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September 12, 2016C-Cap Recap: Cookie Crumbles + More 4th Starter Ideas
September 13, 2016The summer of Cleveland appears to have changed into the fall of chaos in relatively short order. The Cleveland Browns officially lose Robert Griffin III for the season and the Indians lose Danny Salazar for a month within hours of one another.
Danny Salazar was excused after four innings on Friday night with some soreness in his forearm. The news was expected to get worse as the Indians flew him back to Cleveland for further evaluation. That impending doom became official when the team announced he would be shut down from throwing for a minimum of 10 days and would not be able to pitch for three-to-four weeks.
An update on RHP Danny Salazar: pic.twitter.com/kAyzJFYjrb
— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) September 12, 2016
The good news is that his UCL reconstruction has not been affected, which indicates no further surgery is thought to be needed (at this time). And, the best news is that the timeline allows for a possible Salazar return during the MLB postseason. With a seven-game cushion over the second-place Detroit Tigers, there is no need to rush him back into the rotation.
However, the injury-riddled season continues to put pressure on finding a fourth postseason starter in the increasingly likely event that Salazar is unable to fill the role. So, the Indians will need someone to come in and give them quality innings of work similar to what Jaret Wright gave them during the 1997 World Series run.
Here is an excerpt from this morning’s post about a player who could manage to do just that:
The Indians need Mike Clevinger. The good news is that he appears up to the task. After looking lost in his first three starts back in May (8.79 ERA over 14 1/3 IP), Clevinger has had a 3.00 ERA since. In starts in this period, he has given up four runs in 14 innings (2.52 ERA)—five runs in 15 2/3 innings counting the bullpen day start (2.87 ERA).
Let’s hope that if Salazar is unable to go that Clevinger can fill the needed role.
13 Comments
Dr. Schickendantz? When did The Onion start writing for the Tribe?
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Been wanting to see what Ryan Merritt has. I think we will find out.
I don’t know. Soft-tossing lefties?
For the next couple weeks I wouldn’t mind seeing him, but I don’t think he’ll be MLB postseason viable.
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This is good, right? Save him for playoffs?
Right?
Right?
He should be behind Crockett in the depth chart.
It would have been a really good idea if they had done this when he first had to take some time off.
Our pets heads are officially falling off.
I was going to say give Perci Garner a start, but it doesn’t look like he has been a SP for a while
Yeah, usually if a guy has been turned into a RP in MiLB it is because the FO sees no path to him being a starter in MLB
Agree, it sort of felt like they never took his issues that seriously. It’s more likely that this happened because of him pitching with the other soreness than that they are the same root issue, but still, they should have probably shut him down for a month the first time. I’ll admit to being mostly relieved though. When pitchers have sore forearms it usually means something worse than a muscle strain.
It probably just means Tomlin will get a couple more starts before the end of the season. They were already stretching Clevinger back out, so he’ll just replace Salazar instead.
Clevinger can be our 4th. In the playoffs, he only has to go 5 or 6 good innings and our bullpen can take over from there. As for the balance of the season, let’s see if Callaway can fix Tomlin and get him through a few more starts.