ANALYSIS Indians' rebuilding season packed with growing pains

The Tribe opens a six-game road trip in Anaheim tonight.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- John Hart, the man who helped transform Cleveland into a perennial baseball power, walked into the Texas dugout last weekend, poked his head out and soaked in Jacobs Field.
"Not much has changed," said the Rangers' general manager, who ran the Indians from 1991-2001.
Apparently Hart hasn't looked at the AL standings, watched the young Indians struggle or counted the rows of empty green seats lately at the Jake.
The Indians are off to a 9-21 start -- their worst since 1969 -- and recently lost eight straight games. They're batting just .237 as a team, and Cleveland's bullpen is 1-9 with a 4.47 ERA and five blown saves.
Attendance is down 30 percent at the Jake, which sold out 455 straight times over nearly seven years and is now rarely half full.
Not the best of times
Times are tough in Cleveland. And if not for the lowly Detroit Tigers, the Indians would have the worst record in the major leagues.
So much for small victories.
But that's exactly what the Indians are looking for during a rebuilding season they knew would be painful. They just didn't think it would hurt this much.
"It's been tough," acknowledged Ellis Burks, the club's full-time designated hitter and clubhouse leader. "We've got a lot of young players and this is going to take some time. Not twentysome games. But I like what I've seen. We're learning."
The Indians, who open a six-game road trip in Anaheim tonight, may not be as bad as their record.
Unlike the Tigers, they're not getting blown out nearly every time they take the field. During a recent 2-8 West Coast trip, Cleveland had its chances to win several other games, but the Indians either failed to come up with a clutch hit in the late innings or had their bullpen implode.
Cleveland is just 1-5 in one-run games, and the Indians have also been victimized by injuries and a tough schedule.
"Seems like it's been one thing or another working against us," said infielder John McDonald.
Missing out
Center fielder Milton Bradley was batting .375 when he went down with a strained hamstring.
The Indians are just 2-9 without him, and the club has also missed setup reliever Mark Wohlers and third baseman Ricky Gutierrez, who are both expected back by the end of the month.
During spring training, general manager Mark Shapiro pointed to the April 18-to-May 18 stretch as critical for his young team. In that 28-game span, the Indians will face Anaheim, Seattle, Oakland and Texas six times each and the Chicago White Sox four.
The break comes on May 19: The Tigers are in town.
So far, the Indians are 3-12 in the one-month monstrosity after coming from behind Friday to snap their eight-game slide and winning the series finale against Texas on Sunday as C.C. Sabathia got his first win.
The Indians had been 0-7-1 in their previous eight series.
"Our team has never stopped believing in our ability and a win like this just helps everything," said first-year manager Eric Wedge. "We were in all three games and came out on top in two of them, that is definitely good.
"In terms of being a young team, facing the Angels and Rangers again this week at their place is part of the learning process. We should have a better idea of what we need to do."