Cleveland Indians
87-69, 3rd AL East, 8 GB
1972 Outlook: After 2 straight 90+ win seasons, Cleveland crashed to earth in 1971, finishing 72-90, their worst record since 1964. The team's ERA ballooned and outside of a monster year by Ernesto Garcia very little went right for them. Because, look, this is the 70s, they still went into '72 thinking they could get the magic back. They didn't rebuild so much as retool, going so far at one point to trade Tommy Pron to the Rangers in December and then take him back right before the strike when they couldn't get their left field situation secured without him.
1972 In Review: And things really didn't go that poorly. The '72 Indians were a little like the 2001 Giants with Barry Bonds (who?), sitting on the backs of a guy having a singular season to lead the entire AL in offense and having pitching that wasn't great (15th in the MLB in ERA) but not bad. If it wasn't for the fact that the Tigers just decided to put everything together this year, they might have had a chance.
1973 Outlook: So... what do you do now? Attendance was down throughout baseball thanks to the strike and Cleveland might have been hurt the worst (the owner is demanding attendance go up from 18.391 - welp, we averaged 16,274). It seems unfathomable that a baseball team could be losing money but... there are whispers. And along with those there are whispers that payroll might be cut.
Pitching
Jose Martinez
RHP No. 2
RR, 6'6" 200 lbs.
Born 1945-01-24 in Valera, VEN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 WIC AAA 5 5 0 2.54 17 17 2 95.2 60 30 27 19 154
1970 CLE MLB 1 1 0 2.56 8 7 1 38.2 31 12 11 10 52
1971 CLE MLB 5 5 0 3.53 25 16 1 124.2 129 58 49 29 97
1972 CLE MLB 22 7 0 2.36 31 31 14 240.0 178 72 63 53 220
One of the biggest things that made this resurgence into contention possible was that Jose Martinez turned into a staff ace in his 2nd full year in the big leagues. Martinez finished 4th in Ks primarily because Cleveland only started him 31 times last year; he led the league in Ks/9 (8.25), WHIP (0.96), walk to strikeout ratio (4.15), and runners allowed per 9 innings (8.8). All that led to a 3rd place finish in ERA and 2nd in wins. I haven't done my Cy Young calculation machine yet but the man is certainly in the running. And to cap all that off, he finished the year 10-1 with 6 of his complete games and 2 shutouts over the last 2 months.
Martinez throws heat. If there's any starting pitcher in the American League who throws harder, I'd like to see him. His fastball has been clocked in the upper 90s at times. He also throws a really nasty slider and, that rarest of pitches, the screwball - as a result of the latter pitch in fact he dominated lefties (.187 BA) harder than righties (.222) even though the majority of his batters faced came from the left side last year. Look for teams to stock up on righties against him in the coming seasons. This is all a big, big improvement from a guy who was basically a spot starter in 1971. The biggest issue was that he was able to stay healthy all year long; Martinez was at one point the #4 prospect in all of baseball (in 1965) but has been ha,mbered ever since with arm issues, the worst of which being a torn elbow ligament that made him miss half of 1967 and then most of 1968 and then, almost the moment he got back, a torn flexor tendon in that same elbow that forced him to miss the rest of '68 plus a big chunk of '69.
He's healthy now and to the extent the Indians can count on that, he's one of the top starters in baseball.
Robert Rivera
LHP No. 7
LL, 6'1" 202 lbs.
Born 1939-10-12 in Santo Domingo, DOM
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 SF MLB 12 19 0 3.37 35 35 14 267.0 255 114 100 45 192
1971 SF MLB 14 15 0 2.91 32 32 14 246.2 223 86 80 43 173
1972 CLE MLB 12 10 0 3.22 31 31 6 234.1 227 90 84 67 162
What happens when one of the most criminally undersupported starting pitchers gets traded to the best offense in baseball? If you answered "oh he'll probably finish .500 again", you're mostly right but you're also a little weird for it. Rivera posted a career ERA of 3.03 over 11 years with San Francisco but had just a 101-101 record to show for it. With the Tribe he saw his best run support in his career over a full season and yet, he still only won 12 games. This time around, it was the bullpen that appears to have hurt him, although looking over the game logs, in his 5 final no-decisions Rivera gave up at least 4 runs, which indicates to me that he didn't pitch well enough to win anyway.
Rivera's big thing is keeping the ball down while still making hitters miss his offerings. He throws a 2-seam fastball that stretches only into the mid 80s but that plus a nice looking forkball do a good job. He's even known to rear back every now and then and throw a 4-seamer which can occasionally peg 88 or 89 MPH. This might as well be 100 when it's thrown in conjunction with everything else he has. Rivera also helps himself out a ton by preventing steals when runners do get on, mostly on singles, with an excellent pickoff move. Sure, he's a lefty, but there ain't that many lefties who've held runners to 17 steals and 20 caught stealings over the past 4 years.
If it wasn't for Hernandez I'd still call Rivera a #1, 12-10 record or no 12-10 record. He does get paid like a #1 which, if those finances are real, could be an issue...
Dylan Hamilton
RHP No. 16
RR, 6'3" 199 lbs.
Born 1943-06-04 in Panama City, FL
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 CLE MLB 17 15 0 3.84 37 36 10 260.0 249 126 111 91 150
1971 CLE MLB 10 13 0 4.20 32 32 8 222.1 241 116 104 83 105
1972 CLE MLB 13 16 0 3.64 32 32 9 224.2 230 99 91 63 133
Oh man... remember when Cleveland traded Justin Kindberg for this guy in April of 1969? Suffice it to say that a. Boston won that trade, and b. this is why you don't do "challenge" trades (which, I guess this wasn't 100% a challenge trade: Cleveland also sent out SP Chris Messina and C Jeremy Dolak and also received 2B TJ Pritchett in return, but Kindberg and Hamilton were the jewels of that deal). Kindberg has been a Cy Young winner and Kindbereg, in spite of posting a fine enough record of 56=56 for a team that has had some real ups and downs, has been looked on as a disappointment for the comparisons.
Kindberg has what is basically his 3rd straight year as a mid-rotation innings guy. He's never had the kind of nasty stuff that a Jose Hernandez has and, credit where it's due, he's learned to work the corners well since joining the Tribe. At that, the 133 Ks was the 2nd highest total of his career to date and he coupled that with a 3-year low in HRs allowed (18) and a career-low walk rate (2.5). He even managed to rein in that occasionally sloppy curve of his: with the Red Sox Hamilton led the league in wild pitches twice and approached that again last year with 12 of them - happily he cut that down to just 4.
Hamilton doesn't make a ton of money but, again, if the rumors are true it would be easy to see them ship him off for prospects. He's in his prime and could help a team in contention - the Indians, in fact, if they get a sudden infusion of cash.
Robbie Coltrane
RHP No. 21
RR, 6'5" 202 lbs.
Born 1950-05-30 in Glasgow, SCO
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 CHA A 3 3 0 5.40 8 8 3 50.0 55 32 30 22 33
1970 REN A 1 0 0 4.50 2 2 1 16.0 19 8 8 3 14
1970 SAV AA 4 2 0 3.98 9 9 4 61.0 72 29 27 21 43
1971 JAX AA 2 1 0 1.28 3 3 3 28.0 27 4 4 3 18
1971 WIC AAA 12 10 0 2.24 22 22 19 192.1 145 63 48 57 101
1971 CLE MLB 5 3 0 3.33 8 8 2 56.2 60 29 21 14 34
1972 CLE MLB 10 10 0 3.71 28 28 9 208.1 208 92 86 39 140
The emergency of Coltrane last season is something that is making Indians owner Justin Slagle and GM Malik Johnson think that maybe Rivera and Hamilton are expendable. Which, guys, you need at least 4 starters, probably more like 6 or 7, but this is the thinking. Coltrane is a 22 year old gruff Scotsman with intimidating facial hair who you could just see, if you were in a whimsical enough mood, being an animal handler for dragons and the like. He throws very hard, almost as hard as Hernandez, and combines that with a hard to track forkball. Once he gets acclimated to the league, he's going to get Ks. As it stands he actually led the AL in walk rate (1.7), so potentially the man is a future Cy Young candidate.
For now he's the #4 man in the rotation, which, at 22, is enough.
Jake Duckett
LHP No. 4
LL, 5'9" 166 lbs.
Born 1945-04-18 in Castle Hills, TX
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 IOW AAA 5 1 6 1.56 20 0 0 28.2 19 5 5 20 40
1970 OAK MLB 3 0 0 1.43 27 0 0 31.1 20 5 5 13 39
1971 OAK MLB 1 1 3 1.19 11 0 0 15.0 9 2 2 8 11
1971 WAS MLB 4 6 15 3.30 47 0 0 65.1 63 26 24 34 46
1972 CLE MLB 10 4 22 2.94 59 0 0 67.1 53 22 22 33 61
I have to imagine it kind of sucked for Jake Duckett last offseason, going from having the chance to contend for a division title in his home state to becoming the closer for one of the AL East washouts. For his part, though, Duckett remained upbeat and helped bolster a bullpen that's been pretty, pretty bad for years. He faded a little down the stretch - 0-2, 4.32 in September - but truth be told, Cleveland's goose was mostly cooked by then anyway.
Duckett has that Kaz Sasaki (who?) sinker/splitter mix. Both pitches come in looking almost exactly the same except that one hits the lower part of the strike zone while the other one dips out of it. This allowed him to strike out more than 10 men per inning in seperate stints with the A's and, happilly, that stuff came back in Cleveland. When hitters do lay off, they can get walks but hitters aren't able to lay off all that much, With all the strikeouts and groundballs he gets, Duckett is the perfect man to bring in with runners on base in tense situations.
He's also not being paid a massive amount, which is good for his future in Cleveland. If he can be paired with a strong righty, he could easily be one of the best relievers in the league, if he's not already.
Gerardo Herrera
LHP No. 23
LL, 6'0" 181 lbs.
Born 1945-04-14 in Boca Chica, DOM
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 SAV AA 7 5 0 2.90 14 14 9 108.1 103 40 35 32 76
1970 WIC AAA 13 3 0 1.34 18 18 7 140.1 89 28 21 45 124
1971 WIC AAA 10 8 0 2.78 23 23 3 168.0 129 65 52 103 74
1971 CLE MLB 2 2 0 5.40 18 0 0 26.2 32 16 16 20 20
1972 CLE MLB 5 0 0 3.53 45 4 0 63.2 59 25 25 38 36
Herrera is a former high-level prospect, getting as high as 19th on the annual list, who just hasn't been able to put things together. I guess he did seem like he was there after a 13-3, 1.34 second half in AAA Wichita in 1970 but when he followed that up with a year in which he walked 5.5 AAA batters per 9 innings and had an underwater K/BB ratio, the bloom came off the rose. Herrera has yet to get more Ks than walks in the majors, in fact.
Last year he was used as a lefty specialist and occasional spot starter: he was really good in the former role (2.72 ERA and 23 Ks vs 20 BBs in 39.2 IP) but terrible as a starter (1-0, 4.88 in 4 starts, 18 BBs in 24 IP). This isn't the role you want a top-20 prospect to fill for you so it's understandable that Cleveland has tried to "promote" him. The lefty one-out guy role might be his best place.
Elias Sanchez
RHP No. 12
RR, 6'2" 200 lbs.
Born 1938-05-08 in Greenacres, FL
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 CHW MLB 1 0 0 2.73 17 0 0 23.0 18 7 7 10 9
1970 CLE MLB 0 2 5 2.54 25 0 0 35.1 29 10 10 13 21
1971 CLE MLB 6 6 4 2.84 50 0 0 72.2 68 27 23 23 27
1972 CLE MLB 1 3 3 2.93 42 0 0 58.1 54 19 19 16 25
Sanchez is 34 and has been doing this in the league for so long - low Ks but still somehow getting outs in short and middle relief - that I should probably just accept it. Maybe it's prejudice on my part; if he threw sidearm or submarine I'd say "hey, Dan Quisenberry (who?)" and would let him close. Sanchez even used to close for the Dodgers in the mid-60s, adding to my shame.
Why not make this man a co-closer with Duckett? Why not indeed.
William Hernandez
RHP No. 28
RR, 6'2" 198 lbs.
Born 1947-10-02 in Santa Cruz, ARG
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 SAV AA 1 1 0 5.40 4 4 1 21.2 36 15 13 7 9
1971 JAX AA 3 1 0 0.94 4 4 4 38.0 27 4 4 12 19
1971 WIC AAA 12 4 0 2.57 24 24 0 167.2 133 54 48 85 48
1971 CLE MLB 1 0 0 2.99 2 2 1 15.0 14 5 5 8 5
1972 CLE MLB 6 6 0 4.15 24 16 2 123.1 113 59 57 56 52
Hernandez is a guy who's still trying to figure out his sinker and his slider but Cleveland needed a guy to round out their rotation and do long relief last year and sometimes needs must. He was very briefly in the top 100 back in the mid-60s when he was a member of the Phillies organization; even as he entered into his early 20s he was just another guy, and at this point the organization doesn't feel like it's ruining anything super-special by bringing him up when he's still a little raw.
Hernandez does tend to miss wide instead of high when he misses his spots, which is a saving grace for a heavy HR park like Cleveland Municipal Stadium is. He could very easily find himself as a regular in the rotation this season, although as noted he's going to need to progress as a pitcher in order to stick. If he can't, I do see three other AAAA types in the Indians' organization - Chris Becker (10-10, 2.60 at AAA Wichita), Cecil Dodge (11-9, 2.13), and Pedro Torres (5-4, 1.90) waiting in the wings.
Infield
Ray Varner[/size]
C No. 3
LR, 5'10" 201 lbs.
Born 1943-01-01 in Fort Frances, CAN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 SAV AA .282 46 142 15 40 9 0 3 22 6 22 0
1970 WIC AAA .188 10 16 2 3 0 0 0 0 2 5 0
1971 JAX AA .279 24 68 5 19 3 0 1 6 4 12 0
1971 WIC AAA .281 13 32 2 9 0 0 0 2 2 8 0
1971 CLE MLB .125 7 8 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0
1972 CLE MLB .233 116 322 32 75 10 2 8 33 28 45 0
Varner, in spite of his Canadianosity, is a defensive gem. He really ought to have thrown out more than 27.4% of opposing runners; blame that on the pitching staff. He's also an unlikely starter who only took the job over in June when the proclaimed winner Joe Wolfe got off to a slow start, hitting .162 as of May 29. Varner himself wasn't exactly anything excellent at the plate and got tired after seeing so much more use than he's had in his career since the mid to late 60s in the minor leagues and hit just .197 (although with 4 HRs and a .455 SLG) in September.
Varner's 29 now. Maybe he should have gotten a chance earlier in his career, although up until 1971 he was fighting just to stay up at the AAA level. He's also got a good rep for being a smart, heads-up player who knows what pitch to call in the right situation. He seems to have evened that out and even if he's not destined to have a long career as a starter, this kind of player can play a long, long time.
Joe Wolfe
C No. 14
RR, 5'11" 201 lbs.
Born 1945-08-23 in Coral Springs, FL
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 SAV AA .273 45 161 23 44 8 0 3 19 27 22 0
1970 WIC AAA .203 48 148 17 30 9 1 1 15 22 33 0
1971 WIC AAA .301 26 83 8 25 2 0 1 11 5 8 0
1971 CLE MLB .241 98 270 31 65 10 0 3 30 45 43 0
1972 CLE MLB .246 88 199 20 49 5 0 3 18 30 31 0
I am having a hard time coming up with a narrative for Wolfe. He started slowly, lost the starting job and fell into something like the right-handed side of a platoon, and then hit .400 from August 1 on to make things respectable. So... he mashed lefties, right? Wrong. He hit .179 against LHPs on the season compared to .296 and in those final 2 months he was more of an overall backup, playing around a quarter of the time against either hand pitcher.
Wolfe doesn't have Varner's rep for the arm but produced slightly more caught stealings with a 29.3% rate. He's very nimble behind the plate in spite of a lack of foot speed. Offensively he was a little bit above average last year; even taking away the 7 times he was intentionally walked to face the pitcher, Wolfe gets on base well. Ideally you manage his at-bats to keep the strikeouts low, although when a guy like this has reverse splits it makes it harder. He did get used 13 times as a pinch-hitter with just 1 base hit: with all but one of those coming against RHPs that may have contributed to things.
We should see something like an open competition come spring training, and if what we get out of that is some kind of a 50/50 semi-platoon setup, that should be OK.
Ernesto Garcia
1B No. 65
LL, 5'9" 185 lbs.
Born 1944-01-01 in Puerto Plata, DOM
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CLE MLB .213 81 301 50 64 6 0 33 79 29 59 0
1971 CLE MLB .270 156 627 105 169 30 0 65 147 44 119 1
1972 CLE MLB .296 147 561 117 166 22 1 68 166 65 77 0
After getting Carlos Hernandez suspended and then kicked off the team when he claimed the center fielder brandished a gun on him in the locker room, Garcia has been by all accounts pretty OK in the locker room, not at all the clubhouse lawyer he's sometimes painted out to be. Still, there's nothing management likes less than a guy who says "he goes or I go", even when that guy is literally the best homerun hitter in the history of the league. It sounds blasphemous and terrible but there are even now rumours that Cleveland is in trade talks with the Yankees. If he goes to the Yankees... well, let's just say that they aren't Team Evil just out of spite.
Garcia has hit 133 HRs in 2 years and would probably have a 3rd 60 HR season under his belt in 1970 if he hadn't had missed the second half of 1970 with a ruptured MCL in his right knee. He'd never been all that fast before; after the knee surgery he's possibly the slowest man in the league. Yeah, and he doesn't walk a lot and as a first baseman his primary position looks like "DH". So what? The man can hit the ball out of any park. He's even cut down on his Ks, somehow, which allowed him to drive in 166 men, the 2nd highest total in baseball history to Justin Stone's 169 in 1964. Had the strike not happened, that would be one more record Garcia owns.
Should the Indians actually go through with trading him, I wish them nothing but the worst. THE WORST
Sadegh Zibakalam
2B No. 8
LR, 6'0" 183 lbs.
Born 1948-06-12 in Tehran, IRA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 NEW S A .256 53 199 33 51 9 2 11 41 22 34 11
1970 CLI A .234 49 188 25 44 6 2 3 26 22 43 1
1971 ORL A .325 20 77 10 25 3 2 1 11 6 12 3
1971 CHL AA .239 78 255 30 61 7 1 6 20 31 44 9
1972 REN A .339 42 174 32 59 11 2 5 32 24 22 3
1972 POR AAA .212 17 33 6 7 1 1 3 9 7 3 1
1972 CLE MLB .285 63 200 18 57 13 3 2 31 18 41 2
Zibakalam is as of this writing the only player in organized baseball to hail from Iran. At 24 and still pursuing his PhD in political science from the UK's University of Bradford, he's still a frequent critic of the Shah and we hope that should he be arrested by that regime that they abide by MLB's worldwide agreement to play baseball anyway. Zibakalam got off to a white-hot start in A ball and then in spite of missing a bunch of time with a concussion and then a strained oblique muscle, got a call up to Portland that turned into a major league debut when TJ Pritchett went down for the year. He hit well from start to finish and looks like a guy who will challenge a now-healthy Pritchett for the job.
Zibakalam has only really ever hit for power at one level - short-season A ball in 1970 - but he insists that he's a power hitter and so tends to try to pull everything and swing at the high ones. He has shown an ability to go the other way with the high outside fastball at least. He showed some impressive gap power which, I guess, could develop into HR power potentially, but probably never enough to make up for the huge cuts Zibakalam sometimes takes at the plate. He's a good second baseman who lacks the arm to play on the right side of the infield but who's fearless on the pivot. His speed is a plus and he gets out of the box quickly.
It's very possible that Zibakalam will be handed the 2B job just because of the expected youth movement. Is he ready? The half-season says yes; the fact that he had all 33 of his AAA at-bats of his career last year says maybe not yet.
T.J. Pritchett
2B/1B No. 18
RR, 5'11" 186 lbs.
Born 1936-09-13 in Lynnwood, WA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CLE MLB .257 148 487 64 125 15 0 18 64 100 79 3
1971 CLE MLB .228 132 430 53 98 13 3 10 42 75 78 0
1972 CLE MLB .266 52 158 25 42 4 1 6 19 28 22 2
Pritchett is a guy who never seems to get the respect he deserves. As such, losing his job after tearing a ligament in his thumb at the end of June seems like it would be par for the course for him. While he was active, he seemed like that same guy he's always been and even rebounded in his ability to hit for average and power that had initially made things look like 1972 was a prove-it year.
Part of the reason why Pritchett is so underrated is that so much of his ability comnes from his ability to draw walks. I could compare him to Joe Morgan (who?) but frankly he's more like a Max Bishop (who?) or Eddie Stanky (who?), a man with middling skills outside of the ability to walk but the walk "tool" is off the charts. The most similar player according to the game is a guy named Sean Champion, who played for the White Sox in the 50s and 60s and finished with a .317 OBP. Which is to say... nobody is all that similar to Pritchett.
Pritchett is a 2-time former Gold Glover but at 36 it does have to be said that his best days in the field are behind him. If the worst future timeline comes to pass, perhaps he can switch on over to 1st base. Even if Garcia sticks around, he is 2 inches taller than the diminutive superstar.
Luis Oropeza
2B No. 26
LR, 5'8" 147 lbs.
Born 1946-05-08 in Hutchinson, KS
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 SAV AA .278 71 245 42 68 11 5 12 52 28 49 0
1970 WIC AAA .278 50 169 24 47 8 0 5 15 34 41 9
1971 WIC AAA .308 110 308 45 95 17 2 16 61 56 39 2
1971 CLE MLB .300 15 40 5 12 2 0 1 4 2 10 0
1972 CLE MLB .200 59 170 19 34 4 0 8 21 11 32 0
Oropeza had one hell of a year in Wichita in 1971, which is good because he showed virtually none of that ability in the major leagues last season. He started the year 6-37, lost the role he was in - splitting time with Pritchett as the older player either rested or filled in at first base - in mid-May, and, even after Pritchett went out for the year, the only extended PT he got was a 2-week swing in July before the team decided to go with Sadegh Zibakalam in the 2nd half.
Oropeza really needs to hit in order to play, as he doesn't move to his left well and isn't on the ball when it comes to positioning himself vs. different hitters. Word in the clubhouse was that he cozied up to Ernesto Garcia and, like the slugger, often showed up to BP and fielding practice late. Perhaps one small positive side effect of trading Garcia, then, will be to deprive Oropeza of that excuse. He's shown signs of being a good basestealer in the past but with 578 major league at-bats under his belt and not even a single steal attempt, it's clear that he's gotten slower as his body has filled out.
A guy like Oropeza really shouldn't see extra time, not without proving himself again in the minor leagues. He might just get it anyway.
Bobby Ramirez
3B No. 27
LR, 5'12" 186 lbs.
Born 1947-11-27 in Santiago, PAN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 WIC AAA .336 126 449 81 151 32 7 14 69 73 38 51
1970 POR AAA .133 4 15 1 2 1 0 0 0 2 0 1
1970 CLE MLB .200 12 20 4 4 2 1 0 6 3 4 0
1971 CLE MLB .344 142 515 84 177 20 10 15 67 66 54 32
1972 CLE MLB .241 132 435 62 105 10 9 13 56 52 47 27
Ramirez had your classic sophomore slump in 1972. His average dipped as low as .219 in mid-July, then got up to .251 - still not great but better than average at least - before a back injury kept him all but out of the lineup for September and ineffective (.167 - 2-12 for the month) when he did play. It was a real comedown for the 1971 batting champion.
When his back isn't bothering him, Ramirez is fast and hits for good contact, the ideal combination for a would-be batting champ. Last year he was hitting an awful lot of "atom" balls early in the year but otherwise that line drive stroke that had led him to 53 extra-base hits in the minors in 1970 and 45 in '71 was largely missing and Ramirez was left, too often, to beating out infield hits and getting on with tricklers into the outfield. If a pitcher misses high, inside or out, Ramirez was still able to lift one out of the park. He's not the world's greatest third baseman and probably will need to move to first or an outfield corner in a few years. The speed on the other hand is real and very much there.
Cleveland's got to hope he'll refind that line drive stroke. Ramirez is only 24 and, unlike so many guys on this team, not averse to taking extra practice, so it should happen.
Roberto Hernandez
3B No. 24
RR, 5'11" 199 lbs.
Born 1942-04-19 in Santo Domingo, DOM
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CLE MLB .263 152 616 68 162 28 3 15 66 15 50 0
1971 CLE MLB .252 63 127 13 32 6 1 4 25 7 17 0
1972 CLE MLB .319 82 207 21 66 10 1 2 28 6 17 0
It's one thing to lose your starting job to the batting champion. It's another entirely to lose it to a .240 hitter. That was the predicament Hernandez was in last year and he only made things worse for Cleveland's decision-making process by hitting .304 when Bobby Ramirez' back forced him back into the lineup full-time. Or, perhaps, it just increased his trade value.
Ramirez is no slouch himself, having hit .294 with 17 HRs and 79 RBIs in 1969. He's lost a good deal of that power in his prime but still has that slugger's attitude. Last year it worked well for him because he can still get to most everything that comes over the plate (and often not) even when he tries to pull it. He doesn't have anything like Ramirez' speed - in fact, it's below average - and so all that contact can also result in a lot of 6-4-3 double plays (in fact, he hit into 28 of them in 1970, his last year as a starter). He's a better fielder than Ramirez with a nice arm but he still has problems moving to his left and his lack of speed means he wouldn't be as versatile should he be forced to move off the bag: indeed, the Indians didn't even try him at second, let alone short, last year when they were hurting at those positions.
Hernandez' career seems destined to continue outside of Cleveland. He showed in 1972 that he's still a feared contact hitter and a great choice as a right-handed pinch-hitter should an NL team come calling.
John Johnson
SS/2B No. 13
RR, 6'3" 201 lbs.
Born 1944-10-08 in Indianapolis, IN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CLE MLB .340 152 673 115 229 33 9 7 60 25 34 18
1971 CLE MLB .233 96 382 43 89 17 4 3 21 19 35 6
1972 CLE MLB .219 105 302 23 66 13 1 1 18 14 27 6
In 2 short years, Johnson has gone from being a batting title contender - he led the league in hits and runs scored in 1970 and finished 2nd in average in both that year and 1969 - to being a complete Punch and Judy shortstop. What happened? Some point to his broken ankle that caused him to miss half of 1971 and robbed him of a lot of his speed, but truth be told he wasn't hitting before that injury happened either.
Johnson was always a pretty one-dimensional hitter even when he was getting the job done at the top of the Indians' order. He has no power - look, he's a shortstop, give him a break - and he swings at pretty much everything. He also makes contact with pretty much everything but at that, he used to have gap power at least and now that seems to have flown the coop. Worst of all, his speed, as alluded to above, now only grades as a tick above average and he doesn't even get out of the box all that quickly anymore. His fielding is solid and he could fill in throughout the infield if he was trained up to that but he's got to get over being a starter first and that seems unlikely to happen in Cleveland.
Johnson's also getting paid like an All-Star which alone gets him on the chopping block for this team. That and the emergence of one Mitt Romney...
Mitt Romney
SS/IF No. 20
RR, 6'2" 201 lbs.
Born 1947-10-06 in Detroit, MI
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 WAT S A .243 20 70 11 17 2 0 2 10 5 11 0
1970 WPB A .263 92 327 39 86 11 1 2 36 39 71 7
1970 JAX AA .200 15 45 4 9 3 0 0 5 5 8 0
1971 JAX AA .232 104 357 28 83 18 2 6 36 30 70 1
1971 CLE MLB .263 48 160 20 42 5 2 3 19 17 27 2
1972 CLE MLB .206 101 277 33 57 12 0 6 32 23 40 1
The 25 year old Romney, nicknamed "Romneybot 5000" for his sometimes robotic demeanor, had one of those "hey at least he's in the major leagues" kinds of years last year. He made the jump all the way from AA to the bigs in 1971, hit .261, and when John Johnson continued to look less like a batting champ than a batting chump in the first half, he took over the role after the All-Star Break. He appeared to have worn himself out in September and October, hitting .187 from September 1 onward and dipping his average from a somewhat respectable .231 to the .206 you see in the end.
Romney's bat doesn't come with the promise that Johnson's does, not at all. He's a streaky hitter who is prone to slumps, especially when he finds he can't get around on the high fastballl. His 6 HRs last year tie a professional-career high so perhaps he needs to change his stroke but you know how it is with leopards and their spots and binders full of women and all that. He's a decent if not fantastic bunter and had 9 sacrifices last year. He's also got that versatility in him and unlike Johnson has actually gotten the training at other positions.
The big bottom line is that Romney makes less than Johnson - a lot less. Is he really a better player overall? Probably not but Cleveland seems destined to make these decisions outside of playing ability.
Outfield
Tommy Pron
LF/RF No. 37
LR, 6'1" 203 lbs.
Born 1942-08-02 in Long Beach, NY
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CLE MLB .330 133 509 63 168 35 0 8 70 63 37 0
1971 CLE MLB .273 136 494 51 135 13 1 9 48 65 52 0
1972 CLE MLB .326 141 506 77 165 18 1 16 58 73 51 0
After a frankly bizarre offseason that saw him get traded to the now-Texas Rangers in December and then traded back on the eve of what would have been Opening Day (which, editors' note: I pattern league trades after real-life transactions and Cleveland actually did this with Roy Foster), Pron, the 1968 batting champ, went right back to hitting for average after a bad slump in '71. He finished in the top 10 for the 4th time in his career in the category, hitting almost .400 over the final month (.397 from September 1 onward, 48-121) to steal the AL Hitter of the Month away from Ernesto Garcia and pass Daniel Gilmet and Joey Ramone in the race.
Pron is a professional hitter. Like several Indians players he seems like he's lost a bit of gap power recently (is there something with the park?) but in his case he replaced it with 16 HRs worth of power, the 2nd highest total of his career (he hit 19 in 1969 when he also lead the AL in RBIs with 101). Pron hit 2nd for much of the season so didn't get as many RBI opportunities as he's received in the past; however, he did finish 7th in runs scored. Pron will take a pitch wherever it might take him and enjoys showing the younger guys how it's done. His leadership in the locker room was sorely missed even during spring training and it was nice to have him back. He's got a gun for an arm in the outfield but otherwise his poor speed means he's usually a step behind hard-hit balls to his area.
One nice thing about Pron is, he's not too big for his britches and isn't pulling in the kind of $150k+ salary (or so we're told! That info is confidential!) that makes a cash-strapped team like Cleveland want to move him along (oh look at us, now we're talking like we believe this rot). As such, traded last year or not, Pron could easily wind up being one of the guys left standing when the dust settles.
Bobby Kaplan
CF No. 22
RR, 5'12" 189 lbs.
Born 1946-11-18 in Lexington, KY
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 WIC AAA .287 108 435 49 125 19 5 0 29 25 58 22
1970 CLE MLB .429 4 14 0 6 2 0 0 2 3 1 0
1971 WAS MLB .303 137 512 61 155 21 2 2 55 37 60 10
1972 CLE MLB .274 131 551 68 151 23 6 4 41 33 68 16
Kaplan's another guy who's ridden the Cleveland-Washington(Texas) shuttle in recent years. He came up through the Twins' system and was acquired by the Indians in the Todd Theisen trade in the winter of 1969. In spite of a good year in AAA and a cup of coffee the Tribe sold him to Washington for cheap - after all, they had Carlos Hernandez to roam center for them. As we all know, that situation soured and so he one of several players who came back in the initial Tommy Pron deal. It's good to feel wanted, I guess?
Kaplan is a singles hitter whose value looks muted by the poor league averasge last year. He finished 4th on the team in runs scored behind the big boppers and in spite of not really walking all that much he got on base at a .319 clip, above the league average of .301. Kaplan has plus speed that he uses well in the field to catch up to line drives in the gap. He won fielding hardware in the minor leagues - the AAA Gold Glove in 1969 - for this range. On a team where merely being on time to practice would make you one of the first people there, Kaplan is usually early.
For a guy who's been in 3 organizations in 5 years, the current one absolutely loves him. To them, he's a real lunchpail guy who deserves all the gritty at-bats he can get.
Eric Weyenberg
OF No. 11
LL, 5'12" 175 lbs.
Born 1948-04-30 in Little Rock, AR
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 MOB AA .263 51 194 24 51 2 4 0 15 26 20 11
1970 TUC AAA .372 32 129 22 48 9 3 0 18 10 6 15
1970 CHW MLB .227 56 203 31 46 8 2 0 8 27 30 9
1971 CHW MLB .262 89 294 29 77 10 1 4 30 33 30 14
1972 TUC AAA .385 9 26 5 10 1 1 1 2 2 2 0
1972 CLE MLB .226 60 137 15 31 5 1 1 11 10 12 9
Cleveland picked up Weyenberg right after the strike ended, hoping to use him as a 4th outfielder and pinch hitter - a role not dissimilar to what he did in Chicago in 1971. Only playing sporadically he rebounded from a bad month of May (3-27, .111) to get his average up as high as .286 on June 10th (a 4-4 game). Then the bottom dropped out and he hit only .190 from July 1 onward.
Weyenberg has speed that doesn't translate into good defense in center, although he's one of the best fielding corner OFers on the team. He doesn't have the bat for those spots even when he's hitting in the .260s. He's 24 and is at best an adequate, replacement-level guy if someone gets hurt.
Jorge Sanchez
OF No. 5
RR, 5'11" 190 lbs.
Born 1942-11-27 in Carolina, PUR
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CLE MLB .246 45 130 15 32 2 1 3 16 6 30 6
1971 WIC AAA .385 4 13 1 5 0 1 0 3 0 0 0
1971 CLE MLB .245 35 110 15 27 2 2 0 12 8 13 6
1972 CLE MLB .269 48 130 19 35 1 1 3 13 9 21 10
As the 5th outfielder on a team that stayed pretty healthy, Sanchez was virtually a forgotten man last year, especially in the 2nd half of the season - he got into only 14 games from August 1 onward, the last of which happened on September 20, 2 full weeks before the season ended. He's a solid centerfielder which alone makes him maybe the best fielder at the position on the 40-man roster; perhaps as everything else shakes out the 29 year old will get a larger role. If nothing else it'd be nice to see if that speed that got him 32 steals in Denver in 1968 can translate to the major leagues. He's 29 so he might not have that extra burner for much longer.
Nelson Vargas
RF No. 50
RL, 6'4" 197 lbs.
Born 1943-02-16 in Tampa, FL
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CAL MLB .312 148 586 94 183 26 11 12 81 56 63 22
1971 CAL MLB .249 108 410 49 102 16 9 5 31 36 56 7
1972 CLE MLB .290 139 552 88 160 17 1 14 54 52 70 11
Vargas is a real fan favorite in Cleveland, 2nd on the team in jersey sales only to Ernesto Garcia, and yet he's been talked about as a potential trade-away candidate as well. If he were to leave Cleveland this would make the new team his 4th in 5 years. But why? He's better than serviceable: the numbers maybe don't pop out but Vargas finished 4th in the AL in runs, 6th in hits, and 7th in average (the 2nd time in the 4 year vet's career that he's finished in the top 10). That's good, enough to build a team around in fact.
Vargas rebounded nicely from a down year in California. Coming into a park that isn't really such a great park for singles' hitters - the Mistake on the Lake is a HR park and pretty much nothing else - he did hit a career high 14 HRs but the singles still kept coming. Vargas gets a lot of line drives and groundballs off of his bat and he's got good speed out of the box that forces fielders to make plays on him. He's also stolen as many as 22 bases, although that came with 16 caught stealings that season. I'd point to the weird drop in triples but frankly Cleveland Municipal is a place where triples, um, go to die. He's a solid outfielder.
All this adds up to an All-Star level right fielder. Sorry, Cleveland brass, but if you move this guy, you're going to have egg all over your face.