Taking a Look at the Indians Pitching Staff: Is Kerry Wood the Answer?

To start this article off, I want to say, I think the Cleveland Indians have a ton of potential in their lineup. If you look at their team, so many of them could be all stars, and some of them have been all stars. But with that said, I don't like our pitching staff. For a pitching staff that has produced two Cy Young winners in the last two seasons, that really doesn't say much.

Cliff Lee has proven himself in the past season. He proved to us Indians fans that if you truly dedicate yourself to baseball, you can be a Cy Young winner. Throughout his early career he had many injury problems, and had many trips to Akron. But last season he got the opportunity to prove himself and he did. The big question is can Cliff Lee be a team leader? Can he be a 20-game winner every season?

After Cliff Lee, I dont like our pitching staff. To sum up how crappy our starting pitchers were last season I have found these stats for you. Cliff Lee led Indians starting pitchers in wins last season with 22. In second for the Indians was Fausto Caromona. A player who missed nearly a third of the season. He only had eight wins. Eight. Cliff Lee has 22 wins, and the next Indians pitcher had eight. The funny stat is in third place in wins for the Indians last season was C.C. Sabathia who played half the season for us.

With those stats said, you can sum up that we were either Injury ridden, or we just stink. The fact that we stayed in playoff contention for so long just baffles me. Our hitters stayed hot mid season to late, and kept us in the race. The Indians were 29th in the league in save opportunities. They only had 31 saves (with too many closers).

Can Kerry Wood really help us win more games? Well seeing as we had 51 chances to get a save last season, and converted 31 times. That means we saved 60.7 percent of our games successfully. Kerry Wood went 34 for 40 last season in his save chances. That is 85 percent of his games.

With that said, hypothetically, if Kerry Wood was on our team last season he could have helped us win around 12 more games. Those 12 games really do help in the long run too. We finished 81-81. Could you imagine if we finished 93-69. We would have won the AL Central.

INDIANS ADDITIONS:

Vinnie Chulk: RH/RP He has played for the Blue Jays and Giants in the past few seasons. He allows on average a hit every inning. He is 7-14 in his career with an E.RA of 4.36. However he strikes out more than half the people he walks. Where would his position be in our bullpen?

Jack Cassel: RH/SP The brother of Patriots quarterback Matt Cassel. Im sure he is sick of hearing that, but until he proves himself to us baseball fans, he is always just gonna be "Matt's Brother" In four games last season for the Astros he was 1-1 with an E.RA of 5.64. In AAA he was 7-1 with an E.RA of 1.98. For now he is decent depth for our staff.

Toma Ohka: RH/SP Ohka is at 32 years old right now. All I see him as is depth in the bullpen and maybe a spot starter occasionally. I don't even really know why we signed him. His stats haven't improved in nearly three seasons. Why did we sign him?

Joe Smith: RH/RP So far in Smith's short career he is 9-5 with an E.RA of 3.51. He doesn't rack up a lot of innings in the bullpen, but when used he can be very effective. A very good pick up from the Mets.

Carl Pavano: RH/SP After signing a monstrous contract with the Yankees, he had no success at all. He went 9-8 in three seasons. Injuries kept him down all three seasons in New York. Yankees fans hate him. Being a ten year veteran, he has only played two full seasons. If the Indians can get 10 wins with him this year, it would be a success that they signed him. If not. We got robbed once again.

To sum this article up, I just wanna say, I miss the 15-game winner Jake Westbrook we used to have. If we can get Westbrook back at full health for the 2009 season, there is no real reason we can't be a playoff contender. I hope he can stay healthy.