Streak Lives On!

So Laffey gave up a run....but it wasn't an earned run!

So now let's change it to a no starters earned run allowed streak!

Geeze, Laffey has his ERA down to what...1.35? Not bad for a 6th starter.

Finally the Indians are coming around. Still not hitting as much as I would like but if the Indians do make it to post season play, they will have to owe it all to the pitching staff.

Now if only they can pitch like this in post season.................

Yea I agree with ya on Laffey.  Not sure how Westbrook will do when he comes back.  But I don't think the Indians should be in any hurry to put him back in the rotation. 

I think the hitting took a step in the right direction today.  Yea, it's four runs.  But they are hitting it hard and scoring in the first inning something that they lacked this year.  First inning leads help win baseball games.

I think they're saying early June for Westbrook.

With Byrd pitching good, I'm not saying they should, but they might look into trading him.

The possibility of signing him again next year is very unlikely as he'll get a bigger contract if he keeps pitching well. With most teams in dire need of quality veteran starters come trade time, you could easily get a very good bat in return. Typically pitchers are most valuable, so you can get a more valuable bat in return. That's what we need. It'd be great to get a prototype leadoff hitter so we can drop Grady down to 3rd and push Victor to 4th.

Trade Sabathia?

Coming into the season, I think I would have agreed with that since there is absolutely no way the Indians will be able to afford to keep him, so might as well get something for him in return.  But now that we are 1/4 of the way through the season, I see it from a different point-of-view:  The Indians best chance to win it all is this year.  Think about it...Boston is still Boston but they are aging and can be beaten.  They are not as dominant this year as they were last year.  The Yankees will rebound but again, they are not dominant.  They have issues with depth and age and injuries.  Oakland and LAA are contenders but as we just saw, Oakland can't hit good pitching.  There is no team running away with it this year, at least not in the AL, so the Indians have a legitimate shot at winning it all this year.  While the majority of fans would rather have a more promising future rather than one year, the city of Cleveland and its fans needs a championship.  No Cleveland team has won a championship in any sports in about 389 years.  If they trade CC, their rotation in the playoffs would be Carmona, Cliff Lee, and then a combination of Westbrook, Byrd, and Laffey.  You need 3 great starters and that would only give them two.  Laffey is really good but has no postseason experience so he couldnt be counted on.  Westbrook choked in Game 7 and is a contact pitcher. Byrd is ancient.  They are doing well this year, no doubt, but that is not who I would want pitching Game 3, 4, and 7.  With Sabathia, Carmona, and Lee, that gives you a dominant pitcher in 6 of 7 games, rather than 4 of 7.  It's a tough call...they definitely need a bat, and a lead off hitter would allow Grady Sizemore to hit third in front of Victor Martinez.