Monday, May 23, 2011

Tribe time

The Cleveland Indians show no signs of slowing down, despite Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner -- their most productive hitters -- being injured. Asdrubal Cabrera is the only active player batting .300 (at .302) but the Tribe ranks No. 1 in the AL with a .266 team BA, thanks in part to Hafner's .345 mark. Their .761 OPS is No. 2 in the league.

Pitching wise, outside of Justin Masterson (5-2, 2.52) and Josh Tomlin (6-1, 2.41, 0.82 WHIP) the starters have been below average. The bullpen, though, has been ridiculously good outside of Chad Durbin. This is a very young staff, too. Durbin (33) is the only pitcher older than 29. Fausto Carmona, at 27, is the elder statesman among starters.

It will be interesting to see how the Indians fare the rest of the way, but they might be too young to know they're not this good. It doesn't seem like they do anything particularly well, nor do they do anything particularly poorly. That might be plenty good enough in the AL Central.

One thing is probably for sure, Tomlin is likely to tumble. He is not a high strikeout pitcher, not a high groundball pitcher, and is living off a .175 BABIP.

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