Cleveland Sports Forum

Posted: **Thu Apr 17, 2014 1:11 pm**

What rebuild? We've signed three players to longterm contracts. Added veteran closer.

You don't think this team can be in contention? Why not?

Posted: **Thu Apr 17, 2014 8:02 pm**

Luigi Rodriguez with his season debut for Carolina. And ... fanfare... Clint Frazier debuts with Lake County

Some very good starting pitching through 4 innings at all levels:

Adam Plutko 4-1-1-0-2-8 for the Captains.

Cole Sulser 4-7-1-1-0-3 for the Mudcats

Will Roberts 5-2-0=0-2-2 for the Ducks

T.J. House 5-3-0-0-1-6 for the Clippers. ERA 2.45. LH starter. Some big league depth.

Posted: **Fri Apr 18, 2014 9:14 am**

Final boxes from Thursday games:

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.js ... d=20140417

Of note, besides the starters noted last night:
Clippers get 4 shutout innings of relief from Barnes (2) Hagadone (1) and Pestano (1). Each fans 2.
Jose Ramirez with his first homer.

Two well-established excellent defenders continue to put up surprising solid offensive stats, too.
Roberto Perez, strong-armed catcher, in AAA, 2-3 with a double is hitting 360, about double what he hit last year.
Giovanny Urshela, solid 3B, 2 hits is now batting .304 at Akron.

Also in Akron, 2 hits for Myles, LF, at .394; Double for C Tony Wolters, 333.
1 shutout inning of relief each from Sturdevant and, as usual, Kyle Crockett.

For Lake County, Frazier debuts going 1-5. Eric Haase, catcher, with his 3rd homer. Reliable Nellie Rodriguez single and walk. Improving Josh McAdams two hits.

Amazing 8-run tenth inning beats the Mudcats. The disaster featured 4 Carolina errors, two by Erik Gonzalez, a hit batter, three walks, a couple wild pitches, and a grand total of two hits, both singles. Here's the classic play by play:

Matty Johnson strikes out swinging.
Jonathan Roof reaches on a fielding error by second baseman Todd Hankins.
Carson Blair walks. Jonathan Roof to 2nd.
David Chester reaches on a fielding error by shortstop Erik Gonzalez. Jonathan Roof to 3rd. Carson Blair to 2nd.
Kevin Heller strikes out swinging.
Reed Gragnani singles on a ground ball to right fielder Anthony Gallas. Jonathan Roof scores. Carson Blair scores. David Chester to 2nd.
Mario Martinez singles on a line drive to right fielder Anthony Gallas. David Chester scores. Reed Gragnani to 3rd.
Pitching Change: Carlos Melo replaces Rob Nixon.
Ryan Dent hit by pitch. Mario Martinez to 2nd.
Dreily Guerrero walks. Reed Gragnani scores. Mario Martinez to 3rd. Ryan Dent to 2nd.
Matty Johnson reaches on a fielding error by shortstop Erik Gonzalez. Mario Martinez scores. Ryan Dent scores. Dreily Guerrero scores. Matty Johnson to 3rd. Throwing error by center fielder Logan Vick.
With Jonathan Roof batting, wild pitch by Carlos Melo, Matty Johnson scores.
Jonathan Roof walks.
With Carson Blair batting, wild pitch by Carlos Melo, Jonathan Roof to 2nd.
Carson Blair walks.
David Chester grounds out, second baseman Todd Hankins to first baseman Charlie Valerio

[/quote]

Posted: **Fri Apr 18, 2014 11:04 am**

civ ollilavad wrote:What rebuild? We've signed three players to longterm contracts. Added veteran closer.

You don't think this team can be in contention? Why not?

1. This is the tribe-we had our 1 year of contention out of 5 last year. That is all we are allowed.

2. Generally we are always waiting for next year-this is the tribe.

3. If we trade masterson now for the sore armed teenager at least we dont have to pay him until the trade deadline and we might get a better sore armed teenager than if we waited until the trade deadline and we are mathematically eliminated.

Posted: **Fri Apr 18, 2014 1:48 pm**

Thanks for the helpful explanation. I believe every team that doesn't win is waiting for next year. As I recall the Tribe won 90 games last year and made the playoffs. That was movement in the right direction. This year we've lost some FA and we've signed some longterm deals. We strengthened the bullpen and have reason to be hopeful about a couple young starters, such as: [see the following]

Posted: **Fri Apr 18, 2014 1:49 pm**

Prospect Hot Sheet, repeat appearance by Bauer:

6. Trevor Bauer, rhp, Indians

Trevor Bauer

Team: Triple-A Columbus (International)
Age: 23
Why He’s Here: 1-0, 0.00, 6 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 SO

The Scoop: Bauer appears to have regained the prospect shine lost amid falling out of favor in Arizona, a trade to Cleveland and struggles in 2013. His totals in two Triple-A starts and one major league start are 18 innings, a 1.00 ERA and a 26/5 SO/BB ratio. As Ben Badler pointed out Thursday, Bauer’s throwing 93-96 mph with two plus breaking pitches in his curveball and slider and attacking hitters

Posted: **Fri Apr 18, 2014 3:18 pm**

BA discussion about Bauer:

john (nyc): is trevor bauer fully back on track and what can we expect going forward?

Ben Badler: Yes. He's throwing 93-96 mph, which is up from where he was last year and more in line with where he sat when he was at UCLA and carving up hitters when he first got into professional baseball. The curveball and slider are both out pitches, but the approach he's had this year has been better, getting ahead with his fastball, then finishing guys with the breaking stuff, rather than trying to throw early-count breaking balls and falling behind guys like he was in the past. He looks like a No. 2 starter right now.

Posted: **Fri Apr 18, 2014 6:11 pm**

The physical part of pitching is one thing. The mental part of pitching is the separator.

Lots of guys can throw hard and have great stuff but they melt down when things go wrong.

Can Bauer handle the bad breaks and the fact that major league hitters can sometimes hit your best stuff?

That's the question.

Posted: **Sat Apr 19, 2014 7:50 am**

Friday minor league games featured bullpen blowups just the big team. Boxes:

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.js ... d=20140418

Austin Adams allowed 2 homers in the 8th for Captains loss.
Elvis Araujo walked two, threw a wild pitch and then next guy allowed both to score on wild pitches. [that means 2 runs on 0 hits in the 11th; the day after Carolina game featured 8 runs on 2 singles in the 10th!]
Almost the same result for Shawn Armstrong in Akron: 3 ninth inning hits didn't produce the game tying run because Naquin nailed the 27th out at the plate.
Nothing bad by the Lake Captain bullpen but another resulted from another sloppy outing by Mitch Brown: 4 earned runs on 4 hits 4 walks in 4 1/2. Here the bullpen was solid: Matt Whitehouse pitched the final 4 2/3 allowing only 1 hit and 1 walk and struck out 6

Posted: **Sat Apr 19, 2014 8:38 am**

Other game notes:

Clint Frazier doubled and SF'd a run in.
Erik Gonzalez homered
Lindor with 3 hits; Naquin with 2 walks and a hit; Urshela 2 hits; Myles double and single for Akron; each stole a base, too
Jose Ramirez and Cooper 2 hits, Aguillar doubled for Clippers

Posted: **Sun Apr 20, 2014 2:47 pm**

Saturday boxes:

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.js ... d=20140419

Clippers lost8-1 and 7-6. In each game Ramirez singled and walked. In the nightcap Aguillar singled and homered #4, avg 370. Cloyed 8 runs allowed in 5 innings. Barnes 2 in 1/3. Pestano and Hagadone each 1 run in 1 IP.
Columbus now 5-10.

Akron won 3-1 behind newcomers Gabriel Arias 6 innings, 1 run (he's 24); and Duke von Schamman 3 innings, no runs, 4 K. He's 22, but never been rated among his team's prospects. Giovanny Urshela with HR 3 and Alex Lavisky, remember him?, No. 2. He's a 23-year-old backup catcher. Team record is 9-7

Mudcats rained out.

Captains lost 6-1. Record now 5-11. Clint Frazier with a pair of hits; Doryss Paulino and Josh McAdams each a pair of walks walks. Paulino with his 8th error, that's 3 more than Yan Gomes. Split starters: Lugo 6 runs in 4 2/3; Aviles no runs in 4 1/3.

Posted: **Sun Apr 20, 2014 2:53 pm**

It looks like everyone's off for Easter except for the Mudcats. I guess the South doesn't take religion all that seriously. Shawn Morimando with 3 shutuout innings so far, 3 hits, 2 strikeouts. He's the only pitcher on the roster who made the Team's Top 30 prospects; although fellow left-hander Ryan Merritt leads the league with a 0.52 ERA after his first starts, and Dylan Baker was perfect his first out over 6 innings but fell and injured himself on the way out to make his second start last Sunday. Cats are 8-7.

Posted: **Sun Apr 20, 2014 4:35 pm**

I guess the South doesn't take religion all that seriously.

Ever hear of the Bible belt ?

Posted: **Mon Apr 21, 2014 7:54 am**

I guess I need to put a little funny face next to my posts that are supposed to be ironic.

Posted: **Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:00 am**

Nice work by Shawn Morminado. He is repeating High A despite a pretty good 2013, to improve his command. Yesterday no walks in 6 innings, 1 run on six hits and 5 strikeouts. In his early going the 5-11 lefty has walked 4 in 22 innings; last year 76 in 135 (and only 115 hits).
2 hits for catcher Alex Monsalve and by native Clevelander and Kent Stater Anthony Gallas, who at age 26 and not yet debuted in AA is a mere seven months younger than Michael Brantley.

Here's the box score: http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.js ... x&sid=milb

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