Baseball (Archive)

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Everything Old is New Again

Purchased RHRP Kane Davis from Camden of the Atlantic League; Assigned him to Buffalo (AAA)

In more ways than one, last weekend was a bit of a throwback. A last at-bat victory, and two blowouts. What’s the difference between last year’s offense and this year’s offense? In a word, patience. The organization’s prime directive of plate discipline seems to be taking hold, judging by quotes like this from Sunday’s recap in the Canton Repository:

“We’re all learning, and realizing that working the count is a great thing,” said first baseman Ben Broussard, who drove in four runs with two singles. “So much of this is experience, and in being comfortable in thinking that, even if they’re not going to give you anything to hit, the guy behind you will pick you up.”

Jody Gerut, even though he had a 17-game hitting streak on the line, took four walks before striking out in the 8th innings. Taking walks should not be the ultimate goal of a team, but instead the plate discipline needed to work the count should. Not swinging at a pitch outside of the strike zone opens up so many more possibilities in an at-bat than merely flailing away at the first pitch. From a piece written by Andy Call, who is the best Indians beat reporter in Northeast Ohio:

“Is it frustrating? Shoot, yeah,” the Indians right fielder said Sunday after he was walked four times, then struck out during a 10-0 victory over Tampa Bay, snapping a career-high 17-game hitting streak. “Job No. 1 is to get a good pitch to hit, and you have to be disciplined enough to stick to your game plan.”

Gerut said he saw only three reachable pitches all day Sunday, two on balls he fouled off during the same sixth-inning at-bat against right-hander Jorge Sosa. Former Indians reliever Danys Baez then struck out Gerut to lead off the eighth inning.

I think we’re seeing a bit of the Indians’ young hitters growing up. They’re the youngest team in the American League, yet lead the AL in OBP, a spot usually reserved for a veteren ballclub. Although the Indians aren’t really mentioned as a sabermetric organization, they do use several of its prinicples. Flying under the radar in this respect can be a good thing; they do avoid many of the backhanded articles written by traditionalist sportswriters who don’t really understand what this sabermetric thing is about. I’ll expound more on exactly where the Indians fit in the baseball continuum in the next couple of days.

Anyway, former Indians gas can Kane Davis is once again in the organization after being purchased from the Atlantic League, an independent league. Davis is probably earmarked to help stabilize Buffalo’s bullpen after its best two relievers were brought to Cleveland. A successful AAA team isn’t really necessary for the organization, as many International League rosters are filled with washed-up veterens who aren’t good enough for the majors. But fielding a good team is important for the developmental relationship between Cleveland and Buffalo. Baltimore neglected Rochester for much of the 1990s, and the RedWings finally bolted for the Twins, while the Orioles were stuck with Edmonton.

And finally, about Cliff Bartosh and Matt Miller. I’m really trying to temper my enthusiasm about them, since both relied on their unfamiliarity to dominate the Devil Rays last weekend. Miller has an unorthodox delivery that you don’t really see much anymore, and this was Bartosh’s major league debut. But Rafael Betancourt had to come from somewhere, so I’m hoping that the Indians have caught lightning in a bottle again. Jack Cressend will have to sneak through waivers, and there’s a good chance that someone will claim him given his success last year.

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Back in the Saddle

That was one the oddest 5-5 stretches I’ve seen in a while. I’m not going to redundantly going to recap what most of you already know. Instead, I’ll go Larry King and start spouting randomness.

Scott Stewart and Jose Jimenez have showed signs of improvement. Yeah, it didn’t take much to look better than they did in April, but Stewart is starting to rack up some strikeouts, and Jimenez is starting to get ground balls again. Rick White has pretty much been as advertised; eat up some innings, and has furthermore pitched out of some high-leverage situations. Now if only David Riske could get back on track….

It really pains me to see Omar Vizquel in the field. His arm strength is just plain bad now, and his range has dramatically decreased. With Brandon Phillips rebounding quite well from his abysmal 2003 season, it’s probably only a matter of time until he’s mentioned as Omar’s heir apparent. Ironically, Omar’s bat may keep him in the league a couple more years. In the right situation, he’d be a very adequate platoon partner at second base, where his lack of arm strength wouldn’t be as much of an issue. But regardless, he’s not going to be a starting shortstop after this season is over.

Who knew the offense was going to be as good as the bullpen was bad? Yes, a lot of this production is coming from Ronnie Belliard and Matt Lawton, but Jody Gerut, Victor Martinez, and Travis Hafner are also playing a big part as well. Casey Blake has been, well, Casey Blake, and the only real weak spot in the lineup has been Alex Escobar or Coco Crisp. Ryan Ludwick would look real nice in the lineup right now.

It’s time to rekindle my annual “Free Kyle Denney!” campaign. Most baseball fans have one unheralded or virtually unknown baseball player that we really root for, and Denney has been that guy for the last two years. He’s essentially the right-handed version of Jason Stanford, except that he was actually drafted. He’s been eligible for the Rule 5 Draft for two years now, and although Lino Urdaneta was drafted this year, teams passed on Denney, even though he’s been successful his entire minor-league career. Why is that? Well, scouts tend to frown on players who aren’t over six foot tall, can’t throw 92-93 mph, only has one good pitch, or who don’t come from a good program.

Denney was drafted out of Oklahoma in the 26th round in 1999, generally not a good sign for a college player. But Denney has done nothing but post sub-4.00 ERAs at every level since then. He’s also been able to “miss bats”, he’s accumulated 466 strikeouts in 487 pro innings, while only walking 154, very good ratios. His only knock? He’s two months away from turning 27, and he’s been old at every level. But if you’re the Indians, why not use this opportunity to try out Denney while contention is a year away? Stanford finally got his shot, and ironically Stanford’s forearm injury could help open the door for Denney as well.

Site Update

I’m experimenting with trying to integrate the minor league rosters with the blog, just so I can limit the maintenance associated with this site. So please bear with me, and please let me know if you have any suggestions as to how I can improve your surfing experience.

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Our Wonderfully Craptastic Bullpen

What a grotesque beast this year’s bullpen is turning out to be.

What’s mind-boggling is that most of the culprits have major-league track records. Jose Jimenez, David Riske, and Scott Stewart have all closed before with at least some degree of success. Yet all three have been absolute gas-cans this season.

What can the Indians do about it? Not much, besides going after another fungible arm or two like Rick White. Otherwise they just have to just hope that the main guys get things back together before the rest of the team is affected by it.

The most unfortunate thing about the bullpen is that it’s overshadowing an otherwise improved team. The Indians are light-years better offensively, ranking at least in the middle of the pack in vritually every team category. The starting pitching has been pretty good for most of the season. But the only thing people seem to mention on this team is the bullpen…it’s been that bad.

VORP Results – April

Probably the best measure of how good or bad a player has been is his VORP, or Value Over Replacement Player. It’s essentially a measure of how much better a player is than a generic replacement player. If you’d like to see the mathematics behind this, here’s a good introduction.

First the starters:

CC Sabathia 10.8
Jason Davis 0.7
Cliff Lee 6.3
Jeff D’Amico -1.7
Jason Stanford 6.8
Jake Westbrook 11.2

Only veteren crumb Jeff D’Amico has really been a below-average pitcher, though Jason Davis has resided there for a couple starts. If you assume Westbrook is going to boot out Jeff when Jason Stanford comes off the DL, it’s a pretty good rotation.

Now, for the hitters:

Matt Lawton 5.0
Omar Vizquel 5.7
Jody Gerut 3.0
Casey Blake 1.5
Travis Hafner 9.6
Ron Belliard 18.2
Ben Broussard 3.6
Victor Martinez 3.6
Alex Escobar 1.1

Again, not too bad considering the expectations for the offense. Obviously Belliard is playing way over his head, but the runs have been there. Unfortunately, the wins haven’t come because of these guys:

David Riske -4.8
Rafael Betancourt 1.3
Scott Stewart -5.5
Jose Jimenez -1.1
Chad Durbin -8.8
Rick White 0.4
David Lee -5.0
Kaz Tadano 0.0

Ouch. Betancourt has the highest value at 1.3, and the rest have been pretty much scrub-level.