While We’re Waiting… Kyrie vs. Wall, Fickell Hiring Vrabel, and Cleveland’s Big Three
July 8, 2011Hindsight Doesn’t Help a Year After “The Decision”
July 8, 2011This game was incredible. If you didn’t watch it, you missed three and half hours of agony, followed by pure ecstasy. If you prefer, ignore the first two thousand words of this recap. Obviously, I did not know what was about to happen, but living through the first nine innings made it all the more special. Enjoy a diluted and roundabout live recap:
7:07: Oh look. Zach McCallister is pitching. His hair is longer than I expected. He better not be smitten with David Huff.
7:17: Nope. He strikes out two in the first inning. Nothing whatsoever in common with David Huff. Other than a walk to Bautista—which seems the prudent thing to do—he looks to be around the strikezone, which seems good.
7:31: Michael Brantley leads off the first with a hit. Then back-to-back pop ups from Asdrubal and Travis. Inning over, right?
Not quite. Brantley steals second, then both Santana and Sizemore walk to load the bases. The strikezone looks miniscule tonight.
Who better to take advantage of a tiny strikezone than….O’Brera?!!!?one?!!
The count is immediately 0-2. Swinging strikes. Off a pitcher who’s walked two consecutive hitters with a strikezone the width of a fingernail clipping. You. Have. To. Be. Kidding. Henceforth, you are called ‘Obie’, because I want to shorten your name even further–to the point of obsolescence.
7:34: Obie pops out to end the inning. We’ve now loaded the bases four times in our last seven innings. We’ve managed to score in just one of those innings. I’m not an expert, but I think this might be because half our lineup is godawful.
7:38: McCallister issues a leadoff walk. He’s climbing back up the David Huff compatibility scale…
7:43: Jays take a 1-0 lead on an RBI single from Travis Snider. But let’s keep in mind how that player scored:
- Lead off walk
- Stolen base/Asdrubal error sends the walk to third
- Hit
Two of those three events are, for all intents and purposes, fairly avoidable. Yet we do not consistently avoid them. I suppose this is what happens with a young team, but it’s so much easier to stomach (for me at least) when the young team is not threatening to win the division. First place teams just can’t afford to give outs and bases away. Not if they’d like to stay first place teams, anyway.
7:46: Great googly moogly. McCallister fields a chopper that should’ve gotten him out of the inning. Except he throws the ball to what looks to be a cotton candy vendor in the fifth row. Second and third, two outs. His Huffiness grows by the moment.
At least the next man up weakly flies out. Coulda been worse. They have one hit and McCallister has thrown more than 50 pitches in two innings. Jays up 1-0.
7:53: Matt LaPorta has hit the ball fairly hard since his return (he just grounded out on a hard-hit ball to third). What interests me more though is that he seems to be moving like a crippled person. He’s only 26. Why can’t he run anywhere without looking like he’s just been in a plane crash? He makes everything look like such hard work.
7:55: Lonnie Chisenhall takes a pitch off the right face and is replaced in the game by Hannahan. The Indians have been hit thirty-four times in the last eleven innings. This seems worth a mention.
Back to Lonnie. For being hit in the face, it actually didn’t look that bad. Maybe he’s tough, or maybe it was a glancing blow, or maybe I shouldn’t try to diagnose potential orbital fractures via STOHD, but I have to think that could’ve been a lot worse.* Rick Manning was near tears in the booth, but I’m more optimistic: I predict he’ll be fine.
*As I write this, I realize you probably already know how bad it is. You’ve probably known for twelve hours or more. I’m particularly jealous of you for this. What is the world like tomorrow? I bet it’s a beautiful, joyous Friday, isn’t it? Is the recession over yet? What about the War on Drugs or the WNBA season? Gosh, I just can’t wait to find out. You lucky dog.
Oh yeah, the recap. Brantley has another hit, but Asdrubal flies out to end the inning. Still 1-0 Jays through two. We’ve stranded five runners, which would appear to be one fewer than the maximum.
8:06: McCallister needed that. A 1-2-3 third inning. Heart of the order coming up.
8:15: Ugh. This is painful. Hafner leads off with a hit up the middle, then takes second on a wild pitch, and gets stranded on back-to-back strikeouts from Santana and Sizemore and a groundout from Obie. We’re making Carlos Villanueva look like Josh Tomlin. If I had written that sentence six months ago, no one would’ve understood it. Who’s the lucky dog now?
8:25: McCallister lets up back-to-back hits to open the inning. A grounder sends the lead runner to third who scores on a bloop single to center. 2-0 Jays, one out.
Then Rajai Davis taps a single to center that a normal second baseman would’ve knocked down. As I’ve pointed out several times, Obie is not normal. 3-0 Jays. First and second. Still only one out. There are images of David Huff floating above my head. It is not a pleasant sight.
8:30: McCallister walks the bases loaded. Now he has to face Jose Bautista with two outs. He has recorded 11 outs on 92 pitches. It’s Hufftacular.
8:31: 12 outs on 94 pitches. Bautista grounds into a force at second. 3-0 Jays going to the bottom of the fourth.
Zach McCallister looks very much like the sort of pitcher you might receive in a trade for Austin Kearns. This is nothing against McCallister, but I do think it’s funny that he’s been deemed a top-tier prospect in the last few months, just a year after having an ERA around 6.00 in the Yankees’ farm system. His fastball is 89. His control looks average, as do his off-speed offerings. In other words, he might be fodder. I say this having seen Zach McCallister for all of an hour and a half, which means (if you didn’t know this already) I’m just spitballing here. Regardless, his night is done.
8:39: Lonnie Chisenhall getting hit in the face is the new market-inefficiency: Jack Hannahan hits a triple off the right field wall. Man on third, two down. Brantley (2-2) coming up.
8:42: “It’s dropping in a hurry! That could drop in!!” ~ Matt Underwood, being wrong
Brantley flies out to center. Still trail 3-0 through four.
8:54: Raffy Perez throws a scoreless fifth. Stuff did happen*, but nothing worth mentioning.
*H/T: Rummy
9:02: I was wrong: this strikezone is not small. It is whatever the homeplate ump decides it to be at any given moment. Asdrubal strikes out on an awful sequence.
Meanwhile, Hafner singles with one out. His batting average is now over .340 on the season. That’s neat. Santana follows with a rip to right. First and second, one down for Grady. Fingers crossed.
9:05: K’dy Sizemore. Strikeout looking. Yeah, it was probably a ball, but whatever. He strikes out too much. Two outs. Obie coming up.
9:07: Obie pops out to the catcher. He stinks.
Indians trail 3-0 through five. They have stranded infinity runners.
9:10: This is where I start to check my fantasy team. For some reason, I’ve decided to roster Danny Duffy, the left handed rookie for the Royals. He’s pitching against the Tigers tonight. He is losing 2-0 through three innings. Nothing good is happening anywhere.
9:19: Raffy Perez manages to throw another scoreless inning, while looking bad at it. I still don’t feel like writing about it.
9:25: The godawful portion of the lineup performs as they are wont: Buck flies out weakly, LaPorta strikes out swinging like an old man, and Hannahan fouls out to the third baseman. It’s the first time this evening we’ve been retired in order, which is both surprising, and not. Either way, the lineup reeks of impotence. We need to trade for some Cialis. 3-0 Rays through six.
9:30: Chad Durbin is pitching now. 1-2-3 on three groundouts. I know he’s not all that good, but I think signing him was a good move this offseason: it gave the ‘pen a veteran, which it might have needed. Sure, it probably didn’t need his 7.01 ERA, but still…
9:39: This strikezone is now a joke. Brantley strikes out looking on a breaking ball at his face. Then Asdrubal walks and Hafner starts screaming at the ump over a strike call at his ankles. He promptly grounds into a double play.
Still 3-0 through seven.
9:44: Frank Herrmann is on to pitch the eighth. As Rick and Matt pointed out, this is kind of weird, right? Isn’t he supposed to be the long-man/mop-up guy? Perhaps he’s growing on Manny? Maybe he taught him some cool Sudoku tricks with his Harvard math skills?
9:50: Herrmann might be trying to get back to mop-up duty. He retires two, but allows two solid hits and gets pulled for Joe Smith. Yunel Escobar up with two outs.
9:53: Joe Smith is better than I give him credit for. He strikes out Escobar, which is good. Did you know his ERA is 0.90 on the season?
Granted, his K/BB is 1.70, which is terrible, and his strand-rate is 90% which is unsustainable, and he hasn’t allowed a HR in 30 innings pitched, which is flat-out flukey.
Nevermind. Joe Smith is not better than I give him credit for. He is exactly what I give him credit for.
10:00: Santana walks to lead off the inning. He is 1-2 tonight, which is fine. But he’s walked twice, which means he’s not gotten out three of the four times he’s been up. We don’t think like this often enough, I don’t think. A batter’s job is not to get out, and Santana does it very well. He makes fewer outs than Asdrubal Cabrera. That’s really valuable. End rant.
Grady grounds into a fielder’s choice. Cue the “What if we all believe?” commercial. I believe, for the record, in consistent strikezones. Obie coming up.
10:04: You’ll never guess what Obie did!
Yes you will. He grounded into a double play. He has now gotten out every time he’s batted: pop out, ground out, foul out, GIDP. Not a hard-hit ball among them. That’s five outs in four at bats, by the way. He’s nothing if not efficient, ladies and gentlemen. But thank goodness we’ve rid the world of that awful Cord Phelps.*
*In his brief tenure with the Indians, Cord did not play well. He had too many errors, and didn’t hit with nearly the vigor we’d hoped for. That said, his OBP was .315. Obie’s is .289. Cord’s OPS was a pathetic .641. Obie’s is .634. The biggest difference is not that Cord was better than Obie (though he was). It’s that he has a modicum of potential as a contributor down the road. Obie’s potential is full of canasta tournaments and early bird specials, considering his age. I will not soon forgive the front office for failing to see this. It reeks of the way they handled the LaPorta situation—a mishandling for which they’re still paying. You do NOT call a player up to sit on the bench. You’d have thought they’d learned this by now.
10:08: Tony Sipp is now pitching. There are two bullpen arms we’ve yet to use. In a three-run game. Gross.
10:13: Jose Bautista hits a HR that travels 440 feet. 4-0 Jays going to the bottom of the ninth.
The godawful is coming up.
10:23: Buck hits a single and LaPorta doubles. Second and third, nobody out for Hannahan. This is going to cut into ‘Louie’, isn’t it? I don’t care.
10:25: Hannahan walks. Bases juiced, nobody out. Top of the order. Pitching change.
10:30: Brantley strikes out swinging, after working the count 3-1. ‘Louie’ has started, and I can’t watch it. Dribble time.
10:34: It’s taken three and a half hours, but the Indians finally score. Dribble rips one to left, scoring Buck from third. Bases still loaded. Hafner coming up against the lefty. This has the “What If” commercial all over it. Do this, Pronk. Do it.
This was just amazing. The game looked unwinnable for three hours, all the way until the last at bat. As I said before, first place teams just don’t make the mistakes we are making. But they also don’t walk off on grand slams with relative frequency. This season has already been more fun than I could ever have expected.
You’re G-D right I believe. How could I not?
35 Comments
Unreal ending.
Re LaPorta: “Why can’t he run anywhere without looking like he’s just been in a plane crash?” So, so true. Good stuff, sir.
to hear hammy call pronks walk off grand slam
[WFNY Edit: link above links to such]
I couldn’t catch the game lastnight, happened to turn to STO around 10:15 and saw that they were down 4-0 and turned it off…
Did anyone else think that zack mccalister was actually john krasinsky?
I almost turned it off when Bautista homered, and honestly Im not even sure why I kept watching.
It was the most boring Tribe game Ive watched all year. 3 1/2 hours for 8 1/2 innings of a 4-0 game. But, the ending was worth staying up for. Great moment, I probably re-watched Hafner’s homer 10 times before I went to bed.
This running diary was just pure, uncut awesomesauce. I have watched the video 10 times already today, and plan on at least 10 more. My favorite line actually got cut out: after Pronk crosses home, Manning goes, “If that doesn’t give you goosebumps, you don’t have a pulse!”
On a personal note, I’d like to apologize to my next door neighbor and let her know that I did not actually throw my fiancee out of the house last night. As Pronk was coming to bat, my fiancee actually doubted his clutchness, to which I started to remind her of his walkoff earlier in the year. I couldn’t even finish my sentence because as soon as he swung, I jumped off the couch and started repeatedly screaming at the top of my lungs, “GET THE EFF OUT! WHAT DID I TELL YOU?” I hope to see my neighbor soon and explain the situation…
Jon, I’m surprised in all your Obie-bashing you failed to point out that ALL 4 OF HIS AT BATS ENDED INNINGS! He actually ended exactly half of the innings last night (at least the ones that were ended by outs). Uncredible…
Not that anyone cares, but OC is hitting .359 with a .390 OBP in his last 10 games, and that includes his 0-4 last night.
Phelps was awful defensively, you can afford to be patient with a guy hitting .196 if he’s playing good defense, but he wasnt. Thats why Cord is back in AAA. I still think he will be a good player but he needs more time in Columbus.
BTW, I just read that Sweet Luis has been called up from AAA.
A magical ending for a truly abysmal game right up until it happened. Honestly, I’m not sure why I continued to even pay attention to the game given how boring it was and given how listless the Indians offense had become. They write endings like this in Hollywood movies and everyone thinks they’re corny – well it actually happened last night!
On another note – very important start for Mitch Talbot tonight for two reasons: 1) most of the arms in the bullpen were used last night (though all of them except Raffy will probably be available tonight in some manner) and the Indians need a starter to spell the mafia; and 2) Talbot’s spot in the rotation is very much in question. I think they should just call up Gomez and make Talbot the long man, and tonight may go a long way to determining whether that happens.
Games like last night make we wish more so than usual that I had STO. I, too, have watched the replay over and over. What an ending.
“He makes everything look like such hard work.” Thank you, Jon, that’s what’s been bugging me about LaPorta! Haven’t seen a player stress like this since Matt Williams, who at least he turned the effort into all-star production. While everyone was gushing over Bautista’s fab play on his grounder to third, all I’m thinkin is: we have a player who would lose a 40-yard dash to Mike Hargrove today.
Also, would like to amend my half-hearted “he’s hurt” defense of Sizemore. He may be hurt, it may be affecting his hitting, he always hustles and he has fine taste in women. But the ferocious swinging says he absolutely refuses to protect with two strikes and he may just have a low baseball IQ. Pitchers now know they just don’t need to throw him strikes, and he won’t adjust because, darn it, he’s gonna miss with location on one of these and watch me rip one out. This stubborn approach makes you think his goal is to be a low-brow like Gorman Thomas, just throw your body around in center and all or nothing at the plate.
I thought McCallister did pretty well for his first callup. nothing special, but he’s known as a finesse guy (read: not overpowering) and the blue jays seemed like they wanted to work those counts (or maybe they just were baffled by how the ump was calling the game as well).
also, would like to point out that Santana has been walking in good situations lately. no 2-out, RISP walks with SO-Sizemore coming up behind him (and walking on hittable balls).
and finally, what the Pronk? i’m glad I kept my Pronk T-shirt from 4 years ago. it still looks new because I haven’t had a chance to wear it much these past few seasons.
The best part is that the future me knew the outcome of the whole game, and not just the status of Chisenhall’s face, when I read Jon’s 7:55 entry. How do you like that sorcery?
By the way, I lied and don’t know the status of Chisenhall’s face (except that it normally looks really, really, really young). What’s the word?
i was listening to the game on the radio upstairs. as soon as ascab got that hit i knew i needed to go down stairs and watch the next at bat.
i turned on the tv just as hafner was rounding the bases into the pile.
amazing. it just didn’t seem real.
“Louie” was surprisingly average last night, so this was definitely better programming.
I missed the ending because I was coming home from the Clippers game, but it was cool to see that both Cleveland and Columbus had come from behind victories.
No one for Columbus really impressed me last night. Nick Hagadone is basically Rafael Perez, and I mean that in the good way AND the bad way.
Jon, in a sea of awesome posts, this was the awesome-est. Well done.
Amazing game. And, like all amazing games, I missed most of it.
The little I did catch, McCallister seemed pretty erratic. 25+ pitches an inning isn’t going to get the job done. Kudos to the bullpen for another nice patch job.
I agree whole-heartedly with Jon about Orlando. I’m not sure why people defend the guy so much. Maybe because he seems to get hits in bunches which creates the impression that he’s effective with the bat? .255/.285/.340; -0.3 WAR.
People also like to point to his intangibles and “clutchness”, but he fails in those categories too: .253/.253/.280 w/RISP; -.52 WPA; .222/.239/.311 late&close.
@9- I’m not going to take away from his streak, but he’s still pretty bad at the dish. He might be okay over the last ten games, but over the last 77? Not so much. And over the next 77? I expect he’ll be closer to his career norms than that .359 number.
Harv- “But the ferocious swinging says he absolutely refuses to protect with two strikes and he may just have a low baseball IQ.”
Exactly! That “damn the torpedoes” approach may work wonders for you when you’re 24 and healthy, but when you’re appraoching thirty and coming off major knee surgery? Low baseball IQ, indeed.
@GhostToMos where did you read that about Sweet Luis?
I just hate seeing guys getting called up to sit the bench. It just puts too much on them when they only get 4 at bats every 3-4 games.
Not to be annoying, but his name is McAllister. Everyone from journalists to bloggers to fans keep spelling it wrong and it’s driving me crazy!
Good catch, Julee.
My only point about Cabrera, the Indians brass has decided that FOR NOW, hes our best 2nd baseman. And Im inclined to agree. We’re in a pennant race and you gotta go with the guys who give you the best chance to win now. We dont have the luxury of being patient with a guy like Phelps when hes hitting .190 and committing errors left and right. I never said his overall body of work was good, yes his OBP his awful and Ive never disputed any of that. His OBP and OPS and everything else has been beaten into the ground. Im only saying that lately hes been playing well, and Phelps hasnt, so the move makes sense.
If we were in last place, then by all means, put Phelps in as the everyday 2nd baseman and lets see what he can do. With the team in first place by the slimmest of margins, we dont have that luxury.
And while Kipnis is having a great season at the plate, hes committed 32 errors in 192 games at 2nd base in his minor league career. He may not be ready yet, and apparently the Indians have decided that now isnt the time to find out. I mean Valbuena has been called up ahead of him. These guys will get their opportunities, if they have the talent then eventually they will stick at this level.
In regard to Sweet Luis, its on the transactions page of indians.com
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/team/transactions.jsp?c_id=cle#month=7&year=2011&team_id=114
I have now convinced a girl that I work with that Laporta was actually in a plane crash and that is why he is so slow. I was proud of this until a co-worker reminded me that I once got her to fax me some paper since our office was all out.
I’ll agree with that. Phelps had his chance and I have to believe that any non-horrendous performance would have won him the majority of time at 2B. So start the parade of 2Bs from Columbus to see if Luis or Jason can at least be average.
I just really don’t like Cabrera. Didn’t like him before he arrived, didn’t like the signing, haven’t been won over during his time here. And, for the life of me, I don’t see why we hit him sixth and not ninth.
I was peturbed that I was giving up “Louie” for a potential let down
but after the G.S. I was so excited that I stayed up for the encore
I generally agree that you don’t call a guy up to sit on the bench, but Phelps is likely not going to be a long-term starter here with Kipnis and Chisenhall at 2nd and 3rd. Phelps is likely going to end up as a super-utility guy. He can play a few positions, he can switch-hit, he fits the role. Phelps was brought up here to spell OCabrera, a guy who looked desperate for a couple days off, specifically against RHP. You can go ahead and hold testing him out in this role for a couple weeks against the front office for a long time, but that puts you on the same level as a cleveland.com poster who still thinks we got swindled in the recent trades.
needs more uncut live recaps! these are hilarious (no matter if the game’s good, bad, or ugly)
Typo: I had a handful “Zach McAllister looks likes” going last night, and Big Tuna was one of them. I also though Travis Pastrana.
i hate to be the “glass half empty” guy after a magical win but…i am very concerned with our RISP missed opportunities over the Yankees series and now into the Toronto one.
i can literally recount at least 10 innings with bases either full or runners at 2nd and 3rd with us coming up empty handed. And not just coming up empty handed on a spectacular play but 2 or even 3 strikeouts in a row.
Hafner’s walk off grand slam is of course “magical” but let’s keep things in perspective in that it’s just that….magical.
Not the sign of team that can produce runs consistently; that is what we had in the spring and have not shown since.
add that to the glaring holes of Kearns, OCab, Sizemore, Carmona, Talbot, Hannahan, Buck, yikes…what a list and you see why there is hesitation.
now after saying all that, i will see you all at the ballpark tonight and tomorrow!!!!!
fear. the. tribe.
See, Chris, I look at the same facts and see glass half full. I see maybe more guys playing above their capabilities than below (e.g., Masterson in ’11 may be what Carmona in ’07, having a career blip; Hannahan wasn’t even on a roster last year; Hafner may be one swing from the DL again).
What is there to stress about? The Dolans will not make a major move to improve the squad. These idjuts might just might be too stupid to realize they have no business winning. Like the cartoon character who walks off the cliff and keeps strolling horizontal, until he realizes something’s not right and looks down. Let’s just enjoy this thing until they look down.
@Harv
I’m all about enjoying it while it goes on. It’s those key innings I saw us manufacturing runs earlier in the year that we are failing miserably at now. It’s also those key RISP innings that will make or break us if we see a postseason.
Like I said; sorry for the “glass half empty” post, I just had to get the missed opportunity frustration off my chest.
ifeel ya, it eats me alive unless I recite my affirmations: it’s amazing that Hannahan is on base … that Buck is on base … etc.
We’re 5th in baseball in avg. with RISP.
Royals are 4th, the Mets are 6th, the Astros are 7th.
@Christopher: the weird fluke we’ve had recently has a few caveats. For example, last night, the bases loaded first, we loaded the bases with 2 outs. In the second, we had runners on second and third….with two outs. Hannahan tripled himself…with two outs. Our stranding runners looks worse than it is, in a sense, because we get one shot to drive these guys in after we fill up bags. The deeper-seated problem is that a lot of guys on this club aren’t hitting, period, and therefore we’re not getting on when you -really- want to get guys on base, with 0 and 1 out.
Imagine if either of the first two guys had done anything but impotently hack themselves out before Hannahan triples off the wall. Point is, the %run scored from 3rd or second when you get that situation with 2 outs, vs. 0 or 1 out, is a massive gulf. Percentage scored from third with 2 outs should hover right above the league-wide batting average (having to pitch to hitters more with a scoring threat, plus balks, wild pitches, and walk-ins in bases loaded). With 0 or 1 out this percentage will be substantially higher than the league average.
We have a number of guys whose OBPs are lower than .300 getting significant lineup time. When we change that, we’ll start driving in runs a lot more.