Nate Orchard Being a Third String Starter?
August 16, 2017Browns’ offense will go as far as Crowell and Johnson take them
August 16, 2017Despite not being a poet or visionary such as Jon, Mike Hattery included his immediate thoughts and the thoughts of others in a stream of consciousness throughout Tuesday night’s Indians game.
8:01: Sitting down to the trusty two lap top layout for the purpose of reviewing tonight’s lineup:
Today's Tribe 9:
Lindor SS
Kipnis 2B
Ramirez 3B
Encarnacion DH
Bruce RF
Santana 1B
Jackson LF
Zimmer CF
Gomes C
…………….
Salazar SP— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) August 15, 2017
The Indians, specifically Francona decided to continue the practice of Jason Kipnis hitting in the Top 3 despite his offensive malfeasance.1
An important point before first pitch process is more important than outcomes in a limited sample. Making proper decisions is often not rewarded in single game samples, over the course of a season, with variance removed, making the proper decision is rewarded. For this reason, process or the basis of the decision is more important than the outcome of that decision in a single regular season game.
8:05: Is there any way Goslings Ginger Beer can sponsor WFNY? Who cares, free endorsement, it is awesome.
8:07: Rick Manning and Matt Underwood come one which means it is time for mute and a spotify playlist. For Danny Salazar, music that is enigmatic is preferred, a Nina Simone lede.
8:12: Lindor leads off the game for the Indians with a single in an 0-2 count. Beautiful swing to flip it the opposite way into left field.
8:15: The always agile Colon trips over his back foot attempting to throw to first forcing a balk.
8:16: More bad contact from Jason Kipnis
8:19: Soft contact from Ramirez and Encarnacion strand Lindor in scoring position.
8:25: Salazar requires the first two hitters with ease but the high end-velocity has not been wielded yet. Everything 93-94 with the fastball.
8:28: The Salazar split-change, a plus offering gets mediocre first baseman Joe Mauer to chase for strike three.
Your musical interlude:
8:31: Jay Bruce hits a missile of the fence in right-center. The exit velocity was a robust 98.7 MPH.
8:34: Santana adds a walk to an .858 OPS in the second half.
8:35: An infield single loads the bases up with no outs for the stone cold Bradley Zimmer
8:36: Zimmer fouls off fastball up, whiff on changeup down but uses superb disciple to square the count 2-2. Colon got Zimmer with a changeup down. The sequencing for Colon was outstanding going up and down, in and out against the frustrated slugger.
8:39: A shockingly quick strikeout from Gomes made it two outs. Gomes got destroyed upstairs with an 88 MPH fastball. Absurd.
https://twitter.com/kvnbsbl/status/897619356158480386
8:41: Lindor pops up to shallow center and Bartolo escapes. Indians .246 batting average with runners in scoring position gets worse.
8:45: 2-2 slider whiffs Sano. Salazar’s slider has nice shape and is being leveraged better of late.
8:47: Salazar tapping into more velocity with a runner at second and one out, running it up to 96.
8:48: A Byron Buxton single gives the Twins a 1-0 lead.
8:55: A leadoff walk for Jason Kipnis provides a ray of light.
8:59: Edwin Encarnacion needed assistance to remember that ball four occurred.
9:00: A Jay Bruce double-play make the offense all the more infuriating.
Bartolo would be the one to slow the Indians down.
— Jake Burns (@jake_burns18) August 16, 2017
9:12: Salazar cruises through the third without a tremor of danger.
9:15: Santana hits one of the longest home runs of the Indians season. Santana hit the ball out of Target field. Exit velocity on that home run 109.9.
Carlos Santana (26) off RHP Bartolo Colon (24) – 109.9 mph, 28 degrees (423 ft Home Run)
90.7 mph Four-Seamer#Indians @ #MNTwins (T4) pic.twitter.com/VSO9Ty091y— MLBBarrelAlert (@MLBBarrelAlert) August 16, 2017
9:18: Austin Jackson with another hit. Both of which had a hit probability of less than 55%. Jackson has been fantastic for the Indians in 2017, rebuilding his value as a platoon killing fourth outfielder. The cost of his next contract will be very interesting.
9:20: Zimmer strikes out again. The natives are restless and would like a blood letting.
Yeah, Zimmer is lost #Indians
— Chris AssenheimerC-T (@CAwesomeheimer) August 16, 2017
A musical interlude:
9:31: Jason Kipnis gives the Indians a 2-1 lead with a home run to right-center.2
Kip Kip hooray!
— Shaq Diesel (@Shaqalier) August 16, 2017
9:32: But a moment later:
Edwin Encarnacion just hit a HR to the last row of the second deck at Target Field, his 5th HR in the last 5 days.
— Zack Meisel (@ZackMeisel) August 16, 2017
9:46: Salazar has transitioned to terminator mode commanding every pitch and dominating hitters.
9:49: Zimmer walks. A positive, even in his slide Zimmer is posting a walk rate over 12%. Nice to see his willingness to take a walk remain.
10:05: Salazar posts his 9th strikeout, his 3rd against Joe Mauer this evening. This is particularly impressive because Mauer is one of the 10 toughest hitters in Major League Baseball to strike out.
10:09: Edwin Encarnacion hits another home run but it is stolen by the talented huckster, Byron Buxton.
One pitch after a Santana single went 3 feet, Austin Jackson puts one over the left-field wall for a 3-run homer. Indians up 6-1 in 7th.
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) August 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/JorshP/status/897645396561989632
10:30: Salazar went seven strong innings with 10 strikeouts no walks and one run. Perhaps more important, he held and even raised his velocity as the game deepened.
15 Comments
This is like better than All Star Danny Salazar. While his stats might not be as good, it seems he is going into the 7th, which is what we need most at this time.
Man, this is the Salazar we always hoped he would become. (AS appearance last year notwithstanding – he’s better than that right now) If he can continue even close to this level, it’s going to be a huge boost to our playoff chances.
Current Salazar better than AS Danny Salazar who was also one of the top AL Cy candidates?
2016 Salazar Apr-Jun:
15 GS 93.1 IP (avg. 6.1 IP per start) 2.22 ERA 107 SO, 43 BB
allowed against: .185/.280.289
2017 Salazar Jul-Aug:
5 GS 32.1 IP (avg 6.1 IP per start) 1.39 ERA 46 SO, 9 BB
allowed against: .161/.223/.223
Verdict?
Yes. Over a shorter period of length, so more error bars associated with it and he hasn’t been pitching “deeper into games” than he did with good health in 2016. But, Salazar has been marginally better than that All-Star appearance backing.
Since coming off the DL, 1.39 ERA, about 13 k/9 and 5 k/bb. Those are better than his first half last year, and that hes even better is probably why hes going deeper into games.
Edit: I should always scroll down first.
If he can continue close to this level, were going to be favorites to win the AL. Maybe even over the Dodgers.
Naw, some don’t check back on the threads but do on Disqus, so Scripty might have missed it otherwise.
I do both, my check mentions before I can sometimes re-surface to the articles. Much appreciated both ways.
IIRC, last year on 7/1 ESPN had a story that his change-up was the most effective pitch in MLB. Is he using that as much, from what I’ve seen his primary fastball is more devastating now. Again, I don’t get to see every game.
If Current Salazer keeps pitching as well or better than AS Salazar, then we can all look forward to seeing November Salazar
For reasons completely unrelated to baseball or the internet, I was in a lousy mood, didn’t need any stress so I turned the game off at about 8:49.
Good to see the Zim at least got a walk. I thought his AB with the bases juiced was not all that bad. At least he ran the count to 3-2 and went down swinging.
Gomes next AB though was maddening. I mean I truly wanted to reach through the TV and smack him. He’s just a really lousy hitter. All three swings could have legitimately been called balls, and the third wasn’t even close. Antonetti has the patience of Job.
I would enjoy WS MVP Salazar to make an appearance
Joe Gerberry interviewed him and found that it’s the first time since Jun 2016 he’s pitching w/o pain. Velocity, movement, control are all up since he’s been back w/o the pain.
Zimmer’s rookie dive was gonna happen. Those opponents poke and prod until they think they got something, and then the next opponent tries it too, and the grind and the media stories about your slump don’t let you catch your mental breath. When the kid scuffled after the all star break Tito sat him and he came back on fire. Maybe it’s time again with a decent division lead.
I really like that Kluber, Salazar, Miller and Carrasco have all had down time during the season, which should leave them relatively fresh for big games in September and, possibly, October. Would be so cool if this was another ’97, where everything came together right about now.
hey folks – first time i’m actually posting after reading WFNY for about 5 years. i come here pretty much daily b/c the cats who run this are awesome and way smarter than me on all things CLE sports. i grew up in CLE but have lived in other places for 20+ years. but i keep coming back b/c of the commenters – i feel like i know some of you and we haven’t even had a beer at Panini’s b/f a Tribe game. Anywho: 2 things: 1) the Band of Horses reference is awesome – lead singer is the brother of my neighbor 4 houses down and a good dude. 2) my 9 yr old ATL-raised son only cheers for CLE teams (and we jump-hugged and cried when the CAVS won)- and reads this site daily. The fact that everyone can have an opinion (not all as smart as Harv or well informed as MGBode) and still be polite enough to actually teach my boy the history of CLE sports is amazing. Seriously – your discussion and pov have made him ask me questions I didn’t know.
For all you savants – who was the only (I think) Indians player to homer from both sides of the plate in the same inning?
Keep waiting and thanks man,
Jeff
Geo175s