Kazmir threw 73 fastballs yesterday [against Oakland], and they were getting progressively harder as the game wore on. The last three fastballs he threw were all 96 mph, and they were pitches 101, 102, and 103 on the day. A guy who lost his spot in Major League Baseball because his fastball was sitting at 86 ended yesterday throwing 96.
Kazmir hasn’t thrown this hard since his early days with Tampa Bay, and yesterday, we saw what Scott Kazmir with a lively fastball can look like. 72 of his 103 pitches were strikes, and 13 of his 19 swinging strikes came off the fastball. The slider is his swing and miss pitch, but he has to get ahead in the count in order to get people to chase it. Yesterday’s fastball got him ahead in the count all day long, because he was able to pound the strike zone with confidence. [...]
There are a few pitches up and away that weren’t close, but it’s mostly fastballs in the zone, sliders down and in, and change-ups at the bottom of the strike zone. That’s the strike zone plot of a guy with command who isn’t afraid to challenge hitters. And Kazmir was throwing pitches that were a challenge, even in the strike zone.
If you watch the MLB.com video [http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=26972173&topic_id=vtp_head_and_shoulders&c_id=mlb&tcid=vpp_copy_26972173&v=3] of his 10 strikeouts yesterday, you’ll notice that most of them come on fastballs. There’s a few sliders in there, but it’s a lot of hit-this-if-you-can heat, and Oakland’s hitters couldn’t hit it.
The Cleveland Indians have the lowest average attendance in baseball. Lower, even, than the Miami Marlins, who most people would assume own that dishonor. In fact, Miami is only fifth worst.
Cleveland’s average of 14,205 makes places like Miami, Tampa Bay and Kansas City look somewhat decent. The Royals, in fact, are second worst in baseball and average 4,000 more per game than the Indians.
On Monday and Tuesday, the Indians drew 9,514 and 9,474 with the Oakland Athletics in town. This was part of the Indians’ current hot streak, in which they’ve won 10 out of 11 games. And relief pitcher Frank Herrmann’s frustration made him try something. Herrmann, who is out for the season after Tommy John surgery, took to Twitter:
I would never tell people how to spend their hard earned disposable income but sub 10,000 fans back to back nights to see the hottest team in baseball is not getting it done. I am going to provide my own little stimulus package and give out two tickets to tomorrow nights game.
Herrmann told fans to submit nicknames for Indians players and he’d pick the best one and give away a pair of tickets.
Teammate Josh Tomlin saw this and jumped on board, saying he’d do the same thing. They told people to use the hashtag #TribeNames. Fans did and the players gave away tickets. Nice gesture and nice use of social media, right?
This story doesn’t end there, though. Team president Mark Shapiro took notice and started a nickname contest of his own. Only he offered a pair of tickets to the Indians’ social suite for Thursday’s game.
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The Cleveland Indians have the lowest average attendance in baseball. Lower, even, than the Miami Marlins, who most people would assume own that dishonor. In fact, Miami is only fifth worst.
Cleveland’s average of 14,205 makes places like Miami, Tampa Bay and Kansas City look somewhat decent. The Royals, in fact, are second worst in baseball and average 4,000 more per game than the Indians.
On Monday and Tuesday, the Indians drew 9,514 and 9,474 with the Oakland Athletics in town. This was part of the Indians’ current hot streak, in which they’ve won 10 out of 11 games. And relief pitcher Frank Herrmann’s frustration made him try something. Herrmann, who is out for the season after Tommy John surgery, took to Twitter:
I would never tell people how to spend their hard earned disposable income but sub 10,000 fans back to back nights to see the hottest team in baseball is not getting it done. I am going to provide my own little stimulus package and give out two tickets to tomorrow nights game.
Herrmann told fans to submit nicknames for Indians players and he’d pick the best one and give away a pair of tickets.
Teammate Josh Tomlin saw this and jumped on board, saying he’d do the same thing. They told people to use the hashtag #TribeNames. Fans did and the players gave away tickets. Nice gesture and nice use of social media, right?
This story doesn’t end there, though. Team president Mark Shapiro took notice and started a nickname contest of his own. Only he offered a pair of tickets to the Indians’ social suite for Thursday’s game.
A’s infielder Adam Rosales hit a heroic game-tying solo home run in the top of the ninth inning Wednesday against Indians closer Chris Perez, stunning the crowd at Cleveland’s Progressive Field and injecting new life into an Oakland club that has hit a few road bumps since the calendar flipped to May.
Except Angel Hernandez and his umpiring crew blew the call … twice.
Carlos Carrasco made his season-debut Tuesday night after serving a long-delayed six-game suspension for intentionally hitting a batter. After his performance against the Yankees, it won’t be a shock to see him serve another.
Carrasco was ejected from the game with two out in the fourth inning after he drilled Kevin Youkilis in the back of his left shoulder one pitch after Robinson Cano took the righthander deep.
“No one ever knows if a guy truly does it on purpose, but he just came back from a six-day suspension,” Joe Girardi said. “If it was on purpose, it’s probably going to be longer and it’s not a good idea. If it wasn’t, it looks like it was. Either way, it doesn’t look good.”
Carrasco was suspended six games for an August 2011 incident in which he drilled a batter following a home run. Carrasco underwent Tommy John surgery before he could serve the penalty, so it carried over to this season.
Youkilis stood at the plate and shook off the drilling while home plate umpire Jordan Baker tossed the Indians hurler. Terry Francona came out and argued briefly, but the decision had already been made.
“He was throwing 96-97 all night and, I think if you look at the video, he slipped and he threw it 90,” Francona said. “I can see, under the circumstances, that it didnt look good.”
Carrasco, who went to Francona and apologized for the ejection, said after the game he felt bad about hitting Youkilis, insisting there was no intent behind the pitch.
“I don’t want to do anything bad,” Carrasco said. “I waited a year and a half to get my suspension [done] and everything. I don’t want to do that again. I don’t want to be suspended.”
Well maybe if Francona didn’t have a .300 career OBP…
Cleveland’s new manager said he got lost Monday making the two-block walk from his apartment to the ballpark for the Indians’ home opener against the New York Yankees.
Francona is living in downtown Cleveland during the season and he plans to ride a small scooter he used during spring training in Arizona for the short commute to the ballpark. However, he decided to hit the streets on foot early in the morning and ended up needing directions to find his new workplace.
“I got lost three times,” he said. “Even when I got to the garage two people who work here said, ‘Hey, do you know where you’re going?’ I was like, ‘Nope.’”
Fortunately for Francona, an Indians employee picked him up in a golf cart and got him to the stadium.
Boston’s manager for eight seasons, Francona was overwhelmed by the assistance he received while encountering a few fans on his maiden voyage.
“Cleveland is officially the nicest people I’ve ever met,” he said. “Everybody I did walk by said, ‘Hello.’ That’s a little different than I’m used to.”
Francona said he has always preferred to stay as close as possible to where he works.
“I like being close to the ballpark, always have,” he said. “If I had my druthers on the road, I would rather stay in a motel next to the ballpark than have to drive a half-hour.”
19. Asdrubal Cabrera will not be traded as the Tribe will win enough games early in the season to at least dream about the playoffs.
20. And that will happen because Ubaldo Jimenez will join Masterson in the 12-15 victory club, as he will keep his ERA around 4.00 thanks to throwing more strikes and pitching with some poise and confidence.
AND ONE OBSERVATION: Francona will grow hair before he says anything really negative about a player in public — and he’s been bald for a long time.
As players, managers and front office executives embrace the esoteric statistics, teams increasingly want their radio announcers just as fluent in the language of WAR, VORP and B.A.B.I.P. (Those stand for wins above replacement, value over replacement player and batting average on balls in play, for those of you dusting off your radios as the season begins.)
“They wanted a broadcaster who is at least comfortable with exploring the idea of discussing advanced statistics and what they mean,” said Robert Ford, 33, who was hired by the Houston Astros in the off-season, along with Steve Sparks, 48, a former pitcher, to call the team’s games. The advent of advanced statistical analysis, Mr. Ford said, has “changed the way we think about baseball.”
Now, as the two settle into the Astros’ broadcast booth, they and their colleagues across the country face a balancing act. How much do listeners want to know about these advanced numbers? How much is informative? And how much would prompt the audience, a group that spans all generations, to tune out?
Listeners and announcers alike say that striking the right balance will be a challenge.
Which leads to the end of the Joe Mantegna story. When he got older, he would take his kids to Wrigley Field. And when they got there, he found that he would start reminiscing. He would tell them that there used to be no lights in the ballpark. Every game was a day game. Time would just stand still in that wonderful old park, where Billy Williams unleashed his sweet swing and Don Kessinger ranged deep into the hole for a play and Moe Drabowsky fired fastballs.
Then, Mantegna would remember and look down at his children. And they would be looking up at him, and he recognized that look. They were thinking, “Who gives a s—-, Dad? Let’s go get a hot dog.”
(pick-up WORST TRADE EVER! talk where we left off years ago)
Here’s something you probably didn’t expect to hear a few weeks ago: Scott Kazmir will open the season in a Major League rotation. The Indians announced that the left-hander will be their fifth starter when the 2013 campaign begins next week.
Kazmir, 29, did not pitch in MLB at all last season and only managed one start in 2011 before dealing with a back injury and being released. He showcased himself in an Independent league this winter before hooking on with the Tribe. Kazmir allowed five runs in 13 innings this spring, impressively walking just one against 13 strikeouts.
Before his disastrous stint with the Angels, Kazmir went 55-44 with a 114 ERA+ in parts of six years with the (Devil) Rays. He was a two-time All-Star with Tampa Bay and led the AL in strikeouts in 2007 with 239. In parts of three seasons with the Halos, he went 11-17 with a 77 ERA+. Kazmir’s first start will be April 6 in his old stomping grounds: Tropicana Field against the Rays.
Former Red Sox star pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka has been released from the Cleveland Indians, per the team’s official Twitter...
Since a brilliant 2008 in which the right-hander posted an 18-3 record with a 2.90 ERA, he has posted a 5.53 ERA. The Indians signed him to a Minor League deal on February 10. Despite posting a 2.25 ERA in ten spring innings, the Indians are choosing between Carlos Carrasco and Scott Kazmir for the fifth spot in the starting rotation.
At spring training in Arizona, Kirk Gibson, the hero of the Dodgers’ 1988 World Series conquest, sits down, removes his cap and discusses the “great intentions” Crews had when he invited teammates and their families to foster new-found friendship and team camaraderie.
Gibson, who had rejoined the Detroit Tigers, previously had visited the ranch, but this off day was an Indians-only shindig. Some teammates and Indians officials who didn’t attend the picnic went to Disney World with their families.
“I was really close to him,’’ says the 55-year-old Diamondbacks manager.
So close that Gibson also realized his buddy had a weakness — a fascination with speed., particularly fast, aerodynamic and powerful boats.
In 1990, Gibson says Crews arranged for his then-Dodger teammate to purchase a pro-style Skeeter bass tournament boat. It was equipped with a high-revving 200-mph horsepower engine.
“This,’’ Crews told Gibson, “is a really bad-ass boat.’‘
The pitcher tricked-out the vessel for Gibson in Florida, and then shipped it up north for the native Michigander. On an off-day, Crews wanted to test the boat’s limits with his pal. Gibson was caught off guard. Initially, he was behind the wheel, he says. Crews became antsy.
“Let me behind the wheel,’’ Crews told his teammate.
Gibson then describes his horror.
“I tell you what, he got behind that wheel and we took off — we’re barely in the water. We’re doing 74 mph and we jump a wake and that boat felt almost like a wing of an airplane. He scared the (heck) out of me.
“I said, ‘You’re crazy.’
“He’s like, ‘Whoo! Whooo!’
“He’s kind of a hillbilly, you know — a dirt farmer. ‘Whooo! Whooooo! Whooooooo! He’s screamin’ and hollerin.’ ‘’
Crews’ risky behavior followed him home.
“He was haulin’ ass that night,’’ Gibson says. “I got it first-hand (from eyewitnesses). He was reckless. Sometimes, you just get over-aggressive. Athletes, that’s our strength. But it can be a weakness and leave us vulnerable.
“(He was) a great dude. It’s unfortunate all of the families that were affected by it. It’s tragic. I miss him. He died doing what he enjoyed doing. Unfortunately, he left his wife and kids behind.’‘
With his jackrabbit speed, defense and running the bases has not been a problem. Putting the bat on the ball has been a major dilemma (205 strikeouts in 2011).
Even before the trade, Stubbs was working on whiff reduction in the offseason, simplifying his swing.
“I took out the leg kick I’ve had for a long time and put in more of a toe tap to simplify my timing,” he said. “I’ve transitioned it into my spring at-bats and it is going really well and I hope it enables me to take a step forward. I’ve kind of patterned my swing after (Detroit’s) Austin Jackson, who did the same thing last season and had a career year (.300, 16 homers, 10 triples, 66 RBI).”
Francona realizes how hard Stubbs has worked to alleviate his offensive dilemma and says, “He has worked real hard to simplify his approach — one swing and stay with it. I love the approach he has right now. Very simple. He should be able to repeat it.”
When Stubbs struggled in Cincinnati, he would unveil a a new stance or a new swing or break out a new hat, anything to stop a slide toward the abyss.
“When he runs into a rut, which everybody does, I hope that he is able to stick with what he is doing because I think it will work,” Francona said.
If I knew what was going on with the Mayos de Navojoa...I’m sure I’d be against it!
And if a player is drafted by Cleveland out of high school, he doesn’t have much of a say in the matter. But a free agent has tremendous influence. By signing with a team — the way Nick Swisher signed with Cleveland — he is in essence endorsing that franchise. If enough players refused to join the Indians, or simply expressed their reluctance, even prideful Cleveland fans would likely embrace the necessary change.
Native American activists continue to protest against Chief Wahoo, an unfortunate blind spot for Bud Selig. The commissioner has been at the forefront of Civil Rights issues regarding African-American pioneers like Jackie Robinson, yet he somehow doesn’t comprehend that this caricature is a disgrace that will forever tarnish his legacy. As one high-ranking Yankee official said, way back during the 2007 playoff series in Cleveland, “I can’t believe they still have that thing.” Six years later, Chief Wahoo is still around.
In the past, whenever I’ve asked players their opinions on Chief Wahoo, they’ve mostly shrugged. That includes CC Sabathia, who pitched for Cleveland, and Joba Chamberlain, whose Winnebago tribe ancestry should make him more sensitive to the issue.
As for Swisher, he was always an affable, talkative sort in the Yankee clubhouse — until the one time I asked him a meaningful question: Would he be willing to speak about his use of chewing tobacco, in order to dissuade kids who are considering that destructive habit? Swisher wanted nothing to do with the topic.
It’s never easy to step out of the box, out of one’s comfort zone. But sometimes it’s worth the trouble. No player can feel very good about donning that Indians’ cap, if he just thinks about it for a minute. If one or two free agents finally say something, maybe it goes away.
We have a pretty good idea of the Justin Masterson skillset. He’s got a big, sweeping motion and he leans heavily on a low-90s sinker. Sometimes he’ll threaten to go entire games without throwing anything else. Masterson keeps the ball on the ground, he strikes out about one batter for every six, and he issues the occasional walk. Last year, he posted about the same FIP as Jon Lester and C.J. Wilson, which is good company at least in terms of name value. Masterson’s ERA was elevated, but, ERA.
....
Relative to the league average, over his career, Justin Masterson has pitched to the tightest strike zone out of the sample. Because 1,000 called pitches is an unfamiliar denominator, know that Masterson has averaged about 1,815 called pitches per 200 innings. So this is a pretty extreme result we’re looking at, and it’s the sort of thing that makes you want to regress it going forward. It makes you want to blame someone other than Masterson — someone like, say, Masterson’s catchers. One wonders if this is a framing thing, since, in theory, a strike zone is a strike zone. Why should Masterson get screwed so badly?
Generally I think that the pitch framing stuff is pretty interesting. Here we have a look at the effect of poor framing on a specific pitcher.
“My plan is to kind of stay in shape and see what happens,” Thome said in a telephone interview Friday. “If a team calls for me, mentally, I want to know I’m ready to go.”
And if no team calls, and Thome, 42, cannot go out on his terms? Then he will leave the game just as he played it for the past 22 years.
With grace.
“I said this to my wife: There is never a happy ending,” Thome said. “You can’t script it. You can’t look in the mirror and go, ‘I want to go out like Ray Lewis did. Or John Elway.’ You can’t script the perfect ending.
“But how can you not be proud of the 20-something years before this? To play until you’re 42? I’ve been playing since the age of 8-9-10. How could I look in the mirror and tell someone, ‘I got a bad shake?’ Never. I would never do that. You treat the game with respect.”
...“For me, what I’ve done in the game, I felt really strongly about that,” Thome said. “I still love the game. I want to keep playing. But I felt after 20-something years, that if I went back and played, I wanted to get an opportunity to make a club at the major-league level. To me, that was important. I feel I’m still a major-league player. I’m in great shape.”
Every signing that [the Indians] have made has surprised folks that they were willing and able to spend the money and come with the certainty that NOW the Indians must be tapped out. Maybe they aren’t… and Lohse is a definite fit for a team that basically pitched itself out of the division race last season. The draft pick wouldn’t matter a bit – if I’m not mistaken, all they would lose would be a fourth rounder. The Kansas City Royals are another team that obviously can’t afford to put more money into payroll – but would probably make a great fit for Lohse.
Da, da, da, da, da,
Nick Swisher said
I’m so wired-up
Don’t need no coffee in my cup
Even on an unusually rainy, chilly day in Arizona, it was sunny and 80 degrees in Nick Swisher’s world.
Swisher, who signed a four-year, $56 million contract — the largest free in Cleveland history — this winter, has brought his endless energy and enthusiasm to the Indians, a club needing an infusion of something following a 94-loss season. While there’s some question whether he’s putting on an act, the 32-year-old Swisher says he’s just being himself and hopes his passion is contagious.
...Manager Terry Francona said he has spoken with Swisher about trying to do too much. Francona said Swisher “doesn’t have to carry the team on his shoulders.”
Montero said earlier this week that Bauer, among other things, didn’t listen to Montero when he was his catcher with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Bauer has since been traded to the Cleveland Indians. Which leads us to this song ...
“You Don’t Know Me” was posted online on Wednesday. But MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian reports that Bauer recorded the song in December, which is when he was traded.
Bauer, in not exactly the cleanest of flows, says things such as:
“Its time to get back to all these fans that I’ve been losing due in part to the rumors moving about that that I refuse to listen / So people get this vision of me, no one goes up hitting for me / I swear I’ve never been gifted nothing.”
“Now I’m the bane of society, I’m the villain / millions judge me, even quicker than winning a boxing match by killing / and most of its unjustly given.”
A little-known aspect of the CBA — the market-disqualification program — is helping force a select group of teams to operate more competitively than they did in the past.
The way the program works, revenue-sharing proceeds for teams in the 15 largest markets will decline by set percentages over the next three years, and disappear entirely by 2016.
Teams that previously received such funds — Toronto, Atlanta and Washington, among them — had little incentive to field better clubs. Why bother? By increasing revenues, they lost revenue-sharing dollars.
The new CBA flips that equation.
Teams that are about to lose their revenue-sharing income are more motivated to make money. And teams make money by winning.
According to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, Bourn has agreed to a contract with the Indians. The deal is worth $48 million over four years and includes a vesting option for a fifth year which could push the total to $60 million.
The Mets want this resolved, or else they will issue a Bourn ultimatum.
Maybe the New York Mets can pull the whole thing off and sign free-agent center fielder Michael Bourn without losing their first-round pick.
David Prouty, executive counsel of the players’ union, told The Boston Globe that he is in talks with baseball regarding the Mets’ desire to keep their pick if they sign Bourn.
One source with knowledge of the discussions said the team stands a “decent” chance of winning its argument that its first-round choice should be protected.
(The Mets had the 10th-worst record in the majors last season but fell to No. 11 — the first unprotected pick — when the Pittsburgh Pirates did not sign their first-rounder and, as compensation, moved back into the top 10).
Yet, the Mets’ path to Bourn still might not be clear.
Other clubs might have greater interest in Bourn than is being reported currently — and those clubs could sign Bourn without needing to wait for the union and baseball to resolve the draft-pick question, potentially in arbitration.
The Indians have reached agreement with Daisuke Matsuzaka on a minor league deal, according to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (on Twitter). Matsuzaka, who is represented by Scott Boras, can earn up to $4MM on the deal (Twitter link)...
Matsuzaka has made just 18 big league starts over the last two seasons thanks to Tommy John surgery. For his six years in Boston, the Japanese import owns a 4.52 ERA with 8.2 K/9 and 4.3 BB/9.
At his current rate…Giambi will hit his 500th HR in 2083!
The Cleveland Indians have signed first baseman-designated hitter Jason Giambi to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training.
The Indians announced the signing Saturday, six days ahead of the team’s first full-squad workout.
The 42-year-old Giambi spent the past three-plus seasons filling a part-time role with the Rockies. The 2000 AL MVP was a mentor to younger players and he interviewed for Colorado’s managerial position this offseason.
Giambi could become the Indians’ DH, a role filled by veterans Jim Thome and Travis Hafner in recent years.
This has not been a fall for Scott Kazmir. It has been a plummet. A life-changing plunge from Mets superphenom to Rays ace to Angels reject.
To out of baseball.
At age 27.
In 2004, Kazmir was shipped away by the Mets in one of their most catastrophic deals ever. The flamethrowing lefty emerged into not just a Rays All-Star, but a pitcher who was historically good. But over the last few years, Kazmir’s fall has been inexplicable.
On Tuesday, though, he heads to Goodyear, Ariz., on a minor league contract with the Indians, the 29-year-old Kazmir trying to fight his way back to the majors for the first time in two years.
A fighter for sure; he looked totally washed up after 2010. Fine career.
If you’re Bessemer City’s Kevin Millwood, there’s a lot of coaching youth sports, hunting and fishing in your future.
Millwood, a 1993 Bessemer City High graduate, said Friday during a celebration of his alma mater’s basketball history that his major league baseball career had come to an end…
After going 6-12 with a 4.25 ERA in 28 starts last season for the Mariners that included being a part of the second no-hitter of his career, Millwood says he told his agent, Scott Boras, that he only wanted to pitch “close to home,” indicating the Atlanta Braves and Tampa Rays were really the only two choices.
When neither team showed interest, Millwood said he’s enjoyed living in Gainesville, Ga., while coaching his 11-year-old (Kevin Jr.) and 10-year-old (Conley) sons in basketball and baseball…
Millwood said finishing his career after a solid season was important and he felt he did that last season with the Mariners.
“I feel like I can still throw it well and going out on a high note is a big deal,” Millwood said. “I just felt it was time to be closer to home and to be around the kids more often.”
The highlight of last season was the June no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Millwood went the first six innings before a groin injury forced him to the sideline; Five relievers pitched no-hit ball over the past three innings to complete the no-hitter.
“It was a cool experience,” said Millwood, who watched his teammates get the final nine outs from the training room. “But it was bittersweet to not be able to finish it out.
“I’d rather have gone on and lost it (the no-hitter) late in the game than not be able to complete it. But it was a special moment for my team, my teammates and me.”...
Millwood finished with a 169-152 pitching record during a career in which he made the All-Star team for the National League in 1999, threw a nine-inning no-hitter for the Phillies in 2003 against a San Francisco Giants lineup that included all-time home run leader Barry Bonds and led the American League in ERA (2.86) in 2005 for the Cleveland Indians.
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