Game 43: White Sox 7, Indians 2
by Ryan on May 24, 2010 11:42 PM EDT
in Game Recaps
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PrintJustin Masterson came extremely close to having to leave the game in the first inning. He had thrown over 40 pitches, only seemed to be able to throw his fastball anywhere near the strike zone, and he looked like someone who had no confidence. Thankfully, when he grooved a pitch to Chicago's eighth batter of the inning, it was 43-year-old Omar Vizquel at the plate and not practically any other hitter in the majors. Omar! hit the ball to the warning track (probably the farthest he'd hit a ball all season), and Masterson was able to walk off the mound and regroup. The damage was done, but that Masterson was able to go three more innings saved the bullpen for the remaining two games of the series. A 6-inning bad start only hurts the team for that game, but a 1-inning bad start could hurt the team for the next 3-4 days. Masterson has probably joined David Huff on the Demotion Watch; the Indians have two option years left on him, so it makes sense for him to work on his delivery in Columbus rather than tinker while facing major-league hitting.
Aaron Laffey soaked up three innings, giving up one run on two hits, and got the game to the eighth inning. If the Indians had scored another run or two, they would have had a shot, but after John Danks left, the offense was completely shut down by the White Sox bullpen. Chicago tacked on another run in the ninth off of Hector Ambriz on an Alex Rios home run.
| Highest WPA | Lowest WPA | ||
| Jason Donald | .142 | Justin Masterson | -.289 |
| Lou Marson | .069 | Trevor Crowe | -.155 |
| Russ Branyan | .046 | Shin-Soo Choo | -.120 |
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Prior to today’s game, opposing lefties were OPSing 989 off of you know who.
The only pitchers in the AL worse than that: Bergesen (.995) and Beckett (1.040!)
Actually, include the NL and only one guy joins the convo: Kyle Kendrick (1.008).
"I call myself common sense" —Manny Acta
There’s no way around it, he’s been bad. However, I’m curious to know how bad it’d be for if Marte played 3B and an above-average defensive 2B replaced Valbuena/Grudz, and that includes starts by Carmona and Westbrook. I don’t think a great defense is necessary to build a winner, but it’s going to be hard to win with a staff of groundball pitchers when the infield defense is porous. Of course, Westbrook could be gone at the end of the year and, and I’m still not sure where Talbot falls in this GB/FB mess.
I guess there’s nobody else, but Laffey to the rotation talk scares me when he’s got a 9BB/9K ratio in 22 innings. Isn’t moving to the pen supposed to increase strikeouts? Is he the rare guy who can prevent runs because he doesn’t give up XBH? Unless he has a new approach in the rotation, I don’t expect better things for Laffey—although Laffey at the status quo is probably better than Masterson at his current rate. On the flip side, I think Masterson can actually do some good in the pen. Might as well bolster the pen a few nights a week, because the rotation spot can’t get much worse.
I don’t think it would help Masterson that much. His groundball rate is much worse against lefties, though it’s significantly increased against righties this year. His problem isn’t that ground balls are getting through the infield – it’s the line drives. Again, both Masterson and the Tribe staff seem to feel that improved fastball command is the way to address the lefty problem. But Masterson is a big guy, with a complicated delivery, and he has good velocity and movement, so I question his ability to ever paint corners with a fastball. Unless he comes up with a cutter and/or commits to a changeup, we’ll probably see a lot of this type of result. Justin, please see Talbot, Mitch.
Improved infield defense would definitely make a difference with Westbrook, and perhaps Carmona.
Moving to the bullpen increases strikeouts for some pitchers because they are able to increase their velocity and/or are able to use a sharp breaking ball in platoon advantages. Unfortunately, neither applies for Laffey.
I’d just like to point out that you specifically don’t really need the non-word “convo” to sound like a dolt.
Go ahead, flag it.
I think Jay knew this. The flag reference is because I flagged his apostrophe kick the other day.
"I call myself common sense" —Manny Acta
The flag reference was because your flagging tic is irritating. I think you should be asking yourself, is it really a priority for you to irritate the mods in as many ways as possible? Because you kind of act like it is, and it isn’t really appreciated.
Hmm, seems like a situation where one guy thinks they’re joking around and the other doesn’t.
I’m reminded of Jim Rome – Chris Everett.
I think you probably won’t flag again. Bet I do.
SBN software has an easy option for us to suspend users for seven days. If I think someone is intentionally annoying any of the mods, I won’t hesitate to use it.
None of us needs more aggravation in our lives. I encourage everyone to find some other outlet for their lack of creativity.
Profound disappointment Jason Donald had an excellent game.
LGT's resident moderate Yankee hating fan.
I think this is in reference to odradek’s post.
If you don't respect Aaron Laffey, I will fight you.
by Cap'n Snegiryov on May 25, 2010 11:54 AM EDT up reply actions
If Masterson and/or Huff are sent to Columbus I suppose we’ll see CC called back up first. But if we have to go deeper than him will we see Scott Lewis again? Or, would Josh Tomlin get a shot? Either guy would require a roster move so that would presumably mean the end of the Raffy Perez era.
by MTF on May 25, 2010 8:01 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
Because the Clippers are just more interesting right now: Carlos Santana is second among current Clippers in SB (with 5).
Clippers threadjack!
Despite playing 1B all season, Wes Hodges leads the Clippers in errors (7).
by APV on May 25, 2010 9:12 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Carlos Santana, currently 4th in the IL in OPS (.991), has more BBs than Ks (34/28). The next person on the OPS leaderboard with more BBs than Ks is Brian Buscher, Clippers’ journeyman 3B, who ranks 47th in OPS (.743).
Josh Tomlin is currently 3rd in the IL in ERA (2.11) among qualified pitchers and first in WHIP (0.99).
Prior to his sale, Saul Rivera lead the club in games finished (15). The current leader is once and future reliever, Jess Todd (9).
Wes Hodges and Carlos Santana share the club lead in XBHs (18). Santana edges out Hodges in total bases (81/78). With a 1:1 ratio, Santana leads the team in HRs:(2Bs+3Bs).
The top 3 qualifying 2009 Clippers – Andy Marte (.963), Matt LaPorta (.917), and Jordan Brown (.913) – would be 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in OPS on the current team.
Of the top 14 pitchers who made the most appearances for the 2009 Clippers’ squad, only Frank Herrmann is currently in Columbus. Rafael Perez and Tony Sipp are the only other two still in the organization.
Skipping right over Akron, Rob Bryson has struck out 37 and walked only 4 in 22 IP between Kinston and Lake County.
For a second, I thought you meant Bryson skipped right over Akron.
Kinston stats: 29 PA, 16 K, 2 BB, 1 hit. K/PA 55%.
Oh no, my error. I meant that other than Alex White, there isn’t much going on in Akron right now to start a conversation.
That Bryson line is beautiful.
At Akron, there’s Price, I guess. Better than Nobody.
And how can you not cheer for Vinnie Pestano? Look how excited he was for his AAA promotion:
In the seventh, he caught three consecutive Bulls looking at called third strikes in his first taste of triple-A work. He struck out two more in the eighth.
“I heard today I was coming right around 1:30 (p.m.),” Pestano said. “I just jumped in my truck and drove down. My heart was going 1,000 beats per minute out there. I was excited. The score really didn’t matter.”
Pestano was the closer for Sarbaugh at Akron last season before an elbow injury shut him down. He is back and healthy.
“He threw great,” Sarbaugh said. “He throws strikes. That’s him.”
by dgcambridge on May 25, 2010 12:09 PM EDT up reply actions
1B get a lot of chances, though. I bet he doesn’t have the worst fielding percentage by a long shot.
If you take out the pitchers, Hodges is sixth-worst in fielding percentage.
Nick Weglarz 0.857 Josh Rodriguez 0.938 Brian Buscher 0.956 Shelley Duncan 0.956 Anderson Hernandez 0.956 Wes Hodges 0.979
Shouldn’t you compare him to other teams’ 1b, not just other players on his own team?
Blake: Thanks to you, I am damaged beyond repair!!
Sure, why not? There are 21 players in the International League this year with 100 or more chances at 1B. If we accept that errors and fielding percentage are appropriate metrics for evaluating defense, Hodges is last in both categories. If you want to use RF/G, he’s middle of the pack (10th). I don’t care enough about Wes Hodges’ defense to go looking for more advanced statistics for minor leaguers.
Sure, DFA one of those two, send down Valbuena, and bring JLewis and Anderson Hernandez to the big club. I guess they could just keep Marte when he’s back and send down Valbuena, but they’d have to jhonny rig a solution if Donald or Grudz were injured mid-game.
by dgcambridge on May 25, 2010 4:36 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
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