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March 12, 2015Ohio State’s Path to a Big Ten Tournament Championship
March 12, 2015Grantland’s Jonah Keri is a big fan of the Cleveland Indians this season, so much so that he recently placed them among the top five teams in baseball. With a Cy Young candidate for an ace, an MVP candidate in left field and one of the best catchers in the game, this makes sense. But for the Indians to make that jump, they’ll not only need improvement from key players—Jason Kipnis, Michael Bourn—but also for their young, club-controlled rotation to start to take hold.
Good news: Keri thinks the latter is on the way, sooner rather than later. In his look at 2015 breakout candidates, Carlos Carrasco, Trevor Bauer and Danny Salazar are all listed.
The same factors that led me to tout Salazar and Kluber last year are in play again this season. Catcher Yan Gomes is a great pitch-framer, but, more importantly, these are pitchers with good stuff and at least stretches of putting up strong peripheral stats. Plus, they’re all at an age and experience level where a breakout often occurs.
The soon-to-be-28-year-old Carrasco hails from the Hutchison camp, coming to 2014 off of a strong final 10 starts: 69 innings pitched, 78 strikeouts, 11 walks, 45 hits and two homers allowed, and a 1.30 ERA. The third-overall pick in the 2011 draft, Bauer owns an eclectic and at times electric eight-pitch repertoire that helped the 24-year-old fan 143 batters in 153 innings last year. He is also one of the most fascinating characters in the game. As for Salazar, we’re going back to the well after an erratic season that included an extended demotion to the minors, but 120 punch-outs in 110 innings hint at the potential that the 25-year-old’s fastball-slider-splitter combination possesses.
I’m extremely bullish on the Tribe this year, and the sky-high upside of their young pitchers is one of the biggest reasons.
Keri was incredibly high on both Salazar and Kluber a season ago. While he may have whiffed with one, he was spot on with the other, so his ability to judge these types of things should not be overlooked. And good news for Salazar, he is just 25 years old and finally has a full season under his belt.
It’s easy to forget that Bauer almost fanned a batter per inning last season and is just 24. And Carrasco, while nerve-racking at times, was one of the game’s best pitchers over the second half of last season. He’s shown flashes of brilliance throughout his career—could his age-28 season be the one where it finally falls in to place?1
Good news for the Tribe and their fans, the team doesn’t necessarily need all three pitchers to “break out” as much as eat innings, stay healthy and give the team a chance to win. If two or three of them do break out and become the top-of-the-rotation arms they forecasted out to be as prospects, Cleveland will be in that much of a better position come October.
- Ironically while Cliff Lee’s appears to be falling apart. [↩]
4 Comments
One thing, we will need lots of relievers with the pitch counts these kids are likely to put up.
“Ironically while Cliff Lee’s appears to be falling apart”
I think this falls under “coincidentally.” What say the good spirited Grammar Police?
Both work, IMO. Deliberately contrary, no? [Shrugs]
It was said in jest, as the ironic vs coincidental debate is one I enjoy. I think the majority of circumstances when people say “ironically,” it is actually only “coincidental,” like every scenario in Alanis’s song.