Cleveland Sports Forum

Naquin is sitting tonight. His back flared up again... sigh

Roberto!

With each passing day I feel dumber and dumber.

Hillbilly wrote:Roberto!

With each passing day I feel dumber and dumber.

You are just now feeling that??? (ducking) LOL

In all seriousness, credits to the brain trust that felt Perez would do better than Gomes. I always liked Gomes, but the way Perez is playing over his averages is quite something.
On another note, Mercado seems to not be the defensive talent that Allen is. He misplayed Polanco double and I was wondering why he would have been playing as shallow as he was. In Cincinnati, the spectacular catch he made seemed like luck. I would not be surprised to see him return to Columbus and have Daniel Johnson come up for a taste.

Hillbilly wrote:Roberto!

With each passing day I feel dumber and dumber.

No way! You gave him the kiss of life! And the front office OWES you for making them look like geniuses in the Gomes trade.

They offload a salary, get some minor leaguers back who may help, and end up using the catcher who (apparently) the pitchers wanted to throw to anyways. Plus he ends up hitting....what???

By the way, he clearly has learned the art of going the other way now and again. Good move there by him.

Now get busy bad mouthing Jose Ramirez!

Hillbilly wrote:Naquin is sitting tonight. His back flared up again... sigh

Health - the one skill he has clearly not mastered. His back flared up getting in/out of a car no less!

Question should be what they gonna do with Hasse?

I’d still bring him up for Plawecki. I know they don’t like their young guys sitting but he can catch a couple games a week, and DH another. Play every other day or so.

TFIR ... I tried bashing Jose earlier, back when he was running bases and playing defense like a dog. Didn’t help unfortunately. I think he needs to go visit one of those pharmacies in the Dominican...

Just don’t visit the Resorts or Plastic Surgeons!!

And definitely don’t drink the liquor....

On Roberto, I was a victim of my own advice. I kept telling Tito to play a guy like Naquin every day so he can work through things, and never once thought that Roberto would do well if given same opportunity... Never too old to learn.

Daniel Johnson is said to have a cannon of an arm so projects in RF. Mercado isn't Allen defensively but seems to be a pretty good hitter! I'd be surprised if he goes back to Columbus now. Long-term perhaps he winds up in left but where does that leave Bauers-Bradley-Santana? Well, for one thing Bradley needs to prove he belongs and there's never too much of a good thing.

I don't remember such domination by a hitter over such a good pitcher - Kepler absolutely owning Bauer tonight.

Coming into the game already hot against him, he hits 2 more homers off him.

Anyways 3-1 in the 7th with Bauer now out.

Man, a loss tonight would mean both Bauer and Clev could not get wins so far in this series, with Berrios pitching for the Twins tomorrow.

Rally time.

Bradley hits his first major league homer!

3-2 in 8th, but Clippard trying to give it away.

We need bullpen help. I know they've been good, but I just don't trust them.

Base hit, now 5-2.

Kepler:

"Max Kepler likes to hit against Trevor Bauer. A lot. The two homers give him five against the right-hander in 2019, and in fact, he homered in five straight at-bats against the Indians' hurler. It's not just Bauer that Kepler has hit, however, as he now owns 23 homers in 84 games on the year. Kepler has also driven in 58 runs, and he owns a .264/.336/.535 slash in that time frame."

Anyone watching that game get deja vu watching Kepler....as in reminded me greatly of Grady Sizemore.

See this is where the Twins are prospering. Kepler, Polanco, Mitch Garver and Buxton (and where did this kid 2B Arraez come from?) are still very young and very cheap. Oh, and Rosario who isn't even playing right due to injury now is also in that group and probably their best hitter.

They added veterans Nelson Cruz, Schoop, Marwin Gonzalez, Martin Perez, Michael Pineda because the core was cheap.

Their tank/rebuild gave them the advantage this year. As HB pointed out though, Cruz, Schoop, Pineda were all short term adds and contracts will be up after the season.

Meanwhile our Tribe tries to reload without doing the Twins' type tank. Maybe a one year stepping back. Also the reason if they see a Bauer deal for young hitters they should jump. Or a good young hitter and solid young pitcher who might step into the rotation.

Trevor has not picked up the challenge to be a No. 1 pitcher for a division winner. We're pretty much losing the chance to catch the Twins by our performance this weekend. Wild Card still very possible.

As for the necessary bullpen help, Danny Salazar is on the way.

Last time up on a full count Bieber threw Cruz a fastball outside. Cruz was sitting on a breaking ball and watched it go by for strike 3.

This time up on a full count Bieber throws Cruz a slider on the out part of plate. Cruz was looking for the fastball again and swung over it.

Bieber has a nice feel for pitching for a young fella.

6 shutout innings so far.

3-0, good guys.