Rock the (2015 MLB All-Star Game) Vote, fools

https://twitter.com/pikestaff/status/605141865642520578

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What’s the Damage?

This week in “Only In Cleveland”: The Indians go 17-12 in May, have possibly the AL Pitcher and Player of the month, don’t have even close to the best month in the division, are still two games below .500 and in fourth place. Swag.

I don’t know what’s gotten into the Minnesota Twins lately but I’ll tell you one thing, I do not like it. Not one bit. Some people would probably argue they over-achieved in April when they went 10-12. I’m not sure how else to describe what this team did in May other than “the apocalypse”. 20-7. Only lost one series the entire month. They now sport the second best record in the American League behind the Houston Astros. What planet am I on?

And just like the last three weekly recaps, I’m at a loss as to how they’re doing it. Their starting pitching is just below average, sitting at 19th in the league with a 4.13 FIP. Kyle Gibson and Mike Pelfrey both have sub-3 ERAs, but they also both have sub-5 K/9s (!!!!!). The bullpen is probably where their greatest strength lies, between closer Glen Perkins (19 SV) and setup man Blaine Boyer (10 holds). Offensively, it’s the usual suspects of Dozier, Hunter and (did I say “usual”?) Plouffe. Other than that, not a whole lot. This team has to go away eventually, right? Not if top-prospects-waiting-in-the-wings Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano and starter Ervin Santana, who’ll be able to pitch around July 4th after serving an 80 game suspension for PEDs, have anything to say about it.

It WAS kinda nice to not have to write about the Royals first though. Those sons of guns are finally starting to struggle a bit, 5-5 in their last ten and 1-5 in their last six. Even so, if the All-Star game was today they’d have five starters (Perez, Moustakas, Escobar, Cain and Gordon) and the American League’s leading vote getter (Perez). That, my friends, is absolutely absurd. Sally Perez having the most votes in the entire league makes me long for a world in which fans do not vote for shit. Also, this is still a thing:

Rios has played in one game in the past 48 days.

The Angels, in a momentary lapse of Catholicism, beat the living hell out of some Kitties this past weekend. Detroit was outscored 26 to 10 in a 4 game slaughter out west, an exclamation point on an abysmal stretch of 15 games where they scratched out just 5 wins. They’re now three-and-a-half games back of the motherloving Twins. Justin Verlander threw a rehab game in AAA Sunday and could re-join the rotation either this weekend in Chicago or next weekend at home against…Chicago. The Cubs.

The former Chicagoans from the sentence above took two of three from the best team in the American League this weekend in Houston. That was before they split a double-header in Baltimore, and won the final game of a 3-game series in Toronto. That’ll help in forgetting the fact they lost 7 of 8 before that. Chris Sale is finally getting into midseason form after struggling early due to a shortened spring training (7.2IP, 0 R, 12 K in his last start, 40K in past 4 starts), and left-handed rookie phenom Carlos Rodon has been cutting down his walks in an effort to stay in the big leagues. They’ve got some ground to make up, but don’t tell VP Kenny Williams that they won’t win the AL Central just yet.

In Other News

• Ask any Indians fan what their biggest weakness has been this season and you’re bound to hear about their bullpen struggles pretty quickly. But I got a tingly feeling in my tummy Sunday evening at the end of a 12 inning tango with Seattle, courtesy of rookie reliever Austin Adams (and the General Tso’s from Emperor’s Palace). Not only did he strike out one and notch his first career major league save, but he did this:

A 5th round draft pick in 2009 by the Tribe, Adams is 28 years old and just getting his first taste of the show. While Sunday was his first outing since May 16th and just his fourth all year, he’s struck out 13 in 8.1 innings in AAA this year and has a 9.24 career K/9 in the minors. While his career BB% is not great (9.7), if he can come in, hit triple digits and put it somewhere near the plate more often, he could prove to be a useful bullpen piece here in the near future.

• .@MLB @MLBGIFs pic.twitter.com/MLFcXKpGFK

  — Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) June 1, 2015

• This cat who got on SportsCenter for catching a Robinson Chirinos dinger in the bleachers while holding a hot dog?

…..literally one row behind my season tickets.

A season of missed opportunities.

• I don’t know what your plans were for this Friday, but I do know that they’re no longer your plans. TWO DOLLAR Miller Lites in the stadium from 5-7 before first pitch against the Orioles at 7:10. Oh ya it’s dollar dog and fireworks night too. And also Cardale Jones is throwing out the first pitch. Not sure what this jabroni’s deal is, but I’ll be there, and you should too.

 

 

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Rock the (2015 MLB All-Star Game) Vote, fools

https://twitter.com/AndyResnik/status/601903658083721216

What’s the Damage?

Last time we spoke, our Wahoo Warriors were reeling from another deflating loss at the lands of a division rival, this time a Windy City walk-off courtesy of Carlos Sanchez. It was the first game of the series and the White Sox’s sixth win in a row. Things were looking bleak for your home nine.

Trevor Bauer came out the following evening and continued to shove it right up opposing butts, spinning 7.1 masterful innings of baseball on his way to a 3-1 victory. Then they won the next night. And the next night. And before you knew it, the Tribe had a little six game winning streak of their own (quite literally “before I knew it” for me personally, Charleston SC is another planet on Memorial Day Weekend). They did drop game one to Texas yesterday, but have managed to pull within four games of .500 and they trot out the major league leader in strikeout rate tonight (Sally Czar).

(Also, it’s a bit old but here’s an awesome blog from Michael Baumann at Grantland about why you should love Bauer)

The Royals have kept on keepin’ on, taking two games each from Cincinnati and St. Louis before losing the finale to the Cardinals and, well, this yesterday:

They’ve got two chances to redeem themselves in New York before heading to Wrigley Field for three games as a warm-up for their next trip to Cleveland the first week of June. If the Tribe can keep some of this momentum rolling, that will be one banger of a series to watch: probables right now are Carrasco, Kluber and Bauer.

Ladies and gentlemen, your second-place Minnesota Twins. Seven wins in their last ten games have catapulted them above Detroit in the table and puts them just two games behind KC. How? I suppose 9th in the bigs in team batting and 8th in runs helps. Not giving people free bases is pretty cool too (2nd in BB/9).

I booed a lady wearing a Tigers t-shirt at the Charlotte airport on Thursday, and it worked. They won that Friday, but lost the next two to Houston and got CG SHO’d by Jesse Hahn and the A’s yesterday. Miggy Miggy Miggy got his first day off all year in that one, Iggy Iggy Iggy won’t be manning shortstop for a couple days after banging his knee on Saturday and armor-piercing reliever Bruce Rodon is rehabbing in AAA after tendinitis told him to sit his ass down during spring training.

I always get so damn bored by the time I get to the last team. After that walk-off win against the Tribe, the ChiSox have lost 6 of 7 and even their cameramen can’t stand to watch them.

Keeping in line with our/my fantasy team’s weekly Shark Watch, Jeff Samardzija has now posted two consecutive wins, throwing eight innings in each. It was also reported that the Astros were scouting the free-agent-to-be. That could be a scary rotation with Keuchel/McCugh/Feldman/McCullers and Shark or another big-name trade target (Hamels, Kazmir, Cueto).

In Other News

• 43 days after spraining his knee on a play at the plate, catcher Yan Gomes returned to the lineup on Sunday and G D did it feel good.

 

He went 0-4 and sat right back down on Monday but just getting your Silver Slugging catcher back around the guys is a very, very good thing. God bless Roberto Perez for trying his little heart out, and he did hit the ball pretty hard when he actually connected, but this pitching staff needed their captain back. And Brett Hayes, who was DFA’d to make room for Gomes, struck out twice on six swings in the same inning one time.

• Terry Francona received a plethora of metaphorical butt slaps for moving Jason Kipnis to the leadoff spot about a month ago. Shortly after that, he appeased all of us fans who think we’re smarter than him by moving on-base machine Carlos Santana right behind him in the 2 hole. Since his first game there: 16 games, .197/.316/.361, 2 HR, 11 RBI, 12 BB, 16 K. Oy. Besides leadoff, the two-hole is probably the most talked about spot in the Tribe lineup. Like third base last year, I think we’re getting pretty close to having to take this Santana experiment out back and putting it to pasture. For me, it’s a combination of things:
  1. While he’s not a prototypical cleanup guy, he’s our best option there
  2. We don’t really have an ideal 2 hitter, but the little bit of hitting Jose Ramirez has done this year has mostly been out of that spot, including five hits and three swipes in three games last week in Chicago
  3. Getting as much protection for Brantley as we can. At this point Santana is a heck of a lot more feared than Moss in terms of a cleanup guy, and I suppose it’s the lesser of two evils considering Ramirez won’t get on base as much as Carlos would in front of him, but I’d rather keep the bat in our best player’s hands as often as possible.
• Two fastball quotes from Francona this past week. One where he goes on a “hot date” with Brad Mills to the Cavs game, and another where Kevin Love’s bodyguards mistake him for a rabid fan. I honestly love this man.

 

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What’s the Damage?

Relatively speaking, the Wahoos had a good week last week. On three separate days, they had more runs than the other team by the time the game ended. Games 1 and 2 in Arlington marked the first time they did this in consecutive games since the first series of 2015 in Houston.

Unfortunately the Tribe’s scorching hot streak has gone for naught so far, as Lorde’s disciples in Kansas City went 4-3 last week and have won 6 of their last 10. All-Star closer Greg Holland is just getting back into the swing of things after a DL stint, which is a scary proposition for the opposition who already has to face a bullpen with the 7th best FIP in baseball whenever Mr. Yost picks up the phone. Also, this:

Pitching and defense, kids. Pitching and defense.

That-team-over-there-in-the-state-with-the-team-up-north took two of three from both the Twins and the Cardinals, owners of the best record in baseball, before dropping game 1 against Milwaukee last night. Miguel Cabrera decided to leave the yard for the 400th time in his career on Saturday, doing so 46 days before Hank Aaron did and bumping him up to #52 on baseball’s all-time list. Boob guy Justin Verlander threw a 45 pitch bullpen today as he inches closer and closer to returning to Detroit’s rotation, something I’m really not sure is a bad thing for the Tribe at this point in his career.

The Twins are still above .500 and I still don’t know why. Nothing lights a fire under somebody’s ass like facing the Indians, and 39-year-old Torii Hunter is still smoldering since he came to the Prog last Friday:  .367 AVG, 2 2B, 3 HR & 7 RBI. Second-baseman Brian Dozier seems to be heating up after a slow start too but I’m not looking up the stats for you guys.

And that leaves the White Sox, who are actually the hottest team in the division right now. Last night’s walk-off win brought their win streak up to 6 (I honestly didn’t know those could go that high). Jose Abreu, who captains the team of players I think are going to hit a moonshot every time they enter the box, has been their catalyst and is riding a 12-game hitting streak himself. Outfielder Avisail Garcia has as many hits as Matt Underwood has pronunciations of his name, and currently sits 4th in the AL in batting average (.338).

In Other News

• I’m afraid to write anything about Corey Kluber because he honestly scares me now so here’s some tweets:

I mean are you KIDDING ME? Your pitcher hasn’t given up a hit, has probably 15 strikeouts at this point, you haven’t been cheering all game and you decide to turn your back and try to start the most asinine cheer in all of sportsfandom. I will forever loathe section 180 at Progressive Field.

• Jason Kipnis and Michael Brantley’s hot streaks have been well documented, so I’m not going to do any more documentation. Here’s where they both stand now in the American League:
  • AVG – Brantley .336 (5th), Kipnis .333 (8th)
  • OBP – Brantley .416 (3rd), Kipnis .399 (8th)
  • wOBA – Brantley .412 (4th), Kipnis .390 (12th)
  • K% – Brantley 5.8% (1st), Kipnis 12.1% (17th)

*Denotes absurd statistic 

• I’m just gonna leave this here…..

Things Francisco Lindor couldn’t fix:

1. The bullpen

2. Outfield, third base, second base, first base, catcher, pitcher defense

3. Giving up runs in the following half inning after scoring

4. Playing in the toughest division in baseball

5. Yan Gomes’ knee

 

 

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