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2021 Series #7 | Yankees @ Indians | April 22, 2021

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A couple thoughts...

1) Its April. Lets see what TMacs velo is in June. Right now its down quite a bit from last season, but its early and a lot colder than its gonna be.

Bieber, Plesac, Civale...all of their velos are down from last season, which is hardly unusual in April.

2) The error went to Naylor, but the misplay was on Quantrill. Quantrill should have made the play himself, then flipped it at point blank range to a spot that it could only be bare handed.

3) The batters did exactly what they have been doing, but today the hits fell in.

4) Today we had four hits that were to center or the opposite field, plus a sac fly. Love it.

5) I'm surprised that a roster move hasn't been announced tonight.

6) Every time Luplow has been given fairly regular at bats he has hit the ball...and usually crushed it.

He has had three months in which he collected at least 60 plate appearances. In those three months his OPS has been .754...883...880.

He seems to be headed toward at least 60 PAs this month...and his OPS is 1.004 at the moment.

Forget platooning this guy. When he plays every day, he hits.
 
WhoAzcue said:
Of course; plenty of very good pitchers have relied upon it. I don't have a clue what Jup is talking about. We've already been advised that McKenzie is trying to change tires while the car is moving, a daunting task for anyone at this level. I don't think he has to have "pinpoint" control to be successful, but he does have to be able to throw strikes with all his pitches, and right now he can't. He remains a work in progress, not a finished product who needs parameters put on him. I have no problem being skeptical about his future, but it's nonsense to flatly assert that his stuff can't play up here. Remember, this is the same guy who dismissed Shane Bieber as a "a nice little pitcher, for what he is.
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Kluber didn't ever throw 89-91.

I have no idea what Tmac did last year, or will do next year. I only know what I saw with my own two eyes for the couple starts I watched just recently. The first time I was told that I was making it sound like a declarative instead of my opinion, so this time I purposely stuck an IMO right there upfront for all to see. Guess it still doesn't matter, same shit as last time.

And once again I said the same thing, his velo is a problem. So maybe it will change. YIPPPPEEEEE

So If you don't like my OPINION comment - to each his own WHO

And when Bieber came up, Bieber had left handed problems. And I did a whole thing on him needing to do something about it or he would have problems out into the future - he has. So go ahead and miss quote or take out of context what I may have said WHO, I know you have a thing about whatever I say going way back to IBI. Be my guest, no skin off my back.
 
jup said:
I watched Tmac again today, and came away unimpressed once again. At least for a first round draft pick.

Yes he can be successful, but IMO he is not a FOR starter and unless he throws harder, never will be. He only got hurt a couple times, both of those were on FBs in the zone. And that is what happens when you throw 89-91. You just can't get by unless you are on the edges. The walks were a result of the same thing. He can't throw "in the zone" so he has to pitch on the edges. And when you do that, you have so little margin for error, that when you do miss it is a non competitive ball that leads to walks or hits if you have to make sure you get it in the zone.

He is a guy that would have to have elite command all the time to be a consistent FOR pitcher. Pretty tough thing to do.
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He doesn't typically throw 89-91 yet it seems like you're treating this as his norm for not even the present but also the future. The way he becomes a consistent FOR pitcher first of all involves getting back his stuff, not becoming some sort of uber control pitcher.
 
Bauers really just isn't showing the ability to do anything well. I may generally lean toward long leashes however his career progression was always supposed to involve developing some kind of power on top of his disciplined approach, but it seems like he has developed no additional power while becoming actually less disciplined. I don't know where we draw the line and just say that "good luck, some other team". I really don't see many glimpses of potential there.

I have nothing against Chang on this roster. He is an expendable utility guy but he can move around the diamond which provides value to the team. He's not a platoon-lefty first baseman who can't even hit righties.
 
KluberSociety said:
He doesn't typically throw 89-91 yet it seems like you're treating this as his norm for not even the present but also the future. The way he becomes a consistent FOR pitcher first of all involves getting back his stuff, not becoming some sort of uber control pitcher.
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Talk to @Bimbo and others about what mph he throws - they say it has never been more than low 90's. So lets say he is 91 -93 like they say he has always been. It still is a problem in the zone.

And arguing he gets his stuff back with me is like preaching to the choir, so I have no idea what that is about. Never claimed he should become an uber control pitcher. Just commented on what my eyes saw. And maybe I am going blind because I am getting older, but I think I can still read the numbers on the big screen and see where the ball ends up versus the strike zone box. But maybe not.
 
jup said:
Talk to @Bimbo and others about what mph he throws - they say it has never been more than low 90's. So lets say he is 91 -93 like they say he has always been. It still is a problem in the zone.

And arguing he gets his stuff back with me is like preaching to the choir, so I have no idea what that is about. Never claimed he should become an uber control pitcher. Just commented on what my eyes saw. And maybe I am going blind because I am getting older, but I think I can still read the numbers on the big screen and see where the ball ends up versus the strike zone box. But maybe not.
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There's a pretty difference between 91-93 (or 90-95 as has also been written), and 89-91. There are almost no successful major league righty starters pitching at the latter, but the former is fairly average. He was even averaging over 91 MPH this year prior to today's game. If he's working out mechanical kinks, a little roughness is to be expected so I really just wouldn't be reading much into one game.
 
Just wanted to shout out to La Mole, who ended up with five hits in the series, including a double, TWO triples, and a three-run homer. The triples were the most amazing thing because 1) he never hit one in his career, and 2) this ballpark is very difficult to hit triples in. If he was going to hit one I'd expect it to be a drive into the right-center gap in Detroit.

On top of that he also stole a base; his first career steal. It was an incredible display of power and speed. I'll bet he's talking to Francona right now about giving him an automatic green light whenever he wants to swipe a bag. :chuckle:

I just hope his hitting is contagious.
 
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CATS44 said:
6) Every time Luplow has been given fairly regular at bats he has hit the ball...and usually crushed it.

He has had three months in which he collected at least 60 plate appearances. In those three months his OPS has been .754...883...880.

He seems to be headed toward at least 60 PAs this month...and his OPS is 1.004 at the moment.

Forget platooning this guy. When he plays every day, he hits.
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So far he's 3-for-10 against RHP's with a double, two home runs and 5 RBI's. He's also struck out five times so it's feast or famine. One walk, no singles - it's either a K or an extra-base hit.

I'm good with an RBI every two at-bats against RHP's.

Seven of Luplow's nine hits have been doubles or home runs. Reyes needs to help him work on his triples. By the way, Reyes is probably offering to bet Ramirez $100 that he finishes the season with more triples than Hosey.

Luplow is only hitting .208 against lefties but 4 of his 6 hits have been extra bases. The crazy thing is he has 12 RBI's in only 43 at-bats despite playing on a team that doesn't put many runners on base. At this pace he would have 167 RBI's in a 600 AB season. Yeah, play him every day for sure.

Luplow has been incredibly productive in the biggest situations. With runners on base he's hitting .294/1.216. With RISP he's at .300/1.364. And with two out and runners in scoring position he's 3-for-4 with two home runs and a double.

It's only 20 games but he's been the team's best hitter along with Reyes. Actually, Reyes has two more RBI's than Luplow in 27 more at-bats.
 
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One reason Luplow has received a steady amount of playing time is because the Indians have faced a lot of LHP in the first month. As a team, 44% of their PA’s have come against LHP. That is the highest % mix in all of baseball. They have 80 fewer PA’s against RHP than the next lowest team. Given they are the 2nd worst hitting team so far against RHP, perhaps that is a good thing.
 
Have to agree with jup, if what he is saying is that if TMac doesn't pitch better, he won't succeed...kinda intuitive.

I dont agree that velo is the major problem, or that he can't be successful with his lack of velo.

Lets compare the velo for three Tribe starters in three categories....present...2020...career.

TMac...91.2...92.8...92.2

Civale...91.3...91.8...92.0

Plesac...92.3...92.8...93.6

(Dont blame me if the numbers don't fit the narrative. Blame fangraphs.)

Last season TMac thru as hard or harder than Civale and Plesac, who were both successful. This year, all three have lower velos (TMac the biggest drop so far), which, as said before, is normal.

Both Civale and Plesac throw with lower velos than when they first arrived in MLB.

If the narrative is that TMac can't succeed with his velo, the narrative is also that 60% of our rotation cant.

And also that pitchers like Kershaw, Maeda, Ryu, Greinke, Bundy, and Gonzalez can't....all of whom have thrown with lower velos over the last two seasons than TMac.

Of course, everybody would love to have a rotation full of guys who throw 95+ with command. But its not the only way to skin a cat...or batter.

TMac has a loooong way to go, but it doesn't mean he won't get there without a big jump in velo.

As an addition, I also have doubts that his frame will hold up long term as a starter.
 
CATS44 said:
When it comes to Luplow, all I'm saying is that when he has been given regular playing time he has hit very well at every level...including MLB...against both handed pitching.

And the sample size is not small.
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Luplow has not hit RHP well at the MLB level....yet. His splits have been extreme.

Luplow deserves more playing time. He may very well improve against RHP. Fortunately, even if he doesn’t, the Indians play in a division with a decent amount of LHP.

The Indians need to get a look at Johnson and Bradley sooner than later. If they start locking in everyone to playing daily, it can’t happen. There’s a lot of flexibility between utilizing straight platoons and playing guys everyday. The Indians have already been doing it this year. Simply remove Chang and Bauers from the rotation and replace with DJ and Bradley. Plenty of AB’s to go around at CF/RF/1B/SS.
 
Montgo said:
Luplow has not hit RHP well at the MLB level....yet. His splits have been extreme.

Luplow deserves more playing time. He may very well improve against RHP. Fortunately, even if he doesn’t, the Indians play in a division with a decent amount of LHP.

The Indians need to get a look at Johnson and Bradley sooner than later. If they start locking in everyone to playing daily, it can’t happen. There’s a lot of flexibility between utilizing straight platoons and playing guys everyday. The Indians have already been doing it this year. Simply remove Chang and Bauers from the rotation and replace with DJ and Bradley. Plenty of AB’s to go around at CF/RF/1B/SS.
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Luplow HAS hit MLB RHers well when allowed to play every day.

And thats the point. When he plays every day, he hits everybody.

When he plays sporadically, he only hit lefties.

Everybody talks about Johnson, who has not handled lefties well...but Luplow was the better hitter in the minors than Johnson by a fairly substantial margin....without significant splits.

This does not mean that Johnson won't hit, but if you go by the results, Luplow deserves the first long look as a regular.
 
jordan should play every day till say Memorial Day -his ability to hit RH pitching + any other outfielder's ability to hit at all will determine the rest
 
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