Tribe Notes: Injury Scares Subsiding, Top Double Play Duo?

Written by: Michael Taylor on 12th March 2009

Tribe Notes: Injury Scares Subsiding, Top Double Play Duo? | read this item

Lucky for the Indians that this year is an extended spring training. With three and a half weeks still to go before the season starts, the Tribe’s walking wounded are beginning to work their way back onto the field and into the starting lineup.

In yesterdays 5-0 loss to the Rockies, the names Travis Hafner and Grady Sizemore were in the same lineup for the first time this spring. Though they each went 0-3, it was a positive sign that the team is indeed getting healthy.

Hafner was playing in his fourth spring game, but it was the first time he had played in consecutive days. He underwent surgery during the offseason on a weakened shoulder, but now says that he feels great and that the problem has been fixed. He began taking live batting practice just a few weeks ago, and is again hitting line drives back at pitchers as he once would…just ask the Angels Jered Weaver.

Sizemore was back in his familiar centerfield position for the first time since February 26 after suffering a groin injury early in camp. The injury was enough to keep him out of the WBC, and out of action for about a week. Manager Eric Wedge said there were “no issues” with the injury after the game.

Also good news for the Tribe is that Kerry Wood and Joe Smith have made their debuts this week. Wood, who signed a 2-year $20.5 million deal with the Indians to close games, had been suffering from back stiffness. Smith, who was acquired in the Franklin Gutierrez trade from the Mets, had been dealing with a serious viral infection that kept him out of camp for nearly a week. Both threw scoreless innings of relief in their debuts.

Finally, Shin-Soo Choo got a check-up with the Indians staff yesterday and was given a clean bill of health. No word on what the problem was, but the elbow/triceps pain he was said to be experiencing is gone, and Choo will continue playing for Korea in the second round of the WBC this weekend in San Diego. Still no decision to whether he will be allowed to play the outfield, or again just DH.

Double Your Pleasure

Bill James has been doing it for decades, and now is no exception. He is soon to release his latest publication, Bill James Goldmine 2009, which will again have cutting-edge analysis to keep you reading. I bought last year’s version and still refer back to it quite often. It truly is what it is promoted as.

But one thing you will not find in this years book is this little nugget of information that was rejected according to The Hardball Times (who helped to submit information to James):

The Cleveland Indians defense led the American League in turning ground balls into double plays. Not only did they turn the most DP’s, they were very efficient given the number of opportunities they had.

Tribe shortstop Jhonny Peralta may not rank among the league’s leading defenders overall but he did have the most efficient year of his career in turning double plays. Converting 66.3% of his potential chances into double plays, he had the fourth-best average among shortstops in the majors last season.

Peralta’s primary double play partner Asdrubal Cabrera probably deserves some of the credit for his improvement. Cabrera led the league in double play turned efficiency for second basemen, turning 70.5% of his opportunities into double plays. The Cardinals’ Adam Kennedy was the second best among major league second basemen in double play efficiency, turning 62.4% of his chances into double plays.

Cabrera played 776.2 of the Indians 1437 innings at second last season, Jamey Carroll covered 580.1 of the remaining innings. Carroll was efficient in double-play opportunities also, turning 57.5% of his chances into double plays. While that figure is dwarfed by Cabrera’s rate, Carroll’s rate was the 8th most efficient in the majors last season. Carroll was also the major league leader in double play efficiency in 2006 when he was a member of the Rockies.

The Indians announcers have said it, but until this piece of information, we really had no idea how well the middle infield turns the double play. You figured that Asdrubal Cabrera was good at making a quick turn around the 2nd base bag, but did we expect Jhonny Peralta to be the major league’s 4th best at turning the DP? That goes back to my previous discussions to why Peralta is just fine at shortstop. To only judge fielders with your eyes can be very deceiving.

Impact Rookie?

The folks over at fangraphs.com have been doing a great series profiling potential impact rookies that fantasy baseball players could buy into this season. The Indians representative of the series was Adam Miller.

It is a pretty straightforward profile hitting all of the key points that you’d expect, highlighting the good numbers with the injury history, but I like the final paragraph.

“From a fantasy perspective, Miller will likely be extremely frustrating – as a starter or reliever. He has the stuff to dominate – and he could be an impact arm during the 2009 season at the Major League level. But he could also break your heart if you rely on him too heavily.”

Yeah, exactly what the Indians feel from a real life perspective too. Especially now that he is out indefinitely again with the same finger causing problems.

Walk Around the Park

If you love ballparks as much as me, I recommend you check out Baseball Reflections.com. Bill Jordan is doing a series of reviews of minor league parks and has recently done a few Indians affiliates in Akron and Lake County.

I have yet to go to Classic Park in East Lake, home of the Lake County Captains, but according to the report it sounds like one of my must sees. Who could go wrong with easy parking, wide concourses, unobstructed views, diverse menus of food, and plain old minor league baseball at its best with Indians minor leaguers.

I have been to Canal Park in Akron however. It was about 12 years ago when Russell Branyan was there. I remember him hitting a bomb and then a double a few innings later. He had me so excited about him. I believe that I even got his autograph. But how soon I forget after his career tanked with the Tribe after striking out so darn much.

But back to the stadium, Jordan states that, “There truly isn’t a seat in the whole park that has a bad view of the action”. I second that. This was really the first time that I was able to get a real close seat at a ballpark and felt like I was right there and a part of the action. Canal Park is a great place to watch a game. I recommend it if you’ve never been, I’ll be back there this summer to watch the kids Weglarz, Santana and others.

Topics: Adam Miller, Asdrubal Cabrera, Grady Sizemore, Jamey Carroll, Jhonny Peralta, Joe Smith, Kerry Wood, Russell Branyan, Shin-Soo Choo, Travis Hafner