Cavs Training Camp Daily: Jumpshot James ’16
October 2, 2015I-Who? Ohio State releases trailer for Big Ten opener at Indiana (Video)
October 2, 2015If you never envisioned October baseball for your Cleveland Indians this year, you were doomed to be wrong from the beginning, because it’s October 2, and we’ve still got to play out that string, brother! Woo! Last night was the first in a four-day march to the slaughterhouse—a 4-2 loss to the Twins in front of an official crowd of 22,644 at Progressive Field. I’d venture to say that number was closer to 2,644, but at this point, it’s not even worth trying to jumpstart another “shitty attendance” debate. The Indians’ playoff hopes—on life support the entire month of September—perished right along with the month itself late Wednesday night, as the Astros beat the Mariners in Seattle. All that remained was a chance to similarly derail Minnesota’s Wild Card dreams, but there’d be no such gratification Thursday.
Re-Capping
You could have a pretty interesting debate as to who the Indians’ 2015 MVP should be, or which player was the biggest disappointment, etc. If you want to talk about one man best representing the full 360-degree reality of this weird, inconsistent bunch, though, you needn’t look any further than the man on the hill in this one. Trevor Bauer—the Hollywood native who famously brought the eccentricities and pretentiousness of method acting to the world of pitching—was making his first start since September 13. His much-ballyhooed move to the bullpen hadn’t exactly amounted to much—he only appeared in one inning of relief back on September 19. So how would the Indians’ No. 6 starter respond to his first game back and final start of the season? Prettty well, actually.
It just never… quite… came together.
Feel free to discuss how this wasn’t a traditional save situation, and how the confusion of this alternative scenario sends every closer into convulsive fits. For the handful of people watching the game, though, Cody probably gets a pass this time around. It was a Jose Ramirez throwing error that opened the floodgates, putting Trevor Plouffe aboard on what should have been the second out of the inning. Eddie Rosario then singled to right and advanced to second when Lonnie Baseball failed to gun down the advancing Plouffe at third. This set up a run-scoring wild pitch by Allen and a sacrifice fly from f%#@ing Torii Hunter to make it a 4-2 Twins lead.
The Indians got the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth against Kevin Jepsen, but Roberto Perez struck out with Abraham Almonte on first. Cleveland is now 76-78 with Boston coming to town for three legitimately meaningless games. Even winning two of three won’t get you to .500, which is a bummer. That supposed Tiger make-up game on Monday—you can consider that an R.O.U.S. I don’t think it exists.
So why is Trevor Bauer—he of the no-decision last night—the most symbolic single representative of the 2015 Indians? Well, he’s in his third year in Cleveland, much like the Tito regime, and while his natural talents seem to stack up well against comparable American League competition, his mix of youth, bad luck, inefficiency, and je ne sais quoi was enough to keep him frustratingly spinning his wheels in the mud through most of the summer. Why wasn’t Trevor able to sustain those occasional hints of greatness over the course of the season? What sent him off course in his development from a similarly up-and-down 2014? Nobody knows! And the same goes for the Indians as a whole. The ingredients were all there for a playoff-caliber ball club. The roster remained fairly healthy. Everyone had another year under their belts. It just never… quite… came together.
C-Cap Recap Custom Box Score October 1, 2015 Twins 4, Indians 2
Green Highlight (as in “Great”): Is Trevor Bauer a lock to be in the rotation come next April? One would certainly presume so. He’s still only 24 and is coming off what can only be classified as a “decent enough” season—even if his phenomenal April created unrealistic expectations. What might throw the Bauer project into question? Overcrowding, perhaps. After suffering all season from the lack of a steady fifth starter, the Indians suddenly got two of them down the stretch (not that you can have “two fifth starters”—that doesn’t make any logical sense; one of them would have to become the sixth starter by the laws of the Sesame Street Counting Accord of 1968). In any case, if you combined Cody Anderson and Josh Tomlin into one person—Jody Tomlinson—his 2015 baseball card numbers (13-5, 3.04 ERA) look mighty good. “Maybe we should split Jody Tomlinson into two guys and give up on this Bauer weirdo,” you might say. Then again, Tomlin (4.42 FIP) and Anderson (4.28 FIP) have benefited from a little more good fortune than Trevor (4.34 FIP). The biggest pro-Jody, anti-Bauer argument would come down to walks. Bauer has remained a mess in that department, handing out free passes like they’re copies of his new mix tape (0.45 walks per inning). The notorious strike-throwers Tomlin (0.10 BB/IP) and Anderson (0.26 BB/IP) make you earn it. Odds are good that something will happen between now and April 1st that will make this potential fifth starter battle a lot easier to figure out. There’s a lot of winter ice and slush and shopping malls and terrible Browns games to look forward to in the mean time.
Yellow Highlight (as in “Almost Green”): Roberto Perez hit a home run. Good job, Roberto Perez.
Red Highlight (as in “Stop, You’re Bad”): Did Cody Allen have a good season? Hmmm, what an interesting question. What do you think, remaining readers? The numbers certainly don’t look so alarming: 3.07 ERA, 32 saves, 13 K/9 (a career best), 1.20 WHIP. Maybe you’re looking back on Cody’s disastrous April or 2-5 record and thinking he crapped the bed a few times too many. You’re kind of wrong, though. He only has four actual blown saves on the season (25 MLB relievers have more than that), and his 1.85 FIP (vs. that 3.07 ERA) suggests yet another Indians hurler victimized by extraneous circumstances outside of his control—much as he was last night by some April-esque defensive miscues. Conclusion: the Indians still have a young, reliable closer on the upswing of his career. Stay positive! Happy October!
7 Comments
Did they throw at any indians players? I didn’t catch the game.
Not trying to spark the attendance debate, but do the Indians care if you buy a ticket and don’t use it? I’d say it looked like 2k in the stands last night too but if they got an extra 20k in ticket sales does it matter?
I’d say they care only in that it’s not awesome for public relations to play in an empty stadium.
Not that I saw. They just got inside Jose’s head, perhaps (9th inning error).
I was disappointed Roberto did not flip his bat. Opportunity lost.
Remaining reader here … Cody Allen? Answer, as is often the case, is what’s the alternative? Unless the Indians fall accidentally into the acquisition of a better closer, I think we can assume he’ll be the guy next year. I can’t believe they’ll be shopping for another closer. Since José Mesa (and maybe even including Mesa) have we had a better closer than Allen?
“(no relation)” one of the best lines of the year. Gotta have comedy during a season like this 🙂
Here is something very interesting that is worth everyone’s attention , a fabulous opportunity for work for those who want to utilise their free time to make some extra money using their computers… I have been working on this for last two and half years and I am earning 50-80 dollar/ hour … In the past week I have earned 13,245 dollars for almost 20 hours sitting ….
Not any special kind of skills or qualification required for this, just normal typing and a reliable internet connection ….
No time limitations to work … You may work on this any time when you get some time ….
you can check this out how I’ve been doing this….view web-siteIink on my` profile` to know how I use to work on this`
DF{}