Yardbarker: Masahide Kobayashi

Indians Release Masa Kobayashi

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:23:28 -0500

According to Japan's Sponichi, via NPB Tracker, Masahide Kobayashi was granted his release Sunday from the Indians.

Wakeup Wahoo: Cliff Leeeee; Pinning down the Picks

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 10:10:34 -0500

Cliff Lee Cliff Lee Cliff Lee! Fausto looks to regain his form and rehab updates galore. Plus, Mike Hargrove want's to manage again?

Shake It Off, Rafy

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:46:01 -0500

Not that the Indians were winning the game at the time, but an eight-run eighthinning sure didn't help matters much. Not long after I have spent the majority of this month praising his work, Rafael Perez went "Masa" on us and gave up three earned runs without even recording an out. Eddie Mujica poured some salt on the wound by allowing four earned in an inning of work. This wonderful slate of relief work erased the solid debut of Zach Jackson, who tossed five innings of three-ru...

Speechless.

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:15:45 -0500

Rays 10, Indians 7 (box) Eric. Please. Please. Please. Just let Rafael Perez be your closer. Yes, the bullpen as a whole is God awful. Epic fail. I get that. But when you have yet another quality start by Jeremy Sowers (who was overmatched on paper against Scott Kazmir), you simply cannot allow your 'pen to blow this game. Yes, I know that Perez had already tossed two innings. And he had two innings not long before then. But enough is enough. Over the last five appearances by Perez...

LOLTribe: Ben Francisco's Grady Impression and Masa's Gift To Sal Fasano

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 13:31:46 -0500

LOLTribe for Friday August First. Cleveland Indians Sal Fasano receives a gift from Masahide Kobayashi and Ben Francisco busts out his best Grady Sizemore impression.

Morning Update: Deadline Looming For Blake Deal

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:17:09 -0500

Who are the prime suitors for Cleveland Indians everything man Casey Blake? Is Jhonny Peralta available? Fausto Carmona gets cleared to start on Saturday and Paul Byrd's unusual gift to closer Masahide Kobayashi.

Tribe's Shapiro not ready to bail on season

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 20:55:29 -0500

Tribe GM Mark Shapiro says the Indians will wait as long as they can before pulling the 'abort-mission' button. And he says and if the time comes to make 'next-year' trades, we'll be seeing the Tribe reload rather than rebuild. As for this year, if he determines the division title is still a realistic goal when the trading season heats up, his main concern is the bullpen. Those are the main points to take away from an in-game interview with Rick Manning and Matt Underwood on SportsTime Ohio on Saturday night. Those interviews are often more revealing than you'd expect, as Shapiro is about as forthcoming as a GM can be in a situation like that and Manning seems to ask the right questions. "At no time this year have I thought or will I think about a rebuilding," Shapiro said in response to a question from Underwood. "It's just a question of do you take certain guys who are in the last year of deals. Do you look at, can we bolster next year's club?" Translation: If the time comes when we don't think we can win this year, we will look only to trade people we may lose to free agency (CC Sabathia, Paul Byrd), or anyone we consider dead wood for next year. And how do you decide when to fish and when to cut bait? Shapiro says you have to ask yourself a few questions and answer them honestly. "It's a mixture of your emotional side and your subjective feelings, but also to objectively ask, Is the team good enough? Is someone in the Central too good to catch? Are we a championship caliber team?" Which way is he leaning right now? "Our feeling is we've got some guys that are coming back ? (Victor) Martinez and (Travis) Hafner, (Fausto) Carmona ? that can bolster this club so we're going to be very careful about when we make that decision." Translation: We really don't know yet. If the current roster can hang close for a while yet, we just may still keep this team together and go for it. Complicating the decision, Shapiro says, is the fact that teams are becoming less and less likely to give up what the Tribe would want for Sabathia - young major leaguers, or major-league-ready players who will make next year's team better. "I can tell you that in general the Bartolo Colon's trades just don't get made anymore. ... The going price today for any player is less," Shapiro says. "There's a greater reality across the board in all markets, not just the small and mid markets, that young talent is not only cost effective, but that balance in terms of having the veteran players and the young players is a more effective way to win." He points to the Boston Red Sox as the prime example of a successful mix of vets and up-and-comers. And should the Tribe decide to be a buyer instead of a seller as the trade deadline approaches, Shapiro says it's the bullpen that is his biggest worry. "That's a bigger issue than our offense. You see the offense every minute of the game so you feel that more frequently and when the offense struggles nothing feels worse, nothing feels less energetic than a team that's not hitting. But the reality is that even when we lead in games we're going to have to turn it over to the bullpen at some point." Shapiro says Raffy Perez and Masa Kobayashi - and Joe Borowski since his return from the DL - are the only three guys in the pen coming close to expectations. And so what to do there? "We need to get Raffy Betancourt back to being what he can be. We need to get a few other guys to step up and we even need to get Perez even closer to what he was last year." And says Shapiro, the injury bug has bitten the bullpen, if indirectly. "Adam Miller, Brian Slocum have taken themselves out of it because of injuries. We're going to have to continue to look for guys." To be sure. --- Hafner update: MLB.com's Anthony Castrovince reports Hafner is not ready to go out on a rehab assignment as it was expected he might as the Tribe heads out of town and out west this week. The report says they'll take another look at the DH when they return home May 23. During the TV interview Saturday night, Manning asked Shapiro if the Tribe might be targeting the All-Star break (July 18) as a time for Pronk's return. Shapiro says he's still hoping it will be sooner than that. He also said he's hopeful Fausto Carmona will be back in the Tribe's rotation by the end of this month.

Joe Borowski and Dollar Beer Night

Fri, 16 May 2008 12:54:54 -0500

Joe Borowski will be making a rehab appearance for the Tribe's Single-A affiliate Lake County Captains. Now, if you're thinking, "Why would I travel to see a washed-up closer," you're not alone.

Betancourt? Kobayashi? Borowski?

Fri, 16 May 2008 12:50:40 -0500

Les gives his opinion on who should close out games for the Tribe?his answer may surprise you.

The Tribe's butt-ugly bullpen

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:12:58 -0500

I never thought I'd be writing that headline this season. After last year's performance and the addition of a few seemingly useful bodies over the winter I thought the closer position might be the only problem with the pen this year. But it seems to be a much larger problem. I knew the relief corps had been getting slapped around a bit so far this season, but I didn't realize the extent of it until I checked the numbers. Through 14 games the pen is 1-3 with 2 saves and four blown saves (two by Joe Borowski and two by Raffie Perez). The Tribe is 1-3 in games tied after 7 innings. Here's a real grabber. The bullpen has allowed 9 homers in 41 1/3 innings pitched. Of the seven guys in the pen, only Craig Breslow and Masa Kobayashi have not been taken deep, and the two of them have pitched only a combined 8 1/3 innings. Tribe relievers have allowed 75 base runners in those 41 1/3 innings - 49 hits, 21 walks and 5 hit batsmen. For those of you even less gifted in math than I, that's darn near two base runners per inning. The pen has given up 26 earned runs in 41 1/3 innings, for an ERA of 5.66. Not exactly the kind of stats you want from a group of guys paid to put out fires. It has been cold and mostly ugly during the first 2 1/2 weeks of the season and that makes it tough to pitch. But it also makes it tough to hit. The players and manager are still sorting out roles, an issue made more complicated by the shelving of Borowski and the short- and long-term uncertainty around the closer position. But the kind of performance we've seen so far indicates deeper problems than the usual getting-it-in-gear-early-on troubles. The real problem is there are no quick fixes immediately visible, but the Tribe can find itself in a redux of 2006 (when early bullpen failure doomed the season) if the magic bullet is not found pronto. That has me a little worried.

And the new Tribe closer is...

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:25:20 -0500

Joe Borowski has been placed on the DL with a right triceps strain (and I pulled my gluteus spending too much time on the computer). Convenient or actual, Borowski has an injury and won't be coming out of the Tribe bullpen in the ninth inning - at least for a while. So who will? The consensus in the media seems to be that Raffie Betancourt will get the job. It's possible one guy wrote it and everyone else picked up on it, although stuff like that rarely happens among sportswriters. At first blush Raffie Right seems like the choice after the season he put in last year and his performance last night in what amounted to a save situation in the seventh. But Betancourt has not been nearly as good in the early days of this young season. He sports an ERA over 5.00 and has given up two dingers in seven outings this year, covering 5 1/3 innings. Last year he gave up three all season. A bit more damaging to the case for Betancourt is his past record as a closer. Raffie Right is 12 for 29 in career save situations. Next to those number Borowski looks like Rollie Fingers. Or, for those of you a little younger, Mariano Rivera. Jorge Julio was a closer for a while. In fact, other than Borowski, Julio has spent more time closing out - or trying - games than anyone else on the staff, by far. Julio has 99 career saves. most of them over three seasons with the Orioles in the early 2000s. This year he's allowed two runs in seven innings over four appearances. Since leaving the Orioles in 2005, he's bounced around between Arizona, the Mets, the Rockies and Florida and had to pitch his way onto the club this season. Even as a closer, Julio was not exactly what you'd hope for, displaying control problems at the damnedest times. That leaves Masa Kobayashi, one of the top-three all-time save leaders in Japan and a 33-year-old rookie in the Big Leagues this year. Kobayashi has an ERA of just over 2.00 in five outings with the Tribe so far, for what that's worth. Would the Tribe want to lay the job in the lap of a guy who's pitched five innings in the bigs so far? Does it make it any easier to do that given Kobayashi's age and experience in Japan? None of the options is terrific. But given Raffie Right's past problems at closer and the fact that it's great to have him to slot in either the seventh or the eighth - when a real need comes up - rather than have him married to the ninth inning, I'd go with Kobayashi. Do I think the Tribe will go in that direction? Well, I picked up Kobayashi in my fantasy baseball league (Betancourt wasn't available). But do I really think he'll be the choice? No. I'm betting on Raffie, but I have my doubts about the results.

Add Alert - Rafael Betancourt Closing In Cleveland; Joe Borowski To The DL

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:42:51 -0500

With Joe Borowski headed to the disabled list, Rafael Betancourt will be the new closer in Cleveland. We take a look at his fantasy value and offer some performance projections.

Indians Close To Agreement With Kobayashi

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 19:28:46 -0500

Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com reports that the Cleveland Indians are close to agreeing to a contract with Japanese relief pitcher Masahide Kobayashi. He is taking his physical for the team today.