In his first outing of the spring, Monday in Phoenix against the Athletics, there were things we saw from Ubaldo Jimenez that made us believe there was a chance that it would be him, and not Justin Masterson, taking the ball for Terry Francona on Opening Day.  By the first pitch Tuesday, all of that talk would end when Tito told Masterson that he was the guy.  Cemented as the #2 starter in the rotation, Jimenez was back in game action against the visiting Padres in Goodyear on Saturday.

Everything was going fairly well for Jimenez, who was given a 6-spot by his offense in the bottom of the first, as they took batting practice off of San Diego starter Edinson Volquez.  Then, the third inning happened, and that’s where the whole start is going to look bad on paper.  It’s not often that you give up five runs without registering an out, but that’s how it had to be for Ubaldo, who got no assistance from Edward Paredes out of the bullpen in the dreadful third inning, but we are talking about a guy who is wearing #91.  That's why we don't read much the 11-8 final score of Saturday's game.

After the top half of the third, and the softball-like 13 combined runs, things felt more like real down-to-earth baseball the rest of the way.  Matt Albers gave up a run on three hits, but struck out two and San Diego had an 8-6 lead after the visitors half of the fourth inning.  The Indians bounced right back against Bobby Erlin.

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Wherever the Indians bats have been since Monday, they found their way back to Goodyear, Arizona on Friday.  Matt Carson and Mike McDade both found the deepest part of center field, and succeeded in depositing baseballs there with a couple of runners on, en route to a 9-7 victory over the visiting White Sox.  The looming news of the day was all about the Tribe's closer, who was the topic of some bad news today, but the Indians still had a ball game to play.

It was a battle of the aces, as Terry Francona sent his Opening Day starter Justin Masterson to go up against Robin Ventura’s left handed reliever-turned-starter Chris Sale.  Both pitchers made it through the first inning relatively unscathed, but Masterson got into some trouble when a few of his sinkers turned into rise balls. 

Masterson, who was working some change-ups into his usual repertoire of fastballs and sinkers, claimed that every single hit he allowed came on a bad sinker.  He and the skipper both appreciated what the sinker was doing when it was effective.

He refused to blame the Arizona air for when things didn’t go right, and pointed out that, “When they were good, guys were swinging over the top of them.”  When they weren’t good, the White Sox were hitting them very far.  Dayan Viciedo got into one of those risers, and hit it as far as I’ve ever seen anyone hit the ball in four plus seasons at the Goodyear Ballpark, to start the second inning.

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If you thought production was thin for the Tribe the last two days, it was, again, more of the same for the Tribe in Surprise on Thursday in a 10-0 loss to the Texas Rangers.  For the third day in a row, a sustainable offense was nowhere to be found, but it was time for the pitchers to get into the act of virtual ineffectiveness. 

Things started well, but got ugly fast for the Indians, losers of three straight after a 5-0 start.  Drew Stubbs led off the game with a single, but it was quickly erased by Asdrubal Cabrera’s 5-4-3 double play, and a Jason Kipnis line out gave Texas starter Derek Holland momentum for his four inning outing.

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It just hit me so quickly. All this spring training madness. I don't think it slowed down once for me to breath it all in.

Maybe it took a crash down to the reality for our spring edition of the Cleveland Indians 2013 squad for me to stop and breathe, but I finally have stopped and started to breathe this team in.

That sounds weird. Phrasing. Okay look at it this way.

Spring began, Bourn signed, there was some hustle and bustle, then games started and the Indians came out on fire. Heck, they still may be on fire for all we know.

So it really has been tough to stop and take a look at this team. I went on a rant the other day about the whole "settling" thing that some free agents had to do, and that was fun, but that's a matter that just irked me to the point where I had to say something and not something necessarily pertinent to what's going on right now.

The truth of the matter is. I don't really know what's going on right now. It is still February. The only reason that spring games have even started right now is because of the World Baseball Classic. In a way, we are ahead of the game and there's still one long month left before we can actually get excited about results.

So that's where I am. At the exciting point of knowing this team may really entertain us this year but also coming to the realization that while we get to see them in action and watch results we think are possible come to fruition (at least in an exhibition sense), there's some waiting that we have to do.

Oh well, I guess the few stories and notes that relate to the actual first few days the Indians will be playing real games will have to do for now.

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