This Team is Weird.

[Alex]

Enough said.

[The Genius]

I'm in shock. They CAN'T be this good.
But I'm loving every minute!
Was it 1966 when they started 10-0?

[Swanny]

Pretty amazing start. Even the people that were trying to convince me that things weren't so bad could not have believed that it would be this good. I posted before how it was important that the team get off to a decent start and gain a little confidence but this is beyond anyones wild imaginations. I'm far from ready to jump on the "I love Shapiro" bandwagon but this team is certainly making him look good. Let's hope that this is going to be a year to remember.

[The Genius]

Nice to see you again, Swanny. Just for that nice post I am giving you four stars.
But you sure do post some strange things on Clevelandlive!

[Alex]

You must be talking about "Drave" and "Swanny".

It does seem to go on and on...

Swanny, are you here, it's Drave.

Drave, are you here, it's Swanny.

[supersleuth]

Even if the Tribe fades later this year, I have no doubt that we are seeing the start of another long run of success- it's 1994 all over again (maybe including the strike, unfortunately!) The ceiling for our young pitching staff is so high it's scary (and could get even scarier with Traber and Martin waiting in the wings.) Bradley may be the starting All-Star CF a couple of years from now, Lawton has plenty of good years left and in Branyan and Escobar we have two young OF, only one of whom needs to pan out for us to be in great shape. (Chris Magruder will be a very capable extra OF- that was a smart trade by Shapiro). In the infield we have prospects like Smith and Peralta who should be ready in a couple of years. We have two good young catchers in the system, one of whom almost made the big club this spring. It's hard not to see this franchise continuing to dominate the AL Central for years to come, and with the pitching we'll have, we should go deep into the playoffs every year.

[Swanny]

I have hardly posted there in the past month. There is some sick person there who posts as me and another poster there and actually has conversations with himself. It's quite amusing! The scary thing is that he will do this for an entire day. I guess I should take it as a compliment.

[Alex]

Just as intriguing as the winning streak, how many games in a row will we lose with such a decent starting five?

Can we really lose more then 3 or 4 in a row (and only in a great while) with the starting pitching we have?

[the teacher]

I caution against becoming too enamored with this starting pitching just yet. We haven't even been through the rotation 3 times. Drese and Baez both looked shakey last time, Finley is, well, Finley, and Bart was definitely not dominating anyone today. This staff is totally unproven. Wickman has, surprisingly, been perhaps the least dependable of all.

[supersleuth]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by the teacher:
I caution against becoming too enamored with this starting pitching just yet. We haven't even been through the rotation 3 times. Drese and Baez both looked shakey last time, Finley is, well, Finley, and Bart was definitely not dominating anyone today. This staff is totally unproven. Wickman has, surprisingly, been perhaps the least dependable of all.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

I expect growing pains this year. Before the season I expected this to be a below-.500 team (I'm delighted that that prediction looks stupid so far!) But the future is very bright.

Even the Unit didn't dominate last night. No pitcher does every time out. But aces hang on to give their team a chance to win even when they don't have their good stuff- as both Colon and Johnson did.

Wickman often made it "interesting" last year too-it's the end result that counts (though I might have a heart attack along the way.) But if he falters, he's not the only guy in our bullpen who can close. Finley will pitch decently as long as he can stay healthy.