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March 27, 2015Cleveland Sports Championship Watch: March 27, 2015
March 27, 2015The Cleveland Indians have optioned pitcher Danny Salazar to Class AAA Columbus. This means Zach McAllister, T.J. House and Josh Tomlin will fight for the final two rotations spots for the Indians. The team has their first three rotation spots settled with Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco and Trevor Bauer, so these final two spots will need to be decided on relatively soon.
“We talked to Danny this morning and explained to him that he’s going to open up the season in Triple-A,” said Tribe manager Terry Francona. “Just on the body of work in Spring Training, we think he’d be best suited to start [there] and to—hether you say earn—perform his way back into helping us win.”
It was a rough spring for Salazar, racking up a 1-2 record with a 8.18 ERA in four starts in the Cactus League. He allowed 14 hits and 10 earned runs in 11 innings. Thursday’s game was probably the final straw for the Indians to decide to option Salazar down to the minors. He gave up seven runs, six of them earned, and six hits in just 3 1/3 innings in Thursday’s 13-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. He has struggled locating his pitches this spring, allowing five home runs in the Cactus League. He certainly has the stuff to be a MLB pitcher, but he must learn to locate his pitches better before he can be a full time pitcher for the Indians.
“We all feel he is going to be a big part of what we do at some point,” said Francona. “Just, right now, he’s not quite ready to do that.”
The final two rotation spots will come down to Zach McAllister, TJ House and Josh Tomlin. McAllister has pitched well this spring. In five games (three starts), he has a 2-1 record with a 3.21 ERA, 15 strikeouts and four walks. He has no more options left, so he will make the team in some role or another, either as a starter or a reliever. House is 2-1 this spring with a 5.60 ERA, 15 strikeouts and three walks in five games (three starts). Even though he has not pitched perfectly this spring, the fact that he is the only left handed starting pitcher in the running for the final spots could give him the upper hand in getting one of them. Tomlin is 0-0 this spring with a 4.50 ERA, seven strikeouts and one walk in three games (two starts). Tomlin has the most experience of the three pitchers in the running for the last two rotation spots. It will be interesting to see who makes the final two spots of the rotation for the Indians.
24 Comments
i find it hard to believe there’s any way house doesn’t get the #4 job. i loathe mcallister as a starter but tomlin is even worse. watching tomlin dance around what feels like 2 hits every single inning is painful.
all told, i’d rather watch mcallister be consistently mediocre than watch salazar lay 2 stink eggs for every 1 dominant performance.
Really hope to see House nab one of those and McAllister sent to the pen.
I still have a soft spot for the Lil Cowboy so if he makes it, he makes it.
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/O0oo0.gif
Man does Salazar worry me, this is 2 years in a row now. I have a feeling they will be set at the top four spots and the fifth is going to be a wildcard all season.
It could just be a mirage of spring, but Zach has seemed to turn a corner. Much better command of placement on his pitches, which have always had good movement.
I still have some hope for Danny, but he is making it hard. He has not yet figured out that throwing the ball super fast isn’t enough at the MLB level. He needs a secondary pitch so that hitters cannot sit on his heat. Also, it could be an illusion, but his fastball doesn’t seem to have the same movement that other pitchers have.
Zach is going to start the year for us in the 5th slot. I’ll be mildly shocked if they give it to the Little Cowboy. That said, we are going to need Tomlin, Salazar, and likely another (Marcum?) at some point this season too.
TJ has looked good. He has early ’14 Carrasco disease where he lets up a big inning now and then, but his approach and pitches look really good.
I don’t get the loathing of McAllister. No, he’s not great, but he’s not awful, and not a liability to the team like a guy like Swisher is.
I think they can get by with using McAllister as the 5th starter on just the 12th and 21st, giving Salazar a few times through the rotation in AAA to work things out. I expect to see him back sooner rather than later.
ERA over 5 and WHIP over 1.4 means he was getting hit hard.
He is a statistical anomaly though in that by far his best FIP year was by far his worst ERA year (not counting rookie tiny sample size year).
I think he’s closer to his 2013 self (in both FIP and ERA). A right around league average guy, which is a really nice guy to have as your 5th starter.
I think this is the right move, but it isn’t good news. This kid has a live arm, but struggles with command. Now, with his faltering, and Gavin Floyd’s injury, our once-vaunted starting pitching depth is starting to look thin. Yikes.
What about the 260 big league innings before that?
He’s only 23. Each pitcher seems to mature at his own rate. The good news is a.) we’ve seen what he can do when he’s right and b.) it’s not a velocity issue. Give him time.
I’m worried though that Salazar has already fallen prey to Santana Disease. Thanks to impressing early, anything short of being a Cy Young pitcher will be viewed as not fulfilling his potential.
Not really. I don’t think anyone being honest expected much from Floyd. And Salazar was always more what might-be than what-currently-is.
He’s 23. Hope is restored!
Huh? I referenced his 2013 season, but you can lump his 2012 season right into the context of what I said (2012-2013 are the IP that you are referencing). Right around league average guy. As a 5th starter, that is great.
Yes, his age is definitely a reason for hope as is his velocity. Just need him to spend time in AAA and figure out how to develop a good secondary pitch to give hitters some pause.
Agree, but he turned 25 in January.
McAllister when healthy is a very good pitcher, but He has never had an injury free season.
…………just. Uh.
Time for me to feel same.
Uh……
I just meant that the poor 2014 isn’t a compelling explanation for the loathing of McAllister.
I wanted to make a note of the terrible defense that was behind him last year, which likely contributed to that FIP/ERA disparity and his high BABIP. I got bored and went through the game logs of all of his starts. The breakdown is pretty telling. Position by position, here’s the defense he played with:
1B: Swisher played 11/15 games here, the better defending Santana just 4 (Chisenhall also got split one of the games with Swisher)
2B: 8/15 games for Kipnis. 2 games for notable gloveman Jose Ramirez. The rest were Aviles, Sellers, Walters and even a game from Elliot Johnson. Nobody but Ramirez and Aviles grades out even average there
SS: 11 of his starts came with the notoriously lacking in range Asdrubal Cabrera. One more with Mike Aviles. He only had 3 starts with Jose Ramirez behind him, and it’s notable that after Ramirez became the SS, the entire pitching staff suddenly became much better.
3B: Carlos Santana had five games at 3B for McAllister, a full third of his starts (notably, Jesus Aguilar filled in at 3rd during one of those games as well, something that also should never have happened). As we can say with the benefit of hindsight, this was 5 games too many. Aviles also played 3 games here, and he’s clearly not suited defensively or offensively for 3B. Chisenhall played the rest.
C: Carlos Santana, the guy we moved off catcher for a reason, played three games at catcher for McAllister. Roberto Perez also got one game in, but the point is that Santana is terrible there and shouldn’t be playing there.
LF: McAllister had three games of Chris Dickerson (old, not very good), 3 games of Mike Aviles (not experienced at the position), and two games where Ryan Raburn split time with Brantley. It’s sad that Brantley is the preferable defender of this group.
CF: Nyjger Morgan was notably one of the worst defensive CFers last year. He defended 3 of McAllister’s starts. Michael Brantley, he with below average range for LF, started SEVEN games for McAllister in center. There was even a game where Mike Aviles got time in CF with McAllister on the mound. Bourn played 6 games here.
RF: David Murphy played every single inning of every single game McAllister started
Partially fair but he had a high LD% too. Part was on him
That may have been too pedantic on my part. He’s still only 25, which is still young, and having missed a significant amount of time due to arm surgery has certainly hindered his progression.