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The #1 starter for both the Cleveland Indians and the Cincinnati Reds have both been named to the Pro Baseball Fans’ top 10 active starting pitchers list. Sabathia, the 2007 AL Cy Young Award winner, went 19-7 in 2007 with a 3.21 ERA and 209 strikeouts. Meanwhile Harang, the Reds’ ace, won 16 games for the second straight season.

The Best Starting Pitchers list put an emphasis on the past three years of statistics while factoring in career success. Pro Baseball Fans lists their Top 10 active pitchers basing it on “win-loss record, strikeouts, quality starts, earned runs, and much much more.”

Where did Sabathia and Harang rank on the top starting pitchers in baseball list? Find out today over at Pro Baseball Fans.

A season ago the Cleveland Indians went 0-6 against the New York Yankees in the regular season. Apparently the Indians wanted to make sure that did not happen again in 2008. As the Yankees came to town on Friday night, Cleveland fought off the New York long-balls with a couple of homeruns of their own in a 6-4 win. The Indians followed today as they took a 3-0 lead over the Yankees only to see New York tie the game before Victor Martinez played hero in the bottom of the 9th. With the bases loaded in a tied game Martinez lined the game-winning hit to left field as Cleveland has won both games one and two in this four-game home series.

While Jeremy Sowers started and was impressive, he allowed 3 runs in 5 and 1/3 innings and should have fared better as Jorge Posada’s 3-run triple was misplayed in LF. But in the end Jensen Lewis and winning pitcher Masa Kobayashi proved to be the key as the two shut down the Yankees’ bats to put the Indians in place for the victory.

Fans can find a great selection of Cleveland Indians hats, New York Yankees apparel & more online through DFN Sports and network sites!

Leading 4-3 heading into the 9th inning against Boston, the Indians looked to be in control with closer Joe Borowski on the mound. But Boston rallied in the 9th as former Indian Manny Ramirez took Borowski deep to left for his 3rd homerun of the season to lead Boston to a 6-4 win in Cleveland. For JoeBo, it was his 2nd blown save in 4 chances this year, and there’s no doubt that the sports talk stations in Cleveland will be ripping him yet again. While Cleveland Indians apparel has been a popular item in stores and online in 2008, the Tribe’s 5-8 start will not make retailers happy unless the Indians can improve and turn their season around.

Early in the 2008 season, there are two things that are very clear with the Cincinnati Reds. First, they need to figure out how to deal with having two left-handed 1st basemen and second, how to improve their roster against left-handed pitching. These two items seem to be a significant problem for Cincinnati, but also both could be “fixed” by one single roster move.

A manager can only do so much with what they are given, and Reds’ manager Dusty Baker has a bit of an issue on his hands. Young 1B prospect Joey Votto made the opening day roster for Cincinnati despite the fact that the Reds also have Scott Hatteberg under contract in 2008. Votto has started the season strong batting .320 with 2 HR and 5 RBI through 10 games while Hatteberg is hitting .190 with 0 HR and 2 RBI in 10 games while getting 4 ABs fewer than the younger Votto. So statistically, it’s clear in the early-going that Votto is the better choice. The Reds are reportedly shopping Hatteberg, and despite his solid clubhouse presence and veteran leadership skills, I think it’s time to hand the job to Votto.

As for the lack of hitting against left-handed batters, the Reds’ lack of offensive depth and right-handed hitters is clearly hurting this team. Edwin Encarnacion continues to struggle batting just .171 through 35 ABs which maks things worse, and the Reds have even gone as far as sitting both Hatteberg and Votto down as Jeff Keppinger got the start at 1B on Sunday @ Pittsburgh. But Cincinnati needs to make a move to get another right-handed bat on the 25-man roster, and AAA Louisville does not look to have the solution.

A review of the AAA team leads me to think that a deal is likely the Reds’ best option to get new blood into the franchise. Jolbert Cabrera and Jerry Harriston, Jr. both bat right handed and both are hitting over .400 at AAA, but both are primarily 2B and Brandon Phillips is not going anywhere for the Reds. With AAA not looking to be the best option, the best-case scenario is if the Reds could get a marginal prospect or relatively equally-skilled 1B who hits right-handed to replace Hatteberg. Either way, both of these issues need to be resolved if the Reds want to contend in 2008.

Two days ago, after the Reds had dropped 2 straight to draw even at 4-4, the worry was that Cincinnati was wasting good pitching thanks to a less-than-stellar offensive output. Two days later, the Reds are 6-4 after back-to-back wins @ Milwaukee as the Reds outscored the Brewers 16-5 in the two games. After a 12-4 win on Wednesday night, Aaron Harang pitched the Reds to victory allowing just 1 run in 8 innings to pick up his first win of the season.

With the win, the Reds now sit in a 3rd-place tie with the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central, just 1.5 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals. Cincinnati travels to Pittsburgh (3-5) to face the Pirates in a 3-game series beginning on Friday evening @ 7:05 pm ET as Edinson Volquez looks for his second win in a s many starts.

Listen up Reds fans! You can now apply online for a Cincinnati Reds credit card over at Sports-Shop.com where they feature MLB credit cards for every Major League Baseball team!

The Cleveland Indians announced today that they have come to terms with the #2 starter, Fausto Carmona, to a 4-year $15 million deal with incentives and added years. Coming off a 19-win season where Carmona was 19-8 with a 3.06 ERA, Carmona has started strong going 1-0 in 2 starts with a 0.69 ERA in 2008.

Carmona’s deal includes a $750,000 signing bonus and guarantees him $500,000 in 2008, $2.75 million in 2009, $4.9 million in 2010 and $6.1 million in 2011. The Indians have options for $7 million in 2012, $9 million in 2013 and $14 million in 2014.

> Indians fans can now apply online for a Cleveland Indians credit card through Sports Shop, your leader for sports merchandise and now sports logo credit cards!

Coming off Johnny Cueto’s dominant Major League debut, the Cincinnati Reds are 2-1 as they begin a 4-game series with Philadelphia beginning tonight. The Phillies dropped the first two games against Washington before topping the Nationals 8-7 yesterday to salvage a 1-2 start. Tonight’s starting match-up has former Colorado Rockies pitcher Josh Fogg starting for Cincinnati while Philadelphia counters with Kyle Hendrick @ 7:10 pm. Friday night’s game is the lone night game of the series with Saturday having a 1:10 first pitch, Sunday a 1:15 start and Monday’s get-away day start is at 12:35 pm.

ESPN is currently airing their first Sunday Night Baseball as the Washington Nationals open their new ballpark, but it is the Cleveland Indians that I want to talk about. Two major ESPN baseball personalities, Peter Gammons and John Kruk, both picked the Indians tonight to represent the American League in the 2008 World Series. Gammons picked the Indians to defeat the Braves in 7 games while Kruk later chose the Indians to lose to the Cubs.

The Indians will open the 2008 season on Monday @ 3:05 as they host their AL Central Division rivals, the Chicago White Sox. C.C. Sababthia, the 2007 AL Cy Young Award winner, will get the opening day start for Cleveland and will face Mark Buehrle for the White Sox.

The 2007 Cleveland Indians came one game away from the World Series. A year later the Indians return over 90% of their 2007 roster having not lost a single major piece of their puzzle. As a result, the Pro Baseball Fans 2008 Cleveland Indians preview expects big things from the ‘08 Tribe but also has a few questions about the Indians. Check out the Indians preview as well as all of the 2008 MLB previews online at ProBaseball-fans.com

2007 was not a good year for the Cincinnati Reds. A 72-90 record, their promising rookie starter gets rocked, their superstar OF gets hurt, again, and they fire their manager only to then replace the replacement at season’s end. Yes, it was indeed a rough year for the Reds in 2007. But the beauty of sports is that there is always next year, and next year is here for the Cincinnati Reds. In their 2008 Cincinnati Reds preview, Pro Baseball Fans likes the Reds’ added starting pitching depth, the bolstered bullpen thanks to the signing of Francisco Cordero and the young stars coming up through the Cincinnati system. Will the Reds win 90 games and take the NL Central? Or will Cincinnati once again be below .500 and disappoint the best fans in baseball? Find out for yourself in the Pro Baseball Fans 2008 MLB previews and in the meantime, find Cincinnati Reds hats & merchandise online through DFN Sports sites.