I’m sorry, I’ve been battling a nasty cold and have been so disgusted with the Tribe’s play (last night’s win aside) that I haven’t had the energy to post much. But in an effort to get me going, I’m going to start off with a delayed Link Fix. Here are what other people are saying about the Tribe while I’ve been sick:

Nino Colla of The Tribe Daily gets the leadoff spot, with a great article about how Cleveland should embrace closer Chris Perez as the face of the franchise. The more I think about it, the more I tend to agree. He’s probably got to have another good season or two before anyone starts to consider him the face though. Still think Carlos Santana will be the team’s superstar. And don’t forget about that Choo fella who’s just chugging along.

WFNY with a statically in-depth article about Choo’s recent power outage, why fans shouldn’t worry, and why it may work out in the Indians’ favor.

A little old, but Castrovince gives us an update on Bob Feller’s recent leukemia diagnosis. Castrovince has tweeted (@Castrovince) in recent days that Feller seems to be doing well. Best of luck to Mr. Feller from Deep Left Field.

Clippers update from Indians Prospect Insider! David Huff is pitching like he actually wants to be back in the big leagues!

Speaking of September call ups, I’d be remiss if I didn’t link to Call to the Pen here, for who I think the Indians should call up this September. DLF’s contributing writer Marc Bigelow also gives his take, as does CTTP’s Wally Fish for an outside perspective. For the record, I forgot about Cord Phelps because the Indians seem hell-bent on letting Jason Donald clam a role on this club. I don’t even think he’s on their September radar. Hagadone admittedly was a bit of a stretch, but I disagree with Wally that he’s not going to be a major-leaguer. He was a big part of that Victor Martinez deal. Don’t think the Indians will just give up on him.

And I nailed two of the first three call ups. Totally forgot you were still with this team, Jensen. Sorry buddy.

Finally, Paul at The DiaTribe analyzes who’s playing their way out of the 2011 lineup. Forgot how much Trevor Crowe sucked until I read this.

7:30 p.m. Just arrived at the Tribe Social Deck, it’s 3-0 White Sox in the top of the second (yeah, I got here late, sue me:) ). Not sure how the Sox scored, but glad to see Mitch Talbot keep up his strong second half performance (I had a couple drinks beforehand. Sarcasm is dripping.). I’m going to keep updating throughout the game, or at least as long as I feel like.

7:31 p.m. Omar Vizquel gets a nice cheer from the sparse crowd at Progressive Field. Bases loaded after Talbot hits Juan Pierre. Why he did that, I do not know.

7:40 Marson throws out Pierre at third for the second out in the inning. It’s 5-0 White Sox, still top of second.

7:43 p.m. Carlos Quentin flies out to Shelly Duncan in left to (mercifully) end the inning. 5-0 Sox. Let’s hope for a comeback.

7:46 p.m. Marte Par-tay at first base tonight.  El Gato lives. He’s at least on life number 7 at this point though. He laces a double to left, and the Indians have a runner in scoring position in the bottom of the second.

7:50 p.m. Just bought a water. The guy was yelling, “How bout the best soda, for the best fans in baseball?” I couldn’t point out to him that he was hawking Pepsi, which is the second best soda, to Indians fans. No comment.

7:51 p.m. Michael Brantley strikes out to strand Marte. Marte will have to wait till next at bat to Par-tay.

7:57 p.m. Mark Kotsay singles to right. Talbot has 57 pitches through 2.2 IP. That bullpen better be ready.

8:06 p.m. Been 9 minutes. Probably should check in. Did you know Omar Vizquel has a .358 OBP this year? Neither did I. Apparently he wants to play another year. And the Indians need a stopgap at third, which he has conveniently learned to play this year. I’d take Omar on a one year dea

8:12 p.m. Mitch Talbot … how did I ever think you were an all-star?

8:16 p.m. Tribe gets out of the inning when Alexi Ramirez grounds into a double play that nearly wasn’t. Asdrubal Cabrera throws the ball wide of the bag but my man Marte makes the tag to get Talbot out of the inning. Doubt Mitch is back for the fifth.

8:20 p.m. Who knew Pronk had power still? Hafner drives the ball to deep center field for a double with nobody out. The man was chugging into second.

8:23 p.m. Jayson Nix must have seen my tweet yesterday. Launches a home run to deep left field just over the Social Deck (a couple rows behind us). 5-2 Sox.

8:28 p.m. And now I have visual confirmation that Lou Marson has been on base. He walked.

8:29 p.m. Anthony Castrovince is now in the Indians Social Deck. No, I’m not geeking out.

8:31 p.m. Why is Mitch Talbot still pitching? 86 pitches with an 0-2 count to Alexi Ramirez.

8:34 p.m. Food run. Be back soon.

8:52 p.m. Back, while I was gone, Andy Marte walked and then the Indians left the bases loaded. Typical. On the plus side, Castrovince interviewed me about the Social Deck, and I’ll have a link as soon as he posts it. Again, I am not geeking out here or anything.

8:53 p.m. Castrovince just took a picture of us at the Social Deck. I put down my chicken tenders for the picture.

8:55 p.m. WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH RIOS??? HE (HIT A HOME RUN) <and no one outside of my brothers will get this>

9:04 p.m. Another feeble inning by the Indians offense. Between innings, the scoreboard shows “Pong Cam” where two people play pong with their hands on the scoreboard. The couple was definitely old enough to remember pong.

9:10 p.m. Runners on first and second, one out, and Justin Germano is on the mound. Prior to Rios’s HR, I’m pretty sure Germano hadn’t given up a run. He looks primed to give up at least one more. Pitching coach Tim Beltcher out to the mound to try to settle him down.

9:14 p.m. Comebacker to the mound by Kotsay. Germano throws to first for the sure out. Then, he’s yanked by manager Manny Acta for The Herrmannator, Frank Herrmann.

9:18 Herrmann nails Gordan Beckham in the fingers. Bases loaded. Beckhamn leaves the game and Brent Lillibridge (who?) in to pinch run.

9:20 p.m. Groundout to Donald at second and the inning is over.

9:22 p.m. Did you know Manny Acta reads blogs???

9:23 p.m. One of the few downsides to the Tribe Social Deck is that the people watching is very limited. While there’s a few people in the deck tonight, we’re all on our computers and phones, tweeting and blogging. Nothing really else to watch, other than that silly game going on in the diamond.

9:27 p.m. I just realized Chris Sale is pitching for the White Sox. He was their first round pick in this year’s draft, and the Indians were considering him with the #5 pick. Doubt he’d be pitching for the Indians already if the Indians had taken him, as the Sox are in a pennant race, but still, I just needed to point that out.

9:30 p.m.  Jayson Nix has just been tossed by the home plate umpire, assuming for arguing balls and strikes, since it was after a strikeout. Manny Acta had to restrain him, and is still talking to the umpire. Luis Valbuena in at third.

9:34 p.m. The umpire is Bill Welke.

9:38 p.m. Mad tweeting going on in the Social Deck. Hit up @cgcalfee, @AmyHarber, or @MatthewLaWell. We’re seriously all tweeting each other and sitting in a five foot radius of one another. Ahh, technology.

9:40 p.m. Marte makes a nice scoop of a bad Luis Valbuena throw. Again, the Indians have a second baseman playing third, and a third baseman playing first. Makes perfect sense.

9:46 p.m. Marte Par-tay at bat. I’d love to catch a HR ball, Andy …

9:47 p.m. Alas, a lazy fly out to the second baseman for Marte.

9:50 p.m. Marson safe on an otherwise beautiful play by Lillibridge. Unfortunately for the Sox, the throw pulled the first baseman off the bag.

9:51 p.m. Single to right by Brantley. Tribe has runners on the corner with two down in the 8th. Cabrera up to bat.

9:52 p.m. Bobby Jenks in to pitch. Is anyone still reading? (crickets ….)

9:57 p.m. Asdrubal strikes out to end the threat. Herrmann has left the game. My ride is also leaving the game, meaning I must depart. The fact that Sidewindin’ Joe Smith is on to pitch doesn’t hurt my decision. Hopefully you enjoyed my running diary and my musings. Leave a comment if you feel this is something I should do more of.

Was browsing the old FireJoeMorgan.com archives (as unfortunately the site no longer posts ) and found some surprising love for then Nationals manager and current Indians manager Manny Acta. I copied the whole post since I can’t find a direct link to it (it’s from October 10th, 2007):

We’ve covered Manny Acta before, but it’s just, I don’t know, pleasant to find out that a current baseball manager seems so eminently sane. Here is the man giving an interview to some sort of Internet computer blog:

SB: What’s your stance on bunting and other one run strategies?

MA: Bunting is pretty outdated. Everybody scores so many runs nowadays, it doesn’t make sense to play for one run unless it’s late in the game and it’s close. I hardly ever bunt early in a game, unless it’s with a pitcher. A big inning can win you a game. One run in the third inning can’t, unless you have Pedro pitching.

Correct. Even throws in an interesting point about the increased run-scoring environment of the modern game. Outs are precious. Manny Acta understands this.

SB: Lightning Round. Best hitter in the game, non-Barry division.

MA: Albert Pujols. No question.

Fine with this. Down year this year, but Albert has been superhuman for several seasons now.

SB: Best pitcher.

MA: Roy Oswalt. He’s just tough as nails. He comes at you like nobody else. That’s a tough place to pitch, and he’s been very consistent.

Would’ve chosen Santana probably. Oswalt is on the downslide. Joe’s c-word rears its head. But still, read on for Manny to redeem himself.

SB: Best player.

MA: Alex Rodriguez.

Sure.

SB: What’s your favorite blog?

MA: Squawking Baseball, of course. I read Baseball Prospectus a lot too. Will Carroll writes some of my favorite stuff. I also loved Mind Game.

He reads several blogs? The Prospy? Wilfred B. Carroll? We gotta start rooting for this guy, right? I point this out not only to raise Acta’s profile a little, but also to show that you can read nerdy computer number Blackberry Internet iPhone shit and still manage a team without everything falling apart. I think the Nats actually outperformed expectations — not that Acta necessarily was responsible for this, but still.

Sorry so positive. More venom to come.
-Firejoemorgan.com

Say what? I, for one, had no idea Manny was this hip. Maybe he read my letter to him. Here’s FJM.com’s original post about Acta, with plenty of love to go around.

Manny, I underestimated you. You may not be such a bad guy at all. Stop starting Justin Masterson.

The Indians finally (mercifully) won a game last night, 3-2 over the Oakland A’s, during the Tribe’s Puppypalooza promotion, which encouraged Tribe fans to bring their dogs to the game. Ironically, it was the Tribe’s own puppies that lead the charge in the win. Let’s start from the top:

Justin Masterson

Sorry Justin, one start here and there isn’t going to change my mind that you’re really a bullpen guy, but this was some good stuff. 6 IP, 2 runs and 5 hits. Not bad at all Justin. He didn’t lose his cool, got ahead of hitters, and probably could have at least started the seventh inning (although I’m glad he didn’t). He’s gonna make one nasty setup guy.

Michael Brantley

Brantley had the first RBI for the Tribe, when Lou Marson basically manufactured a run by walking, stealing second, and then advancing to third on a passed ball. But here’s where Brantley surprised me, as there were two outs and the Indians had been pathetic on offense during this losing streak. Brantley laced an RBI single to get the Tribe on the board.

Matt LaPorta

@Gator4God provided some much needed muscle in the sixth with his two-out home run. LaPorta had been struggling mightily lately, in a 4-45 slump and had really shown no signs he was coming out of it anytime soon. His home run was a sight for sore eyes for the Tribe faithful. (By the way, the Indians, probably wisely, did not shoot off fireworks at last night’s game at any point. My guess is to not upset the dogs. They are lucky I wasn’t running the fireworks that night, as I would have gone straight to the grand finale.)

Chris Perez

Pure Rage is proving he belongs in the back of the pen. Perez came in with one out in the 8th (after Sidewinding Joe Smith started to make a mess of the inning by walking two straight batters), worked a 5-out save and struck out 4. He allowed only a single to Cliff Pennington. The Tribe doesn’t have much, but hey, they got a closer. So they got that going for them.

All-in-all, the puppies did good for the Tribe last night. With the youngest active roster in the majors, there’s going to be some growing pains with these pups. But for one night, at least it was fun to play with the litter.

Dear Manny,

I’m sure you’ve never heard of me, but I feel like I’ve gotten to know you pretty well over the past 7 months or so of baseball. For the most part, you’ve done an OK job with what you’ve had, which is admittedly not much, and it’s gotten worse with the injury to Carlos Santana and the trades of guys like Jake Westbrook, Austin Kearns, Russell Branyan, and for some reason, Jhonny Peralta.

However, since all this went down, you’ve looked like a cartoon character falling down a canyon in terms of some of the moves and lineups you’ve thrown out there.

Honestly, I can forgive a lot of it, but a couple days ago I made some suggestions on how to fix this club for the rest of 2010. You’ve pretty much ignored me, so I’m sending this letter in hopes that you’ll listen to me on one of them.

I see in your lineup today you’re starting Jayson Nix again at third base. I completely disagree that he’s your best option at third base, because seeing as none of the three-headed monster that is Nimartuena (Nix, Andy Marte, and Luis Valbuena) can hit, you probably should go with the guy that’s going to suck the least at third defensively. And well, seeing as neither Nix nor Valbuena are really third basemen, I still don’t understand why you don’t let Marte play his way out of baseball. What’s the harm, you guys lose 100 games?

But I digress, as I usually do when I’m talking about El Gato. What I wanted to say is that I’m really proud of you because you seem to have settled on Nix as your sacrificial lamb from the Hot Corner From Hell. I think that’s progress. None of those guys were able to get in any kind of rhythm when you were shuffling them in and out of the lineup. I still hope balls are hit to the right side of the infield every time, but hey, at least I know who’s gonna end up booting the ball if you have a regular third baseman, even if he isn’t really a third baseman. I mean, the Indians got lucky before with Casey F-in Blake. Why can’t you get lucky with Jayson Nix?

So I’ll be at the ballpark tonight, watching reliever Justin Masterson make his 26th spot start of the year. It’s not going to be pretty, but at least I’ll know who’s on third. Thanks, Manny.

Take care,

-Ed Carroll

P.S. Heard you’re a fan of Birdman. I can loan you some Harvey Birdman DVDs if you want to check it out. Very funny stuff. Let me know.

Let’s start with the bad news right off the bat: Indians prospect Hector Rondon will undergo Tommy John surgery. He was the Indians’ 2009 minor league pitcher of the year and was expected to be in the mix in the Cleveland rotation by the end of the year, before his May injury. When it rains it pours.

Don’t worry, there are more players in Columbus coming. Check out WFNY’s Da Clip Show to catch up on their week.

The DiaTribe does their usual Wednesday column that tackles Carlos Carrasco’s impending arrival, and looks at the idea of a stopgap third baseman.

I used to get really excited about Indians minor leaguer Kelvin De La Cruz. Tony at IPI reminded me why.

I mentioned the Twitter account of the real Chris Perez (@ChrisPerez54) yesterday as well as the fake (but hilarious) @PureRage_Perez. Anthony Castrovince interviews them both to get a little more insight in the man behind the hair.

I love the name Lonnie. If that turns out to be the only thing in this post to be reasonable, so be it. As Ed said yesterday, Jared Goedert is more than likely not on his way to the Jake any time soon. So, I say, let’s see Lonnie Chisenhall. It is obvious at this point that he is the guy they want at third in the future, and he will probably beat Goedert for the job in spring training, so let the fans get a glimpse of what he can do at this level. Maybe he’ll be great. Maybe he’ll suck. Whatever. Not a chance he could be any worse than what we have now, and if anything at least he will get his feet wet so he knows what to expect next year. So, I ask, whenever one of the third baseman impersonators — thats you, Marte, Nix, and Valbuena — does anything wrong at the plate or on the field, if you’re at the game start chanting “let’s see Lonnie!” at Manny Acta and anyone else important who is listening. All 300 attendees’ voices need to be heard!

Speaking of third base, I have watched a lot of baseball in my almost 22 years on this planet and I can honestly say that I have never seen such a glaring hole at any position (other than a team’s bullpen) on any team ever. It is a little easier to deal with poor fielding when a guy is hitting .300 with some sort of power. Or if the poor soul can barely hit a beach ball with a tennis racket but he can catch a cold in the desert, fine, at least he’s saving some runs. These gentleman take the cake. Maybe the coaches should make them practice with oven mitts, like Lance “The Dance” Romance. Maybe someone should piss on their contracts when they refuse to do extra calisthenics. Maybe things that happen in movies don’t actually work. I don’t know, but I’m willing to try anything at this point.

I must say, I disagree with Ed about Michael Brantley. If he is going to bat leadoff for you in the future, bat him leadoff now. With this entire season so far down the toilet, they should be running out what they project as their most likely future line-up, and actually stick with it. However, Manny Acta would rather take the Eric Wedge approach and jerk around the line-up every night. Since I know what is best for the team (just ask me), this is what my everyday line-up would be for the rest of the season, starting September 1st:

CF Michael Brantley
SS Asdrubal Cabrera
RF Shin-Soo Choo
1B Matt LaPorta
DH Travis Hafner
LF Trevor Crowe
3B Lonnie Chisenhall
2B Jason Donald
C Lou Marson

Before you crucify me, please hear my reasoning for LaPorta batting clean-up (then, crucify away!). Ideally, he is going to be batting in the middle of the order if this team is to be successful any time soon. We can’t hit any worse this year, so move him up where he has some protection instead of batting some screw-up (like Valbuena, for example) behind him. With Valbuena batting after him, who is going to give him a fastball to hit? Only an idiot, and since we aren’t playing any intersquad games I don’t like those odds. Conversely, Hafner has been mashing (.395 in his past 15 games, going into Wednesday’s game), so a pitcher won’t want to put anyone on with him coming up. Logic never really hurt anyone, but apparently Acta would rather not take that chance. Other than that, I think it is a reasonable order, and you could put Marte in for Chisenhall and I wouldn’t complain too much. At least he is a natural third baseman.

So for those reading, if you don’t agree with my potential line-up, I ask you to submit what you think is ideal for this team for the last month of the season. I’d love to hear your opinions on this and maybe you can open my eyes a little bit.

Some quick thoughts on the Tribe:

• When I heard the rumor the Chicago White Sox would claim Manny Ramirez of the LA Dodgers when he is placed on waivers, I must admit part of me hoped it wouldn’t happen. Not for anything related to Manny or the White Sox, but more because one of my wildest baseball fantasies is that Sox GM Kenny Williams would get desperate, and claim Indians DH Travis Hafner. It’s pretty unrealistic, as unlike Manny, Hafner sucks, but if it were to happen, it would pretty much be the best thing to ever happen to this team. To which I say, “not very likely though.”
• The Indians and Yankees completed the Austin Kearns deal, acquiring RHP Zach McAllister. McAllister, 22, is in AAA and was ranked the Yankees’ fifth-best prospect going into this season. Unfortunately, he has a 5.09 ERA with 132.2 IP, 165 H, 82R/75 ER, 38 BB, 88 K. Not great numbers, but he’s young, and they got him for Austin Kearns. He’s probably nothing more than a solid back-end starter, but you need those guys to fill out your system and the Tribe only gave up a few months of Austin Kearns. To which I say, “eh.”
• It looks like Jared Goedert might not be a September call-up after all, which frankly kind of sucks. I understand the logic – he’s not hitting as well as he was, and his defense is still shaky. Don’t call up a guy and start blowing his options when he’s not ready. But I honestly don’t know how much more of Nimartuena I can take. To which I say, ” I really wish Acta would stick with one guy.”
• Manny Acta is apparently a fan of Birdman. I’m assuming Anthony Castrovince is not an adult swim fan, because he never connected Birdman to his more recent series on adult swim, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. Kind of surprised me because Castrovince isn’t exactly a dinosaur, in terms of age. To which I say, “everyone has their own tastes.”
• In that same blog by Castrovince listed above, he mentions that Adam Miller is still trying to come back. Good for him, even if it’s still a major long shot. After Miller’s career died I honestly stopped watching prospects for a while. Just kind of sad to see all that potential wasted to injury. To which I say, “if he ever throws a pitch in the majors, it will be a major accomplishment.
• Shin-Soo Choo won the first pick in the Indians fantasy football draft. To which I say, “his drafting can’t be any worse than the Browns.”
• Finally, I don’t tweet much, but @DeepLeftField did send a request to @ChrisPerez54 to change his Twitter picture from one of Perez in a Cardinals uniform to that of an Indians uni. I encourage more tweeters to politely hound Chris to do so. And yes, that’s the real Chris Perez. To which I say, “thankfully, @PureRage_Perez (who is not the real Chris Perez) is not closing up shop.”

Yesterday’s 8-1 loss (and three game sweep) by the Detroit Tigers felt like rock bottom for this season. Of course, with the way this season has been going, this could be a high point. Regardless, I’ve decided to offer my unsolicited advice on things the Indians can do TODAY to help fix this club, at least for the short term. In no order (other than the order I’ve decided to write them), here are three changes the Indians should make right now.

Pick a Starter at Third – No one really likes uncertainty, especially baseball players. While all three members of the “Hot Corner From Hell” (Luis Valbuena, Jayson Nix and Andy Marte) have sucked in their own special way, the team is doing no one a favor by doing the whole “flavor of the day” thing at third. Pick a guy, and then stick with him. What( has this team got to lose? I think we all know who I’d love to see the job go to (and it DOES make sense, seeing as El Gato is the only natural third baseman on the team any more), but I’d just like to see someone consistently at third base, even if they are consistently sucking. If Jared Goedert is the man, then pick a starter for a week until they call up Goedert in September. Just be consistent.

Give Masterson a Trial in the Pen - Speaking of consistent, Justin Masterson is not. He’s also hit career-highs in innings pitched this season (145.1 as of today), and has been less than spectacular as a starter. Manny Acta has talked about going to a six-man rotation, but he should do everyone a favor and give Masterson a one-month trial in the pen. I’ve been clamoring for this all season, as he just hasn’t shown the consistency to be a big-league starter. Rather than give Masterson 2 or 3 more starts, why not just toss him in the pen and see if he is any more effective?  I know he has more value as a starter, but eventually, you kind of have to be who you are. Justin Masterson has not shown he can be a starter. Let’s see if he’s any better as a reliever.

Stop Batting Michael Brantley in the Leadoff Spot – I know he’s currently injured, but Anthony Castrovince says Brantley should be back tomorrow. And I know in that very piece I just linked it shows how well Brantley has been hitting this most recent call-up. But just because he projects as a leadoff hitter doesn’t mean he’s ready to be one now. It’s putting unnecessary pressure on the kid while the Indians have other options (Asdrubal Cabrera comes to mind, even though his bat has been poor lately). This team isn’t out to win ballgames. Let’s not ruin a kid by forcing him into a role he isn’t ready for.

They won, so technically I shouldn’t complain.

But man, that was not pretty.

The Indians won, 7-3, despite making five errors, surviving thanks to a five-run eighth inning. It was the first time the Tribe won after making five errors since July 12, 1996. This of course happens a night after the Indians lost despite banging out 17 hits. Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

Matt LaPorta and Mitch Talbot both had what appeared to be crucial errors at the time, Jayson Nix had two errors, and El Gato, Andy Marte, continues to forget how to play defense.

Look, I don’t get too hung up on the actual “errors” statistic, because as I’ve stated before it’s pretty subjective, and tells you nothing about a player’s range. However, it doesn’t appear that we even need to use statistics to determine this team needs instruction manuals with their gloves.

This was, of course, after manager Manny Acta held a team meeting in the clubhouse to discuss the team’s poor play. I can’t imagine he was thrilled with last night’s game either.

But as I said, hey, at least they won.