The F@$#ing Ballad Of Pure Rage Perez

Twitter has been all aflutter about Chris Perez's blown save on Opening Day. While yes, it sucked, and yes, it ruined what was a masterful Masterson performance (wordplay intended), there's a lot more to this than initially meets the eye in my mind.

Firstly, Chris Perez was coming off a strained left oblique which cost him all but the last three games in Spring Training. It happened on February 23rd, and the typical timeline for return is four to six weeks. If you're doing your math right, that would be about now (precisely six weeks on Opening Day). The fact that CP didn't start throwing in games until March 29th puts his recovery at five weeks, mid-road to the estimates. Here's the catch though: the rest of the relief staff had already had several games under their belts by the time CP got into his first. He is honestly well behind the rest of the 'pen in conditioning and game situation pitching; this is extended Spring Training for him right now. He needs time to get to the same level as the rest of his peers. So we'll call the first likely issue with CP a matter of 'conditioning'.

Secondly, there could be some lingering effects from the oblique strain. Now I'm no doctor, I don't play one on TV, and I absolutely abhor dealing with them. However, I found a very interesting and informative article on Brian Wilson whom suffered a similar injury in Spring Training last season. This particular article explains what a strained oblique actually is ("a tear of the internal oblique muscle from its origin on the rib or costal cartilage" Ouch... Literally side-splitting...), treatment (pain relief, gradual return to play, change in activity to accommodate pain, and abdominal strengthening), and general information on returning to play. It's interesting to note that this article sites a study saying oblique strains can take 6-10 weeks to recover from, which puts CP at the minimum recovery time. Knowing the kind of fiery and gutsy personality he has, he probably said he was good to go as soon as the pain went away... But he may still be physically injured, even if he's mentally blocking it out. The fact that he never touched above 92 MPH on the radar gun, and his control was completely out of whack (even for him), seems to lend credence to this; he very well could've been trying to tweak his delivery / follow-through to get around any stiffness or discomfort. So we'll call this one "stubbornness".

Third, and I hate to say this... CP has always been an exciting closer. And I mean exciting in the "guys get on, and we all need our heart and stomach meds" way just as much as the "flameballing hurler of Ks upon Ks" brand of exciting. We stuck with him through those ups and downs last season, and he rewarded us with 36 saves out of 40 chances... Good for 4th in the AL. CP is not the most efficient closer in the league, and hasn't been in his time with us. But he has gotten the job done more often than not. However, he did have a wicked fastball last year. He also had a reasonable grasp of his control... Not great, but enough. I'll roll back to, and add in, the first point I made; he hasn't had the time to reign himself in like the other guys have, or like he's had in seasons past. He's rusty, he's struggling more than normal, and that'll get you tee'd off on. Let's call this "the game he plays".

Fourth, and I think the point that seems to be lost in the midst of this: Where in the state of Ohio was the offense? Jack Supermannahan wound up being the bulk of the batting with a three-run blast early in the contest. He was also the only one with more than one hit on the day. The Tribe mustered just seven hits in a 16-inning game. The patience was there as they tallied an astounding 11 walks on the day, but out of those seven hits and 11 walks, the offense only produced four runs. Three of those four runs came on one bat swing off of the normally-solid Ricky Romero; not an efficient use of baserunners, if you ask me. Six walks and two hits came after CP gave up the lead, but no runs came out of any of it. Where were the bats at to pick up our beleaguered closer? Our hitters were 1-9 with runners in scoring position, and left ten on-base all game. Now am I expecting the Tribe to bail out an under-average pitching performance every time? Absolutely not. But the fact that the offense didn't contribute when given ample opportunity to do so puts a degree of 'guilt' on them. So we'll call this point "lack of support".

Lastly, and probably the most important point of all... THIS WAS GAME NUMBER ONE OF 162 GAMES! People seem so quick to vilify someone after a lousy performance. If this was Game Seven of the World Series (I'm looking at YOU, Jose Mesa), I could see a good deal of the ire and vinegar being tossed CP's way. But this was Opening Day! Yeah, Masterson got the No Decision. Yeah, a sell-out crowd of over 43,000 went home disappointed (plus the countless others watching and listening elsewhere... But damn they got a lot of baseball!). But some of the things I saw flying around Twitter were... Well... Pretty unnecessary. The man didn't personally come to your house and kick you in the head and shatter your dreams (I'm looking at YOU, Michael Bay). So lay off him (for now), and we'll get them next time. I'm going to call this point "Chill out, Cleveland". Sorry. Or not.

So you're probably saying, "Well, Jeff... What would you have done?" That, my friends, is pretty simple. First, I would NOT have brought out Masterson for the 9th. He'd thrown 99 pitches already, and I highly doubt any starter is ready to go from pitching Spring Training style ball to "do-or-die we need this start to clinch a playoff spot" style ball on Opening Day, no matter how good he is. Second, I would not have brought out Chris Perez. I'll go out on a limb and say I'm not sure why he's up here, and not making a couple closing stints for the Clippers to start the season, just to get him that rehab / conditioning and gameplay he missed out on while injured. However, if the gun was held to my head and I had to bring CP out, I think his performance in the first four batters was telling. Third, my go-to guy in either of the previous cases would've been Vinnie Pestano. Set-up man extraordinaire and emergency closer, he got a full Spring Training of work, and performed well. He's closed out games before for us, and everyone seems to say that he's being groomed as the closer of the future for this ballclub. So let him go out there, get the work, shut the door, and everyone's happy.

So overall... Am I disappointed in CP's performance? Yes, but I have to say there's some circumstances there that contributed to his downfall on Opening Day. Is it something to keep an eye on? Sure. Let's see what happens his next game out. Is it something to be spewing vitriol at the man about? No, not at all. Knee-jerk reactions are the worst reactions there are, and they're usua;ly the ones we wind up regretting when it's too late.

Comments? Complaints? Want to serve up some ire to me for defending CP? Hit me up below, or find my Twitter at @JCPronkFan48.

Construction: Part 1

Greetings, ladies and gents!

As you can see, I've made a few changes to the layout. And colors. And design. And background.

Yeah, you get the point.

Anyway, please let me know what you think of the new look, what you'd like to see, etc etc... Please direct your friends over this way so I can get more opinion (and more readers)!

In the meantime, while I'm trying to maul this layout a little more, take a look at the first few articles I've written for Full Spectrum Baseball. Indians-heavy, reasonable reads... Mostly on the Fantasy Baseball side of things, but not too dry or dull. I'll be writing an article on my exploits with the Full Spectrum Fantasy Baseball League over on ESPN as well, so look for that this week.

I'm in 2 other leagues as well this year, and I'm sure I'll touch on those in this here blog... Besides all the Indians news and such. Look for an actual meaningful post about mid-week once the Opening Day roster is set, and we get ready to kick this season off right.

That's all for now!

So... What's The Plan, Man?

Greets again, folks...

With baseball season coming fast, and plans to revamp the blog here, I wanted to give a general idea of what to expect. This will be a brief post, and will be expanded upon as time allows later on.

But here's the goals:

- At least one article a week, reviewing the week that was, catching some highlights / lowlights, and other general opinion.
- Integration of discussions with my fellow fans; either through here, Facebook, or Twitter... Or any and/or all of them!
- "Pimping" the other site I currently write for, Full Spectrum Baseball (this link will open in another window).
- A refinement of the look and feel of the blog here, including photos and graphics, links to stats sites, and such like that.
- Some other things I'll hash out as time goes on.

There's a brief outlook on what's planned. More to come!

+++Divide By Cucumber Error. Please Reinstall Universe And Reboot +++

A new year, a new reboot...

Yes, folks. It's almost time for another year of Cleveland Indians baseball, which means it's time to get the Displaced Roadshow back to form!

Watch this space for more details! And keep an eye out for construction on the site... New year means EVERYTHING has a chance to change!