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Bieber is crazy good right now

5 runs given up with at least 4 of them coming on HR’s ... thats incredible ..

Any clue how many runners have gotten into scoring position on him? ...

I don’t watch MLB anymore .. not since they cancelled the WS back in 94 but last night my wife had her Pirates on and i glanced over a few times and was drawn in watching him pitch ... what a performance ... I’ll watch him whenever i can now ... love watching a great pitcher work ...

Last night was on Sandy Alomar. He is filling as manager right how, and he left Plutko in to completely self-destruct, when it was apparent that he had lost it.

j/c...

Good luck!..

I can't wait to see him pitch tonight. He's a tall, skinny kid, with a mid 90's fastball, and a really nice curveball. I saw him with the Scrappers a couple of years ago, and he showed a ton of potential then.

Triston McKenzie’s story reaches next chapter today

https://indiansbaseballinsider.com/2020/..._medium=twitter

When Triston McKenzie was taken by the Indians in the supplemental part of the first round of the 2015 draft (42nd overall), he wasn’t as big of a story as a first round pick normally would be as Brady Aiken’s second first round selection was the primary headline. As Aiken was recovering from Tommy John surgery, however, McKenzie quickly became the top prospect not only from the 2015 draft, but in the Indians farm system as a whole.

He began his professional career in 2015 with the Arizona League Indians where the Indians were incredibly cautious, limiting him to four appearances, all four innings or less. Despite this small sample size, he showcased his great command and swing and miss ability, striking out 17 to three walks in 12 innings while allowing just four hits and one run.

After beginning 2016 in extended spring training, McKenzie opened the official season with Mahoning Valley. There, he opened his season with a 0.28 ERA, .193/.279/.257 batting line, 34 K and 12 BB across 31.2 innings and six starts. When he was regularly going six innings per start, the Indians promoted McKenzie to Lake County where, in his debut, he struck out 11 in five innings without a walk. While he wasn’t quite as effective there, he was only 18 years old, nearly four years younger than the average A baller.

The 2017 season would be McKenzie’s first full season with a team as he threw 143 innings with the Lynchburg Hillcats. There, he extended himself to a peak of seven innings and had his best career game, a six inning, 14 K, one walk, one hit, shut out effort against the Carolina Mudcats on May 9th. He finished the season with a 3.46 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 186 strike outs and 45 walks in 25 starts.

By this point, McKenzie was universally considered a top five Indians prospect and a top 50 prospect in all of baseball. Unfortunately, it was here that his career took a turn. Dealing with right arm pain, he hit the injured reserve to begin 2018. He recovered without surgery and began his season the first week of June with the Rubberducks where he quickly became their top starter, beginning with a shut out in his 2018 debut. He didn’t miss a start for the rest of the year and only pitched fewer than five innings in one start (he went 4.2). He was particularly dominant to end the season, posting a 2.09 ERA, .177/.255/.320 line against and 65 strike outs in 64.2 innings across his final 11 starts.

Just when it looked like he was ready to hit AAA, McKenzie had another setback. Dealing again with arm/shoulder issues, he never pitched after spring training in the 2019 season. Following the season, he was added to the 40 man roster to protect from being taken in the rule 5 draft and he joined the Major League club in spring training in 2020. While he worked out with the team, he never made it into an official game before the season was prematurely shut down. Instead, he was optioned to the alternate training site in Lake County where he has been pitching regularly and in full health all season.

Ready for the big leagues, he has been biding his time there until the demotions of Mike Clevinger and Zach Plesac opened up a couple spots in the rotation. Now, McKenzie is slated to make his debut on August 22nd against the Tigers just five years after being drafted out of Royal Palm Beach High School. Despite being drafted earlier than Indians pitchers Shane Bieber, Aaron Civale (both 2016) and James Karinchak (2017), McKenzie is the youngest player on the Indians 40 man roster at 23 years old.

McKenzie has been an extremely interesting player throughout his minor league career largely because of his extremes. As a 17 year old when drafted, he has always been on the extreme young end of every team he’s pitched for. At 6’5″ 165 lbs, he’s stuck out as well as both the tallest and lightest as well. In fact, he matches Carlos Carrasco as the Indians tallest pitcher and sits just an inch (and 100 pounds) behind Franmil Reyes. His pitches are also extreme as it is very rare to have a combination of speed (mid-90’s), movement and command as is found in McKenzie’s fastball, curve and change (check out the full scouting report here).

There have been many who have questioned McKenzie throughout his career so far due to injury fears and his body type, but he has been nothing but dominant when on the mound. Now, he finally has the chance to prove himself in the big leagues and, with questions surrounding the pair of Indians starters demoted earlier, he could potentially stick around for quite some time.

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Triston was FANTASTIC last night!

The Indians organization continues to impress me with how the trade for, and draft, young talent coupled with their player development program for their pitchers.

C.C. Sabathia
Jake Westbrook
Cliff Lee
Carlos Carrasco
Corey Kluber
Justin Masterson
Mike Clevinger
Shane Bieber
Aaron Civale
Zach Plesac

....and hopefully Triston McKenzie as well.


Little known fact: In 2005 the Indians drafted Tim Lincecum but he didn't sign with the team. He went on to have a handful for dominating years as a pitcher until something happened with his arm. Wonder if the Indians' system could have helped in that regard.

Keeping some pretty solid company there! Could have used more of that today.

When do we know where we are at with our outcasts, the two pitchers in exile? Are they done for this season? Not sure I knew of any terms.

Announcers Tom Hamilton and Jim Rosenhaus were just talking about them on todays broadcast, and they think both will be back in the next couple days.

It now appears we are going to need to trade some starting pitching for an outfield bat. Indians hitters look like they all have killer hangovers today while making Tigers ham-and-egger pitchers look like Jack Morris in his prime.

And the moment I posted this, Greg Allen hit a 3-run HR. LMAO.

We have 4 guys doing a semi-professional job at the plate .... 5 if you want your clean up hitter getting a ton of walks and that's about it. 6-9 in out lineup today, including replacements, are all hitting .169 ..... or less.

Why we haven't brought back Jake Bauers is beyond me. He cannot possibly be worse that what we are seeing from our outfielders right now.

JMO, but I don't think Jake Bauers is the answer. We have too many AAA outfielders on this roster already, and he's just another of the same. I had high hopes for Oscar Mercado, but like all our hitters, he fell in love with the HR trot instead of hitting hard shots to the gaps. Somebody in that clubhouse, whether its Tito or Sandy at manager, needs to get through to these hitters to stop swinging for the fences and to make hard contact.

Sandy really .... *ahem* irritated me .. when he left an obviously flailing Adam Plutko in to get shelled, the other day. Plutko is probably a great reliever/spot starter ...... but he's a guy who loses something the 2nd time through a lineup.

Back to hitters ...... what do they have to lose by bringing Bauers back up for a look? That maybe he can't hit .143?

I'd like to see them try to work a deal with the Yankees to bring back Clint Frazier. Frazier's going to get benched when Giancarlo Stanton comes off the IL in the next week or so, because the Yanks have so much outfield & DH depth.

I might agree. I just don't know the status of the bullpen. Has it been overworked? Sometimes you just feel you need to get innings out of the starter to rest the pen.

Karinchak is filthy, but tribe never has issue with pitching, we always seem to have enough, getting quality bats seems to be our achilles.

CLEVELAND -- For the first time in three weeks, starter Mike Clevinger will be back on the mound for the Tribe.

The Indians announced on Tuesday that Clevinger will be recalled from Lake County, Ohio, prior to the series finale against Minnesota on Wednesday (7:10 p.m. ET, live on MLB.TV). It will be his first start since Aug. 5, against Cincinnati. Clevinger spent the past 11 days at the Tribe's alternate training site after a four-day stint on the restricted list. Zach Plesac remains in Lake County.

"We have a lot of clouds over this organization right now, even though we're doing great things," Indians temporary manager Sandy Alomar Jr. said. "It's time to start the healing process with these guys. In order to go places, we're going to need these guys, and also we're going to eventually need [Terry Francona] back. It's time to get a little bit of sunshine out there, because we've been surrounded by clouds the whole time, even though we've stayed afloat."

After filling the only hole in the five-man rotation now that Triston McKenzie has at least secured one more start, Indians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti also reached out to Plesac.

"I followed up and talked with Zach to explain the decision and let him know that we don't yet have an opportunity for him at the Major League level," Antonetti said. "But as we all have seen time and time again, that can change very quickly. So it's up to him to continue to pitch the way he's capable of pitching, continue to put in the work and be an option for us whenever we have the opportunity for it."

Clevinger had gotten off to a shaky start to the year, as he was learning to trust his surgically repaired knee again on the rubber, but he showed more positive signs of settling in against the Reds -- despite his five walks -- while showcasing his new cutter for the first time all season. But now, not only will he have to worry about the sharpness of his stuff after missing three weeks of action, he'll also have to focus on repairing his relationships with his teammates, which Antonetti said is off to a decent start.


"I think Mike has had the chance to reflect upon a lot over the course of the last week-to-10 days and is really eager to rejoin the team and get back up here and help us win games," Antonetti said. "And I know in talking to our players, we're all ready to have him back and looking forward to him go out tomorrow night and pitch the way we all know he's capable of pitching."

After the Indians learned that Plesac broke team protocols in Chicago on Aug. 8, the team sent him home via car service immediately the next morning to eliminate any potential risk of COVID-19 exposure. But it wasn't known that Clevinger, who sat through a team meeting on Aug. 9 and flew home with the Tribe that evening, was also out with Plesac past curfew, until the day after that meeting, causing some of his teammates to express how much trust was lost in that process.

Clevinger and Plesac briefly faced their teammates in person at a meeting in Detroit on Aug. 14 -- the day it was decided that the best option would be for the pair of right-handers to be optioned to Lake County. The righties have since worked out at the alternate training site, with Clevinger throwing five simulated innings last Wednesday and a low-intensity bullpen session on Monday.

"I guess both of them have remorse about what happened," Alomar said. "They want the opportunity to be given the chance to prove that they changed. And we're human beings. We're going to make mistakes. I think a little separation from the club helped, and it's time for the healing process and for those two guys to let their teammates know that they've made some changes."

I'm a big fan of Carlos Carrasco, but I'm not sure he's still a starting pitcher, after all he's been through. His stuff doesn't seem to to hold up over multiple innings any more. The other day he came out in the 1st inning throwing 95, but he couldn't maintain it, and he got hit hard in the 3rd or 4th inning. I'd like to see Carrasco moved to a set-up / occasional closer role in the late innings, joining Karinchak and Hand to make up a 7th-8th-9th inning bullpen that would rival Bryan Shaw, Andrew Miller, and Cody Allen in 2016. Go with a starting staff of Bieber, Clevinger, Civale, Plesac, and McKenzie over the last 30 games.

AL Central team odds for making the playoffs, per Fangraphs:
Twins 99.6%
Indians 97.9%
White Sox 97.7%
Royals 9.0%
Tigers 8.8%

https://twitter.com/Buster_ESPN/status/1298556242479263750

Hope Terry gets well soon. We could use some more wins before the playoffs.

j/c...

MLB joining in with the NBA...

Good job, players.

When are the Indians going to figure out that they need to change how they pitch Kepler? Guy owns us ...

3-Run bomb by Ramirez makes it 3-2 Indians in the 4th.

That took a big bounce off that concrete.

Big hit by Naquin.

Now, just wait until the weather warms up and the bats get going!

Indians bat around in the 1st, 4 runs, runners on 1st and 2nd with 2 out .... and the Cardinals go to their bullpen.