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Minnesota rolls over Tribe 12-3 as Sabathia rumors persist

By James Pete | July 5th, 2008

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CLEVELAND

Minnesota

W: Livan Hernanadez (9-5), L: Paul Byrd (3-10) HR: CHI–HR - Nick Punto (1), Delmon Young (3) ; CLE–Ben Francisco (7), Kelly Shoppach (7)

The Minnesota Twins scored early and often against Indians starter Paul Byrd, as the Cleveland Indians dropped their sixth straight game, 12-3, in Minnesota.

In fairness to Indians’ starter Paul Byrd, it wasn’t all his fault, even though he got the Tribe off to a bad start. Byrd gave up a first inning blast to Nick Punto, his first of the season. In the second, he gave up a lead-off single to Delmon Young, who came home on a Brian Buscher double to make the score 2-0.

Cleveland actually showed some life in the top of the third, when Ryan Garko led off the inning with a single, and Kelly Shoppach hit his seventh home run of the year. The two-run blast actually tied the game. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t take long before this game was out of reach…one inning to be exact.

In the bottom half of the inning, Byrd got two quick ground outs. What looked like an easy inning, turned ugly quickly. Justin Mourneau walked on five pitches, then Jason Kubel doubled, putting two runners in scoring position for Delmon Young, who was picked up in a big offseason trade for starter Matt Garza. Young took another step in his growth into a five-tool star, when he took a 1-1 pitch over the wall in left for a three-run blast, to give the Twins a 5-2 lead they would never look back on.

You could make a case that calling up Jensen Lewis and Brian Slocum were the first moves in an attempt to reshape the Indians. If that’s the case, the Indians need to go in a different direction. Lewis started off impressively in the sixth inning. Byrd had given up two singles and a walk, to load the bases with one out when Lewis was brought in from the pen. Talk about a buzz-saw, Lewis mowed down Denard Span and Carlos Gomez with two strikeouts to get out of the inning. Then came the seventh.

Nick Punto started off the inning with an eight-pitch walk. Lewis came back quickly, striking out Joe Mauer. Justin Mourneau made Lewis pay for the lead-off walk, doubling home Punto for another Twins run. Jason Kubel followed by nearly going yard, with a loooong out to the track in right, before Delmon Young ended Lewis’ night with a run-scoring single. Enter Brian Slocum, who quickly got Lewis out of the seventh inning by getting Brian Buscher to fly out. Then came the eighth, and it wasn’t pretty.

Slocum gave up back-to-back singles to lead off the eighth, and visibly shaken, hit Carlos Gomez to load the bases with nobody out. Nick Punto then cleared the bases with a double. Joe Mauer followed with a single, moving Punto to third, and Justin Mourneau’s sacrifice fly scored Punto. Hey, at least it was an out. It was also the last of Slocum. His night wasn’t pretty. He gave up four runs in 2/3 of an inning, for a paltry 54.00 ERA. Not a bad start for the rookie.

We can chalk it up to first-night return jitters…right?

Paul Byrd has given up 23 home runs after the two he gave up tonight. That’s first, or worst, in the league.

Mark Shapiro is preaching tweaks, and not an overhaul, according to MLB.com’s Thor Nystrom. Essentially, Shapiro said that they are ahead of where Chicago and Minnesota were last year, and that once Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez and Fausto Carmona come back healthy, that will be the major overhaul. He did acknowledge that the Indians would need a tweaking. Really?

He also wouldn’t address the Sabathia situation at all, other than to say he was “fortunate to have him here.” So, no official word on whether or not the Indians are really trying to sign their ace, or if they are getting set to shuttle him off to Milwaukee, Los Angeles or Tampa Bay.

I’m happy, Mark, that you think this team is better than Chicago and Minnesota was last year. At least you are continuing your optimistic facade. That says something. At the same time, saying that we are better off than two teams that were way behind us last year with four players injured, and no guarantees that they’ll be back to their old selves is saying a lot, isn’t it? I agree, we don’t need a rebuild, but we surely could use SOME BATS!

So what is the latest on Sabathia? Well, Milwaukee’s Tom Haudricourt is reporting that the Brewers have indeed talked to the Indians about specific players. Haudricourt believes that those players are AA outfielder Matt LaPorta, single A outfielder Lorenzo Cain, and single A 3B Taylor Green. The Cleveland papers are loaded with regurgitations of Haudricourt’s work, so nothing really new there either. Interesting to see the differences in the two cities. It’s evident that Doug Melvin has a good relationship with Haudricourt, and is relatively open with what’s going on. It’s actually refreshing. Shapiro gives nothing to the writers here in Cleveland, which is indicative of the GM, and the writers for that matter. You know baseball…like the secret service.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 5th, 2008 at 6:48 am and is filed under L.A. Dodgers, Carlos Gomez, Brian Slocum, Mark Shapiro, Nick Punto, Jensen Lewis, Ben Francisco, Tribe Loss, Denard Span, Lorenzo Cain, Taylor Green, Justin Mourneau, Brian Buscher, Tom Haurdricourt, Livan Hernanadez, Fausto Carmona, Kelly Shoppach, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins, Delmon Young, Ryan Garko, Milwaukee Brewers, Jason Kubel, Matt Garza, Travis Hafner, Matt LaPorta, Paul Byrd, James Pete, C.C. Sabathia, Victor Martinez, 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.

7 Responses to “Minnesota rolls over Tribe 12-3 as Sabathia rumors persist”

Joe Loudmouth says:

July 5th, 2008 at 7:35 am

Not just CC. Paul Byrd will certainly have some value to a pitching short contender and probably will perform well. Casey Blake as well. I would not be opposed to trying to move Pronk and get out from under his contract if there are any buyers out there. I guess you cannot trade everyone but Cliff Lee’s value is at a sensational level. It would be ballsy to move 2 or 3 starters but you would have a completely retooled young lineup with plenty of money to pluck off the right kind of free agents.
The fans will complain about rebuilding yet again but what they are doing now certainly is not working.
Dave in Boston says:

July 5th, 2008 at 7:44 am

I watched a bit on the satellite last night but, even as a lifelong fan, I had to turn it off. Bad pitching. No hitting. No spark. It reminds me of the pre-1994 teams. Grady is starting to look like Rick Manning with a bit more power. It seems less and less likely that he’ll be a great player, as opposed to an above-average player.

Re: Sabathia, the Milwaukee deal doesn’t look all that good to me unless LaPorta is the real deal. We have guys in the minors that seem as good as Cain and Green. Isn’t Wes Hodges supposed to be our third baseman of the future? And what about Marte?
James Pete says:

July 5th, 2008 at 8:59 am

I am continually baffled by all the talk about these players they are talking about Dave.

LaPorta. Nobody knows if he’s the real deal because he’s in AA. The other 2 are A players. They make a big deal about Green being the 2007 minor league player of the year.

Well, let’s look at the Tribe’s minor league players of the year the past few. How’s Adam Miller doing?

Marte is a dog. I would have dumped him a month ago if they weren’t going to play him. Just end the saga with him and either play him or get rid of him.

Seriously, if I’m the Indians, I’m demanding two top 10-30 prospects in all of baseball out of an organization, plus other pieces. I don’t care if it’s a rent-a-player or not. I’m getting pissed reading these other forums saying that the Indians have no leverage because Sabathia doesn’t have a contract, and it’s mid-season.

Screw that. This is a 27-year old stud, who just won the Cy Young, and has been unreal since the end of April.

This is one deal that I would force the hand of teams. If Shapiro plays his cards right, he can decimate a minor league team…so I’m glad these Brewers talks have come early.

There will be more in play, and for a bigger price tag.
Rlaninthesun says:

July 5th, 2008 at 12:09 pm

I couldn’t agree more J.P. regarding the other forums. I went over to MVN’s Brewers after you pointed out Melvins interest and there is a long post making a case for FREDDIE GARCIA over CC!

Right now it’s like waking up in the 9th Ward after Katrina. The season’s gone and so is the whole neighborhood. Total devastation.

Shapiro (if any good marks are warranted) is doing a decent job of pushing the market. Sabathia is one of the 5 best pitchers on the planet, only 27, a LEFTY, and in prime condition.

My only real beef with him is the vote of confidence he gave to Wedge on the Team site.

To Boston Dave; I hear you. I’m suffering the same kind of flashbacks. That said - Slocum had seven AAA relief appearences before his babtism, and Lewis has too much talent to pile on considering the shape the franchise is in. One of the few good moves made this year was shuttling him back to the minors to clear his head and work on mechanics.

What is really bugging me is - where are the Dolan’s at with all this? Is it really possible that they would give Wedge a six season?

And one final question for James; What ever happened to Tony Sipp?
Leslie Monteiro says:

July 5th, 2008 at 2:14 pm

Watching the Indians last night, it seems like they don’t have any confidence in themselves. It’s like they are waiting for everything to fall apart, and it showed last night. Nothing is just going right. I had them as a playoff team. The talent is there from last year. It’s just that nothing has gone right. I am at a loss to what’s going on. They are better than this. Last year’s Indians team would have taken Livan out.
Mick says:

July 5th, 2008 at 4:06 pm

I’m obviously not James but I’ll field the Sipp question. He’s recovering from T.J. sugery and I expect him to compete for the closer role in ‘09.
David Hannes says:

July 5th, 2008 at 8:54 pm

There’s a handful of Brewers’ fans that are dead set against dealing LaPorta, as he was the Brewers’ #1 pick in 2007 and tore up Single A last year. Baseball America and ESPN’s Keith Law rated LaPorta as the top prospect in the Brewers’ organization at the start of the year.

The Brewers’ AAA team is weak this year, while their AA squad in Huntsville is rich with talent. AAA Nashville has a few promising relief pitchers in Tim Dillard and Luis Peña that are major-league ready for ‘09, as well as outfielder Hernan Iribarren, whose value is so-so at best.

Didn’t see the Garcia post at Brewers’ Bar…could it be another site that you looked at? No way the Brewers would take Garcia at this point, now that Dave Bush has shown some signs of life. I’m guessing that it is Sabathia or nothing at all…and that offer may be expiring within a week.