Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Preseason playoff favorites, the Indians are now, one game shy of the season's half-way point, 18 games out of first place in the AL Central, 15.5 games behind in the Wild Card race, and three games below .500. While simply matching their Pythagorean record would improve their record, and thus the above standings, by six games, the Indians, an organization overflowing with young talent, has decided to take a longer view of their future.
The result is that starter Jason Johnson, signed to a one-year deal this past winter but dragging the team down with a 5.96 ERA was released and top pitching prospect Jeremy Sowers was called up to fill his spot. Veteran first baseman Eduardo Perez, signed to platoon with Ben Broussard--and excellent strategy that resulted in a .303/.343/.636 line from Perez and, with Perez taking all of the at-bats against lefties, the 29-year-old Broussard's best season--was flipped to Seattle for 20-year-old middle-infield prospect Asdrubal Cabrera, making room for perennial minor league masher and righty-hitting first baseman Ryan Garko on the Cleveland roster. Meanwhile, with both corner outfielders on the DL, the Tribe has called up Franklin Gutierrez, one of their top outfield prospects, and have been starting him in right field. The Indians have also returned veteran backup catcher Tim Laker to the minors in exchange for Kelly Shoppach, the 26-year-old catching prospect obtained from the Red Sox in the Coco Crisp deal. Shoppach has been receiving his fair share of starts behind the plate, while the Indians have been working star catcher Victor Martinez into their first-base picture in order to keep his bat in the line-up on "off" days.
These moves are at the most a couple of weeks old (Gutierrez for Casey Blake in right) and in some cases (Garko for Perez) happened just a couple days ago, so there's little to say as of yet about how these players are panning out, though the Yankees will get a good look at one of the more compelling little Indians tonight when they face Sowers in what will be just his second major league start.
Sowers was drafted by the Indians out of Vanderbilt University in June 2004 and made his professional debut in 2005 working his way all the way from the single-A Caroline League to the triple-A International League in his first pro season. After a rough spring training with the big club this March, Sowers returned to triple-A, where he had made just one start the year before, and went 9-1 with a 1.39 ERA in 15 starts despite an unimpressive K:BB ratio of 1.86 that was due largely to a low strikeout rate. His major league debut came at home a week before Sunday against the Reds.
In that game, Sowers pitched well in four of his five innings, but was undone by a fourth inning in which a lead-off walk was plated by a Ken Griffey Jr. homer and an infield single also came around to score on a home run by Adam Dunn. The end result was an ugly 7.20 ERA and a 4-2 Indians' loss, but one can hardly blame a rookie for giving up taters to Griffey and Dunn. Meanwhile, the walk was the only one he surrendered while throwing 61 percent of his pitches for strikes, striking out three Reds in his five innings of work.
The Yankees jumped all over Alay Soler on Sunday, but they could easily come down with a case of the URPs against the 23-year-old Sowers, who is a very highly touted prospect who gets by on guile, changing speeds and breaking pitches rather than heat and sheer physical ability.
Looking to keep pace with Sowers will be Chien-Ming Wang, who turned in a gem his last time out against the Braves, needing just 91 pitches through eight innings, while holding the Braves to two runs over that span. Wang has steadily improved as the season has worn on, posting a 4.80 ERA in April, a 4.28 ERA in May, a 3.19 overall ERA in June and a 2.39 ERA in his last five starts, each of which saw him pitch a minimum of seven innings.
Incidentally, the Indians expect to activate Jason Michaels before tonight's game, which likely means either the 23-year-old Gutierrez's audition is temporarily over (which his .233/.250/.256 line suggests is a distinct possibility), or veteran minor league infielder-turned major league utility man Joe Inglett (1 for 7) will get the boot and Todd Hollandsworth (.219/.236/.438) will return to the bench.
Cleveland Indians
2006 Record: 37-43 (.462)
2006 Pythagorean Record: 43-37 (.539)
Manager: Eric Wedge
General Manager: Mark Shapiro
Home Ballpark (2005 Park Factors): Jacobs Field (94/94)
Who's Replaced Whom?
Current Roster:
1B Ben Broussard (L)
2B Ron Belliard (R)
SS Jhonny Peralta (R)
3B Aaron Boone (R)
C Victor Martinez (S)
RF Franklin Gutierrez (R)
CF Grady Sizemore (L)
LF Todd Hollandsworth (L)
DH Travis Hafner (L)
Bench:
R Ryan Garko (1B)
L Ramon Vazquez (IF)
L Joe Inglett (UT)
R Kelly Shoppach (C)
Rotation:
L C.C. Sabathia
L Jeremy Sowers
R Jake Westbrook
R Paul Byrd
L Cliff Lee
Bullpen:
R Bob Wickman
R Rafael Betancourt
R Fernando Cabrera
L - Rafael Perez
R Guillermo Mota
R - Fausto Carmona
R Edward Mujica
Tyical Lineup:
L Grady Sizemore (CF)
R Rafael Belliard (2B)
R Jhonny Peralta (SS)
L Travis Hafner (DH)
S Victor Martinez (C)
L Ben Broussard (1B)
L Todd Hollandsworth (LF)
R Aaron Boone (3B)
R Franklin Gutierrez (RF)
15-day DL: R Casey Blake (RF), R Jason Michaels (LF)
60-day DL: R - Matt Miller
Johnny Damon CF
Derek Jeter SS
Jason Giambi DH
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Bernie Williams RF
Andy Phillips 1B
Melky Cabrera LF
Kelly Stinnett C
Nick Green 2B
Chien-Ming Wang RHP
http://tinyurl.com/pyct6
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Montero, 16, is a right-handed hitter with tremendous power, according to scouts and the Yanks lured him away from the Mets and Red Sox, sources said, by offering the top bid of $2 million.
..."He'll instantly become the highest catching prospect in our system," GM Brian Cashman said. "One of our scouts believes he's the best prospect to come out of Venezuela since Miguel Cabrera."
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This is the first time I've seen the pregame show in a while. How long has he had that 'stache?
But he's struggled in the first inning before and recovered. C'mon, Tiger! We need you to go deep tonight.
And they're walking A-Rod to get to Bernie. Make 'em pay, Bernie!
I think it's really just a two-seam fastball, but it breaks downward.
This isn't too detailed, but it's still interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastball
I believe Alex has a no-trade clause...
But Sowers has an ERA north of 7. We should be able to get these back.
I believe we pay ARod about 16 mil/yr? That's a pretty good deal for us.
Kazmir has looked good. Throwing lots of strikes and working his way out of trouble. He obviously is still thinking "payback" when it comes to the Red Sox. Plus, the Rays just hit back to back home runs against Beckett. I hope the Rays can hold on and win that game.
He sucks right? Its not just me?
And the Mets are losing to the lowly Pirates tonight.
Odd that they took him out tho with one out to go before he'd get the win and Trenton up big. Hope he's ok. The game log has him making a play at first for the 1st out of the inning, then one more batter and he's gone. Hope he didn't injure himself. Could just be a strict pitch count I guess.
Bring up the heart of the order in the 8th against a so-so reliever and we get single, GIDP, and 3 pitch strikeout by the guy who's supposedly re-established his superstar credentials.
Though the gaps are pretty small with the kind of D these guys are playing tonight.
Andy flies out on the first pitch. It's up to Melky now.
Looks like Reese will be PHing for Stinnett.
Oh well, gotta beat the umps.
I'll probably regret writing that but that's how I feel right now.
Oh that f'n call....
It's so... dramatic, like it's from a movie poster. Everyone else's looks like a mugshot.
The Mets just lost 11-1 to lowly Pittsburgh.
'till mañana, folks...
So in total, we lose 40 HRs, 125 RBI and .342 OPS over the course of the year.
How many wins would you guess that translates to? This is basically 0.75 RS/game.
How can anyone believe we can 'trade down' to that degree and still win the division, no less the WS?
Next year, it will cost us $10mil+ to resign Shef. And who knows if at his age, with a damaged wrist and poor defense if it's worth it. Why not invest that money now at get the OF bat we need for this year, as well as the future.
Cleveland and the Cubs should be ready to dump some salary. Aubrey Huff? The infamous Sori?
In the last 40 games (1/4 of the season) we have a RS of 5.35/game. In that time we have gone 23 and 17, a .575 WPct at 6 games better then .500. However, if you subtract our 5 biggest blowouts (which make the RS/RA skewed at bit), we scored 150 runs in 35 games, for a RS of 4.28/game.
Out of 30 teams, the TB Rays have a RS of 4.3/game, or 28th out of 30. So in the last 40 games, we have been the Yankees for 5 games and the Rays for 35 games.
I know that you can play with numbers and make them look the way you want. But anyone who has watched the Yanks this year know intuitively, we are not scoring what we need, especially against weak pitchers and weak teams.
I'm not saying we're done, but with the WC PROBABLY coming from the Central, I think we have a tough road ahead.
Agree? Disagree?
Our RS is pretty good... would project to 867 RS for the season. But considering our pitching and defense, will this get us the Division? The WS?
I don't think it will be Sori. They want too much for him. The Yanks are reportedly not impressed with Huff. The Royals are asking for Hughes for Reggie Sanders.
Maybe it's all posturing...but we won't find out until the deadline looms. But hey, Tony Womack is available now, if we're that desperate. :-P
I'm still more concerned about pitching. What are we going to do tonight if Chacon has another 4-inning night? Call up Aaron Small?
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