Tribe ’09: Sizemore Still the Man in the Outfield

Written by: Michael Taylor on 9th March 2009

Tribe ’09: Sizemore Still the Man in the Outfield | read this item

There have been few consistencies with the Cleveland Indians over the past four years. Their win-loss record has been on a roller-coaster ride up and down dependent to whether it was an odd year or even year on the calendar; once dominant hitters have become whittled down to mere shadows of their former selves, arguably due to injury, or just plain regression; bullpens have been either great or historically bad; and there have been more corner outfielders surrounding Grady Sizemore than I can truly count off the top of my head.

Members of this not so elite group – after looking it up – over these four years have been, David Dellucci, Ben Francisco, Shin-Soo Choo, Franklin Gutierrez, Jason Michaels, Jason Tyner, Jamey Carroll, Kenny Lofton, Trot Nixon, Casey Blake, Todd Hollandsworth, Joe Inglett, Eduardo Perez, Hector Luna, Jody Gerut, Ryan Ludwick, Jason Dubois, Jose Hernandez, Alex Cora, Coco Crisp and Jeff Liefer. If you were counting, that is 21 players who have played at least an inning at one of the corner outfield spots next to Sizemore, who himself averages 160 games played per season.

That is just one of the things that makes Grady Sizemore so special. Manager Eric Wedge can count on writing Sizemore’s name as the leadoff hitter and in center field on a nightly basis without hesitation.

In fact, just last April Sizemore had a streak of 382 consecutive games played snapped after rolling an ankle the day before. He still came back to play two days later and trekked on to play 157 games on the season; a season in which he became the 32nd member of the 30-30 club, appeared in his third straight All-Star game, won his second consecutive Gold Glove, first Silver Slugger Award, and finished 10th in the AL MVP voting.

Despite all of the accolades, some still question him at times, as his batting average has dipped each of the last two seasons to a career low full-season average of .268. But that is only a small measure of what he can do, in fact Sizemore is putting more balls in play than he ever has before in his career – he had a career high 83% contact rate in ’08. But because his BABIP – batting average on balls in play – was a career low .291 last year (over 40 points below his other full-season averages), his batting average did not reflect the improvements that he had made.

Sizemore also improved his power numbers to a career high 33 home runs, stole 38 bases to just 5 times caught stealing and also got on-base via a walk in 13.4% of plate appearances, which was enough to net him a very good total of 98 as a leadoff hitter. He can do it all, and despite the rants of fans to move him down in the batting order, he is the perfect guy to hit leadoff for the Indians, and likely any team in the league.

Entering his sixth season (fifth full-season) with the Indians, there is no doubt that he is quite possibly one of the best all-around players the Indians organization has had in years, and why General Manager Mark Shapiro says that Sizemore is, “without a doubt one of the greatest players of our generation”. Think about it, if he were playing in New York, how much bigger would his popularity be nationally? I would bet that he would rival and pass Derek Jeter. His “Gradies Ladies” following would just go crazy, too. Who knows how big that sisterhood could become?

Surrounding Sizemore in the outfield to start 2009 will be in left field, Ben Francisco, and in right field, Shin-Soo Choo. Both are coming into their own as major leaguers after getting their first extended looks a season ago.

Ben Francisco began 2008 in AAA Buffalo because of a numbers crunch out of spring training, but soon he was called upon with the platoon of Jason Michaels and David Dellucci failing. Francisco took control of his opportunity, hitting .294 with 8HR and 35 RBI in 63 games before the All-Star Break. He had even hit 3rd in the lineup at times before his second half slump began.

Francisco, who projects to be a very average player in about all aspects that one player can, struggled after the break to hit .236 with 19 RBI, despite still hitting 7HR. In fact during September he completely hit a wall with a .188 average and .319 SLG% in 69 at-bats. Whether this was due to the league pitching to him better as they gained a scouting report, or him fatiguing down the stretch is to be seen.

One thing is for sure. He will have to make some adjustments to stay fresh and aggressive. If he doesn’t, he may soon be looking over his shoulder at the trio of minor leaguers ready to take his starting spot – Matt LaPorta, Trevor Crowe, and Michael Brantley. If that happens, Francisco will then become a perfect fourth outfielder with an ability to play all outfield spots. He hit .266 with 15HR, 54RBI, 65R, and 4SB during his rookie campaign.

In right, Shin-Soo Choo will be looking to continue his breakout season. After returning from Tommy John surgery on his elbow, Choo – after about a couple of months of mediocrity (.243 with 3HR before AS break) – started streaking with his best work at the end of the season.

Chooey, as he is becoming affectionately nicknamed by some, won the American League Player of the Month award for September. That month he hit, .400 with 5HR, 24RBI, 21 runs scored, and an OPS of 1.123. Heck, the month before this his OPS was also a robust 1.037 as he hit .318 with 16 extra-base hits in August.

In all, Choo hit .309 with 14HR and 66RBI in 94 games, which would project out to be .309 with 24HR and 114RBI over a 162 game season.

He has set the bar high for this season, no doubt, but he has a history of putting the ball in play hard throughout his minor league, and now major league career. In his 509 major league at-bats he has a very good 23% line drive rate, which has helped to create a high .369 BABIP. If he can sustain these same numbers this season, there is no reason to expect his batting average to crash, even if his strikeouts remain near 20% of plate appearances.

The question will be however, if he can hit LH pitching, which he has a career .703 OPS against, and if he can sustain the sudden increase in power – he never hit more than 15HR’s in the minors.

Backing up the new trio of Indians to start ’09 will be the veteran David Dellucci. He will be fulfilling the final year of his three-year contract that was signed prior to ’07. No longer however will he be a part of a platoon in the outfield. He will strictly be a backup left fielder and sometimes DH.

His bat speed has been slowing in recent seasons, and his ability to play the outfield has also created an issue with playing him too much out there, thus he is just playing the one position where arm strength is lesser of an issue.

In two seasons with Cleveland, Dellucci has hit just .235 with 15HR and 67RBI.

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Topics: Ben Francisco, David Dellucci, Grady Sizemore, Shin-Soo Choo

Jason Bidlack says:

March 10, 2009 at 2:53 am

Grady Sizemore has been looking good in morning workouts runninh hard and staying in shape. Also Haffner has just started practicing again but was only throwing underhand to players. Not sure what that is about if his shoulder is still bothering him or what. He did play in Friday’s march 4th, 2009 game against the Brewers and his timing was just off. First at bat he struck out and second at bat pop out to second baseman. You can tell he is clearly frustrated and wants to just crush the ball 500 feet, but that will come hopefully sooner than later.Anyway it was nice to see Pronk back in the lineup.
Jason Bidlack