The AL and NL Cy Young awards will be announced today around 3:45 PM on MLB Network. Here’s a little list of reasons why Corey Kluber should triumph over Seattle’s Felix Hernandez and become the first Indians pitcher since Cliff Lee in 2008 to bring home the hardware.
WINS – Kluber 18, Hernandez 15
K/9 – Kluber 10.27, Hernandez 9.46
Left On Base % – Kluber 78.6%, Hernandez 77%
WAR (Wins Above Replacement) – Kluber 7.3 (first in MLB among qualified pitchers), Hernandez 6.2
2013 Cy Young Winners: Max Scherzer (6.4 WAR), Clayton Kershaw (6.6)
Highest WAR for a SP since Roy Halladay in 2011 (8.1)
FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching…basically an ERA that only takes into account what a pitcher can control) Kluber 2.35, Hernandez 2.56
Complete Games – Kluber 3, Hernandez 0
Strikeouts – Kluber 269, Hernandez 248
Kluber’s curveball was the nastiest in the majors in 2014, a 21.5 pitch value from Fangraphs (Hernandez’ was 12.6).
Kluber needed only 85 pitches to record a complete game shutout against, you guessed it, Felix Hernandez and the Mariners on July 30 (Hernandez – 7 IP, 2 ER)
This was a real thing that happened during one of his starts
It’s too bad Mike Trout exists, or your Cleveland Indians would be sweeping the two biggest awards in the league. I’ll be stunned if Klubedaddy doesn’t win this one today. Pay the man!
Here’s Part 1 from yesterday. Today we’ll cover some things Coach Matta must do to succeed, superlatives and predictions.
5 Things Thad Matta Must Do
1. Play Kam Williams early and often
The lack of depth in the backcourt could really sting the Buckeyes if D’Angelo Russell struggles to adjust to the college game. While Williams has the same about of game experience as Russell, he’s been around for a year. Practiced for a year. He knows his coaches, their system and his teammates. He’s an extremely valuable piece to this squad and Matta has to make sure he gets as much experience as possible in the early games. Hell he may end up as the starting 2 if Russell does indeed stumble out of the blocks. Either way, Matta needs to get him comfortable and scoring by the time Big 10 play rolls around at the end of December.
2. Push the ball in transition
Talked about this a little in Part 1 of the preview. I just threw up in my mouth thinking about our half court offense last year. Russell and Lee will help as polished scorers, but it will take time. Don’t expect us running like a well oiled machine right out of the gate. That’s one reason why we need to make a concentrated effort to get buckets in transition – it gets the underclassmen’s blood flowing, momentum swings in the right direction and it points the almighty points on the scoreboard.
Matta also needs to take advantage of this teams’ athleticism. We all know what Slam Thompson can do, and so does ESPN. Scott and Russell can run and finish. Lee will be able to blow by his heftier counterparts. And for a 5, Amir Williams can get up and down the floor better than most (again, when he wants to). Then when we go small and you add Loving, Kam and some of the freshman in the mix? Oh lawd
3. Settle on a rotation quickly
Is our first move going small or McDonald off the bench? Who will play the point when Scott needs a blow? What freshmen will get the most minutes? Loving and Williams will obviously get the lions share of the PT off the bench. But depending on what role Matta determines Tate and KBD will be able to play, this could potentially be a 10 man rotation. A good problem to have, and one we haven’t had to deal with much lately. Obviously need to figure out who plays well together, our go-to lineups for buckets and stops, who can play different positions to create matchup problems (Loving, Thompson at the 4) and who can’t (Tate at the 2).
4. Get Amir Williams touches early
I don’t know if it’s an attitude thing with Amir. It’s certainly a motivational thing. When he gets touches early, scores a couple buckets, throws down a couple hammers, he seems to be more inclined to hustle. Look, I want to like him. I really really do. He has the potential to be a great defender. If getting him the ball and stroking his ego a little bit early in games gives us that rim protector for the rest of the game, let’s do it.
5. Stop skids
Easy for me to say, right? This one is sort of two fold – skids within individual games and skids in the schedule. With a freshman as your go-to scorer and quite a few underclassmen in the rotation, Matta needs to make a conscious effort to stay on top of the momentum meter during each game. If that means taking a timeout a little earlier than he normally would, he needs to pull the trigger. Last year he could count on Craft to calmly walk the ball up, get the team under control and run the shot clock down to one before launching a shot that had no chance. This year, not so much. He’s gone. He’s gone and he’s never coming back. I don’t think Scott will be the verbal leader Aaron was, and he has more inexperience around him.
The 4 game losing (ended up losing 5 of 6) streak in early January last year was a killer, no doubt about it. Only once during the year did a loss not turn into a losing streak (well twice but I’m not counting the 48-39 shit show in Champaign). No offense to Minnesota, Nebraska or Penn State, but the Buckeyes need to beat the teams they’re supposed to beat. Add Rutgers and Maryland to that list this year. The Big 10 is a meat grinder and I know it’s nearly impossible to not have a slip up or two, but another streak like they had in January last year would be extremely detrimental to this Craft-less group.
Superlatives
MVP – D’Angelo Russell
He’s gotta be good. He’s gotta. The Buckeyes need a scorer in the worst way. Lee, Kam, Slam, Loving, they can all find the bucket. But if Russell can do what he’s supposed to and be the focal point of the offense, they’ll all be able to do it quite a bit more.
6th Man of the Year – Kam Williams
For reasons I’ve already beat you in the head with, Williams role this year is going to be extremely important. If he can emerge as a legitimate scoring threat in the Big 10, maybe even win a starting job, the problem of guard depth Matta faces gets just a little bit easier.
Rookie of the Year – Anthony Lee
Sorry buddies, but Ichiro already set the precedent. Lee already has a couple years of collegiate basketball experience but this is his first year in Columbus. He’s an athletic big man who can rebound and score. So that’s pretty cool.
Player that will become a household name come March – Marc Loving
Should see his 10.9 MPG increase drastically this season. Most of his time will come at the 3 or 4. Did some good things his freshman year, showed the ability to score with a pretty jumper. Good from the free-throw line. I imagine a similar scenario to how LaQuinton Ross came into his own during the NCAA tournament two years ago.
Aaron Craft Award – Keita Bates-Diop
The Aaron Craft Award is something I just made up and is pretty much just whoever my rebound is going to be now that he’s moved on. If we’re being honest, whoever I give it to this year will just be keeping it warm for Mickey Mitchell next year anyway, but I really do like KBD. I don’t know how much PT he’ll get until he bulks up a bit, but he can do a little of everything.
(this is Mickey Mitchell)
Prediction
25-7 (12-6 Big 10), 3rd place in Big 10, 4 seed NCAA Tournament. Take it to the bank. And take it now because I’ll just come back in and edit this post at the end of the year.
Well here we are. Apparently the NCAA doesn’t accept jars of tears as a valid appeal for a fifth year of eligibility for a player because the dreaded season is finally upon us: for the first time since 2009, Aaron Perfect (just a guess) Craft will not be suiting up for the scarlet and grey roundball team. Much like Jesus’ disciples after his death, or The Office after Steve Carell left, Ohio State fans have experienced a seemingly insurmountable loss. We’re cold. Confused. Alone. We’re all asking the same questions… “Who will be our new fearless leader?” “Does this mean Dan Dakich won’t announce our games anymore?” “Why did he never respond to any of my tweets, Facebook messages or attempts to contact him through Ohio State’s PR department?” The pain is real, believe me I know it. But the show must go on. And go on it shall. We have a legitimate scoring threat for the first time since DeShaun Thomas. The point guard replacing Craft is just as good, if not better, at doing what he did best. And we still have this guy as our head coach:
We’ll be okay.
Tell me we’ll be okay.
Projected Starting Lineup
PG #3 Shannon Scott, Senior
SG #0 D’Angelo Russell, Freshman
SF #12 Sam Thompson, Senior
PF #31 Anthony Lee, Senior
C #23 Amir Williams, Senior
If you have to replace a guy like Aaron Craft on your team, Shannon Scott is just about the next best thing. He’s a two-time All Big 10 defender that will finally be able to move from shooting guard to the point, a position he’s much better suited for. With the addition of Russell in the backcourt, the Buckeyes don’t need Scott to go out of his way to score like they did with Craft last year. He can penetrate and dish or finish at the rim. Quite honestly the biggest drop-off between Craft and Scott is the amount of irrational haters, so that’ll be nice.
Russell is widely considered to be the key to this Buckeye team. Ranked 13th (#1 SG) in ESPN’s 2014 Top 100, he’s the crown jewel of this freshman class and can step right in and (will) lead the team in scoring. A 6’5″ lefty, Russell can create his own shot off the dribble just as well as he can create shots for his teammates. He very well may be Ohio State’s best shooter before even playing in an official game. Obviously he’s young, and freshman sometimes struggle going from being “the guy” to playing with four other “the guys”, but he’s the type of talent that non-Ohio State fans will tune in to their games to watch.
Depth will be a concern in the backcourt. I’ll talk about the reserves a little later, but the only real guard they have coming off the bench is redshirt freshman Kam Williams. He missed all of last year because of an illness, and while he does still have a ton of promise, he’ll need some playing time early to get some experience and confidence under his belt. We all remember how deer-in-the-headlights Marc Loving looked at times in big games last year as a freshman. Word is he can score when he’s on the floor.
Sam Thompson is back, and he can do things like this:
He’s long. He’s strong. He’s down to get the friction on He can jump out of the gym. And he was able to knock down the occasional jumper last year. Thompson is the main reason why the Buckeyes need to push the ball up the floor, and push it often. With the athleticism of him, Scott, Russell, and (relatively speaking) their big guys, they should be Kevin Love-ing it every single time they come down with a defensive board or inbound after a made bucket. Transition is sort of the great equalizer of basketball, one of the few times offensive players are free to use their creativity outside offensive sets. It’s also an easy way to get young players warmed up and confident in a game, so that will be huge with so many underclassmen in the rotation.
I can’t put into words how important snagging Anthony Lee from Temple was for Matta and the Buckeyes. The post play last year was nothing short of anemic. I’m doing my best to go into this year with an open mind towards Amir Williams but god damnit it’s difficult. The 6’11” traffic cone had 3 inches on the next tallest player on the roster and failed to lead the team in rebounding (5.8 RPG). His offensive game improved slightly, I’ll give him that (7.8 PPG), but so did his turnovers (1.5 per game). He’s a game changing defender — when he wants to be. He has the ability to be an elite shot blocker — when he’s hustling and getting himself in good positions. Unfortunately the other 95% of the game his thumb is so far up his ass all he needs to do is stick out his tongue to declare a thumb war. We can only hope Matta continues to be on his di…back every day in practice.
Lee played quite a bit of center for Temple, and shifting over to the 4 will fit him a lot better. He’s not the defender Williams is, but he’ll grab more boards (8.6 RPG) and has more of (aka has one period) an offensive repertoire. Last year, with Trey McDonald the only other “big man” by definition on the squad, the Buckeyes were forced to go small quite a bit. Loving, LaQuinton Ross and even Thompson were forced to play an undersized 4. McDonald is back, Loving has a year under his belt and the Buckeyes have options in their frontcourt again.
Key Reserves
F #2 Marc Loving, Sophomore
F #1 Jae’Sean Tate, Freshman
G #15 Kam Williams, RS Freshman
F #33 Keita Bates-Diop, Freshman
F #55 Trey McDonald, Senior
I’m excited to see what Loving can do in his sophomore campaign. Yeah, he did really look like a freshman at some points last year. But at others you could see why he was named 2013 Ohio Mr. Basketball. He’s got a smooth stroke from the outside, and a frame that allows him to play the 3 or the 4, creating match-up problems at both positions. He’ll probably be the first off the bench, whether it’s to give Thompson or Lee a blow, or foul trouble for Lee or Williams. I do love what McDonald brings to the floor off the bench. A big body who doesn’t do anything extremely well but doesn’t kill you anywhere, either. He’s a perfect 10-15 minutes per game guy.
Kam Williams I talked about earlier. The only true “guard” coming off the bench. If Russell has trouble adjusting to the college game, Williams could be thrust into a significant role pretty quickly. Matta needs to keep him heavily in the rotation early in the season; can’t go in to Big 10 play with only two guards you’re comfortable with.
Tate is a forward trapped in a guard’s body. He’s undersized for either forward position at 6’5″. Russell gets most of the attention out of this class but Tate is no slouch himself, 28th in ESPN’s 2014 Top 100. His scoring comes mostly from mid-range and in the paint. He’s known as a motor, an above-average rebounder for his size. Based on size alone he may be able to fill in at the 2 in a pinch, but his perimeter game seems to say otherwise.
He may not contribute a whole lot this year, but the player I’m most excited about in this class is Keita Bates-Diop. At 6’7″, 190, he’s extremely lanky and looks like a freshman. But my goodness is he athletic. He’s long, can finish at the rim and will be able to run circles around other forwards. His length translates defensively and on the glass as well. A good passer on top of all that, it seems like the only part of his game that is lacking is on the perimeter. And strength. That’s the big one. He needs to LIVE in the weight room. He will be able to come off the bench with some energy this year, but he’ll need to put on some serious pounds before turning into what Matta and pretty much the entire conference thought he could when they offered him a scholarship. If he does, look out. Plus, with Amedo Della Valle’s inexplicable decision to turn pro after last season, KBD steps right in to fill our three-letter acronym quota. #NBDbutKBD #uHigh
Be on the lookout for Part 2 of our Buckeye Basketball preview, with some things to watch for and superlative predictions.
Bottlegate 