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DANNY KNOBLER
Baseball Insider
May 15, 2013 6:08 pm ET
PHILADELPHIA -- The Indians hired a manager with plenty of big-league experience, and a pitching coach with none. They spent nearly $120 million to beef up their lineup and their bench, and just $8 million to add to a starting rotation that was the third-worst in baseball in 2012.
It was hard to believe in the Indians this spring, no matter how much you liked the lineup and the bullpen and even the much-improved clubhouse atmosphere that Terry Francona brought with him. It was hard to believe that their starters would be good enough to keep them in games.
We still don't know that they will. We do know that they have, especially over a two-week span in which the Indians have been the best team in the American League.
They had an 8-1 homestand, a series win in Detroit, a doubleheader split with the Yankees and then a two-game series split this week against the Phillies. They've followed their 8-13 start with a 13-5 stretch in which their rotation has pitched to a 3.17 ERA.
Justin Masterson looks like a top-end starter again. Zach McAllister looks like a solid big-league starter. Scott Kazmir looks like an impact addition.
Even Ubaldo Jimenez finally looks more like the guy the Indians thought they were trading for in July 2011, with three straight wins in which he has a 1.45 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 18 2/3 innings.
They're not the only reason that the Indians started winning. The 28 home runs in 18 games helped. Francona's steadying hand, and the confidence he pushed on his players, helped.
But we knew Francona would be an upgrade, and we knew that adding Nick Swisher, Michael Bourn, Mark Reynolds and Mike Avila would make the Indians' lineup deeper and give it more legitimate power threats.
We didn't know about the starting pitching.
Mickey Callaway did, or at least thought he did.
Callaway is the 38-year-old pitching coach, a guy only four years removed from trying to keep his own playing career alive. He was pitching in Taiwan in 2009, then spent just three years as a coach in the Indians' minor-league system before the front office suggested that Francona interview him for the big-league job.
"The first time I saw him, I said, 'Wow, he's young,'" Jimenez said. "I thought, 'He could still be pitching.' "
Callaway won over Jimenez by quickly taking a trip down to the Dominican Republic to see him, and by telling him that he didn't see a need for major changes. Jimenez's career had been going backward since his near-Cy Young season in 2010, to the point where last year he led the American League with 17 losses and had a 5.40 ERA.
But when Callaway started watching film of Jimenez and the other Indians starters, he didn't see big problems. Instead, he saw big opportunity.
"If you looked at the stuff, and you didn't look at the results, you'd say it was unbelievable stuff," Callaway said. "But the results were bad, so the question was, 'What are we doing wrong?' "
He settled on something that seems overly simple, something pitchers have been hearing from pitching coaches for as long as baseball has been played.
"Throw the little white thing over the big white thing," Callaway said.
Throw strikes. Attack hitters. Pound the zone. Concentrate on getting ahead in the count, and particularly on throwing a strike on 1-1 counts.
When Callaway looks at the success the Indians starters have had recently, the part that he emphasizes is that they're throwing more strikes.
What might be just as important is that the Indians pitchers seem to relate to him and trust him, which perhaps has helped his message get through.
"If you'd have told me that he was going to do what he's done in a month-and-a-half as a rookie pitching coach, that's unbelievable," Francona said. "I'm so proud of him."
Francona himself seems as comfortable and content as he has ever been since landing with the Indians. He seems refreshed, either from the year off or from being away from all that goes on with the Red Sox, or both.
And he seems to have been the exact right guy to take over this team at this point.
Anyone who knows Francona well won't be surprised that he showed no signs of panic when the Indians got off to a tough start. There was a five-game losing streak in mid-April, one that included a three-game home sweep at the hands of the Red Sox, but Francona didn't overreact.
"He let us go through that without having a team meeting," said Jason Giambi, who has emerged as a team leader, but is also watching and hoping to learn how to become a manager himself someday. "He let us find our way on our own. That just shows his type of leadership. He knew the guys he had in the room would take that leadership."
The result is that when you ask people around the Indians why things turned around and when, they find it difficult to point to any one thing or any one game. It just kind of happened.
The players who have been here know enough to remind you that a 22-17 start doesn't mean this team is going to contend. The Indians were also 22-17 last year, and they were even better than that after 39 games two years ago.
This start is different, they all say. This team is different.
But for all that has gone right, this team still only contends for a playoff spot if this starting pitching continues to prove that it's different.
"I think that's true with any team, though," Masterson said. "Any team, no matter how good their rotation is, the success is always based on how the rotation does, because it's such a big part of the team."
For now, it's a big part of an Indians team that is winning.
We don't know that they will keep it up. We just know that they have.
Baseball Insider
May 15, 2013 6:08 pm ET
PHILADELPHIA -- The Indians hired a manager with plenty of big-league experience, and a pitching coach with none. They spent nearly $120 million to beef up their lineup and their bench, and just $8 million to add to a starting rotation that was the third-worst in baseball in 2012.
It was hard to believe in the Indians this spring, no matter how much you liked the lineup and the bullpen and even the much-improved clubhouse atmosphere that Terry Francona brought with him. It was hard to believe that their starters would be good enough to keep them in games.
We still don't know that they will. We do know that they have, especially over a two-week span in which the Indians have been the best team in the American League.
They had an 8-1 homestand, a series win in Detroit, a doubleheader split with the Yankees and then a two-game series split this week against the Phillies. They've followed their 8-13 start with a 13-5 stretch in which their rotation has pitched to a 3.17 ERA.
Justin Masterson looks like a top-end starter again. Zach McAllister looks like a solid big-league starter. Scott Kazmir looks like an impact addition.
Even Ubaldo Jimenez finally looks more like the guy the Indians thought they were trading for in July 2011, with three straight wins in which he has a 1.45 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 18 2/3 innings.
They're not the only reason that the Indians started winning. The 28 home runs in 18 games helped. Francona's steadying hand, and the confidence he pushed on his players, helped.
But we knew Francona would be an upgrade, and we knew that adding Nick Swisher, Michael Bourn, Mark Reynolds and Mike Avila would make the Indians' lineup deeper and give it more legitimate power threats.
We didn't know about the starting pitching.
Mickey Callaway did, or at least thought he did.
Callaway is the 38-year-old pitching coach, a guy only four years removed from trying to keep his own playing career alive. He was pitching in Taiwan in 2009, then spent just three years as a coach in the Indians' minor-league system before the front office suggested that Francona interview him for the big-league job.
"The first time I saw him, I said, 'Wow, he's young,'" Jimenez said. "I thought, 'He could still be pitching.' "
Callaway won over Jimenez by quickly taking a trip down to the Dominican Republic to see him, and by telling him that he didn't see a need for major changes. Jimenez's career had been going backward since his near-Cy Young season in 2010, to the point where last year he led the American League with 17 losses and had a 5.40 ERA.
But when Callaway started watching film of Jimenez and the other Indians starters, he didn't see big problems. Instead, he saw big opportunity.
"If you looked at the stuff, and you didn't look at the results, you'd say it was unbelievable stuff," Callaway said. "But the results were bad, so the question was, 'What are we doing wrong?' "
He settled on something that seems overly simple, something pitchers have been hearing from pitching coaches for as long as baseball has been played.
"Throw the little white thing over the big white thing," Callaway said.
Throw strikes. Attack hitters. Pound the zone. Concentrate on getting ahead in the count, and particularly on throwing a strike on 1-1 counts.
When Callaway looks at the success the Indians starters have had recently, the part that he emphasizes is that they're throwing more strikes.
What might be just as important is that the Indians pitchers seem to relate to him and trust him, which perhaps has helped his message get through.
"If you'd have told me that he was going to do what he's done in a month-and-a-half as a rookie pitching coach, that's unbelievable," Francona said. "I'm so proud of him."
Francona himself seems as comfortable and content as he has ever been since landing with the Indians. He seems refreshed, either from the year off or from being away from all that goes on with the Red Sox, or both.
And he seems to have been the exact right guy to take over this team at this point.
Anyone who knows Francona well won't be surprised that he showed no signs of panic when the Indians got off to a tough start. There was a five-game losing streak in mid-April, one that included a three-game home sweep at the hands of the Red Sox, but Francona didn't overreact.
"He let us go through that without having a team meeting," said Jason Giambi, who has emerged as a team leader, but is also watching and hoping to learn how to become a manager himself someday. "He let us find our way on our own. That just shows his type of leadership. He knew the guys he had in the room would take that leadership."
The result is that when you ask people around the Indians why things turned around and when, they find it difficult to point to any one thing or any one game. It just kind of happened.
The players who have been here know enough to remind you that a 22-17 start doesn't mean this team is going to contend. The Indians were also 22-17 last year, and they were even better than that after 39 games two years ago.
This start is different, they all say. This team is different.
But for all that has gone right, this team still only contends for a playoff spot if this starting pitching continues to prove that it's different.
"I think that's true with any team, though," Masterson said. "Any team, no matter how good their rotation is, the success is always based on how the rotation does, because it's such a big part of the team."
For now, it's a big part of an Indians team that is winning.
We don't know that they will keep it up. We just know that they have.
Shane! You are one of the many hungry fans hoping this is our year . Keep up the positive outlook I am on the same page. The Tigs were the favorite pick this year , but we are getting a lot of attention.
