Friday...undefeated still (still sort of.....)

Tribe and Angels tie 7-7 in 9 innings. Clubs usually have used up players they want to use in 9 or 10 innings and they call it a game.  Like yesterday, the Tribe had a lead in the 8th and one pitcher had a meltdown. Today the meltdown was by Joe Smith and his fluttering sidearm slider. Today the only flutter in his slider was as the Angels crushed it! In only about 12 pitches the score went from 7-4 lead to a 7-7 tie. Spring training games are not only to win but to place players in game situations, and this game situation was lost by Smith. There was a concern as Asdrubal left early in the game following a triple to the left field corner he appeared to tweek a hip or upper leg muscle and took himself out of the game. Other injury rumor is that Russell Branyon, who has yet to play in a game, may have a more serious back injury which involves a disc. Hopefully his signing has an injury release because he appears to be damaged goods. ( I honestly was not thrilled about him signing because if we needed a first baseman why did we dump Ryan Garko?
Tim's Friday thoughts.......
-The ball autographs today included famous Reds infielder Barry Larkin, Reds manager Dusty Baker, Reds first baseman Joey Votto, Indians pitcher Justin Masterson and a few others.
-Ohio celebrity sighting today was Tom and Anita Bogart and their daughter Missy, now living Seattle.
-Now with Branyon possibly injured, why not name Matt Laporte as the first baseman and Michael Brantley as the left fielder?
-I am not impressed with the utility infielder battle as Mark Grudzielanek, Luis Rodriguez, Carlos Rivera, and Brian Bixler have not been impressive at all!
-Would some team please take Andy Marte from us...he is a nice guy, can hit every so often, but has no home on this team as we have given him over three years with no results.
-Grady made another "Grady catch" today....we really assume he will catch everything, and he does!
-The arm concern does not appear to be a problem yet for Grady.
-In game shape and ready to start today would be Grady Sizemore, Johhny Peralta, and Luis Valbuena.
-Today Rafael Perez looked great. Fausto Carmona had control and also looked super! Jake Westbrook struggled with the first three hitters but then found the sinker and looked good for his two plus innings.
-Catchers have a nice battle as two will stay. In my opinion I like Mike Redmond and Wyatt Toregas but the runblings I get are that Toregas will be in Columbus and Lou Marson will be in Cleveland with Redmond. All three appear to have a nice handle on handling the pitchers and will bat around .250. With this pitching staff it is critical to have a catcher with leadership more than with a .300 average. We need a leader with the ability to keep runners in control.
Saturday morning we will check in at the field for a few hours then off to Sedona to ride the pink jeeps (missed them on Wednesday due to the snow/rain/sleet and other gifts from God!)