expect him to get 6 hits against the Royals this weekend.

Jhonny Peralta: 0-7 2 K's. I have no idea what is wrong with him, his at bats have been mind-boggling. Also his range was poor Tuesday.

Rafael Betancourt: 1 1/3 IP, 5 hits, 4 earned runs 2 blown saves. Sure looks like a different pitcher in the 9th, but I do not expect his role to change. CONQUEST!

Joel Skinner: Does it seem like every move he makes is wrong? Me too. Bring back Ted Uhelander.

The Kansas City Royals come to town for a weekend 3 games series. CC Sabathia hopes to string a third consecutive solid start against some guy named Luke Hochevar. Another series win and the Tribe is mediocre!

Cardboard Flashback Pat Corrales

Nothing was worse opening up a pack of cards when you are younger and getting a Manager card, except when it was Cleveland Indians legend Pat Corrales. His well kept feathered mane had the look of a hair club for men client. This salt and pepper-follicled skipper compiled a 280-355 record over 4 season in a Tribe uniform. The team peeked under his tutelage in 1986 with a fifth place showing.

Senor Patrico did have a successful career as a bench manager for Bobby Cox for 9 years and now is right hand man of the Washington Nationals. When I get ticked off at Eric Wedge for keeping relievers in his bullpen that haven't pitched in two weeks or being frustrated that he often plays a chubby, golden-mulleted crappy 4th outfielder, I remember that we had this guy as our manager and feel a little bit better about management.

Fighting for .500

Aprils can be tough to watch baseball in Cleveland. Bitter cold temperatures, rain, snow, and even hail can contribute to rough viewing down at Progressive Field. A little over 20,000 fans froze their tails off tonight to witness a series split. To be honest, most fans would have been content with a series split with the Bronx bombers, but when your team scores 2 runs over 2 days it can get quite frustrating. Monday's game was a microcosm of the season, good pitching wasted and timely hitting was non existent. The Indians have scored 50 runs with 2 outs, but tonight they only manage 2 runs with multiple opportunities. After playing two great ball games Friday and Saturday, but struggled to string scoring opportunities together the last two days. Part of the reason the hitting woes continue relate to Grady Sizemore being out of the lineup. His propensity to get on base and be one of the few real threats on the roster right now really hurts the overall punch this team needs. The Indians have won 2 series this year in 9 chances, which amazes me as I thought that their record was a lot worse. Let's hope this cold front passes through Cleveland quickly as their hitting has not been good when the mercury drops below 50 degrees.

Here were some of the Highlights:

Victor Martinez: 5-14, 3 walks, one huge RBI: Even though Victor has been able to really drive the ball yet this year (only 4 extra base hits), he is batting .365 for the season. As the weather warms up, V-Mart will continue to mash as he is the only member of the team hitting over .270 who plays consistently.

Franklin Gutierrez: 4-10, 2 runs, HR. Franky G seems to be getting back to a comfort zone, still playing a great outfield anywhere he plays.

Masa Kobayashi: 3 IP, 2 hits, 2 K's 0 ER. Has settled in as the go to righty out of the pen in late innings. Seems to has gained confidence as the season has went on.

CC Sabathia: 8 IP, 4 hits, 8 K's 1ER. Pitched with emotion and spotted the ball well. Made one mistake to Melky Cabrera, seems to be back on track.

Jeremy Sowers/Aaron Laffey: Pitched very well in spot starts, will be major factors in the development of this staff in 2009 after CC inevitably leaves. Probably getting tired of the bus trips back and forth to Buffalo. They do have great wings, though!

Areas of Concern:

Ryan Garko: 0-10. Just looks lost at the plate, wouldn't be surprised to see him benched for a few days in favor of Kelly Shoppach or even the immortal Andy Marte with Victor moving to First Base. May need to stay out of the Warehouse District for awhile.

Casey Blake: 1-12, 4 K's. The roller coaster ride that has been Casey's season continues. He has 18 RBI, and 17 hits. I guess that means he has been productive with his hits, but pretty crappy when no one is on base. Blake used to be the polar opposite, possessing an awful average with runners in scoring position. Let's hope he decides to hit in this next series.

Travis Hafner: 2-12, 4 K's, 2 RBI, 4 walks. Needs to produce if this teams has any chance to repeat a playoff run. Has been taking many third pitch strikes.

Ben Francisco in Buffalo: The team was 4-0 when he was on the roster, now has went 1-2. Karma people!

Cleveland Weather: Really sucks the life out of their bats. Our players seem to prefer the nice weather, hopefully it will return Tuesday since I have tickets.

The Seattle Mariners come to town for a 3 game series and the Tribe is lucky to miss Eric Bedard and Felix Hernandez. Fausto Carmona takes on meatball throwing Carlos Silva Tuesday.

Power Outage

The Indians have been able to string together five wins over the past six games. For the Tribe to sustain any type of consistency, they will need DH Travis Hafner to figure out his hitting woes. It seems that Hafner has not been the same since being hit in the wrist by a pitch that ended his 2006 season. Pronk's vision of the strike zone has not been anywhere close to his pre-2007 years, and most times he makes an out it is ground balls to the right side of the infield. Unfortunately the Indians do not have any other real option to plug into the 3 hole while Hafner attempts to figure himself out.

Whether Hafner has been pressing or may have just lost his plate discipline are up for debate. Through 25 games, he is batting .226 with 3 homeruns and 13 rbi. While watching Saturday's game my friends and I observed that Pronk was let off the hook a bit by the wild pitch and subsequent intentional walk. Most fans would agree that they would rather have Victor Martinez batting in that pressure situation anyways, and he subsequently delivered. The real disturbing stat is Hafner's on base percentage of .324, showing he has been less selective at the plate. I also believe he has taken far too many called third strikes, proving he has been fooled on pitch selection and location.

What does this all mean? The 2007 Cleveland Indians were able to win despite an All-Star season from their Designated Hitter, but I feel this will be hard to duplicate. The lineup has far too many inconsistent holes (left field, right field, 2nd base, 3rd base) for the 3rd spot in the order to be struggling all year. Hafner may still have a sore shoulder since the club seems to hide other injuries lately (see Joe Borowski). Let's hope Travis can get his mojo back and be that feared hitter we depended upon years prior.