Saturday's defeat was potentially devastating but as I went to bed Saturday night I thought back to last year and, although I can't remember when, I know we had one or more of the same type of devastating defeats.
Sunday brought Bieber being Bieber and the stop to a losing streak.
Taking 1 of 3 from Cincinnati was the minimum I expected which makes Saturday's defeat that much more crushing as we had our #5 against the presumptive ace of the Reds staff, albeit in his first start of the season still trying to shake off the rust. But, still. Saturday's win would have helped us immensely with most of our division struggling right now in one way or another.
But, after today's game, I find myself still asking the question: What is this team going to grow up to be this year and how can we, internally, make this the best version of itself?
I know this is going to sound like a broken record but here goes:
Starting rotation - Looking at the minors this is as good as it gets right now and Allen and McKenzie jockeying back and forth for who is #4 only helps. If Zach Plesac is not hurt and just is suffering from a dead arm this rotation is good to go.
Bullpen - I see no cracks in this bullpen. I would like to see Quantrill and Stephan stretched out more as well as seeing Quantrill used in the 7th/8th inning high leverage situations to spell Shaw and Karinchak but, for the most part, not only is this bullpen performing solidly, I don't see any real holes in it at the moment.
Catcher - This is as advertised and is good at the top and passable (defensively) at the bottom
Infield - Besides Hernandez not hitting, I think we are set at 2nd, SS and 3rd. First base is another question. I would still like to see us get rid of Bauers and bring up Bradley. Bauers can't hit in a hitting position on the field. We need Bradley. Chang (INF) and Naylor (1B, LF, RF) being the utility guys make perfect sense to me in a contending team. Having Ahmed Rosario to play SS against tough lefties really helps
Outfield - Rosario in LF, Rosario in CF and a combination of Luplow and Naylor in RF looks good to me. I still would like to see Bradley Zimmer up instead of Gamel because, like Gamel, he can play all 3 OF positons and there is a chance Zimmer can actually hit.
DH - Reyes
On offense we are living by the HR. Just like in the beginning of previous years, our situational hitting frustratingly sucks raw eggs. If we can steal some bases and do better in situational hitting we should be OK. I can't believe that what I saw in Arizona out of Hernandez was just a mirage. That is the player he is and him getting back to that level is, to me, the key to his lineup, along with two other things: Bradley comes up and hits like he did in the spring and Chang building on his recent success and getting his power stroke back. These two changes and natural improvement as the weather warms up, if our pitching holds up, could dramatically help the W-L percentage going forward. We just need a spark to get our offense to catch fire. I think that spark comes from Bradley and a resurgent Hernandez with Chang's continued improvement as the icing.
Hey, we are still in the meat of this meat grinder part of the schedule. It could all go south in the next two weeks. Or it could take off. So far I don't see much evidence to say that the 2021 Indians look that much different, all things considered, from the 2020 Indians. So far!
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