It's changed. They've been throwing breaking balls too. The pitch that Bieber fooled Lindor with was one. The article that TFIR posted in articles also mentioned pitchers throwing an array of pitches, and Karinchak throwing his curveball to live hitters.

Guess it depends on the purpose of the drill.

Normal batting practice is not trying to fool the hitter.

Maybe Bieber and Lindor had a little friendly competition going. Side bets are not uncommon.

I've seen pitchers tell the hitter what's coming and challenge them to hit it.

From Fox Sports Cleveland -

"I tapped Tito on the shoulder...I was like 'That's the best arm I've seen in my entire life.'" - Mike Clevinger

Indians players were impressed watching Emmanuel Clase last season. Now, he's on the Tribe's side as a result of the Corey Kluber trade.

Bowden:

Cleveland Indians – Óscar Mercado, OF

The Indians’ front office made an excellent under-the-radar trade on July 31, 2018, when they dealt Conner Capel and Jhon Torres to the Cardinals for Mercado. At 25, Mercado has quietly become the Indians’ best outfielder, delivering a 2.2 WAR season with 15 home runs and 15 stolen bases last year.

Manager Terry Francona expects that to be a starting point and doesn’t see any reason Mercado can’t at least join the 20/20 club in 2020. The Indians tentatively have him slated to be their everyday center fielder but I have concerns about his outfield defense, particularly his poor jump angles.

I look forward to seeing if he can play center or will have to move to left field for defensive reasons. One thing’s for sure, he brings a lot of energy and athleticism to the Indians’ lineup.

So I read that Clase is having an MRI on lat muscle. Civale has a strained groin. Carrasco and Clevinger we know about. It looks like the injuries although widespread are limited to the "C" pitchers for now. Let's hope those guys are all on quarantine so prevent the spread to the rest of the franchise.

Clase has an upper back strain and could miss 2 to 3 months. Damn, was looking forward to seeing him.

civ ollilavad wrote:So I read that Clase is having an MRI on lat muscle. Civale has a strained groin. Carrasco and Clevinger we know about. It looks like the injuries although widespread are limited to the "C" pitchers for now. Let's hope those guys are all on quarantine so prevent the spread to the rest of the franchise.

Ha, well Severino of the Yankees is on the list for Tommy John so could be worse.

Depth is slipping away. We'll be relying on really exciting bullpenners like Hoyt and Maton and Hunter Wood. Jeremy Rodriguez and Plutko could both be in the season opening rotation.
Who's healthy for projected opening day staff:
Starters: Bieber, Pleasc, Carrasco?, Plutko, Civale?, with JRod as the sub for either Carlos or Aaron
Relief: Hand Wittgren, Perez, Cimber, Karinchak, Hoyt, Maton, Wood.
The only other guys on the 40 man roster who would have a shot are the 2 lefties Logan Allen and Scott Moss.

How long has it been since the Tribe had a left-handed regular SP ?

We used to go through the one year successes for guys like Sowers and Huff and Laffey.


Sowers from 2006-2009 with annual starts 14 13 22 22
Laffey from 2007-2010 with annual starts 9 16 9 5
Huff was around 2009-12, with annually decreasing number of starts: 23 15 10 4.

If we've had anyone since he escapes my memory, although short term memory always goes first.

more recently:

2013 Scott Kazmir made 29 starts for most by an Indians lefty in at least a dozen years, since Sabathia I guess'
2014 T.J. House made 18 starts, most by an Indians lefty in the past six season
2017 Ryan Merritt made 4 starts, which was 4 more than any lefty made for the team last season

Dreaming:

Logan Allen, SP/RP, Indians

With Mike Clevinger getting a late start to his season due to knee surgery and Carlos Carrasco creating a brief scare with a hip injury, Allen’s name started to surface as a rotation fill-in candidate. Even with the increase in attention, Allen is still outside the Top 700 in NFBC ADP since word got out about Clevinger’s surgery. As a result of a miserable 2019 season, both at the minor league and major league levels, Allen is no longer considered to be a Top 100 prospect, but he is two years removed from an outstanding season with Double-A San Antonio (10-6, 2.75 ERA, 26.0 percent K%) — a campaign he began as a 20-year-old in the Padres’ system.

Even during difficult stints with the Padres and Indians last season, there was something to like. Allen did a fair job of avoiding contact, even on pitches located in the strike zone (86.3 percent Z-Contact%, which is roughly the same rate achieved by Patrick Corbin and Max Fried), and his changeup was a decent pitch for swinging strikes (15.8 percent SwStr%) and ground balls (55.6 percent). However, a dearth of called strikes contributed to a puny 13.4 percent strikeout rate.

With a rebound this spring, it’s not unthinkable that Allen could win a rotation spot to start off the season and that he could pitch well enough to keep it. Even if he is merely an average pitcher at getting strikeouts, he has a long-standing track record of limiting fly-ball distances in minors (288.9 feet average). That could help him to contribute to your staff’s ERA and win total.

Mike Clevinger (knee) could resume a throwing program as soon as Friday.

Clevinger is two weeks removed from having surgery to repair a partial tear of the medial meniscus in his left knee. The right-hander is going to begin the season on the injured list, but he could rejoin the Indians' rotation before the end of April.

"I've seen pitchers tell the hitter what's coming and challenge them to hit it."

Wild Thing vs. Parkman?


"If you get a piece of it, I'll let you name it"
--CRUNCH--

So here’s a strange question for the group, when a better comes in to hit for another batter it’s a pinch hitter. When a runner comes in to run for a heater that’s going on bass it’s called a pinch runner. Why isn’t a pitcher who comes in to replace another picture called a pinch pitcher? I recognize this was strange to ask as a question but it came up and I couldn’t come up with a good answer.