Cleveland Indians-Chicago White Sox Series Preview

Cleveland Indians-Chicago White Sox Series Preview 4/8-4/10

The Cleveland Indians head to the windy city this weekend to take on the division rival Chicago White Sox in a three-game series. Hopefully, the weather cooperates better in Chicago than it did in Cleveland this past week and the two teams are able to get the whole series in though as Jordan Bastian mentioned this morning, the weather forecast isn’t the prettiest.

The Tribe is set to face a trio of left-handers pitchers from the White Sox as John Danks, Chris Sale, and Jose Quintana are set to start. Countering for the Indians should be right-handers Danny Salazar, Cody Anderson, and Josh Tomlin.  All three games are set for afternoon starts with today’s first pitch at 4:10pm EST and both Saturday and Sunday’s contests set to start at 2:10pm EST. 

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The White Sox starting three lefties likely means we’ll be seeing more of Rajai Davis and Collin Cowgill in the outfield this weekend and less Tyler Naquin and Jose Ramirez though perhaps Tito will change things up and give one of the latter two a starter versus a lefty. Carlos Santana, who turns 30 today, will look to continue his hot hitting. How good has Santana been offensively? His 1.792 OPS ranks fourth in baseball, higher than Robinson Cano and Trevor Story, both of whom have hit four home runs already.

The player to watch for the Indians though may, in fact, be Jason Kipnis. He’s from the Chicago area and has a career .920 OPS at US Cellular Field to go along with five home runs (tied for most outside of Progressive Field).  However, Kipnis also has been terrible versus left-handed pitching in his career, hitting just .246 with a .660 OPS against southpaws. It will be interesting to see how he looks facing three lefties this weekend, including one of the best in baseball in Sale.

On the mound, it’s going to be some big starts for both Anderson and Tomlin. After the surprise decision to move Trevor Bauer to the bullpen, both will be looking to show they belong in the big league rotation. With some roster moves possibly coming in the coming weeks with Lonnie Chisenhall, Michael Brantley, and Tommy Hunter on the mend, it would not be a surprise to see one of Anderson/Tomlin to be optioned to Triple-A Columbus (both have a pair of options remaining).

The Indians will be looking to get off to a good start in divisional play. Last season the Indians went just 9-10 against the White Sox and had a losing record against all four American League Central Division opponents for an overall record of just 32-43 (.427 winning percentage). In fact, the AL Central was the only division that the Indians had a losing record against in 2015.  They went 19-14 (.576) against the American League West, 18-15 (.545) against the AL East, and went 12-8 (.600) against the National League Central. They’ll need to win in the division this season if they want to unseat the Kansas City Royals…

Lonnie Chisenhall & Tommy Hunter to Begin Rehab Assignments

Speaking of Chisenhall, the outfielder is in Columbus set to begin a rehab assignment as he works his way back from a wrist injury that forced him to start the year on the 15-Day disabled list.  The Clippers were set open their Triple-A season yesterday; however, weather forced that game to be postponed.  Chisenhall is eligible to return from the disabled list early next week though it remains to be seen how much rehab the Tribe will want him to get before activating him.

Reliever Tommy Hunter will be joining Chisenhall with the Columbus Clippers, having been added to their roster today as well.

Still no word on how long he’ll be out.  He was not placed on the 60-Day disabled list so the thought is he should be ready by at least early May. He missed almost all of spring training though only getting a few minor league games in so could take him a good 20-30 days to be ready for big league action.

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Michael Brantley was not in Columbus yesterday but will report there today instead of flying with the Indians to Chicago. He is not set to play in any games yet but reports are positive that he’s still on track for a late April or early May return to the Tribe. More good news with Brantley is that he will not be returning to Arizona to rehab the shoulder, as he feels confident he’s healthy enough to work out in Ohio.