Re: General Discussion

2468
The DH position in the lineup has been uninspiring. Any DH types out there we can get our hands on?

Code: Select all

RK Player           Bave AB
1   Chisenhall, L  .300  10
2   Damon, J       .267  15
3   Cabrera, A     .250  4  
4   Hafner, T      .244  131
5   Santana, C     .208  24
6   Duncan, S      .200  10
6   Lopez, J       .200  25 
8   LaPorta, M     .000  4
“Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's success or put its failures behind and start over again. That's the way life is, with a new game every day, and that's the way baseball is.”
-- Bob Feller

Re: General Discussion

2470
Hagadone will go down when McAllister comes up, I assume.

I would consider dumping the whole bunch of LF's: Damon, Duncan and what's he for Cunningham.

In Columbus, Russ Canzler has been hitting HRs and doubles regularly; Trevor Crowe is at 286 with some good secondary numbers; and LaPorta continues to hit well. And Cord Phelps is hitting well too although its hard to justify a backup 2b, but he could DH part time. I don't see much reason to keep Lopez around; LaPorta can be back up at 1st; we would need Phelps, or Donald, as back up at 2nd

And Corey Kluber pitched well again last night and should be consider a threat to Josh Tomlin's very poor series of performances.

Re: General Discussion

2471
Canzler bats right. His season line is 274/332/451. His June line is 308/387/603. Seems like an obvious replacement for Duncan, even though his career may never be any better than Duncan's has been.

LaPorta is 307/402/585. Why not use him instead of Lopez?

Crowe is 286/339/448. What does Cunningham have that he doesn't?

Kluber is an uncertainty. His K/BB is great: 93/84, but WHIP is 1.47. ERA ok at 3.55. He had two back to back stinker starts in May, deleting those his ERA is 2.42; WHIP still not great at 1.30. But Tomlin never was great in the minors himself and a power pitcher would be an interesting variant for our rotation. Kluber had a terrible 2011 but has improved a lot. I'd give him a shot. Can always bring Tomlin back if he gets back to throwing ground balls.

Re: General Discussion

2472
I just don't think there's any reason to believe those guys are any better than Duncan. I didn't get to see any of LaPorta's ABs when he was up earlier, but did he really look any different at the plate than the player we've seen the last few years?

Big numbers in Columbus don't impress me. We've seen with the likes of Marte and LaPorta how little carryover there is. I don't advocate dumping LaPorta necessarily because we're going to be in need of a DH next year and he's probably a better option than any free agent we'd be willing to pay for, but I don't see the case for dumping Duncan for him right now.

Re: General Discussion

2474
Chris Perez Comments On Cleveland Fans Again, Questions Blind Loyalty Towards Browns
by Brendan Porath • Jun 26, 2012 9:43 AM CDT

Chris Perez is weighing in again on the Cleveland sports fan, and this time he takes aim at the blind loyalty the Browns receive and the persistent venom aimed at LeBron James. Regarding LeBron, the closer and Miami native thinks it's time for Cavaliers fans to move on:

"Why cheer against a guy that's not even in your city anymore? Just to see him fail? Does that make you feel good? I could see if the Cavs were in the championship, but that's their mentality."

He also called the full faith and credit in the Browns a double-standard, and doesn't understand the attendance discrepancy between a generally winning club at Progressive Field and the decade-long disaster that's taken place just north along the Lake. Quotes after the jump:



Via Tyler Kepner of the New York Times:

"That's what I don't understand," Perez said. "Their whole thing is, ‘We want a winner.' Well, why do you support the Browns? They don't win. They've never won. They left. You guys blindly support them. I don't understand it. It's a double standard, and I don't know why.

"It's head-scratching. It's just - they don't come out. But around the city, there's great support. They watch it in the bars. They watch it at home. They just don't come."

Well, he's got a point there.

h/t/ TJ Zuppe