Kazmir threw 73 fastballs yesterday [against Oakland], and they were getting progressively harder as the game wore on. The last three fastballs he threw were all 96 mph, and they were pitches 101, 102, and 103 on the day. A guy who lost his spot in Major League Baseball because his fastball was sitting at 86 ended yesterday throwing 96.

Kazmir hasn’t thrown this hard since his early days with Tampa Bay, and yesterday, we saw what Scott Kazmir with a lively fastball can look like. 72 of his ...

The Cleveland Indians have the lowest average attendance in baseball. Lower, even, than the Miami Marlins, who most people would assume own that dishonor. In fact, Miami is only fifth worst.
Cleveland’s average of 14,205 makes places like Miami, Tampa Bay and Kansas City look somewhat decent. The Royals, in fact, are second worst in baseball and average 4,000 more per game than the Indians.

On Monday and Tuesday, the Indians drew 9,514 and 9,474 with the Oakland Athletics in town. This was ...

A’s infielder Adam Rosales hit a heroic game-tying solo home run in the top of the ninth inning Wednesday against Indians closer Chris Perez, stunning the crowd at Cleveland’s Progressive Field and injecting new life into an Oakland club that has hit a few road bumps since the calendar flipped to May.

Except Angel Hernandez and his umpiring crew blew the call … twice.

Carrasco and the crowns: Synapse gap.

Carlos Carrasco made his season-debut Tuesday night after serving a long-delayed six-game suspension for intentionally hitting a batter. After his performance against the Yankees, it won’t be a shock to see him serve another.

Carrasco was ejected from the game with two out in the fourth inning after he drilled Kevin Youkilis in the back of his left shoulder one pitch after Robinson Cano took the righthander deep.

“No one ever knows if a guy truly ...

Well maybe if Francona didn’t have a .300 career OBP…

Cleveland’s new manager said he got lost Monday making the two-block walk from his apartment to the ballpark for the Indians’ home opener against the New York Yankees.

Francona is living in downtown Cleveland during the season and he plans to ride a small scooter he used during spring training in Arizona for the short commute to the ballpark. However, he decided to hit the streets on foot early in the morning and ended up needing ...

19. Asdrubal Cabrera will not be traded as the Tribe will win enough games early in the season to at least dream about the playoffs. 

20. And that will happen because Ubaldo Jimenez will join Masterson in the 12-15 victory club, as he will keep his ERA around 4.00 thanks to throwing more strikes and pitching with some poise and confidence. 

AND ONE OBSERVATION: Francona will grow hair before he says anything really negative about a player in public — and he’s been bald for a ...

As players, managers and front office executives embrace the esoteric statistics, teams increasingly want their radio announcers just as fluent in the language of WAR, VORP and B.A.B.I.P. (Those stand for wins above replacement, value over replacement player and batting average on balls in play, for those of you dusting off your radios as the season begins.)

“They wanted a broadcaster who is at least comfortable with exploring the idea of discussing advanced statistics and what they mean,” ...

Which leads to the end of the Joe Mantegna story. When he got older, he would take his kids to Wrigley Field. And when they got there, he found that he would start reminiscing. He would tell them that there used to be no lights in the ballpark. Every game was a day game. Time would just stand still in that wonderful old park, where Billy Williams unleashed his sweet swing and Don Kessinger ranged deep into the hole for a play and Moe Drabowsky fired fastballs.

Then, Mantegna would remember and ...

(pick-up WORST TRADE EVER! talk where we left off years ago)

Here’s something you probably didn’t expect to hear a few weeks ago: Scott Kazmir will open the season in a Major League rotation. The Indians announced that the left-hander will be their fifth starter when the 2013 campaign begins next week.

Kazmir, 29, did not pitch in MLB at all last season and only managed one start in 2011 before dealing with a back injury and being released. He showcased himself in an Independent league this ...

When you’re more washed up than Scott Kazmir…

Former Red Sox star pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka has been released from the Cleveland Indians, per the team’s official Twitter...

Since a brilliant 2008 in which the right-hander posted an 18-3 record with a 2.90 ERA, he has posted a 5.53 ERA. The Indians signed him to a Minor League deal on February 10. Despite posting a 2.25 ERA in ten spring innings, the Indians are choosing between Carlos Carrasco and Scott Kazmir for the fifth spot in the ...

Kirk Gibson remembers…the horror.

NEED FOR SPEED

At spring training in Arizona, Kirk Gibson, the hero of the Dodgers’ 1988 World Series conquest, sits down, removes his cap and discusses the “great intentions” Crews had when he invited teammates and their families to foster new-found friendship and team camaraderie.

Gibson, who had rejoined the Detroit Tigers, previously had visited the ranch, but this off day was an Indians-only shindig. Some teammates and Indians officials who didn’t ...

It’s not the same old song.

With his jackrabbit speed, defense and running the bases has not been a problem. Putting the bat on the ball has been a major dilemma (205 strikeouts in 2011).

Even before the trade, Stubbs was working on whiff reduction in the offseason, simplifying his swing.

“I took out the leg kick I’ve had for a long time and put in more of a toe tap to simplify my timing,” he said. “I’ve transitioned it into my spring at-bats and it is going really well and I ...

If I knew what was going on with the Mayos de Navojoa...I’m sure I’d be against it!

And if a player is drafted by Cleveland out of high school, he doesn’t have much of a say in the matter. But a free agent has tremendous influence. By signing with a team — the way Nick Swisher signed with Cleveland — he is in essence endorsing that franchise. If enough players refused to join the Indians, or simply expressed their reluctance, even prideful Cleveland fans would likely embrace the ...

We have a pretty good idea of the Justin Masterson skillset. He’s got a big, sweeping motion and he leans heavily on a low-90s sinker. Sometimes he’ll threaten to go entire games without throwing anything else. Masterson keeps the ball on the ground, he strikes out about one batter for every six, and he issues the occasional walk. Last year, he posted about the same FIP as Jon Lester and C.J. Wilson, which is good company at least in terms of name value. Masterson’s ERA was elevated, but, ...

“My plan is to kind of stay in shape and see what happens,” Thome said in a telephone interview Friday. “If a team calls for me, mentally, I want to know I’m ready to go.”

And if no team calls, and Thome, 42, cannot go out on his terms? Then he will leave the game just as he played it for the past 22 years.

With grace.

“I said this to my wife: There is never a happy ending,” Thome said. “You can’t script it. You can’t look in the mirror and go, ‘I want to go out like ...

Anybody got some Lohse change?

Every signing that [the Indians] have made has surprised folks that they were willing and able to spend the money and come with the certainty that NOW the Indians must be tapped out. Maybe they aren’t… and Lohse is a definite fit for a team that basically pitched itself out of the division race last season. The draft pick wouldn’t matter a bit – if I’m not mistaken, all they would lose would be a fourth rounder. The Kansas City Royals are another team ...

Da, da, da, da, da,
Nick Swisher said
I’m so wired-up
Don’t need no coffee in my cup

Even on an unusually rainy, chilly day in Arizona, it was sunny and 80 degrees in Nick Swisher’s world.

Swisher, who signed a four-year, $56 million contract — the largest free in Cleveland history — this winter, has brought his endless energy and enthusiasm to the Indians, a club needing an infusion of something following a 94-loss season. While there’s some question whether he’s putting on an act, ...

Montero said earlier this week that Bauer, among other things, didn’t listen to Montero when he was his catcher with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Bauer has since been traded to the Cleveland Indians. Which leads us to this song ...

“You Don’t Know Me” was posted online on Wednesday. But MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian reports that Bauer recorded the song in December, which is when he was traded.
Bauer, in not exactly the cleanest of flows, says things such as:

“Its time to get back to all ...

A little-known aspect of the CBA — the market-disqualification program — is helping force a select group of teams to operate more competitively than they did in the past.

The way the program works, revenue-sharing proceeds for teams in the 15 largest markets will decline by set percentages over the next three years, and disappear entirely by 2016.

Teams that previously received such funds — Toronto, Atlanta and Washington, among them — had little incentive to field better clubs. Why ...

That’s unexpected.

According to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, Bourn has agreed to a contract with the Indians. The deal is worth $48 million over four years and includes a vesting option for a fifth year which could push the total to $60 million.

The Mets want this resolved, or else they will issue a Bourn ultimatum.

Maybe the New York Mets can pull the whole thing off and sign free-agent center fielder Michael Bourn without losing their first-round pick.

David Prouty, executive counsel of the players’ union, told The Boston Globe that he is in talks with baseball regarding the Mets’ desire to keep their pick if they sign Bourn.

One source with knowledge of the discussions said the team stands a “decent” chance of winning its ...

Double-swish mechanics?

The Indians have reached agreement with Daisuke Matsuzaka on a minor league deal, according to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (on Twitter).  Matsuzaka, who is represented by Scott Boras, can earn up to $4MM on the deal (Twitter link)...

Matsuzaka has made just 18 big league starts over the last two seasons thanks to Tommy John surgery.  For his six years in Boston, the Japanese import owns a 4.52 ERA with 8.2 K/9 and 4.3 BB/9.

At his current rate…Giambi will hit his 500th HR in 2083!

The Cleveland Indians have signed first baseman-designated hitter Jason Giambi to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training.

The Indians announced the signing Saturday, six days ahead of the team’s first full-squad workout.

The 42-year-old Giambi spent the past three-plus seasons filling a part-time role with the Rockies. The 2000 AL MVP was a mentor to younger players and he interviewed for Colorado’s managerial ...

This has not been a fall for Scott Kazmir. It has been a plummet. A life-changing plunge from Mets superphenom to Rays ace to Angels reject.

To out of baseball.

At age 27.

In 2004, Kazmir was shipped away by the Mets in one of their most catastrophic deals ever. The flamethrowing lefty emerged into not just a Rays All-Star, but a pitcher who was historically good. But over the last few years, Kazmir’s fall has been inexplicable.

On Tuesday, though, he heads to Goodyear, Ariz., on a minor ...

MLB Trade Rumors

A fighter for sure; he looked totally washed up after 2010.  Fine career.

If you’re Bessemer City’s Kevin Millwood, there’s a lot of coaching youth sports, hunting and fishing in your future.

Millwood, a 1993 Bessemer City High graduate, said Friday during a celebration of his alma mater’s basketball history that his major league baseball career had come to an end…

After going 6-12 with a 4.25 ERA in 28 starts last season for the Mariners that ...