Jim Brown No Longer “Officially” A Browns FO Man; Could Paul Warfield Soon Follow?
May 28, 2010While We’re Waiting… Michael Jordan, Choo’s Duty and LeBron Day
May 29, 2010Suffice it to say, things haven’t gone as planned for Justin Masterson this season.
Guaranteed of a job in the starting rotation by Manny Acta and Mark Shapiro, Masterson has done nothing to solidify that role going forward. So far this season, he’s sporting a 0-5 record, a nifty 6.13 ERA and a .322 batting average against. He hasn’t won a game since last August. In short, he’s getting pounded. Oh yeah, one more thing: he gets to face the Yankees this weekend. Good times!
Though Acta and Shapiro haven’t made a move yet, it’s looking like something has to be done before the kid gets flat-out ruined as a major league player. As far as I can tell, there are four options going forward. Let’s explore each:
Option 1 – Let him swap places with Aaron Laffey, sending Masterson immediately to the bullpen. This seems to be the easiest and most obvious solution. Laffey is a proven (if unimpressive) starter. Masterson has now had close to a full year of starting experience, and he’s not getting better—in fact, the argument could be made that he’s getting worse. If the conclusion is that he just can’t stick in a rotation, this option would be the quickest path back to a role in which Masterson has had relative success.
Option 2 – Stay the course. The whole point of this season was to give players a chance to play so that we can see what we have for 2011. Even though it looks like Masterson doesn’t have the stuff to start, we should note that his strikeout numbers remain really impressive for a starter (8.81 per nine innings—by far the best among Tribe starters) and his homerun rate is actually pretty good (0.77 per nine). This translates to a perfectly reasonable 4.16 FIP. The problem is when batters put the ball in play off him, they’re hitting a ridiculous .405; that is entirely unsustainable. So there’s reason to think he’ll regress (in the good way). While he does struggle against lefties—they’re batting .386 off him—there’s also reason to think that his experiences this season as a starter might help him down the road. And the results should start to turn around. They can’t get much worse.
Option 3 – Send both Masterson and Laffey down to AAA. This option resembles Option 1, but allows them both the time needed to adjust to new roles before slotting them in against major league talent. Laffey could stretch out in AAA (he hasn’t pitched more than three innings so far this season), and Masterson could clear his head, dominate in a few middle relief appearances, and regain some confidence. While they’re down—they both have remaining options—Jensen Lewis and Carlos Carrasco could take their spots on the 25-man roster. This would probably take about a month.
Option 4 – Send Masterson down, but keep him a starter. This option is all about letting him regain his confidence. I really thought they’d do this after his last awful start against the White Sox. He looked lost on the mound, and couldn’t figure out how to pull out of his funk. Some AAA competition might clear his head, while not fully giving up on an eventual return to a starting rotation.
Look, I don’t really know the right thing to do right no. Before the season started, I was pretty sure Masterson would struggle as a starter, but not to this degree. I was all for keeping him the rotation for the entire year, and letting him take his lumps and learn how to battle through it. After all, that’s the motto of the 2010 Indians: “Let’s put our losing to good use!”
But this is getting ridiculous. If he keeps losing, keeps throwing wild pitches, keeps getting pounded in the early innings, he’s going to lose his confidence as a pitcher. The kid’s only 25 years old, and he’s got an angry fanbase, a losing team, and the memories of an All-Star catcher hanging around his neck. I can’t believe that those things aren’t starting to weigh on him, despite his upbeat talk in the locker room. Masterson seems like a really good kid—the kind of player I like to root for. I’d hate to see him ruined by a team that wanted him to be a starter simply to make the Victor Martinez trade look better. If that’s what’s happening, then it has to stop. That is simply unfair to him.
The Masterson situation reminds me of a conversation I had in graduate school. I was talking with a friend about (what else?) belief and certainty.* My buddy said something that sticks with me still. He couldn’t believe (in God? Academia? The Smoke Monster? I don’t remember…), and it really frustrated him. But he also wasn’t happy with not believing. What we ended up settling on was that he believed in believing—that even though he couldn’t believe, he agreed that it was a good thing to do, and he believed in it.
*We were probably supposed to be proctoring a freshman comp exam or grading term papers, but seriously, what do you think graduate students do? We are the most dedicated time-wasters on the face of the earth.
And maybe that’s how I feel about Masterson as a starter: I don’t really believe in the experiment right now, as much as I want to. But I believe in believing in it—if they keep throwing him out there, I’ll understand, even if it’s not what I would do.
Bring on the Yankees and pass the scotch.
11 Comments
Option 4. Either he gets better as a starter in AAA then give him another chance up here, or he blows it down there and we can slowly turn him into a reliever.
Then again if they let him pitch the rest of the year here, tell me you wouldn’t watch every 5th day if he was going for a season record of 0-25.
Scotch Scotch Scotch…down into my belly…
well done Jon…
to me, he is a great late inning relief option with his quirky delivery.
Bring on the Yankees and pass the scotch. LOLROF!!
he’s young and as you mentioned strikes guys out and doesn’t give up HRs. and (going entirely off what others have written) his velocity in the late innings stays pretty consistent.
these are good things for a starter…he has the tools.
he just needs to figure out how to get lefties out. heck, he can just walk every lefty that comes up to the plate and it would seem better than what he has been doing against him.
“*We were probably supposed to be proctoring a freshman comp exam or grading term papers, but seriously, what do you think graduate students do? We are the most dedicated time-wasters on the face of the earth.”
I am nodding my head approvingly at this, seeing as it is 4:48 on Friday, I’ve got more solvent transfers to do, and I’m commenting on this here internetblog.
Option 5 : Turn it all around and win a Cy Young. Then trade.
Really I would send him down and give Laffey his spot for the time being. If Laffey can’t get it together, call up another pitcher. It’s time to see what we have down in the minors, this pitching staff is horrible as of right now.
We know Masterson can be a great late inning relief option. He has always dominated righties and he really shouldn’t need any extra time to get adjusted to that role whenever that happens. No reason to give up on him as a starter this year. If he needs to work in columbus to make it happen then so be it, but he’s got the most potential of anyone on the staff here or in columbus.
In regards to the trade, both Hagadone and Price have pitched pretty well this year so far. Maybe it will turn out ok in the end, even though I’ll probably never agree with trading a guy that is such a clubhouse leader and actually wanted to play in Cleveland.
Cano grand slam…. more scotch.
Send them all back for Bucholz?
…or Bard