Early Weekend 6-pack (4/8/10)

by APV on Apr 8, 2010 4:57 PM EDT

Due to unforseen circumstances known as life, this week's early weekend six-pack will be without content aside from a congratulations for the Indians first victory, and a rundown of all of tonight's Indians baseball.

Cleveland (Masteron) at Chicago (Floyd) - 8:10 pm

Columbus (Carrasco) vs. Indianapolis - 7:05 pm

Akron (Putnam )at Binghampton - 6:35 pm

Kinston (De La Cruz) vs. Winston-Salem - 7:00 pm

Lake County (Haley) vs. West Michigan - 6:30 pm

Consider this an afternoon open forum/minor league/pre-game thread. Enjoy.

via brookstonbeerbulletin.com

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Comments

Not that it makes that big of a deal, but a lot of us are not on EST, so to be clear … am assuming all of these times are EST.

Sure would be nice to see organization go 5-0 tonite …. Go Tribe Franchise!!

by talonk on Apr 8, 2010 5:13 PM EDT reply actions

INDIANS (1-1): SS Cabrera, CF Sizemore, RF Choo, DH Hafner, 3B Peralta, 1B LaPorta, 2B Valbuena, C Marson, LF Brantley. RHP Masterson.

by Brick. on Apr 8, 2010 5:14 PM EDT reply actions

set lineup!

by Brick. on Apr 8, 2010 5:14 PM EDT up reply actions

Think I may be able to catch my first game of the year tonight, pretty excited.

by Roger Dorn on Apr 8, 2010 5:18 PM EDT up reply actions

LLLame. But they’ll drop down LaPorta eventually.

by dgcambridge on Apr 8, 2010 5:19 PM EDT up reply actions

by Brick. on Apr 8, 2010 5:19 PM EDT up reply actions

So here’s why this is different than the “Sizemore shouldn’t be leading off” debate.

This one will determine the actual matchups that we will see late in the games.

As it is, Sizemore-Choo-Haf, each and every one, will see a lefty, and Peralta and LaPorta will see a righty, in their at-bats in the 7/8th. OK, this won’t happen every game, but we’ve seen it twice already, and I bet we see it in far more that half of any non-blowouts.

If LaPorta is in front of Hafner, and then Peralta then most of the time in that 7th/8th, one or two of those three will have the platoon advantage, unless the manager wants to use 4 different relievers for 4 different batters.

And spare me any short sample platoon stats. I’m a believer in the idea that the platoon advantage is pretty consistent, and real variations can’t be seen without many many at-bats.

If it’s a big enough deal that it affects how managers are going to use their late-inning relievers, why isn’t it a big enough deal to move guys in the lineup?

Or don’t read all that. Just this: Every manager who sees those three guys lined up says “thank you.”

by dgcambridge on Apr 8, 2010 5:32 PM EDT up reply actions

in a season like this, i’m just not going to get that worked up about it. i’m fine waiting a month to watch and see how much it matters. just wait till banyan is in the line-up, too.

by Brick. on Apr 8, 2010 5:39 PM EDT up reply actions

Try sneaking a fastball past this.

by YoDaddyWags on Apr 8, 2010 8:08 PM EDT up reply actions 3 recs

can’t believe this isn’t green.

by ken from alexandria on Apr 8, 2010 9:01 PM EDT up reply actions

yeah, i was about to post something similar to this. scoff at these lineup debates all you want, but it’s going to be extremely frustrating to watch what you’ve just described happen.

you’d think that the gain we get from inserting a righty in the midst of sizemore/choo/hafner would easily outweigh any negatives of dropping one of those guys (especially if it’s effing hafner) down in the lineup.

If you don't respect Aaron Laffey, I will fight you.

by Cap'n Snegiryov on Apr 8, 2010 5:40 PM EDT up reply actions

so the righty is in there. they still bring in the lefty to face sizemore and choo and peralta and hafner. peralta has to always kill that lefty enough to cancel out hafner’s platoon for this to matter that much.

by Brick. on Apr 8, 2010 5:42 PM EDT up reply actions

in other words, thorton comes in to face sizemore, gets him out, choo, gets him out, stays in to face jhonny, gets a double, stays in to face hafner, gets him out. what did this achieve?

by Brick. on Apr 8, 2010 5:44 PM EDT up reply actions

the more i think about this, the more i think it doesn’t matter. to really change the opposing manager’s strategy, it seems like you’d have insert a second righty. and i just don’t know if the trade-off for that situation is worth putting lesser hitters in those spots to avoid those match-ups with your best hitters. it also depends on the opposing pitcher. is he a lefty who get destroyed by righties? i suppose then they might pull him to face peralta.

this really is “Thank You” for having your best hitters be lefties, not “Thank You” for placing them together in the line-up. That ship sailed when the team was built.

by Brick. on Apr 8, 2010 6:01 PM EDT up reply actions

I don’t know, what if there’s a guy on base when Peralta comes up? Managers change their relievers all the time based on handedness. Every manager.

by dgcambridge on Apr 8, 2010 6:07 PM EDT up reply actions

Then pinch hit marte for hafner if that’s all that matters. I’d rather have hafner up in that situation than any righty we have.

by Brick. on Apr 8, 2010 6:21 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

Hafner, Peralta and LaPorta are all going to bat in the innings at issue. It’s just a question of whether we are going be on the wrong side of the platoon for all three of their at-bats.

by dgcambridge on Apr 8, 2010 6:43 PM EDT up reply actions

That’s all it is. You’re going to gain at least one platoon advantage in these (generally high leverage) situations. We’re saying that it’s worth the cost.

by dgcambridge on Apr 8, 2010 6:01 PM EDT up reply actions

jhonny ops’d .661 last year against lefties.
hafner ops’d .696 last year against lefties.

what are you gaining. other than square pegs in square holes?

by Brick. on Apr 8, 2010 6:05 PM EDT up reply actions

I don’t think that’s the right comp, but let’s look at the other side of the scale. What are you losing?

What are the odds that Hafner is a better hitter than LaPorta this year?

I actually think the squareroundholepeg thing is what is resulting in the current construction. Hafner is batting clean-up because he’s a big strong DH monster and everyone knows it!

Also! Westbrook is our best pitcher!

by dgcambridge on Apr 8, 2010 6:19 PM EDT up reply actions

So this is all on what we think laporta might be right now.

by Brick. on Apr 8, 2010 6:23 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

I would have put Hafner in your sentence, but it works either way. It’s relative to the two.

If we’re not sure Hafner is better, than why give away the advantage that is going to come up over and over again?

You’re right that this would be a less ballsy move to make if we had an established right-handed monster.

by dgcambridge on Apr 8, 2010 6:42 PM EDT up reply actions

Let’s just have Grady lead off.

by Matt in LA on Apr 8, 2010 6:07 PM EDT up reply actions

fine with me.

... Paul Hoynes is a really great guy ...

by westbrook on Apr 8, 2010 7:23 PM EDT up reply actions

But in the same spirit that Hafner sucks (he does), it probably doesn’t matter that much to have three lefties in a row.

by joeee on Apr 9, 2010 3:29 AM EDT up reply actions

Maybe Acta is tempting teams to pull their SPs?

... Paul Hoynes is a really great guy ...

by westbrook on Apr 8, 2010 7:21 PM EDT up reply actions

We dare you!

"Spring Training wins are good for the soul."

by USSChoo on Apr 8, 2010 7:55 PM EDT up reply actions

Oof, hard to know where to reply.

My knee-jerk (and only mine; I think your reasoning is a little more, um, reasoned) is to also be bothered by having three lefties in a row, but I’m thinking that if Hafner hits enough to stay in the fourth spot, then he’s probably not a liability against lefties – going back a few years, 2009 was the one time he showed a real split, regardless of whether or not he’s Pronk or just Bad Travis.

Plus, as long as I’m cherrypicking my silver linings, more lefty matchups means more reps against them for Sizemore and Choo. Negligible, but in a year we don’t expect to contend, that’s pretty OK, no?

Of course, I’m less confident in a year where we’re actually targeting the playoffs.

by ManchildinBeantown on Apr 8, 2010 7:40 PM EDT up reply actions

This is the kind of stuff that used to keep Eric Wedge awake at night.

by odradek on Apr 10, 2010 12:46 AM EDT up reply actions

With the cold weather I was half expecting LaPorta to get the night off and see Marte at 1B

by APV on Apr 8, 2010 7:34 PM EDT up reply actions

That looks tasty. There was GLBC beer at a festival I went to in AC a couple weekends ago. Had some of the Burning River. Delicious.

LGT's resident moderate Yankee hating fan.

by Joe. on Apr 8, 2010 5:16 PM EDT reply actions

By the way, Brett Anderson is my favorite pitcher in baseball. Masterson is a close second.

LGT's resident moderate Yankee hating fan.

by Joe. on Apr 8, 2010 5:16 PM EDT reply actions

Drafted Anderson in a 16-team keeper league for $13. Pretty excited to have him.

Btw, Adrian Gonzalez is the 3rd best player in baseball (ign boards fun).

by JP_Frost on Apr 8, 2010 6:59 PM EDT up reply actions

Yes on this. People don’t realize how good this guy is.

by Gradyforpresident on Apr 8, 2010 7:14 PM EDT up reply actions

does anyone know how to view in-game boxscores on milb.com?

by JP_Frost on Apr 8, 2010 7:21 PM EDT reply actions

Well, gameday for the AAA games is easy to find.

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2010_04_08_indaaa_colaaa_1

Usually there’s a box score link for the other games, updated between half-innings, but I don’t see it for most games. I’ve got audio for the Kinston game right now.

by dgcambridge on Apr 8, 2010 7:27 PM EDT up reply actions