Random Ramblings

*Cliff Lee has made four starts this season. Here's his stat line:

Innings pitched: 31.2
Earned Runs Allowed: 1
Strikeouts: 29
Walks: 2
ERA: 0.28
ERA+: 1561 (100 is average)
WHIP: 0.41
Wins: 4

Lee hasn't been an effective pitcher since his 18-5 2005 campaign. But even then he wasn't putting up strikeout totals like he has so far in 2008. I'm not terribly surprised Lee bounced back this season, but I am completely shocked by his strikeout and walk numbers. Obviously, he will eventually regress closer to his career averages but it's still amazing that he's suddenly become a strikeout pitcher.

In 2005, Lee worked 200 innings and recorded a career-best 2.75 K/BB ratio. The season before his K/BB was just 2.o and the season after it was 2.25. So Lee struck out more batters and walked fewer in 2005 and that played a major factor into his success.

This season, his K/BB ratio is an absurd 14.5. Jesus couldn't keep that type of ratio up, but the point stands. If Lee can have a K/BB ratio at or above 2.5 this season, he should be productive.

As for how he's striking out so many batters, I don't have a concrete answer. But I do have a theory. Watching Lee pitch against the Twins and Royals, I noticed his fastball was in the 91 to 93 mile per hour range. More importantly, he was placing it wherever he wanted. It appears he's getting lots of movement with the pitch, especially against righties. He's also challenging batters with the fastball more than I've seen him do in the past. There was a sequence in the Royals game that really jumped out at me.

Jose Guillen knocked a double to leadoff the sixth inning. Lee then faced Billy Butler, Alex Gordon and Miguel Olivo. Instead of nibbling around the corners or throwing a bunch of off-speed pitches, Lee went right after each batter with his fastball. He worked both corners, got ahead in the count and struck out all three. I don't remember Lee being so aggressive the past two season. Perhaps confidence also plays a part in Lee's success this season.

I am intrigued to see where Lee goes from here. He will regress, but the interesting question is "By how much?"

Better Bullpen?

With Joe Borowski out with an arm injury, the Indians have reshifted their bullpen moving Rafael Betancourt to closer and Rafael Perez and Masa Kobayashi to set-up roles.

So far , so good as Betancourt has nailed down two saves with ease and Perez and Kobayashi have pitched well in their roles.

There's little chance Borowski regains his closer role once he's back which means the Indians could have an even better bullpen this season than last, when they led the American League in ERA.

Beating New York...finally

Entering last night's game, in which the Tribe won 6-4, Cleveland had been outscored by an average of 8-3 in its last eight regular season games against the Yankees. But as they did in last year's postseason, Cleveland won in large part by limiting Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. Neither recorded a hit last night.

And, just like in the playoffs, the Tribe recorded the big two out hit. Jhonny Peralta hit a three-run homer off Andy Pettitte with two outs in the fifth to flip a 3-1 Yankee lead into a 4-3 Tribe advantage.

Call-up Weekend

With Jake Westbrook on the DL and a four-game wrap-around series against New York this weekend, Cleveland called up both Jeremy Sowers and Aaron Laffey to start Saturday and Monday's games. Both have pitched for extended periods of time in the majors, so they shouldn't be in awe of the atmosphere or opposing team. Still, it would have been nice to throw Fausto Carmona and Lee against an excellent hitting New York club, rather than two younger, inexperienced pitchers.

Movin' On Up

With Friday's win, Cleveland is now 11-12 and in the midst of a modest four-game winning streak. The team is second in the A.L. Central, two games behind Chicago.