Sheldon Ocker, on the Tribe: Tribe bullpen in dire need of disaster relief

SHELDON OCKER
Akron Beacon Journal

August 10, 2008 12:30 am

— TORONTO -- Last week, the Indians’ bullpen went from bad to ugly. With seven weeks of the season left, the only question seems to be whether the relief corps will regress to hideous, gruesome and revolting.
How are those for choices?
Maybe manager Eric Wedge can work a little magic, let Rafael Perez pitch every inning of every game once the starter leaves. Then again, that can’t happen unless the entire rotation averages eight innings, and Perez doesn’t mind having his arm stitched back onto his shoulder during the winter.
In one respect, it doesn’t matter how the bullpen performs, because the team is out of contention for everything but catching the Kansas City Royals and avoiding last place. Even that modest goal seems daunting at this point.
But persistent losing doesn’t have much of an upside. Wedge will condone it on only one condition: he finds pitchers who can make the bullpen more proficient in 2009. That might not be possible, given what already has transpired.
To start with the biggest disappointment first, Rafael Betancourt’s season has been an unmitigated disaster.
It’s difficult to imagine that it can get worse. He has fallen so far so fast, it’s unlikely he can climb out of his self-dug hole by the end of September.
Watching him pitch is painful enough; his demeanor in the clubhouse is even more pathetic than his bloated ERA. He pads around the room, usually with his head down or staring straight ahead, his face displaying the deer-in-the-headlights look of a man contemplating a trip to the electric chair.
And that’s probably the way he feels. Betancourt’s body language always has betrayed his feelings, but in the past, that was a good thing. This is his first ineffective season in six with the Tribe. If he didn’t have a guaranteed contract for next year, his place on the 2009 roster would be in serious jeopardy.
But inasmuch as the franchise is obligated to pay him, anyway, and he has made himself virtually nontradeable, it’s probably best to give him another chance.
The one thing that cannot be ignored is Betancourt’s history of excellence. And the person who needs to remember that more than anyone is Betancourt.
Maybe a fresh start is all he needs, but now that club officials have watched his psyche wilt before their eyes, his weakness as a competitor is clear. So the first thing that has to happen is to convince him to keep his chin up, because it is scraping the floor.
On to Masa Kobayashi. I’m thinking of two things. One is a July 21 game in Anaheim, Calif., in which he struck out the side in the ninth inning to preserve a 5-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels. The other image is of batted balls sailing over the fence in various ballparks, and Kobayashi trudging off the field in defeat.
Kobayashi has served up eight home runs, accounting for 18 of the 23 earned runs he has allowed for the season. There has been one homer in the seventh inning, one in the eighth and six in the ninth or 10th. This is not a statistic he wants on his resume.
However, I think Kobayashi can retire major- league hitters. I also think he hasn’t quite figured out that he cannot get away with mistakes in the big leagues. In Japan, where the talent level is not as consistently high, throwing a bad pitch doesn’t necessarily translate into good news for the hitter.
Why not attribute his late-inning failures to an inability to cope with the pressure of the moment?
Because Kobayashi was a top closer in Japan. He was accustomed to dealing with the mental demands of that job, and even though he is pitching on a larger stage, it is doubtful he has turned into a quivering mass of jelly.
Kobayashi, like all Asian or Latin players who did not grow up in the United States, has had to adjust not only to a higher level of competition but also a strange environment, different customs and a language he does not speak (but he’s learning). He also has a contract for 2009 and 2010, so he will be given a chance next year to earn his money.
The recent peaks and valleys of Edward Mujica remind me of another failed Indians reliever: Fausto Carmona. Like Carmona in 2006, Mujica had a few weeks of success that seemed to indicate he had turned a corner in his career. So Wedge rewarded Mujica, as he did Carmona, by letting him try to keep a late-inning lead.
This was not pretty. On July 30, Mujica was summoned in the eighth inning to hold an 11-7 lead against the Detroit Tigers. In a span of six batters, the score was tied. Last Wednesday at Tropicana Field, Mujica trotted in for the ninth with the Tribe leading by three runs. Three batters later, the score was tied.
Wedge seemed shocked by the meltdowns. Of the first, he noted that Mujica got the first two batters out, to which I say, “So what?” In the debacle against the Rays, Wedge pointed out that Mujica had been a “lock-down” pitcher for two or three weeks.
Albert Belle sometimes went two or three weeks without smashing a thermostat or trying to run down a kid in his SUV; Brett Favre probably has gone two or three weeks without changing his mind; I have gone two or three weeks without misspelling a word (or is it two or three minutes?).
Two years ago, Wedge and general manager Mark Shapiro were mystified when Carmona was a total bust as a closer after being a “lock-down” setup man for five weeks. Five weeks!
When a pitcher or a hitter plays at the same high or low level for five weeks, the operative phrase usually is, “It’s only five weeks, and it’s a long season.”
Somewhere along the way, that kind of sensible thinking was lost with Carmona and now with Mujica.
Since when does a five-week (or less) span constitute a meaningful test of a player? Just because the Tribe’s deep thinkers want something to happen — Mujica to justify their hopes as a legitimate asset — doesn’t mean it will.
Get a grip, guys.

Ocker is the Indians beat writer for the Akron Beacon Journal. Reach him at socker@thebeaconjournal.com.

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