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Most of the draft choices from when he took over until 2007 have bombed. They have only developed two relievers in Rafael Perez and Jensen Lewis. They have no impact arms; only soft tossing lefties like Jeremy Sowers, Scott Lewis and Aaron Laffey.
He has started after the first bullpen blow-up this season and has stated that they will change the way they draft and cultivate pitching, which they have begun to do with the draft in 2009 and trading for Chris Perez.
A big move is not needed—just tactical ones. You need a No. 1 starter and No. 3 hitter, so if Cliff Lee or Victor Martinez are moved the Indians are not only giving up on 2009 but 2010 and 2011 as well and the fanbase should riot.
Trade your expiring assets like Carroll and Pavano, and actively shop pieces like Garko and Shoppach that can help contending teams but shouldn't be in the Indians' long term plans.
Get the young talent (LaPorta, Brantley, Meloan, Torregas, et al) up here and see if they are part of the solution. It's obvious that Garko, Shoppach, and Francisco are not.
3. Carl Pavano looked great in May, going 5-1 with a .259 batting average against. June has been a different story, where Pavano has gone 1-2 with a .351 batting average against.
So which is the real Pavano—the guy who showed up in May and looked like the Pavano who won 18 games for the Marlins in 2004, or the guy who showed up in June and looked like a train wreck as he surrendered eight runs to a normally anemic Pirates offense in 3.1 innings?
Do you think Pavano's recent struggles are just poor performance, the product of an injury, or arm fatigue resulting from resuming a full work load after not pitching for two years?
Dale Thomas: To begin with, Pavano's career record is under .500. So since he’s gone 6-3 for the Tribe in May and June, he's already better than he is, so to say. He also has not gone down in a heap or been in any rib-breaking car wrecks (that we know of)....yet.
He's had two excellent seasons out of nine, so somewhere in the next 4.5 years, he should have another one. Let's save it for next year (if the Tribe re-sign him) and hope we have a bullpen that can hold a seven-run lead.
I would rest him a lot this year and feed him vitamin-rich milk or something so he doesn't succumb to the disabled list like he did in 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. I think his recent struggles are actually ongoing struggles that he has experienced for the majority of his major-league life.
Samantha Bunten: Neither extreme is the real Pavano. They are merely the phases that are symptomatic of a very average pitcher. Like every other mediocre starting MLB pitcher, Pavano will have good years and bad years, and good months or weeks and bad months or weeks within them.
Perhaps we are all disappointed in Pavano because we had begun expecting too much out of him. The Indians signed him as a big question mark who, if healthy, could bolster the back end of the rotation. He wasn’t brought in to be one of the team’s best starters—that expectation was only foisted on him because of how poorly everyone else in the rotation (other than Cliff Lee) has pitched.
Pavano’s struggles in June might also be linked specifically to a standard case of arm fatigue. Pavano threw a total of 45.2 innings in 2007 and 2008. Less than halfway through the 2009 season, he has already thrown 92.1 innings.
Essentially he’s thrown twice as many pitches in half a season as he did over the previous two years. The fact that this might be more wear and tear than his arm can endure after so much idleness should not surprise anyone.
Scott Miles: I think we're seeing what Carl Pavano, at 33-years old, is going to offer us. Some starts he will have flashes back to what gave him the huge contract with the Yankees
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