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Team Injury Projections

The Team Injury Projections are here, driven by our brand new injury forecasting system, the Comprehensive Health Index [of] Pitchers [and] Players [with] Evaluative Results—or, more succinctly, CHIPPER. Thanks to work by Colin Wyers and Dan Turkenkopf and a database loaded with injuries dating back to the 2002 season—that's nearly 4,600 players and well over 400,000 days lost to injury—we now have a system that produces injury-risk assessments to three different degrees. CHIPPER projects ratings for players based on their injury history—these ratings measure the probability of a player missing one or more games, 15 or more games, or 30 or more games. CHIPPER will have additional features added to it throughout the spring and early season that will enhance the accuracy of our injury coverage.

These ratings are also available in the Player Forecast Manager (pfm.baseballprospectus.com), where they'll be sortable by league or position—you won’t have to wait for us to finish writing this series in order to see the health ratings for all of the players.

CLEVELAND INDIANS
Team Audit | Depth Chart
 

Dashboard


2010 Recap
 

2010
 

2009
 

2008
 

2007
4th in AL Central
39 entries
13 DL trips
               

848
TDL

22
DMPI
 

848
TDL
16th
 

22
DMPI
18th
 

849
TDL
5th
 

30
DMPI
26th
 

793
TDL
10th
 

26
DMPI
19th
 

564
TDL
3rd
 

28
DMPI
18th

Hitters in approximate Depth Charts order at time of publication

 

Days Lost to Injury

2011 Injury Risk

Player

Age

2008

2009

2010

1-day

15-days

30-days
Grady Sizemore

28

3

54

144

Red

Red

Red
Asdrubal Cabrera

25

3

25

69

Red

Red

Yellow
Shin-Soo Choo

28

71

0

20

Red

Yellow

Yellow
Carlos Santana

25

0

0

65

Red

Red

Red
Travis Hafner

34

106

41

21

Red

Red

Red
Matt LaPorta

26

1

3

6

Yellow

Green

Green
Jayson Nix

28

0

35

0

Yellow

Green

Green
Orlando Cabrera

36

0

0

36

Yellow

Yellow

Green
Michael Brantley

24

0

3

8

Yellow

Green

Green
Trevor Crowe

27

0

21

2

Yellow

Yellow

Green
Luis Valbuena

25

0

0

3

Green

Green

Green
Austin Kearns

31

81

65

8

Red

Red

Red
Lou Marson

25

0

0

0

Green

Green

Green
Nick Johnson

32

137

24

169

Red

Red

Red
Jason Donald

26

0

0

26

Red

Yellow

Green

Pitchers in approximate Depth Charts order at time of publication

 

Days Lost to Injury

2011 Injury Risk

Player

Age

2008

2009

2010

1-day

15-days

30-days
Fausto Carmona

27

63

0

0

Green

Green

Green
Justin Masterson

26

0

0

0

Green

Green

Green
Mitch Talbot

27

0

0

25

Green

Green

Green
Josh Tomlin

26

0

0

0

Green

Green

Green
Carlos Carrasco

24

0

0

0

Green

Green

Green
Jeanmar Gomez

22

0

0

0

Green

Green

Green
Chris Perez

25

0

0

0

Green

Green

Green
Rafael Perez

29

0

0

0

Green

Green

Green
Joe Smith

27

0

78

0

Yellow

Green

Green
Chad Durbin

33

0

18

21

Yellow

Yellow

Green
Tony Sipp

27

0

0

0

Green

Green

Green
Frank Herrmann

27

0

0

0

Green

Green

Green
Vinnie Pestano

26

0

0

0

Green

Green

Green
David Huff

26

0

0

4

Green

Green

Green

Summary: Cleveland's roster didn't inspire much confidence heading into 2010—and that was when it was still full of healthy players. Losing Grady Sizemore for most of the year and then having Carlos Santana knocked out shortly after being called up didn't help matters any. The Indians ranked in the top 10 in the majors for total entries in the injury database, and their DMPI, while an improvement over the 2009 campaign, was still worse than average.

Sizemore ended up losing over 140 games to knee surgery and has only recently begun playing games during spring training. Santana missed 60 games due to his own knee surgery after a collision at the plate last year, and Asdrubal Cabrera missed over 60 games because of surgery for his fractured forearm. The rest of the offense seemed to suffer from their own bumps and bruises, hence the lack of rosy outlooks for most of the position players. There is still a significant chance that in 2011, one (if not more) of the starters will miss significant time due to injury. The Indians decided they didn't have enough players missing enormous chunks of the season on the roster, though, so they signed Nick Johnson to a minor-league contract—we assume this was done to teach all of the impressionable youngsters on the roster how not to attempt to stay on the field.

The one saving grace from a medical point of view is the pitching staff. After missing over 60 days in 2008 with a hip strain, Fausto Carmona has been healthy over the last few years. Despite an odd delivery, Justin Masterson has managed to avoid injury thus far. Mitch Talbot did miss some time in 2010 with shoulder inflammation and a mid-back strain, so even though he is a low risk, we're a tad more leery of his prospects. Both Josh Tomlin and Carlos Carrasco are low risks, which leaves Talbot as the only starter worth worrying about (from a health perspective, at least). Closer Chris Perez did stay healthy in 2010, but he experienced some impingement in 2009 spring training and then underwent ankle surgery to remove an extra piece of bone after that year. Overall, though, it's hard to complain about all the green on the pitching side of the ledger. If only the Indians could do something to keep their position players on the field as well.

The Big Risk: It's not the player that has been talked about the most during spring training (Sizemore), but Santana. The Indians have something special in Santana, and that gives them a large advantage over teams of similar market size. Even though Lou Marson was rated highly, Santana is clearly a far superior player from an offensive standpoint. Losing Santana would take a serious hitter out of the lineup, one who boasts positional scarcity points in addition to his actual performance.

Comeback: Santana again. He had a rather unusual surgery to repair just the lateral collateral ligament (LCL) in his knee. It’s rare for that ligament to be injured in isolation; instead, the LCL is usually damaged along with the ACL or tears of the meniscus, causing serious knee instability. Santana was lucky—in a relative sense, we mean—that this injury was not much worse.

He has come along well, and the reports from spring training have been excellent. Obviously, any surgeries on the knee are concerning for catchers, but this procedure didn't involve the joint surface or meniscus, which become more problematic with deep flexion of the knee. Santana should return to full effectiveness, meaning that the Indians got a little lucky.

Best Health: Masterson has remained healthy with a rubber arm, so he deserves this spot even without extra credit for not getting sick to his stomach while watching the defense behind him fumble all of those grounders he induces.

Worst Health: You realize Nick Johnson is on this team, yes? Like, the Nick Johnson.

Thank you for reading

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APV2600
3/24
I'd be interested in your take on Sizemore's recovery to date.
TraderBob
3/24
Shouldn't several of the younger pitchers have a Yellow mark in the 15 day box - for a possible trips to he DL for cases of 'ineffectivitis'.
jhardman
3/24
I'd be interested to hear a little more about Asdrubal Cabrera as well. Without his health, the Indians middle infield looks extremely thin.
ericgappa
3/25
Why would Santana be at such a great risk for another 30+ day injury? Last year was the first of his career (including games he played in the minors) where he missed such a large chunk. Isn't a single incident more of an anomaly than a warning sign of expectation? Surely his own previous health should have some impact? Surely you can dig up the number of catchers injured in a home plate collision one year & how many games they actually missed the following year.
cidawkins
3/25
It's not just the home plate collision. He also had surgery on his wrist for the hamate bone in the 2009-2010 offseason. Also he had 3 different times where he missed time from different contusions throughout 2010 even before his collision at home. The line between a fracture and a bad contusion is very thin, so that also is factored in as well.

If it was just the home plate collision then yes his rating would be a little out of whack. But factor everything else in, the 30+ rating gains a little more stock. With all of that being said, it would not surprise me if he does end up playing in 140+ games.