Ryan

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Relief, in More Ways Than One

Well, the past couple of days have been, shall we say, eventful. As they have been for me. So expect to read a lot today.

Item number one is obviously CC Sabathia’s injury. The preliminary diagnosis is a strained bicep muscle. Trust me, that’s good news if that’s all it is. Immediately after hearing that CC was not only pulled because of injury, but that it was more specifically a “sore shoulder”, I immediately thought of the worst. A rotator cuff injury would sidetrack CC for a extended amount of time, and a torn labrum is just about as bad as a gets for a pitcher. Now that Tommy John surgery (elbow ligament replacement) is so common, the shoulder injury is the final frontier for pitchers. Because the shoulder is such a complex joint, an injury to the labrum could mean permanent damage to the arm, and could effectively end a pitcher’s career. So I am definitely relieved to hear that it’s a muscle injury instead. Hopefully the Indians (and they have so far) play it conservatively with CC and allow him to rest until it’s fully healed, because a lot of times a player will get injured a second time because they compensated for a previous lingering injury.

Now, onto the Jake Westbrook dilemma.

On Monday night, Jeff D’Amico (who ironically pitched well on Thursday in a role reversal) got shelled for four runs before a lengthy rain delay. Eric Wedge then brought in Jake Westbrook to try to eat up a couple of innings. And eat them he did; he threw seven perfect innings, throwing a little over 80 pitches. Wedge did not send him out for an eighth inning, instead bringing out Rafael Betancourt, the team’s best reliever this year in a tie game, who promptly gave up a three-run homer. Game over.

Almost immediately the fans started to slam Wedge on taking out Westbrook. He had only thrown a little over 80 pitches, and was throwing a perfect game, they said. Why take him out?

I don’t agree with everything Wedge does (or every other manager in baseball), but Wedge was absolutely right in pulling him. Here’s why:

1) Westbrook has a history of arm injuries. In 2002 he had elbow surgery (ulnar nerve, bone spurs), and practically missed the entire season. He attempted a comeback late in the year, but was shut down in August because of elbow soreness.

2) Westbrook’s maximum pitch count this year was 75. Given that pitchers injure themselves more frequently when tired, he would have been at a greater risk to re-injuring his elbow. Pitch counts are not unto themselves a preventive measure; they are simply a tool for a manager to gauge how tired a pitcher is. If a pitcher is normally accustomed to throwing 95-100 pitches in a start, throwing 120 pitches in a game probably indicates that he threw 15-20 pitches tired. Not good. How do you prevent this? I’m no pitching coach, but normally a pitcher is gradually stretched out so that he can manage whatever pitch count the team feels necessary to throw. So in his next outing, Westbrook should be able to go 85 pitches comfortably. Yes, you can bring up pitchers 30-50 years ago, but the fact is that this is not the 1960s, and it probably will never be. Going “old school” is not an option in today’s game, where pitchers simply aren’t programmed to throw that many pitches or innings.

3) Rafael Betancourt was the best reliever in the bullpen, and it’s a tie game. My assumption was that Betancourt pitches the eighth, and Riske the ninth, giving the Indians two innings to get one run. It didn’t work; Betancourt didn’t do his job. Had he done his job and the Indians score in the 8th or 9th, no one would have praised Wedge for the move. Why? Because they would have done their jobs.

Wedge could have gone Dusty Baker and thrown Westbrook out there until the game was over. But what then if, because of the stress those last two innings caused him, he re-injures his elbow and is out an entire year? Then you lose Sunday’s starter (he’ll take the place of Jason Stanford, who’s on the DL), and lose his services for the entire year.

Baseball is a game of risk management, both on the field and off. You choose situations where there is the least risk of things going wrong. Yes, managers sometimes go with their ‘gut’, and sometimes they are right. But show me a manager who goes with his gut on every decision, eschewing the data available to him, and I’ll show you a manager who’s unemployed. Especially when it comes to injuring pitchers arms.

The Bullpen Merry-Go-Round

Jason Stanford, although his forearm injury wasn’t that serious, was DLed anyways in order for the Indians to bring up some more arms for the bullpen. Jeriome Robertson, who was acquired this spring in order to provide depth, is now doing so. For now, he’ll probably take over for Jake Westbrook as the longman, and possibly make a spot start here and there. The rotation is all mucked up thanks to bad performances (D’Amico, Durbin) and injuries (Sabathia), so he might be starting this week sometime, or at least until the rotation gets reorganized.

Jose Jimenez is also on the DL. Hopefully his obscure muscle injury was the cause of his dramatic drop in velocity, but I’m not real hopeful. David “Assignable” Lee was brought up in his stead. He’ll serve as the mopup pitcher, and will probably be gone in a couple of weeks, until the next fungible arm is decided on.

Couple Guys to Watch

OF Ryan Goleski. He’s mashing the ball in Lake County (.367/.426/.735). Not bad for a 24th round pick.

C Ryan Garko. Also mashing, though a bit more impressive because it’s in Kinston (.429/.478/.690). I doubt seriously he’ll stick at catcher, but teams found places for Craig Wilson and Matt LeCroy.

SP Adam Miller. As a rule, I try to temper any enthusiasm for pitchers below AA, because of the inherent risk you take with young pitching, but I can’t ignore 21 SO in 16 innings. Plus he’s only allowed 2 walks and 5 hits. He also doesn’t turn 20 until after the season.

One Last Thing

I’ve changed my e-mail address to indians@gmail.com. So please address any correspondence there from now on

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The Real Matt Lawton?

Other than the first couple weeks of the 2002 season, I haven’t seen Lawton like this in an Indians uniform. He’s always had the eye at the plate, but the fact that he’s hitting for power now really is encouraging. He’s sort of a nontraditional leadoff hitter, but frankly how many “traditional” leadoff men are in the game now? If Matt can turn back the clock and become Lawton v. 2000, this offense will get a boost. Of course, then he becomes tradable as well.

Here’s how the regulars are hitting so far:

Player BA OBP SLG
Lawton .321 .373 .585
Vizquel .296 .356 .370
Gerut .298 .385 .474
Blake .294 .385 .392
Hafner .349 .408 .721
Martinez .206 .279 .436
Broussard .350 .480 .500
Escobar .200 .263 .229
Belliard .423 .423 .519

Obviously these numbers will not continue to hold, but this is definitely encouraging considering that the offense was expected to be a weakness this year. This lineup is murder on right-handed pitching, but we all saw what happened when the Tigers started southpaw Mike Maroth. The most missed player on the team is probably Ryan Ludwick, as he was expected to play some first this year. Regardless, this team is definitely not a finished product, but we’re really beginning to see the strengths and weaknesses of this team, and that’s what this season is all about. If the process proceeds as planned, the weaknesses will be addressed this offseason.

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Transactions

Placed RHRP Jose Jimenez on the 15-day Disabled List (intercostal muscle)

Placed RHRP Bob Wickman on the 60-day Disabled List (elbow)

Purchased the Contract of RHRP David Lee from Buffalo (AAA)

Sorry about the delay in posting, but I’ve been really busy as of late.

Judging on the past two games against the Tigers, this team is talented but inconsistent. Which is pretty normal for a team as young as the Indians. Yes, the lineup probably had a bit to do with the 6-1 loss, but it was more a lack of hitting with RISP than anything that cost the Indians the game. Jason Davis pitched “OK”, but fell behind to a lot of hitters, and that usually spells disaster no matter who’s on the mound. Left-handed pitching, which the AL Central has a lot of, is arsenic to this lineup. Check these career splits versus LHP out:

Ben Broussard .184/.246/.296

Jody Gerut .200/.271/.303

Travis Hafner .202/.284/.356

Those are probably the three best hitters on the team, and when you have to play Lou Merloni at first rather than Broussard or Hafner, it’s a problem. The solution? Shapiro’s #1 job this offseason is to get 2-3 good right-handed hitters to plug into this lineup. Until then, I guess you just bide your time until you can start playing teams without all left-handed starters

But first things first. Last night’s game was a validation of sorts to those who’ve supported the rebuild. We aren’t going to see the whole lineup click like that every night this season, but it does show you what this team is capable of. Victor Martinez had a great game, and Jody Gerut had a career game, coming very close to hitting for the cycle. CC Sabathia finally got his well-deserved first win. It was 70 degrees at game time.

Oh well. You have to live with the ups and downs of such a young team, and moreover you have to be patient; for three clunkers you see, you’ll see a game like the one on Friday night. The good thing is that of all the teams in the Central, the Indians have the most money to spend next year, and the most room for improvement. Until then, we bide our time…

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Return to Normalcy, or Just a Blast from the Past?

Yesterday, the Indians followed a familiar script:

1) Score first

2) Starter pitches well

3) Increase the lead

However they for some reason forgot:

4) Blow the lead late

5) Lose the game in extra innings

Of course, that didn’t mean they didn’t try to follow the script. David Riske was on his way towards giving up a four run lead, and then pitching coach Carl Willis made a visit. Three pitches later, the game was over. After the game, Riske said that he had lost his aggressiveness, and he had blown the other games because he was too “nice”.

Too nice?

Well, that certainly is a relief. Now if Riske starts getting lit up, the bench can start chanting “no juevos!” like the “other” Indians did to Pedro Cerrano.

Bitter, Party of One?

Judging by Jim Ingraham’s piece today, you’d have thought that the Indians had lost yesterday. Is this the same guy who waxes poetic on the Indians’ farm system for Baseball America?

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Opening Day, Part II

Today is the home opener, and finally the Indians are back in Cleveland. The road trip was, shall we say, frustrating and maddening. The Indians starters have the best ERA in the American League, the offense has been productive, scoring an average of just over 5 runs a game, certainly better than last year. But the bullpen has just plained sucked. The Indians are 2-3 when leading after 6 innings. Unfortunately, there’s no one person to pin the blame on. All four of the Indians’ setup men (Riske, Stewart, Betancourt, and Jimenez) have lost or directly contributed to a loss. David Riske has blown both of his save opportunities, giving up leads of 3 and 2 runs, respectively.

So what happens now? First of all, hope that a couple guys get back on track, specifically Stewart and Riske. The Indians don’t really have another left-handed reliever that they could call up, and Riske is the team’s best reliever. There’s a couple of right-handed guys in Buffalo that could be called up (Luther Hackman, David Lee) for a quick fix, but no one in the bullpen have any options. So unless someone gets hurt, the Indians are stuck with the current guys.

What’s especially maddening is the fact that both Minnesota and Kansas City were very beatable. The Indians banged around both Jeremy Affeldt and Brian Anderson, probably the Royals’ best pitchers, and got to both Brad Radke and Kyle Lohse. Unfortunately, they were only 2-2 during those games. For a team who won’t be able to slug past their mistakes, losing these games are completely unacceptable.

Now for positives. The starting rotation has been as good as it possibly could have. Jeff D’Amico turned back the clock four years, Jason Davis has shown a lot of improvement, and CC Sabathia has pitched like an ace. Heck, Jason Stanford kept the team in the ballgame on Friday night, allowing 0 runs in 5 innings. The offense has been solid, with virtually everyone in the lineup contributing. And beyond the numbers, I’ve noticed a drastic change in approach from several players; Eddie Murray looks to finally been able to get to a lot of the young players, and it’s showed.

Also, Brandon Phillips looks like a new hitter, at least in his first few games this year:

14 AB, .429/.500/.714, 1 HR, 1 2B

No, this line is not going to hold up over the course of the year, but the fact that he’s taking walks shows that he’s at least willing to listen to his coaches. The return of Phillips as a bonefied prospect would be a huge boost to the Indians. Jhonny Peralta has also started the season hot, batting .357 over 14 ABs.

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Transactions

Claimed RHRP Jason Anderson off waivers from the New York Mets; Optioned him to Buffalo (AAA)

Seeing that Anderson was the centerpiece to last year’s Armando Benitez deal, I’m a bit surprised the Mets risked outrighting him, especially when they still had an option on him. By my recollection, Anderson is the 5th bullpen arm claimed off waivers in the past two years (Matt White, Jack Cressend, Nick Bierbrodt, and Cliff Bartosh being the others). Given this history, it looks like Shapiro is definitely looking to build a bullpen without giving out multi-year, multi-million dollar contracts to LOOGYs and various “veterens” that have name value. Just take a look at the current bullpen:

David Riske (56th! Round of the 1996 draft)

Jose Jimenez (1 year, $1M contract)

Scott Stewart (traded Ryan Church and Maicer Izturis)

Rafael Betancourt (minor-league contract)

Jack Cressend (waiver claim)

Chad Durbin (minor-league contract)

Jake Westbrook (the David Justice trade)

Of these seven guys, only Jake Westbrook really cost anything, although Ryan Church could someday become a decent outfielder. Of course, Bob Wickman obviously cost the Indians a ton of money, but his stint with the Indians is essentially over. And hopefully Mark Shapiro has learned his lesson.

So what about Jason Anderson? From what I can tell, he’s basically a live arm who has had success in the minors in the bullpen. So the Indians will maybe treak some mechanics in Buffalo, see what he can do, and eventually send him up to Cleveland. Unfortunately for Anderson, Fernando Cabrera and Kazuhito Tadano will probably get chances before he does. The Indians have been successful in their relief projects recently, and hopefully Anderson further that track record.

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Gotta be the Tongue…

Ron Belliard is having a great start to the season…but that’s being overshadowed by his odd habit of sticking out his tongue on the field. Oh well, maybe it brings him luck, or possibly he’s endowed with an extra sense in his tongue that doubles as a sonar device….

If anyone spies a pic of him doing this on the ‘Net, send it my way, and I’ll post it here.