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Everything looks kind of violent’: Mike Clevinger and the art of the pickoff

T.J. Zuppe 2h ago 1

Mike​ Clevinger’s right​ arm hung​ at his side, swaying​ back and forth​ like a park swing​ on​ a breezy day.​ His long​​ hair dangled from under his dark blue cap, the locks pushed behind each ear as the righty hunched over, peeking in at the right hand of his catcher, the crouching Roberto Pérez.

With runners at the corners and just one out, Clevinger’s first-inning predicament already had the blood pumping.

The Indians rarely, if ever, call pitches from the dugout, but the sign bench coach Brad Mills had just flashed to Pérez wasn’t for any pitch. Clevinger’s orders were to not yet deliver the upcoming 0-2 offering to Mark Trumbo.

The righty nodded, pulling his body upward in his typical herky-jerky motion before arriving at his set position. Jonathan Villar, in anticipation of a potential pitch out of the zone, shuffled his feet at first base. In the amount of time between a heartbeat, Clevinger lifted his right leg off the pitching rubber.
The righty spun his body toward first, snapping a quick throw to first baseman Yonder Alonso. Alonso snatched the ball, using the momentum of the pickoff attempt to carry his leather in the direction of the diving runner, just as the pair have discussed on dozens of occasions.
Villar moved his arm toward the bag, but his efforts proved futile. Alonso applied the tag, and first base umpire Jerry Layne raised his fist. Villar pointed at the dugout in desperation, hoping an angle on replay would reveal a better fate. The video review never came. Villar finally accepted defeat and retreated to the first-base dugout. Five pitches later, Trumbo went down swinging on a 77 mph slider, stranding the leadoff double at third.
Just like Villar, the potential for a big inning was erased. And as for Clevinger? Another victim was added to a growing list.

“Getting a pickoff not only puts the momentum in our favor,” he said, “but then you’ve got two outs and a fly ball gets you out of the inning versus turning into a sac fly.”

The first-inning pickoff was Clevinger’s fifth of the season, fourth-most in the majors behind Eric Lauer (10), Marco Gonzales (6) and Julio Teheran (6). He also caught three runners napping last year, limiting the run game to just four steals in 14 attempts. This year, however, teams have been more successful, swiping 14 bags on 17 attempts.

Granted, there’s more to the equation than the pitcher, but given his high leg kick, if a runner guesses right on his delivery to the plate, they’re already at an advantage. So, anything Clevinger can do to reduce their confidence is vital, and an ability to erase runners altogether has its obvious advantages.

“I just knew I had to enhance it from the early going in my professional career, just because I’m not a slide-step guy,” Clevinger said. “Even when I think I’m slide-stepping, I’m still picking my knee up over my head. I had to do something to counteract that.”

He could sense teams were keying in on his leg kick more this season. He felt good about his move in previous years, but with teams taking advantage of his mechanics, he realized he needed to put more emphasis on maintaining a strong pickoff.

“I had to start working on it,” Clevinger said, “because it was like, ‘Look, this is actually holding the running game without having to change my mechanics on the mound. If I can get this even better, it’s going to keep them a little bit closer.’ ”

Clevinger, a former skateboarding shortstop, has since put his feet to work.

He’s used his athleticism to make the quick turn after hopping off the rubber. He’s made a conscious effort to “short-arm” the ball to first, putting more emphasis on his quick throw than his footwork. And despite making the toss without much of a glance at his first baseman, he still manages to stay accurate in his pickoff attempts.

“He’s got quick feet, and he throws it right where it needs to be thrown at,” Alonso told The Athletic. “I always try to tell him just to throw it kind of at the bag, and with the velocity of the ball, (I’ll) just tag him. He does a very good job. He’s very consistent with it every time. … It’s not high. It’s not low. It’s right there. He does it all. I don’t have to do much.”

A few of Clevinger’s pickoffs from this season demonstrate what makes the move so effective.



As you can see, he already has the ball in a throwing position to the right of his head before he’s even finished his spin toward the bag. From there, the throw is delivered in an easy spot for Alonso to apply the tag.

You can say the same for this pickoff of Aaron Judge earlier this season. Clevinger’s hop off the rubber was quick, his feet land in a good position and the throw might be even better than his toss Sunday.

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His pickoff of Alex Bregman in May features a bit more help from Alonso, but the ball arrives at the first baseman’s chest in plenty of time. Bregman was clearly expecting to take advantage of Clevinger’s high kick by grabbing a healthy secondary lead or attempting a steal. He’s easily thrown out.

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While the speed of the pickoff plays a big role, deception also matters. After all, even if a pitcher fires it to the bag quickly, if he telegraphs the move, the runner might still return safely.

Clevinger, though, is always moving.

Between his flowing hair, dangling arm or the way he rocks back and forth before finally settling into a brief moment without motion — his set position — an at-bat against the 27-year-old can’t be comfortable. Perhaps his seemingly haphazard, erratic mannerisms can also, at times, have an impact on a base-runner, too.

“Everything looks kind of violent,” he said with a smile, “so you don’t know if I’m violently going that way or violently pulling an outside fastball. I definitely think the herky-jerky (delivery) plays a huge factor in that.”

Based on his success rate, he’s also been given the freedom to pick at will.

That wasn’t always the case.

Sunday’s call came from the bench, but the pitcher has also taken ownership of better commanding the running game.

“I used to not pick on my own at all,” Clevinger said. “I just thought because they always tell you, especially when you first get up here, ‘Hey, they’re setting things up. Don’t.’ Then, they kind of gave me the go-ahead, like, ‘Hey, mix in some on your own, just to throw them off, just in case they’re looking over or whatever.’ So, (Mills) gave me the green light to start picking whenever.”

While you might see other pitchers vary their pickoff styles to give base-runners different looks, Clevinger doesn’t agree with that mentality. He sticks with his best and isn’t afraid to use it frequently.

“There’s no point,” Clevinger said. “What am I getting out of lobbing a ball over there? Even if I beat him and he’s leaning, then what happens? Then, he still gets back safe? No, I go 100 percent. I’m going for them. Every time I pick off, I’m going for an out.”

And more frequently than most, those attempts have led to desirable results.

Like most situations, it’s probably far more than just one or two things that have added the pickoff to the righty’s arsenal. It’s not just about quick feet or accurate throws. It’s not just deception or a well-timed toss. It might not even be the hours once spent perfecting an acceptable ollie.

It’s probably a little bit of everything.

And now, it’s one of his most dangerous weapons.

“From skateboarding to soccer,” Clevinger said with a grin, “I think it all has a role in this.”

— Reported from Cleveland

Top photo: Mike Clevinger (Frank Jansky/Getty Images)

Meisel’s Musings: A ’90s Indians reunion, Cody Allen on ignoring the future and the Fenway litmus test

Zack Meisel 2h ago 4

BOSTON​ — Carlos​ Baerga sat in​ one chair, Omar Vizquel​ in the other.​ Alvaro Espinoza relaxed on​ the​ couch between​ them as​​ they all gorged on a late lunch and watched the four TV screens displaying the Indians game Saturday afternoon.

In the seats outside of the suite, down the right-field line, Kenny Lofton demonstrated his golf swing. Mike Hargrove, Paul Shuey, Chad Ogea and Paul Assenmacher grabbed some food and chatted.

It was almost as though the Indians had transplanted the 1995 clubhouse into one of their cozy suites in 2018.

Almost.

Albert Belle wasn’t present to flip over the buffet table or smash the thermostat or to make a cameo on the scoreboard’s Flex Cam. Jim Thome was busy fulfilling his millionth obligation of the month, rather than reminiscing with his old teammates. Wayne Kirby was in the visitors dugout at Progressive Field, sporting a bright orange Baltimore uniform instead of a clean white Indians one. And there was no blaring salsa music, no one shouting the refrain to Montell Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It,” a pair of popular backdrops to the ever-chaotic clubhouse the Indians called home 20-some years ago.

Minutes earlier, the group sat in white chairs in front of the pitcher’s mound as Thome saluted the crowd, thanked a host of former teammates and coaches and Indians staffers, received a couple of gifts and had his No. 25 retired by the franchise that employed him for more than a decade. As Thome delivered his speech — a practice he has mastered during this whirlwind of a celebratory summer — Lofton and Vizquel filmed the newly inducted Hall of Famer on their phones. Vizquel, now managing Class A Winston-Salem in the White Sox organization, flew into Cleveland on Saturday morning. He returned to North Carolina on Saturday evening.

Thome, the sport’s all-time leader in walk-off home runs, trotted around the bases one final time Saturday. He invited his son, Landon, along for the journey. When Thome reached home plate, his old teammates mimicked one of the home-plate mobbings they made so trendy in a bygone era. The 1995 club amassed 48 come-from-behind victories, including 27 in their final at-bat. So, Vizquel sprayed a water bottle, they pounded on Thome’s back and they jumped up and down, a fun moment for them and for the sellout crowd at the ballpark.

Here are a handful of thoughts and observations on Thome, his old teammates and the Tribe.


Jim Thome, in his famous stance. (Zack Meisel/The Athletic)
1. A slice of history: Thome joined Earl Averill (3), Lou Boudreau (5), Larry Doby (14), Mel Harder (18), Bob Feller (19), Frank Robinson (20), Bob Lemon (21) and Jackie Robinson (42) in the exclusive club of those to have their number retired by the Indians. All but Harder own real estate in Cooperstown.

Thome ranks eighth all-time in baseball history with 612 home runs. He was never linked to performance-enhancing drugs, despite the era in which he primarily played. He’s a deserving Hall of Famer and it’s difficult to argue against the retiring of his number, though some will never get past his decision to bolt for greener pastures in Philadelphia.

He should not, however, be the sole representation of the ’90s-era Indians. Belle’s rift with the organization — his own doing — seems destined to keep him from receiving what would undoubtedly be a roar of approval from the home crowd if he ever returned to the ballpark. Lofton and Vizquel hold spots in Heritage Park, but what if No. 7 and No. 13 joined the rest of the numbers plastered onto the right-field facade?

If entry to the Hall is the chief criterion for such a decision, it should be noted that Lofton deserved a much better fate on the ballot. Overshadowed by controversial first-year candidates Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa, Lofton received only 3.2 percent of the vote and was removed from future consideration. His numbers aren’t too dissimilar from those compiled by Tim Raines, who joined the Hall last summer.

In his first year on the ballot, Vizquel received 37 percent of the vote. He recently told The Athletic that, since it’s out of his control, he hasn’t lost much sleep about it.

2. The future awaits: Cody Allen knows his days as a member of the Indians might be waning. He’s eligible for free agency at the end of the season, but it’s not as though that has sneaked up on him.

“I can’t put myself on Nov. 3 in August,” Allen told The Athletic. “There’s no point in doing that. The thought is there at times, but that’s more thinking along the lines of, ‘I’ve been in this organization since I came into professional baseball.’ So that part of it, but not the stuff that’s like, ‘What’s going to happen in free agency?’ You don’t think about that stuff. You just play the game.”

This could be the last hurrah in Cleveland for a handful of long-tenured Tribe players, including Allen, Lonnie Chisenhall, Michael Brantley and Josh Tomlin.

“You’re hanging out with your teammates and thinking, ‘This might be it,’ ” Allen said. “But that’s part of the game. I would love to play my entire career here, but sometimes that’s not necessarily up to the player. It’s circumstance. I’m proud of the fact that this is my seventh year here. I’ve been a productive part of this team for most of my career.

“This organization operates within certain parameters and they’ve made some really, really good decisions on guys to keep, guys to let go, what makes sense, what doesn’t, supplementing the loss of certain positions. We’re in a spot right now, as an organization, where winning is expected and we have a locker room full of extremely talented ballplayers who are under control for quite a while and that doesn’t happen by accident. That happens by making good, smart decisions.”


These could be Cody Allen’s final two months with the Indians. (David Maxwell/Getty Images)
3. Getting better: Leonys Martín was released from Cleveland Clinic on Sunday as his condition continues to improve following his bout with a life-threatening bacterial infection.

“To think about the progress he’s made over the past week, it’s been nothing short of amazing,” Chris Antonetti said.

Terry Francona, Brad Mills and a group of players visited Martín in the hospital last Thursday. Antonetti has also checked in on the center fielder, who joined the Indians after a July 31 trade. Antonetti said Martín is itching to rejoin his teammates and return to baseball activity, though with no precedent to rely upon, the team has no idea when that might take place.

4. Measuring stick: Regular-season results mean next to nothing when teams reconnect in October. How the Indians fared against the Mariners in late March would have no bearing on the clubs’ encounter should they hook up in the postseason. Pitching matchups change. Rosters evolve. Players recover from old injuries and suffer new ones.

But the Red Sox stand at 88-37. The Indians, at 71-52, would be tied with the Cubs for the best record in the National League in an alternate universe. But they sit 16 games behind Boston in the standings. So, while the results of the four games at Fenway Park this week won’t influence any potential October meetings, they could serve as something of a litmus test. The Indians have played better lately. They also have played some wretched doormats of opponents. So goes baseball in 2018, the year of the haves and have-nots.

The Indians, of course, boasted the best record in the American League last year, only to be bounced by the Yankees in the first round of the playoffs.

Francisco Lindor, to The Athletic, on this week’s series: “They have a great team. We haven’t played them, but they have a great team. Last year, we led the league in wins. What’d we have, 102? And we got kicked out in the first round. It doesn’t matter — the playoffs are a completely different game. Don’t get me wrong, they have a great team. I’m not saying that’s going to happen to them. But it doesn’t matter what you do in the regular season. Everything can change in the postseason.”

The shortstop prodigy and his utility-man idol
By Chad Jennings 6h ago

The​ story begins​ with a teenaged​ prodigy meeting a baseball idol​ for the first​ time. It starts​ with​ a phone call,​ and then​​ finally there is a face-to-face.

“When I met him for the first time,” the prodigy said. “I was like, ‘Wow! I’m meeting Alex Cora!’”

The teenaged prodigy was none other than Francisco Lindor, and the meeting occurred at least five years ago. Maybe six. Maybe seven. Lindor doesn’t remember exactly when, but he remembers what it meant, and he knows what it started. Two middle infielders from Caguas, Puerto Rico, nearly two decades apart in age, were instantly connected by a mutual affection.

“I think the world of that kid,” Cora said.

“He’s like a big brother,” said Lindor.

This week’s four-games series at Fenway Park is a homecoming of sorts for Indians manager Terry Francona, who spent eight years as Red Sox manager and remains iconic in his own right – helping break The Curse will do that – and so, there will be considerable Boston focus on the visiting dugout this week.

But that across-the-field attention will go both ways.

“Every time I’m around (Cora), we talk about family or he’s teaching something,” Lindor said. “To be able to grow up and watch him play, and now he’s watching me play, it’s special. It means a lot what he thinks of me, and I love him. I love Alex.”

And what exactly does Cora think of Lindor?

“I think baseball needs more guys like Francisco,” Cora said. “The way he plays the game, and the way he enjoys it – it’s fun. I always said that he’s the type of player that, he can do a lot of things that people say are wrong, like flipping the bat and smiling and whatever, and nobody cares because it’s genuine. That’s why I really love him. We know his family, we know where he comes from, we know the story and we’re very proud of him. He’s one of the best players in the big leagues.”

Lindor was born in Caguas but moved to Florida in eighth grade. Even when he left the island, though, Lindor never forgot the big league players who inspired him back home. Cora’s older brother Joey was out of the game by the time Lindor was grade-school age, but Alex was winning a World Series as Lindor became a teenager.

“He’s someone that I grew up watching… just (because of) the way he played, and (the fact) he’s from my hometown,” Lindor said.

And when Lindor became a first-round draft pick in 2011, Cora knew all about the kid who’d spent more than half his life Caguas. Lindor said it was Cora who first reached out, calling somewhat out of the blue soon after Lindor was drafted by the Indians. He thinks their first face-to-face meeting came when Cora was broadcasting for ESPN. The two have stayed in regular contact ever since, even as Lindor’s own career has begun to eclipse Cora’s.

“There are a lot of people coming up this week from back home supposedly to come see the Red Sox,” Cora said. “But I know why they’re coming. It should be fun. That kid has a special place in my heart. I love that kid.”

This is will be Lindor’s first time playing in front of Cora since Cora became a manager.

“I know he’s wishing me nothing but the best,” Lindor said. “But even when I saw him today, he was like, ‘I’m going to go study so I can see how I’m going to pitch you.’ He’s trying to get us out. He’s trying to win, and I understand. I’m trying to beat him.”

Or, as Cora put it: “He’s not going to my favorite player this week.”

The appreciation, though, will be tough to hide. Lindor plays with infectious energy, smiling and laughing on the field, while Cora rarely hides his affection for the players he’s gotten to know over the years. It comes through in the way he talks about injured Dustin Pedroia and in the manner he references his time as the Astros bench coach last season. Those types of connections matter, to both of them.

“They stay in contact all the time,” said Indians first-base coach and fellow Puerto Rican baseball luminary Sandy Alomar Jr. “(Cora)’s known Lindor since he was a kid, and they talk to each other a lot. As a matter of fact, I compare Lindor a little bit to the way Joey Cora used to be when he was growing up. Always on top of things and stuff like that. He’s still maturing in that department, but he’s into the game, and I like that passion that Lindor has for the game. Alex is the same way.”

Alomar and Joey Cora grew up together. They used to be roommates, Alomar said. Alex Cora has said his favorite player growing up was Sandy’s brother, Hall of Fame second baseman Roberto Alomar. There is a strong connection among those Puerto Rican baseball families, and they keep welcoming more into the fold. Lindor. Carlos Correa. Javy Baez.

“Like I told you guys early in the season, my daughter has three favorite shortstops, now four,” Cora said. “Carlos, Javy, Francisco, and now Xander (Bogaerts). (Lindor)’s part of the family.”

And finally watching Cora become a major league manager has been satisfying for Lindor, who still sees greatness in his onetime idol.

“It is special,” Lindor said. “(Cora) was a great player, and now he’s going to become a great manager. He’s a good manager right now, but he’s only done it for (less than) a full season, and I’m sure he’s going to be doing it for a very, very long time. And he’s going to be one of the best.”

Alomar agreed.

“(Alex) is, to me, kind of like a baseball savant,” he said. “He’s very baseball savvy. He’s a student of the game. Him and his brother are the same.… To be honest with you, nothing that he does surprises me. He’s a smart guy, well educated, and on top of that, he’s baseball savvy and plays his tricks out there. He knows the game very well, so we’ll be watching him on this side.”

They’re always watching, from one dugout to the other, from one city to the other, from the island to the mainland. Cora is just beginning his managerial career, and right now he has the best record in baseball. Lindor is just 24 years old, and he continues to establish himself as one of the game’s truly elite bundles of raw talent and pure energy.

“If you try to change Francisco Lindor,” Cora said. “If you tell him not to smile, (to not) have fun playing the game, he’s still going to be a good player. But he’s not going to be probably that player.”

For right now, Cora is just hoping that player doesn’t show up in Boston. But if he does, Cora will have himself to blame, at least to some extent.

“When I see him, it’s special because he has helped me throughout my career,” Lindor said. “And I listen to him a lot.”

Maybe not for the next four days, though.

“Hopefully he struggles this week against us,” Cora said. “And we can move on.”

Carlos Carrasco still flies a little under the radar, but his recent dominance is as important as ever
By T.J. Zuppe Aug 18, 2018 5

Hours​ after José​ Ramírez handed​ the Indians the only​ runs they would​ need with an​ early​ long ball,​ the normal​​ cast of writers and reporters surrounded the third baseman for his seemingly nightly chat.

You’ve hit 13 first-inning homers. Why are you so good in your first at-bat?

Do you go up there looking to get an early lead?

Are you paying attention to your co-leader in homers, J.D. Martinez?

Question after question was tied to the Indians’ MVP candidate and his pursuit of the home run title. The conversation even shifted to the colorful “Dolce & Gabbana” T-shirt he sported after the Tribe’s 2-1 win.

(After all, if there’s one thing baseball scribes recognize, it’s style, am I right?)

Finally, just before the conversation had completely derailed, a writer steered the interview back on track, asking Ramírez about the seven shutout innings by their starter.

“Everyone in the world knows who Carlos Carrasco is,” Ramírez said through team translator Will Clements. “He’s really pitched tremendously lately.”

We’ll return to that first thought momentarily. That second point, however, carries significant truth.

Friday night was the latest example of the right-hander’s recent groove, surrendering just three hits and walking one, striking out six hitters and generating 20 swinging-strikes. He was forced to pitch around a bases-loaded situation in the fourth — the Orioles’ biggest threat — but he struck out Joey Rickard with a slider to extinguish the flames, maintaining his club’s advantage.

Carrasco’s run of excellence, though, extends beyond a randomly selected outing against a hapless opponent.
In his past 52 innings, Carrasco has posted a 1.73 ERA with 65 strikeouts and just six walks. In the six starts since the All-Star break, his 1.33 ERA is the league’s second-lowest in that stretch, bested only by David Price’s 1.03 second-half ERA.

Despite some early hiccups — his ERA climbed to 4.50 after a rough start against the Twins on June 1 — his success since a mid-June stint on the disabled list has lowered his season ERA to 3.33, nearly matching the same production as last year’s fourth-place finish in the American League Cy Young voting.

2017
ERA: 3.29
FIP: 3.10
K%: 28.3
BB%: 5.8
Hard-hit%: 29.3

2018
ERA: 3.33
FIP: 3.07
K%: 27.9
BB%: 4.9
Hard-hit%: 38.8

Outside of more well-struck balls and fewer free passes, the 31-year-old has put together similar campaigns.

Despite that level of consistency, some still might be surprised to know that Carrasco owns the seventh-highest wins above replacement total (via FanGraphs) among pitchers since the start of the 2015 season.

His outing Friday night pushed him past teammate Trevor Bauer into sixth place on the WAR leaderboard since the start of last season. Only Chris Sale, Max Scherzer, Corey Kluber, Jacob deGrom and Luis Severino have amassed more WAR during that time.

Somehow, though, despite Ramírez’s claim, Carrasco still flies a little under the radar.

Maybe it’s because he doesn’t have Kluber’s hardware. Maybe it’s due to Bauer’s incredible breakout season. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t own the picture-perfect flow of Mike Clevinger or the unfortunate last name recognition of Shane Bieber.

Whatever the reason, Carrasco has seemingly been stuck in perpetual sleeper status for the past few years, recognized by the hardcore baseball fans and astute writers and reporters, but perhaps taken for granted by those who haven’t paid close attention to his routine dominance of opposing bats.

To illustrate his ability, note that despite missing the second half of June after the unforgiving comebacker to his elbow, he’s still on pace for more than 190 innings and almost 220 strikeouts. His slider has ranked in the top 20 in FanGraphs pitch values among similar offerings.

That time off might have even energized Carrasco’s arm, giving him the strength to feel more rested than other hurlers. He certainly believes it helped correct some subtle flaws in his delivery, a process that began earlier this year by slightly adjusting how the righty came set from his stretch position.

He conceded it might have been torturous in the moment, but that stint appears to be paying dividends now.

“I’m glad I took those three weeks on the DL to fix some things,” Carrasco said. “I’m glad we did it.”

And, on top of Carrasco’s recent collection of befuddled bats, with Bauer expected to miss four to six weeks with a stress fracture of his right fibula, the more proven options the team has entering the final month of the season, the better positioned they’ll be to deal with any uncertainty heading into October.

That presence might go unnoticed elsewhere — and he might not be ticketed for another high Cy Young finish this season — but his usual efforts couldn’t be any more appreciated by those within the clubhouse walls.

“He’s done a tremendous job,” Ramírez said. “Just like he’s always done.”

— Reported from Cleveland

Greg ‘Ballhog’ Allen is walking (OK, running) on Cloud 9

By Zack Meisel Aug 23, 2018 2

BOSTON​ — Greg​ Allen had​ 103 feet to cover​ in only 5.5​ seconds. Even if​ he​ could reach​ his destination​​ in time, he had to handle the switch in terrain from the outfield grass to the warning track, an approaching 17-foot-high wall and a throng of screaming fans.

He had his back turned to home plate as he slid in the dirt in front of the wall in center and hauled in Mitch Moreland’s towering drive. The catch — his second such showcase of athleticism, depth perception and concentration on Tuesday evening — rescued Shane Bieber from a disastrous seventh inning.

“If that falls, all of a sudden there are a lot of runners on and not a lot of outs,” Terry Francona said.

Allen, though, isn’t one to pat himself on the back. He watched replays of his highlight-reel grabs, but more so to analyze his defensive instincts and route-running than to marvel at his footwork and glovework or to Photoshop a Superman cape to his back. So, leave it to his manager and his teammates to boast about his recent performance.

“That dude is like a ballhog out there,” Yan Gomes said, laughing. “He wants everything.”

It’s not just his defense, though. With Leonys Martín and Bradley Zimmer sidelined, Allen has filled in admirably at the plate, finally receiving regular big-league playing time after months of shuttling between Class AAA Columbus and the majors.

Allen had a 14-game hitting streak snapped on Wednesday, when he went hitless in four trips to the batter’s box. During the streak, he batted .400 with a .924 OPS. He socked the go-ahead home run in the series opener against the Red Sox and he has, for now, stabilized a center field position that was in desperate need of help.

“He’s using the whole field and he’s keeping the ball out of the air to left field,” Francona said. “So, he’s on balance and then he gets something in he can handle and he’s driving it a little bit. But he’s staying through the ball so much better, hitting line drives up the middle and into left field.”

He’ll continue to receive regular at-bats now that Rajai Davis landed on the 10-day disabled list and Martín has been ruled out for the season.

“It’s been fun to watch him kind of develop right in the middle of a pennant race,” Francona said.

Allen chatted with The Athletic about his recent stretch, his defensive gems and his rising confidence level.

ZM: Did you go back and watch the replays of your two highlight-reel catches?

GA: I’ve seen them, yeah. Before the game ended (Tuesday), I came up and checked them out on video, mostly just to see what my reads and my routes were like. I had a chance to see them both.

ZM: Certainly, it’s fun to watch video of yourself making a great grab, but what can you gain from examining that?

GA: That was the main thing I was seeing, just what my reads and routes were like, especially the one at the wall, just seeing maybe if I would’ve had a little more space to get back there and make it a little bit easier on myself, just things like that. So when I did come up (to the clubhouse) and check them out on video, that’s what I was looking for.

ZM: As you gain more confidence, is it something that feels noticeably different day to day, when you’re walking around the clubhouse or heading up to bat?

GA: That’s a good question. Really, I think it’s something that’s more internal. With confidence comes the ability to relax. The more relaxed you feel, usually it’s because you’re in a good place physically, mentally. So really I’ve just been trying to do the best I can to relax, whether it’s on defense or at the plate and just play the game and have fun.

ZM: Which of the two catches was more difficult?

GA: I think I made the first one a little more difficult for myself, just with the spacing and getting back toward the wall and how that all played out. The second one, I had a little more room to work with, especially in that triangle, getting out there. So I wasn’t too concerned about running into anything. Really I was just trying to get back there as quick as I could to make the play. Both had their degree of difficulty, but those ones playing off the wall, especially with the way this field plays, can be kind of tricky.

ZM: When Moreland hit that, is your first thought, ‘All right, I’ve got this’?

GA: Just try and get to the spot. Just try to beat the ball to the spot. He hit the ball well, so I knew it might be tough, but I just put my head down, dig and hopefully get to the spot before the ball does.

ZM: Do you ever surprise yourself with your ability to get to a certain spot?

GA: There are times, yeah. You want to be able to catch anything that’s hit in the air. Obviously, that doesn’t always work out that way. It’s kind of fun to test those limits and see what you can get to and make a play on. Really, you never know until you have a chance to do it.

ZM: You almost tackled Brandon Guyer the other day on a pop fly to right-center. Was that a byproduct of a loud crowd, or was there more to it?

GA: It’s definitely loud, but more so it was a product of me needing to have better awareness of my spacing and where the guys next to me are playing. I thought he was playing a little farther over. He was pinching the gap (meaning they were playing closer together) on that one. Therefore, (Guyer) didn’t have as far to go to get to the ball. That’s really just me needing to do a better job of being aware.

ZM: Well, you did play football back in the day.

GA: In high school, three out of four years. Thankfully, more than anything, he caught the ball. I was just happy I didn’t disrupt that.
Greg Allen has provided the Indians’ outfield with a jolt. (Billie Weiss/Getty Images)
ZM: Has your phone been flooded with messages from people commending you on your recent play?

GA: Quite a bit, actually, yeah. I don’t know if it’s because we’re playing in Fenway or whatever the case. Family and friends have reached out, different people on social media, text messages, stuff like that. I’ve gotten a decent amount these last few days.

ZM: Can that be overwhelming? You don’t seem like someone who cares to soak up the praise.

GA: It can be. It’s kind of similar to last year, when I was first called up and made my debut. Kind of the same thing, people reaching out to send well wishes, wish you congrats, things like that. You learn how to try to filter it all, because at the end of the day, you have to do your job and that’s coming in here to prepare to play and staying focused on baseball. You try to get back to as many people as you can as quickly as you can, but understanding that there are other things that take priority.

ZM: You spent a lot of time bouncing between Class AAA and the big-league roster, but told yourself if you did all the right things, you’d get an opportunity. How reassuring is it, then, to have a stretch like this and receive regular playing time?

GA: It can be tough. This year, by no means, has been easy. Having to navigate through the highs and the lows, there were some times waking up when I was like, ‘Wow, I’m really having to grind through this.’ I obviously wasn’t in a place I wanted to be, and even now, it’s still a work in progress. I’m sure the highs and lows are going to continue to come, but hopefully, as they do, you’re able to learn from them and get better and, through these experiences, grow from them and realize a lot of things about yourself.

With all the talk about him chasing down balls at full speed, I was impressed with a play today.

Boston had a man on second in a zero- zero game. The batter hit a ball to center that Allen might have caught if he dove for the ball. Allen knew the runner would score if he missed so he played the ball on a hop and held the runner at second.

How José Ramírez’s ability to lay off the junk helps make him the best fastball hitter in baseball

Ben Harris Aug 23, 2018 6

As​ a minor leaguer,​ José Ramírez hit 13​ home runs in​ five seasons. This​ season,​ he’s hit​ 13 home​​ runs since July. You don’t go from a middle infielder with minimal pop to one of the game’s top sluggers without adjustments, and the ones he has made have turned him into as daunting a challenge as possible for pitchers.

Much has been made about Ramírez’s aptitude for driving the ball in the air, specifically to the pull side of the field. He’s top 10 in fly-ball rate this year, and no qualified hitters pull the ball more often than he does. The two are connected. If you catch the ball farther in front of home, it’s easier to drive in the air because all swings finish moving upward as they wrap around the body. Those are the results. They are staggeringly productive.

His process, though, is just as impressive, and explains how he puts himself in a position to capitalize on pitches he can pull and lift more.

Ramírez is the best pure fastball hitter in baseball right now. He’s even out slugging J.D. Martinez, who leads baseball in homers and last year slugged higher against fastballs than any hitter on record.

MLB leaders in slugging vs. fastballs, 2018
1. José Ramírez, .748
2. J.D. Martinez, .731
3. Khris Davis, .705
4. Juan Soto, .679
5. Yasmani Grandal, .665

Over 75 percent of his extra-base hits come on fastballs, as have 32 of his 37 homers. Those 32 home runs on fastballs are five more than any other hitter. Ramírez is proving with each passing year that he is more of a threat against fastballs. As you might expect, pitchers are feeding him fewer fastballs as a result.
As a rookie in 2014, he saw 70 percent fastballs, more than 98 percent of all hitters. That has changed. This season, he ranks 158th out of 160 hitters in percentage of fastballs seen (53 percent), above only the free-swinging Javier Báez and Joey Gallo.

This aversion to throwing him fastballs comes because if one is within reach, he can do damage.
He’s so good, in fact, that he distorts the color-coded gradient on those charts. On the right (when he is hitting right-handed), he has three squares in the strike zone where he’s hitting around .400, which shows up a cold blue even though that is just about league average. That’s how good he is at crushing fastballs in other parts of the zone. As a lefty, where he’s taken about three-quarters of his at-bats this year, he only struggles up and in. That’s leaves a slim margin of error for pitchers daring enough to challenge him with heat. Either squeeze a fastball in high and tight, or try to get him to swing at a fastball out of the zone.

The problem with that line of thinking is that he chases fastballs out of the zone less than the average hitter. All that paints a picture of a hitter becoming increasingly difficult to beat with fastballs.

That is why Ramírez is seeing as few heaters than anyone in the game. It’s not rocket science. Pitchers are moving away from the fastball because, more often that not, it’s a losing battle. So they’re throwing hm more offspeed pitches. He’s seen 81 more than any other hitter this year.

It’s not helping. Just like with the fastball, there aren’t many places a pitcher can go with something offspeed to find success against him.

In the two seasons entering 2018, Ramírez made big strides against offspeed pitches.

(Note: Sometimes, non-fastballs are broken into two categories: “Breaking pitches,” typically sliders and curveballs, and “Offspeed pitches,” generally changeups and splitters. Just for simplicity here, we’ll refer to all non-fastballs with the umbrella term “offspeed.”)
That production has come down this year. Relatively speaking, he’s a bit susceptible to breaking pitches in the zone. And for 2018, José Ramírez, “susceptible” still means slugging above the league average.

Let’s briefly review. Fastballs in the zone are a no-go. He’s not likely to offer at fastballs out of the zone. He’s just fine against breaking balls in the zone. All that leaves pitchers one more option: offspeed stuff out of the zone. Because of their movement, offspeed pitchers can be used to generate whiffs on unreachable pitches that start in the strike zone and break out of it.

As good as Ramírez is a blasting fastballs in the zone, he’s just as good at keeping the bat on his shoulder against offspeed pitches out of the zone. That’s a scary notion.

Out of 157 hitters who have seen at least 1,500 pitches this season, only one batter chases offspeed pitches out of the zone less often than Ramírez — and that man is Joey Votto, keeper of the best eye in baseball.

MLB leaders in chase rate vs. out-of-zone offspeed pitches, 2018
1. Joey Votto, 12.6%
2. José Ramírez, 17.8%
3. Alex Bregman, 18.1%
4. Andrew McCutchen, 18.2%
5. Brian Dozier, 19.0%

Ramírez has honed this skill throughout his career. It’s hard to see him getting much better from where he stands now — mostly because he’s an imperfect human being, and the only hitter better at laying off the junk is the decidedly inhuman Votto.
José Ramírez is taking every option away from opposing pitchers. Inside and out of the zone, fastballs and soft stuff, nothing really works. His improved eye has nearly doubled his walk rate to 15.4 percent this year, the biggest jump among qualified hitters in baseball at 7.3 percent. No one else raised their walk rate more than 4.5 percent.

More selective swings in the zone are causing his isolated power to improve at the eighth best rate in baseball since last season, which is remarkable given that he already ranked within the top 20 in ISO in 2017.

Just about every part of his game is getting better. This is the stuff from which MVP campaigns are made.

Josh Tomlin wondered if his big-league days were numbered, but now he has another chance to prove he still belongs

Zack Meisel Aug 23, 2018 9

BOSTON​ — Chris​ Antonetti called​ Josh Tomlin about 11​ p.m. Wednesday night.​ The Indians needed​ another​ pitcher, and​ with Tomlin​​ slated to pitch for Class AA Akron on Thursday, Antonetti pegged the veteran righty as the hurler of choice.

One problem: Tomlin’s baseball equipment sat in a locker at Canal Park, about a 50-minute drive from Tomlin’s home in Rocky River. Tomlin made the trip and secured his belongings as his wife packed his clothes into a suitcase. He drifted asleep for a few minutes before he rose at 3 a.m. for a 5:30 a.m. flight to Boston.

When he arrived at the visitors clubhouse at Fenway Park, Tomlin tried to nap on the trainer’s table before teammates and coaches filled the cramped room. That didn’t go so well. Terry Francona and Brad Mills walked in and smacked Tomlin on his hat.

“Tito came in and said, ‘This ain’t the country club. Get up,’ ” Tomlin said.

Tomlin put on his uniform, grabbed his glove and walked through the long white tunnel that leads to the dugout. He stood on the top step for a moment, peering out at the sun-splashed field.

Two years ago, a sellout crowd at the same venue shouted his name over and over in an attempt to nudge him from his rhythm on the mound. He limited the Red Sox to two runs across five innings, ultimately silencing the Fenway faithful as the Indians completed an ALDS sweep.

“That was one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of,” Tomlin said.

It marked the first playoff game for his daughters, Myla and Makenzie, who will turn 3 and 4, respectively, this fall. Tomlin said it sparked their interest in baseball to such a degree that, even though Tomlin is no longer pitching in Akron on Thursday, his wife still planned to take them to the RubberDucks game.

That triumph in Boston, however, seems like it took place decades ago. Tomlin has limped through a dreadful 2018 season. He has surrendered home runs at a historic rate. Opposing batters have torched him to the tune of an MVP candidate-like .995 OPS.

For months, he searched for answers. With the help of a handful of instructors in the organization, he pinpointed some mechanical flaws, some detrimental habits. And for the past few weeks, he has attempted to refine his motion on the mound while pitching in the minors.

Along the way, he wondered if he simply didn’t have it anymore, if his ability had waned to the point in which he could no longer survive in the big leagues. He’ll turn 34 in October, after all.

He’s back with the Indians, but he knows he still must prove he can pitch well enough to help the club win. Tomlin leaned against the railing outside of the visitors dugout Thursday morning and chatted with The Athletic and MLB.com about his mechanical fixes, the mental toll his miserable season has taken and why this final month means so much to him.

What were you able to accomplish or figure out during your time in the minors?

The main part was my arm was late a lot. In order to try to compensate for that, my front shoulder is flying open and I’m either showing the ball for a long period of time to the hitter or a split-second longer, which is an eternity to a hitter, especially big-league hitters. Also, when I’m late, the ball tends to be up in the zone a lot more. My stuff up in the zone doesn’t play as well as somebody else’s stuff up in the zone. It just doesn’t. I understand that. Obviously, I’m capable of pitching up in the zone if I’m able to locate down in the zone first to get them off that fastball. That was the main part, is I was either flying open with my front side, my hips were clearing too soon and showing the ball for a long period of time and everything had a lazy run to it. There was no life behind the baseball and it was just a flat run and the ball, instead of being at the knees, it’s at the thighs. Instead of being at the thighs, they’re at the waist. Instead of being at the waist, they were noncompetitive pitches. Everything had a tick up. The cutter had less depth. The curveball didn’t have the shape it needed to have. It was just a combination of several different things that were happening at the plate caused by my mechanics.

It seems like it would be tough to fix all of that in the four days between starts.

Sometimes it’s tough. Little habits — and that’s the bad thing about baseball, is it can be something so minuscule that slowly creeps into your delivery and once it’s there, it stays and it’s tough to get it back in a short period of time. Once we were able to identify what the root cause of all of it was, it was basically just going back to the drawing board of trying to be an athlete and trying to move on the mound, stop trying to be a robotic pitcher. In a sense, I know you’re not really a robotic pitcher, but that’s kind of what I was doing. I had a three-part delivery. I’d lift the leg, come up and then throw. Thinking about all that kind of stuff when you’re trying to get big-league hitters out, that’s not a good place to be and that’s where I was.

The control issues, were those foreign to you? That’s been your signature.

Velo has never been a thing that I’ve excelled at. A hitter will tell you when it’s good enough. That was what I was seeing, was I’d randomly dot a fastball down and away and then I’d get a guy who I felt like was leaning and I’d try to rush a four-seamer up and in and, usually, you can get guys off the barrel that way. But it wasn’t happening. But I also was not hitting the exact spot I wanted to hit. There’s a little happy zone near the hands but not at the hands, where it’s tough for hitters to get on top of the baseball. I’d miss either down more toward the plate or down more toward the thigh/waist area and guys were just teeing off on it. In my own admission, there was no conviction behind those pitches, because I wasn’t sure if I was able to locate it or not, because I wasn’t able to locate like I’m capable of the whole year. That’s when hitters were telling me, “Your stuff is really not good enough not to locate on a regular basis.”
How much does that weigh on you when you’re searching for answers?

It weighs pretty heavily. I’ve always felt like I’ve known my delivery and myself pretty well and when little stuff kind of crept up in it and I wasn’t able to identify it as quickly as I wanted to or make the fix, make the adjustments as quickly as I wanted to, it was very frustrating. It turned into one of those things where I started thinking about my mechanics more so than getting the hitter out. That’s where that three-part delivery came in. I was on the mound, thinking, “Lift your leg. Separate. Get your arm up. Finish.” All that stuff was going through my head while I tried to get a big-league hitter out. It doesn’t matter who it is, if they’re in a big-league uniform and I’m thinking about what my mechanics are doing and the conviction behind the pitch isn’t there — I’ve always felt it can be the wrong pitch 99 percent of the time, but if you have conviction 100 percent of the time, it’s 100 percent correct. There was no conviction behind anything. The ball told you that. It wasn’t spinning the right way. It was lazy run. Usually, my stuff moves at the plate, not out of the hand and then has that lazy draw or cut to it, and that’s what was happening. Everything was a barrel-finder. It was either tracking one way or tracking the other way and it was really lazy. It wasn’t that direct cut, that direct sink.

How much are you looking forward to soaking up these last two months, given the uncertainty around some of the other potential free agents on the roster?

I’m looking forward to it more than anything I’ve probably ever looked forward to in my career. This is why you play the game, you play to try to win and you play to win and that’s what we’ve built here. We’ve built a winning culture and to be able to be a part of this with these guys now and be active and actually try to actually help them this time is very special. I’ve always said that, especially with this group of guys and this organization, especially with the years we’ve had in the past and with the disappointing losses we’ve had in the postseason the last couple years. It’s going to be a very enjoyable ride this last month of the season and to see where we go in the playoffs.

Do you feel confident that you made the necessary adjustments during your rehab assignment?

I feel like I have, yeah. Obviously, time will tell. The one thing I can control is the effort level and the work that I was actually putting in to try to get better. I feel like I made those strides. Working with the minor-league coordinator, Ruben (Niebla) and Rigo (Beltran) and (Steve) Karsay during this time I’ve been down there, has been very helpful. Then talking to Carl (Willis) when I got back and guys like that, (Eric) Binder. Just trying to get a whole collective group together and trying to figure out what the root of this whole thing was. I told everybody, it could’ve just been me and my stuff not being good enough at that point. But we did find some stuff that was going on, so I looked back and had a baseline of ’16 and ’17, when I had good years — the second half of ’17. I tried to go from there, find a release point and work back from that and try to find that again. So I had all the data and it was trending in the right direction. The arm slot was getting higher. The ball had more depth. Stuff like that. You can see by the data. That’s the good thing about today’s game is you can’t fake do something and say, “Yeah, I felt great,” and your stuff is actually terrible. You can actually see it from that Trackman. It’s pretty cool, now that I’ve built into it and gotten a chance to see how it all plays out and see how it compares to years past.

Are there times when you feel good about an outing, but the data doesn’t support it?

Oh, yeah. Me and (Michael) Brantley have … and I’ve heard his dad say this before in the cage: “Trust and feel are two different things.” Just because it doesn’t feel right, it can be right, so trusting it can actually be the right thing to do in that situation, instead of going, “OK, this doesn’t feel the right way, but I’m getting results and it’s actually what it needs to be.” So, trust that, instead of going, “OK, it didn’t feel the same way, so I’m going to change everything and try to find that feel again.” Then, next thing you know, you try to find that feel and you’re a couple years older and things aren’t quite like they were maybe. So, you’re feeling something that’s not actually real. It’s something completely different. It feels right in your head and you run with it, but it could be wrong, and it was wrong.

(Corey) Kluber says he doesn’t like comparing himself to past seasons, because his body was physically different then.

Right. Absolutely. That’s 100 percent fact. Each season has its own characteristics to it and has its own kind of body of work. Sometimes, fatigue sets in at different times or your body, you do something different in the offseason, you try to work on something outside — you try to get more mobility or stability, more strength in certain areas. So, when you go into spring training, that’s what that spring training time is for, and the first month of the season, especially for guys like Kluber. He’s like a robot. Once muscle memory kicks in, then he rolls. That’s kind of what we were trying to use that first month of the season, especially in my case, and it just never … I was trying to find that feel instead of trusting it, and it didn’t work out very well.

Do you wonder if you’re nearing the end of your career when a season like this happens?

Yes, absolutely.

How do you get past that mindset?

Me, I try to just understand that it is a younger game now. But, I still feel like I’m capable. And that belief is still there. Once that conviction gets kind of lost on the mound, you kind of start losing that belief of, “I belong here,” or, “I can compete here.” But, it’s getting back to the basics of getting back to competing and trying to be athletic, don’t think about being a pitcher anymore, that’s where I feel like it can kind of change, because then you go out on a rehab assignment and you go to the minor leagues and you start throwing and you don’t think about your mechanics and everything kind of clicks. It’s like, “OK, that belief and that conviction is coming back.” I feel like I can … I know I can still pitch at this level. It’s just a matter of finding that confidence and that belief of being able to do that again.

But, definitely, once you have stretches like I’ve had this year, it creeps in your mind. “What is the future like? What’s the future going to hold?” But, as soon as you take a step back and realize all that stuff is, it seems like, years away, years away, and you take it one day at a time, one pitch at a time, one inning at a time, it simplifies everything. That’s something I need to get back to and something that I’ve tried to work on this past month and a half, two months I’ve been on the DL, is taking each day as it is and go out there and accomplish today, and then tomorrow will be a new day.

While you were pitching for Akron, they had throwback night …

Those were the uniforms I wore! Throwbacks, my ass. I ain’t that old, am I? Maybe in today’s game. Yeah, it was just the purple uniforms. The ones I wore all of 2009.

That’s almost a decade ago.

Damn.

You were just a prospect then.

A suspect. Damn, it’s been 10 years.

When you walk out here, is it natural to think of your start here in the ’16 playoffs?

Mmhmm. Mmhmm. That was the first playoff game my girls got to experience — and my wife. It was cool that my daughters can think back and remember it and kind of talk about it. They enjoy baseball just as much as I do. So, this was kind of where it all started for them, being able to be here with their grandmother and grandfather and mom and me and just enjoying this. It was really a surreal moment for me, but for them, especially, because I felt like this is the time where they actually started enjoying baseball. So, it’s a spot that I’ll never forget, aside from that whole chanting my name and stuff.

The Cleveland Indians’ checklist for October

Zack Meisel Aug 27, 2018 22

Cody​ Allen stood​ in front​ of his locker and​ acted out his​ pitching motion. He​ had​ to be​ careful so​​ as not to whack his hand on a pillar or a table or his chair. The visitors clubhouse at Fenway Park is the size of a nice walk-in closet.

Corey Kluber observed the reliever’s delivery from a few feet away. Allen explained his mechanics to his longtime teammate, pausing at his release point, noting the positioning of his body and his right arm and shoulder and detailing what he thinks has ailed him for much of the summer. Kluber responded with some demonstrating of his own before the two packed up their belongings and headed for the team bus.

Allen isn’t the only member of the Indians’ roster who needs an oil change before October. The club has a number of tweaks to make, changes to consider and roles to iron out before the games increase exponentially in significance. Here’s a handy checklist to consider with five weeks remaining until the postseason.

1. Bauer’s bum leg
Trevor Bauer didn’t accompany the Indians on their road trip, but it’s a safe bet that he has continued to scoot himself around the home clubhouse at Progressive Field with seething purpose. In the aftermath of learning he was headed to the disabled list for the first time in his career, Bauer said he was “in a constant state of being pissed off.” That might persist until he returns to the mound.

When will that happen? That depends on how quickly his stress fracture heals, and each of a human’s bones has a mind of its own. Did you know you had 206 brains?

[Cue “The More You Know” shooting star]

Bauer had already started to stand and throw before the team departed for Boston. That’s an encouraging sign. And he devoted some of his early down time to studying ways he could keep his arm in shape and hasten his recovery. This is a guy who worked on his slider during a vacation to Iceland last November. It wouldn’t be wise to bet against him with anything relating to pitching.

All parties seem cautiously optimistic that he’ll return before the end of the regular season. The question, though, is whether he’ll be conditioned enough to toss 100-plus pitches against big-league hitters. Will he still have a good feel for each of his lethal off-speed pitches?

Their unorthodox rotation setup didn’t pay dividends in the ALDS last fall. They’ll have to wait to gauge Bauer’s status before they can structure the rotation this time.

Can he make a seamless return to the rotation? Would he fit better as a rubber-armed relief option? (Imagine Bauer tossing 30-40 pitches in nearly every playoff game.)

This riddle might go unsolved until late September.

2. Cracking the Cody
Many have asked how far Allen must fall before Terry Francona yanks him from the closer role, but that isn’t the way to view this situation. For all intents and purposes, the Indians don’t have a closer. They have three late-inning candidates. Two of them are lefties. Allen is the righty.

Francona summoned Allen from the bullpen at Kauffman Stadium on Friday night for the ninth inning, but that wasn’t the most challenging assignment of the night. Brad Hand carved up the middle of the Royals’ order (a Murderers Row if the murderers used rubber spoons and wore flip-flops). Allen entered to face the 6-7-8 hitters in Kansas City’s lineup.

Francona has vowed to stick with Allen through his struggles, and he has little choice. Adam Cimber, Neil Ramírez and Dan Otero haven’t proved they can assume a pressure-packed role. Does that mean Allen will continue to pitch the ninth inning of every close game? Frankly, I didn’t think that would happen, even before this week’s issues.

If Allen, Hand and Andrew Miller are all healthy and not suffering from Tomlinitis, Allen probably makes the most sense as the bridge between the pair of southpaws anyway. But before the Indians even begin to map out their late-inning assignments, they need Miller and Allen to regain their old form.

3. Strangers in the outfield
I ain’t got many friends left to talk to
Nowhere to run when I’m in trouble

Those are the prescient lyrics of The Outfield, and while their song “Your Love” has absolutely zero connection to baseball or to the Indians or to Melky Cabrera, they’re sort of fitting — in a I’m-going-to-make-this-metaphor-work-dammit kind of way. The band’s name is The Outfield. And they’re talking about desperation. (Humor me.)

Anyway, Cabrera and Greg Allen have at least lessened the pain endured from Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramírez’s recent funks. But is a Brantley-Allen-Cabrera outfield capable of contributing to a World Series run?

Teams have this workweek to make any last-minute, playoff-eligible additions. Andrew McCutchen cleared waivers (hint, hint). The Indians have lost Bradley Zimmer, Tyler Naquin and Lonnie Chisenhall to injuries and Leonys Martín to a life-threatening illness. This unit is a shell of its former self, and that former self was a shell of what a strong outfield looks like. The Indians should be repeatedly pressing the claim button on their MLB Trade Wizard 3000.
Jason Kipnis tallied four hits in the Indians’ win on Sunday.


4. The Kipnis conundrum
Leave it to Jason Kipnis to notch his most prolific performance of the season a few hours after reporters peppered the manager with questions about how the team can replace him at second base. As Aristotle once noted: “One four-hit game does not a summer make.”

We’ve covered the alternatives so many times you ought to have them memorized by now.

Option A: Play Yandy Díaz at third, slide Ramírez to second, blindfold Kipnis and drive him deep into the woods to fend for himself against a pack of coyotes.

Why it won’t happen: On Sunday, Francona somewhat quashed the notion of moving Ramírez, and he has already stressed that Kipnis won’t be shifting to center field (which would be akin to leaving him in the woods with coyotes).

Option B: Play Erik González at second and allow Kipnis to do snow angels in a pile of cash a la Saul Goodman’s muscle in “Breaking Bad.”

Why it won’t happen: Francona has stuck with the current arrangement long enough to indicate that this isn’t in the cards; if it were, it would’ve happened by now. González has come back to earth a bit after his scorching start, too.

Option C: Acquire an infielder, play musical chairs and pull the seat out from Kipnis as he goes to plop down.

Why it won’t happen: The Indians inquired about infield help before the non-waiver trade deadline, but nothing materialized. At this point, unless Josh Donaldson walks through that door — and that’s both a figurative and literal unknown, given his centuries-long DL stint — all of Francona’s earlier statements, as mentioned above, come into play.

The Díaz situation, covered ad nauseam, is bizarre. If the team won’t deploy him at the hot corner, then he has little value, unless he secures a timeshare at first base with Yonder Alonso. Is he worth a postseason roster spot as a pinch-hitter?

That’s something else for the club to weigh as October approaches. Add it to the list. Five weeks to go.

Rosenthal: The likelihood of a Josh Donaldson trade


By Ken Rosenthal 7h ago 62
Start​ guessing which​ major-league uniform​ Josh Donaldson will wear​ next. Chances are,​ it won’t belong​ to​ the Blue​ Jays.

Donaldson’s trade​​ value is a fraction of what it once was, but the Jays have no motivation to keep him. Teams must complete deals by Friday to ensure their acquisitions are eligible for the postseason. Now that Donaldson is playing again, some contender figures to gamble on his upside at a discounted price.

Donaldson has not appeared in a major-league game since May 28 due to a left-calf injury. But he went 1-for-2 with a walk and RBI Tuesday night in his first game on a rehabilitation assignment for the Jays’ Class A affiliate in Dunedin, Fl., playing five innings at third base. The Jays will place him on revocable trade waivers Wednesday. The process will be complete before Friday’s deadline. And with that, the Donaldson Era in Toronto most likely will come to an unceremonious end.

If Donaldson is claimed, the Jays can negotiate only with the claiming team, either working out a trade or letting him go for nothing. It’s possible Donaldson goes unclaimed, considering he is still owed about $4 million and hardly guaranteed to return to form. Even then, the only way the Jays would gain leverage would be if multiple teams showed interest.

Whatever the outcome, the Jays want Donaldson gone, major-league sources say.

They would rather look at other third basemen in September (but no, probably not Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., as explained below). And they will not want to make Donaldson a qualifying offer between $17 million and $18 million in November and risk him returning for his age-33 season.

Teams normally embrace players on one-year deals, no matter the price, but Donaldson’s acceptance of the offer would block Guerrero and leave the Jays in the same position they were this season, banking on Donaldson to stay healthy so they could trade him (they could not make him a second qualifying offer under the collective-bargaining agreement). If Donaldson rejected the offer and departed as a free agent, the potential compensation only would be a draft pick in the 75 to 80 range — not enough of a return on an $18 million risk.

The Jays almost certainly cannot trade Donaldson without paying down part of his remaining $4 million, but they showed a willingness to include cash in deals last month when they sent Steve Pearce and $1.66 million to the Red Sox for minor-league infielder Santiago Espinal. Such flexibility would be necessary to move Donaldson; the Jays would be in no position to set an unrealistic price. They would argue Donaldson might the best hitter traded this season after Manny Machado. Potential suitors would fire back, “How can we be sure?”

Donaldson did not perform all that well in the 36 games he played earlier this season, batting .234 with a .757 OPS and experiencing throwing problems that forced him to the DL from April 13 to May 3 with right shoulder inflammation. He is almost certain to be rusty once he returns to the majors. But yes, even if he returns only partly to form, he might still make a difference in a pennant race.

As I’ve written before, the Jays should have traded Donaldson last offseason, when he was healthy and the Cardinals were among the teams interested in him. Such a deal would have been a blockbuster. The deal the Jays figure to make on Friday will be anything but.

Gammons: Pitchers like Shane Bieber show why control could be making a comeback over command
By Peter Gammons Aug 29, 2018 28
It​ was the​ second game​ of a four-game series billed​ as an October​ preview: August 21,​ the​ Indians at​ Fenway Park.​​ Corey Kluber had won the first game. Next came Shane Bieber, who two years and two months earlier had begun his professional career in the Cleveland organization as an unheralded fourth-round draft pick out of the University of California in Santa Barbara, where he was the No. 3 starter.

His scouting report projected him as “fringy” with “a backend starter ceiling,” though with one of the best walk ratios (1.05 per 9 IP) in college baseball and an unusually repeatable delivery. He was the 122nd pick in the draft, far below the 14 pitchers taken in the first 30 picks — six of whom have already had Tommy John Surgery, one of whom has made the major leagues. And here he was on a hot Tuesday night in a sold-out Fenway Park before a national television audience, against the best offensive lineup in baseball, facing Nathan Eovaldi, who hits 100 mph on the guns.

The Indians scored two runs off Eovaldi in the top of the fourth, which brought the rookie with a dozen major league starts to a shutdown situation. He got one MVP candidate, Mookie Betts, to ground out to start the inning. Andrew Benintendi singled, bringing another MVP candidate, J.D. Martinez, to the plate. As Bieber began his delivery of the fourth pitch of the at-bat, Lindor broke from his position up the middle for the shortstop hole.

“Playing in the middle of the field, I always see the signs and where the catcher is set up and can see hitters’ swingpaths,” Lindor explained the next day. “I knew Martinez was going to try to hit the ball hard and get the run in. I saw that Shane was going to go in on his hands with a running two-seamer, so I played him to pull the ball hard.”

Which is precisely what happened. Martinez hit the ball hard to the hole: 6-4-3. Bieber was into the fifth, 2-0.

“When you play behind pitchers who can execute, you can do those things,” said Lindor. “Defense and pitchers’ execution go hand-in-hand. Pitchers can help make their defense by throwing strikes and executing their pitches. Bieber has great control. Our whole starting staff throws strikes and makes good pitches, so they’re great to play behind. Bieber throws strikes, he works quickly, he gets us to the seventh inning.”

One National League general manager said this past weekend, “I still think the Indians have a great chance to get back to the World Series, and that’s in a league with the promise of an incredible October — Houston, Boston, New York, Oakland…”

Offensively, the Indians probably could use an outfield bat, but they’re still third in the American League in on-base percentage and OPS, and first in stolen base percentage. And, very important for October, their hitters have the lowest strikeout rate of the 30 major league teams. Their pitchers lead the major leagues in fewest walks per nine (2.43). Their pitchers’ strikeout to walk ratio is 3.82, second only to (no surprise) Houston’s 4.04.

Kluber is second in the AL in strikeout to walk ratio, behind Justin Verlander. Carlos Carrasco is fourth. Trevor Bauer 11th. Bieber doesn’t yet have enough innings to qualify, but his K/BB ratio is 5.53. That would rank him fifth in the league (tied with Max Scherzer), behind Carrasco.

The 23-year-old from Laguna Hills, Calif. is fascinating, because in this era when showcases often rate young pitchers by radar gun readings, and when we are barraged with velocity rates that are often used to rate stuff, Shane Bieber has never dazzled in that area. However, in spring training, Indians officials advised a reporter to look at Bieber’s strikeouts and walks. Indeed, when he was called up from the minors on May 31, he had made 49 starts in what was essentially two development seasons. He was 16-6, fine; his earned run average was 2.24; and in 277 innings struck out 270 and walked 19. 270-19.

In 14 starts and 79 2/3 innings in the majors, he has struck out 83 and walked 15, and the Indians are 9-4 in those starts.

“It’s remarkable the way he repeats his delivery and executes,” says Indians pitching coach Carl Willis. “People said he needs better breaking balls. I get that, but the way he dots his fastball — which is now up to 94 — he can use his curveball and slider in sequences. He’s working on a changeup, which is going to be a really good pitch for him. He’s so efficient and works so quickly that his defense plays, and he eats innings. He’s a work in progress, but he’s got a chance to be special.”

“I never was one of those hard throwers scouts loved to see,” says Bieber. “I could always throw strikes, but I guess I was around 90. But I eventually raised my arm angle a little and picked up velocity. I worked on finding the right arm angles for what I throw. It’s a learning process. It’s a learning process in the big leagues.” Which is why he studies Kluber, one of the most practice-perfect pitchers in the sport. They talk. Bieber watches Kluber’s bullpen sessions, and he appreciates how Kluber went from a minor league throw-in with a 21-32 minor league record to a guy making a run at his third Cy Young Award.

Kluber himself says, “I didn’t really have command early on in my career.” In his time in the Padres organization, he had a very good slider. When he got to the Cleveland organization, he made changes in arm angle and discovered the importance of fastball movement, and his intelligence and work ethic took him to the level of elite.

Zack Meisel wrote an exceptional piece on how the Indians have built their pitching staff, through under-the-radar trades as well as the draft. “The Indians do an exceptional job developing pitching,” says Kluber, ever quick to give credit.

The Indians may be the best organization in baseball for developing and empowering bright young front office minds, and they have been unusually successful in getting Kluber, Carrasco, Bauer and Mike Clevinger in minor league deals, and finding Bieber in the draft.

In an age when teenagers grow up hitting 98-mph fastballs from fellow teenagers, pure velo doesn’t have the same play it used to. The rising rate in surgeries is thought to be enhanced by kids trying to hit 100 before they are physically mature. Hence, the renewed search for command.

“I am a great believer in athleticism in pitchers,” says Padres GM A.J. Preller, one of the sport’s best evaluators. “They have to have athleticism to repeat their deliveries. I love seeing pitchers who are really good athletes in other sports. I was always fascinated by those great Braves pitchers who were all great golfers.”

Zack Greinke can do anything. Watch Clayton Kershaw play ping pong sometime. There was a time when Jim Palmer playing tennis was a sight to behold. Ron Guidry could have played center field. Chris Carpenter could have been an NHL defenseman. Atlanta’s Bryse Wilson, one of three 20-year-old starting pitchers who have made their debuts this season, was an exceptional middle linebacker in high school, and when the quarterback and running back on his team got hurt, he started games at QB and RB and remained the middle linebacker. Marcus Stroman was the shortstop on a travel team on which Mike Trout played center field.

Meisel’s Musings: Trevor Bauer, Cody Allen, Andrew Miller and the Indians’ pitching puzzle


By Zack Meisel 1h ago 1

As​ Greg Allen​ sprinted across​ Fenway Park’s spacious outfield​ and Edwin Encarnacion​ planted baseballs atop​ the​ Green Monster,​ Trevor Bauer​​ set up shop, sans scooter, at Progressive Field.

Bauer remained in Cleveland as the Indians slogged their way through a two-town trip to Boston and Kansas City last week. He spent nine hours a day in the abandoned clubhouse and weight room, on the trainer’s table and the vacant field.

What occupied his time at the ballpark? Grab a pen, paper and a dictionary.

Warmup. Soft tissue. Pool workouts. Contrast. Ice. Recovery modalities. Nutrition. Lifting. Throwing. Cardio. Positioning correctives.

In common verbiage: working out and pitching, with the proper warmup and cooldown methods mixed into the routine.

“And then I go home and do three more hours of recovery,” Bauer said.

It’s as miserable and monotonous as it sounds, since there’s no reward of a field trip to the mound in front of 25,000 fans every five days.

“You can probably hear it in my voice,” Bauer said, referring to his “constant state of being pissed off.”

No, that hasn’t vanished, even though he has been sidelined for nearly three weeks. Injuries are part of the game, but they have never been part of Bauer’s game. He prides himself on being available, on conditioning his arm to carry a heavy burden, on having avoided the disabled list until Jose Abreu’s comebacker struck him near the ankle.

If it were up to him, he’d pitch every four days instead of the traditional five. If it were up to him, he’d toss 150 or 200 pitches if that’s what were necessary to survive a particular start.

Instead, he’s sidelined, and his timetable for a return depends on the healing speed of his finicky fibula. Bauer has ditched his boot and his scooter. He has thrown long toss up to 320 feet, and he even made it out to the mound for a bit on Monday.

“I hit the DL because I got hit on a freaking line drive, not because I can’t handle a workload or take care of my shoulder or I’m lazy with my recovery or whatever,” Bauer said. “So, I’m just sitting here and all of my personal season goals are slowly drifting away because I took a fucking line drive off the ankle. It pisses me off.”

Tell us how you really feel, Trevor.

Here are a handful of thoughts on Bauer, Andrew Miller and the Indians.

1. Pitching puzzle: When asked how much ramp-up time he needs before the postseason, Bauer first replied “69” innings. He then said he didn’t know.

This is a complicated situation. Bauer can keep his arm in shape, but it’s not as though he’s firing 95-mph heaters and plunging curveballs toward actual human hitters, and he said he’s still conscious of his ailing leg as he throws. So what, realistically, will Bauer be capable of contributing when he does return? Will he be better suited for a relief role in October? Can he handle a 100-pitch outing? The Indians might have to wait another few weeks for answers to those inquiries. (Let’s save the debate about whether the Indians should employ a three- or four-man playoff rotation for another day.)

2. Missing pieces: Andrew Miller contends he’ll have plenty of time to round into form before the postseason, even after the club placed him on the DL on Wednesday. Miller is dealing with swelling in his shoulder, a malady he downplayed.

“I’ll still be back in time to get plenty of outings and ideally be as good as I can at the end of this,” Miller said, “and that’s what’s important.”

The Indians’ goal all along has been to have Miller in peak form for October, with the summer months serving as a tune-up for the moments that matter. They’ve handled him delicately all season, as he has logged only 27 appearances, including only 10 since late May (and none on consecutive days).

He said he was still building up shoulder strength when the area started to swell, and that’s evident in his average fastball velocity.

2015: 95.1 mph
2016: 95.4 mph
2017: 94.5 mph
2018: 93.7 mph


Cody Allen has allowed at least one run in four of his last five outings. (Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
3. Missing pieces II: For the Indians to make noise this fall, it’s essential that they have as formidable of a pitching staff as possible. That means a healthy Miller — though the October 2016 version of the slider-slinging southpaw might be extinct — and a mechanically sound Cody Allen.

The right-hander struggled through another outing on Wednesday night, relinquishing the Indians’ lead in the seventh inning.

Yes, that’s right. Allen pitched before the ninth.

Many have asked if Allen would lose his job as the team’s closer. That isn’t the way to view this arrangement, though.

If Miller, Allen and Brad Hand are all clicking come October, Terry Francona will likely deploy his relievers in the sequence that the matchups and the situations warrant. He isn’t married to Allen pitching the ninth, especially as the 29-year-old searches for answers. In a perfect world, Allen would probably bridge the gap between the two lefties. But that’s a conversation for a day when all three relievers are rolling — if that day even arrives before Miller and Allen reach free agency at the end of the season.

Allen listed a few issues plaguing him:

Fastball doesn’t necessarily have the finish through the zone
(Not) being able to make a pitch when you need to
The feel really hasn’t quite been there

“There have been nights where he doesn’t have a really good feel for his breaking ball,” Francona said, “and all of a sudden, you’re a one-pitch pitcher and you better command it like crazy.”

4. Searching for answers: Corey Kluber isn’t the only Tribe player to axe the bushy beard from his face this week. Dan Otero shaved on Wednesday morning for the first time this season. His wife teased him for copying Kluber’s methods, but that wasn’t the impetus behind him finally reaching for the nearest Gillette products.

“Too many home runs,” he half-joked.

Otero admitted to this season being frustrating and vexing. His ERA sits at 5.66. He has recorded one perfect inning in the past five weeks.

“When he doesn’t locate it, he’s just been paying for it,” Francona said.

A quick glance at his splits reveals a pressing concern.

2018
RHB vs. Otero: .242/.271/.419
LHB vs. Otero: .351/.367/.675

Essentially, left-handed batters wolf down a can of spinach and morph into a blend of Popeye the Sailor Man and Barry Bonds as they strut to the batter’s box to face Otero. Lefties fared well against him last season, too, but there’s a glaring difference in the power department.

2017
RHB vs. Otero: .231/.245/.336
LHB vs. Otero: .341/.383/.489

When Otero performed best, he stymied both lefties and righties and kept the ball far away from souvenir-seeking fans.

2016
RHB vs. Otero: .223/.234/.295
LHB vs. Otero: .197/.248/.274

His ground-ball rate has dipped slightly in 2018, but not by an egregious amount. His home-run-per-fly-ball rate sat at 5.1 percent two years ago. It now sits at 35.5 percent.

The Indians need all of the bullpen help they can get. They need Otero to keep the baseball from soaring beyond the outfield fences. He’s known for baiting batters into pounding his pitches into the ground, so he has tried to surprise them by elevating the ball more against lefties. He has mixed in more sliders. He has studied video, consulted with his coaches and teammates and racked his brain in an effort to solve his woes on the mound.

“It’s been frustrating beyond belief,” Otero told The Athletic. “I don’t know how to explain it. I wish I did, trust me. I’m losing sleep over it.”

Foul tips

• The Indians will likely call up reinforcements on Saturday — the first day of September roster expansion — and then more players sporadically throughout the month. Francona indicated that the team could summon a catcher and an infielder from Class AAA this weekend. Eric Haase has posted a .728 OPS, with 20 home runs for Columbus this season.

• Jason Kipnis joked that he was relieved to have an off-day on Monday, as he was still catching his breath after his dash around the bases on his inside-the-park home run on Sunday afternoon in Kansas City. Kipnis’ only other home run of the 360-foot-sprint variety also came at Kauffman Stadium, on July 3, 2013.

• Two Tribe hitters lost their helmets during the club’s four-run sixth inning on Tuesday night … and neither player was named José Ramírez. Michael Brantley’s helmet popped off on a swing; Encarnacion lost his while sneaking back to first after an RBI single. Ramírez remains stuck on 18 helmet losses this season.

— Reported from Cleveland

Aug. 21, 2018, at 5:05 PM
Cleveland Has Taken The Fly-Ball Revolution To The Next Level

By Travis Sawchik

Filed under MLB


CLEVELAND — Few players have changed their profiles as dramatically as Francisco Lindor.

As a minor league prospect, Lindor was not the masher who currently sits atop the Cleveland Indians’ lineup. While he was still the fluid and graceful athlete at shortstop that he is today, he was a completely different player at the plate. He lunged at pitches outside the zone. He often made weak contact. When evaluating Lindor as a minor league hitter, scouts typically capped his power potential between 15 and 20 home runs — something fitting for his slight, 5-foot-11 frame.

To the left of Lindor in the Cleveland infield this season is an even more unlikely MVP candidate. As a minor league shortstop, the 5-foot-9 Jose Ramirez never hit more than five home runs at any stop. While Lindor was a first-round pick, it wasn’t clear if Ramirez could be a major league regular if and when Lindor pushed him off shortstop to another more bat-dependent position. Ramirez was never a top 100 prospect.


In their first couple of years in the majors, neither showed a hint of extreme power potential. Then, a year ago, something happened. Lindor smashed 33 homers in his third season, and Ramirez hit 29 in his fourth.1 This year, Ramirez trails only J.D. Martinez in home runs, and Lindor is 11th in the league.

While Martinez is one of many players who have made well-documented swing changes with the goal of lifting the ball in the air, he has always had a big frame and underlying raw power. Among the 336 hitters who have hit at least 25 fly balls this season, Martinez ranks fifth in average fly-ball distance at 350 feet.2 He can hit the ball out to all fields. Lindor and Ramirez, though, do not possess such elite raw power. The are tied, ranked 92nd, in average fly-ball distance (328 feet). They have to better direct the balls they do hit in the air to maximize their power.

Lindor and Ramirez are also two of the unlikeliest sluggers in the game because of their size. In baseball history, there have been 335 individual seasons of 40 or more homers by 146 different players. Only 17 players 5-foot-11 or shorter have hit 40 home runs in a major league season, according to Baseball-Reference.com. If he hits just three more homers, Ramirez will tie Roy Campanella (1953) and Mel Ott (1929) for second on the list of shortest players to reach 40 homers in a season.3 Their power-to-size output is even more impressive as players have gotten taller and stronger.

“Nobody thought I could do this,” Ramirez told ESPN. “I was too small.”

Said Indians assistant general manager Carter Hawkins: “My sense is there was one guy who felt this was going to happen, and that was Jose.”

The Indians’ diminutive duo isn’t alone in smashing expectations this season. At 5-foot-9, Boston’s Mookie Betts (27 home runs) is also one of the slightest sluggers in major league history. And though he’s taller, at 6-foot-3, St. Louis’s Matt Carpenter has transformed from an on-base-focused player to one leading the National League in home runs. Those players and others all fit a specific mold, sharing traits that have allowed them to become unlikely sluggers.

These players represent the next generation of the Fly-Ball Revolution. While the first stage is to get the ball up in the air, the next and more important step for many hitters is to get to the pull side. Elite contact hitters are learning to raise their offensive profiles, learning that it’s OK to be pull-happy. Some of the game’s smallest players are becoming home run kings.

Last Friday, facing Baltimore pitcher David Hess, Ramirez did something he has done so often this season: He took a fastball and pulled it into the right-field seats. It was his 37th home run of the season.

Lindor and Ramirez — actually the Indians in general — avoid talking about “launch angle,” which has become part of the baseball vernacular since the launch of Statcast in 2015. What they do talk about is contact point.

For decades, hitting coaches have talked about using the “big part” of the ballpark, going “gap to gap,” using the “whole field.” And in today’s game, with defenses shifting the infield more than ever, you might think hitters are increasingly incentivized to avoid pulling the ball. But Ramirez and Lindor (and Betts and Carpenter and others like Eddie Rosario and Aaron Hicks) are trying to pull the ball. They are trying to hook and yank pitches down the line for extra-base hits and home runs. After all, the shortest distance to record a home run is down the line.

Of fly balls hit to the pull side this season in the majors, 32.7 percent have become home runs, according to FanGraphs. To center field? Just 8 percent. And the opposite field? Just a 3.8 percent HR/FB ratio.

Lindor knows this. Before his locker at Progressive Field last week, wearing black sweats and white tennis shoes, he held an imaginary bat in his hand. Lindor mimicked where he wanted his contact point to be — out in front of the plate. That’s where his power is.

Lindor noted that he and Ramirez are far from the strongest players on the team. Ramirez ranks 126th in average exit velocity of fly balls and line drives (93 mph) in the majors,4 according to Baseball Savant leaderboards. Lindor ranks 77th (94.3 mph). Yet they might combine for 80 home runs this season.

Lindor, and particularly Ramirez and Betts, have become masters at lifting and pulling. Ramirez’s pull rate on fly balls and line drives rose from 28.5 percent in 2016 to 38.8 percent last season, and it’s at 44.7 percent this season, ranking third in the majors. Ramirez leads all hitters in total volume of line drives and fly balls hit to the pull side. Ramirez also tied Betts for the lead in the majors in pulled line drives and fly balls last season. Lindor ranked ninth. They seem to be reading from the same developmental plan.

“We talk,” Lindor said, breaking into his iconic ear-to-ear smile. “[Ramirez] helps me, I help him.”

Ramirez has hit 31 of his 37 home runs to the pull side, first in the majors. Carpenter is second, hitting 23 of his 34 home runs to his pull side. Betts is third. Lindor? Eighteen pull-side homers, good for 11th.
Jose Ramirez is baseball’s pull power king

MLB leaders in pulled home runs, along with the share of their total home runs that reflects
Player Pulled HR Total HR Pulled HR %
Jose Ramirez 31 37 83.8%
Matt Carpenter 23 34 67.6
Mookie Betts 22 27 81.5
Evan Gattis 21 24 87.5
Mike Moustakas 20 22 90.9
Asdrubal Cabrera 20 20 100.0
Joey Gallo 19 32 59.3
Travis Shaw 19 25 76.0
Didi Gregorius 19 22 86.4
Maikel Franco 19 20 95.0
Francisco Lindor 18 29 62.1
Manny Machado 18 28 64.3
Eugenio Suarez 18 28 64.3
Alex Bregman 18 24 75.0
Kyle Seager 18 20 90.0
Mike Trout 17 30 56.7
Rhys Hoskins 17 25 68.0
Ryon Healy 17 23 73.9
Eddie Rosario 17 22 77.3
Edwin Encarnacion 16 25 64.0

Source: Fangraphs

Ramirez, Alex Bregman,5 Rosario, Carpenter and Betts rank first through fifth in total volume of air balls yanked to their pull side. Their averages on those balls are .593, .500, .600, .649 and .660, respectively. Lindor ranks 14th in volume with a .634 average.

“Even though we are not big, it’s something we develop when we get to this level,” Rosario said of pull power. “I think when you feel comfortable at this level, power [develops].”

In an era when so many have screamed out at the television for a player to hit the ball the other way, avoiding a defensive shift by pulling the ball — in the air — is the optimum path to offensive efficiency. It allows slap-hitting middle infielders to become MVP candidates.

One reason that the Indians don’t preach about launch angle is Cleveland hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo’s philosophy that contact point largely takes care of that. While the launch angles of Lindor and Ramirez have changed dramatically since 2016, for them, it’s the byproduct of timing and leverage, of catching the ball out farther in front of the plate.

“If you use the lower half correctly, and sequence the plane correctly, you don’t have to worry about launch angle,” Van Burkleo said. “Contact point is going to dictate launch angle. … If you contact the ball deeper, [the bat] plane is flatter. If you catch it out front, your plane is getting more on line with the ball.

The numbers support this. Sportvision analyst Graham Goldbeck found for FanGraphs last August that home run probability is maximized about 10 inches in front of home plate. And to pull a ball, the bat almost always has to make contact out in front of home plate. At that contact point, the barrel is typically going to be on the way up in any swing path.

“The barrel is going to drop” after the start of the swing, Lindor said. “It’s heavy. It’s going to drop no matter what.

“That’s gravity. I focus on contact point. Launch angle then takes care of itself.”

This explains the propensity of these hitters to rip the ball down the foul line — but only partially.

The World Series champion Houston Astros have developed a teamwide philosophy of only offering at the pitches they can damage. The Indians preach something similar.

“If it’s a pitch you can’t get your body into a leveraged position [to hit], then you probably want to take it early in the count, or when you are ahead in the count,” Van Burkleo said.

For so long, “covering the whole plate” was considered an important hitting characteristic. It was something that was taught to Lindor as a younger player.

“Yeah, that’s when I was a slap hitter,” Lindor said with a smirk. “When I try and cover the whole plate, that’s when I get in trouble. … I can cover the whole plate if I want to. I can put the ball in play any time I want. That’s not going to do any good for me or the team.”

Lindor is now eschewing pitches he cannot drive. He is becoming more disciplined. He is focused on attacking pitches — often fastballs — he can damage.

“I don’t want to cover the whole plate,” he said.

When explaining what led to home runs in post-game press conferences this season, Ramirez has often quipped to reporters, “home run pitch.” While Ramirez hasn’t been willing to divulge changes to his approach, he has become better able to hammer pitches he wants to hit.

It’s similar to a concept that Reds great Joey Votto defines as pitch funneling — being so patient and discerning that the pitcher eventually gives the batter the pitch he wants to hit. The overall swing rates for Lindor and Ramirez have dropped. They have concentrated their swings in certain zones. They have better avoided getting out in front and rolling over off-speed pitches for ground balls or making weak contact at out-of-zone pitches. They are now two of the best fastball hitters in the game. They hunt fastballs and crush them.

Consider a Baseball Savant data-density map, indicating where a batter swings most often, of Lindor’s swings against fastballs from 2016. The rectangular outline represents the batter’s strike zone.

Here’s Lindor’s swing density map in 2018: [cannot cut and paste this. see https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/cl ... ext-level/ ]

Then consider a data-density map of Ramirez’s swings against fastballs from 2016: [same]

And then 2018:

Of course, such a transformation is easier said than done. While most ground balls are pulled (hence the proliferation of shifts), fly balls are distributed more equally, with a slight tendency to the opposite field. How do you identify which players can make the leap to launching and pulling?

One challenge in today’s game for scouts — and projection forecasts — is evaluating future power grades. Power jumps can now seemingly materialize out of nowhere. How do you forecast the next Ramirez? FiveThirtyEight spoke to one NL evaluator who described Ramirez’s trajectory as the most baffling development story of his scouting career.

It isn’t just human evaluators. Projection forecasts didn’t buy in to Ramirez or Lindor as power hitters even after their 2017 breakouts. FanGraphs projected Ramirez to hit 20 home runs this year in its preseason forecast. Baseball Prospectus forecast 13. For Lindor, those projections were 24 and 21.

“The main thing for me is athleticism,” said the NL evaluator. “You have to have the hand-eye and feel for the strike zone.”

Lindor and Ramirez were, and remain, elite contact hitters. They can contact the ball at will and manipulate the barrel and contact point. Since 2016, they have made contact on swings at pitches in the zone at a rate of at least 91.1 percent, ranking in the top fifth of qualified major league hitters.

The trait suggests that of baseball’s five tools — hit, run, throw, power, field — the “hit” tool is now of even greater importance. The hit tool, more than ever, dictates how the power tool with develop.

“It’s easier for you to go from [contact focus] to the other side, to pulling,” Lindor said.

The Indians are placing more weight on contact hitting when working with their prospects, with the idea that they can teach power. Like many teams, the Indians have technology that can capture exit velocities and launch angles in their minor league stadiums and batting cages. Such tools help the teaching and skill-acquisition process. If the hit tool is in place, those tools can help build power.

“What’s old is new,” Hawkins said. “I think if you ask any evaluator or coach and said, ‘Hey, would you prefer a guy who can hit the ball 500 feet or a guy that can square up any ball that is in the zone?’ They are taking the later.

“It’s not like [power development] didn’t happen prior to it being able to be measured [via Statcast]. There were guys that were tapping into power later in their careers in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, we just didn’t have the launch angle measurements, exit velocity measurements. I think one commonality between all those guys [like Ramirez, Lindor and Betts] is they control the zone really well. None of them are high-strikeout guys. They are extremely low-strikeout guys. They are swinging at pitches they can [damage].”

Perhaps the team that has turned high-contact, low-power middle infielders Ramirez and Lindor into power-hitting superstars is on to something. Maybe there’s a road map for hitters of any size in how to go from good to great.

Travis Sawchik is a sportswriter for FiveThirtyEight.

Bad words, jokes and deep breaths: The hidden meaning behind those mundane mound meetings

Zack Meisel 7h ago 2

It​ starts with​ a simple alert.

Carl​ Willis turns to Terry​ Francona and tells him​ he’s headed out.​ Then,​ it’s time​ for that​​ familiar trek. He conquers the four steps that connect the dugout to the track that borders the field of play. He advances to the grass, paces past the white chalk baseline and, after a few more steps, he reaches the mound.

OK, in reality that process occupies about 15 seconds. Willis covers the ground with a light jog. These are meant to be brief disruptions, not pace-of-play-damning conferences.

The pitching coach has one mission once he reaches his destination: to exchange some information with the pitcher. Maybe he noticed some element of the hurler’s delivery that needs a quick tweak. Maybe he wants to review a particular scouting report. Maybe he wants to gauge a pitcher’s confidence level. Maybe he wants to provide the guy with a chance to catch his breath.

It’s a familiar scene that unfolds a handful of times each night in the center of the diamond. The pitching coach hustles out to the mound. The catcher makes the 60-foot trip, and an infielder or two typically joins the gathering. The players cover their faces with their gloves — for good reason, as opposing players and coaches look on, and camera operators digitally barge in on the meeting.

“Sometimes guys tell you bad words to motivate you,” Oliver Pérez told The Athletic.

Do these swift sessions on the mound actually make a difference? Francona has wondered the same thing. On many occasions, the answer is yes, and the Indians’ manager admires how Willis handles each summit.

“I think there’s an art to it,” Francona said. “You can go out there and fuck somebody up, too. I think there’s an art to saying the right thing. Carl has a lot of strengths, but if I had to pick one right now, his demeanor is so good. He has a way of connecting with everybody and making you feel relaxed. It’s so sincere, and it’s just him being himself, and it works.”

In fact, when Willis held his first meeting with the Tribe pitchers in spring training, Francona said he got chills listening to the longtime coach.

“He thought I was fucking with him,” Francona said. “I’m like, ‘Hey, man, that was awesome. No, (really), I loved that shit.’ It was down to earth, like, ‘I care about you guys.’ That’s what he is.”

A mound visit tends to fall under one of four categories.

Something’s off
In early July, Willis visited Cody Allen during a ninth inning in Kansas City. Now, no pitcher can overhaul his delivery within the course of an outing, especially a reliever tasked with recording only three outs. So, when Willis ventures out of the dugout, he isn’t carrying a legal pad littered with suggestions for mechanical adjustments.

Willis: That situation, I felt like he was leaving the rubber too soon and wasn’t quite able to catch up and get to his release point at the point in his delivery he needed to. More times than not, you hope to stay away from mechanics because it’s tough for guys to make mechanical adjustments in the middle of a situation. It has to be a key or something simple, not something that’s really going to take away their focus on attacking the hitter and strike zone.

Starting pitchers can occasionally run into the clubhouse between innings to analyze video. For relievers, that isn’t really an option, so many of the mechanics-based conversations take place the following day. But if there’s an opportunity for Willis to offer a recommendation on a minor, basic tweak, he’ll do so.

Corey Kluber: Say you’re scuffling and can’t figure it out — he’ll come out and it could be something as simple as, ‘Stay over the rubber.’ ‘Stay tall.’ Something like that. Just a little cue when things are out of whack to try to help you get it back right.

Willis: Each pitcher has a different personality. Some guys don’t want to talk about mechanics at all while they’re standing out there in the heat of it.

Allen: For me, a key would be staying back over the rubber as long as possible or not getting over-rotated. He’ll come out there and just give me one thing, just one thing to think about. You don’t want to go over four or five mechanical things. ‘Hey, stay back over the rubber.’ So that allowed me to literally think about one thing and just simplify everything. All it takes is feeling one good pitch and then you’re like, ‘OK, I found it.’ Or, ‘OK, I had it.’ It just helped me simplify as much as possible.

Evan Marshall: Mechanically, you don’t like to get any shift-on-the-fly changes, because that’s something else to think about besides the hitter. But if you’re rushing to the plate or something like that and it’s causing you to miss and he comes out and says, ‘Hey, stay back just a little longer, it’ll help you get back to your arm slot’ — you can go from terrible to strikeout stuff just by going from out-of-slot to into-slot. If that happens and it works, you pat Carl on the back and say, ‘Good talk.’


Even Corey Kluber needs a visit from the pitch doctor sometimes. (Frank Jansky/Getty Images)
The scouting report
If an imposing hitter is approaching the plate with runners on second and third, Willis might scurry out of the dugout to urge his pitcher to work more carefully than usual. Or, if the opposing team sends a pinch-hitter to the plate, Willis might head out to the mound to remind the pitcher of the plan of attack for that encounter.

Willis: We go over all the hitters in a meeting prior to each series. Obviously, the starter and the catcher, we go over that day’s lineup. But when their pinch-hitters come up, particularly in interleague play, when we’re not as familiar with guys, I can go out and give them an idea. Sometimes the situation dictates that. You don’t want to burn a trip if you maybe are thinking that we’ve got to get somebody up possibly in two hitters and we don’t want to burn this trip now, because we may have to buy time. So, you have to weigh it all.

Allen: It’s a big spot in a game and we may have a base open and he wants to remind you, ‘Hey, this is the guy we don’t want to beat us.’

Josh Tomlin: He’ll come out and say something along the lines of, ‘Hey, Player X’s OPS on cutters down and away is .480, so make sure, if you want to go up and in right here, get him off that pitch a couple of times before you go attack him. We’re getting him out down here, so set him up in a certain situation to get him out down here. If you need to, go to it from the very get-go and stay there.’ So it’s good to reiterate some of the scouting report and stuff you see, because you can get caught up in the emotion of the game a little bit and forget about these things. ‘This guy swings 0 percent of the time on first-pitch curveballs, so put your breaking ball in there, get a first-pitch strike and then go to work in these areas.’ Sometimes you get that information and it’s so current and in the moment that it’s like, ‘Oh, perfect.’ And it gets that sense of conviction back in your brain and lets you go out there and attack. Sometimes, all you really need is that sense of confidence. ‘OK, execute this pitch right here and I really have a chance of getting this guy out.’

Marshall: Sometimes when it’s like, strikeout, strikeout, pinch-hitter’s coming up, some guy off the bench — ‘Who cares who he is, I’m going to strike him out, too.’ The pitching coach comes out because he wants to say, ‘Hey, this is so and so. We like to pitch him here.’ Even though it’s all good information, you’re still like, ‘Man, not now. I’m cruising.’

Tomlin: We obviously go over every guy who has the potential to get in a game, but for injuries or pinch-hit situations, the game has a way of speeding up on you in some of those aspects. Usually a pinch-hitter comes in because it’s a big part of the game or it’s getting deep into the game, things like that. You’re not spiraling, but it all happens real quick. He hasn’t seen me and I haven’t seen him, but I need to know something about him and fast. That’s when you see guys come out. You’ll see (Francisco Lindor) come in and say, ‘Hey, I know this guy.’ Or Yan (Gomes) will come out and say, ‘We have to get this guy out. We don’t want to flip the order.’ Certain things like that help get that conviction and confidence back.

Hang in there, man
Want to frustrate a pitcher? Break your bat while blooping one of his pitches in for a weaselly base hit. The results don’t always support the sound process, and Willis likes to reinforce to his pitchers that the ball doesn’t always bounce the right way.

Kluber: There are times when you feel like you’re making good pitches and ground balls (go) through the hole, things like that. They come out to give you a breather and let you regroup. You get frustrated and things speed up on you.

Marshall: When you have a pitcher the caliber of Corey or any of us when we’re having a good day, you go out and you give up a blooper, a blooper, a blooper and it’s like, ‘What do I have to do? Do I have to try harder to get them out?’ You’re breaking bats and all the right things are happening and it just reminds you to take a deep breath and keep doing what you’ve been doing. It sounds terrible. You’re out there, like, ‘I’m just going to keep giving up broken-bat hits if I keep doing the same things.’ That’s baseball. You play the game the right way and eventually it should work out.

Kluber: It’s more so just like, ‘Hey, I’m trying to give you a breather here. You’re making good pitches. Just keep attacking these guys.’ You already know what the plan is. Just reinforcing the positive, so to speak.

Blue Jays trade 3B Josh Donaldson to Indians, sources say
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Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson has been traded to the Cleveland Indians after clearing waivers Friday, sources told ESPN's Jerry Crasnick.

The trade was first reported by Yahoo! Sports.

The 2015 American League MVP has battled shoulder and calf injuries this season and has not played for Toronto since May 28. In 36 games, he batted .234 with five home runs and 16 RBIs.




On Thursday, Donaldson homered in his first at-bat in the second game of his rehabilitation assignment for Class A Dunedin. He finished the night 1-for-3 after going 1-for-2 with a walk and an RBI on Tuesday.

A three-time All-Star, Donaldson shut down contract talks with the Blue Jays this past February, saying the sides did not see "eye to eye" on a long-term deal. He is set to become a free agent in the offseason.

Donaldson, 32, batted .270 with 33 home runs and 78 RBIs despite playing in just 113 games during an injury-shortened 2017 season. He has 116 homers in his four seasons with Toronto and helped the Blue Jays make back-to-back appearances in the AL Championship Series in 2015 and 2016.

Donaldson spent the first four years of his career with the Oakland Athletics and is a lifetime .275 hitter.