Cleveland Indians: One bad decision can hurt you, just like one bad pitch
I honestly hope Zach Plesac reads this article. I watched him pitch during the summer camp and he had electric stuff and was mowing down batters. My reaction was who is this guy?
So, I took a chance on him and picked him up from waivers onto my fantasy team when I dropped one of my players before the season started.
And man, he did not disappoint. I watched his first start of 2020 against the good hitting White Sox. He threw eight innings of scoreless baseball with 11 strikeouts. He only gave up three hits, and zero walks. In my head, I thought he would win me the fantasy baseball league this year because I had drafted a good amount of starting pitchers.
His second start he threw seven innings and gave up three runs, with six strikeouts. In Plesac’s third start, he went six innings scoreless, and seven strikeouts.
For a while, I thought Plesac could have been in Cy Young considerations. He was just fun to watch as a pitcher and his breaking balls are nasty.
But, Plesac ruined my dreams when he broke COVID protocols. Plesac is 25 years old, and he is young, which sometimes means they are reckless. He is the other Indian drafted in the 2016 draft alongside Civale and Bieber, which is crazy to think. Plesac was drafted in the 12th round.
Plesac left the team hotel and did not notify the team so all hell broke loose, as it should have. The team was not happy with Plesac for putting his teammates at risk. And to make matters worse, Mike Clevinger went out with Plesac and also stayed quiet about the outing.
So, both players were punished. Plesac was sent to the alternate training site. This hurt my fantasy team just having a player sit on my bench, not as an IL player, so it just took a roster spot.
I could no longer be patient about Plesac so I dropped him. And of course, he gets picked up by someone in my league when Clevinger gets traded. But the moral of the story is outside of my own fantasy baseball world, Plesac put his teammates at risk.
Clevinger is also a culprit, and the Indians thought it was more than enough of a reason to ship him away to another team to get rid of the baggage. Both players are so talented and they really made a bad decision.
I do not know what the Indians have in mind for the young 25-year-old, but he has a 1.33 ERA right now, with a .667 WHIP and 10 K/9 ratio. It is a shame that I have to despise Plesac for this one action because he is so talented.
Like the title says, one bad action can hurt you, just like one mistake fastball left right down the middle.