Ah, the beginning of spring is here. You can almost smell the pine tar, feel the rosin bag (Rowengartner and his damn hidden ball trick), and hear the crack of the bat during batting practice. This truly is one of the best times of the year. Now I don’t understand why young people these days don’t appreciate baseball, maybe their parents were too intent on pushing their kids to the slopes or lacrosse (don’t get me started on “lax”), but baseball will always hold a special place in my life. The boys of summer are soon approaching, and that means Tribe Time is right around the corner.
Spring training is about to be wrapped up, and except for a few spots here and there, the major league roster has basically taken shape. If you know me, then you shouldn't be surprised that my optimism is about as high as it possibly could be after losing 90+ games the last two seasons. The way the pitching staff more than handled their business after the All-Star break last season, combined with the fact that our line up resembled Columbus’ opening day roster, I saw some very encouraging things. This will be the first segment of a three part series before the season begins. Starting off with the strength of our team, how about we talk about the pen? Hey you groaning in the back of the group, take a hike. Seriously, get lost.
Purple Gatorade On Me!
The bullpen struggled during the beginning of last year and through most of the summer. The addition of Kerry Wood as the closer was supposed to solidify a spot that remained one the most perplexing since Bob Wickman was led onto greener pastures. If someone mentions Joe Borowski please hit the backspace on your keyboard and go surf the web elsewhere. Whether it was Betancourt, Fernando Cabreara (I swear to you I thought he was the guy), Jenny Lewis, Raffy Perez, or Sipp, when you have a bullpen by committee there is little hope.
Chris Perez’s debut for the Cleveland Indians couldn’t have been any worse, even if Ke$ha tried to write a song about it. The first two batters the hard-throwing reliever faced were plunked. Not even close. I remember a few sailing behind the White Sox batters before even getting hit. The stat line of .2 innings, 4 runs, 2 hits given up, 2 HBP, and a BB makes even John Rocker snicker a little. Perez did however show his great velocity, reaching the upper to mid-90’s on a regular occasion. His slider was so wicked for awhile even he had no idea where it was ending up.
Over the past season as he was acclimated to the closer’s role Perez worked diligently on keeping his slider tight, his fastball in on lefties, and more importantly keeping his emotions in check. A closer needs to have the ever talked about “closer’s mentality” and while Perez had been a closer at the University of Miami (the Florida
Fast-forward a year and now Chris Perez is anchoring a bullpen that boasted the third best ERA for the American League last season, and they even added an arm. Not to be overlooked is the acquisition of Chad Durbin. Durbin’s homecoming back to Cleveland surprised me quite a bit, I didn’t understand why no one wanted to give a major league contract to a guy who had pitched on World Series teams the past few seasons, but I tend to not question the seldom times we as Clevelanders catch a break (I’m looking at you Peyton. Thanks again Brady). Durbin, who tops out at 89-91 mph won’t be blowing anyone away, but his experience and knack for pitching his way out of jams will be asset for this team (or the Yankees or Red Sox come fall). The rest of the bullpen will fall into place behind these two with any sort of combination of Sipp, Raffy Perez, Hermann, Jess Todd, Vinne Pestano, and the injured Joe Smith (where have you heard that one before?).
This certainly looks airbrushed or something
Sipp and Raffy Perez are the only two left-handers we have in the bullpen now that Laffey has been sent to Seattle to reunite with good old Wedgie (yeah, they actually called Wedge, “Wedgie”). Sipp, a converted outfielder, is more of a setup guy who can hit the low 90s on his fastball. He struggles from time to time with his control and his breaking ball, which is a newer pitch for him. When Sipp is pitching well his fastball hits the spot and his change up keeps the righties off balance. Perez is more of a match up lefty whose sweeping lefty slider just disappears into the right-hander’s batter’s box. Control and consistency has also been the bugaboo for Perez, but just like Sipp, he seems to have figured out the control aspect of his game and these two could really help against the heavy hitting left-handers that riddle the AL Central (Morneau, Thome, and the newly acquired Dunn for the Sox).
Turn Up the Heat, Or At Least Turn It On
Nothing made me feel like more of a piece of crap for not being a major leaguer than watching the likes of Jeremy Sowers, and Aaron Laffey toe the rubber every now and again. Not only do the two look like Eric Foreman, I’m pretty sure I can out bench them as well. That’s rather pathetic. I know Shapiro was into the whole “seasoned college pitcher who throws strikes” sort of thing, but what happens when he throws in the low 80’s with a change up in the high 70’s? Balls fly far. These were the two pitchers who actually made it to the big leagues, and I am not even considering the multitude of pitchers we drafted in this mold that failed before even reaching Cleveland
Pretty Cool Guy (PCG), but no baseball player
If you hadn’t noticed, when David Huff won 11 games two seasons ago (with like a 7.89 ERA to be fair. Sarcasm intended people) it was the first time an Indians home grown pitcher had won double digit games since Carston Charles himself was wearing Chief Wahoo. Ever wonder where all of our draft picks were going? Nowhere, that’s where.
Once the dismantling of the 2007 Indians began, stock piling hard throwing pitchers has been at a premium (YAY!). Whether it’s been the back of the bullpen, or at the top of our draft boards, power arms have been acquired and some have even made it to the 216. Chris Perez, Jess Todd, Masterson, and even Frank Hermann have showed what a little bit of life on your fastball can do. Personal favorites of mine that still haven’t gotten to the big leagues yet, but may in the next 24 months would be, Hector Rondon, Nick Hagadone, Josh Judy, Bryce Stowell, and Rob Bryson. All of these pitchers probably translate to late inning bullpen help, and if you have ever heard a manager or front office guy talk about pitching you know they always want more arms.
In Review…
It’s easy to see that once a soft spot in the Indians organization, the bullpen has now become one of their strengths. Of course they could go out and start blowing a bunch of leads (lets worry about getting leads first shall we?) and make us pull our hair out, but I have more confidence in the pen than I can ever remember. The Indians organization finally realized a way that they as a small market team can compete with the big guys in one aspect. With strict pitch counts and ever looming injuries, middle relievers and back of the bullpen personnel are incredibly vital to a team’s success. The fact that our bullpen at the major league level looks promising, and that we have a vast amount of backup should someone get hurt or falter, makes me excited for the 7th to 9th innings for the first time since it was Wicky Time with Bob. Go Tribe.
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