Now Drennan going on and on about Rajai Davis, and I have to agree.

Guy had a couple hits. Stole a base on a pitchout! Ended up scoring from 3rd.

Then the defensive play where he doubled up Mauer at 1B, when he blundered on the basepaths.

That guy, playing CF today, just gives this team a dimension they haven't had in the past. A steal.

First game at the Jake for me this year, and I brought home a winner!
Good crowd for a weekday nooner, and great to see the Indians score big for a change!

For those familiar with the park, you may remember the 200 level seats, 5 rows that were under cover from home to 3rd base. Those are all gone now, replaced by a "Home Plate Club" and various specialty food stands.

Not sure if this link will work, but 20 years ago today, I was there for this catch:

https://www.facebook.com/Indians/videos ... 557319521/

Thanks JR for bringing home a winner, and thanks again for that Lofton memory! I was in Baltimore the week before and Kenny made a similar over the fence heist from Surhof as well. By far my favorite 90's Indian.

Jensen Lewis was getting set to interview Lofton one day last week on pregame show & he ran a poll on Twitter asking fans their most memorable moment from Lofton. He listed 3 to choose from.

None of the 3 was Kenny scoring from 2nd on Big Unit's wild pitch in the '95 ALCS, and none of the 3 was that HR stealing catch from Surhoff.

I tweeted Lewis back and told him those were #1 and #2 on my list and any list without those two plays were crap.

Down 6-0. Starting pitchers' turn to go into a slump.

I think Naquin and Chis are playing about 10 feet too shallow. This must be a management decision.

This is not good.

Does anyone think there is a connection between our starters, and for that matter all our pitchers, all throwing 6" - 8" higher since Gomes went on the DL?

Kluber off to a rough start today, and we are down 2-0 already.

Uncle Dennis wrote:Does anyone think there is a connection between our starters, and for that matter all our pitchers, all throwing 6" - 8" higher since Gomes went on the DL?

It's not the catchers' faults. They showed some video in the pregame show today. Catchers were setting up low, but the pitchers were missing by A LOT!

Yeah, I'm not buying that. Besides, they pitched well for quite awhile after Gomes went down.

Speaking of defensive catching, the Yankee announcers (ok, I live in NY so it's all I can watch, STO blacked out) just mentioned that Roberto Perez has thrown out 41% of runners stealing for his career.

OK, that is studly.

So maybe Lucroy had a point. And maybe he knew more about Tribe catchers than we do. They are all very, very good defensively.

Yeah yeah, and they are all an automatic out. I'd trade both current ones for a good burlap sack.

I agree it's the pitchers tho, and think the problem has been missing over the middle of the plate more than up in zone.

OK, not the greatest chart, but this is all time % caught stealing.

Here's the link for a better look if you want:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/lead ... tive.shtml

Rank Player (yrs, age) Caught Stealing % Throws
1. Yadier Molina (13, 33) 43.04 R
2. Rene Rivera (8, 32) 37.26 R
3. Ryan Hanigan (10, 35) 37.22 R
4. Salvador Perez (6, 26) 35.43 R
5. David Ross (15, 39) 35.04 R
6. Gerald Laird (13, 36) 34.85 R
7. Yan Gomes (5, 28) 34.62 R
8. Miguel Olivo (13, 37) 33.77 R
9. A.J. Ellis (9, 35) 33.61 R
10. Wilson Ramos (7, 28) 33.56 R
11. Buster Posey (8, 29) 33.53 R
12. Joe Mauer (13, 33) 33.21 R
13. Drew Butera (7, 32) 33.17 R
14. Humberto Quintero 33.10 R
15. Matt Wieters (8, 30) 32.92 R
16. Russell Martin (11, 33) 32.16 R
17. Geronimo Gil (6, 40) 31.22 R
18. Welington Castillo (7, 29) 30.41 R
19. Alex Avila (8, 29) 29.28 R
20. Chris Stewart (10, 34) 29.21 R
21. Ronny Paulino (8, 35) 29.20 R
22. Mike Zunino (4, 25) 28.43 R
23. Dioner Navarro (13, 32) 28.06 R
24. Miguel Montero (11, 32) 27.89 R
25. Brayan Pena (12, 34) 27.76 R
26. Nick Hundley (9, 32) 27.47 R
27. Jeff Mathis (12, 33) 27.45 R
28. Jonathan Lucroy (7, 30)27.41 R
29. Geovany Soto (12, 33)27.27 R
30. Carlos Ruiz (11, 37) 27.18 R
31. Derek Norris (5, 27) 26.89 R
32. J.P. Arencibia (6, 30) 26.69 R
33. Jason Castro (6, 29) 25.82 R
34. Brian McCann (12, 32) 25.59 R
35. Bobby Wilson (8, 33) 25.49 R
36. Carlos Santana (7, 30) 25.27 R
37. Devin Mesoraco (6, 28) 25.24 R
38. Chris Iannetta (11, 33) 25.11 R
39. Tyler Flowers (8, 30) 24.71 R
40. Kurt Suzuki (10, 32) 24.49 R[/list]

So Gomes at #7 all active catchers. And really you can throw Ross, Laird and Rivera off the list, either don't play or hardly do.

Roberto Perez doesn't have enough to qualify at 41%.

All I am saying is that Lucroy's concern that he might get moved to a different position in his walk year does have some merit. As a catcher, he sure knows other catcher defensive proficiencies.

Oh - forgot. There's Lucroy at #28. LOL, and Carlos Santana at #36 - so if they want a bat back there put Santana back.