Cleveland Sports Forum

Travis Hafner activated from DL and in lineup today vs Chicago

And then some other stuff happened.

We won on great hitting by our dynamic trio: Luis Valbuena, Trevor Crowe and Lou Marson. Just build a club around those 3 and we should oust the Tigers in 2012.

Who's playing the tradeable closer in the movie of Moneyball.

Somehow the idea of a movie based on a wise baseball strategy based on gettng hitters with high on base pcts doesn't sound like my idea of a blockbuster. Sabremetrics at the Movies, what a combination!

Joe will keep us updated on White and Pomeranz .... until they suck.

Those days are behind me Hillbilly. Rusty can take over. {:>)--

civ ollilavad wrote:Who's playing the tradeable closer in the movie of Moneyball.

Somehow the idea of a movie based on a wise baseball strategy based on gettng hitters with high on base pcts doesn't sound like my idea of a blockbuster. Sabremetrics at the Movies, what a combination!

LOL! Good one.


But, that is one of the movies I will likely go out of my to try to see (at home).

Team record for strikeouts could fall

September 13 Akron Beacon Journal

"The Indians are hopelessly out of the race to catch the Detroit Tigers, who lead the Central Division. But a more dubious achievement is within the Tribe's reach: eclipsing the franchise record for strikeouts. That is one specialty in which the Indians have no peer. They lead the American League with 1,139 strikeouts, seven more than the Seattle Mariners. But the Mariners have played two more games (146) than the Tribe, so the Waving Wahoos have a bigger lead than it appears (7.9 strikeouts per game to 7.6 for the Mariners). That Indians batsmen are threatening the club strikeout record should come as no surprise. It has happened almost every season in the past five years."

Breaking down the deadline deals for Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers

By Paul Hoynes, The Plain Dealer

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The trades, with one exception, that have all but decided how the AL Central division was won this season were completed before the Indians arrived in Detroit for a three-game series at Comerica Park on Aug. 19.

The Indians, beset by injuries, managed to win nine of their previous 15 games, to pull within 1 1/2 games of the first-place Tigers. The Tigers, feeling confident, didn't even have their Cy Young candidate Justin Verlander scheduled to start in the series. Detroit's confidence was justified as it swept the Indians, dealing them a blow that has wobbled them to this day.

Following a 4-1 victory in the first game of the series, the Tigers started Doug Fister in Game 2. They acquired the 6-8 Fister from Seattle on July 30. Fister was 3-12 at the time of the trade, but he proceeded to hold the Indians to one run on six hits in a seven innings in a 10-1 victory.

The Indians started Ubaldo Jimenez, their counter to Fister, in Game 3 to prevent a sweep. Jimenez, who drew interest from the Tigers before the Indians acquired him from Colorado on July 31st, was gone after eight runs on nine hits in 3 1/3 innings.

Outfielder Delmon Young, who started the rout of Jimenez with a three-run homer in the third, was acquired by the Tigers from the Twins in a waiver on Aug. 15. The Indians, with a worst record than the Tigers and a need of a right-handed hitting outfielder, had a chance to claim Young, but didn't.

Young added an RBI single in the fourth and finished the 8-7 victory with four RBI.

Before Young batted in the third, Wilson Betemit doubled for the first hit in the seven-run inning. He scored and later added a single and stolen base to his stat line that day. Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski acquired Betemit, a switch-hitting third baseman, in a deal with Kansas City on July 20.

After the Tigers acquired Betemit, the Indians worked a deal with the Cubs for outfielder Kosuke Fukudome. He went 2-for-12 in the three-game sweep by the Tigers.

Two days after the sweep in Detroit, the Indians obtained Jim Thome in a waiver deal with the Twins. The deal was made out of need because Travis Hafner, their veteran DH, strained a tendon in his right foot rounding first base in the final game of the Detroit series. Hafner returned to the lineup Sunday in Chicago, but at the time of injury he was facing the possibility of season-ending surgery.

The fact that Thome, 41, is the Indians all-time home run leader and would sell a few more tickets didn't hurt. It would also give Thome a chance to walk into the sunset with his 600-plus homers in an Indians uniform.

The Indians enter Tuesday night's game against Texas with a 10-11 record since Detroit completed its three-game sweep on Aug. 21. Those 21 games include another three-game sweep by the Tigers at Progressive Field. They've dropped from 1 1/2 games out of first place to 11. The Tigers have gone 15-4 over that same period and went into Monday night's game against second-place Chicago with a 101/2-game lead.

Here's a closer look at the Tigers' and Indians' deals.

Tigers

• Fister: Dombrowski acquired him because their rotation was shaky behind Verlander. He was 3-12 with a 3.33 ERA for Seattle with the lowest run support of any AL starting pitcher.

Fister is 5-1 with a 2.28 ERA in eight starts since the deal. Detroit's dangerous offense has nearly doubled his run support. The Mariners averaged 2.24 runs per game in his 21 starts. In eight starts with Detroit, the Tigers are averaging four runs per game.

This is only Fister's second full season in the big leagues, which means the Tigers can control him for four more years.

• Betemit: The Tigers needed a third baseman because of Brandon Inge wasn't hitting. Betemit has hit .294 (30-for-102) with six doubles, four homers and 17 RBI in 34 games since the trade. He was available because he'd lost his starting job to rookie Mike Moustakas in Kansas City.

• Young: Detroit was looking for offense because of Magglio Ordonez's struggles. Young is hitting .305 (32-for-105) with three doubles, four homers and 19 RBI in 25 games since the deal. He was hitting .266 (81-for-304) with four homers and 32 RBI for the Twins.

Indians

• Jimenez: GM Chris Antonetti sent his top two pitching prospects in Alex White and Drew Pomeranz to the Rockies for Jimenez. He said he could not pass up the opportunity to acquire a front-of-the-rotation starter who is under control through 2013. Last year, Jimenez won 19 games and finished fourth in the NL Cy Young voting.

Jimenez is 3-2 with a 4.98 ERA in eight starts since the deal. He's struck out 48, walked 19 and allowed 48 hits in 47 innings.

• Fukudome: The Indians needed a veteran outfielder with Shin-Soo Choo and Grady Sizemore injured. Fukudome has been Antonetti's most productive acquisition. He's hitting .269 (46-for-171) with 11 doubles, three homers and 17 RBI in 42 games.

Fukudome, who has played fine defense in right and center field, is a free agent after the year.

• Thome: If nothing else, the trade gives Thome and Indians fans a chance to reach out to each other and heal the hard feelings that were created when Thome left through free agency at the end of the 2002 season. He's hitting .239 (11-for-46) with two doubles, one homer and three RBI since the deal. He was hitting .243 (50-for-206) with 12 doubles, 12 homers and 40 RBI in 71 games with the Twins.

Has anyone ever asked Antonelli about Delman Young? Why in the world did they let Detroit get him?
Isn't he just what the Indians needed?

I ask myself the same thing when I first learned that the Tigers had picked Young up ND Dawg.

Young been a consistently good, not great, offensive player since he came to the majors. Personally, I like the fact that he has one of the strongest and accurate throwing arms in the league. Young would likely have been the best player in our system from a hitting-from-the-right side perspective goes.

Hell, Young finished his rookie season behind Dustin Pedroia for the ROY awards. He lost nearly 30 pounds in 2010 and weighs in at 200 and he is playing like it. Young's father was Dmitri. Sooooo, there was some baseball blood running in the family also. He seems to be a player that the Indians like from a character standpoint. I'm really in awe that he's not an Indian considering the "need" for a right handed bat and a guy that is a decent defender.

I would also like to hear the story behind this one.

Oh! He did finish 10th last season for the MVP award. I guess he was not qualified to be an Indian ?!?!!

Delmon Yong has been a bad character guy from day one. The Twins admitted they were going to non tender him if he was not claimed. The Twins have been a weak hitting team for the last few years and were getting rid of him. The Rays could not get rid of him fast enough.

I'm guessing that Detroit is pleased to have Young around. Hell! If Detroit doesn't want him, I'll gladly have him in Cleveland. Young, Choo, and Fukudome would be a very nice and a very formidible outfield in a year where we are finally planning on be a contender.

Nice story on Young by Ken Rosenthal at Fox Sports if anyone is interested---

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/Delm ... -Rosenthal

From last season:

Delmon Young has all the ability in the world, but has never been able to consistently harness it. He had character issues, conditioning issues, and even playing time issues in both Tampa Bay and for the Twins. In 2010 DY is delivering on his talent and his conditioning looks sick. Young appears to be in the best shape of his career and has 8 jacks with a .309 AVG on the season. DD loves loves loves (minimum 2 loves) this type of post hype talent. The beauty of this is that DY was literally at the absolute top of the prospect food chain meaning his ceiling for production is quite high.

Dimitri Young is his older brother.

On April 26, 2006, while playing for the Triple-A Durham Bulls in a game against the Pawtucket Red Sox, Young threw his bat at the umpire after being called out on strikes. He stared at the umpire for some time and refused to leave the batter's box. He finally did, but then started to return to his dugout and the center field camera caught him throwing his bat underhand, end-over-end, toward the umpire. The bat hit him on his chest and arm but he was not seriously hurt.[7]

The next day, Young issued an apology through his agent, claiming that he had not intended for the bat to actually strike the umpire, but acknowledging that it was unacceptable to have thrown the bat at all. The International League initially suspended Young indefinitely, then announced on May 9, 2006, he would be suspended for 50 games, without pay, retroactive to the day of the incident. Young had the option to appeal the suspension, but chose not to do so. The suspension ended on June 19, 2006.[8]

This altercation was not the first he had had with an umpire during a game. In 2005, while playing for the Double-A Montgomery Biscuits, Young received a three-game suspension for bumping an umpire.[9]

Sounds like a good character guy. Don't let the facts get in the way though.