Fernando Cabrera (RP), CLE - Hot
April 13, 2007
News: In his second appearance of the year, Cabrera again looked flat-out nasty for the Indians. Cabrera allowed the first two hitters he faced to reach on a broken bat single by Joe Crede and a walk where he just missed the outside corner on a full count. After inducing a double play to escape the threat, Cabrera turned on the jets when he came back out. He struck out the side in the sixth, routinely popping his fastball in the mid-nineties and mixing in a vicious slider as an out pitch. He fanned two more in the seventh to work around a two out Jermaine Dye walk (on a borderline full count fastball at the knees).
Views: Long live the post-hype players. Cabrera was being hyped all around the net heading into last season, and was an afterthought heading into 2007. He's now struck out eight in 4.2 innings while allowing just four baserunners. Joe Borowski had better start serving notice in Cleveland.