Archive for Cleveland Indians

Daniel Nava spent a month in Triple-A Pawtucket earlier this season. Whether he merited the temporary demotion is a matter of opinion. Regardless of any stated reasons, the Red Sox outfielder was sent down partly as punishment for not appeasing the BABiP gods.

Not long before Nava got the bad news, I discussed his sudden propensity to hit into bad luck with Red Sox beat writer Jason Mastrodonato. At the time, Nava had a line-drive rate a shade under 25% and a ground-ball rate just over 42%. His batting average was well south of the Mendoza line. Mastronato – a stat-savvy scribe – agreed with me that it probably wouldn’t be fair to send Nava down. The switch-hitter was coming off a year in which he hit .303/.385/.445. A reversal of fortune seemed imminent.

Shortly thereafter, Nava had a two-hit game, upping his BA to .149 BA and his BABiP to .167. His next 98 plate appearances came in a PawSox uniform.

The 31-year-old has been back in Boston since late May – platooning with lefty-killer Jonny Gomes – and has seen his numbers slowly climb. Notable is the fact his BABiP has risen over .120 points despite a line-rate nearly identical to when he was sent down.

Nava isn’t a numbers guy — he professes to not look at his stats – nor is he one to complain. While many players would take vocal umbrage at a demotion, the humble outfielder has kept his mouth shut and his chin held high. But he is willing to admit it was frustrating to go through a stretch where nothing was falling.

“I was very aware that my numbers weren’t completely representative of how well I was hitting the ball,” Nava told me on Friday. “I knew [the bad luck] was going to end eventually, it was just a matter of when. I never got to find out before getting sent down, but that’s part of the game. At the end of the day, I also knew I wasn’t hitting as well as I could.” Read the rest of this entry »

Each weekday during the minor-league season, FanGraphs is providing a status update on multiple rookie-eligible players. Note that Age denotes the relevant prospect’s baseball age (i.e. as of July 1st of the current year); Top-15, the prospect’s place on Marc Hulet’s preseason organizational list; and Top-100, that same prospect’s rank on Hulet’s overall top-100 list.

In this installment, I’ll discuss three pitchers I’ve come across in A-ball who boast more polish than most at their level.

Summary
Plutko gained plenty of prospect helium with a dominant run at Low-A early in the season, but he’s found the going tougher after a promotion to the Carolina League.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Cleveland Indians had two first-round picks in last month’s amateur draft. They used them to select University of San Francisco outfielder Bradley Zimmer 21st overall and prep lefthander Justus Sheffield 31st overall. The former is beginning his professional career with the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in the short-season New York-Penn League. The latter will begin his in the rookie-level Arizona League.

According to scouting director Brad Grant, the club narrowed its top pick to Zimmer and an unnamed second player approximately six hours before the start of the draft. Using the information at their disposal, they determined the brother of Royals pitching prospect Kyle Zimmer would likely be available when picked at 21.

“As we got closer to the draft we had an inclination – especially day of – he’d be there,” said Grant. “We weren’t sure, so we had a Plan B in place, but we thought there was a pretty good chance.”

I asked Grant what made the Indians believe Zimmer and their Plan B would still be on the board. Read the rest of this entry »

In his own words, Trevor Bauer has “always been into math, science and engineering.” That will come as no surprise if you’ve heard the 23-year-old Cleveland Indians righthander talk about his craft. He addresses pitching in much the same way a physicist expounds on matter.

He inherited his mindset – and by extension his approach to pitching – from his father. Ironically, bloodlines weren’t responsible for his love of the game.

“He’s been huge in my development, both as a person and as a baseball player, but he actually didn’t play growing up,” said Bauer. “He wanted to, but his family couldn’t afford to buy him a glove. He’s always encouraged me, though. My first year of not playing tee-ball – my first year of kid pitch – it was bases loaded and nobody out and they brought me in to pitch. I got out of it and after that my dad was like, ‘We should get you some pitching lessons to make sure you don’t hurt yourself.’”

Pitching lessons became a part of his formative years, especially after he was introduced to the Texas Baseball Ranch.

“When I was 10, I started taking pitching lessons from a guy named Jim Wagner,” said Bauer. “In 2003, Jim went to the American Baseball Coaches Association conference and heard a guy named Ron Wolforth talk. A year later my dad sent me down to Ron’s camp in Texas. It’s fairly expensive, but he bought me six camps. I’ve been going back there every summer since.”

Bauer’s father has remained engaged every step along the way, and not just financially. Some of the support has been typical of father-son relationships. Other aspects have been outside the box.

“He would always encourage me to do my throwing,” said Bauer. “There were times in high school where I’d have a bucket of balls on each handlebar of my bike, a backpack on my back, and a glove on my hand, riding to the park to throw. He also came to all of my tournaments. But I think where my dad has been the biggest influence on me is with his background.”

Bauer’s father – after a short stint running a Dunkin’ Donuts out of high school – earned an engineering degree from the Colorado School of Mines.

“He thinks about things very scientifically,” said Bauer, who followed in his father’s footsteps and studied engineering at UCLA. “You’re taught a very specific process. You have an ultimate outcome – you want to build a bridge or build a plane – and ask yourself, ‘OK, what are the components I need to get there? How am I going to go about getting the job done as efficiently as possible?’ I was brought up that way by him. I’ve always been into math, science and engineering, so we communicate very well in that respect.

“Whenever there’s something I want to do baseball-wise… say I want to throw harder. What do I need to do to achieve that? I need to get stronger, faster, more athletic; I need to change this or that about the physics of my mechanics. My dad and I will apply that process. We talk about that stuff a lot. A lot of the progressive training methods I’ve used are the culmination of work put in by Jim Wagner, Ron Wolforth, my dad, and myself. We’ve tried to design the most optimal training program possible. That extends to pitch sequencing and learning the shapes of my pitches.”

Math, science and engineering. It’s hard to overemphasize the degree to which the Bauer mindset is based on those disciplines. Their study of pitch movement – including how a hitter perceives an incoming pitch – is a good example.

“My dad built a series of Rebar,” explained Bauer. “He set it up 20 feet in front of the mound and I’d throw a ball through a small hole in it. He put a camera behind me, so when the ball passes through the grid we could generate coordinates. Basically, we created a coordinate grid for the ball going to the plate. We could say, ‘OK, at 20 feet out of your hands it’s at X, Y, and at the plate it’s at X1,Y1.’ We could figure out the average movement so I could work on throwing all of my pitches to look the same at 20 feet.

“My dad understands the Magnus force and how spin affects the way the ball moves. If I’m ever struggling with a pitch, I’ll play catch with him. He’ll recognize if the spin axis is wrong – maybe my curveball axis is tilted the wrong way because of how the ball is in my hand – because we’ve played catch and talked about it for so long.”

In many respects, the son has been the teacher as much as the student. Trevor grew up learning from his father – and still does — while Warren Bauer, chemical engineer who never played baseball, has become well-versed on the science of pitching.

“I’ve taught him a ton,” said Trevor Bauer. “Everything he knows about baseball is due to either me teaching it to him or him doing research because I play. Once I became interested in pitching, he started learning everything he could to help me out. The depth of his understanding about pitching is pretty impressive now.”

Like father, like son. Like son, like father.

——

It should come as no surprise that Marco Gonzales is the son of a pitching coach. The 22-year-old lefthander is one of the top prospects in the St. Louis Cardinals system thanks in part to an advanced feel for his craft. He’s moving fast. Twelve months after being drafted 19th overall out of Gonzaga University, he’s already in Double-A.

Gonzales’ father, Frank, is currently the pitching coach for Colorado’s short-season affiliate, the Tri-City Dust Devils. The former minor league hurler taught his son well. Marco has a 1.77 ERA this season between two levels and a 11.3 K/9 since a mid-May promotion to Springfield.

The younger Gonzales is known for his pitchability, a label he embraces.

“That’s my identity as a pitcher,” agreed Gonzales. “I throw in the low 90s, but by no means is that overpowering. The ability to command the strike zone and mix in three different pitches for strikes is definitely my strength.”

Until recently, the Fort Collins, Colorado native featured four offerings. He’s scrapped a pitch he developed – and used effectively – at Gonzaga. As a result, his curveball has taken on a somewhat bigger role.

“I threw a cutter the past two years or so, but in spring training I had a little minor forearm flareup and shut that pitch down,” said Gonzales. “I suspected that was part of the problem, so now I’m just fastball, changeup, curveball. The cutter is a pitch that uses the extensor muscles on the outside of your forearm, and that’s where I was getting sore. We kind of mutually agreed to shut it down for now.

“I’m throwing my curveball in different counts this season. It’s my third [best] pitch, but I still need to use it. That said, because of my changeup it does kind of get thrown on the back burners a little bit.”

The savvy southpaw’s signature pitch is a plus changeup that makes his otherwise average fastball play up. Well-educated on his craft, he recognizes which one should be prioritized to augment the other.

“My number-one pitch is my fastball, and I think that should be the case for anybody, unless maybe you’re a specialty closer,” said Gonzales. “As a starter, your fastball needs to be your best pitch. For me, that means locating it to both sides of the plate with some run. That’s what pitching is all about.

“I throw both a two-seam and a four-seam and use them pretty equally. If my two-seamer isn’t running on a given day I’ll go with more four-seamers, but if both are working I’ll throw both pitches to left- and right-handed hitters. I like to throw my two-seamer to the arm side of the plate, away to righties and in to lefties. There isn’t much velocity difference between them, maybe just one or two [mph].”

Mechanically, the lefthander is pretty much what you might expect from someone who grew up learning to pitch, as opposed to just reaching back and firing fastballs.

“There’s no max effort with me,” said Gonzales. “As a starter who isn’t overpowering, I don’t want to burn my innings out right away. My effort level usually stays pretty steady throughout the game. I feel my delivery is pretty clean. My dad, being a pitching coach, has always enforced balance, repeatability, driving off my back leg, and having a good finish. Those are things I focus on and feel I do well.”

——

It was especially fitting that Garin Cecchini’s parents were on hand for his big-league debut earlier this month. The Cecchini’s are very much a baseball family. Glenn is the head coach at Barbe High School in Lake Charles, Louisiana. His wife, Raissa, is an assistant coach. Garin’s younger brother, Gavin, plays in the Mets system.

After the game, I asked the 23-year-old Red Sox rookie about his first two at bats – a strikeout looking and an opposite field double.

“Walking up to the plate the first time, I was, ‘I’m not going to be nervous!” said Cecchini, who returned to Triple-A Pawtucket the following day. “Then I got in the box and it was, ‘Hmmm… OK, I’m nervous.’ But it was a good nervous. It was in my stomach. It was a happy nervous.

“On the hit, I was watching the ball a little bit running to first base. When I knew it was going to hit off the Green Monster, I put my head down. But I was smiling. I always have a smile on my face when I’m playing this game. I’m living the dream. Even if I’m in Triple-A, I’m living the dream. I’m playing baseball for a living.”

I asked Cecchini what it was going be like to see his parents when he walked out of the clubhouse a few minutes later.

“It’s going to be awesome, man. What else can I say? It’s going to be awesome.”

——

A player’s teammates are his second family, which means the happy-go-lucky Cecchini has plenty of brothers-in-arms in the Red Sox system. One of them is highly-regarded first-base prospect Travis Shaw, who is hitting .303/.386/.504 this year between Portland and Pawtucket.

“I was thrilled for Cheech when he got called up,” said Shaw. “I’ve played with him since [short-season] Lowell and it kind of hit home for one of my best friends in baseball to live his dream. Him getting his first big league hit was awesome. He came back down to Pawtucket with the biggest smile on his face.”

Shaw should make his own debut someday. When it happens, no one will be more excited than his father, former All-Star reliever Jeff Shaw.

“When I get called up, I know my dad will be on the first flight to where I’m playing,” said Shaw. “He’ll be excited. As a matter of fact, I think he’ll be even more excited than me. He follows my career closely and is going to be absolutely thrilled.”

Travis had plenty of thrills growing up as the son of a big-league closer. He even made it onto SportsCenter once – much to his embarrassment. It happened while he was a bat boy for one of his father’s teams, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“Apparently I was disgusted about how my dad was pitching that night,” explained Shaw. “I was in the dugout and I threw my hands in the air. Later, SportsCenter had a split screen of him walking a guy and me throwing my hands up like, ‘What are you doing?’”

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Fathers, sons and baseball go together like hand in glove. With that in mind, I asked six players, and one coach, about the relationship they share with their fathers and the game they love.

Dave Martinez, Tampa Bay Rays bench coach: “My dad was hard on me. If one day I was two-for-four, he wanted to know why I wasn’t four-for-four. He stayed on me pretty good. When you’re young, you want to say ‘Hey dad, give me a break,’ but looking back now, it was a life lesson.

“When I was playing in the big leagues he’d call me up and say, ‘I watched the game on TV and you’re dropping your hands; you did this, you did that.’ Even to this day he’ll call me every now and again to ask, ‘Why did you guys do this, why did you guys do that?’ But that’s just my dad loving the game, and loving me.”

Evan Gattis, Atlanta Braves catcher: “I have to admit I cried when I was signed up for tee ball. But after that it was just what we did. At the side of the house there were these two little worn out places where my dad and I would play catch. There’s just so much love I have for my dad and for baseball. He still plays catch, too. If I ever go to home run derby, he wants to throw to me.”

Brock Holt, Boston Red Sox infielder: “My dad wasn’t a baseball guy. He was a football and track guy who played pretty much every sport but baseball, but we did play catch and he’d hit me ground balls. After a while, I got a little too strong for us to play catch. One time in high school, in the back yard, he missed my throw and it hit him in the leg. It’s kind of crazy to think he never played baseball, because kids normally do what their dads do. He let me follow my own path.”

Craig Kimbrel, Atlanta Braves pitcher: “My dad never played baseball but he’s really enjoying it now. He travels all over the country on his motorcycle to check out the ballparks and watch me play. He’s here in Boston now. He and a few of his buddies rode their motorcycles up from Alabama. He took the tour of Fenway and has also taken the tour at Wrigley.”

Wil Myers, Tampa Bay Rays outfielder: “My dad helped me along the way – he helped me with my swing and took me to practices – but the biggest thing he did for me was not sugar-coat anything. He told me the truth, whether I had a good game or a bad game. If I got two hits, he wanted to know what happened in the other at bats. He kind of backed off once I got into pro ball, but he still watches all of my games on TV.”

Dan Uggla, Atlanta Braves infielder: “He wanted me to do well and succeed, but he mostly wanted me to have fun. I didn’t have to worry about him getting mad if I struck out or made an error. He was proud of me whether I did good or bad. My own son plays baseball – he’s eight – and I’m bringing him up the same way. I think he’s more competitive than I am. He gets really mad if he doesn’t win. He follows what I’m doing, but he’s more worried about getting his own hits.”

Michael Bourn, Cleveland Indians outfielder: “It was a marriage made in heaven pretty much. My daddy started me playing baseball when I was a little boy, just four or five. It’s a game he loves, and a game I love, so we had some good times growing up together.

“He was my coach for a few years and there was no slack cut. He was an old-school coach who was demanding and stern. He didn’t show me any favoritism. Now I’m a grown man and have my own son. He’s four, and I’ve already got him swinging a bat. I used to be the child and now I’m the father. It’s a completely different perspective. My daddy used to tell me, ‘You’ll see some day when you have kids.’ Now that I’m experiencing it first hand, I appreciate him even more. He pushed me, but he was also proud of me. I want to say ‘thank you’ to him for that.”

Josh Tomlin will be on the mound tonight for the Indians. It will be the 29-year-old right-hander’s first start in a Cleveland uniform since he underwent Tommy John surgery late in the 2012 season. The opportunity is well-earned. Tomlin has thrown 17 scoreless innings in his past two outings for Triple-A Columbus and has a 2.06 ERA overall.

Tribe fans can expect to see a revamped-velocity version of the pitcher who went 12-7, 4.25 in 2011. Tomlin still relies on cutters and command – he’ll never be confused with a fire-baller – but he’s throwing harder than he has at any point in his life. More importantly, he’s throwing free and easy.

“The injury prevented me from doing the things I need to do,” Tomlin said. “In 2011, maybe a month after the All-Star break, I started feeling like something wasn’t right. I tried to pitch through it late in 2011 and early 2012, but couldn’t command the ball and couldn’t cut it when I wanted to. I didn’t have the extension to get the ball down and away to righties. Subconsciously, I knew it was going to hurt when I did that, so I kind of cut the ball off trying to get it there. It got to the point where righties could eliminate a pitch away and sit middle in, and lefties knew I was going to work away. When a hitter can take away one side of the plate against me, it’s going to be tough for me to compete. Now I’m able to get the ball to that side and move pitches around to keep hitters off balance. That’s my game.”

Tomlin’s radar gun readers are also healthier. His fastball sat in the upper 80s before the surgery. Now it’s north of 90 mph.

“My velocity has crept up a little bit,” Tomlin said. “I’ve been 91-93 throughout the game with my fastball. My arm speed is better since the surgery. The crispness of my pitches is back to what they were before. Right now I feel like I’m a 15 or 16-year-old kid playing catch again. It doesn’t hurt, I don’t feel it, I don’t think about it. I just take the ball and pitch.”

Tomlin was reminded in spring training that he still has to “pitch” to be effective. He’s never been a power guy and a little extra octane isn’t going to change that.

“I got myself hurt against that Abreu guy with the White Sox,” Tomlin said. “I got him down 1-2 and tried to blow a fastball by him, in. I basically tried to throw the ball too hard – I guess I was overconfident – and left it over the plate. He hit it pretty good. That’s something I had to learn in spring training: How to hone in my new-found velocity and new-found feeling. I can throw pretty hard right now – at least for me – but throwing the ball by someone isn’t my game. I need to set them up to where 89-90 is still effective. It’s about making a quality pitch and missing a barrel, not lighting up the radar gun or trying to get too cute with my fastball.”

Tomlin’s cutter is his most attractive offering. It is also the shapeliest. Thanks to his rebuilt arm, he can tempt hitters with it in two different ways.

“I’m able to do things with my cutter now,” explained Tomlin. “I’m able to make it move horizontally if I want it to. If I get a guy 1-2 with a fastball, I can make it a little bigger. I also have one with more of a slider depth to it. Basically, I’m throwing two different cutters – one more horizontal to miss the barrel and one with a little more depth to try to get ground balls, maybe even a swing-and-miss. But for me, the cutter is a pitch to get weak contact early in the count to keep my pitch count low.”

Tomlin’s repertoire includes a curveball. It’s his third-best pitch and yet another that’s been rejuvenated by his surgery.

“My curveball is the pitch that’s probably been helped the most,” Tomlin said. “Again, I’m not thinking about it. I can grip it without that feeling of ‘I hope it doesn’t hurt.’ The conviction I have behind all of my pitches is the biggest change. It’s not like it was when I was struggling and my arm was bothering me a little bit. Not to make excuses, or anything like that, but the conviction I had then is nothing near what I have now.”

Things didn’t work out for Manny Acta in Cleveland. The saber-savvy skipper was fired after the Indians finished the 2012 season 26 games under .500. In his three years at the helm, the Tribe went 214-266.

I caught up with Acta at this week’s SABR Analytics Conference, in Phoenix. My first question was straight and to the point: How good of a job did you do in Cleveland?

“I feel like I served the purpose,” opined Acta. “I went into a rebuilding job. Basically, we had our core players who were going to be successful for the franchise, and we did our thing to keep them in line and develop them.”

I asked Acta about the team chemistry.

“It was terrific,” said Acta. “A lot of the credit for that goes to the scouting and player development over there. It’s a character-oriented front office, which made my job easy. All I had to do was concentrate on managing the ballgame. I didn’t have many issues in the clubhouse. The Indians get high-character guys and do a pretty good job of weeding out the bad guys as they come up through the system.”

His response demanded a follow-up. In the opinion of some — both inside and outside the organization — Acta’s relationship with certain players was less than ideal. I asked him about that.

“When you don’t win, there is always going to be criticism,” answered Acta. “My second year, when we had that run, instead of criticism I had a lot of people talking me up. You have to take the good with the bad. When you leave a place, there are always going to be people saying things. You have to accept that and move on. I refuse to believe I was the cause of us not winning the division while I was there.”

Another follow-up: Were there issues with some players?

“You can never have 25 Boy Scouts,” said Acta.” But we didn’t have anybody where we couldn’t live through it. Much has been said about Chris Perez, but he made two All-Star teams while I was there. He was manageable.”

Acta is currently serving as an analyst for ESPN. He’d rather be managing in the big leagues. If he gets another opportunity, what will he do differently?

“I’ll probably loosen up a little bit,” said Acta. “I’m a guy who likes to do things right and players sometimes see that as… I just like to respect the game. Respect the way you wear your uniform and how you go about your business. But maybe that’s not a priority for guys anymore. Maybe I’d need to loosen up some of those rules and just let them concentrate on the ballgame.

“I’d possibly stop working so much as a coach,” continued Acta. “I used to spend a lot of time during batting practice hitting ground balls. When I get my next opportunity, I think I’ll let a coach do that. I’ll use that time to go into the outfield to talk to some of my relievers. During the game, you don’t get a chance to talk to them because they’re isolated out in the bullpen. There are little things like that I’d tinker with.”

——

Things didn’t work out for Chris Perez in Cleveland, either. They did to a certain degree — he logged a lot of saves — but there were implosions along the way. To say Perez was a lightning rod would be an understatement.

The Indians released Perez on Halloween. His outspokenness was likely a contributing factor. Ditto the drugs-and-dog controversy and Jekyll-and-Hyde pitching performances. On Christmas Eve, the Los Angeles Dodgers inked him to a free agent contract.

I asked Perez why he signed with the Dodgers.

“This is a good opportunity for me to re-establish myself,” said Perez. “It also gets me away from some of the negative perception I had in Cleveland. Last year, stuff happened and the reporters kind of piled on. Here, I can just fit in on a good team and do my thing.”

Perez wasn’t surprised to be let go by the Indians. He was somewhat surprised to land where he did.

“The Dodgers were nibbling right from the beginning, but when they signed [Brian] Wilson, I thought that was it,” said Perez. “But they called my agency and said they still wanted me. I was excited about that. There were a couple of teams I could have signed with. When I was in L.A. getting my physical, another National League team actually made an offer. A few American League teams had showed interest as well, one in the East and one in the West.

“Free agency is so fluid,” continued Perez. “One deal goes down and the dynamic changes. You kind of have to wait out the market. There were a ton of guys out there. Six or seven guys who had 20 saves last year were free agents. I was the youngest one, but I also had the most baggage.“

It’s not surprising that Perez owns up to the baggage. The straight-shooting reliever is likewise honest about his up-and-down 2013 season.

“The team was good last year, but I wasn’t good,” admitted Perez. “It sucked that I wasn’t my normal self. I was fighting little injuries the whole year. I got healthy toward the second half — July and August I felt really good — but that was arm-wise. My mechanics had changed to compensate for my injuries. When you’re the closer on a team trying to win for the first time in awhile, you need to take the ball and do your job. I didn’t always do my job.”

The beleaguered closer’s most notable blown save came against the White Sox in late September. He surrendered back-to-back home runs in the ninth inning, only to be bailed out by a Jason Giambi walk-off in the bottom half.
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“Oh man, he picked me up big on that one,” said Perez. “It was probably the best atmosphere I’ve been involved in, in the big leagues. Even so, it was lonely. I sat in the dugout, just hoping. I was excited when he went deep, but part of me still felt like crap. It was a huge win, yet I was the a—hole who gave up the home runs that made him have to hit a home run.”

——

Seattle Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik was a panelist at this week’s SABR Analytics Conference. Before he took the stage I asked him if he could share a story from his days as a scout. Here is what Zduriencik had to say:

“Back when I was a young scout with the Mets, I scouted the College World Series. Joe Magrane had been pitching and I was very impressed. This was right before the draft. I was in a bar after the game with Mike Roberts, a scout with the Cardinals. Hub Kittle walked in. Everyone knew Hub, with his big, raspy voice. I asked him, ‘Hub, what did you think of that big lefthander? He was pretty good, wasn’t he?’ Hub growled, ‘That big old donkey? Bah. You can have him.’ A day later, the St. Louis Cardinals took Joe Magrane in the first round. Hub was a big deal with the Cardinals, had been with them for years, and wasn’t giving away any scouting tips. I learned a lesson right there.”

——

The Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers will play in Sydney, Australia later this week. They’ll traverse numerous time zones and the international date line to do so. Needless to say, traveling halfway across the world will present a jet-lag challenge for both teams.

According to Dodgers catcher Tim Federowicz, the acclimation process is already under way.

“We had a meeting the other day about getting on Australia time as quickly as possible,” Federowicz told me on Thursday. “Starting today, we’re supposed to go to bed 30 minutes later. Tomorrow, 30 minutes later than that. Next day, another 30 minutes. When we get on the plane at midnight it will be 6 p.m. Australia time. We’re going to work out right after we land, so we don’t just go to sleep.”

Major League Baseball players are used to travel, but this is a whole new animal. Flying to Sydney isn’t like hopping on a plane in Los Angeles and waking up in New York.

“The farthest I’ve flown is to Hawaii,” said Federowicz. “That was from North Carolina and I think it was about nine hours. I had a middle seat, in a middle row, so it felt like a long flight.”

What is he expecting once the team reaches Australia?

“We’re playing at the cricket grounds, so I’m sure all the cricket fans will come watch us,” said Federowicz. “We’re playing Team Australia one game and then the Diamondbacks, so I’m assuming it will be sold out. It will be quite the experience.”

——

Kevin Kiermaier’s big league debut was unique among first games. The Tampa Bay Rays outfielder entered as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning of last year’s wild card tiebreaker, in Texas.

Forty-eight hours before taking the field, the 23-year-old had no idea it could happen. And he wasn’t a happy camper.

“It was crazy,” said Kiermaier. “I was down in Port Charlotte at a hitting camp. I’d had a good offensive year, so I was like ‘Why are they sending me to this hitting camp?’ I was pretty bitter about it, to be honest. Little did I know they had a plan the whole time. They wanted to keep me baseball ready, just in case.

“I got a call on Sunday night, around 11:30,” continued Kiermaier. “They put me on a plane to Texas the next morning. Once I got to the clubhouse, I talked to Joe Maddon and Andrew Friedman. They said, ‘Hey, we don’t know if we’re going to activate you or not, but give us about 30 minutes and we’ll call you back in. Sure enough, they called me back in and said I was going to be activated that night. They said whenever we get a lead, be ready.”

Game 163, ninth inning, the season on the line. The youngster was unfazed.

“We were up by three runs, so all the pressure was on them,” Kiermaier told me earlier this month. “I thought I was going to be nervous, but I honestly wasn’t. I’m confident in my abilities and felt like I belonged out there. [David] Price got them 1-2-3. I was hoping something would be hit my way, but the way he’d been throwing all night, it didn’t surprise me that nothing was.”

Given his defensive excellence and solid hitting skills, Kiermaier should have plenty of opportunities to make plays in the future. How many come as a defensive replacement remains to see seen. As for the games themselves, the stakes won’t be any higher.

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You won’t find many pitchers with a higher leg kick than Bronson Arroyo. The Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander told me the story behind it yesterday at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick.

“The leg kick came when I was about nine years old,” explained Arroyo. “It came out of trying to emulate Dwight Gooden. He was an absolute stud at the time, and my brain processed his big leg kick. He had a stiff leg that he kind of wrapped around, and this came out of that.”

After demonstrating Gooden’s delivery, Arroyo compared himself to A.J. Pierzynski.

“I was pretty much the same then as I am now,” said Arroyo. “I had a good feel for the game and would drop my arm angle. I would throw curveballs and do things with my delivery. It’s funny, I played against A.J. Pierzynski when I was 10, 11 and 12, and with him when I was 13. He was exactly the same way he is now. He was competitive as hell and wasn’t fun to play against. He talked a lot of s___. We‘re both pretty much the same as we were in Little League.”

Matt Harvey will be as confident as ever when he returns from Tommy John surgery. Not only does he expect to be fully healthy, he’ll be back to where he feels most comfortable. The young New York Mets ace said as much when I spoke to him in January.

The first time I talked to Harvey, he wasn’t yet in his comfort zone. It was April 2012 and he was pitching for Triple-A Buffalo. His big-league debut was still three months away.

At the time, Harvey was chomping at the bit. Questions remained about his readiness, but they weren’t being raised by the right-hander. Harvey told me, “I’d like to think I’m right there. It’s never my decision, but I’m always going to be ready, both mentally and physically.” He went on to say he wouldn’t be intimidated.

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A month after being drafted 15th overall in 2012, Tyler Naquin talked about how his approach to hitting is “very simple” and about how he’d “never had a hitting instructor.” A little more than 18 months later, the 22-year-old outfield prospect is a more-refined version of the same player. He is also the most promising young hitter in the Cleveland Indians system.

Naquin spent most of his first full professional season at High-A Carolina, where his left-handed stroke produced a .275/.345/.424 slash line. He subsequently scuffled in an 18-game stint at Double-A Akron, but rebounded to hit .339 in the Arizona Fall League. Along the way, he made subtle, yet meaningful, adjustments.

Naquin talked about his developmental strides, and his expectations of hitting for plus-power, late last week. Read the rest of this entry »

Clint Frazier has as much power as any player who was taken in the 2013 draft. Selected fifth overall by the Cleveland Indians, the right-handed-hitting outfielder can propel baseballs long distances. A big reason is his bat speed, which Baseball America called the best in his draft class.

Frazier — who celebrated his 19th birthday in September — projects as more than a home-run threat. Blessed with above-average athleticism, he was named Gatorade National Player of the Year after hitting .438 in his final season at Loganville [Ga.] High School. After inking his first professional contract, he hit .297/.362/.506, in 196 plate appearances, in the Arizona Summer League.

Frazier talked about his game, including the adjustments he’s making in pro ball, late in the 2013 season. Also weighing in was Carter Hawkins, Cleveland’s assistant director of player development. Read the rest of this entry »

Young, first-year managers are a growing trend in Major League Baseball. That’s good news for David Wallace. The 34-year-old wasn’t a candidate for any of this off-season’s openings, but he almost certainly will be in future years.

A catcher in the Cleveland system for six seasons, Wallace moved from the playing field to the coaching ranks in 2009. An assistant on the Indians’ big-league coaching staff in 2009 and in 2010, he has spent the past three seasons as a minor-league manager. This past summer he skippered Cleveland’s high-A affiliate, the Carolina Mudcats.

Wallace — a product of Vanderbilt University — recently discussed the approach he’d bring to a big-league managerial position. Read the rest of this entry »