I don’t want to talk about it directly or look at it too long for fear of jinxing it, but there’s something interesting going on with that baseball team in Cleveland. They’ve won 10 straight, and in doing so have swept the Royals, Rangers and Tigers. Sizemore has joined the 30-30 club, and Jhonny Peralta is doing his best Jim Thome impersonation in the 4 hole. With all the talk of football taking up the airwaves and print, it's easy to forget that we still have a full month of baseball left.

Every Indians fan was hoping to see something out of this team before the end of the year to give them hope for the next, and they are delivering. Cliff Lee isn't showing any signs of slowing down, Garko is hitting again, Peralta is on fire, Sizemore is out of his mind, and Andy Marte is picking splinters out of his ass. The team is gaining confidence from top to bottom with the way they've been playing lately. The veterans are proving to themselves that last year wasn't a fluke, and the "rookies" are finding out that they can contribute to this team. The only negative here, is that LaPorta isn't up here finding that out as well. Instead, to steal a line from my colleague, "he's still bleeding from his head at home plate in Beijing".

In spite of that, it's a great end to an abismal season. While we may be playing spoiler when we thought we'd be contending for the AL Central crown, and we lost a great pitcher in CC Sabathia. We have next year to look forward to, and get to possibly ruin a couple teams seasons in the process.

This might have been the greatest trade dead line I've seen in years. A lot of big league names changed teams. In a year where no one has shown complete dominance, a few teams have taken giant leaps forward into the spotlight. Here's a recap of some guys who will be trying on different colors for a few months.

CC Sabathia - Milwaukee Brewers
We all know about this one. He's 4-0 since joining the Brewers with 3 complete games. Even with all that, I'm still not sold on them making the playoffs.

Casey Blake - LA Dodgers
In 5 games with the Dodgers he's batting .412, no homers, no RBI. Dodger fan will soon know why Cleveland was okay with unloading him.

Rich Harden - Chicago Cubs
The Cubs couldn't just sit around and watch the Brewers add Sabathia without adding an arm as well. His stats may not be as eye catching as Sabathia's, but in the four games he's started, he hasn't allowed more than one run. Add that on to his recent start that helped the Cubs sweep the Brewers.

Xavier Nady - New York Yankees
Let's face it, Pittsburgh wasn't going anywhere and the Yankees needed an outfielder with a right handed bat. The Yankees gave up some good prospects, so Pittsburgh didn't get hosed, but getting Nady will pay off immediately and in the long run.

Mark Teixeira - LAA Angels
The Angels just became the odds on favorite to win the World Series this year. No team looked more dominant than they did before this trade, and now they should be even better.

Ivan Rodriguez - New York Yankees
This one confuses me. I understand they lost Posada for the year, but is Rodriguez really the best they could find? The guy is gonna be 37 years old when the season ends and only has 5 HR's to go along with a .295 batting average. His stats have really dropped off since he stopped the steroi-I mean, weight gainer.

Ken Griffey Jr. - Chicago White Sox
Biggest name on this list so far, and his addition won't make a bit of difference.

Jason Bay - Boston Red Sox
The Sox got hosed. Manny destroyed any leverage they had in trade talks, and they ate it hard. Not only did they have to give up Manny to get Bay, which was a kind of crappy trade to start, but they had to give up Craig Hansen, a flame-thrower, and Brandon Moss, possibly the top prospect in the Sox organization. Oh yeah, Boston has to pay Manny's contract the rest of the year. I don't think the Sox organization will be walking straight for a while.

Manny Ramirez - LA Dodgers
In a wide open NL-West, this trade just made the Dodgers the favorite. In fact, this acquisition could help them get to the World Series. My theory is, Manny didn't want to play in Boston so his stats were average. What's he gonna produce now that he's somewhere that he feels wanted?

I'm a big fan of what the Dodgers have been able to do over the last week. Assuming Casey keeps on doing what he has done so far, don't hold your breath, and Manny stepping it up in a new city, I think we're in store for the anti-subway series this October. A battle for LA supremacy if you will. Not quite the Indians-Diamondbacks I predicted earlier in the year, but at least it's not Boston/New York vs. Any NL team that catches fire at the end of the season.

As Indians fans, we can all feel it coming. The front office is wiping it's ass and getting ready to flush this turd of a season. Borowski and Bauer were part of the courtesy flush, and now with the rumors of Sabathia to the Brewers circling the bowl, I think we can start looking towards next season. Borowski hasn't been the same since last year when he led the AL in saves, and Bauer had a 13.50 ERA in four appearances, so no surprises there.

Buster Olney of ESPN is reporting that the Brewers are leading the race for Sabathia and that the Indians are interested in Matt LaPorta and possibly J.J. Hardy. LaPorta is a hard-hitting right fielder that was taken in the first round of the 2007 draft and now plays for the Double-A Huntsville Stars. This season he has a .291 batting average with a league leading 20 HR's. His addition would be huge for the Indians as they have been looking for a power-hitting outfielder for a couple years now.

While looking up the stats on LaPorta I noticed two things. First, the Brewers farm system is stacked with talent. Second, Mat Gamel. Gamel is batting .381 with 15 round-trippers on the year. And oh yeah, he's a third baseman. A position the Indians haven't had stability at in years. If they could somehow swing things to get LaPorta and Gamel, I would change my underwear and then pack C.C.'s bags.

Of course, these are all rumors. But if this goes through it would be huge for the Tribe. Shapiro did a great job in getting quality talent in return for Bartolo Colon (Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee, and Brandon Phillips) Let's hope lightning strikes twice.

The Basement. It's cold, it's dark and it's lonely. When you've been relegated to it, you find yourself wondering how it all happened. How did you end up down here with the blue birds and the sailors? You're supposed to be better than that right?
Any extended stay in the basement is not advisable. Instead of visits spent laughing and cheering together in person, you find that your visitors now stare at you through the rectangular windows on the wall. Just checking in to mark your progress, only to walk away after a few minutes.
Talk of the present will also turn into talk of the future. In an instant, the outsiders who were singing your praises a few months ago, are now burying you under a laundry list of your deficiencies. What better time to shake through this laundry list, than when you're in the basement?
There are two things to do while stuck in that basement. The first of which is admit that you are there, and that changes are needed. The longer you resist the fact that you're in the basement, the larger chance you run of losing a valuable asset in exchange for nothing. Choosing to go that route, rebuilding yourself, can sometimes prove to be a lengthy process. You'll need to accept that your chance to get out of that basement will be pushed to the following year. People will forget about you, but they'll most assuredly be there when you come back up.
Or the second option, the more risky option, is that you sit and wait. Hope a cat, or a King and Queen come wandering to close to that basement door. Hope that you have the strength and parts to grab hold, and toss them down the stairs in your place. But where to go from there?
This is the position of our Cleveland Indians.

Moon Man
Tiger Woods had surgery today but fear not, I just saw his newest Gatorade commercial, and it looks like he will now be playing on the moon.

Not So Jolly Fat Man
Rick Dutrow, owner of Big Brown, received a 15-day ban for steroid use. I had no idea steroids could make you so fat and sweaty.I Love Pancakes
Major League Baseball is expected to rule this week on whether or not it should ban the use of the maple model bats. Not to go all "Mad Money" on you, but I expect this ban to do big things for "Mrs. Butterworth's" stock.

Support the Arts
In closing, please go pick up a copy of the new football movie, "Meet the Browns - A Tyler Perry Joint". I hear it's really good.

If you were watching last nights game against the Tigers you may have noticed something about Dontrelle Willis. Not the fact that he looked and pitched like he was having a seizure on the mound. No, what you noticed was that he is a dead ringer for Omar Little from the “The Wire”.



An inside source reports that shortly after being pulled from the game, Jim Leyland sent Willis out to the local Korean convenience store to pick him up a pack of smokes. I don’t think we’ll be seeing him for a while.
Willis struggled with his command through two innings and the Indians made him pay with homers by Ryan Garko and Kelly Shoppach. It was nice to see the Indians jump out to such a commanding lead in the early going with a national audience watching at home. This is the team we thought we had going into the season and it was refreshing to finally see it come out. Cliff Lee was in command from the beginning and had he not gone into lets-speed-this-game-up-so-our-eight-runs-aren’t-wasted mode, he may have thrown a shut out.
With that win, the Indians are now 8.5 games back of the Chicago White Sox, and head home to do battle against the struggling Minnesota Twins. A sweep of this up-coming series would give the Indians sole possession of second place in the AL Central.

The Indians have sent the struggling Asdrubal Cabrera down to Buffalo and Josh Barfield has been called up to replace him. Cabrera has not performed as well as we all had hoped and has been struggling through the season offensively. On the defensive side he’s been solid, turning an unassisted triple play and submitting highlight reel plays on a consistent basis. Unfortunately for Cabrera, the Tribe needs some help on offense and in the bullpen. Hopefully this will be a step in the right direction, and not a repeat of Barfield’s struggles last year.
Barfield will be in the lineup tonight when the Tribe takes on the Tigers in Detroit. Cliff Lee will be going up against Dontrelle Willis who is 0-0 with a 4.50 ERA. The Indians really need to get a strong outing from Lee who has struggled of late. They can ill afford to drop any further under .500 as we near the half way point for the season. The White Sox are surging and putting a lot of distance between themselves and the rest of the AL Central. If the Indians can string together some wins they may be able to overtake a slumping Minnesota team and then work on chipping away at Chicago's lead.

0 for ? From the Field
An Akron Zips basketball player was arrested last Monday on charges that he shot at police. Surprising no one, his shots missed and he was chased down after a short foot chase. Looks like he has a lot to work on before the season tips off.

Sabathia Stinks
Wow...

Upgrading the IR
After last year’s struggles getting players to fill the IR, the Browns signed CB Daven Holly to a one-year deal so that he could inure his knee on Tuesday. Reports say he landed awkwardly, and will require season ending surgery.

Alcohol Related
A 25-year old Atlanta Braves fan died this past week from injuries he sustained after sliding down a hand rail in the upper deck of Turner Field. TBS, Very Funny!

Chinese Tetris

Did the last group in the video really think they could throw the guy through the slot?

Early Retirement
It was revealed this week that Vince Young contemplated retirement after his rookie season with the Titans. Can he get his money back for this?