indians pitching plans...

[IE]

Six-man rotation: Because of all the September call-ups made by the Indians, Skinner has decided to go with a six-man rotation for the rest of the season.

Veterans Terry Mulholland and Dave Burba will finish the season in the bullpen while Cliff Lee, Brian Tallet and Ryan Drese will enter the rotation with Ricardo Rodriguez, Jason Davis and C.C. Sabathia.

"With Burba and Mulholland out there, it gives us some stability in the bullpen and I feel like by starting these guys we can do some things with them," Skinner said. "We'll be able to get their side work in. Obviously, it will be fairly light, but it gives us some days to work."

Skinner said he will keep Sabathia on his regular schedule while scattering the other five starters.

Lee will make his Major League debut Sunday against the Twins while Tallet will make his Monday in the second game of a doubleheader with the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Skinner plans on limiting both guys to around five innings or 85 pitches.

 

[Terryray]

fine stuff IE!

fine stuff IE!

here's some info on Cliff Lee from that site you told us of:


Southpaws

by Deric McKamey, www.baseballprospectus.com



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There never seems to be enough left-handed pitching to go around in the majors and to progress through the playoffs, having a quality portsider is almost mandatory. While the Oakland Athletics (Barry Zito and Mark Mulder) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (Kaz Ishii and Odalis Perez) are blessed with two quality southpaws, other clubs scrounge around to find just one.

Just like their MLB counterparts, minor league systems are bereft of quality left-handed pitching. Each team might have one or two top-notch arms, but finding teams that possess four or more solid left-handed pitchers is a rarity. Here are three teams that can boast of both quality and quantity.

CLEVELAND INDIANS

At the time Cliff Lee was acquired in the Bartolo Colon deal with Montreal, he was the top pitcher in the Eastern League. The 23 year-old was hampered early in his career by an inconsistent delivery which led to command problems, but he's done a better job repeating his motion in 2002.

He has the standard four pitch arsenal, with an 89-92 MPH fastball, a 71 MPH curveball, an 81 MPH slider, and a 79 MPH change-up.


He will use any of his pitches at each point in the count and will throw strikes. He was 9-3 with a 3.58 ERA, a 3.7-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, 10.7 K/9, and a .189 opponent batting average for two Eastern League teams, and is 3-1 with a 3.30 ERA in five starts for Triple-A Buffalo.