DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum 2017 Indians Thread #2

So awesome hahaha...

Ugh. I hate Sugardale hotdogs.

Give me Eckrich hotdogs. Much better.

Hey after two innings, Tribe up 3-0.

Tomlin's been perfect with three strike-outs.

I say it's time to pull him.

"Great job Tomlin."

After 3. Tribe up 3-0.

Tomlin's been perfect. 9 up, 9 down with 5 strike-outs.

Get him out-of-there.

This is where Tomlin's about as effective as hitting of a tee.

Man the Padres are leaving this Quackenbush dude out to dry!

Tomlin was great.

I always loved Tomlin.

Finally, Tomlin finally showed up to pitch.

Get well Tito.

Get well Skipper.

From the article above:

"Baseball doesn't really matter," outfielder Brandon Guyer said Thursday afternoon."

What?

Very bad choice of words for an active player.

Tito's wife, yes. Non-Baseball fan, OK. Starting outfielder, NO.

If Guyer feels that way he should quit.

Post the whole quote, this post is a bit deceiving:

"Baseball doesn't really matter," outfielder Brandon Guyer said Thursday afternoon. "We want him to get healthy and get back here whenever he can."

Exactly. My youngest son and I were down on the field yesterday watching the Indians take batting practice. Brandon Guyer came over, signed an autograph and took a photo with my son.

I mentioned to him that we were happy to have him in Cleveland and asked if he missed his teammates in Tampa Bay. He said, he missed some friends down there, but it is every players dream to play in the World Series and he has bonded with his new teammates here and they are hungry to get back to the WS.

I think it's safe to say Guyer enjoys the game of baseball.

It just sounds disingenuous to me.

To someone who will make $2,000,000 this year, baseball DOES really matter.

Regardless of Francona's health.

This is not what he meant. When compared to a person's health, baseball does not matter.

Carrasco going for win #10 tonight. Indians up 5-1 after 4. Lonnie with a 2-run dinger, Brantley with a 2-run double.

Carlos Carrasco accomplishes rare feat, striking out the side on 9 pitches vs. Detroit

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Indians starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco struck out the side on 9 pitches in the fifth inning on Friday against Detroit, becoming just the second Tribe pitcher to accomplish the feat in franchise history.

Carrasco retired Tigers hitters Nicholas Castellanos, Mikie Mahtook and Jose Iglesias on four called strikes, three swinging strikes and two foul balls.

Justin Masterson was the only other Indians pitcher to strike out the side on nine pitches, accomplishing the feat at home on June 2, 2014 against Boston.

http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2017/07/carlos_carrasco_accomplishes_r.html

Really nice win today.

Man, Justin Masterson. I remember being ticked off because the Tribe wouldn't re-sign him to what seemed like a reasonable salary range.

They were right, though. He fell apart that year. He looked like a legitimate Cy Young candidate ..... and then disintegrated.

We traded him for a former 1st round player, who we later traded for cash considerations. :Sigh: What a shame all around.

Remember what the six fingered man said in The Princess Bride, 'If you haven't got your health, you haven't got anything.'

Carlos axed 11 hitters last night in seven innings. Awesome.

Including a so-called "immaculate inning" where he threw 9 pitches, all strikes, for 3 strikeouts. Since Kluber is pitching tomorrow and won't be available for the All Star Game, I think Carlos deserves to be added to the AL ASG roster.

Speaking of strikeouts, I read an interesting piece on ESPN.com, of all places ...


ESPN.com: SweetSpot

Friday, July 7, 2017

Ranking baseball's best putaway pitches

By Mark Simon

It’s the Year of the Strikeout in baseball, with career highs, records and milestones being reached seemingly every day. Whether it’s a result of higher fastball velocities, more eager-to-chase hitters or just better performance by pitchers, the numbers have reached astounding levels across the board.

All of that got us wondering: Who has the best strikeout pitch among starting pitchers?

We’ll use the stat "putaway rate" to determine our list. It's a simple concept that asks the question, “How often does a pitcher finish off a hitter with a specific pitch?”

The formula for it is: Strikeouts with pitch divided by two-strike pitches of that type thrown.

For example, if a pitcher records 50 strikeouts with his changeup and throws 200 changeups with two strikes, his putaway rate is 25 percent (50 divided by 200). It allows us to sum up who is the most effective and most efficient in one number.

From that, we can tell you that the top putaway pitch for a starting pitcher this season is ...

Corey Kluber, Cleveland Indians: Curveball (and slider)


Highest Putaway Rate

Curveballs

Corey Kluber 39% 61
Trevor Cahill 34% 29
Charlie Morton 33% 34
Nate Karns 33% 36
Lance McCullers 32% 85

Kluber just broke the Indians record for consecutive games with at least 10 strikeouts, and it’s easy to see why. He has two outstanding “finish-you-off” pitches. His curveball has a putaway rate of 39 percent (61 strikeouts on 158 two-strike curves). But how does that translate into batting average? Opposing hitters are batting .099 (10-for-101) against the Kluber curveball this season.

Kluber’s slider -- or cutter, if you prefer -- comes in a couple mph harder. And though he doesn’t use it as often, it’s still netting him a 36 percent putaway rate, which ranks third on our list. In his past four starts, opponents are 3-for-35 with 12 strikeouts against it.

Put these two together with a pretty good fastball and his combination of pitches is downright nasty.

“Kluber is a master of manipulating the arc and velocity on three to four different looks of his slider and curveball,” a longtime scout said. “He has great touch and feel, and his pitches rarely stay in the strike zone. Rather, they’re late, sharp breakers that finish outside of the good hitting zones.”


Trevor Cahill, San Diego Padres: Curveball
Charlie Morton, Houston Astros: Curveball
Nate Karns, Kansas City Royals: Curveball

Surprise!

Bill James often says that a good stat will wow you, and seeing these pitchers rank as high as they do on this list qualifies. Cahill (34 percent), Morton (33 percent) and Karns (33 percent) rank 5-6-7 for best putaways. Cahill and Morton are fascinating because they’re late bloomers for the Cubs and Astros, respectively. Historically, they’re best known for getting ground balls, not strikeouts, but both seem to have found the magic touch.

The dominance of Karns’ curveball emerged as an incredible pitch during a three-start run earlier this season for the Royals in which he ramped up its usage, relying on it to record 24 of the 29 strikeouts he notched in 17⅓ innings of brilliance. But this might have come at a price. Karns suffered an elbow strain in mid-May and is on the 60-day disabled list. His return date is still not known.


Honorable mention: Jimmy Nelson, Milwaukee Brewers

Nelson has the second-highest putaway rate with any pitch with his curveball (38 percent), but the infrequency with which he uses it (he throws it about 10 percent of the time with two strikes) is only enough to land him as an honorable mention.

Common sense dictates that curveballs and sliders are going to rank at the top of these lists, given the movement and purpose of the pitch. But who ranks best among the other two primary pitch types?



Max Scherzer, Washington Nationals: Slider


Highest Putaway Rate

Sliders

Max Scherzer 37% 77
Corey Kluber 36% 23
Carlos Martinez 35% 76
Carlos Carrasco 32% 35
Chris Sale 32% 71

This wasn’t No. 1 on the list, but it easily could have been. Scherzer’s mastery of opposing hitters starts with a fastball that hitters can’t square up, but it ends with a supremely nasty slider.

Scherzer throws two variants of it -- one with a late cut and the other with a sharp break -- and they’re both extraordinarily challenging to hit.

His putaway rate is 37 percent, the best for any starter’s slider. Opponents are hitting .081 against it (11-for-135) with 77 strikeouts.


Carlos Martinez, St. Louis Cardinals: Slider

Martinez has a great two-strike weapon with his slider -- and he knows it. He throws it 45 percent of the time with two strikes, which ranks seventh highest in the majors, but Martinez’s putaway rate (35 percent) exceeds each of the six pitchers above him on the list.

What makes the Martinez slider so tricky is it moves a lot in the last 20 feet leading up to home plate (4.4 inches toward the left-handed batter's box). That also ranks seventh among starting pitchers. Hitters often swing thinking the pitch will end up in one spot when the ball moves to another. In other words, this pitch makes hitters look bad.


Dallas Keuchel, Houston Astros: Fastball


Highest Putaway Rate

Fastballs

Dallas Keuchel 29% 31
Robbie Ray 26% 69
Jacob deGrom 26% 72
Alex Wood 26% 38
Chris Sale 25% 82

Another one for the “whoa” files. Keuchel is best known as a ground ball pitcher, but in working the bottom of the strike zone (and below) so effectively, he’s able to rack up strikeouts as well. He doesn’t get to two strikes as often as some of the league's top power pitchers, but when he does, he’s able to finish (29 percent putaway rate) -- not just because he gets swings-and-misses, but because he gets called third strikes.

The average major league pitcher gets strike three on a taken two-strike fastball about 15 percent of the time. Keuchel is getting it at a 38 percent rate.

He has benefited in this way for years, previously from the catching of Jason Castro and now from Brian McCann.

Next up behind Keuchel are your more traditional power pitchers: Robbie Ray of the Diamondbacks and Jacob deGrom of the Mets.


Johnny Cueto, San Francisco Giants: Changeup


Highest Putaway Rate

Changeup

Johnny Cueto 28% 32
Danny Salazar 27% 39
Jacob deGrom 27% 17
Felix Hernandez 27% 17

It has been a rough go all season for Cueto, as his ERA stands at 4.26, well above last year’s 2.79. But Cueto still is able to get strikeouts with a changeup that has been the propellant pitch for much of his career success. His 28 percent changeup putaway rate ranks a smidge ahead of Cleveland's Danny Salazar.

Though the pitch has successfully finished off a good number of hitters, it has contributed to finishing Cueto off as well.

He has allowed four home runs on the 115 two-strike changeups he has thrown this season. That's as many as he allowed on the 1,149 two-strike changeups he threw in the previous eight years combined.

That teaches us something of importance here -- putaway doesn’t always equate perfection.


http://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/81060/ranking-baseballs-best-putaway-pitches

Just great.

Sold-out crowd for the game tonight at Progressive Field.

Come on Tribe.

Its Andrew Miller jersey give-away night. I thought there'd be a big crowd. Wonder how many people got shut out? They only had so many to give out (not sure how many).

great to see the stadium full

The giveaway jerseys are kinda cool, but the quality sure ain't like the nice 150 dollar jerseys.

I love having Andrew Miller but hated giving up Clint Frazier, anyone see his walk-off HR today. He's gonna be a stud.

https://www.si.com/mlb/2017/07/08/clint-frazier-walkoff-home-run-yankees-brewers-video

How about Clevinger making the most of his opportunity. In his last 5 starts, he has a 1.67 ERA, and he was brilliant today against Verlander and the Tiggers. He looks like he is starting to figure out his place in the Majors, and it could be as a #3 starter.

As far as Frazier, he will probably be a stud. However, we likely had to get Miller. He helped the bullpen so much, it's ridiculous. I also think that we probably had to choose between Frazier and Zimmer, and with the full toolbox Frazier has, I am glad we managed to keep him.

Frazier's bat speed is off the charts

Talk about making the most of your opportunities.

Erik Gonzalez is forcing his way into the line-up.

He’s primarily played middle infield in the minors. And he tore-up AA ball with the Ducks (The Rubber Duckies)(The Akron Rubber Duckies).

Of course he's not going to be supplanting Kipnis, Lindor or Ramirez. (Hopefully not - that wouldn’t be good news)

It looks like the Indians started giving him some time in the outfield at Columbus the past two years. But not much.

At the Ducks:





I’m scared of the duck.

Looks like Gonzalez will be getting lots of PT; Kipnis pulled a hammy last night. This is turning into a year to forget for him. So many injuries, first his shoulder, then his neck, and now this.

Speakin' of Gonzalez, just made a sweet play to end a bad inning.

CBS Sports MLB‏Verified account @CBSSportsMLB 4m4 minutes ago
More
All-time All-Star Game series.

43-43-2

AL: 361 runs
NL: 361 runs

The White Sox just robbed the Cubs.

Well the south-side of Chicago IS kind of the rough-side of tow... oh you meant with a trade?

Carrasco has very quietly put together a very decent first half a season:

W-L 10-3
ERA 3.44
WHIP 1.080
SO/BB 114/27


He opens the Tribe's second half tonight.

had to go and say something...lol, anyone else completely not surprise Rajai comes and teabags us

I was surprised to see Tyler Naquin last night. I thought for sure he was gone not to be heard from again.

Sorry Tyler.

He was hurt for a couple of months.