Opening Day: 2012

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Who's this fucking guy pitching?

Jupiter Arnold.

Born in Ft. Wayne Indiana in 1997.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Where did all the fans go?

[ClevelandFanInNewYork]

Looking grim for the good guys.

[andrew6586]

At least Droobs didn't do that...

[drum]

Where did all the fans go?

Home to thaw/drink heavily.

Choo is pissed

[ClevelandFanInNewYork]

Interesting Fact from Wikipedia...

The longest Opening Day game in major league history was a 15-inning game played at Cleveland Stadium on April 19, 1960. The Detroit Tigers defeated the Cleveland Indians 4-2. The record was tied on April 5, 2012 in a game between the Cleveland Indians and Toronto Blue Jays.

[Erie Warrior]

Where did all the fans go?

Can't leave now, too much time invested.

KICK HIS ASS SEA BASS!

[andrew6586]

The best part of the close shave with Choo was the definite "shit" you heard him yell as it almost hit him.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Baseball pitchers are the biggest pussies in sports. Absolute bottom of the barrel.

[fairvis]

Well, that's the record for the longest opening day game...

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Shirtless fat guys.

[Erie Warrior]

I bet Santana has seen 50 pitches today.

Anyone find that stat?

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Hah!

Hit the shit outta that ball.

Tripods probably caught it.

[Erie Warrior]

Fandamntastic.

I guess it had to happen at some point.

Masterson has got to be pissed.

[drum]

Not only does that HR suck, but my fantasy opponent has Arencibia. Damnit

[Symbolic47]

Shitty

[Erie Warrior]

Tripods probably cussed loudly and threw the nearest child over the rail.

[ClevelandFanInNewYork]

I want a 17th inning!

[Adverb Harry]

So, all we've got to do is score 4 runs with our bench scrubs in? Relax, boys, we've got this one nailed down.

[statmasta]

I bet Santana has seen 50 pitches today.

Anyone find that stat?

Santana's seen 35 pitches in his 7 plate appearances.

[Erie Warrior]

Santana's seen 35 pitches in his 7 plate appearances.

Grazi. Where was it at?

[ClevelandFanInNewYork]

Here we go.....

Hannahan with a slam to win it.

[motherscratcher]

Fuck.

[Erie Warrior]

Thank Jeebus.

Eat a dick Perez.

[motherscratcher]

15 scoreless innings

[Cerebral_DownTime]

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We'll get 'em next time.

[ChoccoIndians]

To have a 3 run lead in the ninth, then bases loaded once and a man on third with one out once, to not get this one is very disappointing.

Lets just hope Perez is better for the longer outing then usual.

Bad start.

[LakeErieWarriors]

What left you feeling worse? Last years Fausto Fiasco, or this years flub?

Frankly, I'm pretty disgusted in what happened top of the 9th. I don't even need to go into what happened in extras because it shouldn't have gone into extras. Everybody (even he himself, I'm sure) knew coming in that Perez was one of the main concerns for this season. He follows Masterson's great performance with that shit?

JFC.

[peeker643]

Shirtless fat guys.

Ha.... my oldest and I were 10 rows behind those tool boxes for the last 4 innings.

[skatingtripods]

As far as Arencibia's HR goes, I'm the guy in the blue jersey and hoodie who idly watched it fly over my head as I had no energy left from standing for 16 innings + 2.5 hrs before the game. From what I heard behind me, there was a bit of a collision into the beer stand for the ball, which was promptly thrown back. Kudos to that guy.

On Acta removing Masterson: Gotta do it. It's the right move. One game does not make the season. No reason to make him go 110 + warmups + between innings in his first start on a chilly day. You'd figure a 3-run lead would be safe for Perez. Evidently not. Leyland didn't send Verlander back out at 105, and he's as much of a workhorse as anybody. Valverde blew the save. It happens.

On Perez, I figure Pestano's the closer by June. He just doesn't miss enough bats. His velo's gone, he still only has two pitches, you can't live like that unless you can throw 96 or 97 in the late innings. I want to like the guy, but he makes it really hard. He was erratic the entire time he was warming up on the mound. Santana went out and talked to him before the inning started, presumably to calm him down. He didn't look 100% to me. Had to be rushed back, which makes no sense because our setup and first tier middle relief guys are very reliable.

Cabrera swinging at the first pitch. Beyond unacceptable. Guy couldn't find the plate if he had Lewis and Clark next to him. Cabrera made no effort to see a pitch that he could hit for a flyball. With two OF, the odds of them catching it and throwing out the runner are very slim. Inexcusable.

Saw a lot of good things today. Kotchman's a stud defensively. Offensively, not so much. I think he was down 0-2 in five or six of his seven at bats. Didn't hit a ball out of the infield. That said, he battled in damn near every at bat. Hits will come. He was stretching out that back (that caused him to miss about a week in ST) a lot during downtime in the field. I think he's playing through something more serious in it than just a strain.

Lots of guys worked deep counts, but just didn't have the results. 11 BB is nice, but only 7 hits in 16 innings is pathetic. Plenty of deep counts, a lot of good hitters counts where we just fouled off pitches or didn't hit them hard. If they keep working counts and getting in good situations, good things will happen.

161 more to go. Put this one behind us and get in a position to win the series on Sunday.

[British_Pharaoh]

For some reason I have not been allowed to access the website for the past 4 days so I was on the boring and desolate realm of the official site's message boards last night.


I'm sure the following has been said, but I'm too important not to have my opinion heard.

I'll start with a positive. Masterson and the pitching, sans Perez, as a whole (even Asencio) was excellent.

Now the hitting was pitiful - I reserve particular scorn for A-Cab who's approach with the bases loaded and 6 infielders (fantastic management by Farrell) was woeful as were all his at bats - for 15 of the 16 innings the offense was pathetic and the clutch hitting situations resulted in all too familiar outcomes.
We could have gone 25 innings and we would not have scored. We were ineffective against 7 pitchers (including the 41 year old Darren Oliver) Perez pitched 4 innings and before Santos came in and had held the Indians hit-less. (I think we were hit-less over the last 5 innings as a whole.)

Acta is a 'by the book' reincarnation of Wedge. As soon as I saw Perez on the hill I knew he wasn't going to close it out. He's had a short Spring and in the few appearances he made he wasn't even throwing 10 pitches. I genuinely thought Acta had the sense to either let Masterson finish (although he was on 99 pitches) or have Pestano (yes I know he's inexperienced in the role) get the first couple of save situations and have Perez initially see 7th/8th inning work.

Acta's managing was shocking, Farrell looked imperious and like he knew what he was doing and had confidence that it was going to work. And all his decisions did come off.

Now with Asencio I think he made just 2 mistakes, the hanger that was launched for the home run, and more annoyingly, the unawareness that Lawrie was running on the pitch and therefore his throw to second base (obviously trying to get a DP) instead of first for the only out that was possibly.
Now you could blame Santana since he should be directing his pitcher where to throw in that situation but Asencio's reaction was instictive and lacked the awareness of what was going on in his infield. Otherwise I was impressed with our new pick-up.

I feel so much better now.....It took me 2 hours to sleep last night (game ended at 1am over here) because I wa so angry with the manner in which we lost and the ineptitude of our offense (especially in the 3 runner on third 1 out situations we had in extra innings)

[Larvell Blanks]

Someone needs to let Perez know to change his Twitter profile...he no longer as an arm like a f@&*ing cannon.


At what point does Masterson go ballistic on this bullpen for blowing his great outings. One guy cannot have this much bad luck.

[gotribe31]

For some reason I have not been allowed to access the website for the past 4 days

Hmmm...I thought I requested it be for 4 years, not 4 days...

[gotribe31]

As far as Perez/Acta/Masterson goes, this was the perfect situation to try and get Perez his first save. Starting a clean inning with a 3-run lead is the whole argument for not using your best reliever as your "closer." And Perez still stepped on his crank. It is what it is. If you say the guy is your closer, you go to him there. If he's still hurt or not ready to pitch in game situations, put him on the 15-day DL and let him pitch for Akron/Columbus to build his arm strength back up. But if you're going into opening day with your bullpen set up with Perez as your closer, no reason not to have used him there.

[skatingtripods]

I bet Santana has seen 50 pitches today.

Anyone find that stat?

Fangraphs says 35 pitches. 18 strikes, 17 balls.

[TribeinLA]

As much as it's easy to have hindsight, yesterday was the perfect situation for Perez. When he gave up the first single, I didn't flinch because been there, done that. Moments later, I knew we'd either be tied up or down 5-4. Had Masterson been at or right below 90 pitches (not sure where he was), come back out and get your CG. He fooled the shit out of one of their hitters with the ball that was a WP and a K. I think, Bartolo Colon style, he was getting better as the game went on. Yesterday was the best I have ever seen JM, so that is encouraging. What was not, however, is why someone couldn't tell Perez was not ready. Didn't Santana notice it before he even threw?

I don't know why this club has had so much faith in Perez. I have been told that we would not have a long shelf life with him by people I personally know and some of you even called it. Help me out here...bullpen coach or pitching coach? Besides Chris Perez stepping all over his dick on this one, who needs to have a set of eyes and see that he wasn't ready? The oblique strain was supposedly no issue, but is it? Or, does this guy just suck that badly now? He topped out at 91 mph from what I could see. That's not anything to be a bull in a china closet about, yet that's how Perez is going to approach it. He's too hyper and no, adrenaline doesn't have to affect him like that. It's ridiculous. If Carlos saw that he looked ill-prepared, then what was the bullpen coach thinking? What is Acta's role in this? I'm curious and do not want to pretend I know the answers because I don't. The guy is our closer and went 90% last year in opportunities, yet yesterday is as bad as I have ever seen him (he was BAD aginst KC in the first series with them last year, too).

Yes, no blame on situational move. As said, Detroit did it. You do it every time. You do have to have someone dependable. Clearly Chris Perez was not. Maybe game 1 was just unkind and he'll save his next 25 for 25, but I didn't like what I saw yesterday. He looked and acted like he was in his first MLB game ever. How long of a leash does he have and who would be his replacement? Pestano? Sipp? Call Slowey up and experiment with him? Travis Hafner? What do we do now?

God bless Masterson and the corner defense. Those were the two bright spots yesterday. Kotchman is a MAN at 1b and Manahan played very well. Chiz and LaPorta would not have had same outcome. I liked Carlos Santana's patience and want him to aim for a .380-400 OBP. He's going to get his licks and his walks. What I didn't like (besides obvious) is how thin we are with power. When you have to take Sloth and Pronk out of the game and yeah, no one expected 16 innings, then you need to have someone with some kind of reputable stick. Cunningham made some good catches at the track, but with the bat, he was about as useless as expected. Donald did what he could. Hell, Travis Buck would have given me more confidence yesterday than Cuningham. I know we are what we are and it's hard enough filling the starting lineup card with 3 plus guys who can crank one out at any given time, but damn...that's an awfully thin bench we seem to have. I would have felt better with Canzler. Just me.

Maybe Ubaldo will shock us all tomorrow. We have our ace. Our #2 guy? I've been holding my breath since last July. Sure hope Bautista is kept at bay tomorrow.

[leadpipe]

Lotta people have brought this up but..... I've got little problem with Cabrera'a at bat.

He got the same "get me over" fastball that Encarnacion crushed in the 9th. I'll entertain the "automatic take" argument. But if he takes that very pitch he's down 0-1. Now's he gonna walk? And I'd argue that that very pitch will be the best he sees ALL YEAR. Some may tie it, but it ain't getting any better than a BP fastball over the heart.

Your best hitter, with a BP fastball over the heart of the plate....takin' that every time over a fingers crossed walk.

[peeker643]

Lotta people have brought this up but..... I've got little problem with Cabrera'a at bat.

He got the same "get me over" fastball that Encarnacion crushed in the 9th. I'll entertain the "automatic take" argument. But if he takes that very pitch he's down 0-1. Now's he gonna walk? And I'd argue that that very pitch will be the best he sees ALL YEAR. Some may tie it, but it ain't getting any better than a BP fastball over the heart.

Your best hitter, with a BP fastball over the heart of the plate....takin' that every time over a fingers crossed walk.

I agree- It's been like that for 15-20 years. As I mentioned yesterday, the "You don't walk your way off the island" mentality is in play and is here to stay. And he got an excellent pitch to hit.

You can decry the AB for lack of patience if you want, but the name of the game in this day and age is pitches to hit and then hitting them hard. He got one and did nothing with it and he wasn't the only one yesterday by a longshot.

Can't wait til Kotchman gets one to the outfield grass. Be nice. Especially with a guy on 3B and less than 2 outs.

meh.... I blame Masterson. Guy gave up the HR to Bautista. He doesn't do that and maybe Tribe eeks one out.

[motherscratcher]

Lotta people have brought this up but..... I've got little problem with Cabrera'a at bat.

He got the same "get me over" fastball that Encarnacion crushed in the 9th. I'll entertain the "automatic take" argument. But if he takes that very pitch he's down 0-1. Now's he gonna walk? And I'd argue that that very pitch will be the best he sees ALL YEAR. Some may tie it, but it ain't getting any better than a BP fastball over the heart.

Your best hitter, with a BP fastball over the heart of the plate....takin' that every time over a fingers crossed walk.

I agree- It's been like that for 15-20 years. As I mentioned yesterday, the "You don't walk your way off the island" mentality is in play and is here to stay. And he got an excellent pitch to hit.

You can decry the AB for lack of patience if you want, but the name of the game in this day and age is pitches to hit and then hitting them hard. He got one and did nothing with it and he wasn't the only one yesterday by a longshot.

Can't wait til Kotchman gets one to the outfield grass. Be nice. Especially with a guy on 3B and less than 2 outs.

meh.... I blame Masterson. Guy gave up the HR to Bautista. He doesn't do that and maybe Tribe eeks one out.

Depends on the situation, doesn't it. I think maybe the fact that the pitcher had thrown 4 pitches while apparently blindfolded should factor into it. Not that anyone should be ONLY looking for a walk obviously, but show a little restraint.

Unless I'm misunderstanding what "You don't walk your way off the island" mentality is, then actually yeah. In that situation, you absolutely CAN walk your way off the island.

If he got such a great pitch to hit, well, he should have fucking hit it then.

All that being said, I was in my car so I haven't actually seen it LOL

[skatingtripods]

Lotta people have brought this up but..... I've got little problem with Cabrera'a at bat.

He got the same "get me over" fastball that Encarnacion crushed in the 9th. I'll entertain the "automatic take" argument. But if he takes that very pitch he's down 0-1. Now's he gonna walk? And I'd argue that that very pitch will be the best he sees ALL YEAR. Some may tie it, but it ain't getting any better than a BP fastball over the heart.

Your best hitter, with a BP fastball over the heart of the plate....takin' that every time over a fingers crossed walk.

If he's going to swing, he better fucking hit it better than a 3 hopper to the SS. I'd rather he see a couple pitches and loft a fly ball. There's two fucking guys out there.

Cabrera tried to hit everything 580 feet all day long. Showed zero patience. Then he does that?

Please. Indefensible to me. Don't care where the pitch was.

[peeker643]

I'm new fashioned I guess.

Your Silver Slugger SS and best offensive player gets a room service, belt high fastball at 91mph I'm alright with him hacking at it.

Guy walked about 40 times in almost 700 PAs last season. Not sure what was expected.

Do I see a strike there? Hell yes.

Does Hannahan get a take sign there? Hell Yes.

Do I have an issue with arguably the best hitter on my team taking a hack at that 'get me over' shit? No. I don't.

Sorry.

We're only arguing it because there's no game today and he didn't do anything with it. He hits it off the wall, through a hole or deep enough to score the run and suddenly people would be saying, "Dude knew it was a cripple pitch and did what he was supposed to do with it".

And if you're waiting for most modern players to show that kind of patience, much less knowledge about the game, you're going to be disappointed more often than not.

ETA: I could tell who around me never played the game yesterday when that happened. When I heard ticket-buying mopes ask why he didn't just hit it in the air or elevate it somewhere I almost choked on laughter. If it was that effing easy...

[e0y2e3]

One of those mopes should have hit you in your bald head with a beer.

[gotribe31]

Lotta people have brought this up but..... I've got little problem with Cabrera'a at bat.

He got the same "get me over" fastball that Encarnacion crushed in the 9th. I'll entertain the "automatic take" argument. But if he takes that very pitch he's down 0-1. Now's he gonna walk? And I'd argue that that very pitch will be the best he sees ALL YEAR. Some may tie it, but it ain't getting any better than a BP fastball over the heart.

Your best hitter, with a BP fastball over the heart of the plate....takin' that every time over a fingers crossed walk.

I agree- It's been like that for 15-20 years. As I mentioned yesterday, the "You don't walk your way off the island" mentality is in play and is here to stay. And he got an excellent pitch to hit.

You can decry the AB for lack of patience if you want, but the name of the game in this day and age is pitches to hit and then hitting them hard. He got one and did nothing with it and he wasn't the only one yesterday by a longshot.

Can't wait til Kotchman gets one to the outfield grass. Be nice. Especially with a guy on 3B and less than 2 outs.

meh.... I blame Masterson. Guy gave up the HR to Bautista. He doesn't do that and maybe Tribe eeks one out.

Venezuela isn't an island.

[peeker643]

Lotta people have brought this up but..... I've got little problem with Cabrera'a at bat.

He got the same "get me over" fastball that Encarnacion crushed in the 9th. I'll entertain the "automatic take" argument. But if he takes that very pitch he's down 0-1. Now's he gonna walk? And I'd argue that that very pitch will be the best he sees ALL YEAR. Some may tie it, but it ain't getting any better than a BP fastball over the heart.

Your best hitter, with a BP fastball over the heart of the plate....takin' that every time over a fingers crossed walk.

I agree- It's been like that for 15-20 years. As I mentioned yesterday, the "You don't walk your way off the island" mentality is in play and is here to stay. And he got an excellent pitch to hit.

You can decry the AB for lack of patience if you want, but the name of the game in this day and age is pitches to hit and then hitting them hard. He got one and did nothing with it and he wasn't the only one yesterday by a longshot.

Can't wait til Kotchman gets one to the outfield grass. Be nice. Especially with a guy on 3B and less than 2 outs.

meh.... I blame Masterson. Guy gave up the HR to Bautista. He doesn't do that and maybe Tribe eeks one out.

Venezuela isn't an island.

He's not from Martha's Vineyard?

[leadpipe]

Lotta people have brought this up but..... I've got little problem with Cabrera'a at bat.

He got the same "get me over" fastball that Encarnacion crushed in the 9th. I'll entertain the "automatic take" argument. But if he takes that very pitch he's down 0-1. Now's he gonna walk? And I'd argue that that very pitch will be the best he sees ALL YEAR. Some may tie it, but it ain't getting any better than a BP fastball over the heart.

Your best hitter, with a BP fastball over the heart of the plate....takin' that every time over a fingers crossed walk.

If he's going to swing, he better fucking hit it better than a 3 hopper to the SS. I'd rather he see a couple pitches and loft a fly ball. There's two fucking guys out there.

Cabrera tried to hit everything 580 feet all day long. Showed zero patience. Then he does that?

Please. Indefensible to me. Don't care where the pitch was.

You realize you're basically agreeing with me here.

Cause you are implying that Cabrera F'd up. Which he did.

But perhaps if he - allegedly the teams best hitter, is hesitant on a batting practice fastball, well, this is gonna be a llloooonnng year.

And it's certainly easier to loft a fly ball on the best pitch you're gonna see all year, than doing it down in the count, which he would have been had he took it.

Look,again, we can argue take or no take, but the fact of the matter is, Cabrera not coming thru is far more the issue than if he swung or not.

[skatingtripods]

Not agreeing at all LP. But, I know Cabrera. And I saw the lack of patience in all of his other ABs. It doesn't surprise me in the least.

But, it doesn't matter.

My opinion's different. You guys said your feelings, I said mine.

It doesn't make me wrong as you guys seem to be insinuating. It doesn't make me right because he GIDP'd. It's just a matter of preference. I prefer that my hitter take a pitch there. Gauge the speed. Familiarize himself with the arm angle. Maybe that's incorrect of me since I never played the game.

Didn't get the job done and we lost. End of story.

[peeker643]

One of those mopes should have hit you in your bald head with a beer.

I can't be hit in the head with the force field around it, dumbass.

[peeker643]

Not agreeing at all LP. But, I know Cabrera. And I saw the lack of patience in all of his other ABs. It doesn't surprise me in the least.

But, it doesn't matter.

My opinion's different. You guys said your feelings, I said mine.

It doesn't make me wrong as you guys seem to be insinuating. It doesn't make me right because he GIDP'd. It's just a matter of preference. I prefer that my hitter take a pitch there. Gauge the speed. Familiarize himself with the arm angle. Maybe that's incorrect of me since I never played the game.

Didn't get the job done and we lost. End of story.

Not saying you're wrong necessarily. I said I personally would have taken a pitch. But I also understand why he was looking for a belt high fastball with not a lot on it there.

And he got it.

Arm angle has nothing to do with it IMO. The ball was where AsCab was looking for it. He missed the pitch.

But this thread and argument is why I hate the day off after the Opener

[skatingtripods]

Not saying you're wrong necessarily. I said I personally would have taken a pitch. But I also understand why he was looking for a belt high fastball with not a lot on it there.

And he got it.

Arm angle has nothing to do with it IMO. The ball was where AsCab was looking for it. He missed the pitch.

But this thread and argument is why I hate the day off after the Opener

Meh. I'm just saying. Guy looked like dogshit at the dish save for that meaningless single he had. If he was seeing the ball well, go ahead and rip. Struggling and trying to hit everything 580 feet, take one. His 2-0 first inning pop up trying to kill the ball stuck in my mind all day.

No right or wrong answer. Just execute.

Is it 1:05 on Saturday yet? Christ.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Not saying you're wrong necessarily. I said I personally would have taken a pitch. But I also understand why he was looking for a belt high fastball with not a lot on it there.

And he got it.

Arm angle has nothing to do with it IMO. The ball was where AsCab was looking for it. He missed the pitch.

But this thread and argument is why I hate the day off after the Opener

Meh. I'm just saying. Guy looked like dogshit at the dish save for that meaningless single he had. If he was seeing the ball well, go ahead and rip. Struggling and trying to hit everything 580 feet, take one. His 2-0 first inning pop up trying to kill the ball stuck in my mind all day.

No right or wrong answer. Just execute.

Is it 1:05 on Saturday yet? Christ.

Don't believe that bullshit. Peek sent me a PM outlining how wrong you are.

Get 'em.