btw, I will be in Sarasota the entire month of March. If anyone wants to meet up for a ST game in FL, let me know!

Indians Spring Training Schedule

Pitchers and catchers report (2/17)
Full squad reports (2/21)
vs CIN (3/1, 3:05 p.m.)
@ CIN (3/2, 3:05 p.m.)*
vs CIN (3/3, 3:05 p.m.)
@ CHW (3/4, 3:05 p.m.)
vs SF (3/5, 3:05 p.m.)**
@ MIL (3/6, 3:05 p.m.)
@ LAD (3/7, 3:05 p.m.)
vs SEA (3/8, 3:05 p.m.)
@ CHC (3/9, 3:05 p.m.)
vs SD (3/10, 3:05 p.m.)
@ COL (3/11, 3:05 p.m.)
@ SD (3/12, 3:05 p.m.)
vs MIL (3/13, 3:05 p.m.)
@ KC (3/13, 3:05 p.m.)
@ TEX (3/14, 3:05 p.m.)
@ TEX (3/15, 3:05 p.m.)
vs LAA (3/16, 9:05 p.m.)
@ CIN (3/17, 3:05 p.m.)*
vs OAK (3/18, 9:05 p.m.)
vs CHC (3/19, 10:05 p.m.)
@ SEA (3/20, 3:05 p.m.)
vs CHW (3/21, 3:05 p.m.)
vs KC (3/23, 3:05 p.m.)
vs LAD (3/24, 10:05 p.m.)
@ ARI (3/25, 3:05 p.m.)
@ CIN (3/26, 3:05 p.m.)*,**
vs MIL (3/27, 3:05 p.m.)
@ OAK (3/28, 3:05 p.m.)
@ LAA (3/29, 3:05 p.m.)
vs SEA (3/29, 9:05 p.m.)
@ LAD (3/30, 3:05 p.m.)
vs CIN (3/31, 2:05 p.m.)
@ TEX (4/1, 8:05 p.m.)
@ TEX (4/2, 3:05 p.m.)

* = Indians "away" game played at Goodyear Ballpark
** = Split Squad game

Wolters was claimed by Colorado

Trevor Bauer found what he loves to do amidst this offseason

HAYDEN GROVE

After soul searching this offseason, Trevor Bauer found that he loves to fly his drones and that pitching is simply his profession.

GOODYEAR, Arizona— Amidst a rough stretch a season ago, Tribe pitcher Trevor Bauer had plenty of time to think.

Having been bounced from the team’s starting rotation, Bauer was blatantly blue in the bullpen, where he spent his time contemplating plenty.
He thought about his season and his career as a whole, coupled with life and what truly made him happy.

While he plays baseball professionally, and clearly has a passion for the games most mind-bending mechanics, his offseason soul searching rendered a concrete conclusion.

“I flew my drone a lot,” Bauer said. “I found I really enjoy doing that.”

Bauer referred to a single drone that he constantly flew this offseason, but in reality, he is building a fleet of the flyers, each of which is used in a specific way and for a specific purpose.

“I got two acrobatic ones, those are my smallest ones,” Bauer said. “I have two racing ones and then I have a Unique (brand) drone.”

Spending time in the offseason at home in Houston and visiting his parents in Los Angeles, Bauer took time as well to further develop his fascination for flying his drones.

He spent hours on each, customizing based upon purpose and personal preference.

For instance, Bauer built custom GoPro mounts for each of his aerial drones, to ensure that his cameras wouldn’t break amidst one of their consistently-occurring crashes.

Those GoPro mounts will serve a specific purpose amidst this Spring Training.

As the Indians travel to different venues on their Spring schedule, Bauer’s drone will travel with them, taking videos high above each stadium so that the pitcher can compile them in a larger video project.

He’s been known to fly drones at stadiums in the past, but it’s caused him a bit of trouble, as he was instructed by Major League Baseball last spring to keep his drone grounded.

This spring, however, he’s ensured that his passion won’t become a problem.

“I’ve talked to MLB security,” Bauer said. “They said that as long as it’s not within an hour of the game, before or after, as long as I’m under 400 feet and I’m not within 3 miles of an airport, I’m good to go.”

The venue-based video that Bauer will be posting on his YouTube channel— where he’s posted other drone videos amidst the offseason— excites him, as does the upcoming “Drone Racing League” that is set to begin on February 22nd.

Though he loves racing the drones and may consider them to be his favorite pastime, he’s not interested in making a career out of the machines.
Rather, he’d like to keep his business as business and his hobbies as hobbies.

“I really don’t want to be in it professionally right now, obviously,” Bauer said. “I would like to race and be involved in races and stuff like that. It’s super fun.”

When it comes to his profession— that is pitching for the Indians— Bauer is much more mum.

He revealed that spent time training at Driveline Baseball in Seattle, working on his craft through high intensity workouts and high frame rate cameras, but he's not trying to make this season one in which he “bounces back” from a year ago.

Instead, Bauer is simply looking to build off a season that he described as, “the best of my career.”

“It’s just another year,” Bauer said. “See how it goes and make adjustments.”

Bauer may want to make adjustments, but that’s almost exactly what the Indians want to avoid.

“He’s kind of a tinkerer,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “He got off to such a good start last year and kind of changed some of his routines.”

Rather than to watch Bauer reconfigure his routines this season, Francona, along with Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway, want him to get back to whatever helped him in his brilliant start a season ago.

They also want him to forget the struggles, which is why they’re giving him a sort of clean slate as one of the team’s starting pitchers.

“He’s a 24, 25-year-old kid that’s probably was his really first full season in the big leagues last year and those things happen,” Callaway said. “I don’t think you put a ton of stock into it other than just keep on just doing what you did the first half of last year to make you successful.”

Though the Tribe is trying to help Bauer to forget the battles he endured, it’s not as if they didn’t happen.

The team and its coaches watched as Bauer’s 5-2 start dwindled into an 11-12 campaign and as his 23 earned runs in his first 11 starts turned into 32 earned over his next eight.

Those struggles are what cost Bauer his spot as a starter to end the season, but what bought him a spot for 2016 was the potential he flashed along with the pitches he throws.

That potential is precisely why the Indians are willing to wait and to watch him for another season, despite the many trade rumors that swirled and bared Bauer's name.

“If you’re not patient, sometimes you can miss out on something good,” Francona said. “We don’t want to be the team that misses out.”

For a guy that spends so much of his time thinking— thinking about pitching, about his career and about ways in which to improve any and every aspect of his life— Bauer doesn’t want to think about this season.

He doesn’t want to consider what happened last year or contemplate any potential ramifications for poor performance.

He simply wants to do what he loves.

And maybe pitch a little too.

“(I want to) play and then try to spend as much time flying my drone and enjoying life as possible,” Bauer said. “That’s just where I’m at.”

Previously pudgy Roberto Perez is ready to put it all together for the 2016 season

HAYDEN GROVE

Roberto Perez is ready to reap the rewards of a 2015 season filled with learning and an offseason spent working hard on his physique.

GOODYEAR, Arizona— When Roberto Perez reported to the Tribe’s Spring Training complex for the first time in 2016, only half of him appeared.

Or so it seemed.

Cleveland’s backup catcher looked noticeably slimmer as he arrived at his locker, which was all a part of his offseason plan.

“I went home, got a personal trainer, the same trainer that (St. Louis Cardinals catcher) Yadier Molina uses, and we had a plan,” Perez said. “I wanted to lose some weight, 20 pounds, so I went in there, started working out, running a lot and played a little bit of winter ball.”

Sure enough, as he weighed in for the first time, Perez accomplished exactly what he was hoping to— almost to the exact number.

“I came in, weighed 206,” Perez said. “I was like 227 when I left last year, so it was great for me.

“I’m proud of myself.”

While the Indians didn’t necessarily instruct Perez to lose weight this offseason, they agreed that it was good for his development and for his situation in the long run.

“If you’re going to be backing up, it’s very difficult for you to stay in great shape because you’re not out there burning calories,” Indians first base coach, Sandy Alomar Jr. said. “He knew and he wanted to get better.”

The aforementioned workout plan did wonders for Perez’s waistline, just as Perez hopes his 2015 season will do wonders for his 2016 campaign.
Starting the season as the team’s backup backstop a year ago, Perez was almost instantly pushed into the starting role when Yan Gomes went down with an injury in April.

Though the growing pains were tough for Perez, all involved felt them necessary.

“When he started to catch every day, we weren’t playing very well. I think he had a couple minutes there of, ‘uh oh,’” Indians manager, Terry Francona, said. “To his credit, he kept at it. He really did a pretty good job.”

After Perez adjusted to the starting role, Gomes returned to the lineup and forced Perez to adjust once again.

Although his time as an everyday player was done, he felt that the experience meant more for this upcoming season that it did for his first full season with the Indians.

“I think this year is going to be much better,” Perez said. "There was a lot of things that went on last year when Yan got hurt…I learned from that one, so hopefully I do a good job.”

Francona feels that Perez’s 2015 season helped his development as a potential frontline catcher, but the manager knows too what the backstop must do to help the team this season.

“Right now, he needs to backup Gomes, but we need him to treat Spring Training like he’s the every day guy,” Francona said. “One is things happen and two, it’s best for his development.”

Preparing like an every day catcher may help his development, but it won’t make up for the real thing.

That’s why the team is trying to do all that it can do ensure he continues to grow behind the plate.

“We’re going to try to include him more in scouting and things like that to keep him involved when he’s not playing so we don’t hurt his development,” Francona said.

Having a season filled with learning experiences in his back pocket and a new slender frame with which to work, things are generally heading in the right direction for Perez.

He’s put forth the effort necessary and now wants to reap the rewards as he puts together the all of the events of the last calendar year.

“I expect big things from me,” Perez said. “This year is going to be really fun.”

For all of your Indians news and updates from Cleveland, follow Hayden Grove on Twitter: @H_Grove.

Hobbies are fine as long as they don't interfere with your profession.

Maybe they can speed up the game by sending drones out instead of managers to change pitchers.

When it comes to the Cleveland Indians' rotation, Terry Francona says not to forget about Zach McAllister

By Zack Meisel, cleveland.com
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on February 20, 2016 at 6:10 PM, updated February 20, 2016 at 6:36 PM

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- When considering options for the Indians' rotation, don't dismiss Zach McAllister.

The right-hander will be stretched out at the start of camp, manager Terry Francona revealed to reporters on Saturday. That doesn't mean McAllister has a favorable chance of securing the final spot in the Tribe's rotation, with Josh Tomlin, Cody Anderson and TJ House also in the running.

It does mean, however, that the Indians are shutting the door on the concept of McAllister as a starting pitcher.

"He'd love a chance to start," Francona said.

Last season, McAllister opened the season in Cleveland's rotation. His tenure lasted one outing. He relocated to the bullpen, where he posted a 2.49 ERA, with 79 strikeouts in 65 innings, as the bridge to Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen.

Francona said the team will reassess McAllister's status "at the midpoint of camp." Spring training doesn't always unfold as planned. A year ago, Danny Salazar and Gavin Floyd were pegged to open the season with the Indians. Instead, Salazar started at Triple-A and Floyd underwent elbow surgery. So, having another alternative can't hurt.

"We're not telling him he can't start," Francona said. "But from where we are now, it looks like he's probably a better weapon in the bullpen. That can change."

Does McAllister have the secondary pitches to excel as a starter?

"If you're a starter and you're coming through a lineup a second time and you're having trouble with your off-speed," Francona said, "so many times you look up and you're at 100 pitches after five innings because you have to work so hard. Out of the bullpen, especially with the extra velocity, he's seeing hitters one time and he's a weapon, as opposed to a guy who's throwing too many pitches and working too hard.

"If those secondary pitches start to firm up, because of his size and frame and the velocity, there's a lot to like there."

Much has been made about the competition for the fifth spot in the rotation, but what about the No. 4 spot? Francona said the Indians "would really like for Trevor [Bauer] to start." Bauer went 11-12 with a 4.55 ERA last season. He led the league with 4.0 walks per nine innings, though he averaged nearly a strikeout per frame.

"We told him that we want him to be one of our starters," Francona said. "You look at his skill set and his pitches, what he has done in spurts. It's a lot like [Carlos] Carrasco. If you're not patient sometimes, you can miss out on something good. We don't want to be that team that misses out. Sometimes you have to be a little more patient than people want you to be."

No matter who the Indians select to round out their rotation, Francona might have to conduct some difficult conversations as camp winds down.

"I hope it ends up being tough," Francona said, "[and] not that somebody got hurt and we're thin or worried. I hope we have to make that decision because people feel we have too much pitching."

On the hunt

Francona surmised that reliever Tommy Hunter, who underwent core muscle surgery over the winter, could be ready to join the club in the middle of May

Manager Terry Francona told reporters Thursday in Goodyear, Ariz. that he still expects veteran relievers Craig Stammen and Tommy Hunter to contribute to the bullpen during the regular season.

Extra help

Jason Giambi will join the club this week as a guest instructor. Francona said he has talked with Giambi "several times over the last couple years" to gauge his interest in future involvement in the game.

"I told him I'd like him to stay longer," Francona said. "Hopefully he'll really like it and want to come back."

Carlos Baerga, Mike Hargrove and Travis Hafner will also serve as guest instructors throughout spring training.

Cleveland Indians Spring Training start times and broadcast schedule

http://www.letsgotribe.com/2016/2/20/11 ... t-schedule

Salazar:

Kluber:

Kipnis: