On Tribe Talk, Dennis Eckersley, and Mother’s Day
May 8, 2015The Matrix: Unloaded
May 8, 2015As we all know, the Cleveland Indians are having a rough time of it in this 2015 campaign. Nothing, but nothing, is working as planned. Reigning AL Cy Young award-winner, Corey Kluber, is still winless and the rest of the starters have had their share of downs to go with their ups. The bullpen, including closer Cody Allen, has been lackluster and, at times, dreadful. The holes in the defense have carried over from last year to such an extent that the Tribe may be looking soon to add the baseball version of gap-filler Danny Shelton.
But if under-performance was an Olympic event, the Tribe offense would be in the lead for the gold medal. Except for Michael Brantley anchoring the lineup in the three-hole, no one’s position in the batting order is safe and Terry Francona, who has as much faith in and patience with his players as any manager, is starting to juggle the lineup.
So in the spirit of Francona’s something’s-gotta-give efforts, the Boys of Summer at WFNY (Bode, Clayman and Pietro) have decided to make some lineup changes of their own. To that end, the Series Summary has been benched and in its place, “Next up …” has been called up from Triple-A. Pietro, a good-glove-no-hit shortstop in his day is now batting leadoff. But at least he’s a switch hitter. The hope is that eliminating one source of aggravation (yet another look back at a cringe-worthy performance) is not in anyone’s best interest.
As for the three-game series that just ended, goodbye Kansas City … and hello Cleveland, as the Tribe returns home for a six-game home stand. Tonight, Saturday and Sunday, the Indians face the surprising Minnesota Twins. Hard to believe — that on May 8 Indians fans would be wishing their own team had a won-loss record as worthy as the Twins. After 27 games, the Indians are 10-17 and 7½ games behind the 18-10 KC Royals. It may be hard to take in but, at the moment, at 10-3 over their last thirteen games, the Twins are the hottest team in baseball. They’re 16-13 overall and just 2½ games out of first place.
The Twins are led by rookie manager Paul Molitor, who played twenty-one years in the majors (1978-1998) as a member of the Brewers, Blue Jays and Twins. Paul Molitor was a hitter! He ended his career with a .306 batting average, 3,319 hits and 234 home runs. As his career was winding down it was winding back up. In 1996, at the age of 39, he batted .341 with the Twins. The next year he hit at a .305 clip. In his final year at the age of 41, he batted .281 in 126 games. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2004, his first year of eligibility. You could almost conceive of the possibility that, in a long, extra-inning game, Molitor might insert himself as a pinch hitter to get a game winning hit. “What, you just need a single to drive that guy in and end this damn game? Here, gimme the bat!” Don’t be surprised to see Indians batters edging closer to his side in pregame warm ups. “Hey, Paul, do ya mind? Gotta a question for you …”
The Twins, who took two of three from the Indians in mid-April, will be throwing three right handed starters in this series, Mike Pelfrey (2-0, 2.63), Phil Hughes (1-4, 5.02) and Trevor May (2-2, 4.15). The Tribe starters will be Trevor Bauer (2-0, 3.38), lefty Bruce Chen in his first appearance in 2015 and Danny Salazar (3-1, 3.81).
The Twins are tied with the Blue Jays with the fifth best team batting average in the AL at .258 (The Indians are 8th at .244). The Twins and Astros share 5th place in runs scored with 133 (The Indians are in 10th place at 119). The Twins’ pitching staff has an overall ERA of 3.96 compared to the Indians’ staff at 4.72
Taking a look at the two teams’ defenses, they have the same fielding percentage (FPCT), at .983. But take a look at the stat called “Defensive Efficiency Ratio.” This statistic is used to measure the defensive effectiveness of a team in converting batted balls into outs by the fielders. Defensive efficiency rating (DER) is calculated by comparing the number of hits allowed, not including home runs, to the defensive opportunities, which are all balls hit into play except home runs. The formula for DER is: 1-((H-HR)/(PA-HR-BB-HBP-SO)). Using DER as a measure of defensive effectiveness, the Twins rank 7th in the AL with a percentage of .699. The Indians? Dead last at .644.
At this point you’re recalling plays like the one where Santana catches a ground ball with three different opportunities to get an out, but gets none. And that leads, eventually, to a grand slam home run off Trevor Bauer. This is not to single out Santana. Lots of factors contribute to this stat, one of which is the replacement of Michael Bourn in center fielder because he’s just not hitting. Most of the Twins’ stats thus far give them the look of a middle-of-the-pack team, while the Indians, as you might expect, are looking like a team drifting toward the bottom.
This weekend’s series features three different start times, 7:10 tonight, 4:10 on Saturday and 1:10 on Sunday. The Indians have yet to have a game rained out but there’s a 50% chance of rain on Saturday and Sunday. Temperatures this weekend are expected to be warmer with highs of around 80 degrees. Warmer, but not warm enough for the kind of weather Herb Score used to love for baseball. With Herb it was always, the warmer, the better. He probably would have delighted in playing for a team whose home ball park was on the equator.
Following the Twins, the St. Louis Cardinals will be coming to town. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves … one series at a time, and one game at a time.
13 Comments
Hey, on the plus side, the Tribe’s misery has kept the insufferable stat nerds away from the forums!
#alwayslookonthebrightsideoflife
#itsonlymay
one series at a time, and one game at a time
A pertinent sentiment for tough times. Break things down as much as possible. One inning at a time, one at-bat at a time, one pitch at a time. Just focus on winning the smallest thing before moving onto the next small thing. Whatever happened on that last thing is done, focus on the present one.
Oof, hard to post comments in advance but I will try:
Well at least Swisher is bringing energy to the club
Maybe it is time to bench Bourn permanently?
We would’ve had that one game if our bullpen didn’t blow up!
Man Carlos is playing like Manny Ramirez… stupid and maybe drunk? That play at first and that baserunning? Eep
We would’ve had that one game if our offense could put up more than 3 hits… fire Ty Van Burkleo already
Our defense keeps killing us with errors!
On the negative side, the ad hominem attacks still won’t be moderated.
Not sun fun reading on the defense
http://www.si.com/mlb/2015/05/08/cleveland-indians-defense-historically-awful
We are 5% below the league average on “converting balls in play into outs”? Ugh. Still contend that our bigger problem is offense: You won’t win games with 2-3 hits a night.
When even Minnesota is 3 games over .500, the AL Central is officially a meat grinder. And thanks to the schedule makers, we’ve been shoved into it face first. After this series, the Tribe will have played 30 games…and 23 have been or will be vs. the AL Central. Our record outside the division thus far? A respectable 4-3. Against the Central? A Municipal Stadium era-worthy 6-14. But hey, at least after the Twinkies, we can jump into interleague play! Wait, our first opponent is St. Louis? Sigh…
A 3-gamer against all right handed starting pitching? Yes, please. I’m thinking 2 out of 3 is a must here. Although Pelfrey always seems to shut us down. And the back end of their pen is lefty-heavy so we better get out to some leads. Go Tribe!
after the next 6 (3 v Minn and 3 v StL) we have 17 straight games against teams .500 or worse (3-game set against Cinci who are .500).
if anything is to come of this sesaon, then we need to make a move over these next few weeks.
I thought last year’s defense was the historically bad one?
Fracking Indians…
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