Tribe @ Royals (Series Thread)

• Laley23

  

  Well, The Tribe just took 3/4 from Texas IN Texas in what seems like forever (maybe ever??), and we didnt even throw Kluber. He will go tomorrow to try and get the Tribe off to a good start in Game 1 vs the Royals in what will be a quick 2 game series.
  
  Either way you slice it, Indians have Lonnie Chisenhall on the team, so they have a chance.
  
  Go Tribe!
• GOONx19

  

  Go Tribe.
• Laley23

  

  Chisenhall entered this season a career .244 hitter.
  
  For Chisenhall to dip to .244 in 2014, he’d have to go 0 for his next 93.
• Commander of Awesome

  

  Laley23;1624399 wrote:Chisenhall entered this season a career .244 hitter.
  
  For Chisenhall to dip to .244 in 2014, he’d have to go 0 for his next 93.

  That is definitely possible. Probably closer to reality than what he's done this season.
• shook_17

  

  Lonnie is HOT right now, he must be on the juice! :RpS_flapper: But hey whatever he is doing, fucking keep doing it. Hopefully Kluber brings his A game and lets take this quick two game set.
  
  Roll Tribe.
• Wally

  Indians will be in first place by Friday.
• vball10set

  Need both Chiz and Laley to stay hot..GO TRIBE!!!
• TBone14

  

  The Royals are just 6-15 vs division opponents this year so far. Kluber has great numbers vs the Royals. 3-0 lifetime in 6 starts. The Tribe are 5-1 in those starts. 2 of the last 3 starts vs the Royals, he hasn't given up any earned runs including a complete game in April (4 hits and 1 unearned run) and 7 2/3rds of shutout ball (3 hits) last July.
  
  Stay hot.
• ohiobucks1

  

  Kluber is my dude. Met him at the Ohio State fair a few years ago. Didn't even know who he was, but he was really friendly and signed a ball for me. Good dude
• HitsRus

  

  Interesting how the tides change in baseball.....just two and a half weeks ago, most of us had written the Tribe off for this year. Likewise, after watching Chisenhall for two years, most of us...including the Indians, had written him off as a prospect and labeled him a platoon player at best.
• TBone14

  

  HitsRus;1624466 wrote:Interesting how the tides change in baseball.....just two and a half weeks ago, most of us had written the Tribe off for this year. Likewise, after watching Chisenhall for two years, most of us...including the Indians, had written him off as a prospect and labeled him a platoon player at best.

  Remember Chris Shelton? Absolutely torn the cover off the ball for half a season with the Tigers. He was the next coming. Faded as quickly as he came on. I am very excited about Lonnie and hoping he has turned the corner for good, but I would like to see a whole season before I make any bold statements.
  
  I have seen Lonnie at his worst. I believe this has to be Lonnie at his best. If settled into a .280-.290 guy with 25+ homers and 90+ RBI for the next 10 years, I think that would be pretty nice.
• lhslep134

  

  Tbone, I don't think the Shelton comparison is an apt one. There's a big difference between a huge start from a nobody and from a former 1st round pick. The talent was always there with Chisenhall (not the case with Shelton, a 33rd round pick who Rule 5'd his way to Detroit), but the approach wasn't.
  
  Lonnie's approach has changed this year. His swing and miss rate on pitches outside the zone is lower, he's cut his strikeout percentage by almost 1/3, and he's making more contact.
  
  That being said, he has to be due for some regression. His .420 BABIP is absurdly high and his ISO power is higher than any point except his 27 games at AAA last year (which I guess you could say mean it's less than a total fluke).
  
  Either way, Chisenhall is finally living up to the potential I first saw when I worked for the MV Scrappers in '08, the summer we drafted him. I don't think he can keep it up this much, but those numbers Tbone threw out (.280-.290, 25+ HRs, 90 RBIs) are definitely reasonable and would be welcomed.
  
  ***Edit: All numbers are from Fangraphs.
• Laley23

  

  The biggest thing with Lonnie now is he isnt anxious and pulling everything. He has as many hits to RF as he does to CF as he does to LF. He has more of a Michael Brantley type approach to the plate, which lends itself to way shorter slumps.
  
  Obviously, he isnt gonne hit .385 all year, so a slump is coming. But thats baseball. As long as the approach stays the same when things go south for a bit, I see no reason his success cant stay above average.
  
  He is still a young kid. I think we as fans have gotten too used to youngsters succeeding right away, in every sport. Some people still take time to adjust...
• TBone14

  

  lhslep134;1624543 wrote:Tbone, I don't think the Shelton comparison is an apt one. There's a big difference between a huge start from a nobody and from a former 1st round pick. The talent was always there with Chisenhall (not the case with Shelton, a 33rd round pick who Rule 5'd his way to Detroit), but the approach wasn't.
  
  Lonnie's approach has changed this year. His swing and miss rate on pitches outside the zone is lower, he's cut his strikeout percentage by almost 1/3, and he's making more contact.
  
  That being said, he has to be due for some regression. His .420 BABIP is absurdly high and his ISO power is higher than any point except his 27 games at AAA last year (which I guess you could say mean it's less than a total fluke).
  
  Either way, Chisenhall is finally living up to the potential I first saw when I worked for the MV Scrappers in '08, the summer we drafted him. I don't think he can keep it up this much, but those numbers Tbone threw out (.280-.290, 25+ HRs, 90 RBIs) are definitely reasonable and would be welcomed.
  
  ***Edit: All numbers are from Fangraphs.

  Good post. I didn't necessarily mean to compare them career to career. I was just using Shelton as an example of why I am curbing my enthusiasm at this point. 161 at bats does not a season make. Although, even if he hits .200 over his next 161 at bats (33-161) he will still be at .307. So he has put himself in a great spot.
• HitsRus

  

  I don't think Lonnie's hot streak is an accident. He went to work on his hitting over the winter, and he came into camp ready. He has been hitting since day 1 at spring training. Still, the law of averages will catch up, and there is no way he can maintain this torrid pace. It is unrealistic to expect him to continue to hit like this forever, still, the light bulb has gone off in his head, and I expect Chiz to be a bona fide major leaguer.
• lhslep134

  

  TBone14;1624581 wrote:Good post. I didn't necessarily mean to compare them career to career. I was just using Shelton as an example of why I am curbing my enthusiasm at this point. 161 at bats does not a season make. Although, even if he hits .200 over his next 161 at bats (33-161) he will still be at .307. So he has put himself in a great spot.

  Oh I know. I wanted to temper your tempering
• bases_loaded

  

  I saw Lonnie play a couple times in Akron a few years ago....guy hit everything hard, don't think I've ever seen a guy that hit so many hard balls. But never seemed to translate to the bigs, makes sense that he worked on it all winter. Seems hes finally putting it together. If hes juicing(which I don't think he is)....whatever, if Melky taught us anything, its juicing PAYS.
• lhslep134

  

  bases_loaded;1624624 wrote: If hes juicing(which I don't think he is)....whatever, if Melky taught us anything, its juicing PAYS.

  No chance in hell he's juicing, IMO. He's been hitting everything hard since his college days (I watched some of his tape after we drafted him). It's not like he's suddenly booming 460 foot homers, his homeruns are still somewhat "line-drivey" as evidenced by his 2 near the foul pole last night (you could even argue the third was more line drive than towering shot).
• lhslep134

  

  And if I seem over-excited/defensive/anxious regarding Chisenhall it's because of the summer of '08. I mentioned a few posts ago I worked for the Scrappers then. His very first AB was a line drive out to the right fielder. Next was a line drive out to the center fielder. Finally he lined one over the shortstops head for a hit. 3 ABs, 3 absolute screamers. I texted two of my buddies that Chiz was bound to be a star, and for the next 4.5 years I've been patiently awaiting his breakout so I can feel vindicated about my knowledge and understanding of the baseball swing.
• ohiobucks1

  

  TBone14;1624531 wrote: If settled into a .280-.290 guy with 25+ homers and 90+ RBI for the next 10 years, I think that would be pretty nice.

  
  I think if we got that out of him, we would lose him before 10 years were up lol
• Laley23

  

  He does hit a lot of line-drives. Even when he sucked, when he got a fastball in the zone, he punished it it seemed like.
  
  It was mostly his swing and misses and swinging at balls out of the zone that were his issues.
• TBone14

  

  Should be a good pitching matchup today. Vargas has been really solid lately and we all know about Kluber. Traditionally, the Tribe have been good vs Vargas. I will take the under on the 24 runs from last night.
• BRF

  

  Just for the hell of it, I looked up the Chris James 9 rbi game box score. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E - - - - - - - - - - - - Indians 3 5 0 2 0 0 0 8 2 20 20 0 Athletics 1 0 0 1 0 1 2 1 0 6 10 3

  
  

  Batting	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OPS	Pit	Str	WPA	aLI	WPA+	WPA-	RE24	PO	A
  Mike Huff CF	4	1	3	2	1	1	.280	.874	22	11	-0.022	0.56	0.040	-0.061	1.4	1	0	SH
  Mark Lewis SS	5	4	3	2	1	0	.407	1.002	24	12	0.127	0.57	0.129	-0.002	2.1	1	3
  Beau Allred LF	6	3	2	1	0	1	.353	.979	23	14	0.078	0.36	0.080	-0.002	0.8	7	0
  Albert Belle DH	6	2	2	3	0	0	.304	1.006	20	11	-0.086	0.49	0.010	-0.095	1.7			HR,2B
  Chris James 1B	5	3	4	9	0	0	.288	.761	18	10	0.359	0.54	0.359	0.000	7.3	7	0	2·HR
  Jeff Manto 1B	0	1	0	0	1	0	.167	.708	5	1	0.000	0.00	0.000	0.000	0.2	1	0
  Carlos Baerga 3B	4	1	1	1	2	0	.279	.744	24	10	0.003	0.07	0.008	-0.005	0.5	0	2	2B,GDP
  Sandy Alomar C	6	0	0	0	0	1	.214	.514	17	11	-0.017	0.10	0.000	-0.017	-1.6	6	1
  Turner Ward RF	5	2	3	1	1	1	.304	.659	28	13	0.025	0.12	0.027	-0.002	1.5	1	0
  Jerry Browne 2B	5	3	2	1	0	0	.169	.445	23	14	0.045	0.21	0.047	-0.002	1.8	3	3	3B,2B,SH

  
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• Laley23

  

  Must be a theme about catchers when someone has 9 RBIs in a game...
• TBone14

  

  Hopefully it wasn't the bat.
  
  Cooperstown has called and Lonnie has donated his bat from last night to the Hall of Fame.