Chicago White Sox (4-5) at Cleveland Indians (3-5)
Series 4, Games 11, 12 and 13
Progressive Field (2012): 0.899, Pitchers park.

Series Overview
In my opinion, the White Sox are the best team in the central division this season. I have taken some heat for declaring this as the Tigers, on paper, seem to be the behemoth of the American League. From top to bottom, the White Sox have the ingredients to make the playoffs and go deep in October. Chris Sale, who will throw Saturday, knows how to truly pitch, even when tired.  Now, if he could actually be strong enough to maintain his best stuff for a full season, he’ll be in annual Cy Young conversations. Paul Konerko continues to be as smart a power hitter as you’ll find, with an undervalued great, short swing. With a short compact swing, it is unlikely he will have a regression year. Alex Rios played hard, attentive, composed and smart last season. He also possesses all the athletic skills to continue that upward track.  Jake Peavy stayed healthy enough to earn trust as a solid number two starter. Adam Dunn rebounded last season to reach the acceptable bottom performance levels of a three true outcome hitter, and I bet he’ll stay just about there again. Much like the Indians, their bullpen is pretty stacked.  It’s a very strong part of the White Sox.  If Jesse Crain or Matt Thornton fail in a defined 8th inning role, manager Robin Ventura is not afraid to try a Matt Lindstrom, or a Donnie Veal. Nate Jones can throw as well and Hector Santiago as a long reliever is a luxury.
The White Sox are a team that is poised and built to win the world series this season. A good showing from the Indians this series will boost my confidence level in the team moving forward.
The weather looks a little better this weekend although still very cool, damp, and mushy. We should get all three games in though.

Friday, April 12, 7:05 EDT (STO)
Justin Masterson (2-0, 0.69 ERA)  vs. Jose Quintana (L) (0-0, 11.25 ERA)

Masterson looks like the ace everybody thought he would be this season through his first two starts. The only concern has been his command problems, particularly with his fastball. Considering his WHIP in 2012 was a hefty 1.45, the seven walks so far this season are something to keep an eye on. Signed as a six-year minor league free agent last winter, Quintana was very good in a nine-start, 2.77-ERA, 1.17-WHIP performance in for Double-A Birmingham. This earned him a trip to The Show last May, where he continued his dominance to the tune of a  1.25 ERA in his first eight appearances (six of which were starts) into a more permanent rotation spot once John Danks was lost for the year. Quintana relies upon command to succeed as his stats show, thrived to a 2.04 ERA behind a 3.70 strikeout-to-walk ratio before the All-Star break, but slipped to 5.01 when his K-to-walk rate was 1.38 after it. He is a pitcher who must hit his spots but with the free-swinging Indians, he could certainly give them headaches.

Saturday, April 13, 4:05EDT (STO)
Ubaldo Jimenez (0-1, 6.97 ERA) vs. Chris Sale (L) (1-0, 1.84 ERA)

Myers was supposed to start last Wednesday's game, but the Indians opted to just use him to eat innings Tuesday, sparing the bullpen which is a key element in Terry Francona's managerial philosophy. He has now surrendered 14 earned runs over 10.1 innings this season. Myers pitched the final 5.1 innings of Tuesday night's game, giving up seven earned runs on 11 hits, after starter Carlos Carrasco got pounded for seven earned runs before being ejected after throwing at Kevin Youkilis in the fourth inning. Peavy's previous start this season was awful, giving up six earned runs on nine hits and one walk while striking out seven over 5.1 innings Tuesday against the Nationals as he was facing perhaps the most dangerous lineup in baseball. This start has skewed his overall numbers slightly, as his first start of the season was excellent.  Look for him to bounce back Sunday against the Indians as no current Indians batter has had much success against him, with the exception being Jason Kipnis who has two home-runs off Peavy in only eight at-bats.

New York Yankees (2-4) at Cleveland Indians (3-3) 

Series 3, Games 7, 8, 9 and 10
Progressive Field (2012): 0.899*, Pitchers park.
*Park Factor compares the rate of stats at home vs. the rate of stats on the road. A rate higher than 1.000 favors the hitter. Below 1.000 favors the pitcher.

In Moore's final start of the spring, he pitched four scoreless innings allowing only one hit while walking one and striking out five against the Tigers. He showed great improvement in his final start of the spring, needing only 54 pitches to work through the outing and 37 of those were strikes.  In his rookie season in 2012, he had two starts against the Tribe; back to back starts with the all-star break in between. In each of those starts, he did not make it to the sixth inning. In fact, he only had four starts all season where he walked more batters than he struck out; two of them came against the Tribe. 

The Indians open up the 2013 season in a dome in chilly Toronto as a high of 35º and a possibility of snow is expected. The Tribe will be throwing out a brand new lineup, featuring at least four players who have never taken an official at bat as a member of the Cleveland Indians. As a whole, it is the strongest lineup on paper that the Indians have fielded in years and a whole lot would have to go wrong for them to perform worse than last year's unit. The line-up is as follows:

CF: Michael Bourne
SS: Asdrubal Cabrera
2B: Jason Kipnis
1B: Nick Swisher
LF: Michael Brantley
C: Carlos Santana
DH: Mark Reynolds
3B: Lonnie Chisenhall
RF: Drew Stubbs

Justin Masterson will be starting for the Tribe with an eight man bull-pen ready to go behind him if he falters. Facing Masterson will be a Blue Jays lineup that was even more revamped than the Indians.

SS: Jose Reyes
LF: Melky Cabrera
RF: Jose Bautista
1B: Edwin Encarnacion
DH: Adam Lind
C: J.P. Arencibia
CF: Colby Rasmus
2B: Emilio Bonifacio
3B: Maicer Izturis

With their increased power along with the retention of perennial MVP candidate Jose Bautista the Blue Jays look to compete in the AL East for the first time since they won two World Series in the early 1990's. Knuckle-baller R.A. Dickey will be starting for Toronto, another offseason pick-up after he won the NL Cy Young last season with the Mets.

While opening day is not technically more important than any other game of the year, it is emotionally more important and this one will feature two of the teams expected to increase their win totals the most from last year. Opening day should be a very interesting match-up as both teams try to learn how to mesh with their new teammates.

Pure Rage will lead the Bullpen Mafia into Toronto.

Cleveland Indians (69-94) at Toronto Blue Jays (73-89) *Records are 2012.

The White Sox have completely collapsed, a huge part of which was the Indians last series win over Chicago. Unless both Cleveland and Detroit get swept this week, the Sox are officially out of the playoffs in 2012. 

The Indians seem to  have a newfound motivation with the introduction of Sandy Alomar, Jr. as manager. This team, which has struggled all season scoring runs, has won two of their last three by scoring 8, 6 and 15 runs respetively. Even the pitching staff seems to have rebounded under Alomar (with the exception of Scott Maine, who apparently was a fan of Manny Acta). This series could be a sign of things to come if the Indian stick with the guys they have now (Alomar, Russ Canzler and Shin-Soo Choo are all unknowns in 2013) so enjoy this last series before the long offseason.

October 1st, 7:05 PM: Hector Santiago, LHP, 3-1, 3.69 ERA vs Corey Kluber, RHP, 2-4, 5.02 ERA

October 2nd, 7:05 PM: Jake Peavy, RHP, 11-12, 3.37 ERA vs Justin Masterson, RHP, 11-15, 5.03 ERA

October 3rd, 7:05 PM: Gavin Floyd, RHP, 11-11, 4.47 ERA vs David Huff, LHP, 3-0, 2.86 ERA

Anyone remember Ozzie Guillen in 2005? How about 2006?

One more series, one more win as the Indians continue their path to mediocrity. As they continue to lose two out of every three games, the goals for the rest of the season are dwindling.

End of Season Goals:

• Masterson to .500: with a loss in his last game, Masterson is now not able to get back to .500 this year. He will still lead the team in wins by season end, but a teams ace should be able to win more games then he loses during the season.
• 43 Saves for Pure Rage: Another Indians win without a save opportunity leaves Perez still needing 7 to reach 4th all time as an Indian. With such a small market for error (just nine games left this year) this goal needs to be made a little more modest again. Perez needs just 4 more saves to tie Mike Jackson for 5th all time in single season saves. At this point, something that was once slightly exciting has turned into another hum-drum event.
• Not losing 100 Games: Everyone get your party streamers and silly string out. The Indians beat the Royals yesterday to get to that ultimate plateau of 63 wins, keeping them from losing 100 games in a season where they lead the Division for almost half the year. 

September 24th, 8:10 PM ET: Zach McAllister, RHP, 5-8, 4.31 ERA vs Chris Sale, RHP 17-7, 2.82 ERA

With 17 wins and an ERA under 3.00, Chris Sale is still very in the American League Cy Young race. His biggest competition currently include Justin Verlander, David Price and Jered Weaver, all who have lower ERAs than Sale while all but Verlander have better records. A strong win against the Indians would help pad Sale's stats giving him even more motivation before this game if trying to win the division is not enough.

September 25th, 2:10 PM ET: Corey Kluber, RHP, 1-4, 5.36 ERA vs Francisco Liriano, LHP, 3-1, 5.09 ERA

Kluber will have two more starts this season to impress the Tribe enough to earn a Spring Training invite next season. His last start was pretty good as he allowed just three runs over 6 innings, but his overall seasons' performance has been unimpressive enough to make the Indians miss Derek Lowe (that is an overexaggeration, the Indians will never miss Derek Lowe). There are always mid-low level starters available in the free agent market or for trade (see Kevin Slowey last year), so Kluber needs to work hard just to be considered for next year.

Make sure to note the starting time for this game (1:10 PM CT) or you could miss this great match-up.

September 26th, 8:10 PM ET: Justin Masterson, RHP, 11-15, 4.97 ERA vs Jake Peavy, RHP, 11-12, 3.40 ERA

In the battle between pitchers who were better at some point earlier in their careers and have been disappointments this season, who will win. Who will care that this game is even happening. Spoiler Alert: Question 1: The White Sox. Question 2:The Detroit Tigers.

Just like the series against the Twins, this upcoming series will be almost completely meaningless. While the Indians do have some player evaluations to do for next year, there is little to be learned in series against teams in the same situation as the Indians. Both the Twins and Royals are also evaluating young talent, making these games more like the AAA games that most of these players were playing in a month ago.

End of Season Goals:

• Masterson to .500: Justin's start in game one of this series will be his third to last on the year, meaning he must win all three starts to get to .500
• 43 Saves for Pure Rage: This one is still possible, but he hasn't made any progress over the last two series as each of the Indians wins has been a walk-off. 
• Not losing 100 games: At 62 wins, the Indians are almost to the point of being safe from losing 100 games. They only have to win one more game of their last twelve to do so and since they haven't lost 12 in a row all season, they should probably be able to handle this. As soon as they win one game, the new goal should be to move ahead of the Twins in the standings to end the season in fourth place.

September 21st, 8:10 PM ET: Justin Masterson, RHP, 11-14, 4.93 ERA vs Luis Mendoza, RHP, 7-9, 4.50 ERA

The Indians continued on with their winning of a single game each series with a final game win against Twins. If they are going to continue that trend, this will be the game to win as the Indians have their best pitcher going and the best match-up against the opposing pitcher. In four games against the Tribe in his career, Mendoza has allowed 15 runs (11 earned).

September 22nd, 7:10 PM ET: Ubaldo Jimenez, RHP, 9-16, 5.14 ERA vs Will Smith, LHP, 5-8, 5.08 ERA

Smith will be making his second start against the Indians this year. He won his first start which took place during the time of the year when the Indians were struggling against left-handed pitching (April through September).

September 23rd, 2:10 PM ET: David Huff, LHP, 1-0, 2.61 ERA vs Jake Odorizzi, RHP, 11-3, 2.93 ERA (AAA)

This will be Huff's second start of the year after being fairly awful in his last outing. Huff will get two more starts this season, including this one and you can't really expect him to get any better. He has been hanging around for years at this point and the Indians have to have already seen everything they need to from the lefty.

The top Royals pitching prospect, Odorizzi will be making his Major League debut after a great year for the Omaha Storm Chasers. He was a first round pick in 2008 by the Milwaukee Brewers and came to the Royals in the Zach Greinke trade. The Royals have a lot of hopes laying on his shoulders as they plan on contending in the near future.

The Indians were able to steal one from the Tigers in the last game of the series, giving them at least a single win in each of their last five series. There's no better way to keep from losing ten or more games in a row than winning a game per series. Of course, they could always win two games per series, but let's keep expectations to a minimum. With that, here's a recap of the BRB goals for the Tribe:

• Justin Masterson getting to .500: with another loss in his last start, Masterson will have to win each of his last 3 games to get to .500.
• Beat Detroit: It goes without saying the Indians failed at this goal. Chicago did win their series as well though, so they are still 2 games ahead of the Tigers.
• Decisions on players still have to be made, but many of those players were used extensively in the Detroit series and Huff has been added to the rotation.
• 46 Saves for Pure Rage: Chris did not get a save in the Indians sole win last series, making it almost impossible to reach this goal. This goal is now changed to 43 saves good enough for a 4th place tie with Doug Jones.
• Pronk coming back: Travis Hafner took batting practice on 9/14, but there is still no news on his return.

September 18th, 7:05 PM ET: P.J. Walters, RHP, 2-4, 6.70 ERA vs David Huff, LHP, 1-0, 0.00 ERA

This start will be the third time this year the Indians have pitched a left handed starter. You would think with all the Indians struggles against left handers that they would adopt the opposing teams strategy, but nay, the Indians preferred to use Josh Tomlin until his arm literally fell off. Now, after two great relief outings where Huff came in for a struggling Jeanmar Gomez, he will finally get to make his first start of the year. This shouldn't be too much to get excited for Huff since he has done this same thing each of the last three seasons.  

September 19th, 7:05 PM ET: Liam Hendriks, RHP, 0-7, 6.14 ERA vs Zach McAllister, RHP, 5-7, 4.15 ERA

The Indians beat the Australian in his last start against the Tribe for their only win in their last series against Minnesota. With the Indians most consistent starter going against a pitcher the Indians have beaten before, this is their best chance to continue the trend of winning a single game each series. 

September 20th, 12:05 PM ET: Esmerling Vazquez, RHP, 0-2, 7.53 ERA vs Corey Kluber, RHP, 1-4, 5.48 ERA

This is the last game of the year that will not be televised so after this game, Tribe fans can enjoy every single pitch of this awfulness. There has still been no news of Roberto Hernandez, even though he is probably capable of pitching again. Even though he has done nothing to prove himself a reasonable alternative starter for 2013, Kluber is still in the rotation.

Going into a three game series with Detroit, the Indians guarantee they will only be losing to teams from the Central Division for the rest of the year. Since the Indians are out of it and I hate the idea of a team trying for a high draft pick, I like to set personal goals for Indians just to make the season a little more interesting. A few of these I have already stated, like Masterson getting to .500 and the Indians winning at least 63 games (just three wins away now). Here are a few more goals for these last few weeks:

• Keep the Tigers out of the playoffs. While the White Sox are almost as big a rival to the Indians as the Tigers, at least they didn't buy their whole team based on which NL All-Stars were becoming free agents. Some of the White Sox most successful players have been with them for years (Paul Konerko and A.J. Pierzynski are two) and a lot of others are young players playing extremely well. They should be rewarded for building their team the right way and not causing unnecessary market inflation and discrepancy. The Indians have this series against the Tigers and two more against Chicago so they will have a huge say in who goes home with the Central Division title. Hopefully they will make sure it is the right team.
• Make final decisions on old, young players. Players that are out of options like Matt LaPorta, David Huff and others will need to be signed to the 25 man roster in 2013 or lost to waivers. If the Indians can decide now whether to keep or lose these players they can be used in trades or outright released before next season begins. This would allow them to get some value out of them rather than paying for them as an invitee to Spring Training and releasing them in April. Huff will be making Jeanmar Gomez's next start, while LaPorta, Vinny Rottino, Russ Canzler and Scott Maine have all found themselves getting into games of late. Decisions need to be made on these and a score of other AAAA players as soon as possible.
• At least attempt to get Chris Perez the Indians single season saves record. Perez currently sits with 36 saves, just 10 away from the record. At the half way point in the year he was on an easy pace to break the record and push it into the 50s, but then the Indians collapsed. If there are two blameless people in this collapse they are Perez and Vinnie Pestano (who already has the single season holds record). With 18 games left it is basically impossible, but with most of those games against the Royals and Twins, they could definitely string off a few wins to end the season.
• I would like to see Travis Hafner get at least one more at bat with the Cleveland Indians before he is allowed to become a free agent. If he can't come back before the last series, he should at least be used as a pinch hitter or DH during that last series against the White Sox. He is the greatest DH in Indians history and deserves a respectful departure.

As these goals become impossible I will probably come up with a few more for each series through the rest of the year.

September 14th, 7:05 PM ET: Justin Verlander, RHP, 13-8, 2.91 ERA vs Corey Kluber, RHP, 1-3, 5.26 ERA

A rain out in Chicago took away what could have been the game of the year in the Central Division with Justin Verlander going against the White Sox new ace, Chris Sale, so instead we get this terrific match-up against Corey Kluber. The good news is that unlike the White Sox (Verlander is 2-0 with a 1.64 ERA against Chicago), the Indians can beat Verlander. This year they have won both games he has pitched in despite Verlander striking out 11 in 15 innings and allowing just 3 earned runs per start. Of course in his other match-ups he has faced a little higher profile pitcher than Corey Kluber, but it should be a good test for the young starter. Like they say, a starting pitcher isn't really playing against the opposing starter, but the opposing hitters. So Kluber doesn't really have to face Verlander, just Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder and the rest of those monsters. Good luck, kid.

September 15th, 4:05 PM ET: Anibal Sanchez, RHP, 2-5, 4.40 ERA vs Justin Masterson, RHP, 11-13, 4.96 ERA

Continuing with one of my main goals for the Indians this year, Masterson is now down to four starts left and needs to win at least two of them to reach that .500 plateau. In doing this if he could also maintain an ERA under 5.00 it would be fantastic. Masterson has pitched worse against the Tigers than Verlander has against the Tribe, but he has opposite results, going 2-1 in his three starts. The Indians have played well against Detroit all season and winning this game (and possibly the series) would put at least one small bright point on an absolutely terrible year.

September 16th , 3:05 PM ET: Rick Porcello, RHP, 9-12, 4.59 ERA vs Ubaldo Jimenez, RHP, 9-16, 5.52 ERA

Familiarity breeds contempt and the Indians and Tigers play each other a lot. Like Verlander, Porcello has pitched against the Indians twice this year and lost both games. Like Masterson, he has pitched poorly with an ERA of almost 6.00 and a WHIP just under 2.00. Ubaldo was great his last time out, but his tendency to put two bad starts between every good one makes the Indians wonder if his last start will be his last good start of the year. If he can manage to keep things under control for at least this game, the Indians should be able to beat Porcello, a feat they have already accomplished twice, and possibly win this series.