Second Thoughts: Game #21 - Indians 2, White Sox 7

Starting Pitching

The Line: 4.2IP, 8H, 7/4 R/ER. 6BB, K. GIDP

The Results: 105 pitches, 51% strikes, 10GB, 5FB, PO, LO, 2LD

The Write-up: There isn’t much left to be said about Ubaldo Jimenez at this point. He is a mechanical mess (illustrated from his last start), his velocity is non-elite and he completely went off the cliff last night in regards to his control. Six walks is unacceptable from your starting pitcher and is typically a sign that he is battling an injury which hinders his ability to control his pitches. I don’t think anyone ever thought that Ubaldo would have top-rate command (i.e. the ability to throw a strike over certain parts of the plate), but I do think the front-office believed that he would have control (i.e. the ability to throw strikes).

I certainly have no novel ideas about how to “fix” Ubaldo, but simplification of his motion needs to be considered. That many moving parts is just bound to go wrong. A small piece of errata, and something that is worrisome for Indians fans: of the top 8 worst K:BB guys in the MLB, the Indians hold down #2, #3 and #8. This is a huge concern as the Indians essentially have more than their staff that issue more free passes than they can generate strikeouts. After Ubaldo’s wild night, he now sits at 20 BB’s and 14 K’s, which wrestles 2^nd away from the much-vaunted Derek Lowe. Unless these trends stop, look for more outings like Ubaldo’s tonight and look for Lowe to start getting touched up for more runs if he can’t limit the walks and/or generate strikeouts.

The Bullpen

The Line: 3.1IP, 0H, 0BB, 2K

The Results: 36 pitches, 72% strikes, 4GB, 2FB, PO, LO

The Write-up: Jairo Ascencio stopped the bleeding when Ubaldo couldn’t and then pitched two more flawless innings. Nick Hagadone, up for good in my opinion, needed just 5 pitches to work a scoreless 8^th. The Indians bullpen is really a thing to behold and Manny Acta is getting a sense of how and when to deploy the various guys at his disposal.

Through a small fluke (the one time Ubaldo went 7 innings, the game went extra innings), but the average # of relievers needed during an Ubaldo start is 3.9. Even if you remove the extra innings, you still have an average of 3 relievers needed and an average of less than six innings from your front-line starter. I credit Manny Acta with sticking with Jairo through 2.1 innings, a rarity with relievers, because it is stretched out over 3 separate trips to the mound. He only needed 31 pitches to get through his 7 outs and he looked incredibly in control. He won’t be dominant all year, but having a swing guy that can keep you where you are in a game and protect that bullpen for the rest of the series is huge for a manager and the club’s psyche.

The Starting Lineup

The Line: 6/33, 2 2B, HR, 2BB, SB, CS

The Results: 2R, 11TB, 11LOB, AVG/OBP/SLG 182/250/333

The Write-up: Chris Sale seems to have the Indians’ number. He controlled them April 9^th and he controlled them last night as well. This shouldn’t be too surprising as the Indians are a heavy left-leaning lineup and Sale has a low ¾ “sling” delivery that is very difficult to pick up from the left side of the plate. Shelley Duncan and Jason Kipnis were the only two bright spots accounting for 5 of the 6 hits and 10 of the 11 total bases. They scored both runs and accounted for both RBI’s.

Carlos Santana was off-balance against Sale and jumped out on his front-foot in two of his at bats, once squibbing the ball in front of the plate and another time lunging but keeping the hands back long enough to launch one into medium-deep left field that was caught about shoulder high by Dayan Viciedo. I can’t talk about Carlos without talking about the other legitimate threat in the Indians lineup: Jason Kipnis. He turned in some incredible AB’s last night. The RBI double to left was hard hit, and came on a 1-2 slider moving away from him. It was well done to go to the opposite field and take what was given rather than trying to pull a ball and weakly ground out to the right side.

Shelley Duncan had been struggling of late, but a left-handed starter was just what the doctor ordered. He went 2-3 with a 2B, HR, 2R and a BB. Going into last night’s game, Shelley Duncan has hit a line-drive on a whopping 36% of AB’s against left-handed pitching and only 16% of the time against righties. His career splits aren’t that pronounced, but the fact remains that Shelley Duncan is not only a capable batter against left-handed pitching, he is a force. The problem, of course, is that only about 30% of starting pitchers are left-handed. This is why Shelley Duncan has not been a starter for any Major League team up until this point and, ultimately, why Johnny Damon (and Grady Sizemore to some extent) was brought into the fold.

The Defense

No bright spots here. Cabrera looked lost out there last night, losing two infield pop-ups and booting the most routine groundball you could ask for. Granted, one of the infield pop-ups was sent up into a smoke screen created by the fireworks shot off from a home run, but the error and second infield pop had no such excuse. Cabrera is pretty well known for having below average range, so he absolutely must make the routine plays. Also, you have to think that MLB will do something about the firework displays because it caused a delay after the 1st homer run and then materially impacted the on field results after the 2nd home run.

Lou Marson didn’t throw out any of the three runners who ran on him, but the first two while Ubaldo was pitching were not his fault at all. STO showed one replay where you could see Ubaldo’s release and Brent Morel running, and Morel had five steps down before Ubaldo released the ball. The other attempt with Ubaldo was similar, and Lou threw a strike that got there at the same time as De Aza and hit him in the chest as he slid into 2^nd. Still, we are talking about a league leader in Throw Out % last year and a really spectacular defensive catcher.

The Takeaways

Ubaldo Jimenez is nowhere near “bring right” right now. He has bad mechanics and even worse control. You can’t win a game in which your starter goes 4.2 innings and walks 6 batters. Of course, only having three starters get hits also hurts your chances because of the inability to cluster them together and create a rally. If there is a silver lining to the game, it is that the bullpen was not overused and hopefully the series  can still be saved by a better overall performance the rest of the way. Let’s look forward to our first Johnny Damon experience tonight and hope that he sparks a better performance in a critical divisional series.