SB Nation - Shin-Soo Choo

First volley of projections for 2010 Indians

Jay — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:00:25 -0000

Could Sowers finally be the number-four starter of our dreams?

ACTA Sports has begun taking orders for The Bill James Handbook 2010, which customarily will include James' projections for every major league player. (Full disclosure: ACTA occasionally sends me a review copy of one of their books, and I am totally in the bag for them.)

James' proprietary performance projections, while perhaps less obsessed-over than PECOTA or even CHONE, are among the most credible ones publicly available. More to the point, ACTA has released the projections on a few key Indians right now, so let's put our greedy little eyes on them and get an early start on the expectation-setting.

First, the pitchers:

Key Indians Pitchers (by ERA)

Player IP W L K SV
ERA

Kerry Wood 56 4 3 62 27
3.54

Justin Masterson 171 10 9 151 0
4.00

Jeremy Sowers 150 7 9 81 0
4.44

WOOD: I don't know how James is projecting the Save stat, and I certainly don't care. James' system sees Wood as a pitcher who can still rack up the strikeouts and who generally, therefore, will prevent runs from scoring. This doesn't look like a $10 million closer, but it looks more than serviceable.

MASTERSON: Probably the best news in the press release is James' divination of Masterson as a solid number-two starter in 2010. I'm not even sure what to say about it, but I like it.

SOWERS: Less surprising but still heartening is the prediction that Sowers can settle in as a solid #3-#4 guy (don't argue), and damn it, that's all we've really asked of the guy, and it didn't seem like that unreasonable of a demand.

Of course, these projections are probably purely statistical, utilizing little if any subjective information, but they do suggest that there isn't too much urgency to the idea of adding a fungible fourth-starter type on the cheap this offseason.

Now the hitters:

Key Indians Hitters (by OPS)

Player At-bats R HR
RBI SB Avg. OPS

Grady Sizemore 574 101 25 78 21 .272 .853

Shin-Soo Choo 583 95 19 86 20 .293 .850

Matt LaPorta 451 70 20 68 3 .266 .802

Kelly Shoppach 381 57 19 61 0 .249 .798

Asdrubal Cabrera 582 96 9 74 19 .294 .779

SIZEMORE: James has Grady more or less returning to form; while his 30-30 has become a 25-21, note that this is based on 574 AB. Prior to 2009, Sizemore averaged 639 AB per season; obviously, health plays a role here.

CHOO: The numbers say that Shin-Soo Choo really is as good as we think he is.

LAPORTA: That 802 OPS no doubt is less than Indians fans want to see, not to mention the 20 HR over 451 AB. My guess is that James' system is making note of LaPorta's 2009 playing time trends but doesn't know that, barring an extreme circumstance, LaPorta actually will get 600+ AB on the big leagues in 2010. It probably also isn't entirely impressed with his 917 OPS in Columbus this year, given he was already 24. Unlike the typical LGTer, James' system is unlikely to blame any faults in his rookie production on Eric Wedge. Whether its ignorance of these factors is a strength or a shortcoming is up for debate.

SHOPPACH: Surprise! James' system thinks Shoppach is a good hitter who just had a bad year, with some real power counterbalancing his mediocre contact hitting. (In 2009, a 798 OPS was a 105 OPS+.) These projections have Kelly hitting about 90 percent as well as he did in his breakout 2008 campaign. One assumes that James' system didn't actually have to watch Shoppach striking out in every-other at bat all season, and again, one can debate whether that's a plus or a minus for the system.

CABRERA: The most disappointing projection here has Cabrera hitting almost as well as in 2009 rather than taking a step forward. In this case as well, the system is not really differentiating between Cabrera's performance through injuries and his production while healthy, and arguably, we can't, either. Asdrubal had an 877 OPS in April, and he seemed to be starting the big breakout year many had predicted for him. He went 785 the rest of the season to finish at 799 — a fine full season given his all-around game, but not quite what we'd like to see from him.

Zorilla Fever: Catch It! Or, How Good is Ben Zobrist?

devil_fingers — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:00:35 -0000

More photos » by Steve Nesius - AP

Tampa Bay Rays' Ben Zobrist skips around the bases like a girl after hitting a grand slam off Kansas City Royals starter Brian Bannister-Posnanski during the fourth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, June 3, 2009, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Steve Nesius)

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I was going to do somethig on BaseRuns this week, then I realized that it was boring. Maybe I'll make it more interesting after the season is over. In the meantime, I thought I'd add a bit more wood to the Ben Zobrist On Fire Bandwagon (how's that for a poorly mixed metaphor?). He went from utility guy to taking Akinori Iwamura's gig. He went from fill-in middle infielder to legit AL MVP candidate (Ken Rosenthal's gonna love this). He's even got a cool nickname.

We all know, of course, that current performance does not equal true talent, right? I mean, clearly, Zobrist is good, but 7.9 WAR (as of this writing) good? Probably not. It's not clear where Zobrist will play on the field next season with Jason Bartlett being trade bait, Akinori Iwamura's option situation, and exactly what the Rays are thinking for right field between Gabe Gross, Gabe Kapler (okay, the latter half of the Grapler platoon is probably gone), and Matt Joyce (remember him?). But it's pretty clear that he's going to play somewhere for the Rays.

I'll try to put aside the bitterness of having kept him for my 2007 fantasy team that also included Shin-Soo Choo, they both sucked, so I let them go. Only to have them be picked up during the 2008 season by others... and so on Ugh. So let's get back to d_f's crappy "true talent" machine and see what it pumps out for Zorilla!

Ben Zobrist

#18 / Second Base / Tampa Bay Rays

Height: 6-3

Weight: 200

Bats: B

Throws: R

Born: May 26, 1981

Hitting:(+basestealing): As usual, we'll use a variation on the method suggested in The Book for estimating a players true offensive talent -- regressing his wOBA (this version from FanGraphs including steals) for each major-league season against 200 PA of league average. In brief appearances in 2006 and 2007, Zobrist was helpless at the plate, posting wOBAs of .243 and .180, respectively. However, toward the end of 2008, Zobirst got called up and put up a very good .364 wOBA in 227 PA. Given his previous performance in both the majors and minors, that appeared to be a fluke, but he started 2009 on fire, and with Iwamura's injury, Zorilla got enough playing time to silence the doubters with a (as of the moment) .399 wOBA over 578 PA. Regressing each season, doing a weighted average, and adding a slightly age adjustment gives us a current true talent level of a .358 wOBA, which translates to about 17 runs above average over 700 PA.

Fielding: Zobrist came up as a SS, and mostly played there prior to 2009 in the majors. He's played all over this season, putting up great UZR numbers at both 2B and RF. Since he spent most of his time this season at 2B, and it seems likely (to me, at least) that he'll be starting there in 2010, we'll try to get a sense of his talent there. Getting a good projection is tough, considering how little time he spent there in the majors prior to 2009. So what I've done is to take his 2009 2B UZR/150, then add in his SS numbers from the prior season while adding 5 to the SS numbers to account for the relative difficulty of that position. It's not perfect, but it's decent. Zobrist has an outstanding +24.1 UZR/150 at 2B so far this season, but his prior ratings at SS were less than impressive (in small sample sizes). There's plenty of regression, and I incorporate speed score into that for outfielders and also middle infielders, although I'm not sure if I'll continue that for MIs. I also included data from the Fans Scouting Report. This was particularly helpful because it allowed me to get a sense of Zobrist's skills relative to 2B even in the seasons when he was playing mostly SS. The Fans were less impressed, and my translations rate him at 4.2, -11.2, -7.0, and +3 runs at 2B from 2006-2009. Given the relative lack of data, I used 50% regressed UZR and 50% Fans Scouting Report. The final result was that Zobrist projects as about a +2 defender at 2B.

Baserunning: Using EqBRR from Baseball Prospectus (minus steals since that's included in wOBA), Zobrist wasn't really that bad or good. There's such a small sample that everything is heavily regressed. Let's call it average for now.

Adding it all up: +17 hitting +2 fielding +2.5 positional adjustment +25 AL replacement level = 46.5 times 85% playing time = about a 4.0 WAR player. Not bad for a guy making the minimum who, prior to this season, projected as a utility man who was a seeming thrown-in when the Rays traded away the immortal Aubrey Huff.

it's still hard to believe, given the out-of-seemingly-nowhere monster seasons had by both Zobrist and the previously-discussed Jason Bartlett, that the Rays aren't in the playoff hunt. But they'll be back. Even if he doesn't put up another Mauer/Pujols-esque season next year (and it's likely he won't), the Rays are in great shape with Zorilla wherever they end up playing him.

Update: Thanks to MGL's comment below, I finally got off my butt and corrected how my spreadsheet is set up (I'd prefer to do this in my database which has a more sophisticated [if still crude] Marcels-esque script in it, but it uses baseball databank, which understandably isn't updated in season... if FanGraphs would add current player age to their leaderboards, however... pretty please, Mr. Appleman? Right after you port the ap to BlackBerry?). Anyway, I don't know how badly this skew some earlier stuff, but long story short: Zobrist projects as more of a .348 wOBA guy, or +11/700. So he's closer to 3.5 WAR player at 2B. I leave the above unaltered as a testimony to my sloth, stupidity, and what half-assed projections can do.

Thinking About My Lack of Thoughts Regarding the Eric Wedge Firing

devil_fingers — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:19:05 -0000

More photos » by Mark Duncan - AP

Don't mourn for me (at a baseball game), I'm already gone.

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If you haven't heard by now, the Cleveland Indians announced today that manager Eric Wedge and his coaching staff will not being returning next season. It's been another disappointing season for Cleveland, and there has been speculation about Eric Wedge for a few years, despite General Manger Mark Shapiro's apparently strong commitment to Wedge in past public statements.

Wedge had a .496 winning percentage (as of this time, apparently, he and his staff are going to finish out the season) with Cleveland over the last seven seasons. That's below .500, but there are managers whom we all know have done worse. As the title indicates, I don't have much to say about this. But I thought I'd at get a few fragmentary thoughts down about what I don't have to say.

I guess I hold to the generic sabermetric line that managers don't matter all that much -- 2-3 games a season, at most. I haven't followed Cleveland game-by-game the way that fans of the franchise (Kyle?) would, but it's hard to think that Cleveland gravely disappointing seasons (I personally thought they were the best team in the AL Central at the beginning of 2009, and I wasn't alone in thinking that) the last couple years can be pinned on Wedge. And I don't think that Mark Shapiro, one of the brighter GMs in the game (although it's fair to say his star shines a little less brightly after the past couple of seasons) believes that Wedge was the main problem, either. I don't know anything, but it wouldn't surprise me if PR is the main reason for this move, given Cleveland's supposed cash flow problems this season and public disappointment.

Cleveland had real question marks about their starting pitching, other than the now-departed Cliff Lee. Behind Lee, you had Fausto Carmona (who'd really only been good in 2007) and a bunch of question marks. The bullpen had had problems in the past, but Kerry Wood was supposed to shore up a strong middle relief core of Rafael Betancourt, who actually has had a good season considering both his time in Cleveland and Colorado, and Rafeal Perez, who was excellentin 2007 and 2008 and fell apart this season. Wood, of course, has been terrible.

As for position players... well, Cleveland always has seemed to have had a good core. Grady Sizemore had been one of the best players in the baseball the last few seasons. Victor Martinez is one of the best hitting catchers in the game, and his defense is underrated. Johnny Peralta, whatever his defensive deficiencies, has hit well in the past. Shin-Soo Choo was looking to be good... and so on.

I won't list everything here about what went right and wrong. Travis Hafner's contract wasn't a great decision, but it would have been hard to foresee injuries keeping him off the field to this extent (and he hasn't been a complete liability when he's been healthy). Victor Martinez had a bad 2008. Shin-Soo Choo has had a great season this season, but that's about it, as Peralta regressed both offensively and defensively, Asdrubal Cabrera's defense has taken away from his good year at the plate, and so on.

I don't know who's responsible for making these decisions. Maybe it's all bad luck, but if it's anyone's fault, it has to fall on the front office. It's hard to see how this is Wedge's fault. Maybe it's time for him to go -- Mark Shapiro is a lot smarter than me. I don't know much about Wedge -- I don't like or dislike him. Cleveland has been bad enough the last couple seasons that no amount of lineup optimization or bullpen efficiency would have put them into the playoffs. But it has to be more of a "we need to try a new voice here and see if this will mollify angry fans" than anything to do with Wedge's ability to make the roster all perform well at once. If someone can find a manager with that magic power... let me know.

Game 157: White Sox 6, Indians 1

Ryan — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 02:20:48 -0000

More photos » by Mark Duncan - AP

Aaron Laffey allowed eight hits, all of them singles, and several of them infield singles.

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This was one game where it didn't really matter much what the pitching did, because John Danks was locked in all game. He allowed three hits, two of them to Shin-Soo Choo. His lone earned run allowed was a Choo home run.

Aaron Laffey did ok with the exception of the second inning, when Chicago batted around. Normally when a club does that, the pitcher is removed, but all the base runners came via singles or walks, and the damage was limited to three runs. He stayed in the game into the eighth inning with the game still within reach, but the bullpen let the game get out of hand. Jose Veras was shaky, but got out of the eighth; Jensen Lewis, and the Indians defense, gave up three runs in the ninth to salt the game for the White Sox.

Next Up: Torres vs. Masterson, 7:05 PM

via www.fangraphs.com

Highest WPA		Lowest WPA
Shin-Soo Choo	.104	Matt LaPorta	-.119
Jose Veras	.050	Jhonny Peralta	-.096
Travis Hafner	.004	Trevor Crowe	-.089

Game 148: Athletics 2, Indians 1

Ryan — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 05:02:01 -0000

More photos » by Tony Dejak - AP

Fire Everyone in This Picture!

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This doesn't excuse the Indians' play one iota, but C.B. Bucknor is a joke. He's been a joke for a long time, and I have no idea how he's still in the majors. His strike zone was consistently ludicrous tonight, remaining so until the last batter of the game, when he called out Kelly Shoppach on a pitch nowhere close to the strike zone. I just hope, for the sake of teams still in the race, that he isn't behind the plate for a meaningful game between now and the end of the season.

In contrast to last season's strong finish, this year's club is tanking in September. Grady Sizemore is out of the action, but the rest of the regulars are all healthy and available. All of them, except Andy Marte, who is losing playing time to Trevor Crowe and Niuman Romero, among others. The offense has gone to sleep, the starters have been mostly hideous, and the bullpen has pitched in an implosion or two this month. 21-year-old Brett Anderson took advantage of the anemic offense, allowing 4 hits and a walk in six inning, and striking out 10 Indians.

Matt LaPorta prevented yet another shutout by doubling home the first run of the game in the ninth inning. Shin-Soo Choo prevented another run by nabbing a sure home run earlier in the game.

Next Up: Sowers vs. Gonzalez, 4:05 PM (No TV)

via www.fangraphs.com

Highest WPA		Lowest WPA
Michael Brantley	.040	Jamey Carroll	-.148
David Huff	.032	Jhonny Peralta	-.147
Jess Todd	.025	Trevor Crowe	-.102

Twins Sweep Indians, Cuddyer Shows Off

Jesse — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:23:04 -0000

More photos » by Ann Heisenfelt - AP

Minnesota Twins' Joe Mauer pwns Cleveland Indians pitcher Aaron Laffey during the fourth inning of a baseball game in Minneapolis, on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)

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Twins 7, Indians 3

For most of the game, this wasn't even a close contest. What the Twins were't hitting hard, the Indians couldn't field, and for anyone that reached base off Nick Blackburn, well, Nick had the answer. He blanked Cleveland for six innings before getting into a bit of trouble in the seventh.

He'd only thrown 80 pitches as he climbed the mound for the top of the seventh, but it didn't take long for the Indians to climb back into what had looked like a done deal. Travis Hafner's leadoff double was followed by a first-pitch homer by Matt LaPorta, cutting the score to 5-2. A hard-hit flyball preceeded another Indians hit, and Blackburn was pulled. Jose Mijares put out the fire like he has countless times this season, and Cleveland would never get any closer.

Delmon Young was the only Minnesota starter to not reach base today, with a number of guys picking up multi-hit days. Matt Tolbert laid down a beautiful bunt single in the second inning before adding a double in the fifth. Jose Morales continues to look great at the dish, laying some wood on a pair of doubles off Aaron Laffey. Denard Span picked up a pair of singles, Joe Mauer continues to pull away for the AL biting title thanks in no small part to a bases-loaded single, and Michael Cuddyer? Well, Cuddyer continues to be Minnesota's leader. On and off the field.

Cuddles picked up a trio of hits today, including an RBI single to lead off the day's scoring, a solo homer in the fifth and a run-scoring double in the seventh that helped erase the two runs Cleveland scored in the top half of the inning. Now hitting .274/.337/.511 on the season, this is the kind of offense the Twins will find even more invaluable now that they're Morneau-less the rest of the way this year.

It was interesting in the final third of the game. After Cleveland brought the score to 5-2 only to be turned away in the bottom of the inning by the Minnesota offense, they didn't go quietly. Jesse Crain allowed a run in the top of the eighth after Mijares tasted trouble, before Matt Guerrier put out another fire. The following inning he got into trouble himself, unable to put Cleveland away with a big lead. He allowed a pair of singles and a ground out before Joe Nathan was called upon for the fourth consecutive game.

Shin-Soo Choo and Jhonny Peralta struck out to end the game quickly, with Peralta looking particularly horrible. Blackburn was good before Mijares bailed him out. Mijares was good before Crain...well...before Guerrier bailed them both out. And Guerrier was good before Nathan bailed him out for his 41st save. So that was fun.

The Twins won again, for the fourth consecutive time. It momentarily pulls the them within four games of the Tigers, but that will again chance by the time the calendar turns. With any luck Minnesota could be 3.5 games down tomorrow, which is an off day for the Twins. If the Royals are extremely generous and win on Thursday, it could be three.

Or it could be five. We'll see.

This was a big series for a team that seems eternally on the brink. Beating teams you're supposed to beat is always a good thing.

Stars
#3: Nick Blackburn (6.1 IP, 2 R, 3 K, 0 BB, 8 H, .199 WPA)
#2: Joe Mauer (2-for-3, BB, 2 RBI, R, .137 WPA)
#1: Michael Cuddyer (3-for-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI, 2 R, .109 WPA)

Game 116: Indians 7, Twins 3

Ryan — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:03:09 -0000

More photos » by Paul Battaglia - AP

Grady Sizemore watches his sixteenth home run of the year clear the baggy.

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The Indians broke the game open in the fifth inning with four runs off Anthony Swarzak and Brian Duensing. It was a balanced attack, with several players having multiple hits. Grady Sizemore and Shin-Soo Choo both went deep, and Travis Hafner had three hits.

While Matt LaPorta continues to mash in Columbus, the Indians started Jamey Carroll in right field and Chris Gimenez at first base today. For a team looking towards 2010 and beyond, leaving LaPorta in Columbus is idiotic.

David Huff struggled to get through five innings, giving up two runs on nine hits. He got himself into a couple major jams, but he either worked his way out of it (first inning) or limited the damage (fifth inning). After Huff left, the Indians got good outings from Rafael Perez (1.1 innings, 1 hit), and Joe Smith (1.2 innings, 1 hit). Tony Sipp gave up a ninth inning home run to Joe Mauer, but recovered to retire the rest of the side in the ninth. Mauer had three hits on the day, and continues to lead the AL in all three "percentage" categoris (Batting Average, On-Base Percentage, and Slugging Percentage).

Next Up: Laffey vs. Blackburn, 2:10 PM

via www.fangraphs.com

Highest WPA		Lowest WPA
David Huff	.187	Luis Valbuena	-.075
Shin-Soo Choo	.132	Chris Gimenez	-.043
Grady Sizemore	.093	Wyatt Toregas	-.029

Game 103: Cleveland 6, Detroit 5

APV — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 04:40:22 -0000

More photos » by Mark Duncan - AP

Victory still tastes sweet

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Tonight was the first night in a new era for the Cleveland Indians. And yet, oddly, nearly all of the pieces remained the same. In a game that lasted into the 13th inning, Grady Sizemore got on base four times. Asdrubal Cabrera, Shin-Soo Choo and Jhonny Peralta managed an 8-20 effort (including a 2B and a HR from Cabrera). Fausto Carmona returned for a 5 inning, 2-run effort. But oddly, at the end of the game, it was a 4-inning (scoreless) effort from Ohka that got the win. That, and an RBI single from Jamey Carroll folllowing a 2B from Jhonny Peralta won the game.

So who is this team? Are we the vestiges of an imaginary contending 2009 team? Are we the kindling of a contending 2010 team? Or are we just the fiiller...the baseball moments which fill the time between significant baseball/life moments in the lives of alll of us watching. I don't know. I don't claim to know. But I do know the remainder of this season has changed because of what the past week has suggested about next season.

Tonight we won because players didn't give up. Ohka, who isn't likely to be around next year, didn't give up. Jamey Carroll, who also isn't likely around for long, hit the game-winning single. Hopefully someone will step into those performance roles. This teams needs leaders, and the next 6 weeks aren't a bad time to audition.

It is the triple hierarchy of baseball that is working against us tonight. We won the game, but we have acknowledged our loss in the lottery for the playoffs, and therefore our chances at real success this season. And, if you really are feeling realistic or pessimistic (depending on your level of optimism), tonight marks the end not just of 2009 but also of 2010. I'm not fully willing to buy into that....but....the future of the Indians has changed. We are entering into a new era. One in which guys like Grady Sizemore and Asdrubal Cabrera are expected to be the veteran leaders, not the young achievers. And who will step in and fill those young voids...well, there are lots of options, and not too many answers.

Highest		Lowest	WPA
T. Ohka	.571	A. Marte	-.272
J. Peralta	.137	K. Wood	-.197
F. Carmona	.096	L. Valbuena	-.113

Game 101: Angels 7, Indians 6

Ryan — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 05:44:58 -0000

More photos » by Chris Carlson - AP

The Indians stayed in the game early thanks to a fantastic defensive play at the plate. Luis Valbuena made a perfect throw from right field, and Victor Martinez lunged to tag Chone Figgins out at the plate.

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The offense continued to churn along, but tonight the eighth inning reared its ugly head yet again. But even despite giving up four runs in the eighth inning, the Indians had a very good opportunity to tie the game in the ninth inning.

David Huff gave up three runs in the third, but thanks to a great defensive play, the damage was limited to just those three runs, and he continued into the eighth inning. After David retired the Angels in order in the seventh, Eric Wedge, seeing the upcoming matchups, sent Huff back out the next inning. At this point Huff had thrown about 100 pitches, and although the bullpen problems have been widely documented, I thought going to the pen was a better risk than to trot back out to the mound a tiring young starter.

Alas, Huff allowed the first two Angels to reach base, setting the stage for a big inning. Joe Smith was called upon with runners on first and second and nobody out, and although he allowed the tying run to score, got a double play to quiet things down. But Tony Sipp, brought on to get the final out in the eighth, walked the first two batters he faced, and then gave up a back-breaking three-run double to Gary Matthews, Jr.

Despite the meltdown, the Indians almost took advantage of an Angels implosion. Brian Fuentes, who has done an excellent job closing games for the Angels this year, for the second night in a row couldn't retire a batter. He walked Andy Marte, gave up a double to Asdrubal Cabrera, a single to Jamey Carroll, and walked Shin-Soo Choo. Angels manager Mike Scioscia removed Fuentes, bringing in Jason Bulger to try to clean up a bases-loaded mess. Victor Martinez was next up, and he grounded into a double play that would not normally be turned on most other major-leaguers. A run scored, but now there were two outs, and Jhonny Peralta would need to drive home the tying run with a base hit. Instead, he hit a grounder to short to end both the game and the Indians' five-game winning streak.

Andy Marte made his 2009 Indians debut tonight, playing first base. Assuming no other major trades happen, he's likely to share playing time with Victor Martinez the rest of the season, and make an occasional start at third. The Indians aren't really looking at his defense, but his hitting, since he has yet to show that he can hit major-league pitching.

Next Up: Laffey vs. Lackey, 3:35 PM

via www.fangraphs.com

Highest WPA		Lowest WPA
Shin-Soo Choo	.142	Tony Sipp	-.370
Jamey Carroll	.127	Victor Martinez	-.316
Asdrubal Cabrera	.091	Luis Valbuena	-.092

Game 96: Indians 5, Blue Jays 4

afh4 — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:34:05 -0000

More photos » by CHRIS YOUNG - AP

Nice job, Dave.

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David Huff turned in one of his better starts of the season today, going 7.2 innings and giving up 4 earned runs. Ultimately, Huff still looks like Jeremy Sowers in that it's unclear what his long term plan for success is. Huff 'pitches to contact' but he also seems to pitch to 'hard contact.' As our resident Jayson Stark, FredOx, pointed out:

Rare territory: David Huff is only the second Tribe pitcher since 1954 to pitch at least 7 innings and give up 7 or more XBH.

The offense also showed up, or at least Shin-Soo Choo showed up. Choo tripled in the 5th to bring in two runs and then scored on a Victor Martinez groundout with a little heads-up base running. Kerry Wood came in to nail down the 5-4 win and looked fine after drilling Alexis Rios in the head with an 0-2 pitch. When watching Wood it's pretty obvious that there's still a dominant reliever in there; perhaps he's just trying to frighten 2010 opponents with these control issues?

A good win for the Tribe: solid starting pitching out of a youngster, solid relief out of Joe Smith and Kerry Wood and a solid day for the offense. While the trade talk is the big news of the day, it was nice to see the team win its first road series since the first week of June in Chicago.

Tomorrow, the Indians travel to Seattle where Aaron Laffey will face Erik Bedard at 10:10pm.

Key Indians Pitchers (by ERA)
Player	IP	W	L	K	SV	ERA
Kerry Wood	56	4	3	62	27	3.54
Justin Masterson	171	10	9	151	0	4.00
Jeremy Sowers	150	7	9	81	0	4.44

Key Indians Hitters (by OPS)
Player	At-bats	R	HR	RBI	SB	Avg.	OPS
Grady Sizemore	574	101	25	78	21	.272	.853
Shin-Soo Choo	583	95	19	86	20	.293	.850
Matt LaPorta	451	70	20	68	3	.266	.802
Kelly Shoppach	381	57	19	61	0	.249	.798
Asdrubal Cabrera	582	96	9	74	19	.294	.779