A Good Weekend

My first day back from a trip to Seattle, where we took the boys to the aquarium, zoo and a Mariners’ game against the Nationals. Let me tell you, as much as I make fun of the Indians offensive woes, these two teams make the Indians look Ruthian. The Nationals scored quite a few runs early, but that had more to do with R.A. Dickey pitching than actually having a quality team.

I know there were high hopes in Seattle before the season because of their pitching staff, but they sure look a long way away from being a competitive team. Trading away Adam Jones and George Sherrill (and a quality minor leaguer) for Erik Bedard looks terrible (as all of Bavasi’s moves do). It is nice have a stud pitcher like Bedard, but if you can’t score any runs it doesn’t really matter who is pitching.

Being Adrian Beltre bobblehead night, I think there were more people who showed up to get their bobblehead and left then actually stayed to watch the game. I can’t really blame them.

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On the Indians front, they took two of three from the Padres over the weekend. Grady had a big weekend hitting three homeruns and is now one behind Josh Hamilton for the American League lead.

His recent power surge has lead to a number of stories about whether he should be moved into an RBI spot in the order. In Bud Shaw’s piece for the Cleveland Plain Dealer he notes the fact that twelve of Grady’s seventeen homeruns have been solo shots but says:

Moving Sizemore down in the lineup because he’s on pace to hit 39 homers is a flimsy argument, though. For any number of better reasons, he should stay put.

Foremost is that he likes hitting leadoff, isn’t too bad at it, and with him in that spot and with actual healthy hitters swinging the bat where Hafner and Victor Martinez toiled at less than 100 percent, the Indians are leading the league in runs scored in June.

He is the Indians best hitter. That is the only reason for keeping him hitting leadoff. It is not a terrible idea to give your best hitter the most at-bats on the team. The problem though is that the bottom of the Indians order has been so bad this season that when Sizemore comes up there is not usually anyone on base. With Francisco, Garko and Choo (the next best choice to hit leadoff for the club) hitting well in the middle of the order there is not a huge need to move Grady down in the order (as much as I have been clamoring for it all season). He is our best hitter at getting on base, and if there are players hitting well behind him it is an advantage to for the Indians.

Wedge had to make him self out to be the victim in this article:

Nobody talked about it last year when we moved him there for a couple or three weeks and it didn’t work. I didn’t hear a word about it after we moved him back. You can’t have it both ways.

Wedge is of course forgetting the fact that last year’s team was good and this year’s so far has not been. Victor and Hafner (to a degree) both hit well in the middle of the order, so the need to move Grady was not a necessity. For much of this season, however, the middle of the order has not been good and Grady’s power would have been nice (but until Choo came back there really wasn’t anyone to hit leadoff). Sorry Mr. Wedge if no one is allowed to question your managerial genius. He will definitely take credit for the Indians playing great after moving Grady back to the leadoff spot last season, but when the offense is performing so badly this season we aren’t allowed to talk about it. While we can't, I guess Wedge can have it both ways.

In the baseball world that only sees the triple crown stats (average, homeruns, RBI) Grady will never be fully appreciated. And only when the players behind him are hitting well and he is scoring runs (another flawed statistic) will people think of him as a great player.

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If you read the comments on this story after Kevin Kouzmanoff hit the game winning grand slam, you would think he is the offspring of Mike Schmidt and George Brett (an offspring that could play baseball good). While it would be nice to have Kouzmanoff over Casey Blake right now, he is definitely not a great player. His home park does not help him any, but he still does not get on base enough and does not have a huge amount of power. He also is not a good fielder. Let's give Barfield another chance (hit the DL this weekend) before we decide that his was the worst trade since the Expos traded Grady, Lee and Phillips for Bartolo Colon.