DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Indians 2019 Stretch Drive (#1)

Freaking rays

Tribe down 6-4 in the 8th
Bosox-Rays tied in the 10th
Twins-royals tiesd in the 8th
A's up 7-0 in the 2nd

Rays win in 11
Indians and Twins lose
A's up 9

Tribe up 10-1 in the 7th
Red Sox beat the Rays
Twins beat the Royals
Rangers beat the A's

Just got back from the Tribe game - we win 10-1!!!

...

Tribe wins at least ... tied for the last WC spot now

well on the bright side, our schedule is easier than TB..so as long as we take care of our business we might eek in

92 wins with 6 games left.

A team in the AL could, conceivably, wind up with 97 wins, and not make the playoffs.

The A's could win 100, and only be a Wild Card. What a year.

The final series at Washington, facing Corbin and Scherzer will be tough, even more so because we'll be without the DH. I'm hoping the Nationals clinch their wildcard spot early so maybe they would jigger their starting rotation, holding back Scherzer on Sunday to allow him to start their wildcard play-in game against (probably) Milwaukee on Tuesday.

It’s the bi-product of having SO many “have not” teams in the AL ... like half of the league didn’t even try to win. Very top heavy this year

It's funny that many of those "in the know" ranked our Minor League system at the bottom of the league, yet we have brought up numerous players to the big league roster this year, and have seen them excel. (Mercado, Civale, Plesac, Plutco, Rodriguez, Wood, Luplow, and others)

Is there a better organization at developing young pitchers than the Indians? They have to be one of the top 2 or 3.

Go yanks!

*Yawn*

Jose returns from injury, and in his 1st 2 AB has 2 HR and 7 RBI.

Indians up 11-0 in the top of the 6th.

Pretty incredible. Jose mashed that GS.

Bebo did his part, too.

Sunshine, obviously.

Welcome back, Jose

Rays just won't lose though. The had their 3rd extra inning win in a week it seems. How we're still in this is amazing. I've written them off 5 times now.

I know Excl ... the Rays have been on fire. The Yankees cant even beat them

Vote for Cookie (Carlos Carrasco) for the Roberto Clemente Award. I think he definitely deserves it for his courage in fighting through cancer and returning to help the team this season.

2019 Roberto Clemente Award | MLB.com
https://www.mlb.com/forms/roberto-clemente-award

Wacky season finally over. Hate they folded like a cheap tent down the stretch but they def played above what they should of considering.

A local host mentioned 2 all world pitchers from this era, I'd not heard their names before, baseball doesn't do well of marketing itself, for me it pretty much ended in 2003. or much before,

Yeah, with the injuries it’s a testament that the Tribe was in it this long

The Indians have absolutely zero margin for error. They can’t lose a game and they need help. Their lineup tonight is:

SS Lindor
CF Mercado
1B Santana
RF Puig
2B Freeman
C Perez
LF Allen
3B Flaherty
P Plesac

Jose Ramirez has some hand soreness, which was not unexpected. They want to be careful with him for a day.

https://twitter.com/ZackMeisel/status/1177677149920256001

Gotta win out now boys

Fangraphs has the Indians at a 3.3% of making the playoffs.

https://www.fangraphs.com/standings/playoff-odds/fg/wc

With all the injuries and down seasons the Indians have had it's amazing they even got this close.

I don't get playing Ryan Flaherty at 3B over Yu Chang. Chang has shown he can play 3rd and bring some power to the plate while Flaherty is batting .118 (2-17) with 0 Runs or RBIs. I also think the situation is desperate enough to take a chance on playing Franmil Reyes in LF instead of Greg Allen.

RBI double by Flaherty. Really good decision by Tito to start him at 3B instead of Chang.

Indians down 7-2 in the bottom of the 6th. With Tampa up on Toronto 3-0, I guess that will about do it for this season. Damn.

Has Tampa lost a game this month?

They're 16-6 in September, not counting tonight. They have been clutch.

Seems like the dream has died tonight ... Tampa deserves it no doubt

Brantley in Left and batting third : How dose this team do ??

I said at beginning of month, we needed TB to slow down. They didn't. They were as clutch as can be and we were as about as opposite as can be.. Getting waxed by a team that lost 90 games...that doesn't look good. That happened twice.. The washington game they just were going through the motions. Baseball is broke right now

They may as well have flew home this morning. Abysmal game today.

Yep just end it now

Cleveland Indians quick hits: Corey Kluber’s option exercised, Scott Atchison fired and more

Updated 4:08 PM; Today 1:04 PM
By Paul Hoynes, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Indians executives Chris Antonetti, Mike Chernoff and manager Terry Francona on Wednesday morning conducted the autopsy of the 2019 season. Here are some of the quick takes to come out of it:

* Antonetti said the Indians will exercise Corey Kluber’s $17.5 million option for 2020. Kluber essentially missed most of 2019 with a broken forearm and strained oblique muscle. The Indians feel the time off will allow Kluber to do some repair to his delivery.

“In talking to Corey, he’s able to do some things in his delivery that maybe he wasn’t able to do -- positions he could get in that he wasn’t able to (in recent seasons),” said Francona. "You start accumulating all those innings and with that comes bumps and bruises and nicks and things like that. Good pitchers and good players they keep playing, they figure out a way.

"But over the course of time, his arm was getting lower, his back knee was getting a little lower. You just keep competing, but it does things to your pitches. I think this is almost a blessing in disguise. Yeah, we missed the heck out of him, but come next year I bet you he has a chance to be the Kluber that we’ve seen and relied on. I betcha he has a chance of being that again because of having a little bit of a layoff.”

Kluber made seven starts this season before getting hit by a line drive on May 1. The two-time Cy Young winner went 20-7 with a 2.89 ERA in 2018.

* The Indians will not exercise the 2020 options on second baseman Jason Kipnis and right-hander Dan Otero. The Indians have not closed the door on bringing back either player.

Kipnis had a club option worth $14.5 million with a $2 million buyout. Otero had a $1.5 million option for 2020 with a $100,000 buyout.

“I wouldn’t close any doors,” said Antonetti, concerning a Kipnis return. "All this means is that we’re not going to exercise his option. It just wouldn’t work at that value. We’ll remain open to Kip potentially returning.

“Irrespective of whether or not he returns, he’s made a huge contribution to the organization in the time he’s been with us. If you think back to him getting drafted as an outfielder in the second round. We were talking the other day about remembering the instructional league games where he was working on the conversion to second base. He put in a tremendous amount of work to turn himself into a really good and productive major league player.”

* Bullpen coach Scott Atchison was fired after two years on the job. The search has begun for his replacement. Atchison replaced Jason Bere, who was fired following the 2017 season.

“We really look at our pitching, kind of our pitching program as multiple people and because of that there are certain skillsets that we think we can maximize," said Francona. "Atch is as hard a worker, as good a guy. It was not a fun conversation.

“We all think he’s gonna be a major league pitching coach. We just think there’s a certain skillset we are looking for to compliment guys we have here and we will begin that (search) soon.”

* All-Star third baseman Jose Ramirez told the Indians he would move to second base if they want him to next year. He just doesn’t want to bounce between second and third. So he’ll either play second or third next year depending on what kind of infield upgrade they can find.

“In our exit meetings, Jose said he will play anywhere we ask him to," said Francona. "He just doesn’t want to go back and forth, which we agree. So, that opens our window a little bit of either internally or externally (on how the Indians will fill third or second base), knowing that we have a guy that is the caliber of player of Josey that can do both.”

* Antonetti said Francisco Lindor will not be traded and will play for the Tribe next year. He said they would continue to try and find common ground on a multiyear contract. Lindor can be a free agent after the 2021 season.

“We’ve had plenty of players here that have played out the entire terms of their contract here and we didn’t trade him,” said Antonetti. "A lot of that has to do with factors outside of that individual player, what’s going on with our team, how competitive we are, what’s in front of us, what our alternatives are.

“The big part is the competitiveness of our team and what role that player plays in the competitiveness of our team. We’re fully expecting to be a really good team next year and we have every expectation that Frankie’s going to be a huge part of that.”

Regarding pursing a contract extension with Lindor, Antonetti said, "We obviously would love Frankie to be here for his entire career and for as long as possible. I think Frankie really likes it here, too. He has always communicated that. We’ve never heard anything different than that.

“Hopefully, with that as the foundation, there would be an opportunity for us to align on something, but we just haven’t been able to yet.”

* The Indians anticipate Carlos Carrasco, diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia during the season, to come to spring training as a starting pitcher. He rejoined the team this year as a reliever.

* Tyler Naquin, who underwent surgery for a torn ACL, is rehabbing in Texas. GM Mike Chernoff says the normal rehab time for that injury is seven to nine months. Naquin was injured on Aug. 30 when he hit the left field fence at Tropicana Field.

* Francona said they’ll slow-play right-hander Shane Bieber in spring training to keep him fresh for the season. Bieber was pitching on fumes at the end of this year.

“There’s a pretty good chance he’s going to be in our five-man rotation next year,” said Francona, in a no-kidding way. "We’ll probably do a lot with him like we have in the past with Kluber. We’ll ease him into the games. We’ll have him throw simulated games just to keep down the intensity.

“You don’t want to do it too much, because you don’t want to start the season not ready, so there’s a balance you try to strike. And my guess is Bieber will come back stronger than ever and he’ll probably figure out a way to be even better next year.”

Bieber went 15-8 with a 3.28 ERA in 33 starts. He struck out 259 batters in 214 1/3 innings in just his second big league season.

* Catcher Roberto Perez, coming off a career year, is headed to Wisconsin to get a second opinion on his right ankle. Antonetti said he could have surgery, but it should not interfere too much with his offseason conditioning.


https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2019/10/...d-and-more.html

Window still partially open. Will the Dolen gang go for it one last time?

I’d guess no