Bob Feller made his first Major League start on this day in 1936 and immediately set the tone for his Hall of Fame career. Feller struck out 15 St. Louis Browns hitters, falling just short of the then-AL record of 16 strikeouts in a game. Perhaps the most impressive stat from Feller's first start was his age — Rapid Robert was just 17 years old.
Here are some items from Feller's former team in Cleveland and elsewhere in the AL Central…
- The Indians' roster construction is to blame for the team's recent woes, not manager Manny Acta, opines Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Indians CEO Paul Dolan said today that Acta's job is safe for 2013, as well as the jobs of GM Chris Antonetti and team president Mark Shapiro.
- Brett Myers' $10MM contract option for 2013 will vest if he finishes 45 games this season, but White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper tells MLB.com's Scott Merkin that the team will use Myers in any manner necessary as the club battles for the AL Central title. Myers currently has 36 games finished, seven since joining the White Sox on July 21. Addison Reed will finish the majority of games down the stretch as the Sox closer, but Myers figures to be the backup closing option should Reed get injured or become ineffective.
- Royals officials tell Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star that Wil Myers might not be called up this season so the Royals can avoid having to protect him (and leave someone else unprotected) in the Rule 5 draft. Two team officials also think Myers may yet not quite be ready for Major League pitching, despite his .927 OPS in 388 Triple-A plate appearances this season.
- With Myers in Triple-A, Jeff Francoeur is still the incumbent right fielder. Dutton reports that the Royals would like to deal Francoeur but aren't willing to do so in a salary dump or for a negligible return.
Robin and Coop have been using Myers in the 9th inning for no good reason. I wasn’t even sure they were aware about the option until this post. Like, seriously guys. It IS 10 million dollars.
29 games finished is not 45. They had 15 games to safely use him in, they’ve used up half of them in the month he’s been on the team, and has half of them left for the last month. If you ask me, they’ve been handlng it perfectly. Get to 44 games finished, and then stop.
i would think best case scenario for the royals is a salary dump on francoeur, no?
I think the Royals are missing a great opportunity. Francouer would clear waivers easily and they’re not going to find a team more desperate to add an OF like Francouer any time this offseason or next season. No, the Giants won’t eat all of his contract, probably not even most of it, and they won’t send a very significant prospect back in return, but they won’t get those things anyway. They’re much better served moving Frenchy now and clearing some of that money and a starting spot for Myers than by carrying Frenchy on the roster into spring next year hoping to find an even more desperate team. Seems like if they could add a cheap controllable arm like Runzler that still has a little upside, save 3-4 million dollars for 2013 it would be a huge win. Maybe they’re just reluctant to deal with SF again after giving away Melky and Mijares for essentially nothing.
I don’t think Myers is ready for the big leagues either…as he hits his 35 homerun of the year in the minors. Come on this season is over you might as well start to see what you got with some of these young minor league guys. If you don’t think they are part of the future you might as well showcase them for some offseason trades. I would love to see guys like CRob come up and get some AB’s. Right now all the Royals have is prospects and the fans would rather see them, its not like we are playing for anything this year anymore.
Jeffy keeps playing his Jedi mind tricks on Dayton Moore.
I’ve been saying for a long time that the Indians keep bringing in the same kind of players over and over again, through the draft, through trades, through free agency. The whole starting staff is a bunch of low strike out sinker ball pitchers except Masterson, who is a fairly high strike out sinker ball pitcher. They almost all swing from the left side, with almost no power, no speed, and low OBP.
They haven’t given Acta much to work with, but the current team appears to have quit on him. I think it’s time to get the broom out and clean the entire house out-from bottom all the way to the top.
They were known for being savvy with their computer programs and scouting; I think that also needs a new plan too.
The Indians were a proud franchise; they ought to feel some shame about how far they have fallen.