Spring Battles: Week 4 Pitching

Written by: Michael Taylor on 22nd March 2009

Spring Battles: Week 4 Pitching | read this item

The pitching competitions may have come into a better focus after the first week of cuts, with eight names disappearing from the list, but they are far from being settled.

Among the pitchers reassigned to minor league camp this week were David Huff, Tomo Ohka, Jack Cassell, Jon Meloan, Adam Miller, Rich Rundles, Juan Salas and Tony Sipp – leaving 10 others in competition for the remaining three spots – if you count Kobayashi’s.

Manager Eric Wedge says that the suddenly hot Scott Lewis has been, “right in the middle of everything” throughout camp, but you have to wonder if he is now the favorite for the fifth starter job. He is coming off a week that saw him throw nine innings allowing just one run on seven hits while striking out six and walking just two.

“He made pitches when he needed to. What we’ve seen throughout camp is a guy hitting his spots with his fastball, pitching aggressively and changing speeds to keep hitters off-balance” Wedge said.

This is exactly what made Lewis so successful in his four starts in Cleveland last year, when he went 4-0 with a 2.63 ERA. He threw 67% of pitches for strikes, and according to fangrahs.com, Lewis has about 15mph difference between his fastball (87.3) and curve (72.5), with his slider and changeup both roughly 77mph.

To make things even better, the confidence that Lewis gained from last year has led to him not only maintaining his success, but getting more ground balls than fly balls, which is opposite to his history. Lewis throughout his minor league career had induced only 0.87 groundballs per fly ball. This spring that has jumped to 1.77 – albeit in just 15.1 innings. If he is able to keep this up, it will make it much easier for him to wiggle out of some jams and strand runners.

The Indians had another left-hander accomplish this last year – his name was Cliff Lee. His GB/FB ratio jumped from roughly a career average of 0.8 to a career high 1.31. What Lee accomplished overall during the season is a far stretch for Lewis, but it does go to show you how an increase in ground balls can impact a pitchers performance.

In the bullpen, Masa Kobayashi still figures to keep his job despite continuing to give up runs last week, but in the race for the final bullpen spot, Vinnie Chulk is making a very strong case to make the team.

In seven appearances, Chulk has a 2.31 ERA and has held opponents to a remarkable .237 slugging percentage. He gives credit to his improving change-up against left-handers, which has generated a “lot of swings and misses and grounders”.

He, just as Lewis, has seen a large increase in grounders. Chulk’s career GB/FB ratio is 0.96, meaning he gets about equal grounders to fly balls. This spring it is up to 2.75! He has induced 20 grounders to just eight fly balls.

Chulk is an intriguing option for the Indians. He has six years of major league experience with the Blue Jays and Giants with a respectable 4.36 career ERA.

He is coming off of his worst season in the league in 2008(4.83 ERA), splitting time between Triple-A Fresno and San Francisco. His season was awry from the get go. He strained his shoulder in spring training and never caught up, showing decreased fastball velocity and a weaker slider.

He managed to get through the last few weeks of April (after returning from the DL) and May with a 2.95 ERA, but in the month of June it all came apart. He gave up 10 runs in seven innings before he was demoted by the Giants for the remainder of the season. But by the end of August, Fresno manager Dan Rohn gave a positive scouting report on Chulk,

“I’m seeing better velocity on his fastball. He’s using it more. I like the way he’s pitching. He’s avoided throwing his breaking ball on all counts and he’s using it as a put-away pitch instead of trying to get ahead with it. His velocity is back up to 93 or 94.”

Chulk now comes into 2009 fully healthy, still just 30 years old, and quite possibly a solid relief option for the Indians during the middle innings.

With that, lets get to the competitors….

5th Starter

Zach Jackson – was tagged for a blown save and a loss when he gave up four earned runs in his four-inning appearance of the week. I still would not count out Jackson making the roster out of camp. With three off-days mixed into April’s schedule, the Indians really only need a fifth starter twice. Jackson could be a long-man/spot starter while the others get fine tuned at Columbus. ’09 Spring: 14.1IP/15H/10R/9ER/2HR/7K/4BB/1HBP/5.65 ERA

Aaron Laffey – pitched well again, but for three out of the four innings during his appearance. Laffey said he was having “body fatigue” in the fourth inning, which led to his arm dropping and him giving up three runs. Laffey remains the odds on favorite with his past experiences, but he is leaving the door open. ’09 Spring: 13IP/15H/11R/10ER/0HR/9K/4BB/1HBP/6.92ERA

Scott Lewis – as quick as I was to think Lewis was fading in this race, he bounced back with a huge week. We already mentioned it above, but Wedge has liked his performance during camp, leading one to believe that if Lewis does not make the team initially, he will be the first called upon when needed. ’09 Spring: 15.1IP/14H/6R/6ER/0HR/12K/6BB/2HBP/3.52ERA

Jeremy Sowers – continues up and down the roller coaster of inconsistency. Sowers had made progress with back-to-back strong games, but a stinker on Saturday has him back at square one. He now has allowed 28 base runners in 14.2 innings on the mound. ’09 Spring: 14.2IP/20H/10R/8ER/1HR/6K/7BB/1HBP/4.91ERA

Final Bullpen Spot(s)

Greg Aquino – appeared in Monday’s game against the Mariners, pitching a single inning. He gave up a hit and walked two before getting out of the jam. Aquino will likely be reassigned soon. He’s only made that single appearance over the past two weeks. The Indians do not seem too interested in seeing him in game action. ’09 Spring: 4IP/4H/1R/1ER/0HR/4K/3BB/1HBP/2.25ERA

Vinnie Chulk – continued his run of scoreless innings this week, and has squarely placed himself into the conversation of who will be the Indians seventh man in the bullpen. Teams are hitting just .158 off of him thus far in Cactus League play. ’09 Spring: 11.2IP/6H/3R/3ER/0HR/7K/3BB/1HBP/2.31ERA

Matt Herges – no appearances last week. ‘09 Spring: 6IP/8H/6R/5ER/0HR/6K/3BB/7.50ERA

Masa Kobayashi – he will keep his job, but again he made two more appearances, one with the big league club and one in the minor league camp, where he allowed runs. A few positives – as hard as he has been getting hit, he has yet to allow any HR, which he was very good at last year. He also has struck out seven batters in only five innings. He’ll get consistent work the rest of spring to work through this funk. ’09 Spring: 5IP/11H/8R/8ER/0HR/7K/5BB/14.40ERA

Edward Mujica – are the Indians ready to designate Mujica? They haven’t been pitching him very much the past two weeks to see if that rough start is behind him. He had one appearance last week, throwing a scoreless inning. ’09 Spring: 5.2IP/10H/8R/8ER/4HR/2K/2BB/12.71ERA

Kirk Saarloos – received the bulk of the looks out of the remaining bullpen competitors, but did not help his cause. Saarloos allowed six runs on six hits in 3.2 innings and received a blown save in last Sunday’s loss to Milwaukee. ’09 Spring: 10.1IP/13H/14R/11ER/1HR/8K/8BB/1HBP/9.58ERA

Topics: Aaron Laffey, Edward Mujica, Greg Aquino, Jeremy Sowers, Kirk Saarloos, Masa Kobayashi, Matt Herges, Scott Lewis, Vinnie Chulk, Zach Jackson

Peter Alexander says:

March 22, 2009 at 6:44 pm

Andy Marte had a good day today at bat against good pitching. I worry about Barfield’s hitting this spring. Is top management locked in to Barfield – if he doesn’t hit – or is there still a chance that someone else, Giminez, Marte, Graffanino or ?, could make the leap. Speed and defense are, of course, top priorities, but the Tribe offense seems a bit underwhelming so far. We may need another bat. What do you think, Michael?

Peter
Michael Taylor says:

March 23, 2009 at 10:00 am

Yeah, I watched most of the game on the MLB network…man I love that new channel! Anyway, Marte and even Wilson Valdez had solid days at the dish. But I really do not see either of them as options going forward, at least in Cleveland. I believe we are seeing Marte more recently because the Indians are trying to “showcase” him. Maybe work out a minor deal. But as far as Barfield, I am looking past his poor batting stats this spring. He has had a grueling camp focusing his time defensively, and I can’t help but think that is part of why his stats are low. The Indians are looking at him, at least from what I can decipher, as a guy to come in, pinch-run, go in defensively, and maybe hit against some LH pitchers. He will not get a lot of playing time, which you’d expect from the 25th man on the roster. I truly see Gimenez coming up in-season and becoming a “super-utility” guy after the Indians see if Barfield can do his new job.

As far as the overall offense, I’m not worried. As much as it is hyped up, I do not believe the offense hinges on Hafner returning. The Indians scored over 800 runs (top-8 MLB rankings) the last two seasons without the same old Pronk. Peralta is coming into his own as a more complete player, youngsters Francisco and Cabrera will only get better, Sizemore is Sizemore, Martinez is back, DeRosa will be the first legitimate #2 hitter the Indians have seen since Omar, and then there are the kids, LaPorta, Brantley and others at AAA. I haven’t even mentioned CHoo, Shoppach, or Garko (who i still believe can breakout). There may not be that 40-HR threat, but this offense does not need that to be productive – but it would be nice