What Gives in the Land of Chief Wahoo?

Wahoo and His Warriors Ain’t Smilin’ Much in 2009

Whilst Erie’s Scribe toils away learning the letter of the law in Akron, LCG lacks that decidedly Cleveland sports fan-tinged feel it tended to have in the old days. This means much less direct commentary from someone passionate enough to want to take out Joe Borowski or unabashedly sing the praises of Asdrubal Cabrera. Yes, we miss the Scribe o’ Erie. For one thing, if in the fold, you could be sure he’d be able to shed some light on the extreme suckage of his beloved Tribe. Because, as an admitted NL dude, I really don’t get it.

So, I decided to do a little third-party investigation. From what I understood, the Tribe had a core of strong young players heading into the 2009 campaign. I started with the preseason prognostications of some of the more notable “analysts.”

Not that these people often know any more than you or I, but individuals from The Sporting News, NBCSports.com and multiple parties on SI’s panel of judges had the Tribe finishing second and competing in the Central. Three of SI’s experts, including Posnaski (who is the man), had the Tribe taking the division. This guy even picked the Wahoo Warriors to win the AL, which really is just absolute silly talk that even the good people of this fine site would admit.

So, how are our Indians faring? I was shocked to find them just games ahead of the last-place Royals. Thanks only to a two-game win streak, the Tribe is 19 games under .500, 13 back of the first-place Tigers and 20-28 at The Jake. What gives? I started looking further into this matter and got a hint from the most unlikely of sources. Yes, Mr. Rosenthal seemed to have hit on something back in April. Cleveland fell into his “could go either way” category and the diminutive one had this to say;

“Love the offense, love the bullpen, distrust the rotation. The Indians’ dirty little secret is that not even Cliff Lee and Fausto Carmona are sure things.”

Hmmm…so maybe Ken underestimated the Tigers, but his take on the Tribe may have been prescient. As I thought to myself at the beginning of this excercise, “they’ve got Sizemore, Martinez, Hafner, a lot of good young, offensive players…who are their starters…Lee…Pavano…oh, maybe that’s it…”

Now, the numbers certainly don’t always tell the whole story, but they do offer clues. While the Indians offense surprisingly (again, to this casual fan who rarely gets to watch the team) hover around the halfway mark in the Majors (16th) their pitching…riiight. How about dead last in the Majors.

Looking at this roster of hurlers, it’s not entirely shocking. But what else is going on in Clevetown? Sure, Cliff Lee is not putting up another Cy Young-caliber campaign, but a 3.17 ERA (with three complete games) is deserving of a better than 6-9 season mark, right? Only 13 saves and an ERA over five for Wood? Where is Carmona? Still in the minors? And who the hell is Ben Francisco? He’s your starting leftfielder? (and don’t take that as a mean-spirited barb, my team has had the likes of Fernando Tatis and Nick Evans out there).

What happened to the team that was predicted to contend for the division and be in the vicinity of 90 wins? School us, Tribe fans. Let’s hear you, Cleveland!