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September 14, 2016Carl Nassib is one of PFF’s top rookie performers in Week 1
September 14, 2016With the news that Danny Salazar’s injury likely takes him out of the Tribe’s playoff rotation, Trevor Bauer had a chance to calm the nerves of Tribe faithful. For five innings, Bauer’s curveball was bending expectations back towards the World Series. At one point, the drone-flying righty had retired 12 straight, hit Carlos Sanchez with a pitch, then fanned Tyler Saladino to end the fifth.
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After allowing five runs in the sixth, however, those expectations took a nose dive, crashing back to earth with the sound of a thousand wooden bats cracking quickly-thrown balls of twine.
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This is Trevor Bauer’s second consecutive rough start as he lasted just five innings and gave up five runs in a win against the Astros on September 8. The Tribe’s rotation, thought before the season to be their strongest asset, is suddenly a major question mark. The injury to Danny Salazar coupled with the struggles of Josh Tomlin and uneven play of Carlos Carrasco have left Corey Kluber as the lone Indians starter who has played at a consistently high level. The tight playoff schedule will likely necessitate a four-man rotation, meaning Mike Clevinger, with his seven career starts and 5.01 ERA, is the top candidate to fill the last spot.
Luckily for the Tribe, they have not needed to lean on their rotation to the extent that many expected, posting the third best offense in the American League, along with the sixth most defensive runs saved, and the best base running. With the rotation having so many question marks, the Indians will need to lean on these other areas to go deep in the playoffs.
This game did have a few positive moments. Bauer looked great for five innings and with the Indians’ bullpen, that may be enough in a playoff game. Brandon Guyer hit a homer and was also hit by a pitch. (In only 28 games with the Indians Brandon Guyer already leads the team in bean balls with seven.) Roberto Perez hit a double to continue his assault on the baseball. Coming into the game, Perez was hitting .310 with a .817 OPS in his prior fifteen games—a welcomed relief given his mid-summer struggles.
And most importantly, the Tribe’s magic number is down to 13. Somehow the Indians have suffered injuries to nearly every major player on their team, and yet maintain a six-game lead on the division. They are nearly guaranteed a playoff spot1 and that’s for a reason. This is a good team.
Stout-field
In the offseason, Tribe fans were exploring every possible method of acquiring an outfielder. Free agents were bandied about, trades were explored. I’ll admit to trying to buy some of Rocky Colavito’s DNA on eBay and get a Jurassic Park situation going.
And yet, even with the injury to Michael Brantley, the Indians’ outfield production has kept pace with the most of the names discussed as possible upgrades.
The Indians have the American League’s third highest wRC+ in center-field, fourth best in right-field, and ninth best in center-field. There are certainly questions as to whether Naquin and Chisenhall can maintain this level of production (eye-gouging defense notwithstanding), but at least for this year, they’ve provided value similar to that of many of the “upgrades” that were explored in the offseason.
Getting outbid for that DNA wasn’t so bad after all.
- 99.4 percent according to Baseball Prospectus. [↩]
9 Comments
Whew…a Nom dig at Lonnie, so I expect him to start raking at the plate and catching everything in sight in the field as the natural order has returned.
I can’t think of any Tribe pitchers in recent memory who can traverse between unhittable and batting practice more than Bauer. Salazar has had some of that in him at times. As has younger Carrasco, and even Ubaldo. But man, Bauer looked like Clayton Kershaw for five innings, than John Clayton the next. It’s incredible.
“Somehow the Indians have suffered injuries to nearly every major player on their team, and yet maintain a six-game lead on the division.”
Keep your jinx away from Kluber and Lindor, please.
I like Bauer. And he’s the kind of buy-low with high upside guy that this franchise should be unearthing. But they have been extremely patient with him, and his coming thisclose to calling out his teammates’ defense, or throwing his glove in the dugout, etc. is something that really rubs me the wrong way.
He pitched great, until he didn;t. The meltdown when things stop going his way is something he needs to grow out of.
Since nobody cares about the Indians, I have no comment.
Bauer was fine. Two crappy grounders should have converted to double plays except for perfect placement.
Come on Tribe, I want baseball in October.
You’re in luck! They play the Royals on 10/1 and 10/2.
Like I said yesterday:
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