Borowski

by LeftyCatcher on Mar 26, 2007 10:20 AM EDT

When I reviewed the Tribe's spring training pitching stats last night, the thing that jumped out at me is Matt Miller's 16 strikeouts in 7.1 innings! He leads the club. I hope he can stay healthy all year.

Betancourt has 15 SOs and only one walk in 10.2 innings, but the rest of his stats are not impressive. But I'm not worried about him.

I'm surprised Tom Mastny has pitched so many innings, more than Betancourt and a lot more than Hernandez and Borowski.

Is anyone else curious about the club's approach to our closer this year? Borowski has appeared in only 6 games/6.0 innings. The results are less than reassuring. Hernandez has appeared in 7 games. His stats look better, except for the 2 SOs vs 6 BBs. Remember last year and all the attention focused on Wickman? Yet this year there has been hardly any talk about our closer situation (maybe there has and I've missed it). I'm worried. What bother's me is that it's not like Shapiro to put so many eggs in a shaky basket. I just don't have that much confidence in Borowski as someone we can win big with. Am I missing something?

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Re: Borowski

IMO, Shapiro is doing quite the opposite of a lot of eggs in one basket. While none of them may be glamorous, we have plenty of, er, baskets. I expect Borowski gives us a Wickman-esque performance until he can no longer do so (either by a decline in said performance, or injury), and by then (fingers crossed part) any one of our young guys is at the point where he has felt good against the batters he's been facing up to then (either in the minors, like Sipp, or in the majors, like Cabrera) and has learned a thing or two from our "crafty veteran presence" that he can successfully step into the closer's role. Very much UNlike Carmona being--to borrow Wickman's words--thrown to the wolves.

As for Borowski's spring, it's hard to put too much stock into 6 innings. Yes, the lack of work could be worrisome, but veterans shouldn't take too long to get ready and I'm sure the organization wanted closer looks at other people. Adam Miller, Mastny, and Lara are all at the top of the team (not counting regular SPs) in IP for a trio that won't open the season with the club. And I could be wrong, but it's my understanding that the only runs he gave up came in a single outing, from a home run that followed a Luna error that would have resulted in an inning-ending double play.

You're right, Matt Miller's K/9 and K/BB have been very encouraging this spring.

by nickjs21 on Mar 26, 2007 11:12 AM EDT reply actions

Re: Borowski

Borowski has also been pitching in minor-league games, so that's why his inning totals look low.

by Ryan on Mar 26, 2007 11:29 AM EDT reply actions

Re: Borowski

Good point. I checked last year's spring training stats and found Wickman only pitched a total of 8.2 innings. So he must have also thrown some of his innings in minor league games also.

by LeftyCatcher on Mar 26, 2007 12:32 PM EDT up reply actions

Re: Borowski

Borowski just closed out today's game, gave up a leadoff single & then got a popup & two VERY nice looking Ks to get the save.

by zempf on Mar 26, 2007 3:19 PM EDT reply actions

Re: Borowski

There is no gamethread, so I'll post some observations here:

Borowski closed today's game in fine style. Not a pitch faster than 88 on the gun, but I hope we get real used to him shaking Vic's hand at the end of the game.

Sowers looked great. I really enjoy watching him pitch - same easy controlled motion over and over, hitting his spots. I think he's going to be a good one for a long, long time.

Altho JP has remade himself in the field, it has not extended to the plate. He is still waving helplessly at offspeed stuff that is not in the strike zone - I predict he and Grady will again K 150+ times.

Although there has been very little press about it, Nixon is quite clearly not fully recovered from surgery and simply can't run very well. With all this jawing about Garko being a defensive liability for the relatively small amount of games he is ticketed for against lefties, nobody is talking about Nixon, who is obviously hampered in the field and on the bases and is scheduled to start the majority of the games in right. I just have a tough time seeing Trot (a very apt name at the moment) play every day and get better to boot. The probability that he will not be able to open the season at full speed may be the other reason we are still seeing Francisco and Choo in the lineup.

by mcrose on Mar 26, 2007 3:57 PM EDT up reply actions

Re: Borowski

Oh, and Hernandez looked pretty mediocre setting up Borowski, giving up a couple of runs on a Cantu pinch-hit homer.

by zempf on Mar 26, 2007 4:24 PM EDT up reply actions

Re: Borowski

Borowski's sliders looked great.

by nickjs21 on Mar 26, 2007 6:49 PM EDT up reply actions

Re: Borowski

I think there would be more comment about Borowski if Indians fans were more familiar with him, i.e., had watched him play more than a handful of times. People haven't had the chance to form their subjective (and largely irrelevant) opinions of him.

by Jay on Mar 26, 2007 4:23 PM EDT reply actions

Re: Borowski

Also, I think fans are tempering their expectations out of him, and the bullpen in general.

Governor's Cup in '07!

by Brandini on Mar 27, 2007 11:23 AM EDT up reply actions

Re: Borowski

Sounds right.

by Jay on Mar 27, 2007 12:58 PM EDT up reply actions

Re: Borowski

My largely irrevelant opinion of Joe Borowski is that he's going to be a very productive part of our bullpen. Anyone with mlb.tv(and Borowski on their fantasy team) in '06 could watch JoBo, and in my opinion, the Wickman comparisons are apt.
He'll scare us somewhat, but he'll get the job done.

My early free agent wish list included Borowski and(as closer) Mike Gonzalez. Foulke seemed a decent risk, but now we're back to JoBo at closer.
If he stays healthy, I think he'll perform well enough to keep the job. A nice bridge until '08, when we should have a really good in-house closer developed.

by Chiefroy on Mar 27, 2007 10:27 PM EDT up reply actions

Speaking of Adam Miller!

Hello everyone,

Just reading a recent MinorLeagueBall thread I made about Adam Miller, a post was made from tribester on Adam Miller's last start on Saturday, a Minor League exhibition against AAA Toledo; his line was the following -

6 IP, 4H, 3R, 2ER, BB, 3K, 69 pitches

The interesting thing tribester mentioned was that Miller's fastball reached 100 MPH again.

My question is, has anyone else heard about this start from Miller? Surprisingly, Indians.com didn't have anything on it over the weekend. Being that Miller was a big story during ST, I would have thought there would have been a paragraph or two about Miller's outing on Saturday.

Just curious. :-)

Go Tribe! :-)

by indiansfan on Mar 26, 2007 7:05 PM EDT reply actions

Re: Speaking of Adam Miller!

I forget which it was, but either Andy Call or Jim Ingraham mentioned the "100" in a recent column. More impressive to me is the 69 pitches in 6 innings.

by mcrose on Mar 26, 2007 7:40 PM EDT up reply actions

Agreed - I thought that was impressive too!

Hello mcrose,

While reading what tribester mentioned, I thought that the 69 pitches in 6 IP was impressive also - that's probably why he didn't have the high K totals, but really, as long as he gets the hitters out with few to no runs, and few hits, I'd be very happy with that, and 4 H in 6 IP isn't something you see everyday, even from the top pitchers in the league. That would only be 5-6 H per 9 IP, so I'd be very happy if Miller came close to that or equaled that in several outings per year once he becomes a ML pitcher.

His command and poise are as impressive as his power arsenal - may he make good progress in Buffalo this year and make a successful ML debut in 2007! :-)

Go Tribe! :-)

by indiansfan on Mar 27, 2007 12:39 AM EDT up reply actions

It was Ingraham who mentioned it!

Hello mcrose,

Thanks for the heads-up; while looking up some info. on Miller for a MinorLeagueBall posting I'm about to make, I found where Ingraham mentioned the 100 MPH - you can find it here.

That link also provides the projected AAA and AA rotations, as well as the fact that former Indians' RHP Tim Drew could return to the organization, depending on how he does in some tryout appearances - he had major shoulder surgery just 14 months ago.

Again, thanks for the info. - greatly appreciated!

Go Tribe! :-)

by indiansfan on Mar 28, 2007 7:43 AM EDT up reply actions

More on that outing from Miller!

Hello everyone,

I found reference to Miller's start here.

I didn't find any reference to his fastball reaching 100 MPH, so I don't know how tribester knows that, but I did find out a few other interesting tidbits about that game:

RHP J.D. Martin - in relief:

3.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K - 1 SV

INF Ryan Mulhern (yes, he's still in the Indians' system) hit a HR, going 1 for 3. INF Brandon Pinckney (2 hits - 1 2B, 2 RBIs) and INF Rodney Choy Foo (2 RBIs; 7 RBIs in 6 games; love that name) also had productive days as well.

Go Tribe! :-)

by indiansfan on Mar 26, 2007 7:14 PM EDT reply actions

Re: More on that outing from Miller!

J.D. the Stealth Prospect strikes again ...

by Jay on Mar 27, 2007 10:03 AM EDT up reply actions

Re: Borowski

Matt Miller's numbers should be looked at carefully. As much of his numbers were piled up early in spring training when he would come in for the 5th/6th inning and face triple A/double A players fighting for roster spots. I assume many of the hitters he has faced this spring have been sent to their minor league spring training camps.

Governor's Cup in '07!

by Brandini on Mar 27, 2007 11:22 AM EDT reply actions

Re: Borowski

When I reviewed the Tribe's spring training pitching stats last night, the thing that jumped out at me is Matt Miller's 16 strikeouts in 7.1 innings! He leads the club. I hope he can stay healthy all year.

NOW we know who to blame for Miller starting out on the DL. C'mon, Lefty, you should know better than that! :-)

by mickeyf on Mar 27, 2007 5:24 PM EDT reply actions