Remember the heady days of the beginning of the season when we believed that the bullpen could be a strength of the team and that even if a couple guys in the starting five didn’t pan out we still had Laffey, Sowers and Huff back in Columbus? Those were good times. Good times.
Remember when we thought that Carl Pavano was the biggest question mark on the staff? Those were good times. Good times.
That was before the meltdown of Fausto Carmona, the rookie inconsistency of David Huff, the TJ surgery of Anthony Reyes, the injury to Scott Lewis in his first game, the bullpen stint of Aaron Laffey which landed him on the DL, the general inability of Jeremy Sowers to fool major league hitters once they’d seen his stuff twice, and the trade of Clifton Phifer Lee, all of which combined to make Carl Pavano the post-trading deadline ace of the staff.
Yeah. Carl Pavano. Ace. And now the Carl Pavano, Ace era has come to an end.
And now, as the lost season continues, with the serious incentives in Pavano’s contract kicking in, he’s now a mid-rotation cagey veteran mound presence for the Minnesota Twins. Oh, we’ll get some organization fodder for him, to make it look like Minnesota traded for him, but the Twinkies claimed him on waivers and we can’t afford to pay him.
Pavano will likely be signing a multiyear contract in the offseason that will be too rich for the Tribe, so, see ya Carl. Thanks for showing some large stretches of competence in this hellhole of a season, and being a cagey veteran presence for the kiddie club.
Next Indian changing area codes? Probably Jamey Carroll (aka, “Sweet Baboo” or “Ninja Assassin”)
