MVN - Most Valuable Network

The Sunday Drive with the Tribe’s Cliff Lee, Edward Salcedo, Aaron Fultz, Craig Breslow and Omar Minaya

The Enigma of Cliff Lee: It’s distinctly possible that what made Cliff Lee the pitcher that went 46-24 from 2004-2006 is the same trait that dropped him to 5-8 and sent him to Buffalo in 2007. On Saturday, Cliff Lee showed the 46-24 side, going 5 innings, giving up only 5 hits and one earned run, while striking out 5 and walking one. He was locating his fastball, jamming batters, throwing his offspeed pitches, and completely in control of the game. It’s not something we’ve seen often in the spring, let alone the past year.

His previous start showcased the pitcher that went 5-8 last year. In 4 innings, Lee gave up 6 runs and 11 hits, and stubbornly made a case that it was a good outing. Now don’t get me wrong, I get the nuances of spring. Pitchers often don’t necesarily worry about what happens after they throw, just what they throw. Still, it’s hard to overlook the 6 and 11 in 4. Sure, Andy Marte did his best to make Lee look bad, but Lee still was throwing pitches where he shouldn’t.

Cliff Lee is nothing if not a stubborn pitcher. He’s a guy that would just assume challenge the #4 pitcher, than look for the easy strikeout against the #9 hitter. When his stuff is good, this is what makes him an above-average hitter. He has no fear going in on good hitters, and will climb the ladder on anyone. When it’s going good, it’s effective. It makes his offspeed stuff all the more effective because he’ll actually use it, and it becomes deceptive.

The flip side of that coin is when he doesn’t have his good stuff, he keeps trying to find it, and rarely does. The calm-headed pitcher would immediately go after hitters at this point with a pitch that’s working. Lee immediately begins to overthrow the fastball, rarely using his offspeed pitches. The lack of control would lead Lee to either walk too many, or throw the inevitable gopher ball right down the pipe.

So where does that leave Cliff Lee and Cleveland? The bottom line is that Cleveland is a better team with Cliff Lee pitching well. Like him or not, when he’s going 18-5 and finishing fourth in the Cy Young voting, we can put up with the stubborn side of Cliff. Judging from his past start, he may be heading in the right direction.

Let’s hope that’s the trend, because the Cliff Lee that pitched for Cleveland last year is nothing more than a AAA pitcher.

Edward Salcedo sighting! Folks, I was traveling a bit over the past week, and spent some time hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains before heading home. It’s a good way to clear the mind. Anyways, as I was heading back to my car at dusk, heading to my car, I stopped to look back over the miles I had traveled on my walk. There, standing in the path, was Edward Salcedo. The minute he saw me turn, he bolted back into the woods. The good news? Salcedo was wearing an Indians’ cap.

On a serious note, I’ll have some real Salcedo news in the next day or two, once I get some confirmation.

Are the days of Aaron Fultz numbered? I think it’s pretty safe to say that Fultz isn’t the most glamorous of Tribe relievers. Fultz was brought in as the Tribe’s resident LOOGY (Lefty One-Out Guy).

Enough with these guys that aren’t good enough to consistently pitch to more than one guy. Having lefties in the pen are important, but I’d rather have a guy that’s effective enough to go at least an inning, and against righties and lefties. No, not everybody is Rafael Perez, but there’s a middle ground between the two. Fultz is a waste of space in the Tribe pen, especially when you see the Tribe struggling between three guys that would suit the pen better than Fultz in Jorge Julio, Scott Elarton and Tom Mastny.

Today, Cleveland signed lefty Craig Breslow, who was released by the Boston Red Sox. In 2006, the 27-year-old lefty was an International League All-Star, going 7-1 with a 2.69 ERA.

Breslow isn’t going to overpower you. He’s got an average, upper 80’s fastball, a cutter, a slurve, and a nice change-up. His out-pitch is a hooking curve-ball. The kid can locate his pitches, and strikes out a lot of batters, which is impressive considering his lack of heat. Most hopeful is that the scouting reports state he’s not just a LOOGY, but a guy that can get outs on both sides of the plate.

Of course there’s downside as well.

He’s never really stuck with one club, and the fact that he couldn’t crack the Red Sox bullpen is a cause for concern. After having some success with the big league club in the second half of 2006, he ended up stuck in Pawtucket for the entire 2007 season.

He doesn’t have any waivers left, so the only reason you bring a guy like this in this close to the end of the year is to make the club.

Aaron Fultz’ days could be numbered.

Omar Minaya and Mark Shapiro met last week. It’s well known that both are good friends, and this meeting was more than likely just a formality for two old pals whose teams were about to meet to chat. At the same time, it could have also been an informal meeting for the two to discuss a potential deal. The Mets have been rumored to be interested in Cliff Lee and Andy Marte over the past few months. With the signing of Johan Santana, it’s believed that pitching might be etched off their wants, although I wouldn’t count on it.

Still, it appears as though the focus of Minaya’s wants would land squarely on some of the extra outfielders that the Indians could provide. I firmly believe the Mets’ GM was probing about Ben Francisco, Shin-Soo Choo, Franklin Gutierrez, and the aforementioned Marte.

I’m relatively sure that Shapiro steered the conversation towards David Dellucci and/or Jason Michaels.

At the end of the day, it’s quite possible that Minosa was just asking Shapiro about Kenny Lofton, who the Mets have been rumored to be talking to.

Who knows, but it’s fun to talk about.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 23rd, 2008 at 11:59 pm and is filed under Ben Francisco, Cliff Lee, Franklin Gutierrez, James Pete, Tom Mastny, Jason Michaels, Scott Elarton, Edward Salcedo, Shin-Soo Choo, Victor Martinez, Jorge Julio, Craig Breslow, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Andy Marte, David Dellucci, Omar Minaya, Kenny Lofton, Aaron Fultz, Tribe Report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.