Maybe next year

A few thoughts on the current baseball season, which is now past the halfway point:

On May 19, the Indians were 22-19, good enough for first place in the AL Central. Today, they are 37-46, bad enough for last place, 10 1/2 games behind the first-place White Sox. Their odds of playing into October are slim indeed, according to the Interweb computer types -- coolstandings.com gives them a 3.2% chance of getting to the playoffs, which is far more optimistic than Baseball Prospectus' postseason odds page, which put them at 0.8% even before last night's loss to the Chicagos (it takes them a while to update their page in the morning).

What happened? Well, during the early portion of that 15-37 stretch, the Tribe pitchers were typically doing the job, but the Tribe hitters were failing to give them anything to work with. Then the offense picked up -- just as Fausto Carmona and Jake Westbrook got hurt, Paul Byrd seemed to forget how to pitch, and the bullpen started to fall apart. Last night's 9-7 loss was kind of a microcosm of how things have been going for the Erie Warriors. Jeremy Sowers, the former future star, was terrible. In three innings, he gave up eight runs on six hits and two walks against two strikeouts. Every hitter who reached base against him scored, which is often what happens when you can't keep the ball in the park. The offense fought back and made it interesting, with 14 hits, five of which were off the bat of Jhonny Peralta. But they had too far to come back. You have to be able to win when you score seven runs.

Bottom line: This team is not going anywhere. It's time to start looking toward next season and beyond. Obviously, that means entertaining offers for C.C. Sabathia. It also means listening to any GM who is interested in any of the other Indians who aren't signed past this year -- a list that includes Byrd, Casey Blake and Joe Borowski. Neither Byrd nor Borowski is likely to bring A1 prospects, but if they can bring a B-level pitching prospect, I'd make that trade. Blake is no All-Star, but he's quietly having a pretty good year, and he could help a team that needs a good glove at third or in the outfield. He's one of my favorite players, because I like his attitude, but like any fan, I care more about wins and losses. If he can bring a decent prospect or two, you've got to make that deal.

So with the Indians pretty much out of the race, I've picked a new horse to root for, and it probably won't surprise too many people to see it's the Tampa Bay Rays. The team with the worst record in baseball last year is now a game and a half ahead of the Red Sox in first place in the AL East. They're a likable young team, led by such emerging stars as Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton and James Shields, with veterans such as Carlos Pena, Troy Percival and Carl Crawford mixed in. And best of all, they could be the first team not named the Yankees or Red Sox to win the AL East since 1997.

One other thing about last night's Tribe-Sox game: I was glad to see home-plate umpire Eric Cooper deny Toby Hall's request for time out in the bottom of the eighth. I'd like to see more of that. The powers that be in Major League Baseball wring their hands about how long games are getting, and here's a pretty simple thing that could shave some time off. There's no reason a hitter needs time out unless he's got a bee in his eye or something. It made for kind of a comical sight, as Hall asked for time, assumed it was granted, and stepped out of the box. The next time he looked up, Borowski was delivering the pitch. Hall quickly got back into the box and took a half-hearted hack at the ball, which appeared to be low and outside. He went on to fly out to end the White Sox' eighth.