Cleveland Sports Forum

The second Gomes trade could be as good as the first Gomes trade [Esmil Rogers for Gomes and Mike Aviles]

From walk-on to workhorse: The blossoming of Bieber fever

Zack Meisel May 20, 2019 7

CLEVELAND — Shane Bieber glanced over to his teammate at the adjacent locker.

“Do you really do your interviews with this?” Bieber asked, contemplating whether he should place the red and gold crown atop his neatly combed hair.

“Put it on, Rook,” Trevor Bauer replied.

“Don’t work that way,” Bieber countered. “I’m the king now.”

Several times this season, Bieber has possessed the coveted “King of the Hill” crown, awarded to the Indians’ most prolific starting pitcher in a particular series. He’s still the runt of the rotation, but he has quickly risen to the ranks of the trustworthy workhorses — the arms Terry Francona can rely upon to turn over a lineup a few times, to throw 110 or more pitches, to bail out an oft-bumbling batting order.

And he’s still only 23, still a bit shy of registering a full year of big-league service time.

The rotation remains the foundation of the Indians’ roster, and though they dealt for Bauer, Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco and Mike Clevinger, Bieber is a homegrown jewel, drafted just three years ago and already blossoming on the main stage. It’s a critical development for a team that opts to avoid the account-draining free-agent pitching pool, a team with a couple of aching aces on the mend.

And it’s an impressive ascent, considering Bieber came close to not pitching at all in college, a sequence of events that replays in his head on a daily basis.

“I can’t believe how it’s worked out,” Bieber said.

Had Tyler Mahle not signed with the Reds out of high school, he likely would have occupied the roster spot at UC Santa Barbara that Bieber ultimately claimed.

At the time, Bieber would have been content with that arrangement. He just wanted to attend the university, another four years of basking in the California sun with a side gig of studying sociology. Baseball or no baseball, the school’s backdrop was the beach. What’s not to like?

Instead, he walked on at UCSB, and he narrowly edged out another player for a spot on the spring roster his freshman year. The team was desperate for pitching, so it tabbed Bieber as the Sunday starter, the No. 3 pitcher in its weekend rotation.

“My first year was OK,” Bieber said. “I had a serviceable arm for Sundays.”

The next year, baseball evolved from fun to fundamental. That’s when he caught the Indians’ attention, when he first started to sense he might stand a chance at being drafted. After he posted a 2.24 ERA during his sophomore season, he participated in the Cape Cod League, despite some initial resistance from his college coach. Bieber craved the extra experience and expertise, even though he’d be limited to a few innings for a handful of starts. Matt Blake, now the Indians’ assistant director of player development, served as his pitching coach.

Blake’s scouting report on Bieber at the time: 88-91 mph, with a looser slider that he could throw for strikes, and a changeup without much separation off the fastball. His fastball command was paramount to his success.

Blake was blown away, though, that this 20-year-old was so intent on absorbing as much information and advice as possible, and on learning from a group of unfamiliar coaches with whom he’d only spend three weeks. During the amateur scouting process, the Indians search for those characteristics that indicate a player will work tirelessly to improve, and Bieber checked that box.

“It was kind of like, ‘OK, something’s going on here that’s going to give him a chance,’” Blake said. “And he went out and had a really good spring the next year, with a little bit higher velocity, but he was largely the same guy. I don’t think it would’ve been easy to say that, ‘This guy is going to end up being 93-96 (mph) with four quality pitches,’ but there were some qualities that (made) you say, ‘This guy has a chance to grow more than the average college pitcher would.’”

In the wake of his Cape performance, Bieber rested that fall, and when he returned in the spring, his fastball velocity had jumped to the 91-93 mph range. He maintained an elite walk rate and produced a bevy of ground balls. The Indians thought his fastball offered even more upside, too.

They hired Blake as a lower-level pitching coordinator later that year, and they selected Bieber in the fourth round of the 2016 draft. Blake watched him breeze through Mahoning Valley, Lake County and Lynchburg. When he transitioned to his current role, Blake observed Bieber at Class AA Akron and Class AAA Columbus.

“He was able to take feedback, both from the objective reports that we have,” Blake said, “and from the subjective evaluations of the coaches, and then continue to add to his process, but not necessarily throw out what makes him successful in the meantime.”

Bieber never stuck around for long at any minor-league stop. In all, he logged a 2.24 ERA in 277 minor-league innings, while issuing only 19 free passes. Less than two years after he was drafted, the kid who nearly headed to college solely to study sociology and assemble sandcastles had reached the big leagues.


(Rick Osentoski / USA Today)
When Bieber seized a spot in the Cleveland rotation last summer, Bauer and Clevinger had a chat.

Who was this new kid? Bieber didn’t spend spring training in big-league camp, in part because the front office feared Terry Francona would be infatuated and plead for Bieber to make the Opening Day roster, which didn’t jibe with their developmental plan. Clevinger knew Bieber pitched “like a crafty righty,” but nothing else.

“We had to watch to see who he is before we invested time. That’s just life,” Clevinger said. “But once we saw he was a guy who was putting in the work and cares, I talked to (Bauer) and we’re like, ‘Remember how it took us a while to get into ourselves, to mold ourselves? We can go and have him skip this step right now. He’s already light-years ahead of us when it comes to age, with where he’s at right now. We could have him skip a whole two-year setback of figuring himself out.’ It took TB two years and me like a year and a half to really come into ourselves and find it. We just thought we could help expedite that process with Biebs.

“Anyone can put on a face, but it’s totally different when you get here. Nothing can prepare you for being here. I don’t care what anyone says. Unless maybe you’re — like, Vlad (Guerrero) Jr. might be a different scenario, because he was born in the lights. No matter who you are or where you come from, it’s different when you get here as a young guy, especially as young as he is.”

Bauer and Clevinger ultimately adopted Bieber as their little brother in the rotation, and they urged him to unleash more oomph on his fastball, which resulted in that low-90s velocity creeping up toward 94-95 mph. In the ninth inning of his matinee masterpiece Sunday, Bieber registered 94 mph on all three heaters he threw.

“Hopefully Biebs will do that for the next guy who comes up,” Bauer said. “He’ll be able to communicate in his own way to that guy.”

It helps that Bieber doesn’t act like a typical 23-year-old. Francona often refers to him as being “mature beyond his years.” As cliché as it sounds, there’s truth behind it. Just ask the guy who has caught all but two of his starts this season.

“I wouldn’t say I was this mature,” Kevin Plawecki said. “I’m not a pitcher — I mean, sometimes I am — certain situations that he gets in, he’s able to stay focused and not let the moment get away from him. At that age, I don’t know if I could have done that, to be completely honest.

“He’s 23. I made my debut at 24. So at 23, I was still in the minor leagues, but at the same time, at 24, I was still pretty young coming into the league and my head was spinning quite a bit. With him, you don’t really see that at all, so that’s pretty special.”

Last spring, Carl Willis snuck away one morning to watch Bieber throw live batting practice on a back field at the Indians’ complex in Arizona, the pitching coach’s first view of the right-hander. He marveled at Bieber’s command of the strike zone, and at how a pitcher so short on experience could operate as though he had pitched in the majors for a decade.

A few months later, Bieber became his pupil.

“He stepped right in,” Willis said, “and has proven to be a major-league pitcher. He’s also watched and listened, both from coaches and teammates, to learn how things work at the major-league level, what hitters are trying to do to combat what you’re trying to do. I think maturity is just the best word. The results are a reflection of that.”

Those results — a 3.22 ERA, a 3.74 FIP, 10.6 strikeouts per nine innings this season — have proved pivotal given the pain endured by Clevinger and Kluber. Bieber twirled a complete-game shutout against the Orioles on Sunday, tallying 15 strikeouts and, true to form, issuing no walks. He said he had every pitch working, and his teammates advised him to capitalize on it.

He located a mid-90s fastball to any coordinates Roberto Pérez requested. He baffled Baltimore’s hitters with a curveball that plunged toward the dirt upon arrival to the plate — nine of the 19 he tossed resulted in swinging strikes. The Orioles also whiffed on 11 of the 30 sliders he slung their way.

Bieber was eyeing a complete game all afternoon. After the eighth, with Bieber sitting at 98 pitches, Willis asked how much the milestone meant to him.

“A lot,” Bieber told him.

No other words were uttered. Bieber jogged to the mound for the ninth and set down the Orioles on nine pitches. Chris Davis offered a futile wave at three consecutive curveballs to seal the shutout.

When Bieber arrived at his locker, that shiny crown was waiting. And so were his teammates, who doused him with a variety of substances — with “interesting” scents — to honor the feat.

Only three pitchers in franchise history had recorded 15 strikeouts and no walks in an outing: Sam McDowell, Luis Tiant and Kluber. Only Tiant did so in a complete-game shutout.

Tiant lasted 19 years in the majors, collecting 229 wins and posting a 3.30 ERA. McDowell made six All-Star teams and led the AL in strikeouts on five occasions. Kluber has a pair of Cy Young Awards resting on a shelf in his home.

Meanwhile, Bieber appeared in his 30th big-league game Sunday. And even that would have seemed like a far-fetched forecast five years ago, when Bieber snuck his way onto a collegiate pitching staff.

“I think about it every day,” Bieber said. “It’s pretty crazy.”

Only three pitchers in franchise history had recorded 15 strikeouts and no walks in an outing: Sam McDowell, Luis Tiant and Kluber. Only Tiant did so in a complete-game shutout.

Guess that says it all.

TFIR:

I just took exception to the article. It was entitled, Perez Wanted To Prove People Wrong, And He Has. (Or something like that)

Has he?

Look, I’m glad he’s gotten a a bit hot lately and hit a couple homers. Anything we get out of him to help the team is great. But let’s not act like he’s suddenly good. Cause he isn’t.

We all know Perez's improvement was not because he played Winter ball. Perez's improvement comes directly from Hillbilly's KOL every time he badmouths him.

Keep slamming!!

On to Jose Ramirez.

You may be on to something there seagull!

Perez took foul ball to head and didn't feel well afterwards. Being checked for mild concussion.

They pulled Haase out of his Clippers game tonight and sent him to Cleveland just in case. Know more tomorrow.

Haase currently leads Indians organization with 11 homers.

Doesn't sound too serious so we'll take it. Bring Haase on!

Also, on the Gomes trade. We got this guy too.

-

Indians Prospective @indiansPro

Nice to see #Indians INF prospect Andruw Monasterio taking some hacks out in Goodyear. Monasterio suffered a left oblique strain in late April & was placed on the 7-day IL while w/ AA Akron. He was hitting .333 over his first 57 AB's in 2019. He came over in the Yan Gomes trade.
(that tweet came with a video of the dude taking hacks in batting cage)

HIs stats before we got him were pretty bad [a nearly singles only offense[] buhe did hit well for his first weeks with the Ducks. Forgot we got 3 for 1 in that deal.

Carlos Gonzalez, we hardly knew ye

Zack Meisel May 22, 2019 37

CLEVELAND — Carlos Gonzalez batted fourth for the Indians on Tuesday night.

On Wednesday morning, he entered the Indians’ clubhouse wearing a small, dark backpack. He exited the Indians’ clubhouse about 15 minutes later, backpack still resting on his shoulders, and he headed for the Progressive Field players lot after a brief meeting in Terry Francona’s office.

The Indians severed ties with another veteran lottery ticket. First, Hanley Ramírez. Now, Gonzalez. The state of the Indians’ lineup suggests a player can be hitting cleanup one day and be unemployed the next.

Gonzalez never really hinted he had any fuel remaining in his bat. He posted a .210/.282/.276 slash line in 117 plate appearances, and the metrics were even less encouraging.

Average exit velocity: 86.6 mph (18th percentile)
Hard hit percentage: 34.2 percent (28th percentile)
Launch angle: -0.5

So, a lot of weak grounders. And strikeouts. He logged a strikeout rate of 28.2 percent, a career-worst mark. He collected only three extra-base hits, only one in May.

The move isn’t really a surprise, but it underscores the club’s desperation for some lively lumber. Catcher Eric Haase will occupy the vacant roster spot for now; he registered a .245/.341/.564 slash line at Columbus, with 11 home runs and 40 strikeouts in 30 games. Roberto Pérez will avoid the injured list, despite leaving the game Tuesday with a concussion. Francona said Pérez passed a series of medical tests Wednesday morning. Pérez still won’t catch for a few days.

There could be some help on the horizon, though it lacks the sort of certainty the Indians need. Oscar Mercado and Jordan Luplow will receive extended (and well-deserved) looks. Bradley Zimmer is expected to begin a rehab assignment with Class AAA Columbus next week. Tyler Naquin took batting practice Tuesday and will run the bases by the end of the week. Greg Allen could earn a promotion at some point in the near future. Maybe Bobby Bradley will factor into the equation.

If we remove pitchers from the equation, the Indians rank 27th among the league’s 30 teams in wRC+ (79), 27th in batting average (.224), 22nd in on-base percentage (.310) and 28th in slugging percentage (.366).

Mike Freeman, who has played one career inning in left field (and 10 innings in the outfield, period) and owns a career .162/.264/.229 slash line, was penciled into the No. 6 spot and in left field in the batting order Wednesday. This isn’t a long-term solution, obviously, but … yikes.

One simple trade-deadline maneuver won’t solve everything that ails the Indians’ offense. And José Ramírez’s ongoing slumber only makes matters more complicated. But they’ll need to unearth some in-house remedies. And it seems as though they’re ready to run their younger position players through a trial-and-error period.

Here’s what Francona had to say about the team’s decisions on Wednesday.

On the club’s evaluation of Gonzalez: “You know, it was so hard because we loved the way he carried himself. We loved his professionalism. And there’s a lot to be said for that. We weren’t seeing the offense that we needed and he said that, too. Does it come with another 100 at-bats? We don’t have a crystal ball and none of us is smart enough to know what the next 100 at-bats might bring. But I think we’re also at a point where we feel like we need to find out about some of these younger guys. And if we don’t find out, that could be a mistake. There’s gonna be the Oscar Mercado’s, Naquin, Greg Allen, even though he’s not here right now. We need to find out if these guys are guys that we can win with. And sometimes the answer’s yes and sometimes the answer’s no, but not knowing is not good.”

On Gonzalez’s off-field contributions: “We’re going to miss that. He had a big impact on a lot of guys. When he spoke, he wasn’t the loudest, but guys listened. Because what he said was true and he lived it out. When he hit the ball, he ran. He wasn’t hitting like he wanted to, but he didn’t pout. He showed up and was a professional and it’s very much appreciated. Especially when you’re sitting where I do.”

On the reports on Haase: “A lot of power. Some swing-and-miss still, which we know. He’s definitely going to be a threat when he’s hitting. It’ll be interesting to see because when you see guys in spring training — because he really swung the bat well in spring training — and then you don’t see them for six, seven weeks, it’s going to be interesting to see how he looks just to get your eyes on him.”

(Photo credit: Joe Nicholson / USA Today)

If this season is going down the tubes, and the Twins are for real, it just makes sense to sort through all these young kids.

no reason to keep a veteran who hit just as bad as any of the younger guys has, except I guess for Eric Stamets

Lloyd: Trevor Bauer believes he has identified and fixed what has bothered him most of the season


By Jason Lloyd May 25, 2019 8

CLEVELAND — Something was wrong when Trevor Bauer walked off the mound in Miami after seven innings in late April. He struck out 10, but he allowed four hits, four runs and he surrendered a home run to Curtis Granderson. It wasn’t his best start of the year, but it hardly seemed like cause for concern.

Yet despite closing April 4-1 with a 2.66 ERA and tied for second in the league in strikeouts, Bauer was unhappy with the way he was pitching.

“I suck right now,” he said.

Sure enough, May has been miserable: 0-2 with a 7.04 ERA in his past four starts. His command is off, his walks are up and the nine home runs he has given up this season match his total from all of last year.

“I could see this coming,” Bauer says now. “I was trying to fix it, and I couldn’t fix it. And you’ve seen how the last couple outings have played out.”

His curveball has always been his best pitch, but he’s throwing it less and his fastball more than he has in years. Simply put, Bauer has not been himself lately, and he knows it. He believes he has finally identified the problem and corrected it.

The Indians hope he’s right. If they have any chance at chasing down the Twins and winning the division for a fourth consecutive year, they’ll need the All-Star version of Bauer from last year.

So what was the issue?

The way he was lifting his leg at the start of his delivery threw off the rest of his mechanics. He says “physical limitations” were preventing him from moving certain ways that he needed to move, although he insists he was never hurt and he’s not hurt now. He declined to be more specific about what he means by physical limitations.

“My mechanics are so finely tuned that when I can’t do certain things, they get out of whack,” Bauer said. “So one thing gets off, I start compensating for it in other ways. It just takes a while for me to figure out and see it.”

The change with his leg lift is so subtle, Bauer believes he could show the clip of him pitching to someone, point out the flaw and they still wouldn’t see it. But he can.

After he allowed four runs and walked four batters in a loss to the A’s on Tuesday, Bauer identified the problem on Wednesday. He retreated to the bullpen on Thursday and threw a handful of fastballs, cutters and sliders — the pitches that have been giving him the most trouble this year. He was pleased with the results.

“I’ll be better next time,” he said. “I’m back to myself.”

Nobody else in the league approaches his craft like Bauer, who can keep a running count of his FIP in his head while he’s pitching. That’s why it was curious that he’s throwing his four-seam fastball about 43 percent of the time this year — up from 37 percent last year.

Conversely, he is only throwing his curve about 18 percent of the time — his lowest percentage since 2015. He was around 27 percent usage last year when he broke through to become one of the league’s elite pitchers. His spin rate on his curve is also down this year. Part of the explanation is simple and part of it is more complicated.

It’s cold in April and May, which makes it more difficult for Bauer to spin his curveball. And the mechanical flaw has made it harder for him to throw his curve for strikes. Bauer said he has noticed hitters are looking for his off-speed pitches more this year, so they aren’t swinging at balls out of the strike zone. And when he does throw it for strikes, they haven’t been fooled.

“I haven’t been able to throw other pitches for strikes in good locations,” he said. “The first couple games of the year I was able to. (Since then) I’ve been battling some stuff mechanically and a couple physical limitations, I haven’t been able to throw off-speed stuff for strikes.”

Bauer will start hitters off with a curve and come back with a cutter. When they don’t offer at either, now he’s behind 2-0 and has to throw a strike. The only pitch he’s felt comfortable throwing for strikes all year is his four-seam fastball, which explains why its usage is higher now than it has been since 2014, his first full year in the majors.

As the weather warms and Bauer corrects his mechanics, he believes his spin rate on his curve will naturally increase. When he’s pitching well, Bauer thinks his off-speed stuff is good enough that he can throw fewer curves and ultimately make himself more unpredictable. He’s not there yet. But his start Sunday against the Rays will indicate how far some film study and a few pitches in the bullpen have brought him.

(Photo: Hannah Foslien / Getty Images)

Lloyd: Why doesn’t Yandy Díaz lead the Indians in home runs? It’s complicated


By Jason Lloyd May 23, 2019 17
CLEVELAND — Five months later, the Indians and Yandy Díaz still have something in common. They’re both hurting these days.

While the Indians continue to drag around a slugging percentage ranked 28th in baseball, Díaz will miss the weekend series against his former team with a hand injury. It’s probably better for Indians fans he sits this one out. The trade to this point, by all measures, has been a disappointment.

Díaz’s nine homers would lead the Indians. His .839 OPS would rank third. Jake Bauers, the player the Indians received in the deal, trails him by 140 points in slugging percentage and nearly 170 in OPS.

But it isn’t quite that simple. It rarely ever is.

Bauers, who is four years younger, provides the positional flexibility that Díaz never did. Had Díaz been more inclined to play the outfield, this whole thing might have turned out differently. One current Indians player said Díaz essentially sealed his own fate here by resisting learning the outfield. There certainly appears to be some truth to that since Bauers’ primary position, at least for this season, has been left field. Díaz tried left field for one series two years ago, but it didn’t go well, and the idea was quickly scrapped.

With nowhere to play him on the infield — he wasn’t dislodging José Ramírez, Edwin Encarnación or Carlos Santana on the corners — the Indians could never create consistent at-bats for him outside of DH. If there was no mandate to trim payroll, a lineup that includes a rotation of Encarnación, Ramírez and Díaz at first, third and DH would’ve made sense, particularly since Jason Kipnis will likely be gone next season. But the $6 million they obtained in the Bauers/Díaz swap over the next two years helped cut the budget. It’s all part of the shell game the front office had to play last winter given the payroll constraints.

“I think we always felt that Yandy was a tremendous hitter,” Terry Francona said.

Francona reiterated Thursday he knew the power numbers would eventually come for Díaz. They have this year, despite none of the advanced metrics really changing. Díaz’s launch angle is about the same as last year, and his exit velocity has actually softened a bit. After a hot start to the season, Díaz had slumped to .194/.242/.355 in May before landing on the injured list.

Still … those nine homers stand out considering the Indians will enter the weekend about 100 runs behind the division-leading Twins. It’s also difficult even for those around Díaz to fully explain where the power is coming from, since all of the other metrics remain similar.

Rays manager Kevin Cash said no one within the organization has worked with Díaz on launch angle or stressed the importance of hitting the ball in the air. Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro previously served as the Indians’ assistant hitting coach and worked in the cage with Díaz extensively during their time together in Cleveland. Even he doesn’t see an appreciable difference.

“He’s laying off the same pitches, swinging at similar pitches,” Quatraro said. “I think maybe he’s hunting certain pitches.”

Five of the nine home runs have come off fastballs, and three others were sliders. It’s no surprise that seven of the nine pitches were also belt high or higher.

Cash, Quatraro and Díaz himself all agree on one thing: The consistent at-bats have certainly helped. Díaz knows he’ll be in the lineup every day with the Rays, something that was never assured in Cleveland. When he was asked Thursday whether the Indians gave him a fair chance, Díaz paused.

“Probably not as much as the Rays.”