LeCharles Bentley Interview
June 11, 2008More Sabathia Rumors
June 12, 2008
Twins 8, Indians 5 (box)
While the “LeCharles Bentley is Back” post went by the wayside, we can officially welcome back the return of closer Joe Borowski. While Scot Elarton, Rick Bauer and Rafael Betancourt combined for five innings of one-hit ball, including five strikeouts, JoBo came in for the ninth inning and promptly allowed the following:
– C. Gomez singled to shortstop
– C. Gomez stole second
– A. Casilla singled to right center, C. Gomez scored
– A. Casilla stole second
– J. Mauer flied out to deep left center, A. Casilla to third
– J. Morneau doubled to deep left, A. Casilla scored
2 runs, 3 hits, 0 errors. Not a good day at the office.
Minnesota’s Joe Nathan then came in for the Twins and promptly showed the Indians what a real closer looks like. Flyout, strikeout, single, ground out, game over.
Good news for Borowski is that his inning wasn’t even the worst of the game – it just so happened to be the one that put the game out of reach. The worst inning goes to Paul Byrd who allowed five earned runs in the third inning thanks to a bunt single (again, Carlos Gomez) followed by two doubles and a home run. That stung.
I’m fully on board with the sentiments shared by Jon Steiner over at Bugs and Cranks. My feelings regarding Carlos Gomez have been well-documented, and Sir Steiner has entered his name into the ring of obsession. Gomez is a real leadoff hitter and sets the table better than anyone else in the American League. Keep your Curtis Granderson. Give me Carlos Gomez.
It’s worth mentioning that Victor Martinez left the game with what’s being called an inflamed right elbow. Add that to the list of things that will keep him without a home run for the foreseeable future. We’ll see what the MRI says, likely today.
The rubber match will be in the hands of your current American League Rookie of the Month in Aaron Laffey. He’s coming off of a month that saw him win three games and sport an ERA of 0.79. He’s been eating up innings as good as anyone, and should be able to at least give our bats a quality start. Whether they reciprocate or not remains to be seen.
(As an aside, I don’t think we’ve had a poll as close as the current one is. We’re talking a a matter of percentage points…)
6 Comments
“Gomez is a real leadoff hitter and sets the table better than anyone else in the American League.”
I have to assume that this is some sort of dig against our own leadoff hitter, so lets compare them: Carlos Gomez sports a robust .311 OBP and out of 25 attempts has been caught stealing 8 (!) times. Grady Sizemore has a .376 OBP and has stolen 15 bases out of 17 (!) attempts. Gentlemen, the best leadoff hitter in the AL was indeed playing in this game last night, but he was on our team.
I agree about Granderson. He’s hitting terribly and has been dropped to the #9 spot.
Greg – I guess that a lot of this stems from my desire of Grady to bat third. Not a dig, just a preference.
Regardless of whether or not you want Grady batting third, Gomez is a joke of a leadoff hitter. All your leadoff hitter needs to do is reach base consistently and Gomez (and the .312 OBP Greg pointed out) is among the worst players in baseball at reaching base. Out of 88 AL hitters with enough ABs to qualify, Gomez is 68th in OBP. Want to include the NL? He is 143rd out of 179 qualifying hitters. Not only is Gomez not a “real” lead-off hitter, he is probably a borderline MLB player. Putting him on top of our lineup wouldn’t only not help, it would actually create fewer opportunities for RBIs than our middle of the lineup guys are currently getting.
Look at our lineup last night…with Gutz (.307 OBP) and Carroll (.302) hitting 8th and 9th, Grady has as much table-setting in front of him as Gomez would provide. In a year or two, he might be a real lead-off man, but right now he is creating outs with the best of them.
I will also have to disagree with “Carlos Gomez” being the preferred leadoff man of choice. OBP is simply the most important stat that a leadoff hitter can posses and Gomez just doesn’t excel in that category. As a matter of fact, Gomez had a .288 OBP last year and is a career .304 OBP hitter! That is simply intolerable at the leadoff spot.
Isn’t he only 22? (Too lazy to look) I’m sure that OBP is bound to go up.
Career? This is his first full season in the league. Listen, I’m not saying he’s better than Sizemore…just saying that I’d rather have a speedy guy that can change the pace of a game on his own leading off, with the power in the three-hole.
I completely understand what you guys are saying – and perhaps my wording wasn’t exactly the best. I’m a big fan of what Gomez brings to the table, and his game is still raw. He strikes out a ton, and yes, does provide a lot of outs.
I guess a good question to pose is, who do you guys think is the best pure leadoff man in the game?
(Being able to have competitive banter is healthy!)