My dad turned 78 this week. As a 9-year-old, he listened over the radio at Lazarus Department Store in downtown Columbus, Ohio when the Cleveland Indians clinched their last World Championship. Last year I sat behind home plate at Progressive Field, watching the Fox broadcast of Game #5 of the World Series on the scoreboard, hoping to be there when the drought finally ended. Like each and every autumn beginning with 1949, Tribe fans ended up disappointed.
The 2017 season has started off a bit slow, but so did the 2016 season. They find themselves in almost the identical spot in the standings as they were 365 days ago, but in the weak AL Central, they can probably afford to figure things out along the way.
The brightest revelation at the moment is rookie center fielder Bradley Zimmer. Last year team injuries left rookie Tyler Naquin in position to seize the spotlight, but after a great first half, the league adjusted to Naquin. In the final two months Naquin hit .234/.331/.331. He also played center field like a future right fielder. He struck out in 61% of his post-season at-bats. Naquin was demoted just 6 games into the 2017 season.
Injuries to three Cleveland outfielders would have put Naquin in line for another shot, except he's been out of action himself with a lower back strain. Enter Zimmer, the Tribe's #2 prospect. The 24-year-old was expected to play good defense, hit a few home runs and steal some bases. He wasn't expected to get on base much yet, but in his first 16 games he's hit .302/.375/.605. It's a small sample size for a guy there's not really a book on yet. It also seems unlikely the OBP will hold up if he continues to strike out in a third of his at-bats. However, it looks like the Indians might have their present and future center fielder in the lineup. Zimmer is a center fielder in the make of Grady Sizemore... a good glove, power and speed, but he'll swing and miss a lot. The strikeouts won't look as bad if his walk rate also translates to the MLB level. That's not say he is the next Sizemore, who had already been a major league star for two years when he was Zimmer's age.
When Cleveland traded for Andrew Miller last July, I thought they gave up way too much talent. I would rather have seen them trade Zimmer at the time than Clint Frazier, who's younger and seemed more advanced. It turns out Chris Antonetti might now his team a little better than I do. Granted, I haven't complained about the trade once since the start of last year's playoffs. Frazier is having a solid year with the Yankees AAA team, but I wouldn't have guessed a year ago that Zimmer would be the one succeeding in the majors right now. The conundrum with Frazier is he didn't fit the outfield's biggest need -- a legit center fielder. In Cleveland he would have been battling for a job in RF, trying to convince Tito he's worthy of playing full-time, rather than simply platooning with Naquin or Lonnie Chisenhall.
A smaller aspect of that trade I didn't care for at the time was including Ben Heller as a throw in. Heller isn't a relief prospect to count on, but I thought he was in line to get a shot in Cleveland in the second half of 2016. Antonetti more than made up for that with a seemingly minor deal with New York over the winter to get Nick Goody, who had been DFA'd to add Aroldis Chapman to the roster. I look at this as an extension of last July's deal, and Goody has more than replaced Heller's role in the organization. In fact, he's quickly become a dependable reliever in Cleveland, only allowing his first earned run of the season this afternoon. Miller and Goody, the two relievers acquired from New York in the past year have combined for a 0.38 ERA over 47.1 innings (23 H, 10 BB, 60 K).
Since I've gotten a late start on this, I'll talk more about the bullpen and other aspects of the team later.
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The 2017 season has started off a bit slow, but so did the 2016 season. They find themselves in almost the identical spot in the standings as they were 365 days ago, but in the weak AL Central, they can probably afford to figure things out along the way.
The brightest revelation at the moment is rookie center fielder Bradley Zimmer. Last year team injuries left rookie Tyler Naquin in position to seize the spotlight, but after a great first half, the league adjusted to Naquin. In the final two months Naquin hit .234/.331/.331. He also played center field like a future right fielder. He struck out in 61% of his post-season at-bats. Naquin was demoted just 6 games into the 2017 season.
Injuries to three Cleveland outfielders would have put Naquin in line for another shot, except he's been out of action himself with a lower back strain. Enter Zimmer, the Tribe's #2 prospect. The 24-year-old was expected to play good defense, hit a few home runs and steal some bases. He wasn't expected to get on base much yet, but in his first 16 games he's hit .302/.375/.605. It's a small sample size for a guy there's not really a book on yet. It also seems unlikely the OBP will hold up if he continues to strike out in a third of his at-bats. However, it looks like the Indians might have their present and future center fielder in the lineup. Zimmer is a center fielder in the make of Grady Sizemore... a good glove, power and speed, but he'll swing and miss a lot. The strikeouts won't look as bad if his walk rate also translates to the MLB level. That's not say he is the next Sizemore, who had already been a major league star for two years when he was Zimmer's age.
When Cleveland traded for Andrew Miller last July, I thought they gave up way too much talent. I would rather have seen them trade Zimmer at the time than Clint Frazier, who's younger and seemed more advanced. It turns out Chris Antonetti might now his team a little better than I do. Granted, I haven't complained about the trade once since the start of last year's playoffs. Frazier is having a solid year with the Yankees AAA team, but I wouldn't have guessed a year ago that Zimmer would be the one succeeding in the majors right now. The conundrum with Frazier is he didn't fit the outfield's biggest need -- a legit center fielder. In Cleveland he would have been battling for a job in RF, trying to convince Tito he's worthy of playing full-time, rather than simply platooning with Naquin or Lonnie Chisenhall.
A smaller aspect of that trade I didn't care for at the time was including Ben Heller as a throw in. Heller isn't a relief prospect to count on, but I thought he was in line to get a shot in Cleveland in the second half of 2016. Antonetti more than made up for that with a seemingly minor deal with New York over the winter to get Nick Goody, who had been DFA'd to add Aroldis Chapman to the roster. I look at this as an extension of last July's deal, and Goody has more than replaced Heller's role in the organization. In fact, he's quickly become a dependable reliever in Cleveland, only allowing his first earned run of the season this afternoon. Miller and Goody, the two relievers acquired from New York in the past year have combined for a 0.38 ERA over 47.1 innings (23 H, 10 BB, 60 K).
Since I've gotten a late start on this, I'll talk more about the bullpen and other aspects of the team later.
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