2021 Season | Series #39 | Rangers @ Indians | Aug. 24-26

Sano just hit one 495 in Fenway tonight.

CATS44 said:

Walk, balk, BOOM.

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Sounds like the hook it late 90s rap and roll banger.

CATS44 said:

Sano just hit one 495 in Fenway tonight.

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hit it to right field at Fenway and you only need half of that

CATS44 said:

Sano just hit one 495 in Fenway tonight.

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Hot humid air greatly contributed to home runs tonight. Ball really carried.

Plesac staggered through 5.2 innings and was lucky to get out with two runs allowed. They were hitting him hard all night but a lot of those shots found Indians' gloves. He's throwing 90-92 fastballs that are hittable even at helmet level as we saw tonight. But he did make a couple of great pitches when he had to.

Karinchak was great for a change and Parker just keeps surprising me. Maybe we're his 13th team or whatever but he knows how to pitch.

The bottom five of the order combined for most of the offense; 8 hits, 6 runs, and 6 RBI's. That's great to see, but I really thought the top four were going to have more success against a AA pitcher making his first major league start. He had no trouble with Straw, Amed, Josie, or Reyes.

Chang keeps going to right field with success. Two home runs in the last two nights plus a single. He's about to blow past the Mendoza line and into uncharted territory.

Gotta love all that speed in the outfield. I know the pitchers do.

Here are the major league innings pitched this year from the pitchers used by the Rangers tonight:

Latz 0
Cotton 11
Snyder 1
Benjamin 16.2

Wow. No wonder these guys have the worst record outside of Baltimore. All four combined had less than 30 big league innings coming into this game.

Parker is one of those anonymous middle relievers that fans never seem to appreciate but GMs do when looking for depth in the pen on a budget.

Every team has a Blake Parker, usually on a one year contract.

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When looking at next year, not much in this game to hang your hat on. The competition was so bad, that anything done well has to be taken with a huge grain of salt.

The pitching we faced was the kind you would normally see in an early spring training game...and we've seen what early spring training production means....nada.

Plesac was bad, no way to get around it. Miller looked good at second base.

CATS44 said:

Parker is one of those anonymous middle relievers that fans never seem to appreciate but GMs do when looking for depth in the pen on a budget.

Every team has a Blake Parker, usually on a one year contract.

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When looking at next year, not much in this game to hang your hat on. The competition was so bad, that anything done well has to be taken with a huge grain of salt.

The pitching we faced was the kind you would normally see in an early spring training game...and we've seen what early spring training production means....nada.

Plesac was bad, no way to get around it. Miller looked good at second base.

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Miller hit the ball up the middle three times with nothing to show for it. Fly ball to the warning track in center, line drive to center, sharp ground ball up the middle for a force at second after a diving stop. Three quality swings but no hits. But when he went to right field he got a base hit on a routine ground ball.

The main thing is he had four good swings that all resulted in solid contact. And he didn't chase anything. Big improvement over when he first came up when he was striking out 50% of the time.

I was thinking the same thing about Miller and Straw - too many balls in the air to center field. They don't have the power to hit it over the wall and most center fielders have too much range to allow those balls to drop in. Chang and Hedges, OTOH, hit two of the least impressive home runs you will see, just sneaking them over the wall inside the foul poles.

Straw has been seeing a steady diet of high fastballs as pitchers try to get him to put the ball in the air.

In July and August Blake Parker has pitched 20 innings allowing 3 earned runs for an ERA of 1.35. None of the three runs affected the outcome of the game, whose final scores were 17-0, 10-5, and 6-1. This guy has pitched in 334 career games with a 3.40 ERA. Last year with Philly it was 2.81. He's at 2.15 now.

Parker reminds me so much of Scott Atchison, who arrived here in 2014 at age 38 and pitched in 70 games with a 6-0 record and 2.75 ERA. The next year he was done. Francona and Hale have not utilized Parker to that extent (31 appearances so far) so maybe he has another year left.

Parker has been our best reliever the last two months with the possible exception of Clase. Does he have one more year in that 36-year-old arm?

After facing two rookie lefties the Indians get RHP Jordan Lyles, a 30-year-old righty with a record of 6-10, 5.33. In his career Lyles is 50-76, 5.23 so this year he is right on his career average.

What is a 50-76 record over 11 years worth on the open market? So far Lyles has earned $26.4 million. The good news is he’s only 30 so he still has a few more years to work on building up his nest egg.

Please God make me a pitcher in my next life. Either that or the scientist who discovers the secret to reverse global warming. Either one would be fine.

Batters are hitting .289/.867 against Lyles in his 24 starts. Nothing stands out with regard to his splits; he’s below average across the board.

However, his last start he held the Red Sox to one run in seven innings at Fenway, which was probably his best start of the year.

Lyles earns his money. In each of his last 10 starts he’s thrown 92 or more pitches. You can’t knock him out early. But you can run up his pitch count. He had a game against Oakland where he threw 124 pitches in six innings and another against Toronto where he threw 95 pitches in four innings. My prediction for tonight - tons of foul balls.

Sam Hentges gets the start for the Indians with McKenzie resting a tired arm. Hentges had a good start against the Angels six days ago, holding them to 3 hits and 1 run over 4 innings. Hopefully the big lefty can replicate that performance and maybe push it out to five innings.

If Hentges is having command problems and the Indians are fouling off Lyles' stuff this game could move at a glacial pace. I'm setting my DVR for six hours.

By now, Straw is what he is. His numbers across the board are right on his career numbers....percentages of GB-LD-FB, percentages of balls hit to every field...percentages of soft-medium-hard hit. Percentages of BBs and Ks...slash lines...BABIP.

At 27 its doubtful we will see much variance.

I'm sure we will have several Parkers next year, probably on minor league signings, and able to be called up as necessity and 40 man situations dictate and/or allow.

While its good to see Miller play well...and Chang and Mercado and Johnson and Zimmer and Clement...we are talking about fringe players on the cusp of permanent AAAA status. Except for Miller, who is a year younger, all are about the same age as Amed...and all have a bunch of prospects behind them that need to be added to the roster, and who are 3-4 years younger.

While, hopefully, they all play well for us over the last stretch of games...and we fans focus on what they might mean for the Guardians in 2022...their goal is to be on somebody's spring training roster.

Are Miller and Johnson starting to settle in? It changes things a bit if they are. Both are more talented than marginal players, but performance counts.

Baseball is funny where a guy can hit the ball hard 3 out of 4 times with the weakest hit ball being the only base hit.

Parker has been reliable and consistent if nothing else. I wasn't sure why he was brought aboard, but now I know why.

Plesac needs to stay on the mound in order to get to his happy place.

I'm still concerned with TMac's ability to log enough IP. Love the kid and how he's pitching though.

If Chang could ever establish some consistency making contact then his value will skyrocket. He's got some serious pop. He may get to that point, but it will probably be with another team.

Zimmer is the perfect 4th OFer IMO.

We could see a platoon of Johnson and Mercado if they don't make an offseason trade or signing. I think they view Mercado in a better light than HRam.

CATS44 said:

By now, Straw is what he is. His numbers across the board are right on his career numbers....percentages of GB-LD-FB, percentages of balls hit to every field...percentages of soft-medium-hard hit. Percentages of BBs and Ks...slash lines...BABIP.

At 27 its doubtful we will see much variance.

I'm sure we will have several Parkers next year, probably on minor league signings, and able to be called up as necessity and 40 man situations dictate and/or allow.

While its good to see Miller play well...and Chang and Mercado and Johnson and Zimmer and Clement...we are talking about fringe players on the cusp of permanent AAAA status. Except for Miller, who is a year younger, all are about the same age as Amed...and all have a bunch of prospects behind them that need to be added to the roster, and who are 3-4 years younger.

While, hopefully, they all play well for us over the last stretch of games...and we fans focus on what they might mean for the Guardians in 2022...their goal is to be on somebody's spring training roster.

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Agree on Mercado, et al.

As for Straw, he had 199 major league at-bats coming into this season. This year he has 423 and counting. So 68% of his career at-bats have come this season. When you look at his career averages you're basically looking at this year. But generally by age 27 the cake is baked so I'm not expecting any big improvements. But I'd like to see him lay off the high heat a little better because when he hits those pitches he hits them in the air and it's almost always an out. He should hunt the low breaking stuff like Tyler Naquin.

CATS44 said:

While its good to see Miller play well...and Chang and Mercado and Johnson and Zimmer and Clement...we are talking about fringe players on the cusp of permanent AAAA status.

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Sounds like the Indians aren't planning on Zimmer being on somebody else's roster next year.

“We’ve been encouraged by the progress that Bradley has continued to make,” said Antonetti. “We’ve talked for quite a while about his ability to impact the game offensively, defensively and on the bases. I think we’ve seen a step forward in each of those areas as the season has gone on.

“That’s really encouraging when we think about heading into the offseason and building our team for next year.”

Zimmer, starting in right field Wednesday, has hit in 21 of his last 33 games with five homers, 15 RBI and a .768 OPS. The former No.1 pick is 10-for-12 in stolen base attempts...

Is getting hits in 21 of 33 games all that impressive? He‘s something like 30-117 in that stretch, which is a .256 average. If that’s his “hot streak” I’m not that impressed. He’s a solid 4th outfielder.

Martyinnewyork said:

Is getting hits in 21 of 33 games all that impressive? He‘s something like 30-117 in that stretch, which is a .256 average. If that’s his “hot streak” I’m not that impressed. He’s a solid 4th outfielder.

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For what he makes, and if his defense is plus, then thats perfectly fine for that role. I mean, hell, apart from his size, what he brings to the table with speed and defense is exactly what you want.

macbdog said:

For what he makes, and if his defense is plus, then thats perfectly fine for that role. I mean, hell, apart from his size, what he brings to the table with speed and defense is exactly what you want.

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Exactly what you want as a 4th outfielder, a late inning defensive replacement, a pinch runner, etc. As an everyday starting RF though? I'd say no.