Tagged: Jhonny Peralta
Trevor
The Indians finally won a game! Yay for 1-5! Maybe it was divine intervention, it is Easter after all. The point is the Erie Warriors have finally put pitching and offense together to beat the Blue Jays!
Highlights
1st inning: Grady walks (he amazingly did not swing the bat once… I bet that was hard for him). Then he steals second. Then he goes to third on what the scorer apparently thought was a wild pitch (I beg to differ, clearly a steal) and then goes home on a throwing error! Grady just ran his way home!
3rd inning: Grady walks again! Mark DeRosa crushes a home run to left.
5th inning: Here’s where it gets good. After Martinez and Hafner strike out (purcey had ten total strikeouts today) Jhonny Peralta singles to right. Shin Soo Choo walks. Ryan Garko walks. Bases loaded for Trevor Crowe, my project. Earlier in the game Trevor had been up in the same situation. He was probably nervous and anxious to get his first hit in the majors and it showed. He struck out swinging at a pitch he probably should not have swung at. He broke his bat on his knee he was so frustrated. He said after the game he was embarrassed about that but I forgive him (I actually thought it was funny). So what does Trevor do this time? He hits two-run double and finally gets not only his first Major League hit but his first two RBI’s as well.
8th inning: After DeRosa strikes out, Martinez walks. Travis Hafner, who was 0-3 with three strikouts, hits a home run to right-center giving the Indians the 7-4 lead. Jhonny Peralta doubles. Shin Soo Choo singles and scores Jhonny.
9th inning: After going 3-0 to Scott Rolen Kerry Wood throws him three strikes to strike him out. He then proceeds to strike out the next two Blue Jay hitters. Awesome. Best game of the season. That is not really saying a lot but it is something.
Tomorrow the Indians travel to Kansas City to play the Royals. The Royals are pitching Zack Grienke and the Indians are pitching Fausto Carmona. I am not really sure how I feel about this match-up. Grienke is really good but I personally think Carmona has Cy Young talent if he can just control his emotions. I guess we will have to wait and see. Maybe Grady will choose this series to finally start to really hit. He has shown sign of life but he is still not quite right.
I am dedicating this entry to Trevor Crowe.
Walk-Up Songs
I have read a lot of posts recently about Walk-Up Songs. It got me thinking about good Walk-Up Songs. There are the classic songs like Iron Man by Black Sabbath and of course Rick Vaughn/Charlie Sheen in Major League walking out to Wild Thing (sorry this video is not all the way appropriate, a few F-bombs, I tried to find a clean one but I could not). But what are some good ones for today?
5. Whatever You Like- T.I. (Clean! some alcohol referneces)
This would be pretty funny. It is a pretty funny song already now just imagine some millionaire baseball player stepping up to bat with this playing in the background. Funny.
4. Paper Planes- M.I.A. (Clean from what I can tell… There are some gun and drug references but other than that)
This song has a great opening and is very upbeat and fun. We used to listen to this song in swim practice and it really got us going.
3. This is Why I’m Hot- Mims (Clean!)
It saddens me that A-Fraud uses this as his song because it means I have to compliment him for something. This is a great Walk-Up song. It exudes confidence and is pretty upbeat and fun. The clean version is pretty funny, I recommend it for anyone.
2. Sexyback- Justin Timberlake (Clean!)
I suggest this song for a certain Cleveland Indian named Grady Sizemore. How funny would that be to see him come up to bat with this song playing. Same thing as This Is Why I’m Hot, it exudes confidence but I think it is funnier. And more upbeat.
1. Let It Rock- Kevin Rudolph ft. Lil Wayne (Clean!)
This song is an awesome Walk-Up Song. It is upbeat and gets you fired up. I listen to this song when I am working out and getting tired and it gets me started again.
Honorable mentions: I’m So Paid- Akon ft. Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy and Just Dance- Lady Gaga ft. Colby Adonis
I tried really hard to find clean versions of all of these songs. Don’t listen to the explicit versions if you think your parents would have a problem with it.
The Indians won last night! Pavano pitched a solid outing and gave up 2 runs in 6 2/3 innings and 94 pitches. After the second inning he really got going. Trevor Crowe had an awesome game including a single, 2 walks, and a stolen base. Grady had a stolen base and made an amazing catch in the outfield. Best news of the day: Travis Hafner hit his first home run of the Spring. He may have hit a high, hanging, curve ball that I could probably hit but he still killed it.
They play today at 4 o’clock eastern time. I am so excited. This will be their last home Spring Training game and I believe Rick Manning’s and Matt Underwood’s last broadcast until the season starts. So today I leave you with:
Jerry Coleman: “Would you tell Manny to cut his hair?”
Rick: “That’s a wig. I don’t believe that’s his real hair.”
haha
And again:
Jerry: “Would you do me a favor and tell Peralta to write his name correctly?” Laughed about this for like five minutes. Personally I refer to Jhonny as J-honny and pronounce the “h.” This is similar to how I say Chone Figgins’ name. Just like it looks, Chone, none of this “Shawn” nonsense.
Lucky #13!
That’s me! I’m lucky #13 this week! Thanks everyone! I am pretty sure this is the highest ranking so far for me! Today you will get a nice lesson on one of the Indians younger players.
Asdrubal Cabrera
Asdrubal will be starting his third year in the majors this year. He is the Indians starting second baseman although he is a natural shortstop. In his rookie year with the Indians he had a fantastic last seven weeks of the 2007 season and earned the position as starting second baseman and the second spot in the order behind this guy:
Sorry couldn’t resist.
Back to “Cabby” as his teammates call him. Cabrera batted .283 when batting from the second spot. He made o1 error in his 220 chances in all of his starts at second, third, and short. Cabrera had what some call the sophomore slump in 2008 and had to go back down to the minors. In Buffalo he had a very good attitude and worked out his offensive issues with a great work ethic the coaches said. He left the majors with a .189 batting average and when he returned he managed to raise it to .259, 70 points. His defense was never a concern but he had a hard time with his offense in the beginning of the year.He managed to fix his offensive slump and in the month of September batted .416, highest in the American League. Also last year he turned an unassisted triple play against the Toronto Blue Jays. This was only the 14th unassisted triple play in the Majors. He is just the third Indian to turn one. Interestingly the two earliest triple plays in the American League were also turned by Indians.
I like Asdrubal Cabrera even if his name is ridiculous. He is from Venezuela and lives there with his wife and son. Cabby is only 24 years old and is already showing a lot of resilience and dedication. He should have a great future ahead of him.
The Indians lost today. Many said they looked apathetic and slow. Cliff Lee had a rough start and gave up 5 runs. He says he was not locating his pitches like he wanted and was hoping for much better results. Well I should hope so. Anyway I hope he figures this out before the season starts.
Good News: Jhonny Peralta hit a home run to continue his monster spring. And although he was 1-5 today Grady’s 1 hit was a bunt single. If you recall your favorite Clemson Girl (I assume I’m your favorite, I’m the only one that I know of in the top 5o Fan Blogs) said Grady needed to bunt for more base hits. He listened y’all. Orangebird must be right; Grady reads my blog. That is the only possible explanation. And he stole a base. Always a good sign.
I never mentioned how much I enjoyed hearing Rick Manning and Matt Underwood again yesterday. I now have to wait until Monday for their next broadcast but I do not miss them quite as much.
Oh and if you have not had a chance to check out my finalized speech go here.
Cabrera Bio: mlb.com and Baseball Almanac
Pictures:
3) Cleveland Plain Dealer website
He won’t be like a gazelle…
Hey everyone if you like Fantasy Baseball or have never played but want to try join our MLB Bloggers league exclusively for people with an MLB blog. If you are interested leave a comment for Chris over at Confessions of a Baseball Fan!
Baseball Today:
The Indians forced a tie against the Royals in… SURPRISE!, Arizona. Sorry. It had to be done and no one else has so yeah I went there.
Jhonny Peralta and Kelly Shoppach both homered today. Shoppach to lead off the 2nd and Peralta in the thrid. Peralta is on quite a hot streak and is 7 for 11 this Spring.
Then they brought in Ed Mujica. I have made it very clear how I feel about Mujica. I have only one question. Why? Why do we continue to bring in a guy who gives up a grand slam to Alex Gordon ad then immediately another home run to Buck? I know it is only Spring Training but he was like this last year too.
Anthony Reyes had a great start. He pitched 2 innings and gave up 3 hits, no runs, and struck out 2. He is looking good and hopefully his visit to USC’s pitching coach has fixed whatever made him hurt his elbow all the time.
Tony Sipp went to Clemson! Clemson baseball players are everywhere! Anyway he pitched one scoreless inning today so he is pretty awesome.
Quote of the day from Captain Obvious on the radio (sorry I do not know their names, I fail): “Ryan Garko is not going to run like a gazelle…” The other announcer went on to explain to all of us helpless fans that “he won’t be like Grady Sizemore or anything…”
Thanks guys. I did not know that. I was actually expecting that so now I know not to be disappointed. 🙂 I laughed out loud when they had that little exchange. Actually though Garko has been doing okay in left field. He may not be the best outfielder ever but he has the basics down and you can tell he has trying his best.
Lesson for the day:
This:
does not equal this:
or this:
Pictures:
2) http://z.about.com/d/cleveland/1/0/b/U/-/-/indians-garko.jpg
3)http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/animals/images/primary/gazelle.jpg
4) http://halftimeadjustments.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/gradycatch.jpg
Snow and Baseball
UPDATE: School is cancelled tomorrow! I have no classes for two days! Woohoo!
Guess what? It’s the first day of March and it’s snowing in Clemson! Yay! I love snow! I just really hope there are no classes tomorrow! You should see it. The flakes are huge! It does not even snow like this in St. Louis. At least not since I can remember. I am so excited! There is a huge snowball fight on Bowman and snowmen everywhere. Someone wrote Clemson out in the snow. This is quite possibly the best day of my life.
Baseball
The Indians won today! Jhonny hit a home run and Stephen head had a two run single. Trevor Crowe, filling in for Grady, had a double. They did pretty good today. Jensen lewis came in a pitched a 1-2-3 inning which was encouraging. Both Zach jackson and Jeremy Sowers were knocked around a bit each giving up one run and some hits. It is looking more and more like Aaron Laffey will be getting that fifth rotation spot, which was my vote from the beginning.
Pictures!
I know y’all want to see what snow in South carolina in March looks like so I took some pictures!
Walter T. Cox in the snow
Thomas Green Clemson aka Old Green Tom appears to be enjoying the snow don’t you think?
Well this got flipped over but it is a snowball fight!
Tillman… isn’t it so pretty?
And finally a baby snowman!
So this is legit snow. Seriously this is more snow than I have seen in a long time. It is so much fun!
I’m Back!
Hey everyone!
I’m sorry I haven’t written in awhile; I was visiting my friend in Atlanta for the weekend. We had a lovely time and watched Disney movies for Valentine’s Day since I don’t have a boyfriend and her boyfriend goes to school in Minnesota.
There was a lot of Indians news over the weekend though.
1.
The Indians and Josh Barfield are confident about his versatility according to an article on the Indians website. Both Barfield and Wedge say they are confident that Josh will be able to do whatever is asked of him this spring and get the bench position for the Tribe. I was very encouraged to read this today because i think it means a lot that Josh himself is confident. It would be very difficult for him to play anywhere new if he did not think he could handle it. It also means a lot the Eric Wedge thinks Josh can do it. I trust Mr. Wedge a lot on things like this so his support is very comforting.
Picture: http://www.tribewatch.com/pix07/9_040607.jpg
2.
Apparently Joe Torre’s book said some not very nice things about new Indians pitcher Carl Pavano. Pavano says he does not want to worry about what was said in the book because that was the past and this is now basically. I am still not too sure about Pavano working out. I really hope he does and he can get his life back together but I am not sure how likely that is. Eric Wedge has a lot of faith in Pavano as does much of the Indians organization which is comforting and encouraging. Sometimes it just takes one person to believe you can do it to make it happen; maybe that will happen with Carl Pavano. I hope it does.
Picture: http://images.smarter.com/blogs/carlpavano.jpg
3.
Jhonny Peralta may see some time at third this Spring. Jhonny says he feels more comfortable at short for now but would not rule out the possibility of playing third in the future. The Indians are pretty sure that that will be Peralta’s eventual destination but they are not sure he is ready to make the move just yet. They plan on trying him out at third some during Cactus League play and possibly moving him to third by the end of this season. Personally I think it is a good idea for Jhonny to get as much playing time at third as possible if he wants a future on the Indians team. He does seem much better suited for third base than shortstop simply because of his mobility. I do think however that it will take a lot of time and practice to get him to be a solid defensive third baseman so they need to start early.
Picture: http://media.ohio.com/images/ed_04.jpg
One more thing:
Thank you everyone for continuing to comment and read this. I dropped one spot this week in the latest leaders but 27 is still very high and I really appreciate it! Thanks y’all!
Indians, Cardinals, and Tigers! Oh my! 
