[horseofcourse]

What is exciting about the Tribe scuds is after the all star break they had the 4th best ERA in the AL last year and their lineup was 40 percent minor leaguers...part of that was the knee surgery guys (Santana and Grady Sizemore) a key to this season was getting the lineup better and if those two guys could recover quickly and if they were close to what they could be this year, that alone would be at least 10 to 20 more wins just by their presence. Both lefties in the pen, Sipp and R Perez were good in the 2nd half last year after being horrendous in the 1st half and C Perez was without any question the best closer in the game post all star break. clyde last year detailed how much Bat Masterson improved the last two months as he seemed to find something....I was not convinced on him, but he has appeared to maintain what he found. Exhausto was great in 2007 and by 2009 was pitching in rookie league ball....that's how fast and far he fell. His redemption from the abyss last year was one of the great stories in baseball but since it was in Cleveland it was not reported but on this thread.

I really think it is not much of a fluke what is going on so far. Time will tell...there is still lots of questions on how good the other 3 starting pitchers are though Carrasco and Tomlin have both been great so far. The injury to Talbot was unfortunate. But historically, since 2000 when the team has a good bullpen they contend, and to me it appears they have a really good one this year.