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Even a blind squirrel finds a nut in Kansas City ...

By MoneyMike
Monday, August 27, 2007

If I told you that the Indians were going to go to go visit the Royals and waste another one of C.C. Sabathia's pitching gems by losing 2-1 and piss away a hard-fought effort from FAUSTO! by going into extra innings, you'd probably say that it sounds like a pretty crappy weekend in Kansas City.

Well, you'd be right and wrong. It's always a crappy weekend in Kansas City (ZING!), but the Tribe still pulled out two of three to win its third straight road series. So while the offense kept up with its habit of appearing only in short stints, the Indians managed to take a divisional series away from The Jake. This is what good teams do, they play bad and win. It's painful to watch, I know, but it's slowly but surely putting them in a good spot. Heading into this evening's series opener with Minnesota, the Indians are up 2 1/2 games on the Tigers and are 7-3 in their last 10. With their offense on strike 80 percent of the time, they are still putting together some momentum and sneaking away from Detroit.

The offense still needs to come back around, but this team is finding ways to win games that really matter down the stretch. I understand the general fan concern that Wedge doesn't know how to manage a playoff push (and he doesn't), but maybe this team, which should have three 15-game winners, can pitch its way out of an offensive funk. I know C.C. and FAUSTO! are getting robbed on decisions, but they continue to keep the team in games and make me smile. Paul Byrd, the other guy who should already have 15 wins, is doing the same. If the Indians can just eek out a division win, they will be tough in the playoffs - with or without the offense.

What a pearl necklace:
The little offense that the Indians have mustered in the last month has been helped along by rookie second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera. Cabrera, a natural shortstop, has been plugged into the black hole of the lineup that casual fans called Josh Barfield's spot. In his short time with the club, he's hitting .318 with one homer and seven RBIs. In addition to those early numbers, he also murdered K.C. pitching most of the weekend, finishing 5-for-13 with a triple and two RBIs- including a game tying RBI on Sunday.

All this is nice, but the kid is so far best noticed for the awkward Marge Simpson-esque string of pearls on his neck. The kid is obviously cocksure, taking Omar's No. 13 jersey when he came up to the bigs, but what is with the necklace? It's an upsetting trend that cannot continue - unless the Tribe takes two out of three from the Twins this week, in which case that pearl necklace looks pretty good ... Insert your own dirty joke there; I'm an adult.

Match-up watch: For those interested in good pitching, Wednesday is MoneyMike's SexyTime pick for the game of the week. Sabathia (14-7, 3.38 ERA), who should be well on his way to 20 wins already, will face off against Twins ace Johan Santana (14-9, 2.97). Early predictions call for C.C. to lose his third game of the season by a score of 2-1. Expect him to hammer Casey Blake into the ground with his fist if that happens.

DreamBoat update: I meant for this week's column to be focused solely on the Tribe, as they're making a playoff push and the Browns are still more than a week away from playing a game that counts (comedy break in: The Browns haven't played a game that counted since 2002!), but I have to give my weekly update on The DreamBoat.

Playing against Denver's second teamers on Saturday, Brady Quinn was again the best offensive player the Browns had in their 17-16 win.

Now, I have, and will continue to have, greatly mixed feelings about TDB. On the one hand, I want him to come in right now and push the Browns to a 16-0 season. On the other hand, which is the hand where I keep reality, I want him to sit for at least eight or nine weeks and watch all the things Charlie Frye does - and then I want him not to repeat any of those.

That said, with the final preseason game coming on Thursday, I think that Quinn deserves a shot at playing against a No. 1 defense. And, since they will be playing the Chicago Bears, what a chance it would be. If I was Romeo Crennel, I would play Frye for the first two series on Thursday, relieve him with Quinn and then play Ken Dorsey and Derek Anderson whenever I could get them in. I know Crennel and Phil Savage don't want to tease the fan base too much, but you have to give the kid a chance to prove himself on a big stage and he's much more likely to do that in the preseason than when they start keeping score for real.

MoneyMike is a magazine journalist by day and S*KM's biggest C.C. supporter by night (really, he weighs in at about 197 pounds, that''s two Double Cs). Read his stuff every Monday instead of learning the social skills that have already passed you by.
You can e-mail him at mcottrill@sawkick.com

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