Cleveland Indians

In the midst of a clearly dismal season for the Cleveland Indians, a complete overhaul of the organization is well underway.

After trading key players like CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee, and Victor Martinez last season, the Indians entered the 2010 season with a sense of optimism and many new faces filling out the roster. Those good feelings from opening day seem like years ago for many fans who have watched the Tribe fall to a disappointing 21-36 on the year.

It’s a strange feeling losing Grady Sizemore for the year because for all intense and purposes he never really showed up.  His name alone had him owned in upwards of 90 percent of leagues entering Week Nine.  Yet in 128 at bats Grady was hitting .211 with only 15 Runs, zero Homers, 13 RBIs, and four stolen bases.  To put things into perspective Kyle Blanks in 103 at bats had 14 Runs, three Homers, 15 RBIs, and one Stolen base (he also hasn’t played in two weeks, and is currently in the minors).  Being the optimist that I am I ask myself what it the upside to

The Cleveland Indians have come under intense scrutiny for trading away three All-Star players in the past two seasons.  While the majority of the criticism is valid, as the talent the Indians received back in those trades looks weak so far, the Tribe can be praised for luring away right handed starter Mitch Talbot from Tampa Bay for catcher Kelly Shoppach in December 2009.  

Welcome to the Cleveland Indians Trading Post, a weekly segment meant to help my fellow Tribe fans sort out which of the few familiar faces left on the team won’t be around much longer.

This week’s potential trade bait is Jhonny Peralta.

The basics

Signed in 1999, Peralta made his MLB debut in 2003 but did not claim a permanent place on the Indians roster until 2005, when he replaced Omar Vizquel at shortstop.

Never before have I heard a home crowd irate after their pitcher just fired a one-hitter. Unfortunately, that was the case in Detroit last night.

Detroit Tigers’ pitcher Armando Galarraga was working on trying to become the third pitcher in the last month to throw a perfect game. He had retired 26 batters in a row in a truly dominant performance.

Then came up Cleveland Indians SS Jason Donald.

As a baseball fan, witnessing a perfect game is something you want to see, even if it's happening to your own team.

Granted, being on the losing end of a perfect game isn't as fun as being on the winning end, but when something that rare happens in front of you, it makes for a special evening.

What makes the almost-perfect game thrown last night by Armando Galarraga so interesting from a Cleveland Indians fan's standpoint is that the Indians ended up benefiting big time from what will go down as one of the worst blown calls in history.

As we have now heard, Grady Sizemore is expected to miss a good deal of the year, if not the whole season due to his knee, which needs surgery. This raises several questions for the Indians, the most important of which is what to do in center field.

Michael Brantley was kept in AAA with the Columbus Clippers not because he was playing bad, but because the Indians wanted him to play every day. Well, with Sizemore gone, he can be brought up and can play every day. We can see how good the young prospect can be under pressure, and it works well for the Tribe.

The 2010 season could possibly be over for Indians center fielder Grady Sizemore after news broke Sunday on the extent of his knee injury.

Grady originally injured the knee on a hard slide into second base on May 16 in a 5-1 win against Baltimore and it is now believed that he will miss another 6-8 weeks, at best, depending on the extent of his injuries (which will be discovered after a knee arthroscopy).

Sizemore is scheduled to have the arthroscopy later this week in Colorado with Dr. Richard Steadman.

How do you hurt yourself jumping on home plate?  Injuries can happen any time in a million different ways. Ask Kendry Morales.

No one has ever been hurt (at least as far as I can recall) jumping on home plate after a walk-off homerun, but there is always a first time for everything, and it was bound to happen soon or a later.

This time it happened. At least it’s better than breaking your hand punching out a wall after something goes against you on the field.  That one’s happened too many times to count.

Cleveland Indians lefty David Huff was hit in the head by a line drive off the bat of Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez and the ball ricocheted all the way to the right field corner.