DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Indians 2016: Two Months Remain

Nothing will ever be like 95 or 97 but this is close, like this team alot more than the wildcard team from a couple years ago, On a side Blue Jays fourm is livid with this series, Canadians are very mad bitter people in general

It's like reading our message board after a loss! "The ship is sinking" and "season over", lol.

Indians have 40 games left. If they just play .500 ball, they'll win 91 games. Tigers (7 games behind) and Royals (8 games behind) each have 38 games left. Tigers must go 26-12 (.684 winning pct) to win 91 games. Royals must go 27-11 (.710 winning pct) to win 91 games.

Just keep winning series and they can't catch us.

Since Allen took over the closer role (3 yrs ago), he has a 2.72 ERA, 88% save rate, 1.11 WHIP, 6.5 hits/per 9 innings, 12 strikeouts/per 9 innings.Furthermore, he's faced roughly 80 less batters than last season with roughly a month or so to go in the season.

It's fine if you prefer Miller over Allen, but to say he is a horrible closer is simply not accurate. I don't care who closes for the Indians as long as they're successful but either option is good for Cleveland.

Agree they are both capable, but Miller offers more match-up ability with tough lefty hitters in the late innings, plus he has shown that he can go 2 innings if necessary. Tito said when we got Miller that he was going to alternate the set-up and closer roles based on the late inning matchups. EG, if you're facing Toronto and Donaldson, Bautista, and Encarnacion are coming up in the 8th, you might move Cody to the 8th and close with Miller in the 9th. Vice-versa, if those guys are coming up in the 9th. The real upside of the Miller trade is that you have shortened the game for your starters, who have shown an increasing propensity to only go 6 innings. Now you have Shaw, who has been better than he gets credit for, to pitch the 7th, and Allen/Miller for the 8th and 9th.

Those stats are misleading, he puts alot of people on, and yes his first year or so he was pretty damn good, just like perez was, then perez starting blowing leads and losing games when he got to pitch in non save situations, like Cody has started to do this year, this year is ERA is over 3, he has a 2-5 record. He's obviously not the worst we can do, But he's been alot better. I get really nervous this year where i didn't last year. My point is more if he doesn't get it dialed back in, Miller would be the guy..He was brought in for the end of games, They both have good 4 seamers but Millers slider is more devastating than Cody's curve. Miller almost always sinks his throws to the bottom of the zone, Cody gets in problems because he overthrows at times and leaves balls up. So ok I'll say Cody isn't horrible, but he hasn't been that great this year either and is capable of being much better. The good thing is we have miller as a option if he doesn't get back on track, and thats a pretty good option to have. I actually think Cody could be a decent 2-3 innings guy. I do think that there could be something to missing Gomes as well as it seems all of our pitchers have struggled at times since he's been out.

Damn Miller, that's how you close a game

Miller is just ridiculously good. 3 batters, 3 Ks.

Outstanding performance by Carrasco as well.

Miller made two of those guys look silly. Nice win.

Yep. He's the most talented guy we have in the pen BY FAR

Who are these guys?

the 2016 World Series champs

That was the 2nd guy. The other one had the hosts of MLB Quick Pitch laughing as well. The pitch looked like it was going to hit the batters back knee, but he swung through it anyway.

That's the wipe-out slider that makes Miller just as effective against righties as he is lefties.

man if we can just fix salazar and tomlin and gomes comes back just average this team is going to be a juggernaut. I think the FO will probably find a way to fix the backup catching position in the offseason, i think Mejia is still a year or two away. But god I think we have 3 or 4 pitchers on our staff that can hit better than perez...if this pitching thing don't work out maybe Tomlin can catch, we could use his bat..lol

I don't know if we need to really worry about fixing Tomlin in terms of starting. Once we head to the postseason, we'll essentially have a three-man rotation and Tomlin won't be in it. I do agree that Salazar will be a priority.... Got to get him back into the groove.

A three man rotation means someone is pitching on short rest, which is a horrible idea. Carrasco, Kluber, Salazar, and Bauer is a really good four.

depending on who comes around with salazar or tomlin, i could see clevinger taking one of their places in the rotation

I think that the Indians made the best trade deadline deal of any team in the Majors. Miller cost them a lot, but man is he a great reliever. He can perform well in any role in the back of the bullpen .... and can pitch 2 innings if needed. He can pitch back to back to back. He was exactly the right guy for this team. Shaw, Miller, and Allen are a great 1-2-3 ..... and Otera has been exceptional as well. Manship has been a very good reliever as well. I really like Clevinger. I like him more as a starter, but I think that he is rounding his way into handling big league hitters now. McAllister is a concern .... but in 8 appearances in August, covering 9.1 innings, he has only given up 2 ER, walking only 1 batter and striking out 10. Hopefully he can build on that.

I had thought that Cody Anderson turned the corner last year ... but evidently not. He had a solid season last year when he returned from the Minors, but this year has been flat out awful.However, even without him, our staff has been pretty darn good.

My major concern is Salazar. Man, he was a potential Cy Young candidate before the All Star break, and he has struggled with injuries after.It would be huge if we can get him back to normal come the postseason.

I hope we can grab the ring this year. Next year's team will look very, very different. Napoli, Santana, and Davis will all be free agents. That is a huge chunk of production to have to replace.

in that same vein, depending on far we go, if we don't win it this year, hopefully the Dolan's realize now is the time to spend. The young players are only going to get better, and keeping a Napoli and santana will be a necessity

Evidently the Indians have a 1 year qualifying offer that they could use to keep Napoli.It is worth something like $17 million, but that would be worthwhile. There wouldn;t be the long term commitment that always worries me with a much older player.

I just read that the Indians hold a $12 million option on Santana for next year, and I would think that that would be almost automatic.

Rajai Davis will just be a free agent.

Rajai will be expendable i think with the way naquin has played and hopefully brantley coming back, napoli and santana have much better value to us

Time to put Salazar on the shelf, he's doing nothing but hurting team and himself. I never thought he was a starter but damn he fell off a cliff after the all star break

Damn, 3 runs already?

One swing from Kris Davis. Hope he can settle down and keep us in the game.

Tough break for Danny. I hope he gets back to old form, maybe?

He needs to spend rest of season doing rehab starts. Trying to work out his issues while we're in the middle of the pennant race isn't doing anyone any favors

He no idea where they are going

that would be ideal

Looks like Tito has conceded a loss for the sake of getting Salazar innings

j/c....

Salazar needs a trip down to the minors to get his confidence back. Poor guy has lost it mentally.

I think that he just needs to be able to get in 6 or 7 innings for a few starts in a row. He cannot do that up here.

well, can't get them all

Teams do it all the time....going back to their Ace in Game 4. I'd personally rather go to Kluber on short rest than Bauer on full. That's not to say I don't like Bauer, because I do. Kluber is just that much better.

Both ways have worked-- going with the three or four man rotation. It's not a horrible idea.

j/c...

Off to another horrendous start, down 5-0 in the second. Santana misplays an infield fly and costs the Tribe 2 runs.

I think this is my fault. I pulled out my Indians hoodie yesterday morning for the first time since early June. Damn you hoodie!

Hats for bats, not hats for Punch.

Burn it. Can't take chances. Holding my breath for, oh, about a month. Love Miller's stuff. Let's get some more notches and lock it up early.

Go, Tribe! May the Wahoo be with us all the way.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/giving-a-questionable-start-to-baseballs-best-starter/