The Indians are NOT as good as their record
dbtunr
Posts: 614 ✭✭✭
Only three decent starting pitchers, a center fielder with a women's softball throwing arm, and a 1st baseman that seems like he's 5'8''. Girardi may have choked when he had 30 seconds to make a decision, but Tito had days and weeks to decide to pitch Bauer on 3 days rest. This was the same mistake he made last year. Were it not for that 30 second decision and bad call by the ump, the series is over.
It all rests with Kluber now. Which Kluber shows up? Even if they win, they will not win it all. Playing in the weak Central helped them to their good record.
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They are really good. Kipnis n center was exposed yesterday. Tito's gambit there is risky since he is really a second baseman and has provided little offensive offset.
While the AL Central is not a powerhouse division either was the AL East this year. I think both divisions had two over five hundred teams this year and both made the playoffs. They're were only 8- 10 good teams this year in all of baseball and they are all in the playoffs. The rest? Meh. Can't criticize the Indians anymore then you can the upper echelon teams.
For the record the Indian were 22-12 against the AL East. They did indeed cleanup against the Central as well. 50-26. Where they struggled was against the National League where they were 6-14.
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
If the Central is so weak how come they always represent the A.L. in the world series?
Why can't the Yankees, Astros, Red Sox, or anyone else seem to step up with the pressure on?
Yes, I know, anything can happen in a short series. So how come the only thing that happens
is the A.L. Central team winning?
In the course of every human endeavor since the dawn of time the risk of human error has always been a factor. Including but not limited to field goals, 4th down attempts, or multiple paragraph ramblings on a sports forum authored by someone who shall remain anonymous.
We are so glad they represented and lost so many series aside from the lone KC victory and White Sox in 2005. Prior to that was Twins in 91. The Central was terrible this year. The Tigers gave up in August and the White Sox were just awful all year. The East has 10 winners in that time frame.
We weren't talking about WS wins, we were talking AL pennants.
4 of last 5 from the central. Dominance. Where have the Yankees been during that time?
In the course of every human endeavor since the dawn of time the risk of human error has always been a factor. Including but not limited to field goals, 4th down attempts, or multiple paragraph ramblings on a sports forum authored by someone who shall remain anonymous.
That's why you fail. In Yankee land, anything other then the World Series title is a losing season. We got 27. How you doin?
One for the century is certainly impressive!
Regardless the Yankees have thrown a monkey wrench in the Indians march towards the title by making Kluber throw twice in this series. He may only get one start vs Houston and that may not come until game 3. Yankees will be armed, fresh and ready for game 5 and I'm sure you could see Greene, Robertson and Chapman for multiple innings. Severino and Kahlne gave the Yankees exactly what they needed in game four. Still expect the Tribe to survive but all the pressure is squarely on their shoulders. The Yankees are on a free roll
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
They are pacing themselves
m
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Sabathia just needs to give them 5 innings and keep the score close.
So the Yankees have sucked the last five years, is what you're saying. You certainly are good at
avoiding the actual subject.
In the course of every human endeavor since the dawn of time the risk of human error has always been a factor. Including but not limited to field goals, 4th down attempts, or multiple paragraph ramblings on a sports forum authored by someone who shall remain anonymous.
yes, they have sucked the last 5 years.
OP title is probably true but I think the yankees are punching above their weight class a bit as well. They obviously are playing better than the Red Sox who were ahead of them in the regular season standings.
Folks the Yankees are the Yankees......the BEST team in Baseball history. Until somebody wins more WS than they have you have nothing to talk about. They go a few years without a WS ring and bingo every body is all smiles.
I think it is the Yankee fans who should be all smiles.
I wouldn't be surprised if they win game 5 and move on.
Pressure mostly on the Tribe. They were, favored to win it all. The Pinstripes were not even picked to get this far. Don't know which would be more of a shocker. Tribe coming up short as the favorite or the Pinstripes advancing.
Indians solid 2-1 favorites tonight
m
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Go Yankee's
**Only three decent starting pitchers, a center fielder with a women's softball throwing arm, and a 1st baseman that seems like he's 5'8''. **
this is a very harsh criticism by a member who hasn't followed the Team all season, is still celebrating the Yankees series win and doesn't really have an objective viewpoint.
for the record, I will state that I believe in the ALDS that the better Team won, that being the New York Yankees.
now we can get to explanations of why that is factual. what caused the Indians to fall so surprisingly was injuries to key players which culminated in Francona making decisions which hurt the Team in a short series. the pitching wasn't the problem....................let me repeat --- the pitching wasn't the problem. the problem was players who wouldn't otherwise have played being forced into either situations they weren't ready for or positions they weren't experienced at.
the biggest problem was with the outfield. for most of the year that would be Michael Brantley in LF, Bradley Zimmer in CF and Lonnie Chisenhall in RF.
--- Brantley was recovering from shoulder surgery which kept him out all of last season and some of the spring, then in August he went down with an ankle sprain and never returned. I believe he had 5-10 AB's prior to seasons end and was on the roster as a PH. when the DH went down in game 2 he was forced to fill in there as a regular.
--- Zimmer was a rookie who played outstanding defense and was OK at the plate. two weeks before the end of the season he was hustling down to first and tried to beat the 1st baseman to the bag. his hand was stepped on and broken.
--- Chisenhall suffered a pulled hamstring in August and followed the same recovery as Brantley, a few AB's at season's end and then on the roster as a PH.
the Indians had Austin Jackson fill in with a good season, picked up Jay Bruce in August and used Brandon Guyer and a few rookies to help in the outfield. that "center fielder with a woman's softball throwing arm" was Jason Kipnis who suffered a hamstring injury. that forced Francona's hand again in mid-season, I think it was before the All-Star break. Jose Ramirez moved from 3rd to 2nd and they used three rookies --- Giovanny Urshela, Yandy Diaz and Gonzales --- to fill the space at 3rd base.
when Zimmer went down, Kipnis was close to returning to the roster, he had been pinch hitting a little. instead of moving Ramirez back to 3rd, Francona chose to use a rookie and Kipnis at CF until Kip was ready to start. I don't believe he played an entire game, usually about 5-6 innings at a position he played in College.
that explains why things looked like they did. Ramirez played his natural position of 2nd base as well as any other player in either league. a rookie, Urshela, played 3rd base and looked like a rookie. Santana may not be the prototypical 1st baseman but his defense all year was stellar and his bat dependable
your comment about the pitching is pure gloating and won't be dignified with a reply. you should perhaps try to figure out why Aaron Judge had 52 HR's during the regular season and Cleveland's "weak" pitching staff completely dominated him. to be honest, he should have been riding the pine-pony for as much as he contributed.
Tells us how you really feel Keets.
If that's the case, then I blame Francona for poor management. He should have been resting players. I also blame players for pulling muscles in basically pointless games.
Say all you want about their pitching, Kluber got blown out in 2 games and Bauer in 1. Miller got tagged for an HR. With Santana a free agent and Bruce gone, outlook for next year is not great. But they are in the weakest division in baseball so they will probably finish first again.
OK, I'll counter that by saying a few things from bottom to top.
do you have a pipeline to what Santana and Bruce are thinking??
--- Carlos and management agreed to wait until the season was over to talk about signing so it wouldn't be a distraction during the season. he seems content here, is well like by his teammates and has given no indication he is leaving.
--- Jay Bruce has expressed an interest in staying, also.
nothing in any media has said otherwise, but that may change.
Miller gave up a single HR. viewed through the lens of the entire season and the entire playoffs, his body of work, it is meaningless. if it had happened at any other point in any other game it would have been pretty much the same. if you feel he lost the game or that it means he's a bad pitcher, that's OK and only means you don't know squat about baseball.
Corey Kluber made four bad pitches and they got hit a long way, not much else to say. it isn't a reflection on his season but you can criticize him if you want to. talk anybody in management of any MLB Team and you'll find they agree with me and not you. he is a top flight pitcher, better than any of the Yankees starters right now.
Bauer didn't pitch bad in game four, the defense failed him. we can't know what would have happened if Urshela had made the third out, but it is certain that those four UNEARNED RUNS wouldn't have scored that inning. the game may have been different, but it is a moot point since Cleveland lost the game.
as far as Francona is concerned, I wouldn't want to have to second guess him.....................ever. he has proven himself to be one of the most competent managers in MLB right now and will certainly get his share of votes for Manager of the Year cast by people way smarter and in the know than us. again, they will probably agree with me and not you.
gloat if you will, but the sake of bandwidth start making sense.