A quick look at Cleveland’s spring stars
INDIANS RADIO: TRIBE '08 PREVIEW
Spring training gives most major leaguers an opportunity to shake of the rust, and get back into the swing of a long season. It also gives some of the ‘have-nots’ to become a factor again. Of course, it can work both ways.
Here’s a look at some Indians who are making a splash this spring training:
Grady Sizemore: Sizemore belted two home runs, to continue his torrid spring. He has gone 7 for 14, with a double, triple, and the two homers. Even more telling may be his 3 walks, and 3 K’s. If he cuts down his K’s this year, while continuing to walk as much as he did last season (his 101 walks were his most), he can have an elite season. We know he’s a superstar, but he could be on the verge of become one of the elite four or five players in the league.
Franklin Gutierrez: Gutz is batting a solid .412, with two doubles, a dinger, and 4 RBI. He has 2 walks, and no K’s. The key to this spring has been Gutz showing a bit more ability hitting righties. Combine that with his above-average fielding, and you could have the suprise of the Indians’ season.
Travis Hafner: Pronk seems to have regained his eye. His rolled out a .400 average this spring, with 3 doubles and 6 RBI. Pronk hasn’t knocked one out of the park as of yet, but that should come. I haven’t seen one at-bat in which Hafner’s looked like he was overswinging, and he seems to be hitting to all fields once again. The return of Pronk will bring some serious pain to the American League.
Ben Francisco: Francisco is batting over .300 with a dinger, and has done everything anyone could ask to make this club. I’ve led the charge in the ‘Keep Ben Francisco’ campaign this season, thinking that the kid is a better option than Dell-Michaels. I do agree that there is a lot going against him. The Indians are only planning on keeping four outfielders. Sizemore and Gutierrez are locks in center and right field. Dellucci and Michaels seem to be as well. That leaves Francisco as the odd man out. Taking into account Shin-Soo Choo being out of options, and it’s another step back. Choo should be back by June at the latest. Here’s hoping the Indians don’t make the mistake of burying this kid’s desire.
Ryan Garko: I don’t buy that Garko is another Paul Sorrento. Sorrento was what he was. Garko can be a lot more, if he’s selective. He’s batting .333 this spring, with a homer, 5 RBI, 4 walks and a K. Those are decent numbers for a guy that in general, heats up as the season goes. Like Gutierrez, I think Garko is going to surprise this year.
Josh Barfield: Barfield is exploding this spring, trying to earn his job back. He’s batting a torrid .360, with a home run, and four walks. Barfield has a .448 OBP. For those of you with visions of Barfield’s .240 average, and .270 OBP of last season, those numbers might be music to your ears. Barfield is really making a case to make this team. Unfortunately, since he can only play one postion, and with Tribe management preaching that he needs to start, I don’t see him starting with the Indians. At the same time, I find it doubtful that Barfield isn’t with this club before the end of April. Remember, this kid seemed to be a steal for the Indians when they made the deal. He’s still that player. I know it’s easy to say they should just move Peralta to third, but I don’t see the Indians rolling that route, yet.
Jake Westbrook: Westie started the spring off with a sore arm. Since then, he’s looking like the guy that took the field in 2006. In his 4 innings, he’s only given up a hit, a walk, and struck out 5. He’s been nothing, if not spectacular. Could Westbrook be ready to take on the de facto aces?
C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona: After getting shelled, both aces were nearly unhittable in their second start. Sabathia threw again today, and looked good, and both seem to be gliding right now. No doubt, the Indians are really looking to save their arms early in the year. Expect these two to come out firing.
Cliff Lee: Lee has been erratic, and I still think he’s a ticking timebomb of behavior issues. With that said, he showed me something today in his three innings. For the first time in over a year, I saw Cliff Lee trusting pitches other than a fastball. He used a slider to get out of a bases-loaded jam, and was throwing all of his pitches. Trust them all Cliff, and you’ll be the guy that signed the three year deal, not the guy that lost his job.
Scott Elarton: Elarton has a 2.16 ERA in over 8 innings of work, tops for the Tribe in spring training. Elarton is fighting for the 7th slot in the bullpen, and just might have it locked up if he continues being as lock down as he’s been. It also gives the Indians another potential starter in a pinch.
Jensen Lewis: He’s going to be rolling with Kobayashi in the 6th and 7th inning, and his sub-2 ERA gives the Tribe thoughts of a potential closer-in-waiting. This could be the guy that brings back the closer mentality to Cleveland.
Masa Kobayashi: This guy will be alternating with Lewis as the setup to the setup. He also has an opportunity to step up as the closer should Borowski fail. What Masa has that many didn’t talk about, was moxie. You can tell this guy is all business on the mound.
Rafael Betancourt: He’s just as lockdown in spring training, as he was last season. He’s the best set-up guy in baseball, and will continue to be.
Andy Marte needs to be cut. He’s hitting .200, and made two errors today. Hint to the Indians’ management: if you can’t hit or field, you can’t play. Figure out a way to get Barfield up to the big club.
Today, DiaTribe’s Paul Cousineau, one of the best bloggers in Tribe-ville, tackles the fifth starter battle. He claims to plead the fifth, but in reality brings it to a conclusion that Cliff Lee is the favorite.
Cousineau on Lee’s performance today against the Tigers:
The most encouraging aspect of the outing is that Lee posted a few strikeouts, hopefully serving notice that he was able to locate his fastball, thus allowing him to throw his secondary breaking pitches. The problem that we saw last year with Lee as he unraveled was that he couldn’t locate his fastball, resulting in his inability to get ahead in the count. Whether or not Lee, who has often been painted as churlish and resistant to coaching or suggestion, truly has been able to rectify the problem will go a long way to determining his future with the franchise.
I hope Paul is right, and Lee has worked through his problems. It will only make the Indians a better club.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 11:03 pm and is filed under Ben Francisco, Jensen Lewis, Cliff Lee, Masa Kobayashi, Pronk, DiaTribe, Paul Cousineau, Scott Elarton, Franklin Gutierrez, Rafael Betancourt, C.C. Sabathia, Andy Marte, Josh Barfield, Grady Sizemore, James Pete, Fausto Carmona, Jake Westbrook, Travis Hafner, Ryan Garko.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
THE AUTHOR
RECENT ARTICLES BY DIVISION RIVALS
ARCHIVE
SPONSORS
Online Seats
Jacobs Field Info Indians Tickets
Ticket Specialists
Cleveland Indians Tickets Cleveland Cavaliers Tickets
Tickets4U
Cleveland Indians Tickets All Star Game Cleveland Browns Tickets
Coast to Coast Tickets
Cleveland Indians Tickets Cleveland Cavaliers Tickets Cleveland Browns Tickets NASCAR Tickets Online Event Tickets Broker
6 Responses to “A quick look at Cleveland’s spring stars”
March 12th, 2008 at 6:44 am
I am totally on board with dumping Marte! I am happy with Shopppach for Crisp. The rest of that trade just didn’t pan out for either team. As they say in Bull Durham, “Bad trades are a part of baseball.”
Lee, however, I am very leery of. I just don’t like trusting a head case to our rotation. I would be perfectly happy with Sowers or Laffey. At least they listen to coaches! It is time Lee follows Milton Bradley into the sunset.
My advice to the Tribe…. Package up Marte, Lee, and Dellucci (and his .118 average) and get what ever you can for them!
This would give a spot to Francisco until Choo comes back, and give you options for a way to get Barfield some at bats in the majors and reward pitchers that showed some hard work!
March 12th, 2008 at 8:39 am
You know…the thing with Lee is that he is a head case. The problem is that he has this dependency on a fast ball…always has. Why? When it’s on, he’s good. When it’s on, and he trusts his offspeed stuff, he’s a little better than good. When it’s off, and he trusts his offspeed stuff…he’s good (rare). When it’s off, and he refuses to believe it…which is often…he’s not just bad, but really bad.
Now…as far as him working hard…I don’t think that’s the issue. I think he works hard, but not always what people in the Tribe organization want him to work on. Yesterday…he was throwing the slider effectively to get out of jams…using it as an out pitch. This is the pitch he was working on before his ab issues last spring. Many thought it was a pitch that could take him to the next level…but he didn’t have the time in spring to continue to work on it. You add that slider as an out pitch, with his variety of fastballs and movement, and if he trusts his circle change…
He could be a surprise. Imagine if we get the guy that finished fourth in the Cy Young voting three years ago. That would be huge…
March 14th, 2008 at 1:30 am
The annoying thing about the Marte-Phillips parallel is that the Indians have made the same mistake twice, and this case is more egregious.
In both cases, the Indians (a) acquired a can’t-miss prospect who didn’t immediately break through, so they (b) gave the job to a journeyman veteran and (c) sent the kid to AAA, where he burned through his options as his play deteriorated.
While that was happening, (d) the Indians re-signed the veteran while (e) declining to trade the kid.
When (f) he was finally out of options, they decided to try to make him a utility player and (g) when the kid didn’t really take to the notion, (h) they traded him for zilch.
The difference between the two players is that one can at least defend the Indians about Phillips. He did get a shot– he played 130+ games and 430 at-bats in Cleveland, with over 100 games coming in a year (2003). His .543 OPS was over 50 points lower than Josh Barfield’s 2007– he looked absolutely awful. Ronnie Belliard did play pretty well for two years and Phillips mouthed off when they sent him to Buffalo. You can legitimately claim that Phillips had a shot and blew it.
Marte has played only 70 games and 221 at-bats (over two years), and the guys they used instead (Aaron Boone and then Casey Blake) were horrible and dead average (respectively).
In August of 2005, Phillips gave an interview where he said that he knew he’d never get a chance to make in Cleveland– that all he wanted to do was to get to another club so he could start fresh.
Marte doesn’t have Phillips’s cockiness– he’s an introvert who keeps everything to himself– but it’s obvious that he’s already closed the book on his Cleveland career too. It would be great if he had the samurai warrior “I’ll force you guys to play me” attitude, but not many people do. I’ve had consulting assignments at half a dozen businesses that were folding or downsizing and most of the staff (once they knew what was coming) sleepwalked through their days, waiting for the axe.
It’s no sin to make a trade that doesn’t pan out, but it’s inexcusable to compound that unfortunate event by not taking the appropriate corrective action. You smoke a little crack and acquire Jason Michaels and David Dellucci to play left– that’s bad, but not unforgivable. Holding onto them while you let Shin-soo Choo and Ben Francisco depart is a second mistake that can’t be defended effectively.
Actually, I don’t think either of those guys are the answer to the problem, but there’s little doubt that they’re each about as good as Michaels and very possibly better than Dellucci (at this point of his career).
A related question would “What, exactly, is being gained by having Aaron Laffey, Jeremy Sowers and Cliff Lee compete for a job?” You have three options– a kid who had a nifty part of a year, a young player who had one good year and one awful one and a veteran who is one of the most inconsistent players in baseball.
I wouldn’t just hand any guy a job (especially not when Scott Elarton has collected his money, departed The Dead Zone and is back to pitching well), but where is the reward for pitching pretty well in a pennant race?
This spring, Laffey (nine walks in four innings) hasn’t been able to buy a strike and it is very likely due to the competition. He seems to be aiming the ball, trying to make every pitch perfect, and it ain’t working. At this rate, he’s heading back to AAA.
Lee, meanwhile, has reminded everyone that he is capable of pitching well when he follows instructions, uses all his pitches, changes speeds and throws to spots. Whether he’ll continue to do that, no one knows (we have five full years of evidence indicating that he won’t).
People often forget that baseball is a job to the players– and that they can and do behave just like the people you work with. Some guys come early and stay late, some guys think they’re better than they are, some are convinced the boss has it in for them– and all of that affects their performance.
Part of management’s job is creating an environment where employees are likely to excel, so that a guy doesn’t psych himself out and underperform. The Indians have not been great about that– Garko, Shoppach and Carmona are three guys who owe their positions on the club partly to some lucky accidents. (It is even acceptable to wonder where Grady Sizemore would be if Juan Gonzalez hadn’t blown out his body after one at-bat in 2005.)
After 2007– a season that was made possible partly by a string of young players who salvaged the year by stepping into bad situations– I really had hoped to see something other than “let’s play the usual suspects”. I’m not, at this point, seeing that going on very much.
March 16th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Hi Geoff!
A number of items:
Marte/Phillips — It’s Marte’s fault, not the organization’s. Phillips had an attitude that got him in Wedge’s doghouse and that got him dealt. Marte, another blue chipper, just hasn’t gotten it done. Blue chippers do that sometimes.
Left Field — The Indians are playing the platoon they have settled on because I’d guess they’re leery of having the corners patrolled by a combination of unproven kids. That’s sound thinking. But Gutierrez has looked good this spring while proving to be a hard worker who listens to his coaches. Francisco made a nice running catch deep in center today and he shows a quick bat, good glove and potential pop in his bat, what’s not to like? He’s done nothing but again prove he’s done with AAA and deserves not only to make this team, but to PLAY.
The 5th starter — My guess is that Tribe deep thinkers hope that Cliff Lee has a strong start while Laffey, Sowers and Miller also begin strong in Buffalo. While it would be tempting to ride a hot Lee, it’s his hot head that the Indians have grown weary of. If they have a viable replacement in the wings, they could then deal Lee in a package with Marte, Delucci, Michaels and Choo (or Jhonny Peralta) for that long-wanted power LF or 3B bat.
Back to Barfield, I know you don’t like him and you’ve backed up that notion with plenty of statistics, but the guy is a player. He, too, has shown a solid attitude when benched last year and seems to be handling that and the idea of possibly beginning the year in Buffalo with a great deal of class. He’s young and talented, and I look forward to seeing him teaming with Cabrera up the middle for years to come. He’s the one, not Marte, that I fear the Tribe may give up on prematurely.
March 20th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Only in your mind, John, could a player with 221 at-bats as an Indian– with a .668 OPS– be said to have “not gotten the job done”.
That you can close by telling me that a player who got 420 at-bats, with a .549 OPS as an Indians– twice as much playing time, 25% lower production– and is being run out of the lineup by two better players, “I fear the Indians may give up on [him] prematurely” indicates the level of bias.
I haven’t looked at the spring training numbers because I know managers never pay attention to them, and I’ll just drive myself nuts when I see a guy who’s having a bad spring make the club over a guy doing well.
But I took a look at them today– wanted to see how Aaron Laffey was doing– and noticed that Josh Barfield– whose .278 average has been talked up right and left– has a .739 OPS. He has a whopping four walks in 36 at-bats, plus one double and one homer.
One walk every ten at-bats is dead average for a major leaguer. I’m supposed to turn handsprings because Barfield is able to achieve adequacy when the games don’t count? I notice that he also has ten strikeouts in 36 at-bats– which projects to 138 in 500 at-bats–
Meanwhile, Andy Marte, whom everyone has said is having a horrible, terrible awful spring, has a .919 OPS. That’s two doubles, four homers and eight walks in 38 at-bats He has more walks (8) than strikeouts (7).
Marte has nine runs scored and ten RBIs– tied for the team lead in one category and second by one in the other– and I haven’t heard it once.
It’s obvious that everyone in town has written the guy off because they don’t like him, and I’ve made my peace with it. My position: Marte can play– the guy is a star– and they’re frittering him away.
When he goes somewhere else and blossoms, it’ll be entertaining to listen to the people who are currently sure that he can’t play start inventing reasons for some miraculous change– as they have about Phillips.
By the way, Phillips actually has a much worse attitude now than he did when he came up. Then he was a cocky kid, with a good sense of humor. Now he’s suspicious and hypersensitive to perceived slights– a guy with a grudge, convinced that the Indians tried to deliberately destroy his career and out to make sure nobody disses him again. He made a federal case when his manager asked him to bat fifth or sixth last year.
But, because he’s hitting, he’s become a hard-nosed ballplayer.
The results don’t count and Barfield is hitting some singles, so he has a wonderful attitude. We’ll see what it looks like if he goes to the bench or AAA.
March 20th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Some bias? I didn’t realize that Barfield is my brother, or is it that he’s promised me part of his salary . . . the only bias is that I think he’s going to be a better professional baseball player than Andy Marte (the star). My opinion, and that’s all it is, is that Barfield will end up being the superior player.
“Only in your mind, John, could a player with 221 at-bats as an Indian– with a .668 OPS– be said to have “not gotten the job done”.
OK, Geoff, why didn’t they keep him up last year then? Those short-sighted Tribe management doofs. If he was so good, then wouldn’t he have made an appearance later when he got healthy? As for tossing out numbers, Marte plays 3B and Barfield 2B — the positions require a different tool set and offensive expectations.
You love Jhonny Peralta, Andy Marte and their OPSes, and I prefer an infield featuring Cabrera at short and Barfield at second. These observations are made from watching them play, not from digging up every possible statistic.
Don’t tell me you don’t consider spring training numbers and then go on to talk for three paragraphs about why Marte’s spring is good and Barfield’s is poor. I happen to totally agree with you that spring numbers are worthless, but hearing that Barfield has been working on hitting the ball to right field and being more selective is encouraging.
Leave a comment