Tag Archives: Cleveland Indians

Just how bad was home plate umpire Tom Hallion last night?

Let’s get this out of the way first. Danny Salazar imploded after that missed strike 3 call in the third inning. It was unacceptable, no doubt about it. Gotta have thicker skin. That being said…

 

jim

Tommy boy had one for the ages last night. Just bad, really bad, all night long. If you don’t follow @IndiansUmp on the Twitter yet, you should probably get on that. I have zero idea who runs it or where the information comes from but it basically tweets out every time an ump blows a ball/strike call in a Tribe game. Whether it favors the good guys or the opposition, it almost instantly fires off a tweet with a picture of the strike zone, pitch location and a few other stats. Here’s the big turd Hallion laid on Salazar’s doorstop in the third:

Are you shitting me?

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The royal blue color  is never called a strike. The sun-bleached navy blue color is rarely called a strike. The Columbia blue color is sometimes called a strike. The peach color is called a strike a majority of the time. The skin color is almost always called a strike. The grapefruit color is always a strike. THE GRAPEFRUIT IS ALWAYS A STRIKE, TOM. Damnit!

There’s one of these “umpire” twitter accounts for all MLB teams (and by all I mean there’s one for the Indians and Twins and I’m not checking the rest). Last night, the Indians account tweeted out eight blown calls, three of which screwed us. Obviously the opposite is true for the Twins. Here are some of the other eggs he laid:

Appreciate it, big guy. First inning, second batter, 3-0 count instead of 2-1. I’ll take it.

Oh f*** you dude. That should be ball four (and it is, 84% of the time), giving us runners on first and second and Lonnie coming up to give us a chance to take the early lead. Boooooooooooo!

WHAT?!?!?! This is the worst call in the history of balls and strikes in Major League Baseball, right? NINETY-EIGHT PERCENT of the time Brian Dozier is sent back to the bench on this pitch. 98. There’s no part of that ball that’s even sniffing anything but the grapefuit. Just historically bad. Jesus Christ.

Again, I’m not making an excuse for Danny last night. He’s gotta be better than that. But sweet onion chicken teriyaki, so does the home plate umpire.

Hallion DOES have a sick punch out but I hate him and refuse to give him credit for it.

Against Yanny there, too. Lolz.

 

 

KEEP THE CHIEF

Francisco Lindor Appreciation Blog

lindbrant

So Mike and I were “standing” out at The Corner a couple Friday nights ago after taking full advantage of 2 dollar beers before first pitch. Francisco Lindor probably hit a 5 run bomb or turned an unassisted triple play or something and we go to talking about this extraordinary young man.

It’s absolutely stunning to me how little buzz he seems to be getting around here with what he’s been doing on the baseball field the past two-plus months. Since the All-Star break, he’s been one of the best players on the Indians. He’s been one of the best shortstops in the American League. He’s been one of the best players PERIOD in all of baseball.

Seriously! This is a kid who was supposed to be good, like really good, then he makes his debut and he’s been even better than we thought. How often does that happen here? How often does an athlete actually exceed expectations? Not to mention those expectations were massive considering he was touted as one of the best prospects in all of baseball. So to recap: player is supposed to be good, player makes his debut, player has been one of the best players in his sport, player plays in Cleveland. How is this not being talked about? Maybe we can start to once we find out whether or not Josh McCown passes his concussion tests? Please?

Shortstop is a premium position in baseball. Some might say “the” premium position. To me, shortstop and center field are right on par with quarterback and point guard. It’s where you put your studs, the golden boys. You don’t hide anybody at shortstop. Can you IMAGINE this city if the Browns had a quarterback play at the level Lindor has for 8 games in a season? Like, was the best quarterback in the NFL for 8 games in THE SAME SEASON? It’s literally unfathomable. Yet we still see people walking around town in Derek Anderson jerseys and I’ve seen like three Lindor (tee-shirt!) jerseys in the 30+ games I’ve been to. That makes me sad.

You know what doesn’t make me sad? Plays like this.

And this.

We haven’t seen shortstop play like this since the days of Omar.

Did I say Omar?

https://twitter.com/JHGrimm/status/644309667326201856

Vizquel’s only season with a higher WAR was in 1999 (6.0). He was 32 years old and had played in 1320 Major League Baseball games before that season. Lindor is 21 years old and has played in 82.

https://twitter.com/MLBastian/status/644295264556158976

I don’t really know the point I was trying to get across with this blog. Honestly I don’t even know if there was one. I just wanted to talk about one of the most exciting players I’ve gotten to watch on my favorite team in years and years and years. Sometimes when I’m sitting in my cube or laying in bed I think about the fact that we have a 21-year-old shortstop who has already shown us he has the talent to be one of the best players in baseball. Yes I think about Francisco Lindor in bed and I don’t care who knows it. You should too.

#LindorROY #LindorROY #LINDORROY

https://twitter.com/TJZuppe/status/644346197893771264

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AND HE WEARS STIRRUPS

 

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Trevor Bauer pulled from Indians rotation

https://twitter.com/TJZuppe/status/644607772525502464

I mean it had to be done. My love/hate for Bauer has been well documented around here but with every remaining game virtually a must-win, you have to go with the 5 guys who give you the best chance to win on any given night. Bauer can come out and completely shut a team down, sure, but he can also come out and give up 7 earned in 2 innings and suck the life out of your bullpen that night AND for following game. He has one of those outings at this point in the season, that’d be curtains for 2015. Anderson and Tomlin have much lower ceilings, but much lower floors as we sit here today. You can’t risk a Bauer blowup with 17 left.

I really hope his relationship is as good with Mickey as everyone says it is. Getting pulled from the rotation could be detrimental to the development of a kid like Bauer.

Make sure to stay glued to @BauerOutage’s twitter timeline though. I’m nervous.

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