indians pitching still looking strong

[mscott59]

i know it's only april 1, and no fan base has had april fool's played on it more than us who support the teams on the north coast, but the last couple weeks of spring training, the tribe's starters have looked like they're rounding into shape quite nicely. just 13 runs allowed in the last 6 games. carrassco gave up a run and 5 hits in 6 2/3 yesterday. kluber gave up a run and 6 hits vs the dodgers wednesday. tomlin-no runs and 3 hits w/10 k's in 6 innings tuesday. bauer pitched 6 shutout innings monday vs the angels. salazar gave up 2 runs on 6 hits in 6 innings vs the a's sunday. i still don't know where the offense is going to come from, especially w/brantley not recovering as fast as hoped from his off-season surgery. but man, i said it last season and it's even more true this year; if this team can just find a way to get to the post-season, with this kind of rotation (good enough that trevor bauer, who pitched well last year, will be in the bullpen to start the season) if it stays healthy?

[Mickey34jb]

Apr 1, 2016 9:36:02 GMT -5 mscott59 said:

i know it's only april 1, and no fan base has had april fool's played on it more than us who support the teams on the north coast, but the last couple weeks of spring training, the tribe's starters have looked like they're rounding into shape quite nicely. just 13 runs allowed in the last 6 games. carrassco gave up a run and 5 hits in 6 2/3 yesterday. kluber gave up a run and 6 hits vs the dodgers wednesday. tomlin-no runs and 3 hits w/10 k's in 6 innings tuesday. bauer pitched 6 shutout innings monday vs the angels. salazar gave up 2 runs on 6 hits in 6 innings vs the a's sunday. i still don't know where the offense is going to come from, especially w/brantley not recovering as fast as hoped from his off-season surgery. but man, i said it last season and it's even more true this year; if this team can just find a way to get to the post-season, with this kind of rotation (good enough that trevor bauer, who pitched well last year, will be in the bullpen to start the season) if it stays healthy?

Our pitching is outstanding__one sports talk guy has Carrasco as a CY Young candidate___lets hope our offense can give us more than 3 runs per game

[canefan]

So how does your bullpen look? As we have seen the last couple of years, the Royals model has been try to get five or six innings from the starter and have a lock down pen. Haven't heard yet but it looks like Chien-Ming Wang is making the team this year. After topping out last year at 86-87 mph he is hitting 95-96 in the spring this year. We lost Franklin Moralis and Ryan Madsen out of the pen, along with Greg Holland out for the year with his TJ surgery. Moving Wade Davis to closer more than compensates for Holly and Jack Soria is back in Royal blue, so he, Herrera and Hochevar will share those set up innings. Danny Duffy is moving to the pen for now, so he is a major upgrade over Moralis. Dillon Gee and Wang will round out the pen. Ian Kennedy is added as the #2 starter behind Volquez and just in front of Ventura. Chris Young will be #4 and Kris Medlen will be the #5, which, if he is 100% recovered now, will be a very strong #5 starter. In short, I think even with Holland on the shelf for the year the bullpen looks stronger than the last two years and the starting rotation should be improved as well. In the field, the only change will be right field. No more Alex Rios. Dyson will be the starter as soon as he is off the DL, about two weeks. For now Orlando is the right handed hitter and rookie Raymond Fuentes is the leftie. He tore it up all spring, the leading hitter in Arizona and I hope he comes close to resembling his cousin Carlos Beltran. Looking for a great season. Can't wait for the Cleveland series as they are always fun here. And Bucky, if you are reading this, opening day is almost upon us. You can dump your siggie from the World Series bet anytime now. <g>

[mscott59]

Apr 1, 2016 20:13:31 GMT -5 canefan said:

So how does your bullpen look? As we have seen the last couple of years, the Royals model has been try to get five or six innings from the starter and have a lock down pen. Haven't heard yet but it looks like Chien-Ming Wang is making the team this year. After topping out last year at 86-87 mph he is hitting 95-96 in the spring this year. We lost Franklin Moralis and Ryan Madsen out of the pen, along with Greg Holland out for the year with his TJ surgery. Moving Wade Davis to closer more than compensates for Holly and Jack Soria is back in Royal blue, so he, Herrera and Hochevar will share those set up innings. Danny Duffy is moving to the pen for now, so he is a major upgrade over Moralis. Dillon Gee and Wang will round out the pen. Ian Kennedy is added as the #2 starter behind Volquez and just in front of Ventura. Chris Young will be #4 and Kris Medlen will be the #5, which, if he is 100% recovered now, will be a very strong #5 starter. In short, I think even with Holland on the shelf for the year the bullpen looks stronger than the last two years and the starting rotation should be improved as well. In the field, the only change will be right field. No more Alex Rios. Dyson will be the starter as soon as he is off the DL, about two weeks. For now Orlando is the right handed hitter and rookie Raymond Fuentes is the leftie. He tore it up all spring, the leading hitter in Arizona and I hope he comes close to resembling his cousin Carlos Beltran. Looking for a great season. Can't wait for the Cleveland series as they are always fun here. And Bucky, if you are reading this, opening day is almost upon us. You can dump your siggie from the World Series bet anytime now. <g>

first of all, definitely agree that's kc's plan of starting pitching that's decent, not great, bridging to a relief crew that was outstanding, has worked. sparky anderson did that w/his big red machine back in the mid 70s, and continued doing it w/the tigers in the 80s too. in terms of the tribe, it's the reverse. starting pitching is fantastic, but quality drops down after that. i like cody allen as a closer and think he will stick in that role. we picked up jaba chamberlain over the winter, and i think that's a decent gamble in terms of a consistent set-up guy. thought bryan shaw struggled in that role last year. i also like zach mcallister's arm, ditto for trevor bauer. and that's not even considering cody anderson, who i saw pitch in his first ever mlb game last year vs tampa bay, throwing a gem, and went 7-3 over the back half of the season. he went 6 2/3 of 3 hit ball yesterday in a 9-1 win (tribe has allowed just 14 runs total in the last 8 spring games, winning them all) and will be in the rotation along with carrasco, tomlin, salazar and kluber. we don't have enough lhp's... other thank kyle crockett i actually can't think of another one on the roster, tho i know there must be someone else... but the right arms on the staff now have the right combo of speed and stuff.

[canefan]

Can't wait for the season to start. I'd be rooting for the tribe if we were not division rivals, since they use to train in Winter Haven. Did you ever come down back then for spring training? Use to have Tribe fans walking through out lot going to games all spring. With Duffy going to the pen we don't have a lefty starter. But being limited to one or two innings sure agrees with him as he's hitting 97 on his fastball and 94 on his slider. I have no illusions, yeah it is damn near impossible these days to go to 3 straight World Series. But sure has been fun.

[mscott59]

Apr 2, 2016 22:32:05 GMT -5 canefan said:

Can't wait for the season to start. I'd be rooting for the tribe if we were not division rivals, since they use to train in Winter Haven. Did you ever come down back then for spring training? Use to have Tribe fans walking through out lot going to games all spring. With Duffy going to the pen we don't have a lefty starter. But being limited to one or two innings sure agrees with him as he's hitting 97 on his fastball and 94 on his slider. I have no illusions, yeah it is damn near impossible these days to go to 3 straight World Series. But sure has been fun.

i've driven thru winter haven a few times as we made our way south to the in-laws as they winter down in arcadia near ft myers, but never during spring training. i did make it down to hi corbett field in tuscon once back in the late 80-s when the tribe trained there, and have been to goodyear (west of phoenix) twice since '09, when the indians and reds started sharing that facility, which is gorgeous.

[canefan]

I miss the old spring training days. Games use to be cheap and we would take our entire youth league team to some games. Indiana would usually sponsor one game a year we could take all the teams for free. What I really miss is having a minor league team playing all summer.Plus, my kids got to play on the major league field a few games every year. Even the minor league fields were awesome to play on.

[mscott59]

Apr 4, 2016 17:52:35 GMT -5 canefan said:

I miss the old spring training days. Games use to be cheap and we would take our entire youth league team to some games. Indiana would usually sponsor one game a year we could take all the teams for free. What I really miss is having a minor league team playing all summer.Plus, my kids got to play on the major league field a few games every year. Even the minor league fields were awesome to play on.

Yeah the innocence and informalness that was spring training of not that long ago is now big business. I miss that too. And ditto on the feeling of playing in a pro park. Think I've mentioned here before that my hs team used to go up to the old Cleveland stadium for clinics the tribe used to have before games in May. Chasing grounders, shagging flies in the outfield, rubbing elbows w some mlb'ers, hearing the crack of the bats echo in that cavernous empty stadium was one of the cooler experiences I had playing hs sports. That wa also the first time I ever heard the phrase 'warning track power'. Thought that was hilarious. We were saying that the entire season my senior year.

[canefan]

Apr 4, 2016 22:55:01 GMT -5 mscott59 said:

Apr 4, 2016 17:52:35 GMT -5 canefan said:

I miss the old spring training days. Games use to be cheap and we would take our entire youth league team to some games. Indiana would usually sponsor one game a year we could take all the teams for free. What I really miss is having a minor league team playing all summer.Plus, my kids got to play on the major league field a few games every year. Even the minor league fields were awesome to play on.

Yeah the innocence and informalness that was spring training of not that long ago is now big business. I miss that too. And ditto on the feeling of playing in a pro park. Think I've mentioned here before that my hs team used to go up to the old Cleveland stadium for clinics the tribe used to have before games in May. Chasing grounders, shagging flies in the outfield, rubbing elbows w some mlb'ers, hearing the crack of the bats echo in that cavernous empty stadium was one of the cooler experiences I had playing hs sports. That wa also the first time I ever heard the phrase 'warning track power'. Thought that was hilarious. We were saying that the entire season my senior year.

Yep, it's a shame the business crept in and spring training is no longer like it was. I had a kid with real potential as a pitcher on my team. When he was about 13 or 14 he wandered down into the back complex at Chain of Lakes, where the public was not allowed but we all knew the area like the back of our hands so it wasn't hard for him, and was watching Oral Hershiser working out. Oral noticed him, started talking to him and wound up spending about an hour working with him on pitching mechanics. Made quite an impression on the kid.

[mscott59]

Apr 5, 2016 6:40:42 GMT -5 canefan said:

Apr 4, 2016 22:55:01 GMT -5 mscott59 said:

Yeah the innocence and informalness that was spring training of not that long ago is now big business. I miss that too. And ditto on the feeling of playing in a pro park. Think I've mentioned here before that my hs team used to go up to the old Cleveland stadium for clinics the tribe used to have before games in May. Chasing grounders, shagging flies in the outfield, rubbing elbows w some mlb'ers, hearing the crack of the bats echo in that cavernous empty stadium was one of the cooler experiences I had playing hs sports. That wa also the first time I ever heard the phrase 'warning track power'. Thought that was hilarious. We were saying that the entire season my senior year.

Yep, it's a shame the business crept in and spring training is no longer like it was. I had a kid with real potential as a pitcher on my team. When he was about 13 or 14 he wandered down into the back complex at Chain of Lakes, where the public was not allowed but we all knew the area like the back of our hands so it wasn't hard for him, and was watching Oral Hershiser working out. Oral noticed him, started talking to him and wound up spending about an hour working with him on pitching mechanics. Made quite an impression on the kid.

hershiser was one of the really good guys in baseball during his day. he actually flunked out of bowling green early in his college career but turned himself around back in the late 70s. obviously most of his stardom came with the dodgers, but the tribe made the world series twice during his 3 year stop in cleveland, and especially in '95 he was a stud on the mound. also had a great year in '97 but unfortunately got drilled in his 2 starts vs the marlins. would love to see him come back and become a pitching coach w/the indians but i can't see him leaving socal.

[oujour76]

Apr 4, 2016 22:55:01 GMT -5 mscott59 said:

Apr 4, 2016 17:52:35 GMT -5 canefan said:

I miss the old spring training days. Games use to be cheap and we would take our entire youth league team to some games. Indiana would usually sponsor one game a year we could take all the teams for free. What I really miss is having a minor league team playing all summer.Plus, my kids got to play on the major league field a few games every year. Even the minor league fields were awesome to play on.

Yeah the innocence and informalness that was spring training of not that long ago is now big business. I miss that too. And ditto on the feeling of playing in a pro park. Think I've mentioned here before that my hs team used to go up to the old Cleveland stadium for clinics the tribe used to have before games in May. Chasing grounders, shagging flies in the outfield, rubbing elbows w some mlb'ers, hearing the crack of the bats echo in that cavernous empty stadium was one of the cooler experiences I had playing hs sports. That wa also the first time I ever heard the phrase 'warning track power'. Thought that was hilarious. We were saying that the entire season my senior year.

Clearwater (Phillies) used to be like that...small stadium in the middle of a neighborhood where you could go early and mingle. Al Lang in St. Pete was like that as well. The only one left like that that I know of is in Dunedin, where the Blue Jays train. When I'm in FL for spring break, I always go to a game there.

[canefan]

Yeah, those days are long gone. I played golf with a couple of Royals in the spring swing many years ago. After that, when we showed up for spring games the guys we played with would recognize us and come to the wall to say hi. A lot of good guys in the league back then.