DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Indians 2016: First Place?!

The series with the White Sox wraps up today. Not going to the game today; hanging with my Dads today.

Tribe with a big win in the 10th!

Rajai Davis has found the fountain of youth. (20 stolen bases before the half-way mark at 35-years-old)

I hope he didn't find steroids like some of the other older players.

Dolan opening that war chest of money!

Brad Russell
‏@Brad1590
SportsCenter Video: Indians are telling other clubs they have money to spend at the trade deadline - Buster Olney
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Juan Uribe gets nailed in the nads, he comes back, and then proceeds to hit a home run in each game he's back.

Going to the game tonight, getting into batting practice tomorrow, and then attending tomorrow's game with my Dad for his father's day gift.

I'll be downtown all day tomorrow starting at 6am. This should be a fun day.

It seems that Cleveland athletes respond pretty well after taking hits to the junk.

Hopefully Hue makes it part of mandatory training camp. lol

They're 9 above .500, in first place, on a win streak, but they can't even fill half of the stadium. What a shame. Come on, Cleveland!

Capacity now is 35-36,000.

While I don't expect sell-outs like happened in the early 90's, the team is playing well enought to draw 30,000 per game.

Baseball is the most affordable game to attend. My attitude is if you live in the area and consider yourself a fan, and don't go to a minimum of 4-5 games a year....you are just hot air.

It's one thing to say you are a fan. Another to actually support the local team and go to a few games. Cleveland is a better town because of it's teams. Y'all need to support them.

I don't understand why Cleveland can't support a NHL team.

Tribe wins again tonight!
6-0

5 game win streak
1.5 games in 1st place

quote above by 'peen:

"I don't understand why Cleveland can't support a NHL team."

Cleveland is currently the 51st largest US city. Just ahead of the megalopolis Bakersfield, CA.

70 years ago, when Cleveland was in the top ten US cities (#6 just behind LA), hockey was limited to "the original six" - (Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and Toronto Maple Leafs)

When hockey expanded in 1967, Cleveland wasn't one of the 6 new teams. Since then Cleveland has shrunk.

A better question might be "How does Cleveland support any type of professional team?"

The answer of course is that Cleveland has the best fans in the country and we're keeping the teams we got.

But that doesn't quite tell the whole picture.

Cuyahoga County is a respectable top 30 county in terms of population and that doesn't take into the other counties immediately around Cleveland that would count towards the fan base.

Not nearly where it used to be obviously but there are signs that the Cleveland area is starting to attract people to move there, and a solid downtown, partially driven by good sports teams is going a long way toward making that happen.

So .... what happens when the Indians win the World Series this year .......?

I got this feeling .......

I said that when a Cleveland team finally won a Championship, it would take the most incredible of circumstances for it to happen. I felt like once a team finally broke through, the floodgates would finally burst open. Now, I do not expect the Browns to make the playoffs this year .... but I do think that the Indians will be World Series contenders this year. The Indians have great pitching .... and that's 90% of the battle. Once we get Brantley back, that will be a huge boost to the offense. He got good news today,. that he has tendinitis in his shoulder, and not a structural problem. Let's get him back on the field ....... and then, well, we might as well just go win the whole darn thing.

Cleveland!

Quote above by Rocket:

“They're 9 above .500, in first place, on a win streak, but they can't even fill half of the stadium. What a shame. Come on, Cleveland!”

I noticed on the ESPN MLB web site there’s only “294 tickets available” for tonight’s Indians game. (Much fewer than most MLB games tonight)

Does that mean…

Wait, what does that mean?

Looks like Kluber is finally starting to get dialed in a little more. If I'm not mistaken, he's pitched two straight complete games.

Bauer with 10 strikeouts, one run allowed, and a complete game win. Even better news came as Kansas City fell to the Mets.

Six game winning streak, eleven games over five hundred, and three games over five hundred.

Any of you start that GoFundMe account for me, yet? I'm the good luck charm and all.

... with 1.3 million people downtown...

Attendance tonight = 21,216

What's wrong with you Indians fans?

Baseball is boring. Wake me up when they get to the playoffs. Not that they would ever show an indians game in atlanta.

I expected a sell out tonight.

Not sure what else they can do, honestly? I never see many commercials for the tribe. I think Peen's right that people still feel drunk from the 90s team, and the hangover from not seeing such baseball hurts.

Yet, I'd argue the current team is much better in many aspects than any of those teams. The difference? Lacking a power bat, and a shut down reliever. Our pitching staff blows any of the 90s teams out of the water.

The Indians have some sort of marketing problem.

I respectfully disagree. Never expected a big crowd tonight. Fans are exhausted from the Cavs run and post championship celebration.

Last weekend vs the White Sox they averaged 27k - 30k in attendance. The will have another big turnout for the next homestand against the Tigers over 4th of July weekend.

The Indians have done an excellent job in bringing in popular local restaurants, local and craft beer options etc..

When I look around at the games when I am up there, I see a lot of twenty and thirty somethings at the games.

Attendance will pickup.

Fun time for CLE sports right now!

"These guys ain't so #@$%'& bad."

They draw well on any night with fireworks, dollar dogs, and/or a jersey giveaway.

Just wish it could be like the 90s where they draw due to a fantastic team on the field.

"In case you haven't noticed and judging by the attendance, you haven't..."

Napoli and Kipnis set this up in a locker located in the clubhouse

"Hello. Do you know us?"

"We're a Major League Baseball team."

"But since we haven't won a world series in over 65 years, nobody recognizes us - not even in our own home town."

"That's why we carry the American Express card."

"No matter how far out of first we are, it's cool. You know, it keeps us from getting shut out at our favorite hotels and restaurant-type places."

"So if you're looking for some Big-League clout, apply for that little green home-run hitter."

"Look what it's done for US. People still DON'T recognize us but..."

"We're contenders now."

"The American Express card: Don't steal home without it."

D.Salazar with the W. Beat Detroit yet again. KC down in the 8th. 4 game lead for the Tribe!!!

Salazar got the win, but he struggled a lot tonight.

Tribe hit 4, yes 4 triples in tonight's game. Kipnis hit 2 of them. Game ended on a great catch/re-catch up against the wall, and then a double play as the runner on 1st was somewhere in the next zip code as they threw back to double him off.

The Tribe is 12 games over .500, and they will have a 4 game lead in the division as soon as KC finishes losing their game. (they are down 13-4 in the 9th right now)

The Indians are really winning with every aspect of play .... their pitching, especially their starters, have been spectacular ...... they are getting offense up and down their lineup ...... and their defense has been outstanding, to sometimes flat out incredible.

The floodgates have burst ..... I feel a World Series coming our way too .....

wow four triples

yeah since the KC series they've turned it up. Speaking of Salazar, i still don't see him as a starter, he really struggles the second and subsequent times through the lineup, his offspeed stuff still isn't very good. I've said since he was called up his whole skill set screams closer, i think he'd be a great closer or setup man

all these major league references are great, still one of my all time favorite sports movie..it was cast perfectly, everyone was believable

Salazar's young. Don't give up on young guys. Carassco, and Bauer struggled when they were young, and look at what they're becoming.

I'd argue all five of our guys would be considered aces on 25 other MLB teams.

Sorry, but IMO you're wrong about his offspeed stuff. According to Fangraphs, Salazar's change-up is the most effective pitch in MLB - better than Syndegard's 100 MPH fastball or Kershaw's slider - the best.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_...-valuable-pitch

I was just about to post the same article, Dave. I have no idea what leadtheway is talking about in his analysis of Salazar.

Additionally, Salazar has the 2nd lowest ERA in the AL and the 2nd lowest batting average against him in the AL.

my eyeballs tell me otherwise, his last few starts teams figure him out and start to hit him hard early in the count..i care less about stats, they get skewed by a few good games early in the season...his offspeed stuff was all over the place last night. He really only has 2 pitches, a fastball and change, and his change up isn't a true changeup, its more like a split-change with how he grips it. He don't have a curve ball and his slider doesn't fool anyone. so he had a fastball, splitchange and occasionally throws a fast sinker..those scream closer. I'm not saying he can't be a starter if he can have another offspeed pitch to go to, but he's proven to come back to the mean average over time..which for him is a era above 3, and sometimes 4. I just want to see consistency out of him. But everytime he pitches i get nervous the second time through the lineup, because he almost always throws a first pitch fastball and they end up hitting them hard. He gets down on himself quite a bit when his pitches start missing.

Don't get me wrong, when he's on he filthy and a true strikeout pitcher, all I'm saying when i watch Kluber, i expect him to shut a team down and we can probably win with 3 runs, when salazar pitches, i expect him to need support, and this year he's gotten it. Not saying he isn't a starter because hes doing well now, but I've always thought he'd be a top notch closer.. I hope he makes a liar out of me and he keeps this up all year, but i'm betting he comes back down as the competition gets better.

Sitting here with the White Sox game in the background. They hit 7 homers today...and lost by 2 runs. How is that possible? Well, giving up 10 runs will help make it a possibility, but damn! I didn't think they would stay as hot as the were in April, but they've really taken a nose-dive, hard.

Back in March, who had us having the 3rd best run differential in all of major league baseball nearing the end of June (#4 in RA and 9th in RS)? Simply amazing.

Indians up 5-0 in the 8th today. Carrasco pitching a beauty, 2 dingers for Lindor and 1 for Santana.

Update: 3 up 3 down in the bottom of the 8th for the Kitties.

6-0 in the 9th. Naquin with a double and a triple in the game today. Gomes hits the Indians 4th HR of the game. Carrasco going for the complete game shutout as we go to the bottom of the 9th.

Some June Indians' facts (so far)

28 games scheduled for the month (16 on the road)

17 wins already. (only six loses)

Five days, five road games to finish the month out.

This team probably is the best team we've had in 20 years; yeah, I totally mean it. Top to bottom we're solid for this era of baseball.