Luis and the Lefties

Cleveland has had a tough time finding that “second baseman of the future” ever since they shipped out Brandon Phillips in 2006. Since then, second has been occupied by Josh Barfield and various veteran journeymen. Ronnie Belliard’s tenure, from 2004 until he was traded to St. Louis late in 2006, was the longest of the bunch. Belliard also posted two of the best offensive seasons (106, 107 OPS+) by a Cleveland second baseman since Roberto Alomar in 2001 (150 OPS+), so clearly it’s been a while since the franchise had a capable hitter manning the pivot.

This makes a player like Luis Valbuena all the more intriguing. Valbuena was acquired from Seattle (along with Joe Smith via the Mets) during the 2008 offseason in exchange for Franklin Gutierrez. Even though Cleveland essentially pulled a Brian Giles with the Gutierrez trade (stud outfielder traded so he wouldn’t be blocked by a studlier outfielder at his natural position), the expectations within the organization and amongst the fans (at least those who valued cost-controlled, elite defenders in center field) were already slightly elevated. The fact that the Barfield trade ended up as a huge disappointment also shadowed Valbuena’s arrival.

Despite a rushed development track with Seattle, the 22-year-old Valbuena more than held his own in the upper minors, splitting the 2008 season between Double and Triple-A. After posting a combined .303/.382/.431 line over 523 PA that year, Cleveland promoted him full time to Triple-A, where he continued to thrive at the plate with a .321/.436/.538 line over 95 PA. Valbuena made his debut in Cleveland in May of 2009 and proceeded to take his lumps against major league pitching for the remainder of the season. The Tribe had wanted to determine if he could be a viable starter as the team shifted into rebuilding mode and expressed optimism in the relatively raw Valbuena’s .714 OPS that season.

Valbuena received a vote of confidence from new manager Manny Acta during spring training this offseason when Acta addressed the topic no young position player wants to be associated with:

We're not in the business of developing platoon players at 24 years old. We're going to give him opportunities [against lefties].

From a developmental stand-point, this was the right approach to take with Valbuena. Common sense dictates that he’ll never figure out lefties if he doesn’t get a chance to face them on a regular basis. However, there have been rumblings that Acta may be hedging somewhat on his original promise. Below are the season splits for Valbuena and his backup, Mark Grudzielanek, through May 1:

Valbuena

Split	GS	PA	2B	HR	BB	OBP	SLG	OPS	BABIP
Total	16	65	2	2	9	.308	.327	.635	.216
vs RHP	14	55	2	1	7	.291	.277	.568	.219
vs LHP	2	10	0	1	2	.400	.625	1.025	.200

Grudzielanek

Split	GS	PA	2B	HR	BB	OBP	SLG	OPS	BABIP
Total	7	30	0	0	0	.233	.233	.467	.269
vs RHP	2	9	0	0	0	.222	.222	.444	.250
vs LHP	5	21	0	0	0	.238	.238	.476	.278

It may be a limited sample, but considering five of Grudzielanek’s seven starts have come against LH starting pitchers (all of which were at 2B) while only two of Valbuena’s sixteen have come against lefty starters, there appears to be a trend forming. It’s too early to draw any useful conclusions performance-wise, but it is curious that Valbuena’s 10 PA against lefties this season have been outstanding while Grudzielanek’s contributions in that department have been poor.

Acta may be trying to help Valbuena break out of his early slump by putting him in ideal situations for success and will end the platoon once Valbuena gets his overall numbers up. Acta may also be feeling the pressure of managing an under-performing offense and has opted to temporarily shelve his plan for Valbuena in an effort to get some extra production from second base.

If that’s the case, it’s not working. Grudzielanek has been a dog at the plate so far, even worse than Valbuena’s overall numbers. So why not just give the kid the at-bats he was promised? Acta has the green light to test his young players this season and has suggested he’ll take advantage of that opportunity, making any talk of platoons seem out of place right now.

Is it possible Acta is just ahead of the curve on Valbuena though? After all, the main contradiction between what Acta originally stated and the direction he may be taking now was based on a spring training sound bite, so the anti-platoon policy for second isn’t exactly iron clad. Valbuena’s career minor league splits are a bit discouraging. Below are his career totals and a sample of his time in the upper minors:

Year	Age	Level	Split	AB	HR	OBP	SLG	OPS	BABIP	LD%
2008	22	AA	vs RHP	170	8	.374	.524	.898	.326	18.50%
			vs LHP	70	1	.398	.386	.784	.339	22.20%
		AAA	vs RHP	161	2	.395	.391	.786	.348	17.70%
			vs LHP	48	0	.327	.292	.619	.325	16.70%
2009	23	AAA	vs RHP	59	3	.471	.661	1.132	.396	27.50%
			vs LHP	19	0	.304	.158	.462	.214	13.3%
Career		Minors	vs RHP	1289	37	.361	.447	.808	.306	13.9%
			vs LHP	460	5	.319	.311	.630	.290	14.60%
Career		MLB	vs RHP	418	9	.293	.463	.756	.270	20.6%
			vs LHP	58	3	.302	.390	.692	.292	19.40%

Valbuena’s second stint in Double-A in 2007 also happens to be his best overall season in the minors. Considering he put up a better OBP against lefties than righties for the first time since A+ ball accompanied by an elevated BABIP (.339 versus a career .302), this stretch is probably more of an outlier. After being promoted to Triple-A, Valbuena’s numbers against lefties dropped off considerably and haven’t shown much sign of rebounding.

His career minor league splits reinforce this trend with a .630 OPS over 460 AB against lefties compared to a much healthier .808 OPS over 1289 AB against righties. Not only has Valbuena struggled to get on base against southpaws (.319 OBP), but his bat loses most of its pop (.311 SLG).

With that kind of track record, it’s quite possible that Valbuena never figures out how to handle lefties effectively. If he failed to do so against lesser competition throughout his minor league career, the odds don’t look good, even if he were to receive regular at-bats against them in the majors. However, the main factor working in the 24-year-old's favor at the moment is that he was rushed through the minors and is still relatively young for a major league starter, so he could still develop into a serviceable hitter against lefties down the road.

The team should maintain a patient approach with Valbuena. Regardless of what he does against lefties, it’s well established that he has the potential to be an above average hitter versus righties (which is what he’ll be facing most of the time anyway). Also, considering Valbuena’s home is second base, it’s not like he’s expected to be an integral part of the offense, nor is he blocking any superior hitters down on the farm.

A lot of players tend to have difficulty against left handed pitching during their career. For example, fellow lefty Grady Sizemore has a modest career OPS of .705 against left handed pitching, which casts Valbuena's career mark of .630 in the minors in a better light considering the disparity in talent between the two players.

Given how ineffective guys like Sizemore, Peralta, and Hafner have been early in the season, it would seem unfair to single out Valbuena’s slump. If management does decide to shake things up at second base though, Jason Donald is making quite a case for himself in Columbus with 8 doubles, 2 HR, and a .321/.424/.912 line over 84 AB so far. Donald can also play every infield position except first, meaning incumbent utility infielder Grudzielanek should start looking over his shoulder as well.

Coincidentally, Donald owns a career minor league line of .279/.391/.423 against left handed pitching, making him an ideal platoon partner for Valbuena if that’s the direction the team decides to go in. Cleveland would have to move Grudzielanek before promoting Donald, but that appears to be the best option if Grudzielanek fails to produce at the plate.

Having both Valbuena and Donald up gives Manny Acta more options as far as developing his future roster while optimizing his current one. Even if the team “is not in the business of developing 24 year old platoon players,” at least they’d be able to get a look at their two best options at second base in the same season, possibly improving the offense in the process if they end up as a pure platoon.

The Frisco Kid Rides Again

In an uncharacteristic personnel move, Jason Michaels was given the team’s standard issue severance package this week: a one-way ticket to a mediocre NL team (i.e. Pittsburgh). Michaels had been decent as a platoon option against left-handed pitching the past two seasons with David Dellucci as his wingman. Michaels averaged a .248 AVG, .301 OBP, .353 SLG line in 250 games (820 AB) with Cleveland since 2006. He was off to a horrible start this season, batting just .208 with a miserable .254 OBP. Being the weakest link during a team-wide slump on a team with as much outfield depth as Cleveland certainly didn’t help Michaels’ job security.

As a result, Ben Francisco has been released from his purgatory in Buffalo earlier than expected. Francisco was batting just .228 in Buffalo this year, possibly suffering from a lack focus at the prospect of another long year in AAA (a.k.a. Andy Marte Syndrome). Ben was obviously happy to be back in Cleveland though, racking up 7 hits, 3 doubles, and 4 runs in his first five games. The guy deserves a shot this season; there’s nothing left for him to prove in Buffalo, especially after winning the International League MVP at age 25.

Judging by how quickly Michaels was shipped out, Francisco was one of the players on Shapiro’s speed dial this season. The offense has had such a rough start this season that the team really couldn’t afford to hang onto any dead weight for too long (at least as far as the “role players” go). The motivation behind Francisco’s promotion was addressed during a teleconference with Shapiro after Michaels was released: “This one guy, this one transaction is not going to solve our offensive woes. The answers to our offensive issues lie within.” Like Laffey earlier, depth from within continues to bolster the team.

Francisco is an instant upgrade on offense over Michaels and didn’t really cost the Tribe anything. It’s not as if Cleveland gave up much to get Michaels in the first place (Arthur Rhodes) and the $1,681,148 the team still owes him is no big deal since Francisco will only be paid league minimum this season. Michaels was in the last year of his contract anyway and would have certainly been allowed to walk. Replacing Michaels with a better, younger, cheaper player instead of watching him struggle to hit league average numbers again was a smart move.

So how will Francisco impact the Tribe’s outfield situation? Wedge said earlier that Ben will see playing time against righties to rest Dellucci and Gutz, adding "[Francisco is] versatile enough to play every outfield spot well.” It’s still early, but Wedge has used an inclusive rotation for his outfielders so far. In the five games since Francisco was called up, Dellucci and Francisco have started four games each, while Gutz has started three. The odd man out has received a late inning at-bat in each game to play the bullpen match-ups.

I doubt the playing time will continue to be this evenly distributed, especially since Francisco and Dellucci are both strongest against right-handed pitching. My guess is Wedge will have Francisco play once or twice a week in left field, maybe more if he has a hot bat to play. Francisco will likely spot Gutierrez in right, but not as a platoon situation. The interesting part is that Gutz has historically struggled against righties, batting just .232 in 198 PA last season. Normally, this would provide a second option to play Francisco who has a more robust .300, .333, .529 line against righties during his time in the majors, but Gutz has reversed his splits from 2007. Due to the small sample size (30 PA), I doubt Gutz's .698 OPS against lefties will stay that bad, but it does provide a minor issue for Wedge to ponder.

If I were Wedge, I’d just tough out Gutierrez’s current slump and play to his past strengths against left-handed pitching. Francisco can fill in the gaps against righties (or lefties as the case may be) if Gutz starts to look truly overwhelmed at the plate. I think having Gutierrez’s defensive expertise in right field (anyone who’s seen that cannon attached to his shoulder knows what I’m talking about) is a major plus and could offset his short-term offensive struggles. Francisco should continue to receive the occasional start in right, but Gutz has a pretty strong hold on the position right now.

Lofton in Left

There hasn’t been much news out of Cleveland since the Lofton trade. Shapiro made it clear in a recent interview that the front office is still pursuing a final late-inning reliever. As usual, no details have leaked as to which pitcher the Tribe is pursuing. All teams have until 4pm Tuesday (7/31) to finalize any waiver-free trades, so fans will know soon enough if we got any help for Borowski and the Raffys.

The Indians have been repeatedly linked with Troy Percival of St. Louis. Percival has been effective in his comeback effort and may have become expendable as the Cards continue to struggle this year. It’s no secret that Eric Gagne is being dangled by Texas, but Cleveland is rumored to be out of the running for the former ace closer as the Yankees, Mets, and Red Sox move in on the hefty price tag. Other relievers on the market include Joaquin Benoit of Texas and Al Reyes of Tampa. Percival, Benoit, and Reyes would be well suited to 8^th inning duties, although it is unclear what Reyes’ feelings on closing are. Percival appears to be the cheapest of the three, given the (omnipresent) holes in Tampa’s roster and Texas going into full-blown rebuilding mode.

Lofton’s Role

Here’s an update of how the outfield platoon is performing for the 2007 season:

Lofton - Bats: L

Split	G	AB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
vs. L	42	69	.217	.300	.261	.561
vs. R	87	258	.329	.402	.485	.887

Gutierrez - Bats R

Split	G	AB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
vs. L	24	53	.340	.364	.604	.967
vs. R	41	55	.255	.311	.455	.766

Michaels - Bats R

Split	G	AB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
vs. L	45	99	.293	.363	.455	.817
vs. R	63	96	.250	.280	.375	.655

Nixon - Bats L

Split	G	AB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
vs. L	34	46	.217	.283	.283	.566
vs. R	81	215	.260	.363	.363	.725

Lofton fits in nicely with the existing platoon situation in the outfield corners. Lofton could technically platoon with either Gutierrez or Michaels, but will likely patrol left field with J-Mike. Gutierrez and Michaels each have a near even split between at-bats versus lefties and righties this season. Both bat right handed and perform significantly better against left handed pitchers as a result (there’s a shocker). Gutz has a cannon for an arm and is well-suited to right. He can continue to be spotted by Nixon, who has played all of his games in right field this year.

Michaels is forecast to lose some playing time, but should still start every game against left handed pitching; Lofton has been brutal against lefties this year, batting .217 with a .561 OPS (69 AB is a borderline sample size, but his OPS against lefties in 2006 was .549 in 89 ABs).

Given the way the platoon has gone thus far, Lofton and his left handed bat should take the majority of at-bats away from Nixon (also a lefty). It may seem a bit harsh, but there’s not much logic in playing Nixon outside of the rare situation where his career splits standout against a pitcher or someone needs a day off.

Gutierrez's numbers drop off significantly when facing righties, but they are still better than Nixon's, even though Nixon's primary role is to hit righties. Despite the dropoff, Gutz has kept certain aspects of his production consistent against all types of pitchers with only four hits and a homer the deficit between his splits (he also has 3 more walks versus righties).

In trading for Lofton, the team officially admitted to Nixon’s deficiencies as the left handed bat in the platoon. Wedge needs to field the best team possible for the rest of the season and Nixon is currently the worst outfielder on the roster. Do I seriously think Wedge will bench Nixon the majority of the season? No, but Lofton gives him every opportunity to do so from here on.

Adding Lofton gives the team’s overall speed a boost. Despite being 40 years old, Lofton has stolen 21 bases with Texas this year with an 84% success rate. Even if Wedge isn’t aggressive with Lofton on the bases, his ability will put extra pressure on pitchers as they face the heart of the order. Sizemore (.386 OBP) and Lofton (.380) gives Cleveland two excellent table setters for Martinez and Hafner. Blake has done an admirable job in the two spot, but can now be used to bolster the weaker end of the lineup (i.e. Nixon’s old spot). Here’s the projected lineup with Lofton included:

Player - BA / OBP / SLG

Sizemore - .275 / .386 / .469

Lofton - .306 / .380 / .437

Martinez - .309 / .379 / .525

Hafner - .258 / .386 / .442

Garko - .312 / .380 / .514

Peralta - .281 / .354 / .459

Gutierrez - .296 / .336 / .528

Blake - .267 / .347 / .456

Barfield - .251 / .278 / .328

It’s no Muderer’s Row, but a pretty impressive lineup just the same. The ability to get on base consistently has been a trademark of this team, wearing down pitchers with each at-bat. A prime example of this was the last start against Johan Santana. Despite a lack of baserunners, the Tribe was able to make the Twin’s ace work hard for his outs, throwing 114 pitches over 7 IP until he finally made a mistake in his final inning to tie the game at 2 all.

Escape from D.C.

The Indians must have been feeling charitable this weekend because they just gave away two games to the pathetic Nationals. The Tribe really deserved to get swept, but Victor Martinez decided to give Chad Cordero a new reason to lose sleep after Game 2. You can't get too down on the team though; they ran into Washington's two aces (/checks boxscores), Jason Simontacchi and Matt Chico. Wait, what?

The Tribe seems to have an uncanny ability to make crappy, National League, journeyman pitchers look like perrenial All-Stars. Whatever happened to Jamie Moyer? At least I knew what to expect when we faced him, but Simontacchi? My theory is the Indians ate at RFK before each game this series because I can say from experience the food there is not pleasant.

I was at Saturday's game and I was genuinely impressed with the number of Tribe fans in attendance. We were loud, at least on the few occasions there was something to cheer about. All I can say is I'm very grateful Victor went all Chuck Norris on Chad Cordero and that Nook Logan has a short attention span (he got thrown out rounding third to end the game); that would have been quite a long walk of shame after the ruckus we made during that game. Props to the guy in front of my row making old-school Indian war whoops, well played sir.

Seriously though, the Tribe has been struggling the entire month, so the Nats series was essentially more of the same. On one hand, the pitching was great. Carmona, Byrd, and Westbrook all provided quality starts, giving up no more than 3 runs in any game. The bullpen didn't blow any of the games, (not that there was ever a lead to be blown) and got the job done. Gutierrez continued his campaign for starting right fielder, collecting 5 hits in 9 ABs and flashing the leather on defense.


Cleveland has been averaging 4.6 runs per game over the 22 games played in June so far. They were held to 3 runs or less in 10 of those games. With 6 games remaining in June, the Tribe has gone 10-12 and finished 9-9 in interleague play. As of Sunday, Cleveland is sitting 2 games behind Detroit, who are currently on a 7 game winning streak. Oh, and here's a fun stat: Kansas City and Minnesota went 10-8 and 11-7 in interleague play, respectively. The White Sox still sucked (4-14), but you already knew that.

Time to panic? For the second time this season, no. Looking at Cleveland's schedule this year, they have played 25 total series, including the two Seattle make-ups, and 74 games. The Tribe has only lost three series to sub-.500 teams (KC, Cincy, and DC). I intentionally left out the Yankees series, since I don't think it would be fair to the Tribe to classify them with those other three teams. Cleveland has only been swept once so far this year, at Yankee Stadium in April. Despite Detroit's recent 7-game win streak and Cleveland's mediocre play, they are only 2 games back.

It's pretty fair to say Wedge's teams tend to catch fire in the second half, so if they can at least keep Detroit close, I'm not going to be too worried at this point. The next homestand is crucial though, as the offense needs to get back on track and play strong leading up to the All-Star break. Interleague is done and two very winnable series with Oakland and Tampa Bay start Monday, so try to get it together guys.

Welcome Back Jake

The key performance from this weekend was Westbrook's return from the DL, giving up only 3 runs over 7 IP with a 13-6 groundball-flyball ratio. Jake looked very comfortable in his first start back, consistently finding the strikezone (60-28 strike-ball ratio) and making several clean plays off the mound. Even though he was facing a very weak lineup, his technique and pitch movement looked solid and I think he will be even sharper in his next start.

Jason Stanford is still with the team, but it will be interesting to see what Shapiro does with him. He could be a nice piece in a trade package for a veteran reliever, but Shap has given no indication of any serious trade activity, as usual. There are so many trade scenarios (involving Stanford, Lee, prospects, etc.) and such a small sample size for Stanford this year, that it would be difficult to even speculate on the situation right now. I'm not sure the team needs a trade, but the bullpen could use another veteran pitcher to share the load with Betancourt. Hernandez was supposed to be that guy, but he obviously didn't have enough left in the tank to be of any use.

I think the outfield is set unless a team ends up having a firesale and Shapiro deems it appropriate to deal some spare parts from the minors. Unless Gutierrez's numbers fall off a cliff in a couple weeks, he should be here to stay. Even though Nixon doesn't deserve much playing time at this point, he can still provide a pure platoon with Michaels to keep Wedge happy.

Wedge has shown no signs of deviating from the platoon tactics either, with an especially egregious substitution in a tight game. Michaels had gone 2-2 on the night, accounting for half the team's hits so far. The Nats brought out a righty to pitch with a man on first, so of course Nixon got to face him instead of J-Mike. Nixon grounds out into a double play to end the inning. Whatever happened to going with your gut sometimes? Aren't managers allowed to go against the numbers on occasion? Apparently Wedge didn't trust Nixon's defense that day though, substituting him for AAA call-up Ben Francisco after one inning. Good grief.

Finally...

Random Trivia: The 1989 classic Major League was nominated for Best Foreign Film by the Japanese Film Academy. See, someone beside Cleveland fans like that movie.

Fun with Rosters

David Dellucci injured his knee running to first on a groundball in the bottom of the fourth inning against the Phillies Tuesday. A little more than halfway to the bag, Dellucci’s knee gave out, forcing him to slide head-first to reach base. While Dellucci’s hustle on the play was commendable, the damage was done; he had to be helped off the field by two trainers.

As bad as Dellucci has been this season, you never want to see a player get hurt and I hope the injury is not as serious as it looked. However, the injury did appear to be quite serious, which likely means a trip to the DL for Dellucci and a call up from Buffalo to take his place. Wedge has options at several positions, but it will be interesting to see how he adapts to losing an outfield platoon member with 173 at-bats this season. Here are the positions affected by Dellucci’s injury, with the available players:

LF: Michaels / Blake
RF: Nixon / Blake / Gutierrez
3B: Blake / Rouse

Michaels is a near lock to collect the majority of starts formerly assigned to Dellucci, given his success this season. Blake has never started in LF, but plays a solid outfield and can handle the occasional appearance in left.

Nixon and Gutierrez will likely continue to platoon, but I would still like to see Gutz get the majority of starts as the team heads into the All-Star break. I’m a big Nixon fan and while I was frustrated with his epic slump at the plate, I figured he would have at least stabilized by now. Instead, his OPS has continued to sink, due in part to an ugly .332 SLG. Trot has a career .470 SLG and slugged .394 in 2006 and .446 in 2007. The last time he hit more than 10 homeruns in a season was 2005 (13).

As far as I know, Nixon is healthy in 2007, so his stats are in all likelihood the best we will see out of him. What’s worse, Nixon’s range in right field has deteriorated to the point of being a liability on defense. As I’ve said before, Nixon is arguably canceling out the benefit of his batting against rightys with his all-around poor play. The lineup would also get a major speed boost with Nixon and Dellucci benched. I don’t know how much longer Wedge can justify starting Nixon with Gutierrez and Blake available.

Gutz has only seen 20 major league at-bats in 2007, so a sub-par offensive line is difficult to project (he was hitting .341 with an .872 OPS in AAA, so his bat is more likely to come around than Nixon’s), but he has shown great range in the outfield. Under the current platoon regimen, the Tribe’s best defensive outfield of Michaels, Sizemore, and Gutierrez only appears against left-handed pitching. Dellucci’s injury may allow the superior corner defenders to solidify a regular presence in the lineup.

In the event Gutz is not ready for a full time gig, Blake would have to take the majority of starts in right, with Andy Marte getting called up from Buffalo to start at 3b (Rouse is strictly a utility fielder). This is the least likely scenario in my opinion, given the team’s handling of Marte this season. Marte has turned up his offense in June (.302 AVG, .970 OPS), but is in Buffalo because of his offensive struggles in Cleveland. He will need to show a consistent improvement at the plate and Gutz will need to struggle for Marte to get the call.

More Roster Madness

I was simultaneously shocked and thrilled to see Josh Barfield bat second in the lineup against the Phillies on Monday and Tuesday. Barfield has been knocking on the door for a promotion, batting .355/.354/.387 in June so far. His power may not have caught up yet, but it's nice to see him hitting consistently right now.

Batting Sizemore and Barfield at the top of the lineup is wicked smart and a huge departure from Wedgie's usual lineup (Dellucci in the two-hole!?!). Once J-Barf's bat locks in for good (I'm extremely confident it will), can you imagine the chaos that much speed would do at the top of the lineup? Pitchers are going to have a hard time focusing on Victor or Pronk at the plate with that much speed on the basepaths. (ed. note: Casey Blake resumed batting second today, so it looks like Barfield was just getting a cup of coffee while Blake and Hafner rested those two days. I know I got a little carried away about Barfield batting second, but Blake is definitely the better choice, at least this season.)

Finally, Kelly Shoppach is now batting .391/.458/.656 in 64 ABs this season. His batting line is even more impressive, given his irregular appearances.

Did anyone else wonder if Shoppach catching Lee on Monday was for more than just lineup purposes? Lee and Victor were definitely unhappy with each other during Lee's last outing and he looked much more comfortable on the mound in his most recent start. Probably nothing, but something to keep an eye on.

Fish Fry

I know a win's a win, but this was an ugly game from start to finish. Cliff Lee got the mediocrity rolling by allowing the first four batters he faced to reach base safely. The Marlins took advantage of Lee's lack of control, plating three. In a cruel twist of fate (for Florida), Lee got his act together after that, keeping the Fish scoreless, striking out six and walking only two over his last 4 IP.

It was looking like yet another long night for the Tribe, with B.H. Kim striking out 8 over 5.1 innings and basically making one of the league's best lineups look foolish. The Marlins should have left the 6th inning with at least a 3-1 advantage, but managed to rack up 3 errors (there were a few in this game that didn't get scored, but they were definitely errors). Peralta mixed in a double among the chaos, while two more errors and a sharp Garko groundout tied it up.

Now, I almost feel sorry for what happened to the
Marlins next, but I'm in a rather spiteful mood tonight (blame the Cavs), so I think I'll just enjoy the moment. Tankersly had come in to relieve Kim and lost control of a 2-0 pitch, which plunked Grady on the back. Everyone watching knew it was just a wild pitch, but the young, hot-shot ump (who had issued a warning earlier in the game) decided to make a name for himself and tossed the pitcher and the manager and Aaron bleepin' Boone (yeah, he was definitely bleeping, but he was the only one who deserved to be tossed).

The very next at-bat, the replacement pitcher gives up a 3-run bomb to Dellucci to blow the game open and seal the win for the Tribe. Hey, I'll take it.

I was hoping the Tribe could get their bats going on their own tonight, but I will give them credit for taking full advantage of terrible defense from the Fish. In their last 10 (before tonight), Cleveland had gone 3-7, averaging only 3.7 runs per game. The team needs to carry over their aggression from tonight and string together a few good offensive performances to snap out of this "funk," as Wedgie likes to call it.

The Player of the Game tonight, was Victor Martinez, going 2-4 with an RBI and taking more abuse than a catcher should in one game. Poor Vic got trucked by the Marlins' catcher after blocking the plate, collecting a great relay throw from Rouse, and holding on to end the inning and the Marlins' last legit threat to take the lead back. You know when the head trainer spends an entire inning monitoring the catcher in the dugout, he got hit pretty hard.

On Cliff and Vic

In the midst of a near Cliff Lee meltdown, there was some serious animosity visible between Victor and Cliffy. After the second Marlins run scored, Carl Willis (the pitching coach) met with the battery on the mound. Victor wanted nothing to do with it, ignoring the meeting and staring off into the distance with a supremely pissed expression on his face. It was pretty apparent that the communication between the battery mates was poor that night, with Vic getting crossed up multiple times and Lee failing to hit his targets consistently.

While no where near as bad, I immediately thought of Zambrano and Barrett smacking each other around in the Cubs dugout last week. Victor is usually a model catcher in the way he communicates with and encourages his pitching staff; I'm guessing the tension of the team's losing streak was showing through a bit tonight. A good working relationship between a pitcher and catcher are crucial to the team's success, but neither seems to be of the personality that would lead to any grudges. Besides, I doubt Lee would be able to pitch again this season if Vic stuffed him in a water cooler.

On the Platoon

I know I'm not alone in my disappointment with the corner outfielders this year. Nixon started off the year on fire, but has since settled into a bad stretch. Dellucci has been next to useless in key at-bats and his defense has been nothing to write home about. I find myself cringing whenever these two guys come up to bat now, it's really been that ugly at times (as I type this, Dellucci hits a 3 run homer....awesome, but he still isn't off the hook). I really can't complain about Michaels, but he seems to get a lot fewer at bats compared to Dellucci. The table below shows the splits for all three platoon outfielders for the 2007 season, up to June 13.

Pitcher	Bats	Player	AB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	BA w/ RISP
Lefty	Left	Dellucci	23	0.174	0.208	0.261	0.469	0.163
Righty			140	0.250	0.308	0.407	0.715
Lefty	Left	Nixon	45	0.222	0.275	0.289	0.563	0.226
Righty			131	0.260	0.355	0.366	0.722
Lefty	Right	Michaels	59	0.288	0.377	0.492	0.868	0.346
Righty			52	0.250	0.264	0.385	0.649

As a platoon, each player's at-bats obviously correlate with the type of pitcher they've historically had the most success against. Dellucci and Nixon have seen about the same number of at-bats and neither has been much better than the other offensively. The only standout stat is Nixon's .226 BA with runners in scoring position compared to Dellucci's miserable .163.

Meanwhile, Michaels is sitting with a .868 OPS and a .346 BA with RISP. J-Mike also sports better range in left field, making several game altering catches this season.

It's unfortunate that both left-handed platoon bats have failed to make a significant impact so far, since there is no easy alternative for Wedge other than to give them playing time. First, Wedge is notoriously stubborn and will likely stick with the pure platoon all season, even though the two lefties lack of production arguably cancels out any benefits of matching up a righty bat in the lineup against a lefty pitcher. Second, benching Dellucci/Nixon for an extended period of time would likely create some dissent in the clubhouse. Taking scheduled at-bats from the team's veteran leadership is not the message Wedge wants to send to the rest of the team.

To add another layer to the issue, Casey Blake has been playing some of the best baseball of his career with solid defense in right and third (a 22 game hit streak doesn't hurt either). At the beginning of the year Michaels had to split time with three other players, but now that Blake has moved to third base full time and Dellucci and Nixon are struggling, you would think Michaels would see more time right? Nope, still a benchwarmer more often than not.

Given how upset Michaels gets with himself for so much as striking out, his confidence is probably suffering as he watches Dellucci misread flyballs in left and flail away at the plate. Dellucci has done nothing to deserve 32% more at-bats than Michaels this season. Dellucci (.208 OBP) batting second in the lineup instead of J-Mike (.377 OBP) only exacerbates the issue. The biggest strength of a platoon is its flexibility, whether that means matching up against a pitcher or playing the hot hand to maximize production.