More Like Bricklyn: Cavs-Nets, Behind the Box Score
March 31, 2016Josh McCown ready to compete with RG3 for starting QB job
April 1, 2016Hey y’all. It’s your friendly neighborhood substitute WWW guy writing the last one before the 2016 MLB season begins. Opening Day is such an exciting day, and, while it is a singular event for some, to me it is a celebratory ribbon cutting to open the most wonderful time of the year; baseball season.1
And, I have to say I am extremely appreciative of the entire WFNY staff writing baseball and Indians so much these past few weeks. It is great to be able to read all the different viewpoints and perspectives everyone has about the upcoming season. My favorite thus far (yes, I play favorites) is Clayman’s Tyler Naquin piece, but you can find all of them at the bottom of this post so you can read any you might have missed. Nationally, the media seems a bit wary to glom on the high praise they did in 2015, but the Indians do look to be an improved ballclub from the fatally flawed one that began a season ago. Or, so I think on the Friday before the season… .
Regardless, only a few days until we can stop missing baseball in our lives (below is an excerpt from 2015 season-ending, award-winning altered Aerosmith lyrics):2
Trevor Bauer, Cody Anderson, and Josh Tomlin
How dare we think Trevor Bauer had a rotation spot all locked up and be surprised that he was left out of the rotation. I mean, why would we think he was guaranteed a spot? Oh, the Indians had told us as much with the idea he could spend Spring Training fine tuning his stuff without the pressure of a rotation competition. Whoops.
Thank you for hunting this down. Had been referencing it but hadn't linked. Much appreciated. Weird situation here. https://t.co/J3D5kWoQnE
— michael bode (@mgbode_WFNY) March 31, 2016
Really though, every player is always in a competition for their job. The better the recent history or worse the available alternate options; the more slack the team will allow before yanking them out. So, given that Bauer ended 2015 in the bullpen and the Indians are pitching rich, it is not an absolute shocking development that he is back in the bullpen to begin 2016. Hopefully, Cody Anderson and Josh Tomlin making the rotation says more about their careers than it does about Bauer’s.
And, remember, Anderson is a player whom Indians Director of Player Development Carter Hawkins said was the player who demonstrated the most outstanding work ethic and drive. He obviously extended that work throughout the offseason as he added three miles per hour to his fastball, and Fangraphs started comparing him to Matt Harvey despite his paltry 12.1 K% in 2015. If Anderson can utilize the extra velocity (and potentially movement) from his fastball into more strikeouts, then he could be in line for a huge breakout season.
So, the question now falls to Bauer and how he will respond. When he was demoted to the bullpen in 2015, Bauer continued to follow his normal starting pitching routine and Francona had mentioned it was a reason they didn’t feel comfortable utilizing him as a bullpen option down the stretch.3 If Bauer embraces the move this time, then he could potentially add miles per hour to his velocity (less innings = more speed) and become a true weapon. But, it remains to be seen if he is willing to do so especially given that there are probably 20 teams that would love to have a pitcher like Trevor Bauer in their rotation.
MLB Guilty Pleasures
I’ll admit it. I enjoy watching MLB baseball other than just solely the Indians. I just love baseball. But, there are two players who I make sure to go and dig through their highlights on a nearly nightly basis. Manny Machado of the Baltimore Orioles and Nolan Arenado of the Colorado Rockies. These third basemen make seemingly impossible defensive plays routinely.
Oh, and of course, Bartolo Colon highlights are required viewing.
Little League
Speaking of hard-working pitchers, there are no pitchers who work harder than the little guys who are learning to pitch from the mound for the first time in their lives.4 The eight-to-ten year olds in Little League are my favorite age bracket for baseball because there is such joy, energy, development, and, yes, failure. While baseball will not be the greatest accomplishment for most kids, learning to overcome failure is such a valuable trait to learn.
I know my lot in my league. I’m the weird coach. I wear bright orange shorts. I tell terrible jokes instead of instruction during pitching timeouts to get the kids laughing. We are boisterous and act more like a football team than a baseball team. Some of my teams have been dominant, some have struggled, but Goose Gossage would basically always hate us.5
A funny thing happens though when you let kids be kids while giving them a nice push with positive reinforcement. They’ll surprise the heck out of you. There are so many negatives to youth sports (almost all involving the adults), but seeing a kid achieve his potential is just the best.
This past weekend, I let the second youngest kid in the league pitch. His grandpa was in town for Easter, and he wanted to show off how hard he had been working. So, to the mound he went in the bottom of the last inning. We were up five with a five run rule per inning in effect. But, despite a strikeout early on, it became a one-run game with runners on second and third.
Then, disaster struck as he threw the next pitch to the backstop. The runner from third would surely score to tie the game. Except that kid on the mound was having none of it. He raced to home faster than he’s probably ever ran, right to where the catcher had blindly tossed the ball. Somehow, someway, the ball found the glove, the glove found the runner’s lead foot, and the out was made. And, the adrenaline must have been kicking in as the next three pitches were all grooved fastballs to end the game.
Let’s just say I don’t think he was thinking about the four runs he gave up that inning or the 12 straight balls he threw in a row. Naw, I think when the team lifted him up on their shoulders and paraded him around the diamond, he was just happy. Not nearly as happy as I was for him, though.
So, the Indians Opening Day is Monday. WFNY will have coverage all season long. But, professional baseball players don’t have anything on the youngsters playing in leagues across the country. Just remember they are kids when at the games (don’t be “that” parent).
It’s baseball season. Play ball.
- Though my kids are into their fifth week of Little League games. [↩]
- Note: no awards actually won. [↩]
- Basically, he was throwing too many bullpen pitches to allow him to then throw more pitches in games. [↩]
- I promise, I won’t utilize this space for too many Little League stories in the future, but this one was just too good. [↩]
- No bat flips though as those are automatic outs per Little League rules. [↩]
83 Comments
I’ve got faith in you buddy. And I’ve got money on you to do it. Here’s some inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAkzEusQLBw
Because who else would be this nitpicky, but in that article, there’s no indication from the front office that Bauer had a rotation spot, and the only quote “I come into camp like I’m trying to get ready, like I have to win a job, every year,” would suggest that Bauer in fact, did not have a spot locked up.
Sure, he got knocked around, but we had him working on something specific. Come the regular season, you won’t see him throwing (down) tall boys all night.
Next you’ll try to convince me that my pasta sauces are worthy of being sold at the grocery store.
I’m glad you’re nitpicky. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one.
I never mind a nit being picked. However, it is literally the first line of the article. They did qualify it with “at this juncture” which is when Cody Anderson continue to blow the doors off the barn and forced the issue.
There were other specific quotes from Tito early in ST about him not wanting Bauer to feel pressure and wanting him to just come in and pitch and it’d be good for his development to have the roster spot assured. Just a really strange process given that they took it away (rather than just saying he had to earn it back).
“It’s your friendly neighborhood substitute WWW guy”
…. I see what you did there.
http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/64b20eb9ee7f5757d624e3d04ce2fea8-650-80.gif
I guess it’s that I don’t see anything else in that article that would suggest that line is accurate is the problem. Where is anything from the Indians actually stressing that Bauer had a rotation spot?
He didn’t give the money quote in that article, no. I’ll have to try to dig up the earlier TIto quotes and I would assume given that line that they said similar to him then. Meisel isn’t one to hyperbolize.
Dooooooodddd…..spoiler
not really though 🙂
Finally, Spidey in a Marvel movie.
Marvel just needs to bite the bullet and buy his rights from Sony.
I was lucky enough to have all 4 of my sons play baseball, and I was the coach. All together I spent 20 consecutive years coaching kids – and a few years coaching a high school summer travel team. I wanted to make sure none of my sons ever played for that coach who thought he was going to win at all costs, and would yell at his players for physical mistakes. One of the best parts of coaching is to work with the kid whose parents obviously never played and never had time to work with their son, and then see the results of a summer of teaching proper technique and strategy. When one of these guys would make a great play in the field or get the big hit, I could see the joy on his face. This is what it is all about.
Since I was a pitcher in my day, I spent a lot of time teaching proper pitching mechanics to the kids. It always surprised me when some teams would have young kids – 10 or so try using a windup as opposed to a stretch. I always started new pitchers with a simple stretch, and once they had mastered this, would progress to a windup.
I used to tell the kids, that although they might not have the physical talent of a major league player, the kids mentally were just as smart. I emphasized being on top of the mental game – everyone on defense moves whenever the ball is hit – no spectators – and they should not worry about the physical mistakes that all players make.
good stuff here man.
our season motto is right in line with your last part….”control what you can control” — basically, anything in the past isn’t changing, so don’t worry about it. the umpire will call what he will call, so don’t worry about it. the other team will make some great plays, so don’t worry about it. you will make mistakes, so don’t worry about it. just be mentally prepared and know what your job is in that moment, then move onto the next one.
and yeah, my favorite moments are when a kid does something they didn’t they could do and the pure joy they get from it (which you can usually see coming from practices as they approach it, but they generally don’t see it).
as long as Sony will license him for Marvel movies, I’m good with it.
Marvel owns all of his right except for movies. They own his TV and merchandise rights.
They cut a special deal for this movie.
So no WFNY April Fools articles this year?
I also told the kids that I would never argue with an umpire. They are human and make mistakes just like the rest of us. I didn’t want to hear the excuse that the ump made the difference with the bad calls. Coaching kids is as rewarding as anything I have done during my lifetime.
and Sony is working with Marvel for the “yet another” new Spiderman movie series.
Steph Curry got kidnapped by ISIS.
I read somewhere, they are going to do a Venom movie.
More complicated than than…Sony won’t sell, for like, any amount. Their current deal allows them to rent him out to Marvel but also develop their own separate Spidey live-action Universe as well as animated series, TV, toys, etc.
I remember reading some gossip last year when the deal got announced Sony may move forward with a live action Miles Morales storyline while Marvel uses Peter but who knows.
Sony is working on that one, trashed the original Sinister Six concept in favor of solo Venom.
Sony owns a goldmine.
They just need Marvel to do the digging. 😉
You didn’t get the joke?
Nice edit – I got the email with the original comment. Decide it was too realistic and would therefore put bad juju on the Cavs?
I’m hoping Bauer-for-RP is the joke.
Man, I thought everybody would get the joke. It was so obvious. Surprised you didn’t see it. Maybe you just passed it over and went straight to the comments. Must have.
http://cdn1.theodysseyonline.com/files/2015/07/04/635715656633711150169978053_lifeguard%20things%20I%20see.jpg
Pretty much. 😀
Truth.
Here are some of the Tito quotes from Spring Training about Bauer:
Francona said (about Bauer). “You look at his skill set and his pitches, what he has done in spurts. It’s a lot like [Carlos] Carrasco. If you’re not patient sometimes, you can miss out on something good. We don’t want to be that
team that misses out. Sometimes you have to be a little more patient than people want you to be.”
Chris Assenheimer had a similar statement (not quote) about Bauer being a rotation lock. It seems to be something noted to the media early in camp though perhaps told not to be quoted on (for exactly the situation we ended in?):
Though he began spring training as a lock in the rotation for the second straight year, Bauer isn’t approaching the exhibition season that way.
But, the big one was the excellent Hayden Grove profile on Bauer…again, not exactly a direct quote, but obviously they were indicating to him such for him to write it as he did:
Francona, along with Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway, want him to get back to whatever helped him in his brilliant start a season ago.
They also want him to forget the struggles, which is why they’re giving him a sort of clean slate as one of the team’s starting pitchers.
“He’s a 24, 25-year-old kid that’s probably was his really first full season in the big leagues last year and those things happen,” Callaway said. “I don’t think you put a ton of stock into it other than just keep on just doing what you did the first half of last year to make you successful.”
All those quotes seem to suggest he had every chance to continue to be one of their starters, but if you go by spring performance alone, he would be one, so he couldn’t have been competing for a job in the spring. I know they don’t look only at the numbers and Cody Anderson impressed everybody with his process, but I can’t imagine they see Bauer as anything but a starter, so what gives? Either they’re sending a message to Bauer about his process vs Anderson’s (although it’s never really been suggested Bauer doesn’t work hard) or they are just that ridiculously high on Anderson.
I understand they couldn’t send Tomlin down, but I can’t help but think he’s the odd man out long-term. If they move him to the pen it lowers his value in a trade. If he continues to pitch well as a starter in April, it gets boosted.
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