I'm just going to say that both Minor Issues and Notes and Quotes will be on a break for the next few days, at least. not tomorrow. Things are getting busy here with a week and half left of classes. First break both have taken all season (Notes and Quotes doesn't follow a day in which we have an off day).
Next weekend, not this, when school is pretty much done and I only have finals to worry about, I have some upgrades to make around the site layout and feature-wise.
So with that, might as well get to it after yesterday's, blah loss.
[BRANYAN ACTIVE, LAPORTA ADJUSTS]
So why was Matt LaPorta out of the lineup on Tuesday after the Indians had an off day?
Simple as this, he isn't ready to be just thrown into left field. The Indians gave him the day off and started preparing him for his time in left field. The plan appears to be to do more today, then get him into left field on Thursday. With Russell Branyan being activated, it is obvious he won't be playing every day. The line right now is four games a week and the plan seems to be restricting LaPorta to left. However don't be surprised if you see him at first when Branyan sits, if LaPorta isn't sitting himself.
"It's his natural position," Acta said of LaPorta in the outfield. "He came back from two injuries [that required surgery last October]. If he would've been 100 percent [in Spring Training], he would have been out there. But that wasn't the case."
The whole Branyan DL thing didn't exactly get Marte a ton of playing time, but it would appear in the early going here that Austin Kearns stands to benefit from this odd situation of Branyan and LaPorta.
Matola has no issue where he plays, he's ready for it and Branyan is just trying to get ready to be with the team again.
"It's hard to say [what to expect]," said Branyan, who won't play more than four games a week, initially. "I got my at-bats at Akron and Columbus and saw a couple good arms down there. Still, you're judging yourself against the competition you're facing. Up here, obviously, there's better competition. I've played the game at this level, but coming back is a challenge, no matter how much preparation you have."
Well, the Muscle is here, might as well embrace it. In other news, Acta revealed this was the plan all along and that he was never going to play in that game on Monday in Akron.Why? To smokescreen the media from bothering Michael Brantley. Acta is sort of a cunning genius, isn't he?
Brantley by the by is going down to work on specific things.
"He's going down there to work on his plate discipline . . . to shorten his swing. He's going to play every day there. He could have stayed here and played a couple of times a week, but that's not what we want."
This is the right move for now. I wouldn't have necessarily picked Branyan to be the guy to make it possible, but let's just move past that at this point.
[NOT THE MASTER OF CONTROL]
Pretty clear what was wrong with Justin Masterson yesterday.
"Just erratic," said manager Manny Acta. "We've been surviving on our starting pitching and our defense and timely hitting. But [Masterson] didn't throw strikes, and we didn't help ourselves catching the ball, either."
"I threw a lot of balls," Masterson said. "That didn't help us out. It put us in some bad counts that led to some hits."
So yeah, pretty much that. He threw a lot of pitches, not just with the walks but striking out as many as he did. Now the defense didn't do him any favors, but Manny Acta said that the guy that committed the error (Asdrubal Cabrera) is the guy he wants every ball hit to him. Anyway Masterson didn't blame the defense, like a good teammate, but rather put it on himself for not giving them a chance to redeem themselves.
"I knew I still had a real good chance to get out of [the jam]," Masterson said. "Then I threw four straight balls. That was the most disappointing thing of the night. You've got to give your guys a chance. You can't field a walk. And the next play made it even worse."
Did the error bother him? I don't know, because like Acta said he'd been walking guys all night. But he did walk Hardy on four pitches, so that leads me to believe he was a little rattled.
Before last night the Indians were tied with the Yankees for 2nd in the entire game for least errors committed. The only team better was Minnesota with one committed. Last night though was their fifth and sixth errors. First off it's pretty good when you can remember each error vividly because they are so few, but it's bad in a sense that you remember them all because they were all crucial.
Jhonny Peralta's two, Cabrera's one last night, Masterson's last night, and the other two I can't really remember. But together those four realistically impacted the game in a big big way.
[PLEASE VOTE FOR SOMETHING?]
Guess what, it's All-Star Voting Time! Yeah I know, two weeks completed and we're already talking All-Star ballots. If Choo keeps it up, he'll surely be there but what does it matter? When's the last time that an Indian was actually voted in? It's hard to get excited about something like this when you know it matters none unless you are in a big media market or you have a superstar with a legit chance, regardless of team/market/fan base.
Could we put forth an effort and a movement to get Choo some votes? Sure. Maybe with Korea's help we could make him a contender for one of the spots... But what's the point? I think it would be awesome to get him in there if he deserved it, but we shouldn't have to put forth that sort of effort. He should get in on his own merits. Now I would love to get some sort of movement going that could help thrust Choo into the spotlight, but who knows. Maybe? Let's think about it.
Which brings me to the larger issue here. I was bored, which usually means I will fiddle around with things for this blog, write, catch up on my baseball readings, or screw around on facebook. I came across this lovely group that is dedicated to "Getting Chris Perez Out of Cleveland"
This makes me absolutely sick to my stomach. In a way I'm glad there is only 86 people that feel this way. I've done Facebook reactions before and it is pretty funny to see the casual fan be irrational, but this is just silly. So to counter this ridiculous fan page (which has now been changed to "like pages?"), I created this awesome thing.
So if you are cool, and perhaps are on Facebook (the two aren't necessarily components) you will become a fan of (or as they say now, like) Chris Perez's Hair.
While it would have been fun to count how long his hair grows, that is nearly impossible. So let's just create this shrine to Perez's hair, which is just totally awesome as we've been over before. Right now there is just three fans, including myself, and hopefully we can top the 86 people that want Perez out of Cleveland.
Hopefully the power of twitter and this blog (what minimal power it has) can help fuel it a little until it gets some notice. Why is this important? Well consider it our little way of combating the fair-weathers out there. We may not be able to get Choo into the All-Star game starting lineup, but we can make Chris Perez's Hair a celebrity.
[RANDOM RUNDOWN]
Mike Redmond isn't even gone long and the Twins have changed their digs. Of course we all knew this was coming, but the last time he was in Minnesota they were playing in the Metrodome.
"It's hard to believe, after all those years in the Metrodome, that this is their ballpark," Redmond said with a laugh. "This place is beautiful, and it's got some character. It should be an exciting atmosphere."
Redmond compared going to the ballpark on a day like it was yesterday (nice) as going into your "garage." That's kind of, depressing.
Kerry Wood got to step in to face a murders row of live hitters on Tuesday as a part of his effort to get back. Luis Valbuena, Andy Marte, and Matt LaPorta was that murderers row of course. Anyway more importantly, the next step could be to throw another simulated game or just go out into a rehab assignment, which seems more likely than it did a few days ago. Why? Acta simply wants Wood to pitch in a game situation before he makes his return. That makes sense, and only because he got into just two spring training games.
Wood is a veteran though, so if they don't send him out on a rehab assignment, I'm not sure I'll care. Just as long as he's healthy and mentally ready to go the next time he gets called to close it out in the ninth.
Finally, Asdrubal Cabrera has lot his belt like twice this season sliding into a base. Lou Marson simply just didn't wear one the other day. Acta told him to get one on. We had a "belt rule" last year at work, this year it isn't really enforced. I say, if you are tucking in your pants, like ball players do (and we do at work), belt required, yes?
Original Story:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheTri...
Next weekend, not this, when school is pretty much done and I only have finals to worry about, I have some upgrades to make around the site layout and feature-wise.
So with that, might as well get to it after yesterday's, blah loss.
[BRANYAN ACTIVE, LAPORTA ADJUSTS]
So why was Matt LaPorta out of the lineup on Tuesday after the Indians had an off day?
Simple as this, he isn't ready to be just thrown into left field. The Indians gave him the day off and started preparing him for his time in left field. The plan appears to be to do more today, then get him into left field on Thursday. With Russell Branyan being activated, it is obvious he won't be playing every day. The line right now is four games a week and the plan seems to be restricting LaPorta to left. However don't be surprised if you see him at first when Branyan sits, if LaPorta isn't sitting himself.
"It's his natural position," Acta said of LaPorta in the outfield. "He came back from two injuries [that required surgery last October]. If he would've been 100 percent [in Spring Training], he would have been out there. But that wasn't the case."
The whole Branyan DL thing didn't exactly get Marte a ton of playing time, but it would appear in the early going here that Austin Kearns stands to benefit from this odd situation of Branyan and LaPorta.
Matola has no issue where he plays, he's ready for it and Branyan is just trying to get ready to be with the team again.
"It's hard to say [what to expect]," said Branyan, who won't play more than four games a week, initially. "I got my at-bats at Akron and Columbus and saw a couple good arms down there. Still, you're judging yourself against the competition you're facing. Up here, obviously, there's better competition. I've played the game at this level, but coming back is a challenge, no matter how much preparation you have."
Well, the Muscle is here, might as well embrace it. In other news, Acta revealed this was the plan all along and that he was never going to play in that game on Monday in Akron.Why? To smokescreen the media from bothering Michael Brantley. Acta is sort of a cunning genius, isn't he?
Brantley by the by is going down to work on specific things.
"He's going down there to work on his plate discipline . . . to shorten his swing. He's going to play every day there. He could have stayed here and played a couple of times a week, but that's not what we want."
This is the right move for now. I wouldn't have necessarily picked Branyan to be the guy to make it possible, but let's just move past that at this point.
[NOT THE MASTER OF CONTROL]
Pretty clear what was wrong with Justin Masterson yesterday.
"Just erratic," said manager Manny Acta. "We've been surviving on our starting pitching and our defense and timely hitting. But [Masterson] didn't throw strikes, and we didn't help ourselves catching the ball, either."
"I threw a lot of balls," Masterson said. "That didn't help us out. It put us in some bad counts that led to some hits."
So yeah, pretty much that. He threw a lot of pitches, not just with the walks but striking out as many as he did. Now the defense didn't do him any favors, but Manny Acta said that the guy that committed the error (Asdrubal Cabrera) is the guy he wants every ball hit to him. Anyway Masterson didn't blame the defense, like a good teammate, but rather put it on himself for not giving them a chance to redeem themselves.
"I knew I still had a real good chance to get out of [the jam]," Masterson said. "Then I threw four straight balls. That was the most disappointing thing of the night. You've got to give your guys a chance. You can't field a walk. And the next play made it even worse."
Did the error bother him? I don't know, because like Acta said he'd been walking guys all night. But he did walk Hardy on four pitches, so that leads me to believe he was a little rattled.
Before last night the Indians were tied with the Yankees for 2nd in the entire game for least errors committed. The only team better was Minnesota with one committed. Last night though was their fifth and sixth errors. First off it's pretty good when you can remember each error vividly because they are so few, but it's bad in a sense that you remember them all because they were all crucial.
Jhonny Peralta's two, Cabrera's one last night, Masterson's last night, and the other two I can't really remember. But together those four realistically impacted the game in a big big way.
[PLEASE VOTE FOR SOMETHING?]
Guess what, it's All-Star Voting Time! Yeah I know, two weeks completed and we're already talking All-Star ballots. If Choo keeps it up, he'll surely be there but what does it matter? When's the last time that an Indian was actually voted in? It's hard to get excited about something like this when you know it matters none unless you are in a big media market or you have a superstar with a legit chance, regardless of team/market/fan base.
Could we put forth an effort and a movement to get Choo some votes? Sure. Maybe with Korea's help we could make him a contender for one of the spots... But what's the point? I think it would be awesome to get him in there if he deserved it, but we shouldn't have to put forth that sort of effort. He should get in on his own merits. Now I would love to get some sort of movement going that could help thrust Choo into the spotlight, but who knows. Maybe? Let's think about it.
Which brings me to the larger issue here. I was bored, which usually means I will fiddle around with things for this blog, write, catch up on my baseball readings, or screw around on facebook. I came across this lovely group that is dedicated to "Getting Chris Perez Out of Cleveland"
This makes me absolutely sick to my stomach. In a way I'm glad there is only 86 people that feel this way. I've done Facebook reactions before and it is pretty funny to see the casual fan be irrational, but this is just silly. So to counter this ridiculous fan page (which has now been changed to "like pages?"), I created this awesome thing.
So if you are cool, and perhaps are on Facebook (the two aren't necessarily components) you will become a fan of (or as they say now, like) Chris Perez's Hair.
While it would have been fun to count how long his hair grows, that is nearly impossible. So let's just create this shrine to Perez's hair, which is just totally awesome as we've been over before. Right now there is just three fans, including myself, and hopefully we can top the 86 people that want Perez out of Cleveland.
Hopefully the power of twitter and this blog (what minimal power it has) can help fuel it a little until it gets some notice. Why is this important? Well consider it our little way of combating the fair-weathers out there. We may not be able to get Choo into the All-Star game starting lineup, but we can make Chris Perez's Hair a celebrity.
[RANDOM RUNDOWN]
Mike Redmond isn't even gone long and the Twins have changed their digs. Of course we all knew this was coming, but the last time he was in Minnesota they were playing in the Metrodome.
"It's hard to believe, after all those years in the Metrodome, that this is their ballpark," Redmond said with a laugh. "This place is beautiful, and it's got some character. It should be an exciting atmosphere."
Redmond compared going to the ballpark on a day like it was yesterday (nice) as going into your "garage." That's kind of, depressing.
Kerry Wood got to step in to face a murders row of live hitters on Tuesday as a part of his effort to get back. Luis Valbuena, Andy Marte, and Matt LaPorta was that murderers row of course. Anyway more importantly, the next step could be to throw another simulated game or just go out into a rehab assignment, which seems more likely than it did a few days ago. Why? Acta simply wants Wood to pitch in a game situation before he makes his return. That makes sense, and only because he got into just two spring training games.
Wood is a veteran though, so if they don't send him out on a rehab assignment, I'm not sure I'll care. Just as long as he's healthy and mentally ready to go the next time he gets called to close it out in the ninth.
Finally, Asdrubal Cabrera has lot his belt like twice this season sliding into a base. Lou Marson simply just didn't wear one the other day. Acta told him to get one on. We had a "belt rule" last year at work, this year it isn't really enforced. I say, if you are tucking in your pants, like ball players do (and we do at work), belt required, yes?
Original Story:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheTri...
