In a move that could have helped Cleveland’s bullpen and raised the white flag at once, Mark DeRosa was sent to St. Louis for a young reliever named Chris Perez. DeRosa, the all out, “play ball like a kid,” kinda guy, gone. How could the trade possibly be worth it?
Insert Perez, the 24-year old righty drafted in the first round of the 2006 draft by St. Louis, a club known for selecting talented players and milking the most out of them. Surely, the young gun could do nothing but help the team with arguably the worst bullpen in the majors, [...]

The first version of the Mark DeRosa-less Indians never stood a chance against state rival Cincinnati today. A sac-fly in the first, off the bat of Victor Martinez, scoring Asdrubal Cabrera was all the Tribe could muster against the Reds.
Micah Owings (5-8) went six strong innings for Cincy, allowing only five hits and one earned run, to go along with four strikeouts. David Huff, one of the few bright spots for the Indians as of late, gave up seven runs (six earned), on nine hits through five innings.
In an extremely non-clutch situation, the Cleveland bullpen managed to pitch four innings [...]

In a deal on Saturday, Mark Shapiro and John Mozeliak, General Manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, finalized a trade that will send Mark DeRosa to the Cardinals for right-handed reliever Chris Perez and a player to be named later.
In losing DeRosa, Cleveland gives up a consistent bat, and maybe the best definition of a utility player in today’s game. DeRosa played whatever position was necessary to fit in the lineup. After obtaining DeRosa prior to the start of this season, fans sensed that a missing puzzle piece was finally found. The gritty thrity-four year old still played the game like a kid, [...]

When analyzing a manager’s job status, measurements go beyond the wins and losses. It’s how the team loses. What talents does the team have? How does the team respond to the manager as a motivator?
Unfortunately for the Indians, the majority of their losses come from blown leads and poor pitching performances in the later innings. The front office carefully built a power hitting ballclub years back to complement the arms of CC Sabathia and Fausto Carmona. This ballclub peaked in 2007 as the Indians were a mere one win from reaching the World Series. Surely, the fans would have reason [...]

Grady Sizemore’s return, coupled with solid pitching from rookie David Huff, enabled the Indians to record a victory against the Pirates on Tuesday night…with little help from the bullpen once again.
Despite a 5-0 lead headed into the ninth, Matt Herges and Kerry Wood combined to give up five hits, two walks, and four runs. For a change, the comeback by the opposition fell short, allowing the Indians to end their six game skid.
Huff (3-2) was brilliant, allowing only four hits over eight scoreless innings…before the near disaster in the ninth. Huff recorded his third win in his last four starts. [...]

In what was somewhat less painful than the first two losses against Chicago, the Indians were shut down by an unknown pitcher by the name of Randy Wells. Wells recorded his first career win on Sunday, go figure.
This should come as no surprise after the Indians blew two late leads in Chi-town this weekend. The first collapse came in grand fashion as the Tribe bullpen played a huge role in a 7-run choke job. On Saturday, Kerry Wood blew the save (and the game) again as the Indians lost in 13 innings. At least today’s game wasn’t because of the [...]

Same story, different day for the Cleveland Indians. The Indians jumped out to a 7-0 lead through four innings, and Cliff Lee still kept the Cubs at bay as the score was 7-2 going into the eighth inning.
Surprise, surprise, the bullpen choked. There’s no sugar-coating what happened yesterday. There’s no blaming the loss on clutch fielding and pitching by Chicago or bad bounces in the field for Cleveland. The bullpen flat out, choked.
Unfortunately, nobody has had to pay the price for these woes yet. Joe Smith and Rafael Perez were the main choke artists in the eighth inning. They combined [...]

Going into this week’s series against Milwaukee, the Cleveland Indians had started picking up steam in the powerless AL Central. The Twins, White Sox, and Royals had stagnated to no better than .500 for the previous ten games, while the Tigers had not gained any separation on the rest of the division. The opportunity for the Indians to continue making a move upward was against the Brewers.
Although Milwaukee was, and still is, a division leader, the Indians had been playing excellent baseball for their three previous series. Unfortunately, Cleveland’s pitching took a sudden turn for the worst the past few [...]

In a game that saw 26 hits, 26 runs, and 6 home runs, it was a bullpen implosion on behalf of the Cleveland Indians that allowed the Milwaukee Brewers to win their 35th game, enough for tops in the NL Central.
A rough outing by Carl Pavano (6-6) seemed all but forgotten as Travis Hafner’s 6th inning, 3-run homer cleared the right-centerfield wall, upping Cleveland’s lead to 12-7. As bad as Pavano was (5 IP, 6 ER, 9 H), Dave Bush was even worse, allowing eight earned runs on six hits in only 3.1 innings of work. Both pitchers struggled to [...]

Cliff Lee held the St. Louis Cardinals hitless for seven innings Sunday night at Progressive Field. Yadier Molina ended the no-hit bid with a slicing fly ball that carried just out of the reach of rightfielder Shin-Soo Choo’s glove, and ended with Molina standing on second. Lee regained his composure and finished off the game allowing no runs on three hits with six strikeouts.
A first-inning, two-run blast off the bat of Mark DeRosa spotted Lee a quick 2-0 lead, which was insured in the 5th inning by Kelly Shoppach’s solo home run. Excellent infield defense by both teams also helped [...]