Tag: marc rzepczynski

Tribe Makes Some Moves, We Wished For More

The Cleveland Indians made a series of trades before the July 31st trade deadline, moving two left-handed bats in David Murphy and Brandon Moss, and they also moved lefty reliever Marc Rzepczynski.

We have no problems with any of the moves, as the deals with open up the roster for some younger talent.

Our regret is they didn’t do more.

The first trade, which sent Murphy to the Angels, is simply a case of the outfielder having a club option at the end of this year, which the Indians weren’t willing to pick up.  So, they moved him for a minor league SS in Eric Stamets.

Stamets is purported to be a good athlete, and excellent defender who cannot hit, batting under .250 each of his last two seasons in the minor leagues.

But really, there isn’t a huge demand for corner outfielders who don’t have a lot of pop.  The only question is getting another shortstop with Jose Ramirez (who can play other spots) and Erik Gonzalez already trapped behind Francisco Lindor.

The Moss deal was a surprise, but the 1B/OF was an all or nothing hitter with Cleveland, and that Antonetti was able to get one of St. Louis’ top prospects made this transaction a no-brainer as well.

The southpaw Cleveland received in return, Rob Kaminsky, is 6-5 with a 2.09 ERA this year in high A, and we hope he goes to Akron.  In his three years in the minors since being the Cardinals first round pick in 2013, he has a 2.15 ERA.

He is said to have a deceptive delivery and hitters have a hard time picking up the ball.  He’s also a strike thrower with just 68 walks in 217 minor league innings.

The return for Rzepczynski was OF Abraham Almonte, who is a .233 hitter in over 300 big league at bats, of which he was struck out in about a third of them.  So, he’s more like a guy who will spend a lot of time in Columbus.

We would have liked to seen the Tribe move OF/DH Ryan Raburn too, and that might still happen before the August 31st waiver deal deadline.  Raburn got off to a hot start, but has been mediocre with the stick since the middle of May.

The front office also didn’t resolve their Michael Bourn problem, so the outfielder who had a mini-renaissance this week (his OPS is up to 600 folks!), is still here and we assume that Terry Francona will continue to write his name in the lineup.

There were rumors that Cleveland was dangling Carlos Carrasco in the deal which would have brought back the impact bat, the team desperately needs, but nothing happened.

At the very least, these moves give the Indians an opportunity to look at some young players, like Tyler Holt and Jerry Sands, just recalled, and lefty Michael Roth, who came up earlier this week.

It also gives Lonnie Chisenhall one last chance to prove he can be a big league hitter.

The reshaping of the Indians’ roster has started.  It’s unfortunate that the weaknesses of this team, that were evident as early as the beginning of May, weren’t addressed sooner.

MW

Why Doesn’t Anyone Ask the Tribe???

We get that it is far different covering a major league professional sports team now than it was, say, 20-25 years ago.

The executives and the manager/head coaches don’t like answering pointed questions, mainly because the players, who have come up in an atmosphere of coddling, don’t like to be criticized in the media.

That leads to politically correct responses, and probably a conversation behind close doors with the parties who earned the coaches’ ire.

So, we understand that it is not in the beat writers’ best interests to ask Terry Francona, GM Chris Antonetti, or team president Mark Shapiro tough questions, particularly ones that they have no desire to answer in public.

However, here are some things that deserve answers from the management.

Why Does Michael Brantley Continue to Play Centerfield?  Brantley’s numbers as a LF and a CF aren’t very different, he has an OPS of 788 playing in the middle of the outfield compared to a 797 figure in LF.  However, it is clear to us that Brantley’s defense is not up to par in center, and his power numbers are off dramatically (70 points) from a year ago.

Covering more ground in a more demanding defensive position likely puts more pressure on his back, which has been bothering him all season.

When last year’s all-star doesn’t play the field, when he’s used as a DH, his OPS is 860, a figure very comparable to 2014’s 890.

With the offense struggling mightily, doesn’t it make sense to put one of the Tribe’s primary offensive threats in a less demanding defensive spot?

Is There a Need For a Situational Lefty in the Bullpen?  The pure numbers say Marc Rzepczynski is doing a solid job, with 23 strikeouts and 10 walks in 17-2/3 innings.  The stat guys will point out he’s got a good strikeout to walk ratio.

On the other hand, last season, the man they call Scrabble allowed left-handed hitters to bat just .180 against him, with an incredibly low 441 OPS.

This season, those figures are a .234 batting average against, the OPS has risen to 640.

Worse, Francona seems to have lost some trust in the southpaw, bringing in Cody Allen in today’s game with lefty swinging Joey Votto at the plate with a man on and two out in a 3-1 game.

Last year, Tito would’ve definitely went with Rzepczynski in that situation.

Do They Really Need Eight Relievers?  This ridiculousness has now gone on for about a month.

We know Francona likes to keep his relievers fresh, but now that the starting pitching has stabilized, there is no need to carry that many guys in the bullpen.

There simply isn’t enough work.

The guys who can be said to be taking up a roster spot that could be better utilized are “long” relievers Jeff Manship, Ryan Webb, and Austin Adams.

If ALL of those pitchers are used more than one in a seven game span, it would be shocking.  Adams came into the game Friday night, and quite frankly, we forgot he was on the roster.

Again, with the offensive struggles the Indians are going through, wouldn’t an extra bat on the bench make more sense?

And we haven’t even mentioned questions like “Why is Francisco Lindor still hitting second?” or “Why do we keep playing Mike Aviles in the outfield?” or “What was it that finally made Lindor ready for the big leagues?”

We would just love to hear how the Tribe management would avoid these questions with their normal corporate double speak.

Instead, we will have to speculate our own answers.

MW