Wahoo's on First » tim belcher

Will Indians Pitchers Get More Strikeouts Under Scott Radinsky?

Lewie Pollis — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:13:43 +0000

When the news broke at the end of the season that Indians pitching coach Tim Belcher would be stepping down from his post, I made note of the similarity between the Tribe staff’s light-on-strikeouts approach to pitching during his tenure (Cleveland ranked last in the majors with a 6.2 K/9 over the last two years) and the pitch-to-contact disposition Belcher exhibited (he had a career 5.6 K/9 rate and whiffed fewer than five batters per nine in half of his 14 MLB seasons) during his own playing career.

Then bullpen instructor Scott Radinsky was named as Belcher’s successor. Radinsky wasn’t exactly Randy Johnson during his own playing career, but he had a career K/9 rate of 6.7—interestingly, that’s highest for an Indians pitching coach since Don McMahon was in charge of the staff in 1985—and his strikeout rate had a peak of 8.3 K/9.

Naturally, I wondered then if having a pitching coach with more personal experience as a strikeout pitcher would lead to the Indians staff missing a few more bats. Today, we have an answer. (more…)

Tim Belcher Steps Down: Will Next Pitching Coach Have Same Philosophy?

Lewie Pollis — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:57:49 +0000

While the team had known for a while that pitching coach Tim Belcher was considering resigning, but the announcement at the end of the season that he was stepping down after two years was a surprise to many fans.

I was thinking about Belcher and his work with the Indians the other day and I stumbled upon his stats from his own accomplished career. In 14 MLB seasons, he went 146-140 with a 4.16 ERA and 31.4 fWAR while pitching for seven different teams.

But another thing about Belcher’s numbers caught my eye: he was a true contact pitcher. He had a 5.6 career K/9 rate; in each of his last seven seasons his K/9 rate sat at or below 5.0, and in his final nearly full season his K/9 was just 3.5. Obviously he was successful despite his lack of strikeouts, but it still seemed like an interesting résumé for a pitching coach.

Was it a coincidence? A little bit of digging shows that Belcher was just a long line in Tribe pitching coaches who didn’t miss many bats in their own playing days. (more…)

Even An Indians Fan Can Be Thankful

Ed Carroll — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 18:13:12 +0000

Yeah, it’s time for the obligatory Thanksgiving post, only instead of boring you with how I’m thankful for my family and my blessings this year (and I am thankful for all that), I’d rather talk about what I’m thankful for with the Indians. It’s been a trying season, but there are things to be thankful for, so let’s dig right in, in no particular order.

If you’ve been reading Deep Left Field for any length of time, you should know my fondness for now former Indians.com beat writer Anthony Castrovince’s work, and how I prefer it to any of the local fishwraps. I’m thankful for Castrovince and the job he did over the past five years. It made my work at DLF so much easier (not to mention enjoyable). Although I’m happy to see an excellent journalist get a promotion, I’ll miss Castrovince’s in-game tweets (@Castrovince) and the regular updates at CastroTurf. Still, I’m thankful for the time we had and hopefully new Indians.com beat writer Jordan Bastian will keep up the good work.
As a blogger, I often look to um, interesting, areas for ideas and news. Twitter has been a great source for that, and inevitably there are going to be Twitter personalities. The Indians have a couple, but none is better than @PureRage_Perez, closer Chris Perez’s alter ego (which is not run by the real Perez). His tweets are hilarious, and further enforce the whole badass persona that the real Chris Perez is developing. Humor makes a bad season easier.
I suppose I should actually mention a player, and for that, I’d like to say how thankful I am for the 150 ABs that Carlos Santana had in the big leagues this year, because he was a joy to watch. He’s exactly the type of exciting player the Indians desperately need, and I will be infinitely more thankful if he’s not permanently ruined by the freakish leg injury he suffered (damn you Ryan Kalish!!!). I’m also really thankful the Indians traded Casey F-in Blake for Santana. I really hated Blake.
Speaking of players I hated, I’m really thankful Russell Branyan and Kerry Wood are no longer Cleveland Indians (although Branyan may come back … he always seems to find his way back here somehow).
I’m not ready to dub Tim Belcher the next Leo Mazzone, but the Indians pitching coach has to be given some credit. I’m thankful for his re-inventing of Fausto Carmona, turning Fausto back into a usable pitcher, as well as the progress he made with Justin Masterson as the season went on. Progress is always better than regression.
I hated the hiring at first, but Manny Acta has really grown on me as a manager and I’m thankful for his candidness and personality. After watching Eric Wedge for the past 6 years (when the only thing interesting about the guy is whether or not he’d have a mustache that day), Acta has been a welcome gust of super crisp air blasted in my face. I really hope he’s as good at developing talent as he is at schmoozing.
Finally, I’m thankful for all of you who take time to read DLF. You guys are what drives this site, and I’d love to hear more from you. Leave a comment on the site, hit me up via Twitter (@DeepLeftField), or discuss Tribe on the Facebook site. Thank you, from both Marc and I, for your readership, and for sharing in the misery with us. Hope your holiday is lovely.