Optioned LHP Brian Tallet to Buffalo (AAA)
What does a guy have to do to get a shot around here? Granted, Brian hadn't pitched in ten days, but his numbers for the Bisons were good enough to warrant at least a start. I had thought that Tallet would make his start today, then get shipped back down to Buffalo in favor of Davis, who would take over as the long man, at least until Kevin Millwood came off the Disabled List. I guess not.
I'd like to mention site a friend from the ESPN days has started: it's called the Indians Clubhouse, and it's a forum without the...problems..that the ESPN forums have.
Also check out Coco Crisp and Ben Broussard singing on "Oh Say Can You Sing?" Former Indians Omar Vizquel and Sean Casey also appear on the CD, and a portion of the proceeds goes to charity.
Finally, I'd like to share an e-mail I received from Rob:
Some schedule analysis:
I divided the teams that we, the Twins and the WSox play into 4 levels of competitiveness:
(1) Tough [Bos, Balt, LAA, LAD]
(2) Good [Tor, NYY, TX, AZ, SD]
(3) Fair [Det, Oak, Mil, Chi C, SF]
(4) Poor [KC, TB, Sea, Cin, Col]
Didn't rate White Sox, Twins, Indians as we play each other equal amounts.[Note that Indians are 3-3 vs Twins and 2-4 vs WS so far. Twins are 0-5 vs WS which is a big contributor to the WS current lead]. You may disagree with some of these placements but you get the idea.
Then I evaluated the difficulty of the schedule to-date (through 5/11) and going forward (leaving out games among the 3 above). Here are the results [# games vs (1), # games vs (2), ...]:
to-date: CWS [0, 3, 8, 11] Minn [6, 0, 5, 11] Tribe [5, 3, 6, 8]
Clearly the CWS have had the easiest schedule; although this isn't a big enough difference to totally account for the current standings, but maybe things aren't quite as bad as they appear!!
going forward:
rest of May - CWS [10, 6, 3, 0] Minn [0, 9, 3, 0] Tribe [3, 3, 3, 3]
June - CWS [4, 6, 6, 6] Minn [3, 9, 9, 3] Tribe [7, 6, 3, 6]
July - CWS [7, 0, 9, 6] Minn [13, 3, 4, 7] Tribe [3, 4, 6, 11]
August - CWS [4, 12, 0, 6] Minn [3, 3, 7, 10] Tribe [3, 9, 6, 10]
Sept/Oct - CWS [3, 0, 8, 6 ] Minn [0, 3, 9, 3] Tribe [0,0, 6, 10]
TOTAL -CWS [28, 24, 26, 24] Minn [19, 27, 32, 23] Tribe [16, 22, 24, 40]
It looks like the CWS have the toughest remaining schedule, then Minn and then the Tribe!
Some of this is driven by who the interleague opponents are (and how I rated them!). The CWS play the Cubs (6 times), COL, SD, AZ, LAD (3 times each). Twins play Mil (6 times), SF, SD, AZ, LAD (3 each). Tribe plays Cin (6 times), SF, SD, AZ, COL (3 each). So the Tribe gets those 6 games against CIN (which I rated the lowest) and 0 games against LAD (rated highest). If we can't gain some serious ground with this schedule advantage, then we're not as good as everybody hoped we would be! Of course, we have to win a fair share of our games with CWS and Twins.
First test of this starts now as the CWS have a tough remainder of May. Then June is a test for the Tribe. If we are in this thing at the end of June, then we have a real shot. July is Minnesota's test. Etc.
Thanks for all the work, Rob (note he sent the e-mail on May 11th, so there were some changes between then and now). Anyway,this shows that if the Indians can hang around through the end of June, the road gets easier. But right now, the remainder of this 12-game road is critical, since the Indians are the ones who have the catching up to do. Losing to El Duque last night really hurt, because the other two pitchers faced in the series are Chicago's best: Jon Garland and Mark Buerhle.
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