LeBron James wanted to shoot potential game-winner over Matthew Dellavedova
April 11, 2016Watch Kyrie Irving dribble and dribble and dribble and dribb…
April 11, 2016How about that first week of Tribe baseball, folks?! Three rainouts, two abbreviated series splits, and one successful Trevor Bauer drone strike on the South Siders’ new video scoreboard. Since my own living room window offers a fairly up-to-the-second perspective on Chicago’s weather, I can only assume Sunday’s rubber match with the White Sox was PPD’d for the same reason I canceled my trip to the grocery store: laziness. It’s been a light drizzle all day here, folks. I don’t know when games started getting called based on imprecise “radar” projections, but it doesn’t take a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
Anyway, we might as well talk about the two games that were played in the weekend series, as Cleveland (2-2) ruined the ChiSox (4-2) snowy home opener on Friday, then very nearly beat the mighty Chris Sale on Saturday, only to suffer a Shaw shank deception in the seventh inning.
https://vine.co/v/iTAz7U0ZqwQ
Other names for what happened in the seventh inning Saturday:
“Shaw of the Dead”
“Shaw and Awe”
“Shawniqua Don’t Live Here No More”
“The Shaw Man Fallacy”
“I Can’t Believe What I Just Shaw”
“Shaw in the Heart, and You’re to Blame”
“Hee-Shaw”
“Shawbreaker”
“I Fought the Shaw and the Shaw Lost”
“Bryan’s Song… Blows”
“Shawny Kitaen Strikes Again”
Let that all be a preface to what will be a strong, logical defense of the Indians workhorse set-up man later on. But first things first.
Weekend Re-Capping
Friday:
Indians 7, White Sox 1
W: Danny Salazar (1-0), L: John Danks (0-1)
Boxscore Excerpt: Salazar | 5.1 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 7 K
Say what you want about the Indians’ poor handling of their own home opener, at least they weren’t trying to sell you John Danks as part of the admission price. The veteran southpaw (who has the fifth most starts among active pitchers that have spent their whole career with one team) has generally been a mediocre Major League starter across 10 seasons in Chicago, posting a 79-101 record with a 4.35 ERA, matching 4.37 FIP, 1.34 WHIP, and 6.6 K/9. Saying he’s traditionally struggled against the Indians could be misconstrued as just saying, “he’s been John Danks” against the Indians. But the truth is so much more fun. Basically, Chicago could’ve put a literal sacrificial lamb on the bump—a shaky-kneed, woolly creature baaa-ing in the snowflakes—and it would have been less vulnerable as an Opening Day starter than John Danks versus Cleveland.
Chicago could’ve put a sacrificial lamb on the bump—a shaky-kneed, woolly creature baaa-ing in the snowflakes—and it would have been less vulnerable as an Opening Day starter than John Danks versus Cleveland.
In Johnny’s defense, his catcher Alex Avila didn’t exactly do him any favors on Friday. A terrible throwing error on Carlos Santana’s based-loaded chopper broke the game open in the first inning. The Indians would add some insurance runs, but Danny Salazar, finally making his debut start of the year, didn’t need the help. Despite some difficulty finding the plate much of the afternoon, he pitched into the sixth, gave up just two hits, struck out seven, and was throwing into the high 90s. Danny said he’d never pitched in snowy conditions like that before, and maybe it’s just a novelty of sorts. But if you consider that a real postseason run will entail guys like Salazar having to throw in unpredictable autumn weather in Northeast Ohio, it doesn’t hurt to get a test run in these kinds of game conditions. Same goes for Trevor Bauer, who threw lights out in the seventh and eighth innings, taking a rare respite from his life’s central passion—reckless drone aeronautics.
You probably saw it, but the snow’s main benefit was producing this aesthetically pleasing Rajai Davis catch in the fifth inning, as he found the ball amidst the flakes and went full Willie Mays Hayes.
https://vine.co/v/iILvaJHLjwW
Saturday:
White Sox 7, Indians 3
W: Chris Sale (2-0), L: Bryan Shaw (0-1)
Boxscore Excerpt: Shaw | 0.2 IP, 5 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 1 HR
Yes, the runaway narrative of Saturday’s disappointing setback was the meltdown of Bryan Shaw, which everyone seemed to treat as some sort of inevitable disaster like the levees breaking. “Tito has over-used Shaw and DOOMED him to this! Doomed him I say!”
Has Shaw racked up a lot of appearances over the past few years? Yes. But in 2015, there were actually 49 MLB relief pitchers who logged more innings than Shaw’s 64.0 IP (which was down from his high-water mark of 76.0 in 2014). The emergence of Zach McAllister eased the workload on Shaw a bit last season, and he remained extremely reliable, as he’s been from Day 1.
Shaw was not a “ticking time bomb” coming into this season. In three years as an Indian, he’s averaged 74 appearances, yes, but he’s also posted a 2.93 ERA, a 2.77 SO/W ratio, and a 1.16 WHIP over that span, with a 3.5 WAR. He’s still only 28 years old without much in the way of nagging injuries, and while his velocity did dip a little in 2015, his overall production—K rate, walk rate, flyball rate, etc—held firm. I guess expecting a Shaw collapse for the sole reason that he’s been too good for too long is sort of rational in the world of bullpen lifespans. But if it’s a three-year track record vs. one game in April, I am not selling my Shaw stock just yet.
Middle relief guys, much like referees and umpires, don’t tend to get noticed much unless they’re doing something wrong.1 Shaw was real bad on Saturday, and the timing was unfortunate, as the Indians had just struck back with two homers off Chris Sale (a two-run shot from Mike Napoli and solo shot from Yan Gomes) to take a 3-2 lead in support of Cody Anderson. To make matters worse / more poetic, Chicago sent in former Indian Matt Albers—the plus-size reliever acquired along with Shaw and Trevor Bauer in the legendary Shin Soo Choo trade—and he mowed down the Tribe for the final six outs of the game, barking to himself in fits of hysteria as he walked back to the dugout. I guess maybe this was a vengeance game for Albers, who was granted his free agency from Cleveland back in 2013? If so, the drama was lost on pretty much anyone still paying attention by that point.
Terry Francona was taking some heat after the loss for leaving in Shaw for one, or two, or maybe six batters longer than he should have, culminating in a backbreaking three-run homer by Avisail Garcia. To imply that Cleveland “had this game won” before that, though, was glossing over a lot of miscues. Cody Anderson pitched well, but his error on a pickoff attempt was one of three Indian f*$#-ups on the day, not counting a couple other failed double-plays that didn’t go down in the scorebook. On a related note, I’m not sure how long this Juan Uribe experiment at third base can last—dude looks slow and uncomfortable and almost jittery on his throws. After the miraculous defensive turn-around that Lindor and Urshela ushered in last summer, it’s hard to get used to having to explain this sort of hot corner deficiency to our pitching staff again.
So, what else is there to say? The Tribe is 2-2 and they’ve looked like a 2-2 team—whatever that means. Yan Gomes barreling up Chris Sale was probably the most encouraging image of the season thus far. As Yan Gomes gomes, so gomes the Tribe. Napoli has also added a nice presence in the middle of the order. Once Brantley starts hitting in front of him, you really have to like the dynamic of the line-up, with Napoli and Santana forming a sort of secret tag team of patience, forcing pitchers into 15-20-25 pitch innings. Lindor has continued raking, Jose Ramirez has looked energized, and Rajai, Marlon Byrd, and Uribe have… offered valuable wisdom to the youngsters.
https://vine.co/v/iTK0u3E9KQ9
In Sunday’s only Indians baseball happening, James Ramsey and Zach Walters were traded to the Dodgers for Cash Considerations. For a team that’s made a lot of great trades in recent years, the Asdrubal Cabrera and Justin Masterson deals—which netted these two youngsters—will not go down in the pantheon. Walters was a guy I really liked. The ball explodes off his bat. He just couldn’t stay on the field, nor quite put bat on ball enough, for the explosive part to matter. In the meantime, I’m excited to see how this new kid Cash Considerations will perform down in Akron. He is the son of former Major League journeyman, Future Considerations.
Next up: it’s Steve Pearce and the exciting Tampa Bay Rays.
- Ed note: Unless you’re Vinnie Pestano, who, by the way, is still awesome. [↩]
10 Comments
Future Considerations has all the potential in the world, but just never was present. Wasted career.
I hear Cash Considerations has an extremely limited ceiling, but the floor of what you will get out of him is well-known.
Hate to burst the bubble but…
There was a report Saturday claiming that Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer crashed a drone into the new videoboard at U.S. Cellular Field before Cleveland’s game against Chicago. Bauer, who builds and flies drones as a hobby, said Sunday morning that the aerial device never reached the board.
Bauer indicated that the drone is designed to cut its power if it runs into interference or flies out of range. The pitcher said the small drone dropped to the ground well ahead of the scoreboard. Bauer added that he has flown his drones in stadiums in accordance with the guidelines he received from MLB securities.
I am hating Uribe at this point. Setting aside early-season bad offense, his defense is not as promised as he struggles to get the ball across the field to Napoli.
That said, we played Cleveland Browns-style Smashmouth Defense on Saturday. aka it was crap.
“Shaw was not a “ticking time bomb” coming into this season. In three years as an Indian, he’s averaged 74 appearances, yes, but he’s also posted a 2.93 ERA, a 2.77 SO/W ratio, and a 1.16 WHIP over that span, with a 3.5 WAR. He’s still only 28 years old without much in the way of nagging injuries, and while his velocity did dip a little in 2015, his overall production—K rate, walk rate, flyball rate, etc—held firm”
Meanwhile Shaw’s HR rate took on a large bump each of the last two years. His FIP has gone up from 3.07 to 3.42 to 4.01. And for a guy who wasn’t missing that many bats to begin with, any dip in velocity can be a big issue. He wasn’t our second best reliever last year
“Terry Francona was taking some heat after the loss for leaving in Shaw for one, or two, or maybe six batters longer than he should have, culminating in a backbreaking three-run homer by Avisail Garcia. To imply that Cleveland “had this game won” before that, though, was glossing over a lot of miscues”
Saying that they didn’t have this game one allows us to gloss over Francona’s typical deficiency at the X’s and O’s. His biggest flaw is riding his guys, certain vets, out for far too long, allowing them to make mistakes that cost us games. This is a problem, and it’s not being improved.
We need some good weather so that Columbus can play some games and we can see if Gio can get it going. It is very hard to judge Uribe – or any other player when the game temps are 30F.
Abysmal defense especially for a team supposed to be relying on it. I think Clayman was kind in the number of botched plays too.
Still, waiting on warmer weather before killing any of them for it (including Uribe – obviously arthritis cuz he’s old…couldn’t help it).
I’m not sure if Francona does see him as the clear #2 guy. He was pitching in the 7th. Maybe the plan was to get two innings out of him. But yes, Tito’s leash can be overly long. It will be interesting to see how the pen re-arranges itself in the months ahead. Cody Allen had some horrific outings in April last year. Not saying Shaw is Cody Allen. But I’m not just going to bury him already.
All of his numbers got progressively, and markedly, worse after the break, and his numbers with runners in scoring position are not very good. This writing has been on the wall, both watching the games and reviewing the numbers.
His plan was that Shaw had better numbers against the top of the White Sox order, based on a meaningless handful of batter v pitcher numbers.
My issue isn’t with giving Shaw the chance, but with not addressing the problem until it was far too late. The tying and go ahead runs were in scoring position against 3-4-5 for the White Sox – this was by far the most important part of the ballgame. The best case would have been bringing Allen in. But at least be ready to hook the guy who couldn’t get Jackson and Rollins before the game gets out of hand.
“my room mate Maria Is getting paid on the internet 98$/hr.”….i!342two days ago new Silver McLaren P2 bought after earning 18,512 Dollars,,,this was my previous month’s paycheck ,and-a little over, 17k Dollars Last month .,3-5 hours of work a day ..with. extra open doors &. weekly. paychecks… it’s realy the simplest. work. I have ever Do.. I Joined This 7 months. ago. and now making over. 87 Dollars, p/h.Learn. More right Herei!342➤➤➤➤➤ http://GlobalSuperJobsReportsEmploymentsGreenGetPaidHourly98$…. .❖❖:❦❦:❖❖:❦❦:❖❖:❦❦:❖❖:❦❦:❖❖:❦❦:❖❖:❦❦:❖❖:❦❦:❖❖:❦❦:❖❖:❦❦:❖❖:❦❦:❖❖:❦❦::::i!342…….