DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Cleveland Indians 2019 season

Where did this come from? I must have been asleep for the last week.

Hey, on this coming Monday I was already expecting this post:

"Well, at least the Tribe wasn't swept 4 games."

bummer

Adam Cimber gave up a bomb to a midget bench player in the bottom of the 11th. Nice job, [bleeping] Cimber, nice job!

dumb

Guy who hit the walkoff homer for Houston was hitting .143 ... good grief.

Climbing his way back to AAA

Cimber's been working on his fastball.

I don't think Cimber is on the roster in 3 months

The upside for the Indians is that they are still right in the middle of it and their two worst pitchers are Kluber and Carrasco.. if they get anywhere close to previous season form, the Tribe should be ok.

The downside is that there are about 5 or 6 individual outfielders who have as many home runs and almost as many RBIs as the entire Indians outfield combined... and I don't see that getting fixed internally.

Man, 2 premium arms down now.

In a perfect (non-small/mid market) world, you're on the phone with Dallas Keuchel's agent today. In Cleveland, you're on the phone with Columbus, calling Jefry Rodriguez up to the big club. If this season continues to go south, we might see an early beginning to the eventual teardown/rebuild.

The Indians can most definitely afford Keuchel. They are just cheap. They thought they could just skate to the playoffs on the cheap and were wrong.

I really wonder why guys like Keuchel and Kimbrel are still unsigned. Its surprising as hell to me that the Yankees lost Severino and didn't go after Keuchel. I've heard and read that some GMs think he's on the downside, but I think he's still pretty good and, at the very least, he'd eat innings. The Indians are going to burn out their bullpen without Kluber and Clevinger.

Do we know how bad this is yet? Brutal to watch. I have little confidence in how the bullpen looks for the longhair of the campaign without another quality arm and getting rid of the submariner. Trouble in the Land, I suspect.

I knew the Twins were going to be on the rise. I said it a couple of years ago....their AA team was here in Chattanooga where they won the Southern League a few years in a row, and the Southern League is regarded as the top AA league. We are now back with the Reds this year.

Kluber's broken arm will put major stress on Indians' depth

https://apnews.com/7bf4fee2c07e442a824d22cfae9d7767

CLEVELAND (AP) — The Indians decided during the winter their starting pitching would carry them to another October.

Cleveland’s ride might end before then.

Corey Kluber’s broken right arm may alter the plans for a season the Indians hoped would include a fourth straight AL Central title.

Kluber sustained a non-displaced fracture Wednesday night when he was struck by a line drive in the fifth inning of a start against Miami. Kluber, who struggled through the season’s first month, couldn’t avoid the 102-mph comebacker hit by Marlins infielder Brian Anderson. After being nailed, Kluber chased after the ball while his right arm stayed motionless against his side. He swatted the ball with his glove toward the bag before walking dejectedly back to the mound.

The 33-year-old underwent further imaging tests Thursday to determine the length of his absence. The team is reviewing those results and will place him on the 10-day injured list while providing an update Friday before the opener of a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners.

Based on the initial diagnosis, and assuming there’s no other damage, Kluber will likely miss more than one month to allow his ulna bone to heal.

The loss of Kluber, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, for any time will hurt. He’s been among baseball’s most consistent pitchers for the past five years, and the Indians are already without starter Mike Clevinger, who is out with a strained upper back muscle.

Without 40 percent of their starting staff, the Indians look vulnerable. They already trail the improved Minnesota Twins by 2½ games, and Cleveland’s offense has been in a prolonged slump. The Indians are batting an AL-low .215 and have 111 runs in 29 games.

All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor hasn’t taken off after being sidelined to start the season with a sprained ankle, and All-Star third baseman José Ramírez has yet to break out of a slump that stretches back to August.

When Cleveland’s front office chose not to trade Kluber or Trevor Bauer and to reconstruct the team’s roster by allowing All-Star outfielder Michael Brantley to leave as a free agent and trading sluggers Edwin Encarnación, Yonder Alonzo and Yandy Díaz, it did so behind the belief that the pitching depth would be enough to get the Indians back to the playoffs.

That theory is about to be tested.

Clevinger is still probably a few weeks from returning, although he played catch this week and appears to be ahead of schedule.

The Indians will likely go to a five-man rotation in May with Jefry Rodríguez getting one of the spots. He’s made two starts while filling in for Clevinger and is scheduled to start Tuesday against the Chicago White Sox. Kluber would have started Monday, and manager Terry Francona will either juggle his rotation or reach down to Triple-A Columbus and bring up either Adam Plutko or Cody Anderson.

Plutko opened the season in the minors and has been recovering from a forearm strain. Anderson has missed most of the past two seasons after Tommy John elbow surgery, but the Indians think he could be ready soon.

When Francona went to the mound to check on Kluber, what he saw was alarming.

“It looked ugly,” he said.

Right now, it’s not the only unpleasant sight for the Indians.

1. No one wants to sign them at this point because they don’t want to lose draft picks for less than a month of production. Both will sign after the draft when draft pick compensation is removed.

2. The Yankees have a ton of depth at starting pitcher. The guy they replaced Severino with, Domingo German, has been one of the best starters in the league to this point. The Yankees slashed their big league payroll but invested even more in player development over the past several years and they have a ton of arms to show for it.

3. The Indians took their starting pitchers for granted. They didn’t even try to improve their team in other areas because they didn’t see any threats within the division. Two of their pitchers got hurt and now they are in a real battle for the division. Shop at the bargain bin, get bargain bin results.

I would guess we won't see Kluber again until August. What the Indians have to do is find a way to hang on until Clevinger returns in a month or so. Too bad they have only one day off for the next month, with no good options for a 5th starter. We might see a couple-three "bullpen days", in lieu of a 5th starter.

I would guess that their 5th starter will be either Cody Anderson (probably), or Adam Plutko. (who probably gets time in the Minors since he is recovering from injury)

If he's not already up, I would look for Jefry Rodriguez to fill the #4 spot.

Man, they count on the rotation and their 2 big time stars to be the backbone of the team, and they lose 2 of their starters, Lindor for the start of the season, and have had Jose in a season long funk. Geesh.

Cody Anderson had TJ surgery about a year ago, and the Indians sent him to Columbus to build him up, in terms of working innings. So far he's had 2 starts for a total of 6 innings, so I don't think he's ready to be our 5th starter in the immediate future. Plutko is rehabbing an injury from spring training in Arizona the last I heard. I wonder if Danny Salazar has made any progress in his neverending rehab ...

Seems like a part-time job for the Tribe. Hard to believe there are so many pitchers hurt this soon. Kluber was a real loss. Take your vitamins, drink your milk, my prayers are with you guys. Extra BP for everybody starting now.

Wahoo! Go, Tribe!

It sure seems like Indians pitchers have been injured a lot by line drives back at them. Carrasco had his hand broken by one in September 2016, causing him to miss the post season, and arguably costing us a world championship vs the Cubs. Carrasco also had a bad bone bruise on his pitching elbow from a line drive in either 2017 or '18, causing him to miss a couple starts. Last August, Bauer had his lower leg broken by a shot through the box, making him a non-factor in last year's post-season. And now Kluber. I don't know any other team that has had this many incidents of their pitchers being knocked out by batted balls. That's not even counting the tragic injury that, in effect, ended Herb Score's career about 60 years ago. Herb was Sandy Koufax, before Sandy came on the scene; he was unhittable from what my father and uncles told me (I never saw him pitch).

Be comforted by this fact:

One of Tito's main skills is managing for September. (and hopefully beyond)

He's making decisions now that will increase the likelihood of the team peaking then.

That players will be peaking then. (Hopefully not August like 2017)

Most important is making the playoffs. The Tribe plays 16 Central Division opponent games in September.

Nice win tonight.

Great to see Naquin come through like that.

I would also add that it's great news that Clev is already throwing from 90 feet. That's amazing.

Awesome! Naquin has always been able to hit the low pitch.

I've questioned his ability as a big league hitter. Want to see him succeed.

Great walk-off for he and the Tribe tonight.

Quick quiz:

Who has the 2nd highest batting average on the Indians?

But that OBP. Sheesh.

Nice game from Bieber against a tough offense. Seattle is first in the Majors in runs, homers and total bases.

He's only 23 years-old (turns 24 last day of May)



This is good news.

And the bad news....

Now back to the good...

At least this isn't "terminal" bad news. (he's healthy, right?)

He sure seemed on pace to sit atop the AL offensive stats for years to come.

I wonder if he'll ever regain that form?

Kipnis too. He was pretty good at the plate/on base only a couple years ago. (well, not like Ramirez the first half last year)