Cleveland Sports Forum

You're right, my bad. Don't want to jinx Kluber.

I also wonder if the latest injury hadn't bit him if his velocity might have continued to improve as he built his arm strength up and got back to where he was. But at this point I don't care. I'm done with him. Salazar is MLB's version of Mr. Glass from the M Night Shyalaman movies.

I do think "the man with no name", and Kluber's, velocity tick up the more outings they threw/throw. Arm strength takes awhile.

With any luck they told Salazar that his only hope to continue, and enjoy his gravy train, was to become a reliever and be prepared to all out throw lighting darts.

Great evening for pitching tonight in our system. Bieber going for Tribe. New acquisition Logan Allen pitching for Columbus. Eli Morgan starting for Akron.

Columbus and Akron start an hour before Tribe. Going to try to catch a few innings of Logan Allen.

Gotta remember to fire up MiLB tv. Warmup acts!

HB - what the hell happened in that first inning. Logan Allen had 1 pitch working - the high fastball.

Loads the bases with 2 walks and a double, then strikes out the last 2 guys on that high fastball. Announcers said 93 mph a couple times.

BTW - he has to lead AAA in bible tatoos on his right arm. Saw Proverbs but couldn't make out the others.

I got busy with something and missed it, so thanks for the rundown.

Hope you caught the 2nd inning because I missed that one. Seems he gave up a run.

Just saw Haase double a run in though. 1-1

One more thing about that first inning - never saw you guys talk about the Clipper CF Tom, but he made an amazing diving catch for the first out. Some defender!

As long as we're on Logan Allen, an article a mere 2 months ago.

Logan Allen and His Inner Bulldog are Poised for a Padres Debut
by David Laurila
June 18, 2019

Logan Allen is slated to make his MLB debut tonight when the San Diego Padres host the Milwaukee Brewers. He’ll do so at age 22, four years after being drafted by the Boston Red Sox, who that same winter sent the southpaw west as part of the Craig Kimbrel deal. He’s progressed well in the meantime. Allen entered this season ranked eighth in a loaded Padres system, with our own Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel opining that he “comfortably projects as a No. 4 starter.”

Allen’s assets include a bulldog mentality, and he wears it like a badge of honor.

“It’s the way I’ve always been wired,” Allen told me this spring. “I’ve never been that guy who throws 100 mph. I’ve never been that guy who was the freakiest athlete. I’ve always had pretty good stuff, but I think my success is really more about the way I’ve handled myself on the field, with conviction and intent. I don’t believe in giving in.”

The subconscious can be a cruel animal. While the burly left-hander isn’t about to back down from a challenge, uncertainty demons have crept into the dark recesses of his mind on more than one occasion. Just yesterday, Allen told The San Diego Union Tribune’s Kevin Acee that his recent struggles — 14 earned runs in 15 innings over his past three starts at Triple-A El Paso — have been “between the ears.” He admitted that he’s allowed himself to become frustrated, which has resulted in a snowballing of bad results.

The three-game hiccup isn’t representative of Allen’s overall performance this year. As Acee pointed out in his article, the lefty had 1.91 ERA in his previous nine starts against PCL opponents. He’s also averaged better than a strikeout per inning — this is in a league where hitters have been ravaging pitchers at record rates.

The rough patches aren’t new. Like any young pitcher, Allen has had to learn to battle through adversity as he’s climbed the minor-league ladder. Also not new is the reason he often gives for any such struggles.

“The speed bumps I’ve had are mental,” Allen told me in our preseason conversation. “I don’t think they’ve had anything to do with my stuff. You refine your stuff — it does get better — but again, I’ve always had good stuff. A good pitch in Low-A is a good pitch in Triple-A. That’s my opinion. The hitters are definitely different, but if you locate that splitter down, or that low-outside fastball, it’s going to be hard for anybody to square up. So I don’t look at it like having to do anything different as I move up. At every level I pitch at, I literally just have to be me.”

More specifically, he needs to be the bulldog version of Logan Allen. Asked if the ball comes out of his hand differently when he finds himself lacking conviction, he responded, “Absolutely. The mentality I need out there is that every pitch I throw is my best one, so try to hit it.”

Hitters stepping into the box against Allen are going to see a low-90s four-seam fastball, a plus curveball, a slider he began throwing in 2017, and a Vulcan changeup that he described here. Each is a big-league-quality offering. In order for Allen to prosper at baseball’s highest level, he simply needs to let his inner bulldog run free. His response to the age-old “is pitching more of an art or a science?” questions bears that out.

“You have to go out there and do what you do best,” said Allen. “You can’t teach a guy to pitch with conviction. You can’t science a guy to pitch with intent — there’s no science in competing — so to me, that makes it more of an art. You can have the best spin rate in the world, but if you don’t locate, and don’t pitch with conviction, you’re probably going to get hit. When I’m at my best, I’m confident and just going after hitters.”

Here's the blurb on that Vulcan changeup:

Logan Allen, San Diego Padres (Vulcan)

“I had a buddy, Grant Holmes, who said he was messing around with a Vulcan change. I said, ‘What’s that?’ Basically, you pretty much split the ball with your middle and rings fingers, and throw it just like a fastball.
Logan Allen’s Vulcan change grip.
“I toyed around with grips, feeling the laces and getting the ball a little deeper in my hand. I literally threw it with all of my arm speed, and it was dropping. It was tumbling. It opened up a whole new door for me that I’d never thought of going through.
Logan Allen’s Vulcan change grip.
“My first year throwing it was 2017, when I went back to Fort Wayne. I’d messed around with it in the offseason, then brought it to spring training. Our staff loved it. Quite a few hitters I’ve pitched against in the minor leagues have said it’s one of the harder pitches to pick up, and to hit.

“I was never able to get the feel for a circle change, but I also never really tried a conventional split. I never liked the feeling of the ball between my index and middle fingers. I was way more comfortable throwing the Vulcan change. I don’t know why. My hands aren’t very big, and for some reason the Vulcan just fits them better.

“Chris Paddack throws a version of it. His is a little different. It fades, almost like a regular four-seam change. It’s a very good changeup, but it’s not the kind of pitch I wanted to throw. I wanted to throw something with a little tumble that I could land for a strike and surprise the hitter, or that I could bury in the dirt.

“It’s not always the same pitch. I’ll split it more sometimes, and there’s how hard I grip it, and how deep it is in my hand. If I pronate, I can get it to fade a little bit. If I throw it straight over the top, I can get it to go straight down, almost like a hard curveball. Sometimes it will cut or knuckle. It varies in shape, but it’s effective nonetheless.”

Meanwhile Allen gives up a 2 run homer.

I will say the announcers called Clipper park a "homer haven"

So Logan Allen gets beaten about the face and head in 3+ innings. Nelson comes in and shuts them down. Then Karinchak comes in and strikes out the side.

Showing new guy how it’s done.

Sheesh, call Karinchak up while he's still healthy!

Karinchak isn’t all the way back yet, TFIR. His velocity has been down since returning from injury, I heard. And he got roughed up a couple times.