Pitching Perfect

Although the starting pitching for the big league Tribe has been pretty bad (sans Aaron Laffey today), the aces of the top three Cleveland Indians farm teams each had superb outings in their last start. The pitching in the system has been a concern as there seems to not be a ton of power arms. Well, that has changed as Rondon and De La Cruz bring the heat, while the other has the array of pitches to become a solid starter in the majors (Huff).

David Huff helped lead Columbus to a victory Wednesday, going five innings, allowing one run on five hits while striking out three. Huff will be seen up in Cleveland sometime this summer if continues to put together quality starts like he has done so far early this season.

21 year old phenom Hector Rondon pitched another gem down in Akron today, going five and two-thirds innings, allowing one earned run on four hits while striking out five to earn his second win of the year. Indians play by play man Tom Hamilton mentioned Rondon today during the telecast and intimated that this kid is not too far away from the big leagues at all.

Lastly, the best pitching performance came Tuesday when Kinston's Kelvin De La Cruz threw six shutout innings, allowing four hits and striking out a whopping nine batters. De La Cruz has already struck out 19 batters in only 12 innings this season. If this lefty keeps it up, a quick promotion for the 20 year old up to Akron by June would not be out of the realm of possibility.

The arms are there in the Indians organization, let's just hope we see some of these guys pitch in meaningful games up in Cleveland this year and not when the club is 15 games out.

Josh Barfield sent down for Aaron Laffey

The Indians anemic offense lost their pinch runner today, as infielder Josh Barfield was sent down for new fifth starter Aaron Laffey per WTAM. This is a bit of a surprise as now the Tribe will be carrying 13 pitchers. I guess the position flexibility of the various members of the team will come in handy as J-Barf never even got a start in his week with the team. Apparently Tony Graffanino is a better guy to have glued to the bench. I expect a good start from Laffey tomorrow, for no other reason than this team is due. Also, don't be surprised to see Matt Laporta in an Indians uniform in the next few weeks as he is already hitting 8-16 and may be just the guy to help spark this slumping offense.

Bad Tribe Vibe

There really isn't much worse than watching bad baseball. To sum up the 2009 Cleveland Indians, it is like watching the Oxygen network for 8 straight days. The starting pitching has been terrible, the teams' hitting with runners in scoring position is dreadful, the bullpen has been bad, and the hitters strike out almost every other time at bat. 1-7 looks bad, and the team has probably played worse. A few random thoughts before I fire the remote through my TV.

• The lineup does not look imposing at all


• I don't care if he only gave up 6 runs today, Carl Pavano still sucks


• Rafael Perez caught the WBC disease


• Grady is pressing way too much


• Hafner should not be batting 4th


• Choo should not be batting 4th


• The constant lineup changes may have had a negative effect on this team

The good news is Sidney Ponson is pitching for the Royals tomorrow. It will be Aaron Laffey's first shot in 2009 to stick with the club. I imagine we will see more lineup juggling as well. I keep reminding myself to take a deep breath and remember that only 5% of the season has been played.