Latest round of cuts (Santana, Rondon & Co.)
No surprises. Santana, Rondon, Weglarz, Rivero, Gomez and Brown sent down. Beau Mills reassigned to minor league camp (not on the 40-man roster).
Feel free to use this as today's split-squad (both at 4:05) gamethread.
5 months ago
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Carlos Rivero looked much better defensively than I expected. He made several really tough plays look very smooth, and showed off a plus arm. The knock on him defensively was avg range, but he got to balls Jhonny never did to both sides.
Chiz also impressed me in the field, very smooth to both sides with a strong arm – that will be quite an Akron IF with Cord Phelps at 2B.
Donald looks very good at SS too – lots to like.
Agree about Rivero. He is definitely not small, but he looked smooth and has a great arm. I’m sure his range is an issue, but I didn’t get the sense he won’t be able to stick at SS, a la Peralta.
I just liked the way he looked out there, too. Very comfortable. For some reason he reminded me of Vic.
He’s looked pretty good at the plate too, and last year as usual finished up strong, and took that into the AFL.
Last year was widely regarded as a down year for him, but following him at Akron, he actually improved his relative BB/K rates from the previous year, which I found encouraging.
But yeah, he should handle AA pitching a lot better this year. If he can’t, it’s a big red flag.
Peralta was a pretty good shortstop until he was 24 or so (and a multi-millionaire). The front office felt from the start that, whatever they were giving up in range as compared with BP, they were more than getting back in overall consistency and throwing ability.
As you well know, I have always groused (and even railed) about what I feel is unsubstantiated presumptions about Rivero’s body and quality of defense. Actual first-hand accounts have always been highly positive about his defense, and the negative comments have always been random asides about his Ripkenesque build — not about his actual play.
So I’m not the least bit surprised that he’s been looking like he plays a good shortstop, because that’s what every scouting report has said about his actual play. Does that mean that his body won’t outgrow the position eventually? No, but let’s be clear — the doubts are only about his body, not about the way he plays shortstop with that body.
Law talked about this on insider the other day. I believe he said that if he had a gun to his head, he would put both Rivero’s glove and arm at 70.
Pretty high praise. I guess that explains it – none of the scouts over the last couple years had guns to their heads.
I’m pretty sure that would be a first.
I remember him hitting a tie-breaking homer to dead center in Toronto (prob 2006), but never anything deep to the right of center.
July 26, 2008 against the Twins is the only one I see in the majors.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/event_hr.cgi?n1=martean01&t=b#play_by_play
by VA tribe fan on Mar 20, 2010 1:16 AM EDT up reply actions
I read that as, “Where did he hit it? Out of curiousity?” I laughed out loud. I was disappointed to reread it and find out you were actually curious, and not making a joke.
Il faut d'abord durer.
“A great group to watch take BP”
yea, that’s worth the price of admision.
Chris Davis brings in Vlad. Laffey up 3-1.
... Paul Hoynes is a really great guy ...
Wow. Through three innings, Masterson gave up 5 runs, and threw just 29 pitches. 25 strikes, 4 balls.
Bruce D. says Marte is not going to make the roster. Crowe is in and Grudz was a great pick-up.
I’m not emotional about iPad...
Considering the source:
I’ll wait until the 25-man is officially announced.
by supermarioelia on Mar 19, 2010 6:03 PM EDT up reply actions
KC is really pouring it on against ARZ. Twenty-four hits through 5 innings resulting in 21 runs so far. Mercy rules please.
I’m not emotional about iPad...
Man, being a Royals fan must be like getting slowly beaten to death. I say slowly, because occasionally they get breaks from the suck and do things like this.
it always starts the same, with a boy and a girl and a hook and a game
Might as well ask this here, let me know if its been discussed elsewhere: Say (in the seemingly more likely everyday) scenario that Branyan opens the season on the DL. Do they go Marte at 1B or Brantley in LF?
That’s the big question. Tough to say which way they go in this case. Which do they want to suppress more: Brantley’s service time or Marte’s playing time?
I’m not exactly sure what this says about the Indians FO, but isn’t the obvious answer to play Marte? You ensure Brantley’s service time stays down, you get him some time in the minors before you throw him to the wolves, and hey, maybe you get a chance to see if Marte doesn’t suck, and yet I feel almost certain that they’ll make the opposite decision. What do the Indians (scouts?) see in Marte that makes them so willing to treat him like Trevor Crowe? And why doesn’t Hoynes or Castrovince try to find this out?
I’m petrified of our bullpen right now. Outside of the Perez boys, this group just has that feel of being potentially our achilles heel, again.
by supermarioelia on Mar 20, 2010 10:51 AM EDT reply actions
Agreed. Disappointed that Sipp hasn’t shown any signs of tightening it up yet. He might just be a guy that has to operate with big BB numbers. I think this group is pretty shallow, until some people are ready from: Judge Judy, her man Putnam, that other Cardinal reliever, the good Smith brother and Cracker. In roughly that order.
Wood, and the two Perezes could put together a very strong group of three for a while, and I believe that a team can get by fairly well with three excellent pen arms. But I’m a bit scared too.
by dgcambridge on Mar 20, 2010 11:24 AM EDT up reply actions
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