The Indians made a roster change prior to today’s game, since they had to place Nyjer Morgan on the 15-day DL. They called up Jesus Aguilar from Triple-A Columbus – a player with power that may or may not transfer from the minors to the majors. For the Clippers, Aguilar hit .298/.395/.519 with 7 home runs. He’s in the lineup for tonight’s game, so he’ll make his major league debut against the Blue Jays. On the mound it will be Danny Salazar vs. J.A. Happ.
Happ has bounced around some during his career, but you may remember him with the Philadelphia Phillies a few years back. That’s because when the Indians traded Cliff Lee to Philly, Happ was one of the players initially mentioned in a potential trade. He’s one of those pitchers that can be very good, or really awful. He has incredible career numbers against the Indians though – they’ve hit just .148/.207/.185 off of him, while he’s had a 1.13 ERA against the Tribe. Happ has only made two starts so far this year – on May 5 against his old team the Phillies (0 ER on 3 hits in 5 IP) and on May 10 against the Angels (4 ER on 7 hits in 2.1 IP). He worked out of the bullpen prior to that.
Salazar has been much improved in his last couple of starts, and has managed to go at least 5 innings in his last three outings. He’s only faced the Blue Jays once – his major league debut in 2013 on July 11 when he allowed just 1 ER on 2 hits in 6 innings pitched.
Lineups:
Indians:
Michael Bourn, CF
Nick Swisher, 1B
Ryan Raburn, LF
Carlos Santana, 3B
Asdrubal Cabrera, SS
Jesus Aguilar, DH
Yan Gomes, C
David Murphy, RF
Mike Aviles, 2B
Blue Jays:
Jose Reyes, SS
Melky Cabrera, LF
Jose Bautista, RF
Edwin Encarnacion, DH
Adam Lind, 1B
Juan Francisco, 3B
Brett Lawrie, 2B
Erik Kratz, C
Anthony Gose, CF
Why is Lonnie Chisenhall not starting at 3rd with Santana/Swisher sitting if you want to play Aguilar????
because happ is a lefty
Lonnie Chisenhall can hit lefties, Terry just doesn’t give him a chance. 2 ABs against lefties? Come on, he is a major league baseball player, I think he deserves a chance to try.
Carlos Santana against lefties: .163 .293 .327 49 ABs
Nick Swisher against lefties: .156 .278 .244 45 ABs
Lonnie Chisenhall? .500 .500 .500 2 ABs
I would rather have Chisenhall.
Exploring this further, I can see what you mean about Lonnie and lefties. However over the course of Lonnie’s major league career, the Indians, in their attempt to compete, have not given him consistent major league at bats against lefties.
2011 Lonnie vs Lefties: __ .260 .288 .600 __ 50 ABs
2012 Lonnie vs Lefties: __ .184 .205 .237 __ 38 ABs
2013 Lonnie vs Lefties: __ .111 .158 .250 __ 36 ABs
2014 Lonnie vs Lefties: __ .500 .500 .500 __ 2 ABs
That is only 124 major league ABs against lefties over 3 years before 2014 and 2 more ABs in the 40 games of 2014. Extend that over the season and you have 8 total ABs against lefty pitching. How in the world is Lonnie Chisenhall supposed to develop into an everyday player if the Indians do not give him a chance to hit against left-handed pitchers?
This raises the question: Has the Front Office given up on him as the long term option at third and did they ever really give him a chance at it?
I have never seen hitters consistently tee off on better pure stuff than Danny Salazar has. He should have a realtor whispering ‘location, location, location’ in his ear every minute of every day
Yep. 97 mph at the belt is still batting practice in the majors.
Salazar can’t get a guy out early in the count to save his life. Watching his starts is so unpleasant.
As long as the .100 club (Swisher, Santana, Raburn) is our primary weapon against lefties, we will continue to lose these games. I’m amazed that teams don’t start a LHP every game against us, even if it’s somebody from A ball. If they are left-handed and can throw the ball over the plate, it’s virtually a guaranteed win.
i think danny needs some time at columbus to work on his location…this just isn’t working and it can’t be good for his confidence
It might be time to replace Salazar with Bauer. Bauer is much more polished at this point.
i agree. thats whom i would hope for to replace him. salazar is still a young buck. he’s not in carrasco territory yet
Wow. Francona has completely lost patience with John Axford. One 4-pitch walk and he yanks him just like that.
Seriously? Last place? In this division? How fitting that Pretty Boy would make the final out. He had three pitches in a row right down the middle and fouled them all off.
i know i keep repeating this, but i really believe he’s either hiding an injury or just cooked as a major leaguer. the combination of strikeouts, weak popups, and constant foul balls would indicate to me that his bat speed is noticably reduced.
It’s not just Swisher – the roster is completely devoid of talent. I’ve said repeatedly – When the Indians get TALENT, they will start winning.
Look at the Indians roster…then look at The Tigers…
Yeah.
Where have you gone, George Kottaras? Tribe Nation turns its lonely eyes to you, ooh ooh ooh…