Yardbarker: Josh Barfield

Morning Update: Carmona To Start Saturday

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:44:31 -0500

Fausto Carmona is slated to come off the Disabled List on Saturday against the Minnesota Twins. Casey Blake's interest heats up with New York Mets' GM Omar Minaya and Kelly Shoppach could be the full-time catcher to Cliff Lee even when Victor Martinez returns from an injury.

Morning Update: Barfield, Martinez, Carmona Closing in on Action

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:48:44 -0500

Updates on Cleveland Indians players including Josh Barfield and Victor Martinez who are a few weeks away from returning, Travis Hafner and Fausto Carmona who will make one more rehab start.

The last place Cleveland Indians

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:52:25 -0500

With another inspired and inspiring performance tonight at Progressive Field the Indians find themselves in the basement of the A.L. Central. If not for the Seattle Mariners, the Tribe would be the worst team in the A.L. right now. Banging out four big hits against Barry Zito - of all people - over 6 2/3 innings, and six hits overall, the Tribe put a big one-spot on the board in their loss to the Giants. Hey, look on the bright side. They only struck out four times tonight. Unlike last night, when the game was exciting before it became nauseating, tonight the Tribe showed no life at all. Nothing. They sent up three hitters in four of the nine innings and four hitters in another four innings. The only time more than four Indians hit in an inning was the seventh, when five guys made it the plate and one made it all the way home. Talk about going through the motions. Did anyone see anybody who looked like they gave a damn tonight? Maybe Jeremy Sowers who battled his way through a decent start, but no one else seemed to care. It is time to start lining up the deals. Let's get some new blood in here and see what we have for next year, because right now that picture aint pretty either folks. At this moment the Tribe has a three-man rotation for next year - Aaron Laffey, Cliff Lee and Fausto Carmona, assuming he has no lasting effects from this year's injury. The bullpen? Kobayashi and Raffy Perez. Beyond those two, who do you see as a likely success in the pen next season? And even that duo has question marks. Let's assume for a minute that both Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner come back as their old selves next season, not a small assumption. Whose your 1B? Ryan Garko? Are you sure? I'm not. 2b? Who the heck knows. Asdrubal Cabrera is likely to be at SS next season so that leaves Jamey Carroll and Josh Barfield. Feeling confident there? I personally like Carroll's type of player and I think Barfield may still pan out. But I wouldn't put a nickel down to back up that bet. How about SS? Cabrera will field the ball, and I think he'll hit. He may be the closest thing to a sure thing in the 2009 infield. And isn't that a scary thought? What about the hot corner? Although Andy Marte has been given little chance to prove himself, when he has had the opportunity he has only proven himself to be a stiff. Casey Blake? Do we have to? Again? Jhonny Peralta? With any luck he'll be gone by July 31. If not, there's no way to know if he can play 3B, though I suspect that is where he'll be come August if he is still on the team. The outfield - with Grady Sizemore, Shin-Soo Chu, Franklin Gutierrez and Ben Francisco - seems to be in decent shape. But will Gutierrez figure things out and start hitting again? Will Francisco and Choo face the adjustments next year that Gutierrez is seemingly not making this year. Well, at least we have two catchers. Maybe! The Tribe is 8 out as I write this, with four teams ahead of them in the Central. They are 10 1/2 out in the wild card race - with ten teams ahead of them (not counting the three current division leaders). There are those still holding out hope for this season. And to those who are - God bless you. I'd say, though, it's time for the Tribe's management to start figuring out how they're going to fill the considerably large number of holes the Tribe will have next season.

Reevaluating The Tribe: Offense

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:42:04 -0500

Joe Sheehan had an article today arguing that the Indians should keep Sabathia, and make a run at the division. Someone should probably get Sheehan and Tyler Kepner together for a little chat. The article mentions various metrics, including their run differential (+15) and EqA (11th in the AL).

For most teams, in most years, that'd be sufficient. But for the 2008 Indians, I don't think it is. This team is so different than it was three months ago that we really need to determine a new baseline for its expected performance. Since they have a pretty important decision to make over the next five weeks, I thought I'd attempt to do that.

Today, I'll break down their offense, position by position, in order to figure out how many runs they should be expected to score the rest of the way. Tomorrow I'll look at the pitching staff, and then we'll have a better idea of how good the Indians, as currently constructed, really are.

(The percentages for each position are for the player, rather than for the player at that particular position. So the numbers for each position don't add up to 100%, but all the numbers add up to 900%.)

Catcher PECOTA: Victor Martinez (85%), .293/.369/.458
Kelly Shoppach (25%), .230/.305/.413

YTD: Martinez: .278/.332/.333
Shoppach: .230/.304/.416

Martinez's line is worse than his 10th percentile PECOTA. His SLG is down 172 points from last year. It's very hard to know how good he will be if/when he comes back, but for our purposes it doesn't even matter that much, since Shoppach will get the majority of ABs from here on out. At least he's easy to project.

Rest of way: Shoppach (55%), .230/.305/.413
Martinez (30%), .285/.345/.420
Fasano (15%), .223/.283/.389

First base
PECOTA: Ryan Garko (80%), .272/.343/.460

YTD: Garko: .255/.339/.368

They don't even have an excuse here. .194 ISO last year, .113 ISO this year. He's not hurt, he's not old. But hey, at least he contributes in the field and on the basepaths, right?

Rest of way: Garko (90%), .265/.340/.445

Second base
Asdrubal Cabrera (80%), .263/.324/.383
Josh Barfield (15%), .260/.304/.393
Jamey Carroll (15%), .246/.328/.319

YTD: Cabrera: .184/.282/.247
Barfield: .000/.000/.000 (6 ABs)
Carroll: .281/.369/.349

Another complete and total collapse. Cabrera was playing way over his head last year, but PECOTA knew that, and didn't exactly expect him to win the batting title. There are pretty low offensive expectations for good-field second basemen, but a .529 OPS isn't going to cut regardless of positional value. (That's not to completely write Cabrera off, as he won't turn 23 until November. But he hasn't exactly been an asset in 2008.)

Rest of way: Carroll (75%), .247/.330/.320
Velandia (20%), .325/.310/.386
Barfield (10%), .260/.300/.390

Shortstop
Jhonny Peralta (90%), .266/.341/.431

YTD: Peralta, .243/.292/.429

At one point, I believe Peralta had 11 homers and 19 RBIs. Not 19 RBIs on those home runs; 19 RBIs total. That is hard to do. He has been better with runners on base lately, but he's still making outs 70+% of the time. He's also awful at short. Seriously, this infield has had one of the worst 12 week stretches you'll ever see.

Rest of way: Peralta (95%), .262/.334/.430

Third base
Casey Blake (80%), .264/.333/.432
Andy Marte (25%), .245/.309/.418

Actual: Blake: .266/.340/.430
Marte: .146/.196/.167

This is the fifth position we've looked at, and the first one where the starter hasn't completely collapsed. Incredible, really.

Blake has actually contributed about a half run more than his slash line would indicate, as he's hit .422/.500/.781 w/RISP. This led to some announcer claiming that the reason for this clutchiness was that he concentrates harder in those situations. Which seems entirely reasonable to me, really. It's not like he hit .190/.271/.294 w/RISP last year. No, that never happened.

Rest of way: Blake (95%), .265/.335/.430
Marte (15%), .243/.307/.415

Left field
PECOTA: Jason Michaels (50%), .266/.336/.401
David Dellucci (50%), .250/.343/.430
Ben Francisco (35%), .272/.328/.437

YTD: Michaels: .207/.258/.276
Dellucci, .225/.312/.399
Francisco, .302/.353/.479

Man, I had completely forgotten about Michaels. Hadn't thought about him in weeks. What a train wreck he was. Francisco has been one of the few bright spots for the offense, so much so that he went from AAA to hitting third every night in about a month.

Rest of way: Francisco (95%), .274/.330/.443

Center field
PECOTA: Grady Sizemore (95%), .277/.367/.490

YTD: Sizemore: .266/.372/.514

This is the second--and final--position from which the Indians have gotten the expected amount of production. Sizemore was covered last week. He's still good, if confusing.

Rest of way: Sizemore (95%), .275/.368/.493

Right field
PECOTA: Franklin Gutierrez (70%), .267/.330/.448

YTD: Gutierrez: .239/.289/.353

Gutierrez is a fantastic defender. Too bad he's a corner outfielder with a .289 OBP.

Rest of way: Gutierrez (65%), .263/.325/.440
Choo (60%), .255/.325/.378

Designated hitter
PECOTA: Travis Hafner (80%), .275/.384/.492

YTD: Hafner: .217/.326/.350

This has been a disaster, yes, but not quite as surprising as some of the others. The decline began last year, and it was expedited this year. "Old player skills" rearing their ugly head. Or maybe it was his shoulder. Probably both. Kind of incredible how he kept the walk rate up.

Rest of way: Dellucci (70%), .246/.339/.426
Hafner (15%), .260/.365/.440

To recap:
PECOTA: .267/.343/.438
YTD: .245/.323/.390
Rest of way: .262/.334/.424

Prior to the season, PECOTA thought the Tribe would score 5.15 runs per game. Based on their "Rest of way" slash line, that expectation needs to be knocked down to 4.79.Tomorrow I'll look at the pitching staff, where they've only lost their #2 and #3 starters, and seen a guy who PECOTA expected to have a 4.95 ERA become the favorite for the Cy Young.

Photo: Home Run Derby.

Injury bug chomps down harder on the Tribe

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:41:43 -0500

You've heard the expression 'no news is good news.' Well today there's plenty of news about the Tribe. Injury news. MLB.com's Anthony Castrovince is reporting it all on his blog tonight. First up: Travis Hafner is going to see the Kevorkian of shoulder doctors - Dr. James Andrews. The name alone is scary. But, according to Castrovince, the Tribe doesn't think Hafner needs an operation but is going to see Andrews so he can "offer advice on a proper return-to-play program." Hafner was supposed to go out on rehab this week, but the shoulder is still too weak. The news on Fausto Carmona is equally bad, at least as reported by Castrovince. It seems Carmona felt soreness in his hip after a 50-pitch simulated game at Mahoning Valley yesterday. The Tribe isn't sure if he has re-injured the hip or he just wasn't fully healed from the original injury. Either way, his rehab stint - also expected to start this week - is also on hold. Also in his blog Castrovince reports that Josh Barfield's middle finger required surgery and that he will miss 6 to 8 weeks. And for good measure, The Buffalo News reports that Michael Aubrey - the oft-injured Tribe farmhand who had a cup of coffee in the big leagues a few weeks back - is also back on the Buffalo DL. The delay in Hafner's rehab was already known, but the Dr. Andrews news is new and ominous. As we said, the Tribe says it's not as big a deal as it might sound, but how often has the Tribe been honest with us about injuries this season? The Carmona news is also a major cause for concern as Jeremy Sowers is a fifth starter trying - but not really succeeding - to replace a No. 2 with ace-like tendencies.

More Injuries for the Tribe

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:23:07 -0500

As if having Jake Westbrook, Fausto Carmona and Travis Hafner on the disabled list wasn't enough to endure, the Tribe have officially placed Victor Martinez and Josh Barfield on the 15-day DL. Recall that Barfield has had all of six at-bats since being called up to the bigs. The injury to the second baseman is being described as "left long finger pain." While this opens up a ton of opportunities to joke about fans and their "left long finger," I'll leave that for you guys in the comments. Martinez, who has been experiencing nagging hamstring troubles since the opening weekend, is being shelved with right elbow inflammation. The odd thing is in the two players that the Indians are calling up to take their spot on the 40-man roster: catcher Yamid Haad and infielder Jorge Velandia. Neither is a top prospect, nor are players that many have even heard of before. Velandia, a shortstop, has split the season between Triple-A Syracuse (Toronto) and Buffalo. He's 33-years old and is quite the journeyman, having played for Oakland, San Diego, New York Mets, Tampa Bay, and Toronto. Haad has been in the league for 14 years and has played in 18 total games at the big league level. He's currently hitting .159 for Triple-A Buffalo. Wow. I'm lost for words there. Odds are that we won't see much of either of these guys. In fact, Wyatt Toregas is currently listed as a catcher on the 40-man roster, so he'd likely be the immediate backup for Kelly Shoppach. Jamey Carroll is now the full-time second baseman, and will have to avoid all injury as the other infielders (aside from Velandia) are all corner men. While the two guys that have been added to the roster will likely not make an impact, this move definitely makes things a lot harder to take. Would a team that's attempting to stay in the hunt call up guys that are not expected to make an impact? Or is this simply due to the lack of options that we have in our farm system? Hopefully, Cabrera gets his swing back soon and this is all in the rear view. Wishful thinking?

Barfield Up, Cabrera Down

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:11:55 -0500

Apparently, Mark Shapiro and Company have seen enough of Asdrubal Cabrera and his .184/.282/.247 clip. From the Indians media relations: CLEVELAND, OH — The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has recalled INF JOSH BARFIELD from AAA Buffalo. To make room on the Major League roster, the Indians optioned INF ASDRUBAL CABRERA to AAA Buffalo.

Getting to the heart of the the Tribe's woes

Mon, 05 May 2008 14:28:15 -0500

Quick now! Name the heart of the Tribe's batting order. If you think about that for about four seconds you realize something quite scary and sickening. There is no heart of the Tribe's batting order. I've been busy on my final project for my master's and then out of town for a couple of days over the weekend, but it is clear that the headline of my most-recent post - written an entire week ago - still applies. "Frustration reigns at Progressive Field." Just as the Tribe's offense was at the center of that posting, so it is with today's. Think of the Tribe's current lineup (or any one of its recent 26 lineups) and you can't string three guys together who could be considered the heart of the order. The most-recent lineup had Franklin Gutierrez batting second and David Dellucci batting third. Both have done reasonably well at the plate in the past week, but come on! Cleanup hitter Victor Martinez, while leading the league in hitting, has not yet hit a home run this season. Lord knows I'm not knocking V-Mart, as he and Grady are the only two guys who have been reasonably consistent all year. But what other team has a cleanup hitter with no homers? I made a somewhat snide comment about the 26 lineups thing, but really I don't blame Eric Wedge. He's been forced to grasp at straws because most of his hitters, no matter where they are hitting in the order, are not getting the job done. Dropping Travis Hafner to sixth - or at least out of the three spot - was a necessity. I'm not sure putting Jhonny Peralta at No. 5 makes sense since he seems to have two or three hot days in a row followed by a week's worth of swinging at every pitch that comes his way, no matter how far outside and low it is. In addition to trying to find a batting order that works, Wedge has tried to play small ball a lot more lately. Whether you agree with the merits of small ball or not, again you have to give him credit for trying something. It's time - as we are now a week away from the arbitrary but very real 40-game reassessment period - for Mark Shapiro to start pulling some levers himself. Ben Francisco's likely recall is a start. With Dellucci at least playing a major league hitter on TV now, Francisco will be a much better platoon partner for Dellucci than the floppy-haired platinum blonde currently taking his turn out in LF. But that has got to be only a start. Ben Francisco's arrival alone will not heal what ails the Tribe offense. There is too much dead wood throughout. Josh Barfield isn't tearing it up at Buffalo, but Asdrubal Cabrera has been abysmal so far at the plate for the Tribe. Cabrera may have caught lightning in a bottle last season and it just may be that he could benefit from another go-round in Buffalo. Perhaps a Barfield/Cabrera swap is in order. But they say you can't put lipstick on a pig and adding Francisco, and possibily Barfield, would amount to little more than that. Another proven bat - and at this point it doesn't matter where they play in the field since no one on this team can hit - is a must. There's enough depth among the starting pitchers in the system that some must be sacraficed. If not, all that terrific starting pitching we've been seeing on the major league level will continue to fall victim to the Tribe's feeble bats. And just where does that get you?

A quick look at Cleveland's spring stars

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:19:56 -0500

Spring training gives most major leaguers an opportunity to shake of the rust, and get back into the swing of a long season. It also gives some of the 'have-nots' to become a factor again. Of course, it can work both ways. Here's a look at some Indians who are making a splash this spring training:

The Sunday Drive: Tribe's Barfield to make the team?â€¦Salcedo, Sowers and Jason Bay

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:15:17 -0500

When spring training opened for the Cleveland Indians, it appeared as though the only two slots on the 25-man roster were the fifth starter, and the seventh spot in the bullpen. As camp has progressed, it is becoming increasingly obvious that there is at least one more position that is up for grabs: the second utility spot originally slated for Andy Marte.

Ranking the Top 30 MLB 2nd Baseman

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:40:33 -0500

These rankings are based off of their 2007 performance. The clear cut #1 Second Baseman during the pre-season is still playing "King of Hill" with the others. Chase Utley is a second baseman in a third basemans body. This guy just puts up monster numbers, and is a Top 5 Fantasy Player because of the scarcity at the position.

The Cleveland Indians Excel

Wed, 23 May 2007 02:38:36 -0500

Cleveland's a young team that plays each game at high intensity. They play the game the way it should be played.

Early Fantasy 2B Rankings

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 03:25:32 -0500

In order to win your fantasy league, you need to understand where the shortages of talent exist. There is no question that second base is the weakest position in this year's talent pool. Sure, you can make an arguement for catchers (especially if you are in a league that must start 2), but the deviation from one catcher to the next is not that big. The large majority of them will give you the same 55 runs and 55 RBI. They also dont weigh down your team batting average because they get half as many ABs. 2B is a different story. Players such as Utley and Cano are worth going the extra mile for on draft day because they significantly outproduce their competition. Kendrick is an interesting flier and its possible that Brian Roberts might be had for a decent price. Pretty much everyone else has some big time question marks. Third base looks especially deep this year. It would probably be wise to allocate some draft day dollars from 3B over to 2B. Rolen is looking like the 10th best 3B on the board. Grabbing him will make you a lot happier then using a late pick on Cantu as your starting second baseman.

Gothams New Rumor Mill Talks Trades

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 01:27:55 -0500

With the Winter Meetings right around the corner, Gotham Baseball's Mark Healey talks rumors. For much of the last two baseball seasons, there has been a lot of talk – and endless speculation -- about the possibility of left-hander Barry Zito coming to New York. With just a few days left before the start from MLB's Winter Meetings in Orlando, there is some indication that might not happen.

Josh Barfield vs Kevin Kouzmanoff & Andrew Brown

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 15:28:13 -0500

We look at the three players involved in the recent trade. The real key to this deal that everyone overlooks is Andrew Brown. This trade isn't as one sided as some would think.