Miller on DL, Bullpen Loses Another Arm

 

The Cleveland Indians placed right handed reliever Matt Miller on the 15 day disabled list yesterday with some tightness in his forearm.  Miller had been having an outstanding camp, striking out 16 batters in eight innings of work.  With Opening Day in Chicago less than a week away, have the relief woes of a year ago been resolved?  Yes and no. 

 

After the trade of Bob Wickman, the Tribe searched the rest of the year for a closer.  Tom Mastny wound up doing the best job, saving five games.  Wickman was never a lights out closer, and the team replaced him over the off season with Joe Borowski, who saved 36 games with Florida a year ago.  Borowski will at least be the equal of Wickman, although he does strike out more hitters than Wicky did.  Compared to the job done by Fausto Carmona, Jason Davis, etc. the rest of the season, this appears to be an upgrade.

 

The eighth inning will be handled by either Roberto Hernandez or Rafael Betancourt.  Betancourt has struggled this spring, but has arguably been the Tribe’s most reliable reliever the past three years.  His consistency is a plus, as well as the fact he is a strikeout pitcher.  Hernandez is 42, but still brings the heat.   If Betancourt’s spring is an aberration, the set up role appears to be in good hands.

 

Prior to that, your guess is as good as mine.  The situational lefty is Aaron Fultz, who has good numbers against left handed hitters.  If he can throw strikes, he should be able to handle the job.  The next two candidates to handle late inning duties still scare the heck out of me:  Fernando Cabrera and Jason Davis.  Cabrera still falls behind too many hitters and then comes in with fat pitches.  He must learn to get ahead in the count to be thought of as reliable.  Davis needs to show that he can pitch with runners on base.  His numbers allowing inherited runners to score last season was abysmal, and opposing hitters batted .302 (.383 with runners in scoring position) against him.

 

With Miller out to start the season, the last spot in the bullpen fell to either Mastny or lefty Juan Lara.  Lara had the advantage since he would allow Eric Wedge an extra southpaw out of the ‘pen.  Lara was very effective vs. left handed hitters in his limited appearances last season after being recalled on September 1st.  It would seem Lara would have been the better fit, because it would have allowed Mastny to close on a regular basis at Buffalo.  However, the brass went with Mastny’s experience as a closer last year and chose him instead. 

 

Unless Cabrera and Davis start pitching better, and neither guy is exactly a youngster anymore (Cabrera is 25 and Davis will be 27 in May), the starting pitcher is going to have to provide seven innings per start.  That’s a tough load to carry over the length of a baseball season.  So, even though GM Mark Shapiro brought in some new bodies to help the relief corps, it’s the holdovers who must step up.  If they don’t, it could be the weakness that holds back the 2007 Tribe.

 

MW