Are you in tune with DiamondView? Well if you’re a Tribe fan, you should be. It’s been discussed in the past, but given a recent post by Cleveland’s Alex Kaufmann over at ESPN’s Sweetspot Blog, it’s worth bringing up again. DiamondView is the team’s proprietary analytical tool that has led to decisions from not extending Jim Thome as as he was approaching his mid-30s all the way to the power surge recently shown by All-Star hopeful Michael Brantley. Naturally, not all moves have been great—DiamondView loved Matt LaPorta (along with every minor league scout in the game), and it’s “inability to contextualize” the statistics of draft hopefuls, leading to a largely suspect farm system.
DiamondView is the Tribe’s. It’s a tool that is largely mysterious, was revolutionary when it was created, and continues to evolve as the analytical world does the same. But in what is perhaps the most interesting note, former Indians scouting director—and current GM of the San Diego Padres—Josh Byrnes once offered top prospect Carlos Quentin in a trade for a copy of the program. The Indians said no.
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Should Lonnie Chisenhall be in the All-Star discussion? As of this publication, the Tribe third baseman is 20 plate appearances shy of qualifying for any rewardable batting statistics. Presently, if you set the bar at 175 plate appearances, he leads all of major league baseball in hitting with a .365 average (his .951 OPS is nothing to be ashamed of either). The Indians have 32 games between today and the All-Star game, meaning that Chisenhall would have to play in roughly every contest between now and then to get his minimum appearances—the bar is set at 3.1 per game—to a qualifiable level. He’s hitting righties and lefties at a clip no one saw coming—the latter at a .542 mark. IF he would get there, is this turnaround worthy of a nod? We are talking about a guy who was on the fence once the team was waddling things down to 40 men this past spring. But man, what a story this kid has been thus far.
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Those of you who know me know that I’m a big fan of all things technology. I’m a big fan of magazines—I dig long form writing, and the editorial care and design is something that allows them to still have value today. And I appreciate late-night television, specifically the work done by everyone involved with Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Alas, it goes without saying that Joshua Topolsky—long-time tech journalist, visionary and Editor in Chief of The Verge, one of the best tech sites on the web today—getting the nod as Late Night’s Tech Expert is pretty damn cool.
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Oh, hey…Look. Scott Kazmir threw seven shutout innings and the Athletics pounded the Orioles 11-1 on Sunday. Kazmir, who has been almost unhittable, allowed just four hits and two walks, striking out seven. The strong outing was a continuation of what’s been a terrific first half for the former Indian lefty, as he’s 7-2 with a 2.20 ERA, 0.98 WHIP and 70/17 K/BB ratio in 82 innings. The Tribe rotation has been decent for much of the season, but man…
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A big congrats goes out to the QTV team over at Quicken Loans Arena as their trophy case just welcomed another addition. The hard-working folks behind the scenes took home another Regional Emmy this weekend, winning Best Promotion (Sports) for their intro video. This is as good of a time as any to remind you all of the feature I wrote about this very group a couple seasons ago.
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And just because: D-Wade being D-Wade.
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