Posts Tagged ‘rafael betancourt’
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Indians remember how to hit, forget how to pitch.June 7th, 2008
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First the good: the Cleveland Indians just completed a 2-2 series split against the Texas Rangers and managed to score 39 runs over the four games. That gives the Indians 40 runs over the first five games of June, which is six games faster than it took them to reach 40 runs in both April and May. In other words, the Indians are starting to score some runs.
Of course, scoring runs against Texas is nothing new. For anybody. The Rangers have the highest ERA in the Majors (5.09), and at home, it’s even worse (5.15). In other words, starting to score runs against Texas is like slump-busting with a prostitute; it may be a start, and it may make you feel better, but it’s nothing to be proud of.
That said, coming into the series, Indians hitters had accumulated a total of 155 extra-base hits over their first 56 games. That’s 2.76 extra-base hits per game. That’s: Awful. Anemic. Atrocious. Augh. (For comparison, the Indians averaged 3.34 extra-base hits per game over the past two seasons, ranking 8th in the majors.) However, the Tribe pounded out 18 extra-base hits during the Texas series, 13 of which were doubles. That’s an average of .5 more doubles per game during the series than the Tribe averages extra-base hits thus far in 2008; in other words, it’s either an anomaly or a good sign of things to come.
And then there’s the pitching. In May, Indians pitchers had a combined ERA of 3.12. So far in June: 9.21. Now, this is obviously a small sample size so far, but the truth is, it’s more than that: the Indians have given up four or more runs in eight consecutive games. During that span, the team ERA is 7.37. (For comparison, the Indians started May by only allowing four or more runs just twice in the first 11 games.) In other words, the pitching is beginning to regress to the mean.
Losing Fausto Carmona didn’t help either. Paul Byrd in the rotation instead of Jake Westbrook is not a plus. Calling up Scott Elarton (5.40 ERA), Tom Mastny (21.00 ERA), and Rick Bauer (27.00 ERA) haven’t seemed to work much. But the real difference this year is Rafael Betancourt. In 2008, he has pitched 25 innings and given up 17 runs. He gave up 13 runs in all of 2007. I’ll talk more about Betancourt in another post, but combine his numbers with Borowski (9.00 ERA), and Indians bullpen is just plain bad.
There’s no doubt the Indians have the potential to get back to the playoffs. As bad as they’ve played, they still only trail the Chicago White Sox by 6.5 games in the AL Central. If the hitting can round [the proverbial third-base] corner and the pitching doesn’t continue their recent nose-dive, the Indians can still win this thing.
In other words, it’s not time to give up yet.
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I Blame: Everyone.May 2nd, 2008
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Well, almost everyone.
It’s not often I’ll talk this much about a single game, but last night’s Indians 3-2 win against the Mariners in 11 innings had me pretty riled up. It was a classic game of who-wanted-it-less, where everyone tried their hardest to give the game away.
First, there was the listless Mariners offense against Paul Byrd. I know he’s pitching well of late, but: he’s Paul Byrd. The guy is almost as old as his fastball’s mph reading. He has so little stuff, he resorts to a double-windup to help throw guys off. He’s like a starting pitcher version of Joe Borowski. I mean, Wedge trusts Paul Byrd about as much as the public trusts Roger Clemens. Case in point: yesterday marked the second time Wedge pulled Byrd out of the game so far this year, while Byrd was throwing a shutout. You might say, what was his pitch count? I say: it was 78 pitches the first time, in an outing against the Red Sox on April 15th, and 92 pitches, which so far is his season high, last night against the Mariners. Byrd doesn’t have any injury concerns, the Tribe isn’t worried about fatigue, and Wedge isn’t worried about slowly building his arm strength up. Last year, in his first six starts, Byrd averaged 93 pitches per outing. This year, in his first six starts, he’s averaging 76 per outing. When a manager doesn’t believe in his pitcher even if he’s throwing well, that’s a bad sign; when an offense can’t produce against said pitcher, that’s even worse.
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Indians score 15 in rout…April 24th, 2008
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… but only needed 2 to win.
I hate to be picky, but after losing their last two games by scores of 2-1 and 3-0 to the Twins, it would have been nice to see some of those 15 runs spread out a little more evenly.
I last talked about how I was worried that this 2008 team would become the 2005 team incarnate, but maybe I spoke too soon. What if they are more like the 2006 Indians team?
In 2006, the Indians finished 78-84. Seemingly, they were an underachieving squad, as many pundits picked the team to win the Wild Card, or at the very least compete with around 85-90 wins. In hindsight, many national columnists stated that they were merely victims of bad luck, as their run differential for the season was +88, meaning they scored 88 more runs during the season than they gave up. Of course, bad luck was easy to cite, because according to their Pythagorean Expectation, the Indians should have finished with around 89 wins.
The real reason the Indians underachieved: poor record in one-run games (18-26), coupled with inconsistent offense and pitching. Rather than researching how often the Indians had “inconsistent offense and pitching” in 2006, I decided to take the easy route and find a small sample size that summed up the entire season: April 14-20, 2006. The Indians played a four game series on the road against Detroit, followed by a three game series on the road against Baltimore. During the two series, they managed to win 7-2, 10-2, and 15-1, and lose 5-1, 1-0, 18-9, and 9-4, for a record of 3-4. Total runs scored: 46. Total runs given up: 38. Pythagorean Expectation: 4-3 record. Sure, it’s an incredibly small sample size, but believe me when I say it’s dead on.
This year, we may be looking at a similar situation. Before the 15-1 win against the Royals, the Indians Pythagorean Expectation was 8 wins; instead, they had an ever-so-slightly-unlucky 7 wins. Not bad. However, after the offensive explosion yesterday, their Pythagorean expectation changed to 10, which would not only put the Indians at exactly .500, but probably into second place in the division. Instead, they are sitting on an 8-12 record for 4th in the division.
Sure, it’s early, and I’m probably cherry-picking from a small sample size, but it’s not unreasonable to see that an unfortunate pattern may be developing: close losses, some blowouts wins, inconsistency (sorry, hate to sound like Joe Morgan), and a lot of mediocrity. In other words, good numbers on paper, but nothing to show for it. Based on what we’ve seen so far, here’s what I think will happen:
The Indians offense will be good. Seriously, how could they not? With Sizemore at the top of the lineup, Dellucci playing out of his mind, Hafner, um, taking lots of walks when he isn’t grounding out weakly to first (actually, he’s been hitting a lot more opposite-field line drives lately, which is a really good sign), Victor just sitting back and ripping opposite-field singles, Peralta eventually rounding back to a .270 hitter with 25 homers, Garko having a ridiculously good eye with two strikes, Asdrubal keeping the clubhouse loose with his anal-bead necklace, Gutierrez heating up with the weather, and Blake, um, well he had a good night against the Royals. The point is, the Indians hitters will have their stats at the end of the year, and the offense will be among the tops in the league. (In fact, after last night’s win, they improved four spots in team slugging in the American League, three spots in runs, two spots in OBP, and one in OPS. Their batting average jumped 11 points, but they still suck in that department.)
The Starters will be really good. Despite CC’s struggles, the Indians currently lead the AL in quality starts with 13. If CC can build off of his strong start against the Royals (6 innings, 11 k’s, no runs, only 4 hits, of which like 3 of them were bloop singles), the Tribe staff will be the best in the league. Forget the 1-2 punch of CC and Carmona; throw in the revived Cliff Lee, and the Indians 1-2-3 is as good as any in years. Plus, Westbrook is off to a strong start, and provided he can bounce back from his left intercostal strain (whatever that is?), well, the Indians (warning: super-vague prediction alert) will win a lot of games.
The bullpen won’t be really good. We saw it against the Twins in the extra-innings loss on April 20th: with Betancourt as the closer, the bullpen is in trouble. (To recap, it was tied 1-1 after nine innings and the Indians lost the game in the 10th when Rafael Perez, who had already pitched 2 innings, gave up the winning hit with two men on). Forget for a moment that all three studs from last year’s bullpen are struggling, which is already tough enough to deal with. Moving Betancourt to the closer role puts a lot more pressure on the guys beneath him. If Joe Borowski were still pitching, Betancourt would have been in the game for the tenth inning, instead of a gassed Perez. Unfortunately, Wedge was “saving” Betancourt until the Indians could take a lead. Never mind that they gave up a run and lost the game before they could take said lead, the real problem here is the best reliever the Indians have was sitting on the bench during the most important time of the game. If Borowski doesn’t come back and Betancourt stays as the closer, I can see the Indians blowing a lot more games just like this.
What does this all mean? Well, it means pretty much what I’ve already said: blowout wins from great starting pitching and contagious hitting will be separated by close losses caused by a depleted bullpen and inconsistent hitting (and also Paul Byrd, who seems to be one of those guys who pitch just well enough to lose). In other words: not good.
Hopefully, the 15-1 win against the Royals is a sign that the 2008 Indians are back and ready for a strong season. If not, prepare for the worst: 2006 all over again.
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2005, here we come?April 22nd, 2008
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Hey, so, um… I hate to say it, but: the Indians kind of suck.
Cliff Lee looks great, and Carmona is, well, Faust-astic, and V-Mart looks like a Tony Gwynn reincarnate. But other than that? It’s hard to know where to start.
How about: team batting. As of April 21st, the Indians rank last in team batting average (.235), last in slugging percentage (.342), eleventh in on-base percentage (.326), and predictably, twelfth in runs scored (79) and on-base plus slugging (.678). Six of their regulars are hitting under .230, and three of them are hitting below .200. Well, at least the Tribe can pitch, right?
Oh wait, my bad: tenth in ERA (4.47), eleventh in batting average against (.272), and twelfth in OPS (.773) and WHIP (1.47). So no, they can’t pitch. I’ve already discussed CC Sabathia and Joe Borowski’s troubles, but considering that the top three relievers from 2007 - Betancourt, Perez, and Lewis - have a combined ERA of nearly 5.00, it’s no wonder the Indians are struggling.
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From Cy Cy Sabathia to Sigh, Sigh, Sabathia.April 17th, 2008
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I was hoping it didn’t have to come to this. I avoided writing about him as long as I could. But after tonight’s game against the Detroit Tigers, I have no choice: (warning: understatement alert!) CC Sabathia is struggling. See, one bad start is a mere blip. Two consecutive poor starts is an aberration. Three might be a pattern. But four? Uh, oh.
First, I’m gonna get the homer in me out of the way: I love the big man. He had me at “17-5″ as a rookie in 2001. I’ve never seen his weight as a problem (it’s not like he’s 300 lbs and 6′2″; he’s 6′7″ for crying out loud!), I always said he’d be a true number one ace (a lot of people in Cleveland disagreed), and I love his attitude, demeanor, and off-field character. If there’s a pitcher you want to pay $20 million a year for, it’s CC Sabathia. Okay, glad I got that out of the way. Read more
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Joe Blow.April 15th, 2008
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I think Joe Borowski is Italian because he loves feeding hitters meatballs.
First, let me fume for a few moments… OK, I will try to compose myself. I was “lucky” enough to get front row seats to Monday night’s game against the Red Sox. I sat along the first base line, and apparently, I was on TV several times. Yay me. Of course, a front row seat to the Indians game also meant a front row seat to Joe Borowski’s arsenal of 82 and 83 mph fastballs.
I wish I were liveblogging to prove how right I was, but I pretty much called the entire inning. I know, everybody says they “knew that would happen,” and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to foretell the happenings of a right-handed, sub-85-ostrich-egg-tosser. But when Lugo started the inning with a double, I turned to my girlfriend and said, “He blew it. Crisp will bunt him over and Pedroia will hit a sac fly.” Of course, that was pretty obvious.