I may well be the only one at this gathering, but I figured I'd see whether anyone else is interested. I'll be at the May 30th, June 1st and June 2nd games, so if any other soul will be in the area at that time, let me know if you're up for a beer and a game. And of course a poutine after the game. And we'll hang out with Jim Carrey, Wayne Gretzky and Peter Puck.

I debated making this a FanPost or not, but realistically I could poop on my monitor and be of higher quality than the most recent stuff on the right-upper-portion of the page.

Anyways, here's my proposition to you guys. I have just begun my only foray into sports medicine, and will be attending clinics with different orthopedic surgeons all week, and only this week. If anyone's got any burning sports medicine questions that they want an answer to, let's hear it. No Adam Miller stuff though, I already gave that a shot with the plastic surgeons. I know personally I want some opinions on how aggressive guys are being with Tommy John surgery.

Fire away.

Well my trip to Goodyear for games against the Mariners and Brewers has come and gone, and it certainly wasn’t without its share of highs and lows. My contributions here on LGT usually consist of poorly-timed jokes that are usually lame and/or in poor taste, so I guess that providing some notes from our new digs in Goodyear is the least that I can do. I’d like to consider myself somewhat of a Spring Training aficionado, as I’ve had the privilege to attend games in Winter Haven, Dunedin, Vero Beach, Kissimmee, and now Goodyear over four of the last five years, so rest assured that I’m not assessing the Goodyear experience in a vacuum. I was initially going to make this a photo-essay, until I realized that I didn’t take any pictures during the trip, and also that I didn’t have the requisite feminine sunglasses to pull it off. So we’re going with all-text. And here we go…

Continue reading this post »

We've discussed our various Goodyear/Arizona plans in a few different Fanshots/posts, but I thought it might be nice to have one FanPost dedicated to plans to meet up on a day to day basis. Post your plans now, and hopefully closer to the dates little LGT gatherings can be arranged. I'll be there in Goodyear from the 15th-17th, going to the 15th and 16th games.

Let's hear your plans!

Projection systems throughout the country were rocked this morning by the news that all-World Super Hero Curtis Granderson was placed on the 15-DL with a broken finger. The Tigers are reportedly not concerned, since they have Cameron Maybin....uh, I mean...well a combination of Jacques Jones, Ryan Raburn, Inge, or...Freddy Guzman!?!?!?

Good times, people. Good times.

Link.

I guess everyone's getting a little sick of Spring Training....well not I!!!

Night game against the Mets, Laffey with the start and we'll see Sowers later. Dellucci still resting from those tired forearms that plague him.

Boxscore

Holy smokes look at Laffey go through 3 innings....our feline friend better come to play in his next outing.Jamie Carroll with another hit tonight! And J-Mike continuing to inflate his trade value! Woohoo!

I figured I'd get a head start on this since many of us lead lives that need plenty of advance planning. Yeah I'm a student, who am I kidding.

Is there any interest in an LGT trip to Spring Training around the dates of March 9-16? It looks like the Tribe has 4 straight games in WH right in the middle of that timeframe.

Post your thoughts here so we can get an idea of the amount of interest.

If you insist on talking about Wedge mismanaging our pitching tonight, please don't even bother here.

I don't blame Wedge for using JoeBo last night. Of course from a strictly baseball perspective it cannot be explained...Raffy B should've been in there. He's the better pitcher, and was rolling.

But as was brought up last night both on TBS and on the game thread, Wedge's management of this team doesn't exist in a bubble. He has to deal on a personal level with these guys every day, and as much as we hate to admit it, personal relationships and team comraderie may trump common sense, even in the playoffs. It may not make sense to us fans who cling to every win and loss like life and death, but these guys are friends, and their relationships will last well beyond this season. With JoeBo, Wedge has to constantly weigh the benefit of keeping him out of close games vs. what it will do to his clubhouse.

Which brings me to why I wrote this diary. I called out Nixon earlier in the season for being such a "team guy" but not having the balls to absolve Wedge of a duty to play him. You know you suck, you know there are better options, and you know the coach is just trying to keep peace by giving you at-bats. The situation with JoeBo is a little more high-leverage, but I don't see why the same logic cannot be applied. JoeBo is a great team guy. We all know this. But how he can continue to fool himself into thinking that he is our best 9th inning option is delusional.

He would actually become one of my biggest idols in sports if he went to Wedge today and said "Eric, I appreciate how you've supported me up to this point, but if you feel like the Raffies or Jensen give you a better chance, go for it. You don't owe me anything." Of course, the risk would be that Wedge takes this to be a lack of self-confidence by JoeBo in himself, and he takes all of his innings away....which I don't think would be fair either.

Someone in this organization has to address the elephant in the room instead of continuing to dance around this issue, hoping everything will turn out ok. We're 8 games from winning the World Series, and based on an entire season of data, I'm not sure how JoeBo goes through the next 3 weeks without a blown save.

Please, JoeBo, for the sake of your teammates, your coach, and the fans. Be a man.

Rant. Complete.

Not exactly sure how I missed this...

From Yahoo.com:

Former Indians pitcher Stanford pleads not guilty to disorderly conduct charge

September 21, 2007

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Former Cleveland Indians pitcher Jason Stanford pleaded not guilty Friday to a charge of disorderly conduct involving an alleged scuffle in a nightclub district.

Stanford, 30, who was designated for assignment by the Indians on Aug. 4, appeared in Cleveland Municipal Court with his attorney.

He was released on $250 bond, and the case was scheduled for an Oct. 30 trial.

Police arrested Stanford about 2:45 a.m. Thursday in the Warehouse District after he allegedly scuffled with a man, knocking off his glasses.

Stanford was arrested in the same area two years ago on a disorderly conduct charge that was cleared off his record after he finished a diversion program for first-time offenders, according to court spokesman George Yarbrough.

Stanford appeared in eight games for Cleveland, going 1-1 with a 4.78 ERA.

Lee's start tomorrow will be our last piece of data to base the 25th and 30th decisions on. Let's say for the sake of simplicity that we're choosing one pitcher for both starts.

So who ya got?

My pick is Sowers by a nose over Laffey.

His success in AAA over the last month or so has been well-documented here. He's given them 6+ innings consistently, seen his K rates increase, kept his walks down, had great movement on his pitches, and allowed only 9 ER over his last 5 outings. I think we can all agree he's been great down there.

And his success against the M's and Royals doesn't hurt. 2.50 ERA career against KC in 18.0 IP (including a gem this year) and a complete game shutout last year against the M's. Yeah it's only 4 games, I know. And you could argue that Laffey being a new pitcher to both teams could be just as useful as Sowers' success. Laffey has been good in his last two starts in Buffalo as well. A few too many baserunners today for my liking, but he's been just as solid. Either way, I'll be happy seeing Sowers or Laffey on Saturday.

I can say pretty confidently that Cliff won't be chosen based on his career stats against KC. 5.35 ERA, 1.42 WHIP in 79.0 IP. I think he could still use a few more starts in Buffalo too....not everything is ironed out with him just yet.

Let's hear it...who ya got?

I'm sure a lot of you saw this story this morning, but I'd like to hear what you guys have to say about its.

Here's a news article about this study.

Here's the actual study.

Here's a FAQ done by the authors.

And here's one random rebuttal I found on blog linked from AOL Fanhouse.

I'll wait to chime in until you guys have had a chance to read the material. You guys are the most statistically-inclined I've ever encountered so I figured this would be a great forum to discuss it in.

I haven't seen this posted yet....

From the Tampa Tribune:

"The Rays continued to explore signing former Indians RHP Fernando Cabrera and remained confident that they would eventually do so, although no deal appeared imminent late Monday night.

Baseball's waiver process is shrouded in secrecy, but Cabrera apparently cleared waivers Monday without being claimed. Although the Orioles were believed to also be interested in signing the 25-year-old Cabrera, reports out of Baltimore indicated the Rays had the inside track on closing a deal.

Cabrera was designated for assignment by the Indians on Aug. 1 and released on Thursday. In 94 career relief appearances, Cabrera is 6-6 with a 4.35 ERA in 130 1/3 innings."

Right now it's listed as Mr. Thomas Bartholemew Anderson, but from this article it looks like the Tigers are going to their farm system. All the way down to AA.

http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070812/SPORTS02/708120658/1050

Normally this would get me excited, but honestly I really don't know anymore. It's a guy making his major league debut. You tell me how the story ends.

But hey, if there's any way we're getting out of this slump, it's by facing Bondo and a really really young kid.

So I'm watching IRod having huge difficulties catching Verlander here tonight, and I think to myself that every time I seem to watch him play he doesn't exactly look like a sure-fire annual Gold Glover. Yes the guy has a cannon for an arm, and he controls the game well, but you're telling me there's no one more deserving in the AL? So I went to the stats, and found Mr. Johjima (these stats don't even include the disaster I-Rod has had tonight with Verlander):

Johjima has thrown out 17 out of 44 possible basestealers.

I-Rod has thrown out 12 out of 45.

Both have allowed 4 passed balls this year.
Both have 29 assists.

5 errors for I-Rod, 1 for Johjima.

Fielding Pct: Johjima=.998 I-Rod=.991

And my favourite stat of all:

The Detroit Tigers lead the league with 48 wild pitches as a team. (The Mariners are 8th with 34.)

Now say what you will about Detroit's staff having a lot of movement on their stuff, the bullpen being difficult to manage, and that without I-Rod who knows where those stats would be.

But Johjima has to deal with Weaver 1 out of 5 days. I'd say that evens things up.

I-Rod winning the Gold Glove this year would be a farce and would confirm the utter laziness of voters. Thoughts?

I've taken a few days to ponder Sheff's comments about Torre. The first thing that came to mind was "Black guys play for the Yankees?" Now assuming he's not lumping dark-skinned Latinos into his analysis (since apparently they are naturally submissive anyways), I went through the rosters from Sheff's time with the Yanks (2004-2006) and pulled out all of the eligible candidates (regular season numbers):

Gary Sheffield
Tony Clark (106 games in 2004, .221)
Kenny Lofton (83 games in 2004, .275)
Homer Bush (9 games in 2004, no hits)
Tony Womack (108 games in 2005, .249)
Matt Lawton (21 games in 2005, .125)
Terence Long (12 games in 2006, .167)
Tom Gordon (2.21 ERA in 2004, 2.57 ERA in 2005)
Shawn Chacon (2.85 ERA in 12 starts in 2005, 7.00 ERA in 11 starts in 2006)

Couple things came to mind:

1. Who exactly was disrespected from this list, besides probably Sheffield himself? Most of this list performed so poorly that any slight from Torre was probably deserved.
2. Interesting that only Sheff, Chacon and Gordon lasted more than 1 season (no black players were holdovers from 2003). Who knows, he might have been offended that the team wasn't keeping black players around. I guess C.C. isn't going to the Yanks.

I know some of you despise Deadspin, and even I'm starting to move more towards Fanhouse instead, but this is still hilarious news nonetheless:

http://deadspin.com/sports/the-internet-is-the-future/minor-league-pitcher-pokes-mlb-on-facebook-278 533.php

Complete with a citation of LGT. It's the weekend though, so no one will probably see it.

It may seem crazy to compare Franklin to a current All-Star (yes, whose power numbers are a tad inflated), but I see our situation with Franklin as similar to what the Jays went through in 2004 with Rios.

Even though he didn't have a single major league AB prior to 2004, they gave him 400+ ABs to see what he could do. His power numbers were atrocious (1 HR), but he did hit .286, which earned him a spot on the next season's team. He still only had 10 HR and 59 RBI playing the entire season in 2005, but the Jays patience has certainly paid off this season.

Having watched Rios a bunch this season, I definitely do see some comparisons. Their swings are very similar, they have similar body types, they are both above-average outfielders, neither showed exceptional power in the minors, and both will likely be .280 hitters for their career.

The clear difference as far as I can see is that Rios hit righties and lefties pretty well equally from the beginning of his career, whereas Gutz has been shaky against righties. And of course Gutz just isn't getting the at-bats that Rios did early in his career to prove himself as a viable starter for future seasons.

Only way we're going to see if we've got a Rios on our hands is to give him a legit shot.

So I'm watching Jake tonight wondering what kind of pitcher he'll be by the end of his contract. According to baseball-reference.com his top comparables through age 28 are Carl Pavano, Oil Can Boyd, Bill Wegman, Johnny Marcum, Sloppy Thurston, Adam Eaton, Rich Gale, Aaron Sele, Charles Nagy and Jason Schmidt.

Of all of those guys, only Sele and Schmidt pitched over 100 IP past the age of 32. Westbrook turns 33 on September 29th of the final year of his contract. Well done, Shapiro. Well done indeed.

Is anyone planning on going to the series July 6-8 in Toronto at the Rogers Centre? For those of you who've never been to a game in T.O. (yes, that's what Canadians call Toronto), it used to be Jacobs Field North during the glory days of constant sellouts at the Jake, but even still it remains a nice place to watch a game with fellow Indians fans. I'll be there all 3 games, so let me know if you're interested in joining.

Everyone's been picking on Pronk, including me in last diary post, so I think it's time to spread around some of the hating.

It's your turn, Monsieur Sizemore. Grady has only 3 extra base hits in last 13 games, and has struck out in 54 of the 109 atbats this season in which he has gone down 1-2 in the count.

Moral of the story.....shorten your goddamn swing!! You have to wonder how many of those 54 outs could've been avoided if Grady at least puts it into play and beats out a couple with his phenomenal speed.

So I went to the WPA stats for the team deciding to see if Pronk has at least been comparable to some of his teammates when it comes to helping us win ballgames. I went back over the last 44 games (with an atbat) for each positional player on our club, and using a minimum WPA of 0.085 as having a significant impact on the game (number seemed like a good choice) see how many games each player had over this number. The results are pretty crazy. (And yes, I realize stats are just stats.)

Martinez 11
Grady 10
Blake 10
Barfield 10
Peralta 8
Nixon 7
Michaels 7
Shoppach 7 (in 22 games)
Garko 6
Dellucci 5
Marte 4 (in 15 games)
TRAVIS HAFNER 3!!!!!!!
Gutz 2 (in 17 games)
Choo 1 (in 5 games)
Rouse 0
Francisco 0 (in 2 games)

Big Pronk with only 3 such games in his last 44. I hate to keep piling on the guy, but this isn't just a mirage anymore. And kudos to J-Barf too...the guy may have a terrible OBP but he certainly is clutch.

Thoughts on these stats?