Tribe notes

I'm getting excited about baseball season, ladies and gentlemen. Our Tribe is basically unchanged from last year, except everyone's a year older. But this is still a fairly young team. I think we can all agree it looks to be a two-team race between the Indians and That Ballclub Up North. Let's not forget that Tiger fans are also Wolverine fans. So let's win it for Woody, huh?

A few things I've gleaned from the InterWebNet for your reading pleasure:

This article profiles a few "closers in waiting" around the majors, including Rafael Betancourt. MLB.com writer Anthony DiComo says he "may have been the best" setup man in baseball in 2007 -- and he's wrong. Betancout WAS the best setup man in baseball in 2007. And face it, he was setting up a pretty mediocre closer. Look at his numbers against Joe Borowski's and tell me which was the more important reliever last year. (Hint: It was Betancourt.)

Paul Hoynes of the PD updates us on fellow bullpenner Masa Kobayashi, the former Chiba Lotte Marines closer. Kobayashi says the Wal-Mart in Winter Haven is the biggest thing he's ever seen. I thought Japan was a rich country! Kobayashi, incidentally, is third on Japan's all-time saves list, behind Kazuhiro Sasaki and Shingo Takatsu. What does that trio have in common? Two things: They've all played in the American League (or will have, when Kobayashi makes his Tribe debut), and they've all been to Wal-Mart. Oh, and they've all eaten sushi. At least I assume so. So that's three things.

The News-Herald's Jim Ingraham takes a look at the likely 25-man roster when the season opens. No real surprises, which is pretty much what happens when you keep the same team intact. I took note that Paul Byrd still doesn't know whether he'll be suspended for his use of human growth hormone. This became public on the day of Game 7 of the American League Championship Series. So it's been nearly five months. And Major League Baseball STILL hasn't figured out whether to punish him. I've always felt Bud Selig is a lawyer at heart, but that doesn't mean he should turn baseball into the American court system.

The Medina County Gazette's Chris Assenheimer talks to Franklin Gutierrez, who helped turn Trot Nixon from a platoon player into a backup last year. (Of course, Nixon had something to do with that too.) Eric Wedge says Gutierrez has "had a fantastic camp," and the numbers bear that out. He's hitting .409 through eight games. But I hit .556 in 20 games or so in a summer league when I was 15. So, you know, he's not so big. Seriously, I think he'll have a fine year, with the bat and with the glove, and he looks like a future all-star to me.

I don't have a link to this, but on ESPN's "Baseball Tonight," the viewer mail segment offered up a question about the Indians. A writer from Chicago noted the Tribe has "the best 1-2 punch in baseball" in C.C. and Fausto, and he feels Hafner will bounce back from his subpar (for him) 2007. John Kruk agrees it's a great front of the rotation, and the Indians will be among the AL's best teams this year, but he thinks they have "problems at the end of their bullpen," referring to Borowski. Kruk's kind of an idiot -- albeit an entertaining one -- and I think he's wrong about this being a problem. If Borowski really struggles this year, there are other people who can do that job. (Hint: His name sounds like "Rough, a yell, bet in court".)

Ben Francisco has been having a fine spring as well, Hoynes notes. Hoynes also notes Francisco is unlikely to make the team out of spring training. That's true, but if you're a talented outfielder and you're hitting in AAA, you're going to get your shot. If anything should happen to one of the big-league outfielders, Francisco's the next guy we'll see. And I'm sorry to say it, but the odds are, something will happen to at least one of them over the course of the season. How many teams have had the exact same outfielders on the roster all year? I'm not asking rhetorically; if anyone knows the answer, please leave a comment. Sounds like a job for one of you Retrosheet enthusiasts. Yeah, you know I'm talking to you.

Tom Verducci on sportsillustratedcnn.com studies the Tigers, and he notes that while they've put together an offense "that could be as fun as the Cleveland teams from the 1990s and may even push 1,000 runs," but he also points out that their bullpen is a HUGE concern. Joel Zumaya, the talented young Californian, and Fernando Rodney, the talented young Dominican, will both start the season on the disabled list because of off-season injuries, and Todd Jones is 40. That's a great age for a stock broker; not so much for a closer. The other guys likely to spend time in their bullpen? Don't be embarrassed if you've never heard of any of them: Tim Byrdak, Jason Grilli, Zach Miner, Bobby Seay or Denny Bautista. Well, be a little embarrassed. But I wouldn't want to have one of those guys closing for my contending team. And the big question: How is it that there are Dominicans with the last name "Rodney"?