Based on the hockey standings I believe we still have just 4 points.
Judging from the little bit that I know of hockey, I am guessing that 4
pts a week into the season isn't a great record. What makes it a little
more unbearable is that we dropped two straight to the White Sox. In
any sport the most important thing is to have a winning record in your
own division. We couldn't be the White Sox at all last season, and thus
far we are not off to a good start. I can accept that the Tigers would
give us problems, but if we can beat the Royals, Twins, and White Sox by
maybe a few more games than the Tigers, we could get an advantage on
them in that regard.
Anyways onto the series. The first game was on Monday night, and we
played basically our entire bench which was Aaron Cunningham, Jose
Lopez, Lou Marson, and Jason Donald. We didn't win that game, and we
didn't put up many runs at all. Jose Lopez and Jason Kipnis were the
stars of the offense, because they each hit a HR, but that was about it.
Josh Tomlin got rocked early by allowing 4 runs in the first inning,
however he calmed himself down to muster a decent outing if you ignore
that the first inning ever happened. He should be a #3 pitcher in most
rotations, but before he can solidify himself in the majors, he needs to
figure out how to prevent the long ball. Last season his ERA was only
high because of the solo HRs he allowed, and this season is starting
more of the same. Most guys don't square up to get consecutive hits off
of him, he doesn't walk many people, but when they get a hold of one of
his pitches they don't seem to land for a while. I don't know how you
prevent homeruns, but my guess is that with the movement of his stuff,
rather than be off a bit by throwing balls, he is off by hanging
pitches, which MLBers just seem to tee off on.
Game 2 was postponed due to snow.
Game 3 came and went with a 10-6 loss. The boxscore is below. The
positives are that we scored 6 runs, so the offense may be coming
around. I am going to be negative nancy and shatter that hope if you
think that 6 runs means the offense is coming around. Look real closely
at that boxscore. What do you see? I see exactly what I saw while
watching the game, Travis Hafner and Shelley Duncan had great games
offensively. The rest of the team did not. A-Cab does show that he got
two hits, but that double was because the White Sox miscommunicated on a
routine pop fly between the RF and 2B, and then he scored on a wild
pitch, hence why there are only 5 RBIs instead of 6. Oh, and all 5 RBIs
are from Hafner and Duncan. Pronk cranked his homer into the second
level which was awesome. First pitch of the inning, gone. Here is a
fun stat, with runners in scoring position or RISP if you will, the
Tribe went a blistering 1-11. Look who got At-Bats too, Brantley, Choo
(thrice), Santana (twice), A-Cab, Duncan, etc. All went 0-for with only
Pronk ripping a double down the line to score two. Pronk got to second,
so you know it was a solid hit. I still cringed as he was rounding
first, bad things happen when sliding into 2nd, and since he had two
hits we really can't lose him right now. Hanahan had some solid liners
for hits, and he is really swinging that bat well. Kotchman was our
other player with a hit, but that wasn't a rope or anything, it was a
blooper that magically fell, but it legitimately fell, not like A-Cabs
double.
Masterson is allowed to have an off day, we couldn't win when he allowed
1 run thru 8 innings, so having a bad start today isn't the end of the
world. Overall I am not worried about the pitching or the bullpen. It
was cold, wet, and both teams struggled getting a grip on the ball. I
am concerned about the offense. Let's run thru the boxscore one more
time. Our leadoff hitter has a .059avg and a .238 OBP. That's setting
the table. Our 2-4 hitters don't crack a .250 average, but I will say
that Choo and Santana are walking every chance they get as they both
have an OBP of .400. With 2 hits yesterday, Pronk is now one of our
team leaders in batting at .267avg. Shelley Duncan though had 3 hits,
so he is ahead of Pronk by ripping the ball at a .294 average, and
really from an OBP perspective our 3-6 hitters are getting on base a
lot. The lowest OBP for them is Hafner at .389. So what is going wrong
if they get on base a lot? Well then comes Casey Kotchman. Who's OBP
matches his average at .095. He just isn't very good offensively. He
doesn't strike out which is great, but he also doesn't walk or hit the
ball hard...ever. I guess I look at the risk/reward for the Indians if
this doesn't improve by mid-May. Canzler and LaPorta aren't as polished
defensively, but they aren't liabilities in the field, and can play
multiple positions, and they are both right handed. They may not hit
.350 and they will strike out, but I am willing to bet they can each hit
better than .095, get the ball out of the infield, and have power
potential. Kotchman, thus far hits it as far as some of my little
leaguers do, and even then I am not sure who actually hit the ball
harder. He has at least 12 outs that are slow tappers to the pitcher or
some other easy double play candidate. LaPorta/Canzler may not be
building blocks of this franchise, but they may surprise you if they
ever get the playing time to get some confidence, and really I am just
not impressed at all with Kotchman. He is my black sheep of this team.
And yes I am fully aware that right behind Kotchman is Jason Kipnis who
is also hitting .094, but at least he has drawn a few walks and has some
legitamite RBIs this season. Kipnis and a few other guys have hit the
ball hard, but it just hasn't found a gap. That is ok. The old saying
is that if you hit the ball hard, eventually they will fall, and most of
the team is starting to heat up in that department, Kotchman bothers me
because out of his 19 at-bats this season maybe 2 have been hard hits.
Our next game is Friday against the Royals, as it will be Luke Hochevar
vs. Derek Lowe. The Royals no longer have Wilson Betemit or Melky
Cabrera, so we should fair much better against them this season.
Go TRIBE
Hitters AB R H RBI BB SO #P AVG OBP SLG
M Brantley CF 4 0 0 0 1 0 14 .059 .238 .118
A Cabrera SS 4 1 2 0 1 0 17 .217 .280 .391
S Choo RF 3 1 0 0 2 2 28 .167 .400 .167
C Santana C 3 1 0 0 2 2 25 .211 .400 .526
T Hafner DH 5 2 2 3 0 2 15 .267 .389 .533
S Duncan LF 5 1 3 2 0 0 25 .294 .400 .529
C Kotchman 1B 5 0 1 0 0 0 13 .095 .095 .095
J Kipnis 2B 4 0 0 0 0 2 19 .095 .174 .238
J Hannahan 3B 4 0 2 0 0 1 18 .313 .353 .500
Totals 37 6 10 5 6 9 174
BATTING
2B: A Cabrera (1, J Danks); T Hafner (1, J Danks)
HR: T Hafner (1, 4th inning off J Danks 0 on, 0 Out); S Duncan (1, 7th
inning off W Ohman 1 on, 1 Out)
RBI: T Hafner 3 (4), S Duncan 2 (2)
S: J Kipnis
Indians RISP: 1-11 (M Brantley 0-1, C Santana 0-2, S Choo 0-3, J
Hannahan 0-1, S Duncan 0-1, A Cabrera 0-1, T Hafner 1-1, C Kotchman 0-1)
Team LOB: 11
FIELDING
E: J Hannahan (2, throw); C Kotchman (1, catch)
DP: 1 (J Hannahan-J Kipnis-C Kotchman).
Cleveland Indians
Pitchers IP H R ER BB SO HR PC-ST ERA
J Masterson
(L, 0-1) 5.0 8 5 3 1 2 0 94-58 2.77
D Wheeler 0.1 2 3 3 1 0 1 22-10 13.50
R Perez 0.2 1 2 2 1 0 1 10-5 6.00
J Gomez 2.0 0 0 0 0 3 0 34-19 0.00
J Asencio 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 0 13-9 4.50
Totals 9.0 11 10 8 3 6 2 173-101
PITCHING
WP: J Masterson
IBB: P Konerko (By R Perez)
First-pitch strikes/Batters faced: J Masterson 14/25; D Wheeler 1/4; R
Perez 2/4; J Gomez 4/6; J Asencio 1/3
Called strikes-Swinging strikes-Foul balls-In Play strikes: J Masterson
12-6-18-22; D Wheeler 4-1-2-3; R Perez 1-1-0-3; J Gomez 6-5-5-3; J
Asencio 3-3-1-2
Ground Balls-Fly Balls: J Masterson 5-8; D Wheeler 1-0; R Perez 2-0; J
Gomez 3-0; J Asencio 1-1
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