The Roster Battles are Interesting Here are some new capsule profiles for your review and a couple of updates. Hope you enjoy them.
UPDATE – Vinnie Pestano: He threw again today and seemed to be working on his fastball command. He threw a few 80 MPH breaking balls but his focus was clearly on the fastball. His speed was between 90-91 MPH and more often at 91. This is still about 2 MPH below his previous springs but he could catch up by the end. His main problem was fastball command with the velocity being less important. He still has some work to do. I am rooting for him.
UPDATE – CC Lee: Still throwing well and looking good. He is right on the edge of being ready. I would still like to see better fastball command. If sent down (which is likely), he will be near the top of the list when call-ups are needed.
Carlos Santana: As you have been hearing, Carlos is beginning to find his mojo at third base. He is playing with excellent skill, soft hands, and a cannon for an arm. His arm had been inconsistent but that seems to be changing with many excellent throws lately. I think he has a great chance to win the job.
Justin Sellers: This diminutive bundle of energy acquired from the Dodgers earlier this spring has been very impressive. His fielding has been solid but not spectacular. His hitting has been excellent showing good swing to contact and an ability to take the ball where it is pitched. He has gap power and a very lackluster major league hitting performance in his career. Great depth for the minors but it will be very difficult for him to break camp with the ML club.
David Murphy: He has done nothing to diminish his reputation as a solid fielder. However, his hitting has not been very good and he seems to be pressing a bit. A year like last year is enough to shake anyone’s confidence and I fear that his confidence has not fully recovered. Still 2 more weeks to go so there is still time.
Matt Carson: Matt’s performance at the end of last year and this spring makes it very difficult to cut him from the roster. His age and lack of a great minor league track record are strikes against him considering he is going up against the likes of Jeff Francoer and others. He is hitting well now and his defense has been solid.
I will try to get some more capsules up on the site soon.
Some position players of interest Here are some more brief capsules on Indian players during spring training. We will explore more position players over the next couple of blogs.
Lonnie Chisenhall: I remain concerned about his long term future with the Indians. He is frustrating for devoted Indian fans to watch because of his immense promise. Way too much talent to give up on but way to much inconsistent performance to count on. He has tried to adjust to his repeated 1-2, 0-2 counts by swinging at the first pitch. That may work for awhile but most scouting reports will catch up to that and he will see breaking balls in the dirt on pitch one. He would be better off simply seeing the ball and hitting it instead of developing a tendency. I see the same over anxiousness this spring that we see during the season. He had a nice day at the plate yesterday but several poor days as well. His fielding remains inconsistent making him tough for Terry to count on. But Francona clearly has not given up on him. He had another nice double today as well but still doesn’t look comfortable at the plate. I wish I was as optimistic as Terry.
Francisco Lindor: As all Indian fans know, he has a major league glove right now. The Indians are trying to get him a good number of At Bats this spring. That is a good strategy. He was a DH yesterday, a position he will likely never play at the ML level. His swing is aggressive making him prone to off speed pitches down but that is also what results in extra base power. So his job going forward is balancing his aggressive swing with good plate discipline. Often those two don’t go together but, when they do, potential .300 hitters with gap power result. That is probably Lindor’s upside. But combine that with a fine defender and the Indians will have one heck of a player.
Jesus Agular: Do not be fooled by his long no-hit streak this spring. This young man brings a fairly nice discipline to the plate along with pure power. He does not seem to over swing. Even with this frustrating spring in his first big chance with the big club, he looks controlled and disciplined. Not easy when you are 0 for 16. I like his approach and I saw him hit some nice balls that were turned into outs. Certainly one to watch going forward. I think he has an excellent chance to emerge within two years. I was not able to see enough defensive plays to be sure there but he looks a bit stiff. Would like to see more but he is probably sent down by the time you read this.
Carlos Montcrief: I like what little I saw of him this spring. He has power and reasonable plate discipline. He has an aggressive swing and makes good contact. His fielding is not elegant looking but effective. He made some nice plays but I think he might have made them look harder than they were. A work in progress but he is a solid prospect.
I will have more available late tonight. Going to check out the Cavs now. Ttyl8r.
More pitching capsules Another sun-filled day in the books and we have some new observations for spring training with the Indians. Not all of these observations come from today’s game but they come from the last several days of spring training.
Cody Allen: Cody has dynamic stuff and today was no different. He did show some signs of rust in that his fastball command was still not what it will be eventually. His off speed pitches were solid and his ability to blow away Trumbo was impressive. He will end up right where he belongs in the eighth inning.
John Axford: Threw his fastball in the mid 90s and seemed to have reasonably good command. He did not throw his curveball hardly at all. It seems to me that he is preserving his curveball until later in the spring. I suspect that as he begins to mix in his off speed pitches he will look even more effective. At this point I am not concerned and I believe that he could be an effective closer. I do not believe that he will be a significant downgrade over Chris Perez.
Scott Barnes: Scott was throwing the ball fairly well in the two times that I have watched him. Unfortunately, he does not show any substantial improvement over where he looked to be last year. I still feel that he would be an extremely long shot to make the Indians team and I am not even certain if he could be effective if we need to call him up.
Preston Guilmet: He suffers from his main problem of having average stuff. It is not that his stuff has no major-league potential but is just not effective enough to consistently get major league hitters out. I do not have much confidence that he can be effective either now or in the future for the Indians.
T.J. House: Decent but not great fastball and fastball command. He can get hitters out with his off speed pitches, but not consistently enough. Still a prospect but approaching the point where that may no longer be true.
Justin Masterson: He looked sharp and will be ready to go on opening day. I just wish the Indians would sign him to a three or four year deal. He would be worth it in my view.
Bryan Shaw: Another dynamic late inning reliever that looked fine on the mound today. He will pair with Cody Allen to clean up the seventh and eighth innings. Looked good and he impressed me again with his mid 90’s fastball paired with a sharp breaking ball.
Blake Wood: He has a great chance to compete for a bullpen spot. I did not see the explosion I expected with his fastball but it is good enough. He was effective in his one inning.
More capsules tomorrow. I will include position players.
Rusty but an Ace in waiting.I’ve been in Goodyear Arizona since Saturday and will be here the rest of the week. Here are some early observations from my first couple of days.
Trevor Bauer: Here is a young man who is trying hard but will certainly be ticketed back to the minor leagues. The concern here is, despite changes in his delivery and approach, he has made no real progress with respect to commanding his fastball. It still appears to me that his arm drags behind his body when he is trying to throw at maximum velocity. The result of this is a fastball the consistently tails high to the hitters and it is quite easy for them to avoid swinging. There is still hope for him eventually but his lack of progress is certainly concerning.
Vinnie Pestano: I still have hope for Vinnie. He seems to have made progress with respect to his command especially of his off speed pitches. He is commanding his fastball fairly well but still has work to do there. His overall velocity is approaching where he needs to be but it is not there yet. He topped out at 92 mph and was able to throw consistently between 89 and 90. There is still a chance that he could be ready and look like the Vinnie of old by the start of the season. His off speed pitches were really nasty yesterday.
Danny Salazar: He looked rusty but otherwise was throwing very well. I am still encouraged by his overall potential and I believe he should be a solid starter for the Tribe this year. He has work to do in spring training to catch up, but I think that will be possible by about the fifth to seventh game of the season.
Nick Hagadone: I see no progress whatsoever. I really do not see any logical way that he makes the team out of spring training and will only be depth going forward. The overall outlook for Nick is still not very encouraging.
Josh Tomlin: He looks good and ready to compete for his spot on the team. I saw nothing in his delivery or in his command that would suggest he could not be ready by the start of the season. He is certainly a viable candidate for the fifth starter, but at the very least they will try to find a place for him somewhere. He looks good.
CC Lee: It is very easy to see why the Indians like this kid. He seems to have a good presence on the mound and commands his pitches fairly well. He still needs to work on his fastball command but his overall outlook is promising. I like him and see a future for him down the road. And down the road maybe as soon as this year.
I have many more players to report on, but I wanted to cover some of the pitching today. There’ll be much more down the road as we proceed through spring training.
Cavs will benefit from Hawes varied skillset For those Cavs fans who want to go a bit past the surface of any move the Cavs make, and I know there are many, you had better start listening carefully to our new GM. If you only go out and read press articles and national sports media pundits, you will get a very narrow view of any moves the Cavs make. I have found that to be especially true since the reaction to Grant being fired and the reaction to the latest Cavs trade. The views out there are very narrow and sometimes shallow. Right now, I only get reasonable depth from Jason Lloyd who has definitely gone below the surface to give us a feel for what has gone on behind the scenes. I don’t mean this article to be about the press. And I don’t mean this article to contrast myself against bloggers who are very different from the press and always go into more depth. That is part of the beauty of bloggers. But I do want to carry the theme I began with my last blog about Dan Gilbert making the exact right move by firing Grant. I also took a little heat because that was kind of long and I was too detailed with my explanations. I will correct that here.
The logic outside is that the Cavs are taking pot shots in the dark to try and make the playoffs this year because Dan Gilbert wants it that way. Then it follows in their logic that these moves have no positive long term effects and definite long term negatives because we are trading a bunch of second round picks and losing assets for expiring contracts. Further, some would say that by not “tanking” for the fourth straight year, the Cavs are missing a golden opportunity in a decent draft to get back in the high lottery. While all of these views have some merit, I believe they are over simplistic views of the depth behind the Cavs management’s thinking. I am personally very impressed. They have finally used assets to learn more about the current team that has underperformed terribly this year (and probably the past two years). This will be invaluable going forward and cannot be underestimated.
The neatest thing about all of this is that David Griffin has laid it all out there for you to see and, frankly, the rest of the league if they are paying attention. Grant was always so darned guarded that he rarely gave us even a peak at their real thinking. He may have been just as secret with his own players and that is a tragic mistake if true. Now Griffin is not spewing detailed strategy but is telling the truth in small tidbits. The rest of this blog is simply decoding those tidbits as it relates to this exact trade and the Cavs acquisition philosophy. All of this came from Griffin’s press conference.
The Hawes trade:
1) Hawes is a rare 7 footer that can stretch the floor effectively. Not even close to a perfect player (defense ugh) but only 25.
2) The Cavs have had no one over the past three years that can actually stretch the floor as a big. Most successful teams have a “stretch” big man.
3) With our team composition, we are losing valuable offensive opportunities because we allow teams to clog the paint and reduce the impact of our dynamic penetrators Kyrie and Dion.
4) Because of our team composition we are losing opportunities for our cutting, open floor type players like Deng, Miles, and even TT.
5) By adding Hawes they now have a chance to learn first hand if adding a stretch big and spacing the floor better improves the effectiveness of our dynamic drive and kick potential.
6) You don’t need to ask now whether or not they want to consider keeping Hawes because that will become apparent when you see what effect he has on our whole team going forward. If not much, bye bye. If fantastic improvement, stay, stay. If some measurable improvement, look for another one if you want.
7) Second round picks, despite the new CBA, are still just second round picks and should be used to acquire assets that can potentially advance your team.
8) No mention was made of what players we gave up so you can translate that easily…. nothing.
The Cavs philosophy:
1) We want to get better and making the playoffs might signify that but neither the Deng or the Hawes moves were intended to reach a playoffs or bust mandate that has been widely speculated because of Gilbert’s early expectations.
2) Both the Deng and Hawes acquisitions were actually to add a quality piece that has been missing from the Cavs for every year since LeBron left… A real small forward and a real stretch big (sorry Antwan Jamison… your shooting was not that good.)
3) The Cavs made a conscious decision to get assets that had been clearly missing over those years to see if they could elevate the Cavs awful play. When Deng worked out so poorly because his slashing game was negated by our bigs (except Andy), we added a stretch big.
4) By testing the way they did with quality expiring contracts, they have not really impacted the substantial cap flexibility we had worked so hard to gain. Still leaving the door open to sign one or both players again depending on their contributions on the court. Or simply letting them go knowing they had to fill that void with someone else soon.
5) In fact, if you add it up, we probably have gained a little cap flexibility (but not much)
6) Griffin talked to Deng and several Cavs players today before the moves were announced. He is trying to be more open and transparent and it is obvious. Grant never stated he talked to any player before a trade was made or immediately after (unless they were in the trade).
7) This team could not afford to draft 4 rookies next year by using three second round picks. So by keeping the best two and divesting the others, they have done little to hurt the team. If you think we could have moved up into the first round with those this year, I don’t think so.
GO CAVS !!!!! Here’s hoping this addition will work out. If for no other reason then seeing how the current team will respond with proper pieces, it was worth the cost.
