Month: March 2014

More Indian Spring Pitching Profiles

More pitching capsules
More pitching capsules
Another sun-filled day in the books and we have some new observations for spring training with the Indians. Not all of these observations come from today’s game but they come from the last several days of spring training.

Cody Allen: Cody has dynamic stuff and today was no different. He did show some signs of rust in that his fastball command was still not what it will be eventually. His off speed pitches were solid and his ability to blow away Trumbo was impressive. He will end up right where he belongs in the eighth inning.

John Axford: Threw his fastball in the mid 90s and seemed to have reasonably good command. He did not throw his curveball hardly at all. It seems to me that he is preserving his curveball until later in the spring. I suspect that as he begins to mix in his off speed pitches he will look even more effective. At this point I am not concerned and I believe that he could be an effective closer. I do not believe that he will be a significant downgrade over Chris Perez.

Scott Barnes: Scott was throwing the ball fairly well in the two times that I have watched him. Unfortunately, he does not show any substantial improvement over where he looked to be last year. I still feel that he would be an extremely long shot to make the Indians team and I am not even certain if he could be effective if we need to call him up.

Preston Guilmet: He suffers from his main problem of having average stuff. It is not that his stuff has no major-league potential but is just not effective enough to consistently get major league hitters out. I do not have much confidence that he can be effective either now or in the future for the Indians.

T.J. House: Decent but not great fastball and fastball command. He can get hitters out with his off speed pitches, but not consistently enough. Still a prospect but approaching the point where that may no longer be true.

Justin Masterson: He looked sharp and will be ready to go on opening day. I just wish the Indians would sign him to a three or four year deal. He would be worth it in my view.

Bryan Shaw: Another dynamic late inning reliever that looked fine on the mound today. He will pair with Cody Allen to clean up the seventh and eighth innings. Looked good and he impressed me again with his mid 90’s fastball paired with a sharp breaking ball.

Blake Wood: He has a great chance to compete for a bullpen spot. I did not see the explosion I expected with his fastball but it is good enough. He was effective in his one inning.

More capsules tomorrow. I will include position players.

Initial Indian Pitching Observations from Spring Training

Rusty but an Ace in waiting.
Rusty but an Ace in waiting.
I’ve been in Goodyear Arizona since Saturday and will be here the rest of the week. Here are some early observations from my first couple of days.

Trevor Bauer: Here is a young man who is trying hard but will certainly be ticketed back to the minor leagues. The concern here is, despite changes in his delivery and approach, he has made no real progress with respect to commanding his fastball. It still appears to me that his arm drags behind his body when he is trying to throw at maximum velocity. The result of this is a fastball the consistently tails high to the hitters and it is quite easy for them to avoid swinging. There is still hope for him eventually but his lack of progress is certainly concerning.

Vinnie Pestano: I still have hope for Vinnie. He seems to have made progress with respect to his command especially of his off speed pitches. He is commanding his fastball fairly well but still has work to do there. His overall velocity is approaching where he needs to be but it is not there yet. He topped out at 92 mph and was able to throw consistently between 89 and 90. There is still a chance that he could be ready and look like the Vinnie of old by the start of the season. His off speed pitches were really nasty yesterday.

Danny Salazar: He looked rusty but otherwise was throwing very well. I am still encouraged by his overall potential and I believe he should be a solid starter for the Tribe this year. He has work to do in spring training to catch up, but I think that will be possible by about the fifth to seventh game of the season.

Nick Hagadone: I see no progress whatsoever. I really do not see any logical way that he makes the team out of spring training and will only be depth going forward. The overall outlook for Nick is still not very encouraging.

Josh Tomlin: He looks good and ready to compete for his spot on the team. I saw nothing in his delivery or in his command that would suggest he could not be ready by the start of the season. He is certainly a viable candidate for the fifth starter, but at the very least they will try to find a place for him somewhere. He looks good.

CC Lee: It is very easy to see why the Indians like this kid. He seems to have a good presence on the mound and commands his pitches fairly well. He still needs to work on his fastball command but his overall outlook is promising. I like him and see a future for him down the road. And down the road maybe as soon as this year.

I have many more players to report on, but I wanted to cover some of the pitching today. There’ll be much more down the road as we proceed through spring training.