Interesting stuff. I still maintain that the Yankees adjusted to the larger strike zone and were content to foul those pitches off to stay alive while Tribe hitters continued to watch them and hope they got the call. I have no empirical data to prove that.
Just how bad have the Indians been at closing out series?
A question I wondered after watching yet another heartbreak season come to a crashing close. So I looked into it to see if my heart/gut were accurate or if I was a prisoner to the emotion of the moment.
Let's go back to 1995. Not to cherry pick a data point, but that was the start of the Jacobs Field era, following the strike and when the Indians string of success really first started following the 40's and 50's - plus 23 years of data should provide enough playoff game data points to somewhat mitigate the variance of small sample sizes.
Below you will find the Indians regular season record for each year, playoff years marked with an asterisk since those are the years we're most concerned with. Manager in parenthesis.
Next I looked at our playoff record in those 10 seasons. Round by round results below.
1995 ALDS: Boston W 3-0 1995 ALCS: Seattle W 4-2 1995 WS: Atlanta L 2-4 1996 ALDS: Baltimore L 1-3 1997 ALDS: New York W 3-2 1997 ALCS: Baltimore W 4-2 1997 WS: Florida L 3-4 1998 ALDS: Boston W 3-1 1998 ALCS: New York L 2-4 1999 ALDS: Boston L 2-3 2001 ALDS: Seattle L 2-3 2007 ALDS: New York W 3-1 2007 ALCS: Boston L 3-4 2013 WC: Tampa Bay L 0-1 2016 ALDS: Boston W 3-0 2016 ALCS: Toronto W 4-1 2016 WS: Chicago L 3-4 2017 ALDS: New York L 2-3 ----------------------------------------------- 10 year playoff total: 47-42, winning pct 0.528
Finally, I looked at our record only in games where we had the chance to close out a series and move on (or win it all).
1995 ALDS: 1-0 (won 3-0 after starting 2-0) 1995 ALCS: 1-0 (won 4-2 after going up 3-2) 1997 ALDS: 1-0 (won 3-2 after tying at 2-2) 1997 ALCS: 1-1 (won 4-2 after going up 3-1) 1997 WS: 0-1 (lost 3-4 after tying at 3-3) 1998 ALDS: 1-0 (won 3-1 after going up 2-1) 1999 ALDS: 0-3 (lost 2-3 after going up 2-0) 2001 ALDS: 0-2 (lost 2-3 after going up 2-1) 2007 ALDS: 1-1 (won 3-1 after going up 2-0) 2007 ALCS: 0-3 (lost 3-4 after going up 3-1) 2013 WC: 0-1 (lost wildcard game) 2016 ALDS: 1-0 (won 3-0 after going up 2-0) 2016 ALCS: 1-1 (won 4-1 after going up 3-0) 2016 WS: 0-3 (lost 3-4 after going up 3-1) 2017 ALDS: 0-3 (lost 2-3 after going up 2-0) ----------------------------------------------- 10 year playoff total: 8-19, winning pct 0.296
To make matters worse, from 95-98 we were 5-2 in closeout games. That means from 1999-2017 we have gone 3-17 in closeout games. Winning percentage 0.150. Let me repeat that again. THREE AND SEVENTEEN FOR A WINNING PERCENTAGE OF FIFTEEN PERCENT. That also means in non-clinching playoff games we are 39-23
So to summarize - in playoff seasons. Regular Season: .592 winning pct Playoff Total: .528 winning pct (given the increased pressure and opponent talent this seams reasonable) Playoff Non-clinching games: .629 winning pct Playoff clinching games: .296 winning pct Playoff clinching games since 1999: .150 winning pct
That is....unreal. We literally go from a team winning 60% of their games to a pumpkin who wins 15% overnight. Every time.
GOD.HATES.CLEVELAND.
Last edited by GraffZ06; 10/13/1712:59 PM.
Fear us, for we are the BROWNS, led by the mighty BM! Only in Cleveland.
Interesting stuff. I still maintain that the Yankees adjusted to the larger strike zone and were content to foul those pitches off to stay alive while Tribe hitters continued to watch them and hope they got the call. I have no empirical data to prove that.
If that's the case, that's on them, not the umpire.
The game was rigged. My friend works at the airport, he reported about 7 hours before Wednesdays game that the Yankees plane was scheduled to fly to Houston. Meanwhile, there was no flight scheduled for Houston to go to Cleveland. Either the Yankees were extremely confident they would win or MLB already decided the Yankees would win.
end conspiracy theory
In the end, just another disappointing end to a Cleveland sports season.
It's supposed to be hard! If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great!
The game was rigged. My friend works at the airport, he reported about 7 hours before Wednesdays game that the Yankees plane was scheduled to fly to Houston. Meanwhile, there was no flight scheduled for Houston to go to Cleveland. Either the Yankees were extremely confident they would win or MLB already decided the Yankees would win.
They talked about this during the broadcast. They said the Yankees packed their bags for Houston as well. It was a motivational thing.
Pretty hard to rig Didi Gregorius hitting two homers off Corey Kluber.
I'm graduating from Smug University next month. Maybe I'll work on a Ph. D in sarcasm after my masters in smugness.
I don't know what you're getting at little sister, all I was implying was that being that you were at a bunch of Indians victories in August you should find an excuse to be in school next fall so you could be a good luck charm next post season.
But if you wanna find offense under every rock I guess that's your thing...
WE DON'T NEED A QB BEFORE WE GET A LINE THAT CAN PROTECT HIM my two cents...
Why do they have to shed payroll? If anything we will increase payroll. We will sign one of Bruce or Santana, I believe we will trade Kip, maybe even Brantley.
I would like to see dolans take on some payroll. Now isn't the time to be cheap, sure they choked in the playoffs, but theres a chance here to create multiple opportunities to keep something special going.. I think if they keep building, fans will keep coming out. If you cut back now, and it'll be same ol dolans and i think the fans will back away a bit.
Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday. -John Wayne
No one minds spending money on a quality product. Especially Clevelanders with a contending sports team.
Sure - but our attendance figures the last two years (and in 2008 following 2007 etc.) disagree with you.
Part of it is just the demographics of metro Cleveland area don't physically have enough people and $ to support consistently at that level.
Our attendance and season ticket sales went up in 2017, but not nearly enough to sustain what the Dolans spent this year. We needed another deep October World Series run of multiple sellout home games to come close, but alas we rolled the dice and came up snake eyes.
You can hope they decide to continue to deficit spend all you want, but at some point they have to stop (unless you have a magic economic bullet for NE Ohio). It will either be a gradual decline like I suggested above (mostly because we've already locked up a lot of our young core and they'll be due raises) or they will keep going "all in" and continue to deficit spend until they can't anymore and payroll will come crashing down and the team will get torn down to the studs for a multi-year/decade rebuild with bottom of the league salaries. Depends which path they choose to take.
Last edited by GraffZ06; 10/14/1704:42 PM.
Fear us, for we are the BROWNS, led by the mighty BM! Only in Cleveland.
looks like Brantley needs surgery on ankle. Out 4-5 months. Time to cut bait with him, he's done. He's reached grady sizemore status
Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday. -John Wayne
I'd let Brantley go, and then use the new money to sign Francisco Lindor for the long term.
I'd pick up Santana for another year, let Bruce walk, and try to get another arm for the starting rotation.
The Santana/Bruce issue I’m torn on, gun to head Id keep Bruce. Younger and more productive.
Love to find a way to keep both
Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday. -John Wayne
Wahoo lives!! Keep most of this. I especially liked Bruce. We choked on big games. We can't all swing away so much. The Streak says keep it like this overall! You can't do much better than we did. Just do better earlier. And Tito, don't overmanage with the cute wrinkles.
"Every responsibility implies opportunity, and every opportunity implies responsibility." Otis Allen Glazebrook, 1880
Good luck Mic. We appreciate all you have done for our team. You will be missed.
+1
Sad to see him go, but with the job he's done, it was inevitable.
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
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