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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.

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!

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

The Cleveland Indians have decided to bring back 3 pitchers to the 2008 team when they chose to pickup the options for starter Paul Byrd and relievers Aaron Fultz and Joe Borowski. Here’s a brief breakdown of each signing:

• Paul Byrd - Byrd went 15-8 with a 4.59 ERA in 2007 starting 31 games. At $7.5 million, the Indians are getting a bargain to sign a veteran 15-game winning starter at this price. His HGH issue does not concern me greatly and I tend to believe that Byrd had honest intentions or he would not have been so public about it in his upcoming book. Good decision again by Shapiro.
• Aaron Fultz - At $1.5 million for a left reliever with a 2.92 ERA, this does not look like a bad deal, but when the games were on the line manager Eric Wedge did not trust Fultz enough to use him much in the playoffs.  The price is right for Fultz considering the market.
• Joe Borowski - JoBo, like many closers, is not always a fan favorite, but the Indians closer did save a AL-best 45 games in 2007. At $4 million we’re talking about a steal.

Nice work Mr. Executive of the Year, Mark Shapiro!

Just a reminder as Game 7 has started and that we originally picked Cleveland to beat Boston in 7 games. Go Tribe!

We’ve reached the 8th inning of game 5 and the Cleveland Indians have dug themselves a hole thanks to C.C. Sabathia’s inability to stay out of trouble. Sabathia allowed all 4 runs in 6 plus innings but the two runs allowed in the top of the 7th really took thr crowd out of the game.

The Tribe will look for a big inning from the top of the order in the bottom of the 8th as Grady Sizemore leads off the bottom of the inning.

We’ve completed 1 inning here Jacobs Field and the Indians and Red Sox have traded runs. Kevin Youkilis started the scoring with a solo homer for Boston while Travis Hafner double play ball brought home Grady Sizemore for the Indians’ lone run.