Francona aims to improve Indians' awful D
January, 28, 2015
By
Buster Olney | ESPN Insider
As he recalled in a phone conversation Tuesday, Terry Francona, in his first year as a major league manager, was bound and determined that the Phillies' pitchers were going to be a strong defensive unit, and from the start of spring training, he had them doing all kinds of drills.
"Pretty soon, everybody's arm hurt," said Francona, laughing at the memory of his rookie-manager exuberance.
He will carry that perspective to spring training next month, for sure, and wants to make sure he doesn't wear out his players. But following the Indians' experiences of 2014, they will work
a loton defense.
With mostly the same cast, Francona seeks different results from a defense that was arguably baseball's worst last summer, so bad that you could hypothesize, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, that the Indians' glove work might have cost them a playoff spot.
Pick any defensive metric, and Cleveland was awful in it. The Indians
surrendered 72 unearned runs, the most in the majors. They
committed 116 errors, the most in the majors. The Indians were
minus-75 in defensive runs saved, which was -- yep -- the worst in the majors.
So there's room for improvement, for a team dwelling at rock bottom in this area of the game.
Some of that process began midway through last season, when
Asdrubal Cabrera, the respected veteran shortstop, was traded to the Nationals. In the eyes of some evaluators, this was addition by subtraction, because Cabrera's range had lagged.
Jose Ramirez stepped in at shortstop, locking down the most important position in the infield, and it's probably not a coincidence that in Ramirez's first month in the big leagues, the Indians had by far the
best ERA in the majors. The Indians were good again
in his second month, too.
The Indians experimented with
Carlos Santana at third base early last season, but after 26 games and six errors, that ended. By placing Santana at first base and moving him off third, Cleveland got better in both spots.
Francona and the Indians' staff have been making plans in their effort to upgrade the defensive play. Typically in spring training drills, players will go at three-quarters speed for the first part of the play -- a relay back to the infield, for example -- before slowing and never really finishing the play. This year, the Indians' staff will ask the players to work through all parts of the play; if a rundown results from the cutoff, the Indians will follow through and finish the play.
Infielders have always taken a lot of grounders daily at their respective positions, but this spring they also will field in the spots where they are positioned in the Indians' defensive shifts. And after individual players take their final at-bats in exhibition games, they'll do some more defensive reps on a side field with Mike Sarbaugh, the Indians' third-base coach, before they cool down for the day. Somebody else will finish the game coaching third, Francona said, given that the Indians are making Sarbaugh's defensive preparation a priority.
Francona sounded confident that the Indians will be better, reeling off some of the reasons why the defensive production will improve.
Yan Gomes is a Gold Glove-caliber catcher who happened to make a rash of mistakes early last season, Francona said.
Lonnie Chisenhall will continue to evolve at third base, he believes.
Francona has alerted his players that there will be additional defensive work in the spring. "We don't want to kill them," he said. " … and they've bought in."
Indians prospects, like those with other teams, must play "beat the clock,"
writes Paul Hoynes.
