If only this series began just three days later!
Two young clubs with loads of minor-league talent square off, just days before the expanded 40-man rosters take effect. Of course, smart clubs are wary of starting young players' arbitration clocks...but it would have been fun to see at least some of each team's touted kids. As it is, the Jays march into Jacobs Field with their standard 25.
They'll face a team that seems like it's in expanded-roster mode already. Injuries to star hitters Milton Bradley and Ellis Burks mean more playing time for the likes of Jody Gerut, Ryan Ludwick and Coco Crisp, who are each taking advantage of their opportunities to play. While the Jays need to guard against a letdown after 16 games agains the AL's elite, Cleveland will be trying to ramp up its game after six against Detroit and Tampa Bay.
Tonight has the potential to be an outstanding pitching matchup, and none of the games are gimmees for the Jays; the Tribe features a retooled (and red-hot) bullpen, and a surprising lineup that is getting better at the plate (if still a little shaky in the field and on the basepaths).
On to the Advance Scout!
* Cleveland's playing some confident ball, having won five of six -- albeit against bottom-feeders Tampa Bay and Detroit ... Without a single bona fide masher, Cleveland relies on balanced production ...
* A real problem for the youthful Tribe has been their baserunning ... On Tuesday, two players committed cardinal sins on the same play. Ryan Ludwick, on third base got trapped in frozen indecision as Josh Bard hit a comebacker to Nate Cornejo, and Cornejo was able to tag Ludwick out between third and home. Then, as Bard casually rounded first without looking at the play, he was easily doubled off ... Eric Wedge: "Our baserunning has been atrocious at times...It is way too late in the season to be doing that" ... Cleveland has stolen 76 bases, 11th-best, but has been caught 51 times, 4th-most ...
* Tonight's opponent, 23-year-old C.C. Sabathia, has come through with another solid season (12-7, 3.44) ... After four consecutive gems against the A's, Mariners, Angels and Rays, Sabathia was a bit lucky to get the win last Saturday at Tropicana Field ... Sabathia gave up five runs, including three home runs, but earned a 7-5 victory ... C.C.: "The guys swung the bats well and picked me up" ... Sabathia said that only his curveball was working in his last start: "I struggled throwing fastballs for strikes...My changeup was leaving the yard quick" ... Eric Wedge returned the compliment: "I was happy we were able to come back for C.C. He's picked us up so many times this year" ... Prior to Saturday, C.C. had gone 33 innings without throwing a gopher ball ... His full name is Carsten Charles Sabathia ...
* One of the many rookies in the Tribe lineup, Jody Gerut, is slugging an impressive .509 with 18 homers ... Gerut: "I don't think homers are going to be a huge part of my game. I don't want to be labeled a power hitter. I hit line drives" ... The 25-year-old lefty has yet to figure out southpaws, though, going just 232/290/364 against them ... Gerut has been smoking hot of late, hitting .448 over his last seven games ... He's amassed nine RBI in his last two games, and went deep twice last night ... He's also had nine multi-hit games in August ... Veiled shot at Mr. Hinske? Gerut: "I think Matsui has [the AL Rookie of the Year] in the bag...He can have it, that's OK with me. For some reason, winning that sometimes does something to a player's psyche" ... Gerut's the most prolific home run hitter among Cleveland rookies since old friend Cory Snyder ... Gerut credits his superior conditioning to six weeks with ex-NFL quarterback-cum-trainer-extraordinaire Jay Schroeder. Gerut described the effect as "the transformation of my career" ...
* 26-year-old Travis Hafner has finally begun producing like the Tribe thought he would when they acquired him from Texas ... He's boosted his numbers with a 320/393/640 August, doubling his season total in homers to 10 ... Hafner recorded his first multi-homer game on Saturday with two moon shots ...
* Former Jays seventh-rounder Casey Blake is hitting .364 over his last eight games ... Blake came through with the decisive two-run single in Saturday's win ... Blake's in a fielding slump at third of late, which Wedge attributed to "fatigue" ...
* It's not too late for tomorrow night's opponent, Jake Westbrook, to establish himself as a promising starter -- but time is beginning to run out ... He's struck out just 45 batters in over 105 innings ... Interestingly, Westbrook was very effective in June, when he was used as a short reliever (1.93 ERA, 1.00 WHIP) ... His season numbers (4.78, 1.53) indicate that he's been less effective as a starter ... Wedge praised Westbrook's ability to battle through a start in which his stuff was mediocre on Sunday, as Cleveland won 7-5 ...
* 25-year-old Ryan Ludwick, who never made the big club with the A's and didn't produce in limited duty in Texas, has turned it on in Cleveland ... Ludwick has slugged .534 since the trade, and is hitting .395 over his last ten ... An assessment of the trade of Ludwick for Spencer and Ricardo Rodriguez will have to wait until Rodriguez has proven or not proven himself. But Mark Shapiro may have found a keeper ... Interesting: With Travis Hafner and Ben Broussard both being lefthanded hitters, Ludwick has agreed to a two-week stint in the Instructional League to learn first base ... With the glut of talented outfielders, Ludwick is eager to do what he can to stay in the lineup every day ...
* David Riske has been letter-perfect since being promoted to closer last Saturday, earning three saves without allowing a baserunner ... He has a solid 18/68 ratio, and opponents are batting just .183 off him ... He's allowed one run in his last fifteen appearances ...
* Piping hot Coco! ... Covelli (Coco) Crisp is on an 11-game hitting streak (.353) ... Crisp went 4-for-4 and scored four runs on Wednesday night, keying Cleveland's 9-7 victory over Detroit ... Matt Lawton: "[Crisp is] my favourite guy to root for because when he gets on with his speed, they throw fastballs to us other guys to hit" ...
* Backup middle infielder Jhonny Peralta (spelling correct) is 1 for his last 17 (.059) ... The offensive part of his game has yet to come around, as he's at 231/287/319, and only 1 for 4 on the basepaths ... He is, however, only 21 ... As insurance, Cleveland signed Benji Gil on Sunday ...
* Second baseman John McDonald has been a "hero" in the sense that Coach despises ... After battling a strained lower back in silence for much of the season, McDonald finally shut it down this week after enduring a miserable 215/258/280 season ... Before he was placed on the DL, McDonald admitted that he "[hadn't] been a good player" with his back pain ... Ex-Expo phenom Brandon Phillips has taken his place on the roster ... The Tribe were hoping to condition Phillips' recall on improved production and attitude at AAA Buffalo, but injuries -- Ricky Gutierrez is on the DL too -- necessitated his callup regardless ...
* However, poor Phillips was beaned on his right wrist on his second at-bat back with the club, and hasn't played since ... It's a bruise, and he's day-to-day ... Free-swinging Angel Santos is the next option (6 extra-base hits, 2 walks, 14 K's) ... Grady Sizemore, further bounty from the Colon deal, made the AA All-Star Team ...
* Part-time first baseman Ben Broussard is just 3 for his last 25 (.120) ...
* Ex-Twin Jack Cressend has been lights-out as a reliever since his July callup ... In over 30 innings, he's walked just 6 and allowed only 23 hits ... He sports a stellar 1.19 ERA on the season ...
* Sunday's opponent, Billy Traber, has tossed a one-hit shutout against the Yankees this season, and twice has gone seven scoreless frames en route to shutouts of the Reds and Mariners ... As expected from a 23-year-old, however, he's been battling inconsistency ... The key for Traber, with even greater urgency than for other pitchers, is to keep his pitches down, and the ball in the park. Two homers allowed on Tuesday gave him the ignominious distinction of losing at the hands of the Tigers ...
* Omar Vizquel finally returned this week after missing nearly three months with a painful torn meniscus, which occurred during a slide ... Since he arrived in Cleveland in 1994, Vizquel has brought nothing but excellent baserunning and fielding, and a good ability to make contact and get on base ... Vizquel admits his knee is not at 100%. But he's testing it to see if rehab will be sufficient, or if further surgery will be required ...
* 25-year-old Josh Bard finally snapped a 30-game homerless streak last night ... Bard: "It's nice to get the refrigerator off my back" ... I had the honour of witnessing the switch-hitting catcher's first-ever home run last season -- a walk-off job in a rainy bottom of the ninth, following a severe Lake Erie lightning storm ... That was off of James Baldwin, then of Seattle ...
* Milton Bradley is battling severe pain in his lumbar region, and his physical activity has been limited to cycling ... Depending on how his back reacts, he'll either be shut down for the season or assigned a rehab stint ...
* Ellis Burks took batting practice and was encouraged with how his surgically-repaired right elbow felt ... It's unclear whether he'll return this season ...
* Wedge was working in the visiting manager's office at Tropicana Field during a Christian rock concert before the weekend series with Tampa Bay, but he found the volume a bit uncomfortable: "If they were trying to reach God, I'm sure He heard them" ...
* First-round pick Michael Aubrey out of Tulane is hitting .333 with 5 home runs in 27 games for Kane County, despite battling a strained quadriceps ...
* The diciest part of the Brian Anderson trade talks? Anderson's agent is Mark Shapiro's father, Ron ... An intermediary agent was hired to handle trade talks ...
* On Tuesday, the Tribe honoured both Ken Coleman, who called Cleveland games before he became the voice of the Red Sox, and Bobby Bonds, who spent 1979 in Cleveland ... John Adams, the fan who bangs his drum in left field, was also honoured for the thirtieth anniversary of his first game -- Auguse 24, 1973 -- as de facto cheerleader ... Adams asked permission before that game to bring a drum, and was invited to the top of the upper deck at Municipal Stadium, where he drummed under a sign that read "IMPEACH NIXON AND ASPROMONTE" (Ken Aspromonte managed the club that year) ... Adams has missed only 18 games -- all weekday matinees -- over the last 30 years. "I have to be at work," says Adams, a data analyst ... Will he stop drumming anytime soon? "When it stops being fun or I can't afford it, I quit" ...
Probable Batting Orders
vs. LH
8 Crisp
6 Vizquel
5 Blake
7 Ludwick
DH Lawton
3 Broussard
9 A Escobar
2 Bard
4 Phillips/Santos
vs. RH
8 Crisp
6 Vizquel/Peralta
7/9 Gerut
9/7 Ludwick
DH Lawton
5 Blake
3 Broussard/Hafner
2 Bard/Laker
4 Phillips/Santos
Pitching Probables
Friday: LH Sabathia vs. K Escobar
Saturday: RH Westbrook vs. Lidle
Sunday: LH Traber vs. Hendrickson
Bullpen Usage
Long: Mulholland L
Short: Cressend R, Santiago R
Setup: Betancourt R, Baez R
Closer: Riske R
Two young clubs with loads of minor-league talent square off, just days before the expanded 40-man rosters take effect. Of course, smart clubs are wary of starting young players' arbitration clocks...but it would have been fun to see at least some of each team's touted kids. As it is, the Jays march into Jacobs Field with their standard 25.
They'll face a team that seems like it's in expanded-roster mode already. Injuries to star hitters Milton Bradley and Ellis Burks mean more playing time for the likes of Jody Gerut, Ryan Ludwick and Coco Crisp, who are each taking advantage of their opportunities to play. While the Jays need to guard against a letdown after 16 games agains the AL's elite, Cleveland will be trying to ramp up its game after six against Detroit and Tampa Bay.
Tonight has the potential to be an outstanding pitching matchup, and none of the games are gimmees for the Jays; the Tribe features a retooled (and red-hot) bullpen, and a surprising lineup that is getting better at the plate (if still a little shaky in the field and on the basepaths).
On to the Advance Scout!
* Cleveland's playing some confident ball, having won five of six -- albeit against bottom-feeders Tampa Bay and Detroit ... Without a single bona fide masher, Cleveland relies on balanced production ...
* A real problem for the youthful Tribe has been their baserunning ... On Tuesday, two players committed cardinal sins on the same play. Ryan Ludwick, on third base got trapped in frozen indecision as Josh Bard hit a comebacker to Nate Cornejo, and Cornejo was able to tag Ludwick out between third and home. Then, as Bard casually rounded first without looking at the play, he was easily doubled off ... Eric Wedge: "Our baserunning has been atrocious at times...It is way too late in the season to be doing that" ... Cleveland has stolen 76 bases, 11th-best, but has been caught 51 times, 4th-most ...
* Tonight's opponent, 23-year-old C.C. Sabathia, has come through with another solid season (12-7, 3.44) ... After four consecutive gems against the A's, Mariners, Angels and Rays, Sabathia was a bit lucky to get the win last Saturday at Tropicana Field ... Sabathia gave up five runs, including three home runs, but earned a 7-5 victory ... C.C.: "The guys swung the bats well and picked me up" ... Sabathia said that only his curveball was working in his last start: "I struggled throwing fastballs for strikes...My changeup was leaving the yard quick" ... Eric Wedge returned the compliment: "I was happy we were able to come back for C.C. He's picked us up so many times this year" ... Prior to Saturday, C.C. had gone 33 innings without throwing a gopher ball ... His full name is Carsten Charles Sabathia ...
* One of the many rookies in the Tribe lineup, Jody Gerut, is slugging an impressive .509 with 18 homers ... Gerut: "I don't think homers are going to be a huge part of my game. I don't want to be labeled a power hitter. I hit line drives" ... The 25-year-old lefty has yet to figure out southpaws, though, going just 232/290/364 against them ... Gerut has been smoking hot of late, hitting .448 over his last seven games ... He's amassed nine RBI in his last two games, and went deep twice last night ... He's also had nine multi-hit games in August ... Veiled shot at Mr. Hinske? Gerut: "I think Matsui has [the AL Rookie of the Year] in the bag...He can have it, that's OK with me. For some reason, winning that sometimes does something to a player's psyche" ... Gerut's the most prolific home run hitter among Cleveland rookies since old friend Cory Snyder ... Gerut credits his superior conditioning to six weeks with ex-NFL quarterback-cum-trainer-extraordinaire Jay Schroeder. Gerut described the effect as "the transformation of my career" ...
* 26-year-old Travis Hafner has finally begun producing like the Tribe thought he would when they acquired him from Texas ... He's boosted his numbers with a 320/393/640 August, doubling his season total in homers to 10 ... Hafner recorded his first multi-homer game on Saturday with two moon shots ...
* Former Jays seventh-rounder Casey Blake is hitting .364 over his last eight games ... Blake came through with the decisive two-run single in Saturday's win ... Blake's in a fielding slump at third of late, which Wedge attributed to "fatigue" ...
* It's not too late for tomorrow night's opponent, Jake Westbrook, to establish himself as a promising starter -- but time is beginning to run out ... He's struck out just 45 batters in over 105 innings ... Interestingly, Westbrook was very effective in June, when he was used as a short reliever (1.93 ERA, 1.00 WHIP) ... His season numbers (4.78, 1.53) indicate that he's been less effective as a starter ... Wedge praised Westbrook's ability to battle through a start in which his stuff was mediocre on Sunday, as Cleveland won 7-5 ...
* 25-year-old Ryan Ludwick, who never made the big club with the A's and didn't produce in limited duty in Texas, has turned it on in Cleveland ... Ludwick has slugged .534 since the trade, and is hitting .395 over his last ten ... An assessment of the trade of Ludwick for Spencer and Ricardo Rodriguez will have to wait until Rodriguez has proven or not proven himself. But Mark Shapiro may have found a keeper ... Interesting: With Travis Hafner and Ben Broussard both being lefthanded hitters, Ludwick has agreed to a two-week stint in the Instructional League to learn first base ... With the glut of talented outfielders, Ludwick is eager to do what he can to stay in the lineup every day ...
* David Riske has been letter-perfect since being promoted to closer last Saturday, earning three saves without allowing a baserunner ... He has a solid 18/68 ratio, and opponents are batting just .183 off him ... He's allowed one run in his last fifteen appearances ...
* Piping hot Coco! ... Covelli (Coco) Crisp is on an 11-game hitting streak (.353) ... Crisp went 4-for-4 and scored four runs on Wednesday night, keying Cleveland's 9-7 victory over Detroit ... Matt Lawton: "[Crisp is] my favourite guy to root for because when he gets on with his speed, they throw fastballs to us other guys to hit" ...
* Backup middle infielder Jhonny Peralta (spelling correct) is 1 for his last 17 (.059) ... The offensive part of his game has yet to come around, as he's at 231/287/319, and only 1 for 4 on the basepaths ... He is, however, only 21 ... As insurance, Cleveland signed Benji Gil on Sunday ...
* Second baseman John McDonald has been a "hero" in the sense that Coach despises ... After battling a strained lower back in silence for much of the season, McDonald finally shut it down this week after enduring a miserable 215/258/280 season ... Before he was placed on the DL, McDonald admitted that he "[hadn't] been a good player" with his back pain ... Ex-Expo phenom Brandon Phillips has taken his place on the roster ... The Tribe were hoping to condition Phillips' recall on improved production and attitude at AAA Buffalo, but injuries -- Ricky Gutierrez is on the DL too -- necessitated his callup regardless ...
* However, poor Phillips was beaned on his right wrist on his second at-bat back with the club, and hasn't played since ... It's a bruise, and he's day-to-day ... Free-swinging Angel Santos is the next option (6 extra-base hits, 2 walks, 14 K's) ... Grady Sizemore, further bounty from the Colon deal, made the AA All-Star Team ...
* Part-time first baseman Ben Broussard is just 3 for his last 25 (.120) ...
* Ex-Twin Jack Cressend has been lights-out as a reliever since his July callup ... In over 30 innings, he's walked just 6 and allowed only 23 hits ... He sports a stellar 1.19 ERA on the season ...
* Sunday's opponent, Billy Traber, has tossed a one-hit shutout against the Yankees this season, and twice has gone seven scoreless frames en route to shutouts of the Reds and Mariners ... As expected from a 23-year-old, however, he's been battling inconsistency ... The key for Traber, with even greater urgency than for other pitchers, is to keep his pitches down, and the ball in the park. Two homers allowed on Tuesday gave him the ignominious distinction of losing at the hands of the Tigers ...
* Omar Vizquel finally returned this week after missing nearly three months with a painful torn meniscus, which occurred during a slide ... Since he arrived in Cleveland in 1994, Vizquel has brought nothing but excellent baserunning and fielding, and a good ability to make contact and get on base ... Vizquel admits his knee is not at 100%. But he's testing it to see if rehab will be sufficient, or if further surgery will be required ...
* 25-year-old Josh Bard finally snapped a 30-game homerless streak last night ... Bard: "It's nice to get the refrigerator off my back" ... I had the honour of witnessing the switch-hitting catcher's first-ever home run last season -- a walk-off job in a rainy bottom of the ninth, following a severe Lake Erie lightning storm ... That was off of James Baldwin, then of Seattle ...
* Milton Bradley is battling severe pain in his lumbar region, and his physical activity has been limited to cycling ... Depending on how his back reacts, he'll either be shut down for the season or assigned a rehab stint ...
* Ellis Burks took batting practice and was encouraged with how his surgically-repaired right elbow felt ... It's unclear whether he'll return this season ...
* Wedge was working in the visiting manager's office at Tropicana Field during a Christian rock concert before the weekend series with Tampa Bay, but he found the volume a bit uncomfortable: "If they were trying to reach God, I'm sure He heard them" ...
* First-round pick Michael Aubrey out of Tulane is hitting .333 with 5 home runs in 27 games for Kane County, despite battling a strained quadriceps ...
* The diciest part of the Brian Anderson trade talks? Anderson's agent is Mark Shapiro's father, Ron ... An intermediary agent was hired to handle trade talks ...
* On Tuesday, the Tribe honoured both Ken Coleman, who called Cleveland games before he became the voice of the Red Sox, and Bobby Bonds, who spent 1979 in Cleveland ... John Adams, the fan who bangs his drum in left field, was also honoured for the thirtieth anniversary of his first game -- Auguse 24, 1973 -- as de facto cheerleader ... Adams asked permission before that game to bring a drum, and was invited to the top of the upper deck at Municipal Stadium, where he drummed under a sign that read "IMPEACH NIXON AND ASPROMONTE" (Ken Aspromonte managed the club that year) ... Adams has missed only 18 games -- all weekday matinees -- over the last 30 years. "I have to be at work," says Adams, a data analyst ... Will he stop drumming anytime soon? "When it stops being fun or I can't afford it, I quit" ...
Probable Batting Orders
vs. LH
8 Crisp
6 Vizquel
5 Blake
7 Ludwick
DH Lawton
3 Broussard
9 A Escobar
2 Bard
4 Phillips/Santos
vs. RH
8 Crisp
6 Vizquel/Peralta
7/9 Gerut
9/7 Ludwick
DH Lawton
5 Blake
3 Broussard/Hafner
2 Bard/Laker
4 Phillips/Santos
Pitching Probables
Friday: LH Sabathia vs. K Escobar
Saturday: RH Westbrook vs. Lidle
Sunday: LH Traber vs. Hendrickson
Bullpen Usage
Long: Mulholland L
Short: Cressend R, Santiago R
Setup: Betancourt R, Baez R
Closer: Riske R
