Things remained 2-2 until the 7th when Matt McBride doubled in Jared Goedert and Constanza hit his 2nd triple of the game to score McBride. Jordan Brown added an insurance run in the 8th with his eigth HR of the season and the Clippers bullpen took care of things from there. The Clippers ended the night with a 5-2 victory and are now only a ½ game out of 1st with another game to play on Friday and a chance to take the IL-West lead heading into the final 2 weeks of the season.
Team Hitting: 5R, 11H, 4XBH, 3BB, GIDP, Sac Bunt
Jose Constanza continued his impressive season by going 4-5 with a pair of triples. He is getting on base and creating havoc by stealing bases, but his power is very far below average. Despite batting .321 on the year, he is only slugging .398, and this was after a night where he accumulated 8 total bases. Right now he is a good depth option for a lead off man and bench guy because of his ability to get on base (which is the most important offensive trait to begin with) and his speed which could have situational value, though less-so to an American League team. I have to say that despite the fact that Trevor Crowe has more potential to be an everyday player, there is little doubt that Constanza would have more value to the big-league club at this point in time and in particular with the glut of OF's at the ML and high-minor levels.
One interesting box score tidbit: the Clippers had 4 hits in the 3rd inning and scored only one-run. Which is odd, but not unheard of to have 4 hits and only score once. But, the real interesting part to me is that they only sent 5 batters to the plate in the inning. A quick recap of the events; single, GIDP, single, single, run-scoring single (where a runner was thrown out in a rundown between 3rd and home).
Team Pitching: 2(2) R(ER), 8H, 2BB, 7K, 64% strikes, 50% GB
Paulo Espino earned the W on the strength of a superb 7-inning start. He allowed only seven base runner's (WHIP of 1.00), struck out 5 and walked only 1, while inducing better than 42% GB's. On top of this, he needed only 88 pitches to get through his 7 innings of work. That kind of efficiency allows him to do multiple things which are invaluable (and often underrated) for young pitchers: rack up more innings and greatly reduce injury risk. As great as Adam Miller's strikeout rate's and stuff are, he has never been able to stay healthy or rack up innings when he has been able to pitch. Many people would argue, and I am inclined to agree, that avoiding injury is to some degree a skill. Certain guys are always hurt and certain guys are able to take the ball every 5th day regardless of what happens. For price-conscious teams like the Indians, having players with skills like this are even more important.
Josh Judy came on in the 8th and did his thing: 1IP, (12 pitches, 8 strikes) infield pop-up, weak fly ball and a ground out. Vinnie Pestano came on in the 9th in line to earn his 12th save and in typical Indians organization fashion made things interesting by giving up 2 hits and a BB, but got the save thanks to a timely strikeout.
The Clippers face off against the Bats for the final time this season and will send the streaking Carlos Carrasco to the hill. He will be opposed by Louisville lefty Ben Jukich. The inside track to the IL-West title will be decided at Slugger Stadium starting at 7:05pm.
Everything on this site is free, but for those interested in making any monetary contributions to help support the stability and growth of this site please click on the "Donate" button below.
5 comments:
No one in the Indians organization has more speed than Constanza. The good news for him is that, if the Indians don't put him in the 40-man roster, one of the other MLB teams will.
I am not sure if it is a given he will get put on a 40-man roster this offseason by anyone, but I agree that at some point next year or beyond he will get a crack at playing in the bigs.
Trevor Crowe has only a .328 slugging what does that say? Jose has a better average a ton of stolen bases. The Indians would be crazy not to put him on the 40 man - another team will take him in a heart beat! Watch out Indians - don't loose this one!
I feel like lots of Indians fans are overvaluing Constanza. He's having a decent year in Columbus, but everyone in Cleveland's lineup right now (except Crowe) also performed very well in Columbus: shows what performing in Columbus means, i.e., nothing.
I haven't seen Constanza much, but my impression of him from the spring training games I saw him play was that he was a bad outfielder, like Trevor Crowe, he ran in circles to get to the ball. He has a good BA in Columbus, but I doubt he'd maintain the .370 BABIP in the majors, and he's only walked 30 times all year. Without exceptional defense to complement his speed, or the ability to work counts and draw walks, I don't see him having much value.
I prefer Jose over Crowe actually in a 4th outfielder role, and I love watching him play....one of my favorite guys to watch play. It will be interesting to see the route the Indians take with him this offseason. He is a minor league free agent so can sign with anyone else, unless the Indians add him to their 40-man roster as that trumps minor league free agency. If the Indians don't add him, I don't anticipate another team adding him to theirs either as clubs typically bring in minor league free agents to big league camp in the spring as a non-rostered invitee (NRI). Would be hardpressed to make a 25-man out of spring and likely would go to Triple-A again, but would be a depth option for someone next year i would think. I believe he will one day get his shot in the big leagues (barring injury), the question is when.
Post a Comment