WINTER HAVEN, Fla. -- The question floating around Chain of Lakes Park here, smack dab in the middle of the Sunshine State -- I wonder, by the way, whether there is a Summer Haven in someplace like Minnesota or Wisconsin or Michigan, and whether it's also filled with RVs and breakfast buffets -- is not whether the Indians will be good in 2006. That's as much of a given as anything can be at this time of the year.
The question, of course, is whether they'll be good enough. Good enough to stack up with the World Series champions, pitcher by studly pitcher? Good enough to outbang the champs, if need be?
Good enough, maybe, to actually beat the White Sox and win the American League Central?
"We'll be a better team out there this year than we were last year -- team being the operative word," says the Tribe's manager, Eric Wedge. "When you look at what these guys have gone through and the experiences they've gained, and the fact that there's still more there in terms of them being able to get better ... we'll look to go out there and be even that much better this year."
The AL Central will be the race to watch this season because, very possibly, it will have the two best teams in the league going at it from Opening Day to October. In fact, the Indians and White Sox may be the two best teams in baseball. The Yankees and Red Sox dream about pitching like the White Sox and Indians have. The A's pine for run production like the Indians and White Sox should get. Maybe only the National League's Cardinals are as balanced as the White Sox and Indians stand to be.
It all begins for the two teams in the Central, as it should, with the pitching. The White Sox won 99 games last season, wiped out the Indians in the last weekend and tore through the postseason, going 11-1. And then they got better. They added pop in the lineup by trading for designated hitter Jim Thome and they added free agent Javier Vazquez to an already impossibly deep rotation.
The Indians, certainly if their offseason signings remain healthy, hung right with the Sox this winter. Already a better-hitting team than Chicago, the Indians lost the AL ERA champ, righty Kevin Millwood, to free agency. But they added 35-year-old Paul Byrd and 32-year-old Jason Johnson to the rotation while subtracting Scott Elarton, who had the worst ERA (4.61) in last year's rotation.
Byrd made 31 starts for the Angels last year, coming back from an injury-marred 2004 season with the Braves. He's had only three years in which he's made 30 or more starts, but he's had a winning record in each of them. (He was 12-11 with a 3.74 ERA in '05.) Johnson has made at least 30 starts for the past three years, including 33 last season with the Tigers. His career record is a horrible 52-86, but he's never played on a winning team, spending his time with the Pirates, Devil Rays, Orioles and Tigers.
Granted, neither Byrd nor Johnson is considered anything close to an ace. But the Indians have at least two candidates for that title in C.C. Sabathia -- he has more wins than any other active player has had at his age -- and 18-game winner Cliff Lee. The Indians also have a solid middle-rotation pitcher in sinkerballer Jake Westbrook. So, for guys in the middle-to-lower part of a rotation, Byrd and Johnson probably are better than most teams have.
"I think, 1 to 5, we're as good as anybody," says Byrd. "I mean, we don't have a Johan Santana ..."
Of course, the White Sox don't, either.
"Exactly," Byrd said.
The fact that the Indians are as honestly confident as they are at this point, given how last season ended, is a bit of a marvel in itself. Cleveland was the hottest team -- some would say best team -- in the game during the second half of 2005 until a final-week crumble ruined what should have been a down-to-the-wire finish. The Indians lost six of their last seven games, five by one run. The last three losses all came to the White Sox, in Cleveland.
The Indians still had an admirable season, with 93 wins, 46 of them after the All-Star break, second only to the Yankees. But the Tribe went only 14-5 against Chicago. Nine of their 14 losses were by a run.
That's something they aim to change, right away.
"I think we're a better team 'cause we have more experience," says the Indians' Opening Day starter, the lefty Sabathia. "If you look at us, we've been a team that's learned from our mistakes. Two years ago, we were in the race until the middle of August, and then we fell out. Last year, it was the last week of the season. So this year, we're looking to build on that and carry it into October."
Can they turn a disappointing '05 into 99 wins this season? Will that be enough to topple the White Sox?
The Indians certainly think so. We'll all find out soon enough.
The two teams open their '06 seasons in Chicago on April 2.
IN INDIANS' CAMP
• I could watch a good second baseman take infield practice for hours. And Cleveland's Ronnie Belliard has some of the best hands in the business. Wednesday, seeing him flick the ball backhanded to second, seeing the ball almost magically change directions, was amazing. It reminded me a lot of former Indians second baseman Roberto Alomar. Which, as it turns out, is no coincidence. Belliard grew up watching Ozzie Smith -- Belliard used to be a shortstop -- but he went to Alomar for advice on how to play second base.
"The guy was unbelievable," Belliard told me. "I went up to him and told him I was having trouble with my backhand, and he told me I have better range to my left [his glove side]. So now I play more up the middle."
On Sept. 28 last season, Belliard made one of the top two or three plays of the last three years -- and some might say a lot longer than that. In a game against the Devil Rays, with a man on first and no one out, Tampa Bay's Aubrey Huff hit a big hopper up the middle. Belliard ranged far to his backhand side, stretched out to grab the ball behind the bag and then, as he was flat out, falling to the dirt, he somehow got the ball into his right hand and flipped it blindly over his hip. It landed perfectly in the bare hand of shortstop Jhonny Peralta for the forceout.
"It just happened," Belliard said. "I just backhanded the ball ... it just happened."
It just so happens, in one of those quirks of spring training, that the man who was out at second -- Eduardo Perez -- now resides five lockers down from Belliard in Winter Haven.
"I had the best view of it of anybody. I was watching and saying 'Wow' at the same time," Perez said. "I'm going to be watching myself on the highlights for a long time -- the wrong end of the highlights."
• The Indians have some questions left to answer in camp, but this is a deep team with few spots open. The Indians' bullpen is almost complete. It consists of closer Bob Wickman, setup man Guillermo Mota, Scott Sauerbeck, Rafael Bettancourt, Fernando Cabrera and Matt Miller.
That leaves only one spot open, with two recognizable names (and several others) aiming for it. Both Danny Graves, the longtime Reds closer, and Steve Karsay, late of the Yankees, are in camp gunning for a job.
Both of them looked fairly sharp in sessions Wednesday -- Graves threw to starting catcher Victor Martinez -- but Wedge says it's way too early to make any kind of a call. The manager said he's not looking for a certain type to fill the last spot, either.
• Graves, the first Vietnamese-born player in Major League Baseball, made a trip to Vietnam in January as part of a delegation sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Foundation and MLB. "It's the most fun I've had in a long time in baseball," Graves said. His visit was documented for a segment on HBO's Real Sports, to be aired in early March.
Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees
Tampa Bay Rays
Toronto Blue Jays
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians
Detroit Tigers
Kansas City Royals
Minnesota Twins
Houston Astros
LA Angels
Oakland Athleticss
Seattle Mariners
Texas Rangers
Atlanta Braves
Miami Marlins
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Washington Nationals
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers
Pittsburgh Pirates
St. Louis Cardinals
Arizona Diamondbacks
Colorado Rockies
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants
Still Young,Still Hungry
Register To Reply
Originally Posted by Pronk48
). All of them are just feeling peptimistic as of now, years and years of losing, yah just feel like your team will never get out of it. Plus most of my friends who are Tigers fans, are not into these online forums.
