Game 133: White Sox 6, Indians 4
by Ryan on Sep 1, 2010 5:22 PM EDT
in Game Recaps
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Poor relief pitching again derailed a late lead and neutralized a second straight excellent start.
Carlos Carrasco, making his first major-league start of 2010, seemed a completely different pitcher than the one who pitched in 2009. He didn't walk a batter until his final inning, and after giving up a first inning homer to Alex Rios, threw up zeroes in the next six innings. He threw a mid-90s fastball and three breaking pitches, all with different speeds. Carrasco will be starting every five days in September, and this month's starts will be treated as an audition for a rotation spot next season. The Indians aren't exactly deep in starting pitchers, so I don't think Carrasco has too much to worry about regardless of how he pitches, but another couple starts like today's would not only lock down a spot, but would place him near the top of next year's rotation. After enduring a litany of pitchers with mediocre stuff but good minor-league numbers fail in the majors, it's nice to finally see a pitcher with the stuff that can translate to the majors.
Because both Joe Smith and Frank Herrmann have struggled recently, Acta called upon Justin Germano to get Alex Rios with two outs in the eighth. Germano had been pitching well in long relief, but that success didn't carry over to this new setup role; he fell behind Rios, eventually walking him. Walks at any time are cardinal sins for a relief pitcher, but this particular walk not only put the tying run on base, but brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the form of Paul Konerko. Germano fell behind Konerko, then served up a three-run homer. Once he fell behind 2-0 to Konerko, it seemed to me a given that a home run would follow.
| Highest WPA | Lowest WPA | ||
| Jayson Nix | .265 | Justin Germano | -.594 |
| Carlos Carrasco | .197 | Jordan Brown | -.147 |
| Michael Brantley | .084 | Shelley Duncan | -.094 |
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Two homeruns served up by Carrasco. I like the outing as a whole, but he can’t replace the walks with homeruns.
Good stuff from Carrasco today. We’ve talked about this in the past, but for whatever reason it appears mechanics are perhaps more important for him than other pitchers. When he stays closed, he hides the ball better and drives it down in the zone more. That’s true for all pitchers, but it just seems like he lives on the extremes with this ability more than others. This perhaps explains the highs and lows we’ve seen from him in the past, even within the same game. Or, maybe it’s just because he has better stuff than other young pitchers we’ve seen with the Tribe lately, and therefore that drives the extremes.
I think his recent stretch of success in AAA is real, so I wasn’t surprised to see him do well today. I’m more positive about him now than a year ago, and Ryan’s dead-on regarding his chances for the starting rotation in 2011.
Yes, good outing – he’s had a great August and started out September very well. He already has 160 innings or so and it looks like he will be handed the ball 4 or 5 more times. He had about 180 last year and has pretty much pitched 150+ every year in the minors – its great to see him pitching strong late in the season.
From watching him at times thru the season, I’ve noticed an improvement in is his mechanics and routine, but more so between pitches than anything else. At the beginning of the season, he didn’t have much of a pitching rhythm, would walk around the mound when something went wrong, and sometimes not get completely set before his delivery. Focus and repetition, basically – when he has it, his pitches are sharper. And he has the pitches.
Whatever adjustments he’s made, he was in control yesterday. Both the four-seam and the two-seam had nice movement and were consistently in the low to mid 90s. His curve still looks like his weakest pitch to me; it doesn’t have a ton of break and he’s a little wild with it. But the changeup was killer. And he mixes pitches well too.
The sixth must have been my favorite inning. He surrendered the leadoff double to Pierre, which looked a lot like it would be the start of his undoing. But then after Omar’s sac he straight up shut down Alex Rios and Paul Konerko, inducing weak outs to shortstop from both. Third time through the lineup, heart of the order, and he doesn’t flinch.
I still think it was the wrong move to send him out for the eighth, just given his inexperience. But only on that basis; he was still throwing strikes.
From, Ben
“I still think it was the wrong move to send him out for the eighth”
Come on, this is Acta we’re talking about. He always sends him out for the _th.
In the new Geico commercial, Marte sings "Let me be myself" on Wedge's front lawn (with the cavemen).
by V-Mart Shopper on Sep 2, 2010 2:13 AM EDT up reply actions
And for good reason. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re not exactly in the thick of a pennant race.
Though I look right at home, I still feel like an exile
by Manhattan Tribe Fan on Sep 2, 2010 6:06 AM EDT up reply actions
Sure, but it’s still a choice of approach. Acta likes to push a good outing until the guy fails or his pitch counts hits. That seems like the obvious approach, but plenty of managers would pull a guy earlier on occasion based on other factors, such as “let’s pocket these good 7 innings from my fragile rookie.” His approach is defensible, but not the only one.
I was very glad to see that he isn’t trotting out C Perez for multiple inning saves.
You’re right, of course, it just happens to jibe with the approach I tend to favor.
Though I look right at home, I still feel like an exile
by Manhattan Tribe Fan on Sep 2, 2010 2:17 PM EDT up reply actions
Is there a reason we shouldn’t invite him to ST?
I have been complimented many times and they always embarrass me; I always feel that they have not said enough.
Oh, THAT’s why he said read this shapiro. I thought he was “cautioning Shapiro” about his handling of young pitchers. (probably because I didn’t read the article he linked to). Well, that makes the comment much more sensible. Yeah let’s get him signed up.
In the new Geico commercial, Marte sings "Let me be myself" on Wedge's front lawn (with the cavemen).
by V-Mart Shopper on Sep 2, 2010 10:05 PM EDT up reply actions
So by my count:
*Only the Perez brothers are locks for the 2011 pen
*Only Carmona and Carrasco are locks for the 2011 rotation
*Masterson makes the team in one of the two aforementioned categories.
*Talbot PROBABLY makes the team as a starter as he’s out of options.
And there folks… is your deep well of pitching!
Still got a month to go. I mean remember, Huff earned his lock in the rotation last September, right?
Wells or waves, there’s depth, just not many definites. There are actually more internal pitching options than usual, its just that very few of them are tried and tested. Well, some are being tested this year – I’d say Chris Perez is the closest to proving true so far.
I don’t have any illusions about 2011, it’ll be another rebuilding year like this one was, but with one year under the belt. Not many locks yet – we’ll still be the youngest roster in baseball for a while.
I would consider sipp and hermann locks for the pen, all the obligatory talk of spring training competition notwithstanding.
I think there will be a free agent added to the rotation and Gomez will end up the “6th man” (waiting/starting in columbus to come in and replace whoever fails or gets injured) but I guess we shall see.
In the new Geico commercial, Marte sings "Let me be myself" on Wedge's front lawn (with the cavemen).
by V-Mart Shopper on Sep 2, 2010 2:17 AM EDT up reply actions
I don’t think Herrmann is a lock. We have avoided using an option this year by keeping him around.
http://www.justingermanofanclub.com/
That is true, however he has also pitched well enough to not be optioned. So we don’t know.
In the new Geico commercial, Marte sings "Let me be myself" on Wedge's front lawn (with the cavemen).
by V-Mart Shopper on Sep 2, 2010 10:07 PM EDT up reply actions
Nyjer Morgan .. watch your flank! (click to hide)
by Toxicadam on Sep 1, 2010 10:19 PM EDT reply actions 3 recs
So Chun-Hsiu Chen is killing High A a year younger than Carlos Santana did. Um…..
LGT's resident moderate Yankee hating fan.
….Yes! That just means that in 3-4 years when Chun Chen is up with the big boys Santana can move to DH (because Hafner will be gone).
Of course I have no idea what the next 3 years will bring. Hopefully WS titles.
The Once and Future King
If Chen becomes a regular with the big league club, he would be the first Taiwanese position player in the history of MLB to do so. The record at the moment is about 150 career at-bats.
And on a roster that already boasts the career at-bats leader for a Korean native. Pretty cool!
From, Ben
He’ll have a devastating knee injury 1 year earlier!
by emd2k3 on Sep 2, 2010 5:00 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
He compares very favorably to highly thought of groundball lefty Zach Britton.
LGT's resident moderate Yankee hating fan.
It had somehow escaped me that he was a lefty. Progress score is going to eat up his season, even with most of it at LC.
by APV on Sep 3, 2010 4:33 PM EDT up reply actions
He is already better than the average 32nd round of the draft.
Not that average 32nd rounder, mind you. The entire 32nd round.
by Jay on Sep 4, 2010 9:53 PM EDT up reply actions
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