Ball Played: Yada, yada, yada; Indians destroy Tigers

The St. Louis Cardinals are currently being investigated by the F.B.I. for hacking into the Houston Astros database known as Ground Zero. The Astros current GM, Jeff Lunhow, was hired away from those Cardinals in 2011 where he had spearheaded the creation of a similar database called Redbird.

Of course, the Cleveland Indians with their own database, DiamondView, were the team to pioneer such databases. And, the front office has utilized that database to create the roster of players that obliterated the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday by a score of 8-2.

Nowadays, these databases are commonplace and the sensitive information kept on them are closely kept secrets, which is why it is such a big deal that the Cardinals allegedly committed industry espioniage. However, it should be noted that the first team to create such a collaboration of information was the Cleveland Indians with their DiamondView database that was the brainchild of Mark Shapiro and Chris Antonetti. In fact, while the Oakland Athletics and Billy Beane were strutting about claiming to have brought advanced statistics into baseball with Moneyball; their innovator, Paul DePosta, was signed away from a Cleveland Indians front office that was already implementing some of the strategies that became famous in that book.

The Indians have been much more closed off about the internal workings of their database and models, but there have been a couple of articles on Diamondview. ESPN’s David Schoenfield wrote about it last June:

The creation of DiamondView was revolutionary because of the program’s ability to decipher large amounts of data very quickly, updating its statistical database on a daily basis while also being able to point out trends and other important information. Though this does not sound extremely impressive today with the numerous sports databases at our disposal, DiamondView was a state-of-the-art analysis program upon its inception in spring 2000.

In fact, it was so revolutionary that teams like the Oakland Athletics, Boston Red Sox, San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Pittsburgh Pirates¹ (among a few) directly hired former members of the Indians front office in an attempt to learn as much as they could about the system. Josh Byrnes even attempted to trade for a mere copy of the program as Schoenfield noted² .

Former Indians scouting director Josh Byrnes even offered top prospect Carlos Quentin in a trade for a copy of the program. The Indians said no.

The pioneer vision of DiamondView does not mean that Antonetti and Shapiro have not made their share of mistakes. It is possible that miscalculations in formulas were to fault as much as shoddy scouting or terrible development in the mostly empty draft classes from 2000 through 2007. And, the front office has gone away from some of the primary tenets of the program such as when they signed Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn (both of whom had entered into the age of regression). It also does not mean that they have been able to utilize the database to completely level the playing field with teams like the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, and Boston Red Sox who can go out and sign most any player that they wish to acquire. For all the inherent randomness, the game of baseball is simple when evaluating elite talent. The more elite talent, the better your team is likely to be.

However, it does mean that the front office is willing and able to experiment outside the normal bounds of MLB group-thought. And, that they were one of the first (if not the first) teams to do so. That is something that should be celebrated by their fans no matter how frustrating 2015 has been to this point (you know outside of Wednesday’s thrashing of the Detroit Tigers, which was fun).

Keys of the Game

Sense of urgency:

The game started off much like many Cleveland Indians games of 2015. Despite Justin Verlander getting scratched from the start, the Indians looked like they might struggle to score.

Carlos Santana watched a third strike with two runners in scoring position in the first inning. When Buck Farmer³ continued to strike out four Indians batters in a row⁴ , a feeling of “Here we go again” was likely settling in on many Tribe fans.

Then, a strange thing happened in the top of the third inning. Andrew Romine doubled and stole third base before any outs were recorded. A run was all be guaranteed. But, after Carlos Carrasco struck out Bryan Holaday, he walked Jose Iglesias to setup a GIDP from Rajai Davis to end the inning⁵ . No runs were scored by the Tigers.

The Indians capitalized on this positive momentum by finally figuring out how to hit Farmer the second time through the order. Kipnis, Lindor, Brantley, Murphy, and Santana all registered hits. Sure, Francisco Lindor was caught napping near second base, but it did not matter on this day. The Indians kept hitting. The Indians kept scoring.

Even though the Indians would only score one more run in the fourth and fifth inning, the outs were hard hits. Lindor hit a home run. Brantley hit a double.

Of course, the bottom of the sixth was perhaps another symptomatic wasted opportunity as the Indians had the bases loaded, but could only manage to plate a run with a Lindor walk⁶ before Brantley fouled out.

That worry seemed relevant when the Tigers finally broke through in the seventh on a two-run J.D. Martinez home run. But, the worry also proved to be misplaced as the Indians answered those Tigers with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning.

It is true that there were many more runs that could have been scored in both the seventh and eighth innings⁷ , but the Indians did well to jump on the Tigers pitching staff and not let up throughout the game.

One good Cookie:

Carlos Carrasco got himself into some trouble in the third and seventh innings, but he was able to force ground balls to Lindor that began double plays to end the inning each time. Outside of those innings, he was in complete control and dominated the Tiger lineup that was missing Miguel Cabrera.

Carrasco finished with 8IP, 7K, 1BB, 5H, 2ER on 105 pitches.

No more Tigers until September:

Despite the outcome on Wednesday, the Tigers were likely satisfied with a 2-1 series win that pushed their season series lead to 9-3. Thankfully, the teams do not meet again until September. Everyone can now breathe a sigh of relief.

Key Scorecard:
Detroit Tigers: 0
Cleveland Indians: 3

Old Friends; Help or Haunt

Victor Martinez: Someone must have over-dried his laundry as he went 0-for-4. HELP

The Nine

The Seinfeld catalog is now available for streaming on Hulu. The following may or may not have some influence based on it. Just remember that you are just as pretty as anyone else out there, you just need a nose job. Of course, if you’re not gonna be a part of a civil society, then just get in your car and drive on over to the East Side.

Jason Kipnis:
You can’t eat this soup standing up. Your knees buckle. – Jerry Seinfeld

I feel the same way about watching Jason Kipnis play baseball.

Francisco Lindor:
You’re becoming one of the glitterati. – Cosmo Kramer

Well, there’s a lady who knows that all that glitters is gold. Francisco Lindor is definitely gold, Jerry, gold!

Michael Brantley:
You know what they say, ‘You don’t sell the steak, you sell the sizzle.’ – Cosmo Kramer

For the guy who just keeps proving that you can sell the steak.

David Murphy:
Ah, look, I? I’m sorry to bother you, but I’m a US postal worker and my mail truck was just ambushed by a band of backwoods mail-hating survivalists. –Newman

I don’t really have a reason other than I love this quote and I can picture David Murphy saying it.

Ryan Raburn:
Ahh, what’s the point? When I like them, they don’t like me, when they like me I don’t like them. Why can’t I act with the ones I like the way I do with the ones I don’t like? –George Costanza

Ryan Raburn is capable of being the best player on the Indians on a given day, the worst player on others. And, he gives little regard to which one you think he is going to be.

Carlos Santana:
Many Christmas’ ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had, but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way. –Frank Costanza

Here’s hoping that the annual slow start for Carlos Santana is combined again with a strong summer and fall. However, it would be nice if he realized there was another way (and hopefully, that realization would be that he could be strong from start to finish).

Brandon Moss:
We don’t know how long this will last. They are a very festive people. -Elaine Benes

Moss had gone seven straight games without a hit, but now has hits in two straight games. Let us hope that he is in a very festive mood.

Yan Gomes:
Just remember, when you control the mail, you control … information. –Newman

Yan Gomes handles a pitching staff and calls a game as well as any catcher in MLB. Good job controlling that power without it controlling you, Yan.

Michael Bourn:
That’s the true spirit of Christmas; people being helped by people other than me. – Jerry Seinfeld

Seems appropriate for the guy making more money than any other player, and the one that was the only position player to not have a hit in this game (including pinch hitters).

Giovanny Urshela:
You ever dream in 3-D? It’s like the Boogie Man is coming RIGHT AT YOU. – Cosmo Kramer

I have to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed the Giovanny Urshela era thus far. He’s flying a bit under the radar with Francisco Lindor making the headlines, but he’s been solid at third base and makes a ton of hard contact at the plate.

The Arms

Carlos Carrasco:
Serenity Now. -Costanza Family

Remember when Carrasco was a young fireballer who would fall apart at the first sign of trouble? Yeah, neither do I. He must be whispering this phrase under his breath between pitches.

Cody Allen:
I think I can sum up the show for you with one word: nothing. – George Costanza

Nothing also summarizes the amount of hits, walks, and HBP the Tigers got on Cody Allen in his perfect ninth inning.

1. Remember, the Pirates really wanted Chris Antonetti before getting blocked and settling for his assistant Neil Huntington. [↩]
2. I also wonder if there is something crucial that John Mirabelli knows about DiamondView that led to the Indians finding a senior role for him in the front office after overseeing those particularly unfruitful drafts. [↩]
3. No, you are not the first person to switch the first letter of his first and last name and laugh at how clever you are. [↩]
4. and a fifth in a row in the bottom of the third inning [↩]
5. and boy, can Lindor and Kipnis turn a pretty double play [↩]
6. 2 walks in this game, 0 walks before this game in MLB [↩]
7. Raburn pinch hit and doubled in Kipnis leaving men on the corners with one out. No more runs were scored. [↩]