Burning River has been down for the last day or so, so sorry if anyone has had any difficulty reaching the site. We were thrown back to about a year ago, but it has been fixed now and should be fine from now on.

In more site update news, All-Time Indian Bios will be a little less frequent during the regular season, changing from twice a week to once or twice a month. We will keep it going for the foreseeable future, however, with even more Indians greats. Look forward to Sandy Alomar Jr on April 4th with Joe Gordon, Mike Hargrove, Bill Wambsganss and more to follow.

Sooner than all that, we will continue to provide you with updates to the Indians 25 man roster throughout the rest of Spring Training and offer daily recaps of every game as soon as the regular season starts again. With the regular season starting we will continue to have our 'Player of the Game' awards as well as previews for every series. Thanks for sticking with us and come back often during the regular season.

Go Tribe!

Charlie Jamieson was a long tenured Indians who played through the entire decade of the 1920's. His lengthy career placed him in the top ten of many offensive statistics for the Indians including games played, at bats, doubles, triples and walks and in the top five for at bats and hits. It also allowed him to become the Indians player with the most times caught stealing in team history, showing that he was very aggressive on the basepaths, if not very smart or talented. He is considered as one of the top ten left fielders in Indians history.

Jamieson also pitched a few innings for the Tribe, throwing almost 20 innings in six games between 1919 and 1922. He wasn't too bad, giving up 10 runs (4.82 ERA)  on 19 hits (1.66 WHIP) over that time.

Charlie won the World Series in just his second year with the Tribe and was ranking highly in the MVP votes by 1923. He took over the role of starting left fielder in 1920 and didn't relinquish it until 1931. In his great season of 1923 he set records for at bats, runs and hits that remain in the top ten all time for the Cleveland Indians. He also lead the American League in hits and at bats that year, coming in sixth in the MVP voting. Jamieson has never really recieved the credit he is due, especially as a stat accumulator. He was never voted for in any capacity for the Baseball Hall of Fame and has not been inducted into the Indians Hall of Fame, even though he spent over a decade with the team playing at an above average talent level. Charlie Jamieson died in 1969.

In an effort to show how wrong we can be, Burning River Baseball presents our predictions for the Cleveland Indians 2012 season. 

We will revisit these predictions with the results when the season ends. Look out for the all MLB coming next Saturday.

With Kevin Slowey starting today, the battle for the fifth starting pitcher should be a little clearer. Justin Masterson, Ubaldo Jimenez, Josh Tomlin and Derek Lowe hold the first four spots in the 2012 Cleveland Indians starting rotation while Jeanmar Gomez, David Huff, Zach McAllister and Slowey compete for the last spot.

So far, Jeanmar Gomez appears to be the most ready. He has pitched in four games this Spring and is yet to allow a run and has only allowed four hits. His dominance has not been matched this Spring by any other Indians starter except Justin Masterson who has been dominant ever since his poor debut. After his successful rookie season, the only thing keeping Gomez in the minors to start this year is the lack of flexibility in Kevin Slowey.

Speaking of Slowey, his appearances have been getting worse and worse with each outing. In four starts, he has given up 0, 2, 3 and most recently 4 runs. Slowey has never been a considered a flame thrower, but this Spring he has been terrible at missing bats. In only 12 innings he has walked 4 and allowed 19 hits. Hopefully for Indians fans, this experiment will end before the regular season starts.

The other two pitchers up for that last spot have not really had enough innings to judge. Huff has a 5.73 ERA through 11 innings and McAllister has 4.50 through 6. McAllister has yet to start an official Spring game and Huff has only started 3. The lack of innings given to these two pitchers could be a sign that the Indians are already favoring Gomez and Slowey. With Huff's contract situation not being very different than Gomez's it is hard to conceive the Indians making him the 5th starter. It definitely seems that the Indians 5th starter competition is down to a two horse race.

Slowey throwing against the Giants on 3/21

The story of Herb Score is another Indians tale of what could have been. This story, however had a much better ending than some of the other tragedies like Ray Chapman and Steve Olin. Score came out of nowhere in 1955 to win the Rookie of the Year and lead the league in strikeouts each of his first two seasons. Just when he was looking like the next coming of Bob Feller (his 9.4 strike outs per nine innings is the greatest of all time by an Indian), Score was struck by a ball hit by Yankee infielder Gil McDougald. This occured in May of 1957 and he missed the rest of that season. When he came back he didn't even resemble the fire-baller he used to be. He was only able to pitch 41 innings in 1958 and won a total of two games. 1959 was slightly better as he pitched in 30 games, but his ERA rose to 4.71 and he was only able to win nine games. In 1960 Score was traded to Chicago for Barry Latman as part of the dismantling of the Indians by Frank Lane.

Herb Score came up with fellow star Rocky Colavito and made it look like the Indians were going to continue their success of the late 1940s and early 1950s. The trade of Colavito and Score's injury derailed that train and the Indians dropped into dispair for the the next 30 years, but even through the hard times, Score stayed with the Tribe. After his extremely short playing career, he became a television, then radio announcer for the Cleveland Indians and remained in that position with the team from 1964 through 1997. This made Score the voice of the Indians during one of the most exciting periods of Indians history along with fellow radio announcer Tom Hamilton.

Herb Score died in 2008 and the Indians honored him by wearing a patch on their sleeve during the entire 2009 season. He has been enshrined in the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame (class of 2006). Despite his short career, Score was still one of the greatest pitchers in Indians history.

There are two probable spots open for the 2012 bullpen and a plethora of possible pitchers to fill them. Since we are about two weeks into Spring Training, it seems like a good time to discuss the options. 

The 2012 bullpen will look fairly similar to the 2011 version with the exception of two pitchers. Chad Durbin left the team in free agency and Frank Herrmann's spot is up for grabs as well, although he could win it back with a strong Spring. To this point, Herrmann has thrown the most of any Indians relief pitcher and it doesn't look good. In 6 innings through 4 games he has allowed 10 hits and 5 runs. He does have a good strikeout to walk ratio of 6-1, but it doesn't matter if every out is a strikeout when allow almost a run per inning.

Jeremy Accardo, Hector Ambriz and Nick Hagadone are also in the running for either spot and currently hold identical 1.80 ERAs. Each pitcher has allowed a single run in exactly 5 innings pitched. Ambriz has been especially effective, only allowing two hits and striking out four. Hagadone has the highest ceiling of these three players, but is the least likely to make the team initially due to his age and the availability of minor league options.

Former AL East closers Chris Ray and Dan Wheeler have not fared so well in Cactus League play thus far, each with ERAs above 10.00. Both pitchers accepted Spring invites from the Tribe in attempt to regain their former glory. Even though their is no chance of them closing on a team with Chris Perez and Vinnie Pestano, they could still take that Chad Durbin role of veteran pitcher on this team. They will have to shape up soon however, as each pitcher has allowed 10 hits already this Spring in a combined 9 innings pitched.

The last player to mention is Corey Kluber, who has an outside chance of making the team this year. He finished the season on the Indians last year, but more than likely will be the first player cut of the group listed here. The Indians may pitch him more often as the Spring progresses, but to this point he has only thrown 3 innings and is yet to allow an earned run. He has walked 1 and struck out two.

At this point in the Spring, Accardo and Ambriz seem to be the front-runners with Herrmann and Hagadone waiting in the wings in case something happens. Ambriz has not pitched in the Majors since 2010 when he had a 5.59 ERA for the Indians, but the team seems willing to give him a second shot. Accardo had a bad season last year for Baltimore, but was once a strong closer, earning 30 saves with the Blue Jays in 2007. If the Indians decide not to go with the young guns, he wouldn't be the worst choice they could make.

Nick Hagadone throws a pitch against the Diamondbacks in Spring Training action.



A crowd of 5,500 watched today as The Cleveland Indians hosted the reigning AL Champions at Goodyear Ballpark. Much of the crowd came to see Texas Ranger's pitcher, Yu Darvish, who made just his second start of the Spring. Yu Darvish is one of the biggest hyped players this year. Texas acquired the 25-year old Japanese native in January, signing him to a 6 year, $60 million deal.

Amongst those at the game were several media outlets, including several Japanese media members, ESPN, and MLB.TV. The crowd seemed very anxious to see what young Yu Darvish could do. So what did he do?

Darvish started the game with 2 walks, to Michael Brantley and Asdrubal Cabrera. Unfortunately, the Indians could not take advantage of such a gift, as both Brantley and Cabrera were thrown out trying to steal second. The bottom of the first ended with a Shin-Soo Choo strikeout.

In the bottom of the second, Travis Hafner popped out in foul territory to first base. Jose Lopez received the first hit off of Darvish with a broken bat single to center field. The Indians were retired in the second inning after Jason Kipnis and Fred Lewis both stuck out swinging.

The Indians finally got to Darvish in the third inning. Jack Hannahan led off the inning with a double to center field. Darvish then walked the next two batters, Lou Marson and Michael Brantley. With the bases loaded, Asdrubal Cabrera knocked Hannahan in with a single. Choo then grounded into a double play, which scored Lou Marson. Hafner ended the inning with a fly out to center field.

Yu Darvish pitched three innings today, giving up 2 earned runs on 3 hits. He also struck out 3 and walked 4. Overall, Darvish did not look impressive. His pitches seemed to ride high and he was wild at times. Even though he struck out 3 Indians in 3 innings, he did not seem like a dominating strike-out pitcher today. This was only his second start of the Spring. We look forward to seeing what he will do in the rest of the Spring and how he will pitch in the regular season as the Texas Ace.

Final Score: Texas Ranger 8 - Cleveland Indians 8 in 10 innings

Yu Darvish throws to Michael Brantley

Fausto "Roberto Hernandez Heredia" Carmona has been cleared of his crimes in the Dominican Republic, but it is still unknown whether he will be allowed to return to the United States after his newly assigned work program has been completed. The real question now is, would the team even want him to?

Even before this news came out, the Indians were looking to shore up their starting rotation after an inconsistent season. Ubaldo Jimenez was brought in towards the end of the regular season and Derek Lowe immediately after, basically setting up a starting four (Justin Masterson, Jimenez, Josh Tomlin and Lowe) that Carmona wouldn't be able to touch. Immediately after the news came out, the Indians made another move as insurance in case Carmona couldn't come back by trading for Kevin Slowey.

The Indians have shown which pitchers they want to see work the most work this Spring as the only pitchers who have started games are David Huff, Jimenez, Masterson, Slowey and Lowe. Tomlin has thrown five innings in relief and Zach McAllister has thrown four. While it will take a little while longer to see which pitchers are the best fit for the rotation, it is unlikely with this many options that there won't be five options better than Fausto. 

Even if Carmona did return today, he would already be a week behind the other pitchers as far as actual games go and three weeks behind in training. Even with this new news we shouldn't expect him back anytime soon. Of course you cannot predict the future and if the Indians starting staff is struggling and Fausto gets his visa by the All-Star break he could be given another chance to make it. Who knows, maybe all his head problems were caused by the worry that his second name would be revealed and with it out in the open he will be able to relax. If he is able to come back later in the year he could be a great addition, especially if the team is dealing with the usually injury problems.

The good news is that the Indians do not need Fausto "Roberto Hernandez Heredia" Carmona in the rotation to compete this season and do not have to pay him anything until he returns to the team. If and when he does return, he could either help the team by pitching or could probably be released with little cost to the team. The Indians continue to hold their line, that they are undecided about what to do, but are keeping an eye on the situation.

Bill Bradley was a member of the original American League Cleveland team, the Cleveland Blues in 1901. He and Earl Moore were the only two players from the 1901 roster to play more than three seasons and Bradley played the most with ten. His 22 triples in 1903 remain in the top ten single season totals for the Cleveland Indians more than 100 seasons later. He is also among the top ten in career triples and stolen bases. Bradley is considered among the top ten Indians third basemen in team history.

Bill Bradley was born in Cleveland and even though he started his career with the Chicago Cubs, he defected to the American League as soon as he could to play for his home town team. He then played the rest of his pro career for the Blues and Naps. For his time with the team, he has been inducted into the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame (class of 1957).  Bill Bradley died in 1954 in Cleveland.

After a three games in Goodyear, the Indians have went 0-2-1 against the Cincinnati Reds. While it's great fun to finally see baseball again after the long offseason, we shouldn't take these early games very seriously. In the three games played, the Indians have used a total of 21 pitchers, who have given up 26 runs in 27 innings. The statistically best pitcher so far this Spring? Jeanmar Gomez with three strikeouts in two innings and no hits allowed. The worst? Recently named Ace, Justin Masterson who was destroyed yesterday by the Reds lineup to the tune of a 40.50 ERA in 1.1 innings pitched. None of this is real or really matters.

The only truly important things that can happen this early in Spring are injuries and the Indians have already had a couple. The back injury to Grady Sizemore is definitely a cause for concern. Last October we discussed possible outfield configurations without Grady and none of them looked good, until the team re-signed Sizemore later in the offseason. Now it looks as if he will continue to miss time due to injuries and will need to be replaced, at least early on, in the outfield. The obvious first choice is to move Michael Brantley to center, leaving a hole in left field. This could be filled by any number of Spring Training invitees, or one of the three eligible players from last years roster (Shelley Duncan, Ezequiel Carrera or Trevor Crowe). The best choice at the moment would probably be Ryan Spilborghs (0-2 with a run and an RBI so far this Spring). He has the most experience at the pro level and is a more athletic choice than either Duncan or trying to change Matt LaPorta back into an outfielder. Felix Pie, Aaron Cunningham and Thomas Neal round out the rest of the options. Neal is probably the player with the most upside of those listed, but he has yet to prove himself in the Majors and the Indians are more likely to go with a veteran of at least a couple years at this point in the season. One of the players listed will also be on the roster as the fourth outfielder as well as either Duncan or LaPorta making the team as a pinch hitter/back-up firstbaseman.

The other injury of note was to All-Star closer Chris Perez. Pure Rage strained an oblique in his first bullpen session of the Spring and looks to be out at least three weeks. He should be back in time for the regular season, but without an entire Spring of pitching against real hitters, he may not be ready. This isnt as big of a deal as the Sizemore injury because of the great depth in the Indians "Bullpen Mafia". Look for Vinnie Pestano to get any of the save chances the first week of the regular season with Chris Perez moving back into that role as soon as he is ready.

I'll leave you with a few shots from Monday's game. Remember not to worry and just enjoy the game. Nothing really counts for another month. See you at the Ballpark!

Action during the second inning of Monday's Spring Training game. Zizzy, the Goodyear Ballpark mascot, enjoys the game with the other fans. 

Indians new starting first baseman, Casey Kotchman.