Clifton and Carsten

If it's time to dip into the mailbag, that means it's time to hear from Jeff Brown:

Cliff Lee is 5-0 with the Phillies with a 0.68 ERA!

This is about as dominant as you can be. So much for the Phillies "settling" for Lee instead of getting Roy Halladay -- even Halladay would be hard-pressed to pitch THIS well, even when he's on a hot streak.

Similarly, C.C. Sabathia went 11-2 with the Brew Crew in 2008 with an ERA of 1.65, 7 complete games and 3 shutouts.

And that was after slowing down a bit toward the end of the season, after he won his first 9 starts.

Steve, this is truly remarkable, and for a change, this is not hyperbole on my part.

There's no exaggeration necessary with these numbers.

So now my question for you -- why did each of them have such a lousy record with the Tribe immediately prior to joining their new teams and absolutely dominating everyone in sight?

First, Lee was far from lousy for the Indians this year. He wasn't as good as he's been for the Phils, but he was pretty darned good. In fact, he was pitching his best ball of the season just before he was traded. True, he was only 7-9, but his ERA was 3.14, and he suffered from poor run support in Cleveland this year. Similarly, if I remember correctly, Sabathia was pitching pretty well just before he got traded last year, after a lousy start. Like Lee, he had a losing pre-trade record (6-8) but with a 3.83 ERA; and the latter number had come way down over the past month or so before he was dealt to Milwaukee. So both men would figure to pitch well after the trades too. Of course, neither could have been expected, based solely on their Indians performances, to dominate as they have/did.

I have a trio of theories. One, the American League is simply a stronger league than the National League, as evidenced by the junior circuit's dominance in interleague play (not to mention All-Star Games) the last few years; therefore, anyone who moves from AL to NL can expect his numbers to improve. Two, Sabathia and Lee both left situations in which they were pitching for nothing but their next contract (and I realize that's an oversimplification, but you see what I'm saying) to situations in which they were/are pitching for October, and presumably responded to the added incentive. Third, there will be some random fluctuation in any player's performance, and I think some of that is in play here.

Still, what Lee has done since that trade has been eye-popping. Few pitchers have a run like that at any time in their career. It must be fun to be Cliff Lee right now.

C.C. can go home again ... but should he?

Carsten Charles Sabathia Jr. was born on July 21, 1980, in Vallejo, California, about 32 miles from the ballpark currently known as the McAfee Coliseum, home of the Oakland Athletics. He grew up in Vallejo as well, starring in baseball and football at Vallejo High School. In case you're curious, he was a tight end.

C.C. pitched in Oakland today, for the eighth time in his career, and it was the 13th time he's started a game against the A's. He did not pitch well, in a game the Indians lost. And if it seems to you that he hasn't pitched well in general against his hometown team, that's because he hasn't -- especially in front of the Oakland fans.

Following is a complete list of his appearances against the Oakland Elephants:

• August 2, 2001, in Cleveland: 3 innings pitched, 7 hits allowed, 7 runs (all earned), 1 walk, 3 strikeouts, 3 home runs allowed, took the loss in a 17-4 game.
• August 23, 2001, in Oakland: 2 2/3 innings, 5 hits, 5 runs (all earned), 3 walks, 4 Ks, no HRs, no decision in a game the Indians won 9-7 (Sabathia left with the Indians trailing 5-2).
• April 27, 2003, in Oakland: 7 innings, 6 hits, 3 runs (2 earned), 2 walks, 5 Ks, no HRs, no decision in a game the Indians lost 4-3 (Sabathia left with the game tied at 3).
• May 16, 2003, in Cleveland: 7 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs (both earned), 2 walks, 8 Ks, 2 HRs, no decision in a game the Indians won 3-2 (Sabathia left with the game tied at 2).
• July 30, 2003, in Oakland: 7 IP, 6 H, 3 R (all earned), 0 BBs, 5 Ks, 1 HR, got the win in a 4-2 game.
• July 10, 2004, in Cleveland: 5 IP, 5 H, 3 R (3 ER), 4 BBs, 5 Ks, no decision in a game the Indians lost 16-7 (Sabathia left with a 5-3 lead).
• September 11, 2004, in Oakland: 6 2/3 IP, 5 H, 3 R (3 ER), 2 BBs, 7 Ks, no decision in a game the A's won 5-4 (Sabathia left with a 4-3 lead).
• July 25, 2005, in Oakland: 2 1/3 IP, 8 H, 8 R (8 ER), 2 BBs, 0 Ks, 1 HR, took the loss in a game Oakland won 13-4.
• September 12, 2005, in Cleveland: 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R (1 ER), 5 BBs, 7 Ks, took the loss in a 2-0 game.
• September 21, 2006, in Oakland: 5 1/3 IP, 7 H, 7 R (4 ER), 3 BBs, 5 Ks, took the loss in a 7-4 game.
• May 11, 2007, in Oakland: 6 2/3 IP, 9 H, 6 R (6 ER), 1 BB, 5 Ks, 2 HRs, took the loss in an 8-2 game.
• June 25, 2007, in Cleveland: 9 IP, 9 H, 2 R (2 ER), 0 BBs, 8 Ks, got the complete-game win in a 5-2 game.
• April 5, 2008, in Oakland: 5 1/3 IP, 6 H, 4 R (4 ER), 4 BBs, 2 Ks, 1 HR in a game the Indians lost 6-1.

The totals:

• Against Oakland in five games at home: 30 innings pitched, 29 hits, 15 runs (all earned), 10 walks, 19 strikeouts, 5 home runs allowed, 1 win and 2 losses (Indians went 2-3 in his starts), a 4.50 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, average of 6 innings per start.
• In eight games in Oakland: 43 innings, 49 hits, 39 runs (34 earned), 17 BBs, 33 strikeouts, 5 home runs allowed, 1-4 record (Indians went 2-6 in his starts), a 7.12 ERA, 1.53 WHIP, average of 5.4 innings per start.

His overall record against the A's is 2-6, with a 6.04 ERA, and the Indians are 4-9 in games C.C. has started against the Green Pachyderms.

So while C.C. hasn't pitched particularly well against the A's at Jacobs Field, he's been absolutely awful against them in the stadium formerly known as the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. He wasn't too bad there early in his career (that 2001 start notwithstanding), but since 2005, he's been putrid in the Bay Area. In his last four starts there (all of them losses), he's got an abysmal ERA of 10.07 and averaged 4.9 innings per start.

Of course, four starts is a small sample size, but it does seem to suggest that there might be some sort of mental block for C.C. when he pitches in Oakland. I'm not about to call for Eric Wedge to skip C.C. if his turn comes up when the Tribe is in Oakland, but perhaps the young lefty might benefit from some work with a sports psychologist.

Four days to Opening Day

For the Indians, that is. The A's and Red Sox only have 160 games to go. Incidentally, am I the only one who didn't know Keith Foulke was making a comeback with Oakland? Didn't he say he was retiring last year when the Indians were expecting him to be their closer? Not that I'm dissatisfied with how the season went overall, but still, I was surprised to see him take the mound in Tokyo. He pitched in both of those games, in fact. If he'd made his comeback with the Red Sox, I'd have taken it a little harder, but since it's the small-market A's, I forgive him.

This has nothing to do with the Indians, but I saw it on SportsCenter, and I just have to mention it. During a spring-training game yesterday between the Twins and Braves, Atlanta's Elliott Johnson tried to bunt for a hit, and he laid down a beaut that dribbled down the first-base line. Twins pitcher Livan Hernandez knew he didn't have a play if he picked it up and threw it -- so he KICKED IT to first base. He must have some soccer experience somewhere along the way, because he kicked it right into the first baseman's glove, and got the out. Absolutely brilliant.

Here's an interesting column about the prospects of C.C. Sabathia eventually getting to 300 wins. The prognosis? Don't put money on it. Of course, he's probably not going to be with the Indians a whole lot longer, but who knows. Maybe he'll surprise us on both counts and win 300 games as an Indian.

And if you follow this link, you'll see that our old friend Charlie Manuel believes his Phillies can score 1,000 runs this year. Charlie's deeply, deeply wrong about this, of course. I think he overestimates the prospects of any team scoring 1,000 runs in a season, simply because he was the hitting coach for a team that did it -- the 1999 Indians, led by Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, David Justice, Roberto Alomar and Kenny Lofton. Charlie may or may not know that those Indians are the only team that's scored 1,000 runs since 1950. And for a National League team to do it, with pitchers taking up one-ninth of the batting order? Virtually impossible. But I suspect Charlie won't care much if they only score 850 runs and win the NL East.

Tim Kurkjian just said on "Mike and Mike in the Morning" that he changed his mind a few days ago about who's going to win the AL Central. He now believes it will be the Indians because the Tigers have too many problems in their bullpen. But of course, it makes no difference what Tim Kurkjian or anyone else thinks. It'll be settled on the field. And I don't know about you, but I'm sure looking forward to it.

Cliff Lee gets hammered

Taken from the Associated Press story about the Indians' 6-4 loss to Charlie Manuel's Phillies yesterday:

Despite giving up 11 hits and six runs in four innings, Cleveland pitcher Cliff Lee was content with his performance.

"As far as locating pitches and throwing my off-speed stuff, I felt good," Lee said. "I threw a couple pitches that hit a little too much of the plate for the counts that I was in and they got hits. For the most part, a lot of the hits they got, I threw the pitch right where I wanted to."

As Lee, the former future superstar, battles Jeremy Sowers and Aaron Laffey for the fifth spot in the rotation, you'd think Lee would be less satisfied with this kind of performance. But Sowers and Laffey are both struggling too, even worse than Lee. As Gerry Fraley of The Sporting News notes, Lee's spring ERA is a hideous 8.30, but it's still three runs better than Sowers or Laffey, who are both at 11.25.

C.C. Sabathia has his spot in the rotation nailed down, obviously. But he made some headlines the other day, simply because of questions he was asked by the New York media. He's a free agent after this season, and some idiot writers asked him if he might like to play for the Yankees next year. C.C. was too smart to fall into that trap, which is yet another reason to love C.C.

I understand speculation about what free agents are going to sign where next season, but do we have to be talking about it before this one has even started? And does anyone really think that a superstar who's on a contending team is going to say something stupid like "Yes, I'm looking forward to changing teams next year"?

We all know the Yankees are going to make C.C. an offer next year, and that offer will be worth a lot of money. But we really don't need to be reminded of it now.

Say bye-bye to C.C.

C.C. Sabathia has broken off contract negotiations with the Indians, apparently turning down $17 million to $18 million a season over the next four years.

I've written about this before; I've never believed the Tribe would be able to keep Carsten Charles without spending too much on him, and I think they're going to be OK regardless because of all their young pitching depth. Today's development doesn't really change anything.