Can Tito Afford To Keep Handing It To Hand?

It is hard to come up with any criticism of the Cleveland Indians’ pitching staff. They lead the American League in ERA at 2.56.

They also lead the AL in strikeouts, least walks, and shutouts. The only category they are struggling a bit in is allowing the long ball. They’ve allowed the fifth most in the league, but that is really a product of being around the strike zone so much.

Most of the home runs are of the solo variety, and throughout the history of baseball, some of the game’s best hurlers have allowed tons of homers. The career leader is Jamie Moyer, and the next four pitchers are all in the Hall of Fame: Robin Roberts, Ferguson Jenkins, Phil Niekro, and Don Sutton.

However, there is one thing that should be a concern for Terry Francona and his pitching coaching staff of Carl Willis, Ruben Niebla, and Brian Sweeney. And it may be the most important pitching spot for a contending team. It’s the status of closer Brad Hand.

Last night, Hand picked up his 5th save, but it certainly wasn’t pretty. Coming in with a 3-0 lead handed to him by Shane Bieber and Nick Wittgren, Hand walked the lead off hitter on five pitches.

He then got Miguel Cabrera to lineout to LF, while the next hitter, Jonathan Schoop reached on catchers’ interference, which wasn’t Hand’s doing.

Another line drive to left was followed by an RBI double, so suddenly, the Tigers had the tying runs in scoring position. Cameron Maybin bounced to the mound, and the Tribe won the game.

In Hand’s 5-2/3 innings this season, he’s allowed five hits and four walks, along with seven runs, four of them earned.

He’s made seven appearances on the season, and has produced just one clean inning, that on August 4th. And he’s yet to protect a one run lead heading to the ninth.

He did come into a scoreless tie vs. the White Sox on July 29th, but proceeded to allow four runs (three earned) facing five hitters, retiring just one.

If the rest of the bullpen were struggling, we could understand Francona’s reticence to move away from Hand as the closer, but that is not the case. In fact, the skipper has started to use rookie James Karinchak in high leverage situations, aka the “Andrew Miller” role.

Nick Wittgren, who closed some a year ago when Hand was down with a tired arm, has pitched eight times (8 IP) to a 2.25 ERA and striking out 10. He’s prone to giving up the long ball, he gave up 10 gopher balls in 2019, but just one this season.

Another rookie, Cam Hill, has also earned a save, and outside of an outing against the Cubs last week, has also been very effective.

The questions are these for Tito, does he feel confident using Hand in a one run save opportunity? Would he use Karinchak in that spot, if he hadn’t already use him earlier? Would he go to Hill or Wittgren?

Again, it would be one thing if the veteran lefty, and three time All Star struggled once or twice, but he’s been shaky in six of his seven outings, and his velocity seems down, and he’s had command issues with his slider.

If Francona isn’t nervous, everyone else is.

This isn’t a normal 162 game season. The Indians are a little over a third of the way through the season, so patience is in short supply.

Perhaps Willis and his guys see something to indicate Hand is close to regaining his usual form. If they aren’t, it will be interesting to see what course of action is.

Callaway Was Very Good, But Pitching Is Still Very Much A Strength

One of the things that is interesting about Cleveland sports fans is their intense loyalty if an athlete or coach has ever had any success in the city.

The latest example is the pining for current Mets’ manager Mickey Callaway to return to the Tribe if and when he gets fired by the team, which according to what you read, could be as early as today.

Callaway became the Indians’ pitching coach in 2013 when Terry Francona became the Cleveland skipper.

He took over a pitching staff that finished 14th in the American League in ERA in 2012, and improved that statistic by about a run per game, ranking 7th in his first year at the big league level.

He had been in the organization as a minor league pitching coach since 2010.

His biggest accomplishment was coaxing a dominating second half of the season out of Ubaldo Jimenez. That season also saw the first regular use as a starting pitcher by Corey Kluber.

The Indians as a team improved too, going from 68 wins the year before to 92 wins and a wild card spot. The pitching improvement was a big key, no doubt.

The following season, the staff ERA improved once again, dropping from 3.82 to 3.56, 5th in the AL. Kluber became a bona fide staff ace, winning his first Cy Young Award.

Callaway also rebuilt Carlos Carrasco, putting him in the bullpen to emphasize being aggressive from the minute he took the hill. After rejoining the rotation in August, Cookie was dominant as a starter, and really hasn’t looked back since.

In 2015, the Tribe’s team ERA rose, but their ranking in the AL went to #2. Carrasco and Kluber made for a formidable 1-2 punch, and much like T.J. House a year earlier, Callaway guided Cody Anderson into a very good second half (7-3, 3.05 ERA).

The Indians won the pennant in 2016, with a pitching staff that ranked 2nd in the American League in ERA. By then, Trevor Bauer and Danny Salazar were mainstays of the rotation, and the mid-season deal for Andrew Miller gave Cleveland a dominating back of the bullpen, along with holdovers Cody Allen and Bryan Shaw.

Injuries to Carrasco, Bauer, and Salazar ultimately took its toll in the post-season as Kluber and the bullpen showed wear and tear.

In Callaway’s last season here, the Tribe finished first in the league in ERA, and Mike Clevinger basically replaced Salazar in the rotation.

Carl Willis took over as pitching coach in 2018, and the ERA ranking dropped to 4th, but that had more to do with the bullpen’s problems. Miller and Allen kind of collapsed under the heavy workload from the previous two seasons, and Shaw departed as a free agent.

On the other hand, Kluber was a Cy Young finalist (again!), Carrasco was still very good, and Bauer and Clevinger became top of the rotation types for basically every team but Cleveland.

You also have to credit Willis for bringing along Shane Bieber, who looks like another very good starter for the Indians.

The point is the pitching staff, which currently is 3rd in the AL in ERA isn’t the problem.

It would be great if the Tribe brought him back in the organization if he loses his job because adding talented people is great, the more, the merrier.

However, the criticism being directed at Carl Willis is idiotic. The pitching staff is doing well. He has brought along Clevinger and Bieber, and you can make a very good argument the starting rotation is even better than it was when Callaway departed.

Mickey Callaway is a very good pitching coach, and may be a very good manager someday. But don’t let nostalgia get in the way of evaluation Carl Willis.

Early Spring Roster Battles For Tribe

Exhibition play is a little over a week old in Goodyear, Arizona and what that means mostly is we are closer to the start of the regular season, which is now just 24 days away.

We have always maintained the perfect record for spring training is around .500, because it doesn’t give the fan bases of a bad team any unrealistic expectations, nor does it worry supporters of good teams, like the Cleveland Indians.

The best news to come out of the desert is it appears Jason Kipnis is healthy and ready to go.

We were never in the trade Kipnis camp, because he is coming off a poor, injury plagued season, so the Tribe front office was never going to get value, it would have been strictly a salary dump.

The negatives have been on the injury front where Danny Salazar likely will not be able to open the season on the big league roster, and OF Brandon Guyer has had some set backs as well, although we aren’t sure his timetable was to open the year on the active list.

Salazar’s injury simply means Terry Francona and new/old pitching coach Carl Willis don’t have to make a decision on whether or not they have to move a starter to the bullpen.

As of right now, Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Trevor Bauer, Mike Clevinger, and Josh Tomlin will make up the starting staff.

With Guyer and Michael Brantley likely to be on the disabled list to start the season, it opens up two outfield spots, with holdovers Abraham Almonte, Tyler Naquin, Greg Allen, and Yandy Diaz battling with Rob Refsnyder, Rajai Davis, and Melvin Upton Jr. to make the Opening Day roster.

Quite frankly, we think each spot will go to one in each group.

The first group has two switch-hitters in Almonte and Allen, with Naquin swinging from the left side and Diaz the right. The latter has been playing most infield, so maybe versatility wins out.

The brass knows what Almonte can do and Allen could probably benefit from some time at AAA. In the latter group, Refsnyder offers the multi-position option, while Davis and Upton are trying for one last shot at a big league roster.

To date, neither of the veterans have done much in games, but this is the Indians we are talking about, and we know Tito and his staff love veterans.

We would keep Diaz, putting him in LF to start, and Refsnyder would also get a shot because he can play both infield and outfield.

In the bullpen, the loss of Bryan Shaw and Joe Smith leave two openings, but the recent signings of veteran Matt Belisle, Carlos Torres, and the claiming of Ben Taylor from Boston would make them the leading candidates to win the job.

Torres is durable, pitching in 65 or more games in three of the last four years in the bigs, and Belisle ended last season as the Twins closer, pitching great in the second half, after solid years in Washington and St. Louis.

One reliever to watch is Nick Goody, who has struggled so far in Arizona. He doesn’t have the track record of some of the other arms, so he could find himself the odd man out if he doesn’t start pitching better.

Again, it’s early. But the players we talked about are the ones in battles to make the trip north to Seattle on March 29th.

Which can’t get here fast enough.