Wahoo's on First » Jason Leonard

Weighing in on Some 2013 Indians Projections

Jason Leonard — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 13:36:40 +0000

Last week Jordan Bastian, MLB.com’s Cleveland Indians beat reporter, explained his projection methodology for the team’s offense in a blog post title “Projecting the offense.” His system, as he explained it, involves taking a player’s average production over the last three seasons, drawn out to create a 145 game sample for each year, and then averaging this production against the player’s most recent season. He used career numbers, instead of three year averages, for players with less than three years of experience. After doing some number-crunching for the nine players likely to see the most playing time, he presented his projections alongside those of Bill James. (more…)

Will Offseason Additions Change the Indians’ Character?

Jason Leonard — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 18:17:10 +0000

In Spring Training in 2004, Indians outfielder Milton Bradley was pulled from an exhibition game for not running out a popup that dropped in for a hit. Bradley clashed with manager Eric Wedge over the incident, and then stormed out of the team’s spring complex in Winter Haven, Florida. Days later, he was traded to the Dodgers for Franklin Gutierrez. It didn’t matter that Bradley was not quite 26 years old. It didn’t matter that in 101 games for the Indians the previous year, he’d put together a .321/.421/.501 line with 10 home runs and 34 doubles. (more…)

Will Lonnie Chisenhall Break Out in 2013?

Jason Leonard — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:53:55 +0000

With their first-round pick (29^th overall) in the 2008 draft, the Indians selected infield prospect Lonnie Chisenhall out of Pitt Community College in North Carolina. Not two months later, the team sent its starting third baseman, Casey Blake, to the Dodgers in the deal that brought Carlos Santana to Cleveland. (more…)