Tribe Talk: Cleveland Indians Say Goodbye To "The House That Ruth Built"

A simple flip flop of Hafner and Garko, and I don't mind that Garko is struggling. In my mind, your most clutch hitter of your three best bats should hit clean up, that is Victor Martinez. Ideally I'd love to hit Ryan Garko third, Hafner cleanup, and Martinez fifth, but that isn't possible the way Hafner and Martinez have been hitting. I think giving Garko that protection would let him bust out, and also put Hafner back on top in terms of walking a lot. I moved Casey back to the nine-hole because that is where he is most effective, and I concerned Gutierrez up at two, but Dellucci has done a good job. My main beef is with the one Wedge is using is Dellucci hitting third, that isn't acceptable in my eyes.

Michael Taylor: I like Gutierrez, but not batting second as he has over the weekend. He does not work counts and strikes out way too much for a two hitter. He is better served around seven or eight right now. Many people don't like it, but I still say Dellucci hits second. His career .344 OBP is not the greatest, but with what the Indians have to work with right now, he is one of the few hitting the ball and can move Grady along. Third, I have always like putting your best hitter there who can drive in runs. Victor is by far the most complete hitter on the team and I like him there. Cleanup is tough right now with the main power sources struggling, but to split Victor and Hafner up I put Garko fourth and Hafner fifth. This leaves inconsistent Jhonny, average yet clutch Blake, and finally, the youngsters who obviously need more time, Gutierrez and Cabrera at the bottom.

1. Grady Sizemore
2. David Dellucci
3. Victor Martinez
4. Ryan Garko
5. Travis Hafner
6. Jhonny Peralta
7. Casey Blake
8. Franklin Gutierrez
9. Asdrubal Cabrera

The Indians now sit at 14-17, but remain somehow only 2.5 games out of first place. How reassuring is this as a fan to think, that at any time if the Indians finally get on a roll, that first place is still right there for the taking?

Samantha Bunten: As a Cleveland fan you have to be an optimist, so I feel pretty good about where we're sitting right now. We’ve played badly, but have also gotten lucky, as everyone in the central is playing bad baseball. Chicago looks to be on their way out already. We fully expected to be battling it out with Detroit, even if we didn’t expect either team to be doing it to keep ourselves out of the AL Central cellar. Right now I think Minnesota is my biggest concern. I think we need to steel ourselves for a 3-team race.

At this point I'm not too worried. I look at it this way: At this time last year, people laughed at me when I said the Tribe would win the division. The only reason we appear to be any worse off now is that expectations are higher this year. This group is a second half team. The fact that the rest of the central is also struggling just makes it that much easier for us to atone later for our characteristically slow start.

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