While We’re Waiting… Irving’s Body Fat, Around the Tribe Farm System, and Macho Man Randy Savage
May 22, 2011Options abound for the Cavaliers at #4 in the NBA Draft
May 22, 2011“We continue to find a new hero on a daily basis, and today Travis Buck got the big hit,” said Manny Acta, the confident Tribe skipper, sporting his “Wahoo Baseball” shirt in his postgame interview following yesterday’s win. After Ezequiel Carrera was the hero Friday night, Travis Buck sent a Homer Bailey fastball deep into right field, bouncing off the top of the wall and into the seats during the seventh, giving the Tribe a 2-1 lead. The Buck blast gave starter Josh Tomlin some run support, and it was all he needed to notch his sixth win of the season with a little help from the back end of his bullpen.
Sometimes, I think it is underestimated how important and contagious a winning culture is in baseball. The Tribe has been dealt some serious blows with the losses of Hafner, Sizemore, and now Alex White. But, in the short term, bringing talented players up from Columbus, a winning team in their own right, and placing them in a confident, winning group of players breeds confidence and success in the new guys as well. White, Carrera, and now Buck have all come up from Columbus and contributed in a big way.
Buck started with the club out of spring, and he was mainly a victim of a numbers game when Grady Sizemore returned to the team. With an option, Buck was sent down and Austin Kearns and Shelley Duncan were kept in Cleveland instead. I complained quite vocally at the time, but I also understood it for a certain period of time. Still, all Buck did after being sent to the Clippers was knock the cover off the ball, hitting 3 homers and driving in 21 runs in 18 games while batting .333 with an OPS of 1.016. With Kearns scuffling mightily (except for his last two games) and Duncan in a mighty slump and looking overmatched against righties, Buck was the obvious choice when Sizemore returned to the disabled list. He has hit .313 in 4 games since being recalled, and Saturday was his first game back after missing two due to a toe injury. When Sizemore returns, it’s a no-brainer in my mind that Buck stays.
What more can you say about Josh Tomlin? Justin Masterson is widely believed to be the headliner in this starting rotation, and rightfully so. But, Josh Tomlin has been just as dominant and even more surprising. I like to describe Tomlin as “brilliantly boring”, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. His stuff doesn’t blow you away, he doesn’t leave hitters talking to themselves like some hurlers, but he always keeps his team in the game, gets ahead in the count, doesn’t walk many at all, and avoids the big inning. He doesn’t strike a lot of hitters out, but he trusts his defense and, for the most part, is able to keep those fly balls in the ballpark. Yesterday, he permitted just five baserunners in seven innings, walking one, striking out three, and giving up one lone run in the top of the seventh.
That run came after Tomlin hit Brandon Phillips with one out and surrendered a single to Jay Bruce. With runners on the corners and one out, Scott Rolen hit a grounder to second baseman Orlando Cabrera. A likely double play, Orlando took the surprise hop but mishandled the ball and was forced to go to first for just one out. Phillips scored thanks to his aggressiveness on the base-paths in going first to third, and you got the feeling that Tomlin was going to be the same hard-luck loser that Justin Masterson was on Wednesday. As for Orlando, he is an average defensive second baseman at best with less range than most. His bat and veteran presence have been such a plus that his job his safe. At the same time, however, Jason Kipnis and Cord Phelps are both pushing him at Columbus, and I wouldn’t be surprised in the next month or so if one of those two (Phelps?) was stealing a game or two per week away from him.
I found it a little odd that Acta pulled Tomlin after just 85 pitches, but the way it played out, I’m glad he did. Following the game, Acta talked about how Tomlin is a contact pitcher, and while he doesn’t look at pitch count that much, he feels more confident throwing guys like Masterson and Carmona north of the 100 pitch mark on a regular basis.
As for that eighth inning, Vinnie Pestano owned it. “No Fear” Pestano, as I like to call him, struck out the Cincinnati side in the inning, but it was the way he went about it that was so dazzling. After a leadoff single to Ryan Hanigan, Pestano fanned Edgar Renteria on a 93 mph fastball, the last of four he threw in the at-bat. Next, he went right after Drew Stubbs with nothing but fastballs as well, locking him up on one right down the heart of the plate for strikeout number two. Nine fastballs in a row, all in the 91-94 range. Then, the real fun began with the struggling Jonny Gomes. Pestano mixed in his slider, throwing two to start the at-bat that downright crossed Gomes up, making him look foolish as they sunk carelessly into the dirt and off the plate. After a pitchout, Pestano froze Gomes with, you guessed it, a four-seamer at 94 miles per hour. That’s about as impressive of an inning as you’ll see from a bullpen pitcher.
As for Chris Perez, it was a second straight adventurous ninth. I went with Mylanta instead of Maalox yesterday, with the same result, a save with the help of a double play. Once again, Perez threw more balls than strikes and lead off the ninth with a walk, this one a four-pitch free pass to Joey Votto. Again, though, a double play ball, this time from the bat of Brandon Phillips, in 6-4-3 fashion saved Chris Perez from serious danger. Pure Rage then walked Jay Bruce on five pitches to put the tying run back on base. Facing Scott Rolen, Perez struck him out on three pitches, the last being a slider in the dirt to clinch the victory for the Tribe. Eight of the nine pitches that were balls from Perez were fastballs, while he threw four of his five sliders for strikes. Hopefully, it’s just a classic case of overthrowing, because we need our top flight closer back throwing strikes real soon.
Today, the Tribe goes for the sweep against the Reds as Carlos Carrasco faces Edinson Volquez.
(Photo: Amy Sancetta/AP)
10 Comments
what more can you say of josh tomlin?? oh brother, there is a LOT MORE to be said about josh tomlin.
he leads MLB with a 0.821 WHIP. that seems low, i thought to myself, i wonder where that ranks?
2000 pedro martinez, 0.737 (record)
1913 walter johnson, 0.780
2011 josh tomlin, 0821
it’s THAT low.
ive seen some analysts (@keithlaw) complain about tomlin’s high HRs allowed tally. true, tomlin has allowed 8, that’s tied for 13th worst. but did you know that every homerun tomlin has allowed has been a solo shot? i actually looked it up (dont judge me). it goes joyce, longoria, dejesus, dejesus, francouer, aviles, fox, scott. all solos.
the batting average against remains near best in MLB — verlander .178, beckett .180, tomlin .182. but his OBP against is #1: .225 (tie with haren), #3 verlander .238.
he’s the most underreported story on a team of underreported stories.
And, let’s hope it stays unreported so we can hold onto Josh 🙂
I was at this game; some very annoying Red Legs fans were forced to move to their actual seats (does no one sit in their paid-for seats anymore?) right before the game, which started the amazing day.
At times it felt like the mid 1990s out there; it wasn’t as loud as I would have liked at times but then there wasn’t a lot of scoring, and that’s what makes people yell. When Buck hit that HR, though, the place went nuts. Great game/crowd/win. Let’s finish the sweep.
@3ori — did tomlin’s pace make the game log-scale more fun to watch in person? on tv, i appreciate that he’s ready to deal almost immediately. i would think that when watching in person that effect is magnified.
Just an FYI, todays game is the MLB.TV free game of the day, for anyone outside of Ohio who wants to watch and doesnt have the MLB.TV package.
@ jimkanicki — The pace felt good, for sure; I never felt bored, although my little lady routinely told me, amidst her angry birds play, “no one has scored yet?!”
So not everyone was impressed 🙂 Tomlin looked cool, confident and I never saw a reaction from him. The game felt very quick.
I have never in my life seen a first place team that was shot down so much in the national media in my life…”fluke” and “enjoy it while it lasts” and “are they actually for real” are all I seem to see… in the mid 90’s, I was only like 7 or 8 so I can’t remember what the national perception was, just mine (which was excitement beyond belief)… was it as bad then as it is now?
@GhostToMost – Thank you for the heads up! First game of the year for me! Woooo! Go Tribe!!
Tribe leading the league in awesome drag bunts.
@6: In 1995, the question was “Can anyone stop this team?” The answer was the umpiring staff in the World Series in 1995.
@Kanicki: Tomlin’s babip against is becoming even more absurdly low. .175. Actually, I think it may have gone up a few points. But the more I’m watching him pitch, the more I think that he may just have a low babip on his career. He pounds the corners so effectively with moving pitches, guys end up hacking at crappy pitches because, well, they’re going to be strikes anyway. It was almost profound how hard it seemed, watching at the stadium, for opposing batters to actually hit his pitches.
Also, is anyone more unable than me to get tired of watching Scott Rolen swing at Pure Rage’s breaking ball? He was such a dead duck and knew it, he should have just started running balls-to-the-wall towards first.