Hot Stove: A rundown of each team in the offseason
and what they are looking to improve in 2012.
Cleveland Indians: The
second team in the AL Central (alphabetically) is the Cleveland Indians.
Projected Starting
Lineup:
1B Casey
Kotchman
2B Jason
Kipnis
SS Asdrubal
Cabrera
3B Lonnie
Chisenhall
LF Michael
Brantley
CF Grady
Sizemore
RF Shin-Soo
Choo
C Carlos
Santana
DH Travis
Hafner
Projected Starting
Rotation:
Ubaldo Jiminez
Derek Lowe
Justin Masterson
Josh Tomlin
Kevin Slowey
Projected Batting
Order:
CF Grady
Sizemore
SS Asdrubal
Cabrera
RF Shin-Soo
Choo
DH Travis
Hafner
C Carlos
Santana
LF Michael
Brantley
1B Casey
Kotchman
3B Lonnie
Chisenhall
2B Jason
Kipnis
Last year’s Indians team finished second in the AL Central
at 80-82, 15 games back of the division winning Detroit Tigers. They started out incredibly strong and
were the division leaders at the All Star Break. They then traded for Ubaldo Jiminez to lead their pitching
staff, and got some outfield support in the form of Kosuke Fukodome. But Jiminez wasn’t great in Cleveland,
and the team faded down the stretch finishing under 500 and outside of the
playoffs for the 5th straight year. Manager Manny Acta has done a tremendous job with these
young players making them competitive.
He hopes to keep the fire burning in them this year and have it be hot
enough to last for a whole season.
This team was carried by All Star shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera
last season. He led the team with
a 273 AVG, 87 R, 17 SB and 92 RBI.
He was also second on the team with 25 HR. It was a career year for the talented young man, who finally
put everything together. But the
numbers weren’t great after him.
Carlos Santana led the team with 27 HR but only hit 239. His OBP was pretty solid at 351, but as
is often the case with guys who walk a lot, he also had a number of strikeouts
(133). The power is good, but
they’d like that AVG to improve mightily.
The real keys to this offense are in the outfield. Center-fielder Grady Sizemore can’t
stay healthy. Last season, his
counterpart in right, Shin-Soo Choo couldn’t either. Sizemore used to be a 30/30 threat who would hit over 300
consistently. Choo was a 20/20
threat that hit 300 for three straight years. Last season Sizemore played in 71 games hitting 224 with 10
HR and 32 RBI. They are hoping he
was just rusty last season. But if
his numbers are going to be closer to his 2011 totals then the Indians have to
worry. I think he can bounce back,
though more to the tune of 25-30 HR and 10-15 SB. But they really need his AVG to be closer to 300 than
250. If he can at least do that,
he will again be a leader on the Indians.
He hasn’t had a full season in the majors since 2008. 2010 saw only 33 games, and last year
only 71. Choo hasn’t had nearly as
much bad luck with the injury bug.
He was limited to only 85 games last season, hitting 259 with 8 HR and
36 RBI. He was healthy in 2010 and
hit 300 with 22 HR, 90 RBI and 21 SBs.
He’s been fairly consistent his whole career, and when healthy he can
get his 20 HRs and 20 SBs and be a force in the middle of that lineup. They need him to be. He’s carried the team with Sizemore
hurt, and they really click when both of them are hitting well. Beyond them they are planning on
bringing in Casey Kotchman to take over for Matt LaPorta at first. The LaPorta experiment yielded average
numbers, but numbers that were way too low at the position. In 107 games last year, LaPorta had 11
HR, 53 RBI and 247 AVG. Kotchman
had a good season in 2011, hitting 306 with 10 HR, 48 RBI and 46 R. Those aren’t generally what you are
looking for at first base. But
since neither guy is giving them the power they want, they will take Kotchman
who has a much better AVG. There’s
not much of a ceiling here, but he plays good defense and hit for plus AVG last
season. The big power threat on
this team is Travis Hafner. Last
year he hit 280 with 13 HR, 57 RBI and 41 R in 94 games. Hafner and his contract have been a
drain on Cleveland ever since his health failed him. From 2004 to 2007, he was a tremendous power threat hitting
at least 24 HR and driving in 100 guys every year in there. He also hit over 300 all but one of
those seasons. He makes a ton of
money for a guy who doesn’t play in the field, and for that reason they really
need him to produce. Cleveland
needs his 2006 numbers when he hit 308 with 42 HR and 117 RBI. But his last healthy season was in 08,
and they desperately need him to stay healthy and provide some power for this
team. If Cleveland is healthy,
they have 4 potential All Stars in Choo, Sizemore, Cabrera and Hafner. Backing up those guys are Michael
Brantley, Jason Kipnis and Lonnie Chisnehall. Brantley has the most experience of the three. Last year was his longest as he played
in over 100 games. They liked his
skill set, and want him to continue to improve on his modest power and speed (7
HR, 13 SBs). In a full season he
could hit 15 HR and steal 25 bases.
Kipnis and Chisenhall were both rookies last year. Kipnis had a strong audition in his 36
games. He hit 272 with 7 HR, 19
RBI and 5 SBs. He’s likely to
start at second this season.
Chisenhall played twice as many games, hitting 255 with 7 HR and 22
RBI. These guys are both young and
learning major league pitching. If
the Indians are going to make any noise at the plate, it will come from the
veterans on this club.
Justin Masterson led the Cleveland pitchers last
season. He led the team with 12
Wins, a 3.21 ERA, 158 Ks and 216 IP.
He had a lot of luck as he gave up over 200 hits in those innings and
had a 257 BAA. But he kept his
WHIP pretty low at 1.28 at got the job done on the hill. It was a pleasant surprise for the
Indians as the 5th year player had his best season yet. They hope it wasn’t an outlier. If he can keep that ERA below 4 and
continue to eat innings, they like what they have in him. However he’s not supposed to be the ace
of the staff. That job belongs to
Ubaldo Jiminez, who came to the Indians before the trade deadline last
year. Overall, Jiminez was 10-13
with a 4.68 ERA last year. He
wasn’t sharp and his ERA climbed.
But in 2010 he had a career year, going 19-8 in the legendary hitters
haven, Coors Field. He had a 2.88
ERA and struck out 214 hitters in 221 IP.
His BAA was 209 and he had a 1.15 WHIP. He was in the running for the Cy Young that year. The year before was also strong, with
over 200 innings, a 3.47 ERA, 198 Ks and 15-12 record. Jiminez has the stuff to be a
star. The Indians hope last year
was an aberration, and that he can be their ace. The other pitcher the Indians were counting on was Fausto
Carmona. He had an All Star season
in 2007, going 19-8 with a 3.06 ERA and 137 Ks in 215 IP. The next two seasons were terrible,
with ERAs north of 5 both years and 13 Wins in those two years. He bounced back a little bit in 2010
going 13-14 with a 3.77 ERA.
However they don’t know that he will be back. He was arrested in his native Dominican Republic for
identity theft. His real name is
Roberto Hernandez and he’s actually 31, not 28. And they don’t know when he’ll be back to the majors. He’ll almost certainly miss spring
training, and maybe more time on top of that. This was a killer for the Indians. Luckily, they made two trades to add depth to their
rotation. The first was made
before they found out about Carmona, the second after. They made a trade for veteran Derek
Lowe early in the offseason. They
got him for a minor leaguer, and it was more a bit of salary relief for the
Braves, who got Cleveland to pay $5 million of the $15 million Lowe is owed
this year. Lowe led the league in
losses with 17 last season. But
he’s a veteran who lives on his sinkerball and gets outs. His ERA climbed to over 5 with
mechanical issues last year. But
the Indians want to work with him, and they hope they can get him back to a
dependable innings eater who will get groundball after groundball for this
team, giving their bullpen some rest.
The other move they made was to bring in Kevin Slowey from
Minnesota. They made this move as
soon as they found out about Carmona.
Slowey had a terrible season last year, going 0-8 with a 6.75 ERA in 14
starts. They hope some of that was
rust and injury, but the two years before saw 10 and 13 wins respectively. He’s not a star (4.86 ERA in 09 and
4.45 ERA in 10), but he’s a solid pitcher with experience that can get the job
done. He looks to have an inside
track at the 5th spot in this rotation. The one youngster who’s likely to break the rotation is Josh
Tomlin. Last season he went 12-7 in
26 starts with a 4.25 ERA. The
year before he started 12 games, going 6-4 with a 4.56 ERA. He’s young and has shown that he knows
how to get guys out. He’ll more
than likely be a fixture in the starting mix for the next few years. There are other starting options if
injury or ineffectiveness is a problem for the chosen starters (Jeanmar Gomez,
David Huff). And the bullpen has
some unproven commodities before the final innings. Chris Perez is the closer after a good season last year with
Rafael Perez hoping to setup for him.
If the Indians can make it to those two, they feel pretty good about
their chances. But their
pitching is unproven and young and they will need help from the offense if this
team is going to contend.
2012 Prediction…The Indians played a good half season last
year. But they slowed down in the
second half and missed the playoffs.
Now, the Tigers have improved greatly and the Twins and White Sox want
to make their mark on the Central too.
So the Indians have plenty of competition and they have a lot of
question marks on both sides of the ball.
If things all work out for them, then they should be a pretty good
team. But that’s far from guaranteed,
and even if it does, I don’t think they have the talent to win the division or
the wildcard. This team is still
putting the pieces together, and it will likely be a few years before they are
ready to really contend in this division.
Up next…Detroit Tigers.
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