“I guarantee every team in the league would take his defense and be thrilled.”
March 3, 2015Forbes: Cavs ranked as No. 2 company to work for in all of sports
March 3, 2015Finally, the long winter season without baseball games has ended as the Cleveland Indians opened the Cactus League season with a game against their spring baseball partner Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday afternoon.
Given that the Indians brought back nearly everyone and did not make any big moves in the offseason (with apologies to Brandon Moss), one of the few and biggest spring training battles is anticipated to be the battle for the fifth position in the starting rotation.
Zach McAllister1 was given the first chance to impress with the first start of the 2015 season. In addition, with the Indians being careful with some injured players and allowing others to ease into their season, the initial lineup featured many of the players that will be fighting for a spot at the end of the 25-man roster including Tyler Holt, James Ramsey, and first-round pick Tyler Naquin.2
Of course, with a lineup like that it should not be a surprise to see the Indians hitters struggle as they did early in the game compiling 8 strike outs in the first 5 innings.
The initial audition from Zach had some positives and negatives. McAllister struck out 3 Reds batters in just 2 innings pitched. The negative is that he also allowed some rather loud contact as the Reds also had 3 line drive hits. Brandon Phillips continued as a Tribe-killer even though it is only Spring Training by hitting a double and scoring the only run that McAllister gave up.
As is the case with spring games, one should not read too much into the lineup or results, but it was interesting to see Francona slot Yan Gomes into the 2-hole behind Jose Ramirez and ahead of Lonnie Chisenhall.
Of course, in typical Yan fashion, he reminded everyone that he is more than just a good hitter by throwing a bullet to Mike Aviles to catch Zack Cozart’s attempt to steal 2B before Francona pulled him and Jose Ramirez to ensure we did not sustain any initial game injuries.
Being Spring Training, the Indians started putting guys out there named Destin Hood, Michael Martinez, Audy Ciriaco, Jordan Smith, and Ryan Rohlinger along with Charles Brewer and Bryan Price pitching. None of these individuals are expected to be anywhere near the 25 man roster this year and the Reds tacked on a quick 7 runs by keeping many of their starters in the game even with Destin Hood making a really nice catch against the outfield wall.
May this be the beginning of an exciting and memorable season of Indians baseball.
[Related: Indians watch parties provide chance to win Opening Day Tickets]
10 Comments
Well…..who won???
Doesn’t matter it’s March 3rd.
I know…was just busting the new guy’s chops because the article makes it seem like the game already took place. Past tense and all that.
Hey, it’s Spring Training for me too 🙂
Completely my fault, ST games do not matter for the most part, so I put it up to publish later when I added game details (and it got pub’d). Now, you guys can keep coming back to see if I have updated with game stuff in it as I’ll just live update it 🙂
Enjoy your peek behind the curtain.
I was actually glad I didn’t see the result. I can’t stand the fact that the likes of the Leader and other outlets actually keep ST records and rank the teams like it was the regular season.
Great job, bode.
thank you sir. i appreciate it.
Out of worst Indians trades ever, where does the Phillips trade rank?
that is an entirely different article itself.
But he was TERRIBLE every time he got trotted out there. I don’t even blame Wedge for their rocky relationship. I can’t say I’ve read much about what a great teammate he is in Cincy, but I also can’t say otherwise, now that I think about it.
If only Brandon Phillips put as much effort into having been a good player for the Indians as he does being mad at the Indians.