Twitter reacts to the Browns’ last-second loss to San Diego
October 5, 2015Did Mike Pettine question Joe Haden deciding not to play? – WFNY Podcast – 2015-10-04
October 5, 2015Generally speaking, it’s never a bad thing for a team to finish a season at its high water mark. Whether you’re making a playoff push or merely trying to stow away some optimism to keep you warm in the winter, every new beginning — to quote an obnoxious ‘90s pop song — comes from “some other beginning’s end.” And so, with minimal drama or fanfare, the Cleveland Indians cake-walked through their season-ending weekend series with the Boston Red Sox (78-84), sweeping three games at Progressive Field to round out 2015 as an above .500 team — 81 wins, 80 losses (yes, making up game No. 162 was deemed mercifully unnecessary). That’s three straight winning seasons for Tito Francona as Tribe manager, which — as was widely pointed out on social media yesterday — is one more winning season than the expansion Browns have managed in their history.
Final AL Wild Card Standings:
Who Cares +1 x
Whatever —
Somebody Else (1)
Bleh (3)
Cleveland (4.5)
And so we shall remain
Four and one half games
In back of the apparition
That became our obsession.
Out of our mitts
And into the ether
Could it be any bleaker
Than never to know her name?
Back in April, the distant October matchup between the SI-anointed Indians and the reloaded Red Sox looked like a potentially high-stakes, hot ticket event. With both teams rounding out disappointing seasons and resigned to their mathematical fates, however, there wasn’t much intrigue left to be had, beyond the Indians’ goal of getting over the .500 hump (where they’d only been on two other occasions all season) and the chance to see if Jesus Aguilar would somehow live up to my own misguided preseason hype.
The greater takeaway from the series, though — and the final week in general — was that every Indians starting pitcher NOT named Carlos Carrasco managed to close his campaign on a very positive note. The same could be said of Carlos Santana (who went deep and matched his career high with 85 RBI), Cody Allen (who picked up his career-best 33rd and 34th saves in the final two games of the year), Yan Gomes (who was finally looking like himself at the dish), and sure, even Jesus Aguilar. He had a couple hits Sunday, technically making him a .300 hitter in 2015, albeit in a less-than-expected 19 at-bats.
Here’s how the Tribe’s current stable of six starting pitchers performed in their farewell outings over the past week, along with their resulting final season numbers.
CARRASCO: L, 3 IP, 5 ER, 2 BB 5 K (14-12, 3.63 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 10.6 K/9, 3.8 WAR)
ANDERSON: W, 7 IP, 0 ER, 4 BB, 2 K (7-3, 3.05 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 4.3 K/9, 2.4 WAR)
BAUER: ND, 7 IP, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K (11-12, 4.55 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 8.7 K/9, 1.5 WAR)
TOMLIN: W, 6.1 IP, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K (7-2, 3.02 ERA, 0.84 WHIP, 7.8 K/9, 1.9 WAR)
KLUBER: W, 8 IP, 0 ER, 2 BB, 9 K (9-16, 3.49 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 9.9 K/9, 4.2 WAR)
SALAZAR: W, 5.1 IP, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K (14-10, 3.45 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 9.5 K/9, 3.0 WAR)
Overall, the Indians wound up ranked second only to Houston in team ERA this season among AL teams (3.67), and they were tops in WHIP (1.19), opp. BA (.237), and strikeouts (1,407). Danny Salazar finished just five strikeouts shy of giving the club three 200-K pitchers — something only three teams have ever accomplished. And Salazar, Kluber, Carrasco, and Bauer all finished in the top 10 in the league in strikeouts per nine innings.
So you might assume, then, that it was a bottom-barrel offense that led the Tribe down its dogleg path to the golf course. Well, Cleveland actually ends the season ranking sixth in hitting (.256 overall, .266 since the All-Star break) and fifth in OBP (.325). They just lacked any sort of thump (11th in SLG at .401 and 13th in HR with just 141) and famously couldn’t hit with runners in scoring position (12th, .249) or particularly with the bases juiced (15th, .212). For the first time since 2012, the Indians are without a 20-HR hitter (Santana got to 19, but Brandon Moss’ 15 is still good enough for a share of second, despite having been traded two months ago). And for the eighth straight season, they don’t have a 100 RBI man (Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner last reached the feat in 2007).
Weekend Re-Capping
Friday:
Indians 8, Red Sox 2
W: Josh Tomlin (7-2), L: Henry Owens (4-4)
Boxscore Excerpt: Indians w/ RISP: 7-for-13
What was that crap about the Indians scuffling with guys in scoring position? It certainly became less of a recurring nightmare once Bourn, Moss, and Swisher were jettisoned, and though Frank Lindor didn’t drive any runs in tonight, he was still around… being awesome and inspiring everyone with his precious youth and optimism. Santana, Chris Johnson, and Jerry Sands all had two-hit nights, driving in six runs between them as BoSox youngster Henry Owens was rudely clubbed to death in his season finale. His counterpart, Josh Tomlin, was simply in standard Little Cowboy mode, giving up a home run to David Ortiz and little else. And the unsinkable Jeff Manship and Kyle Crockett held the fort as the Tribe cruised.
Saturday:
Indians 2, Red Sox 0
W: Corey Kluber (9-16), L: Craig Breslow (0-4), SV: Cody Allen (33)
Boxscore Excerpt: Klubot | 8 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 9 K
If you thought Corey Kluber’s undeserving 16 losses might be the most by a pitcher following a Cy Young season, you’d be wrong. In fact, the 34-degree turnaround from 18 wins to 16 losses isn’t even close to Steve Carlton’s 1972-1973 campaigns, when he went from a 27-10 Cy Young year to 13-20. In any case, it was good to see the Klubot functioning at premium efficiency in the last start of what has to have been a mighty frustrating year. Of course, “frustrating” is very different from “bad.” Some might reasonably say Kluber dipped from top tier to second tier in 2015, but he still ended the season No. 3 in the AL in strikeouts (245), No. 3 in WHIP (1.05), No. 5 in SP WAR (4.2), and perhaps most importantly, No. 2 in innings pitched. The workhorse carries on. Oh, and yes, Kluber did rank No. 1 in one key statistic: lowest run support, at 3.31 runs per start.
Weirdly, Craig Breslow — a career matchup lefty whom you might remember from a cup of coffee with the Tribe back in 2008 — started this game for Boston. It was just the second start of his career, but he looked like most crafty southpaws do against the Indians… super crafty. His only hiccups were a pair of home runs from Santana and Ryan Raburn. Carlos, for all the garbage hurled his way all summer, led the Indians in home runs (19) and RBIs (85) and has hit close to .260 since July 4. Raburn, meanwhile, remained almost shockingly useful all season, and closes it with a really good .301/.393/.936 slash line. Is it possible we didn’t quite see enough of him?
Sunday
Indians 3, Red Sox 1
W: Danny Salazar (14-10), L: Rick Porcello (9-15), SV: Cody Allen (34)
Boxscore Excerpt: Jesus Aguilar | 2-for-4, 1 RBI
It should be noted that the Red Sox actually had a very good September that lifted them from the near-basement of the league to being just a half-game in back of the Indians coming into this series. They ended with a bit of a splat. And while we can kick ourselves all we want about the tiny amount of money wasted on Gavin Floyd, it might be better that he spent 90 percent of the season unavailable rather than getting lit up the way Rick Porcello — he of the $90 million free agent contract — did for most of his first year in Boston.
Lindor (.313) sadly went 0-for-4 in his rookie finale, and Michael Brantley (.310) and Jason Kipnis (.303) sat it out. But damn, what’s not to like about the first third of your lineup heading into 2016?
As for question marks, both Lonnie Chisenhall and Giovanny Urshela notched a pair of hits in this game, as Cleveland took a 3-1 lead in the third and nothing happened from that point forward. In Lonnie, you have an emerging above-average rightfielder with less than desirable rightfielder pop at the plate (a .666 OPS raises double concerns!). In Gio, you have an upgrade over Lonnie at the hot corner, but again, minimal returns with the stick (.609 OPS). Maybe you can afford these situations when you have the production you’re getting from your middle infielders. But as should be news to no one, the Indians’ biggest need right now is a power bat — somewhere, anywhere. And those guys tend to be play corner infield or corner outfield. This will likely come up more in postseason analysis over the weeks and months ahead. But for the time being, at least, logic would say that Chiz and Ursh can be penciled in as regulars in RF and 3B, respectively, come next spring.
Until then: I got Astros over Yankees, Jays over Rangers, Astros over Royals, Jays over Astros.
Cubs over Pirates, Dodgers over Mets, Cubs over Cardinals, Dodgers over Cubs.
Then Dodgers vs. Blue Jays goes completely unnoticed because DraftKings doesn’t have a way to make fantasy teams from only two available rosters.
12 Comments
http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/10/4/9451113/terry-francona-middle-finger-nesn-red-sox-broadcast
Let’s ask Terry about NESN next time we play Bosox.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CM0TEvOW8AAuyk_.png
Great work on these all season Andrew. Been fun reading them and writing alongside you this season.
feeling’s mutual, Michael. Look forward to the subsequent months of working ourselves into an overly positive 2016 frenzy.
Let the offseason begin! Unlike most winters, the Indians have only one very specific need–a middle of the order power bat, preferably a right-handed one. Unfortunately, this has (suddenly) become the rarest and most sought-after commodity in MLB. It’s kind of like the front-of-rotation ace the mid-90’s Indians teams so sorely lacked to start Game 1 of a playoff series. Scarcity and small market MLB teams, sigh.
The bright side is that that team is loaded in every other important department. The defensive woes of the past are almost certainly behind us with Lindor and Not Michael Bourn handling the crucial middle of the diamond SS and CF positions, respectively. If a healthy Urshela can hit enough to man 3B in 2016, even better. Our OF depth in the upper minors will hopefully push offensively necessary guys like Murphy/Moss/Chris Johnson to full-time DH roles by mid-2016 as well.
Starting pitching? We’ve got a heavy helping of strike-throwers, youth, and depth that has to be the envy of every team in baseball. I can’t wait to see Carrasco and Salazar with another year of experience under their belts. Trevor Bauer as an under-25, high ceiling fourth or fifth starter is an embarrassment of riches. Remember two years ago when we were trying to talk ourselves into Justin Masterson being our “ace”? I don’t either.
The pen could admittedly use a little work. A late inning RHP or LHP (or both) would be nice.
But that middle of the order. Even a decent No 4 hitter would make Kipnis-Lindor-Brantley look all the better. Carlos Santana in his worst MLB season still managed 85 RBI’s hitting behind these guys in just the second half of the season. Its not like we need a 40-HR Chris Davis type to plug into the order either. A consistent, 25 HR guy could easily mean about 100-125 RBI’s in the middle of this order. Put Santana, Gomes, and Chisenhall in the 5-6-7 spots and all of a sudden you have a lineup that can compete with anyone in the AL.
Just look at the rotation! 6-7 legit guys!
April/May defensive woes behind us!
RISP hitting going to regress to mean!
et cetera…
Great photo lol.
Package Bauer/Santana for legitimate RH power bat. If not then target guys like Byrd to platoon in RF with your boy and my personal fav Parra from Orioles.
And let the great “Trade Santana even though he’s a dumpster fire for a good player” debates begin!
I’ve always said that Carlos Santana is not a bad player, just a bad fit for this Indians team. His skill set–high OBP, 20+ HR power and ability to hit in the top or the middle of the lineup–has to be attractive to many MLB teams. It’s just a poor fit for the Tribe. This is a team that was 4th in the AL in OBP but 11th in slugging percentage and 13th in home runs. Our 1-3 hitters are as good at table setting as any threesome in major league baseball. We just need a No. 4 hitter behind them who hits more than the .231 BA Santana has provided the last two seasons. These guys get on base; we need a guy who can knock them in rather than just move them over one base at a time. In this post-Moneyball era, complaining about a low BA and high-OBP makes me sound like a flat-earther, I know, but for THIS specific situation, I think Santana is less valuable to the Indians than he would be to almost any other team in baseball. A Carlos Santana hitting second for an offensive juggernaut like Toronto or New York would be a much more valuable player than he is here in Cleveland.
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I think Santana would be very attractive to a warm weather team where he could get it going when the season starts. His bat does not play as a 4 or even 5 hole hitter. He plays the positions where we will look to add a bat.
IMO he has value to other teams far beyond his value to the Indians.
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