Early Weekend 6-pack (3/25/10)
by APV on Mar 25, 2010 7:58 PM EDT
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PrintI am pretty occupied this week with four 8 and unders, 2 over 60s, and a quartet of extras from Thirty Something. And stomach flu. So this week's early weekend 6-pack will simply be a set of observations from Tuesday's game at Goodyear.
The last days of disco for Jeremy Sowers
1. If the energy level at Goodyear is any indication of the Indians financial health, the situation is dire. The energy level at Goodyear on Tuesday was somewhere between a high school j.v. soccer match and a sale at Kohl's. I was sitting a few rows back on the 3B side, but I swear I could hear conversations coming from the Indians dugout on the 1B side of the field. The only excitement in the stands was generated by a man dressed in a green body suit, for no apparent reason.
2. Brewers fans outnumbered Indians fans by a 3:1 margin based on my count.
3.I ended up having multiple conversations with Brewers fans about Matt LaPorta. They were all very sad to see him out of the organization. I brought up Michael Brantley in each of these conversations and the reactions ranged from "yeah, he might be good, too" to "yeah, that LaPorta is going to be good".
4. The Goodyear stadium is incredibly kid friendly. A little whiffleball field for kids. Free kids zone which includes a pitching and hitting challenge area. Lots of green grass to run around in.
5. I commented last year how terrible the audio person was at Goodyear...poorly timed in-bat sounds, bad between inning song choices, inconsistent sound usage patterns. It has not improved.
6. 11 days till opening day. In some ways I feel the roster is less certain now than it was at the start of camp given the uncertainty created by Branyan and Wood's injury.
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Unless of course, they are the Green Lantern, in which case it’s just another day at the office.
"...maybe this year, there's no gorilla" - YoDaddyWags
by woodsmeister on Mar 25, 2010 4:20 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Wasn’t there a good “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” episode with Charlie as Green Man, challenging the Phillie Phantic?
Surprised on #6. Doesn’t Brantley just take Branyan’s spot in the lineup for now, with LaPorta to first? Wood’s injury allows someone like Saul Rivera to tag along for a while.
Here’s what I don’t know…who is going to be the extra infielder? Does Grudzeilanek actually make the team? Do we carry a second extra infielder in the form of Andy Marte? If Branyan really is on the DL, does LaPorta start at first or does he stay in LF? If he is at first, does Brantley start in LF, or does he still go to AAA? What is this Luis Valbuena talk about?
NO JORDAN BROWN IN YOUR COMMENT WHAT MORE DOES HE HAVE TO DO
by Jay on Mar 25, 2010 6:17 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
Here’s my prediction from a couple of days ago, trying to read the tea leaves…
- Kearns and Crowe to split LF, with more Kearns to start
- Brantley to AAA
- Branyan to DL
- Grudzielanek to start at 2B
- Hernandez makes it as utility
- Valbuena to AAA
- Marte makes roster
Most of this is depressing. I’d like to hear how Mike Redmond sees it.
And if Brantley and/or ‘Buena start off in AAA and play well, we’ll have our share of articles about how the Indians care more about service clocks than winning games. So look forward to that.
by dgcambridge on Mar 25, 2010 7:43 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Yeah, I just don’t see them wanting to start Brantley with the big-league club and then send him down once Branyan is healthy. As I said before, that’s not the M.O. of this organization.
For me the question is how long is it going to take for me to see “J. Wright” in the box score and not think it’s Jaret.
by ken from alexandria on Mar 26, 2010 9:03 AM EDT up reply actions
If they’re dead set on Laporta in left for now and Branyan starts on the DL, isn’t Marte the pick for first? (Hopefully) Acta isn’t Wedge and doesn’t have an interest in seeing Kearns out there, when Marte should be nearly as effective short-term and potentially more so long-term.
I could tell by the Pony League pitcher using the real bullpen in the top picture that the stadium is kid friendly.
by xrickx on Mar 25, 2010 3:16 PM EDT reply actions 6 recs
Mmm…Turbodog.
Really liking the more frequent LGT tweets. The sidebar widget is nice.
by cleveland teamer on Mar 25, 2010 3:36 PM EDT reply actions
At this point, mostly Andrew and sometimes me. The actual feed includes all front-page LGT posts and FanShots automatically, plus our ad hoc comments — although we might kill the auto-feed at some point. The feed on the right only includes the ad hoc comments and other stuff we feel like putting there.
Just don’t turn the twitter into a list of all the articles. I hate those. If I’m into your stuff, I already follow it and want more insight in 140 characters. Would make for good non-game thread comments that aren’t enough to be a fanshot. And could grow the fanbase when those comments start open a dialog with other tweeters.
That’s a choice to be made. I’m with you, in that I don’t need Twitter to point me to articles on a website I visit anyway. But there may be other followers who don’t come here often, and may appreciate the list of articles.
It’s probably about time we tried U-U-D-D-L-R-L-R-B-A. You never know.
by cleveland teamer on Mar 25, 2010 4:24 PM EDT up reply actions 3 recs
GATOR4PASTA
"...maybe this year, there's no gorilla" - YoDaddyWags
by woodsmeister on Mar 25, 2010 4:39 PM EDT up reply actions 6 recs
other guy doing play by play. if he recaps what every batter did like he just did we might actually be able to piece together what has happened heretofore
According to Wikipedia, Niehaus was the first to call Franklin Gutierrez by his current nickname, “Death to Flying Things”.
New to me.
Babelfish says that if you change “flying things” to “flies” and translate it into Spanish, it’s “Muerte A Las Moscas.” Personally, I think that’s about 10,000x cooler sounding.
by VA tribe fan on Mar 25, 2010 10:12 PM EDT up reply actions
Except curveballs and sliders from right-handed pitchers.
by xrickx on Mar 25, 2010 5:39 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
I dont know why… maybe its my man crush on Laffey, but I would rather have him in the rotation and Huff as the long man
agreed.
Anything in life is possible, except for skiing through revolving doors.
by MooneysRebellion on Mar 25, 2010 5:15 PM EDT up reply actions
I think 19 wins and 238 innings of 143 ERA+ with 217 Ks at the age of 23 is pretty good.
WHAT MORE DOES JORDAN BR—ER, FELIX HERNANDEZ HAVE TO DO.
Steel Nick
Prove he can do it consistently.
I still think he’s got a bit more in terms of potential.
Anybody got a free audio feed today? I went to mlb.com’s and its trying to get me to purchase the audio for the year….any help would be great.
Oh, and I had mentioned a couple of months ago that my wife and I are having our first baby—found out today I’ll have a little boy to take to Tribe games and teach to play baseball!!!
Anything in life is possible, except for skiing through revolving doors.
by MooneysRebellion on Mar 25, 2010 5:14 PM EDT reply actions
I’ve actually thought about this and the conclusion I’ve come to is this: Its okay for a child to bring his glove to a game up until age 10. After that, probably not.
Anything in life is possible, except for skiing through revolving doors.
by MooneysRebellion on Mar 25, 2010 5:24 PM EDT up reply actions
But when you reach age 65 or so, it becomes acceptable again.
by xrickx on Mar 25, 2010 5:38 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Exactly
Anything in life is possible, except for skiing through revolving doors.
by MooneysRebellion on Mar 25, 2010 5:40 PM EDT up reply actions
Nice. My grandfather still has one of those and we play catch every time I return home.
Anything in life is possible, except for skiing through revolving doors.
by MooneysRebellion on Mar 26, 2010 7:21 AM EDT up reply actions
Hmm…starting to think we might see Laffey winning the 5th spot in the rotation and Huff starting in Columbus
All of last season, Huff made me feel as if he was just hanging on for the season to end, after which he would make adjustments. The way he’s pitched this spring, I’m sensing an entire season of borderline performances from him unless he gets a brief stint in AAA to get his stuff together.
by supermarioelia on Mar 25, 2010 6:33 PM EDT up reply actions
I think you’re projecting.
Up until those last five starts, Huff had a 6.80 ERA and a 1.5 K:BB ratio. He was pretty bad. Those last five starts were pretty good, but it was definitely garbage time at that point. Bottom line, he didn’t show us much last season to guarantee him a rotation spot this season.
I guess I was far from clear. I thought he was awful last year. And that he was just putting the ball over the plate praying that the season would soon end. The fact he has been no better this spring tells me he needs some time in Columbus, whether he has anything to prove there or not. I can’t see him making the necessary adjustments with the big club.
by supermarioelia on Mar 25, 2010 7:04 PM EDT up reply actions
Yeah I’ve been told before that my psychoanalysis needs work. Hence family medicine. Thanks for the edits again, I managed to get into the program I wanted.
by supermarioelia on Mar 26, 2010 12:41 AM EDT up reply actions
Just got here. Huff’s numbers look awful and I just assume that Joe Smith was awful as usual. Pretty much?
A rotation of Westbrook, Carmona, Masterson, Talbot and Laffey will produce an absurd amount of grounders. I seriously hope our infielders are taking some extra fielding practice.
How does this affect the extra infielder debate?
by supermarioelia on Mar 25, 2010 6:33 PM EDT up reply actions
I think we should play five guys in the infield, Sizemore and Choo in the OF
by APV on Mar 25, 2010 6:35 PM EDT up reply actions 3 recs
Who would be the fifth infielder? And even then, we could still have a pretty good outfield….
Tribe in 2010!! Maybe.
by indiansfan20062000 on Mar 25, 2010 6:36 PM EDT up reply actions
From left to right: Marte, Peralta, Cabrera, Valbuena, LaPorta. With Cabrera alternating what side of 2B he stands on depending on the pitching/hitting matchup.
I think I would actually consider supporting this.
by VA tribe fan on Mar 25, 2010 10:16 PM EDT up reply actions
See, this is why we should have kept Gutierrez. Could an outfield of Sizemore in L-C and Gootz in R-C have been average?
Seems like you could almost get away with it, as long as you packed your rotation with groundball guys … which we have.
Castrovince reports Carrasco is still in the mix for the #5 slot:
“He’s pitched his way right into the conversation,” Belcher said of Carrasco.
Seems that Talbot has already pitched himself into the #4 slot. He went 6 good innings yesterday in a AAA game. Personally, I’d just as soon see Carrasco get the remaining spot as Huff or Laffey if he’s pitching better. He has the better stuff, they have more experience, they all have options.
maybe they really want laffey in the pen, then huff went and screwed up their plans by not being very good
I like that feature as well and wish they were included in regular boxscores. And I think the speeds are realistic as well.
It was always a pet peeve of mine that if a single scouting report mentions that so-and-so “touches 95”, it tends to follow a prospect (Lofgren, cough) misleadingly for a long time, when their typical, repeated speeds are far more salient (ans slower).
Even if the speed numbers aren’t completely accurate, they give relative info – that Trey Haley throws harder than Calyton Cook, for example. And that Danny Salazar and Travis Turek throw much harder than their physical statures might indicate, etc.
In other words (yours) – stat crack.
I know its spring training and no numbers count or even project to anything real, but there are some things that have me excited thus far. While individual performances can be sited, I think they are less likely to be applicable (Carmona ’09 anyone?).
What has me excited is the run differential where the team is significantly better than any other ML team. Its one thing to be one of the best teams in this category, but we are over 20 runs better than our closest competitor (either in Florida or Arizona). I’m also excited by how few Runs Against we’ve allowed compared to the rest of the Catus League.
I know its flimsy, but it’s still March and it has me excited and hopeful.
I just wanted to believe.
Yeah, is our team ERA still almost a run better than the other Cacti teams?
... Paul Hoynes is a really great guy ...
Not any more (thanks, Jeremy and Jensen):
CLE 3.53 SFG 3.83 LAD 4.38 MIL 4.43 CHC 4.54 CWS 4.83 SDP 4.85 CIN 4.86 SEA 5.09 COL 5.26 TEX 5.49 KCR 5.83 OAK 6.07 ARI 6.12 LAA 6.15
League average is 5.01
FIRE VANDERBILT
... Paul Hoynes is a really great guy ...
by westbrook on Mar 26, 2010 5:26 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
the hacked gameday link took about 15 minutes to load. i now see we’re up 2-0 after 1. doubles by choo and jhonny.
... Paul Hoynes is a really great guy ...
Still 2-0 after two. Jake gave up two singles in the first and two walks in the second, but has 4 groundouts, including a double play.
Just checking the box score, Westbrook is through 3 and a third, walked 3, struck out 3. 3-1 Indians, Asdrubal has scored twice.
Steel Nick
I’m pulling in a static-y version of 1590 Akron and so far, Jake doesn’t have it….
Tribe in 2010!! Maybe.
by indiansfan20062000 on Mar 26, 2010 5:11 PM EDT up reply actions
Woah, check out Sowers’s numbers when he has more than 6 days of rest.
... Paul Hoynes is a really great guy ...
hmm, good point. ’tis possible.
let’s see…
July 25, 2009 Recalled from Columbus (AAA).
July 9, 2009 Optioned to Columbus (AAA).
May 23, 2009 Recalled from Columbus (AAA).
May 14, 2009 Optioned to Columbus (AAA).
so that makes the Jul 25 start not really 17 DR, and same thing with May 25.
Which leaves September 14 the lone time where my point exists. Which is the definition of SSS.
What we really need to do is keep sending him down every other week so we can get 15 good starts out of him.
... Paul Hoynes is a really great guy ...
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