DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Cleveland Indians Playoff Push

They have been stuck in mediocrity for the past 3 years. that's what so frustrating. This team was never a contender this year. they are 3-14 against their main rival. every time I thought they turned the corner they get hammered by a good club. I will agree the pitching has been good for most of the year. Ubaldo's numbers are worthy of them keeping him another year. Him, Masterson and Kluber average a k per inning.

Its just time for the front office to make significant upgrades in the offense. They might not have a player reach 20 homers. Mark Reynolds is till 2nd on the team with 15. Totally unacceptable. The yankees grabbed Soriano for a bag of peanuts, while we waited and did nothing. Soriano in 31 games has 11homers and 33 rbi. Nick Swisher has 15 homers, and 46 rbi in 118 games. We paid him 14 million, and at no point can I remember Swisher going on a hot streak.

the Soriano argument is garbage. he was not good until the trade to the Yankees

(and yes, our offense needs to wake up)

totally disagree on that one. his time with the cubs he had 17 homers, which would still lead this club at the present moment. Didn't have to give up much to get him. In reality we would've probably missed the playoffs, but the front office put little effort to make any move. They will get another shot to make something happen this winter.

Well that loss tonight should just about do it. This team's biggest problem is the FO and talent evaluation. Shappinetti really needs let go and bring someone in that can spend this money dolans have been allowing wisely. Offense is a joke. I'd venture to say we are in the bottom 3rd since all star break. We are missing alot of power in the lineup. Batting order doesn't mean anything on this team because theres noone dangerous enough that pitchers can't just attack everyone, I think if you take a Mcab and put him on this team, we have 10+ more wins right now. We need that kind of bat. Or a couple bats to match that kind of production.

You can only add what you can add, and within the budget you have.

Hell, he added a ton of talent to this team this offseason. Off the top of my head he added Kazmir, Albers, Shaw, Gomes, Swisher, Aviles, Bourne, Raburn, Stubbs, and Giambi. He also brought in a guy who never got hurt in Myers, and he got hurt. He brought in an up and down hitter in Mark Reynolds, and he dropped off the face of the earth. Add in that Chisenhall has had issues at the plate, in addition to on the field .... that Cabrera has had trouble at the plate, and that the guy we might have brought up to fill in at either spot, Cord Phelps, hurt his wrist and has been out.

Overall, I think that he finally got a moderate budget, and he did about as much as he could have. Who saw the bullpen imploding like it had? The rotation has been far, far better than anyone could have imagined. There are a lot of solid pieces on this team, and they still have some work to do to get the team the rest of the way there. Overall I think that he did a very good job this year. Did he overtake the Tigers? No. However, the Tigers were supposed to run away and hide this year. They were supposed to be up by 20 games at this point.

Sometimes you do all you can do, and it just isn't enough. Key players slump ..... guys who have never been injured get hurt ,,,, other players who were automatic thus far stall out ...... it happens.

I believe there is another cuban defector coming to the big leagues next year. They say he is the Ted Williams of cuban baseball. I believe he plays 1st base. But from what I read he is only considering big market teams.

Unless this team develops/trades for a cy young pitcher, or gets a bat or two to compete with the tigers, nothing will change. Or if the tigers get old, or lose a few pieces to free agency. I've been preaching this for months.

The guy you are talking about is Jose Abreu. I've read that he projects to be more of a right handed Ryan Howard (that is good and bad).

There is also a Japanese guy, Masahiro Tanaka, who is probably going to get posted this off-season. He projects to be at least a #2 starter and he is only 24 years old.

It just shows the organization has no depth. When we were playing the braves Tom Hamilton was talking about how many players they have lost due to injury. All their outfielders have been hurt at some point, their two set-up men in the pen were also out, not to mention losing Tim Hudson. The difference is the braves are loaded in the farm system, while we are not. That falls mostly on Shipiro, and front office in past drafts.

The Indians signed Cuban Leandro Linares a while back. He's supposed to be a promising RHP.

When is Lindor going to be ready? Maybe they can restock the farm system a bit this off-season by trading Asdrubal Cabrera and start the season with Lindor. I guess Cabrera's value is at an all time low, so it would probably be a bad idea to trade him at this point.

Lindor's been shut down for the year, IIRC. He's had a back issue, IIRC.

His defense is Major League ready right now, but he's probably going to need another year in the Minors before his offense gets there. He did hit .289 in limited time at Akron ..... but I think that he needs more time to develop.

I don't know how much value Cabrera has right now, given the way his bat disappeared lately. His batting average is 30 points below his career average. (and his average of the prior 3 seasons) His defense has actually been pretty good this year though. That's a plus.

I do have a hard time imagining him on the team next year. I think that he'll be moved for value, if we can get value for him. They have a couple of serviceable SS in the Minors if they trade Cabrera.

The guy I am extremely disappointed in is Chisenhall. His bat has turned into a matchstick. He is hitting a whopping .222. Hopefully he works on his swing this off-season, because he is really struggling right now, and his bat was his claim to a Major League spot.

the tribe held on a lot longer this year, but the bottomline is that we still have no hitter over .300, we have no one who can hit homers and that is a huge issue, especially when you are trying to out play Miguel Cabrera and (i know hes off this year but its cuz of his divorce) Prince Fielder. Miggy is like Manny Ramirez minus the idiotic antics and the steroids (i hope). The Tigers just toy with us at this point. We need to solidify our rotation next year. Kluber looks great, i hope it wasnt a one year fluke. Salazar could be amazing soon. But Masterson has been very iffy this year. Ubaldo got better but hes still not someone i would entrust a pennant race to. Mcallister, Kazmir, and all the pitchers weve used this year are inconsistent (boy Trevor Bauer looks like an EPIC bust). Things need to line up next year with our rotation.

Brantley and Kipnis were great this year, but who knows if they can keep it up next year. Just look at Asdrubal Cabrera, yikes what a bad year. Its making me beg for Lindor at this point. Swisher was a letdown, and was honestly only brought in to pimp the Ohio State thing... Bourn was supposed to steal bases and his numbers plummeted. 3B was so poor. Chisenhall is entering LaPortaville of letdowns. Santana, still hard to say if hes good. His power dropped, his catching hasnt improved, but he looked alot better than alot of these guys. Yan Gomes was a nice surprise but hes not going to lead us to the playoffs by himself.

The bottomline is that although this team improved greatly this year, they are still lightyears behind Detroit and will probably never catch them with how much the Dolans have to work with. If the indians were just .500 against them this year we would be about 3-4 games up on Detroit not 8.5 out and down for the count. Its turning into the same problem the Browns have had all these years. You have to beat your division foes, its who you see the most and its what will make the biggest difference.

Know how many players have hit .300 or better this year?

12 in the AL. 26 in all of the Major Leagues. There aren't as many .300 hitters as there used to be. As far as power hitters, I think that we counted on Swisher, Reynolds, and Chisenhall to provide power. I think that Kipnis is developing nicely overall, including power, but he's not a 25 HR guy yet. I think that he will be next year though.

The Indians are still 8th in all of Major League Baseball in runs scored. (Tied with Toronto) The problem has been timely hitting, and scoring runs in key spots. We are middle of the pack in batting average.

Our problem has been that we have been horribly inconsistent. Timely hitting has been a real weakness for this team. Unfortunately this happens when you get multiple guys into slumps at the same time.

The problem is what it's always been for us in this new mega millions era of baseball ....... we can't go pick up players in the middle of the season to help augment weaknesses that pop up. Unfortunately, we had the bullpen implode, and we had a couple of guys we counted on severely under-perform. Some teams have the finances to make big moves to fix these kind of problems .... we don't.

It doesn't help that we're in the playoff race, yet we're 27th in attendance. People are going to complain that Dolan is "cheap", but he put out what .... $100 million this off-season? How was he rewarded for putting a competitive and often exciting team on the field? Crappy attendance. The Indians average just over 20,000 per game, or 46% of capacity. That's pathetic.

A record of 3-15 vs Detroit, and an equally crappy record (4-16) vs Boston, Tampa, and NY is the reason this team is where it is. Play .500 ball against those teams and you're in contention. Play .184 ball (7-31) and you are an also-ran.

Oh well, at least bigdatut should be a happy guy today. His Pirates traded for Justin Morneau and are in 1st place in the NL Central. Heckuva pickup for the Bucs.

Aviles with a grand slam in the top of the 9th!

Tribe up 4-0 now.

Six shutout innings from Salazar!

Tribe wins!



(finally!)

Maybe we can get on a winning streak now.

It feels like its over, but after this Baltimore series, the schedule is just so easy for the rest of the season.

Matt Langwell was the PTBNL for Jason Kubel. I was looking at the roster, the Indians could have as many as 11 spots open on the 40-man roster this offseason, and likely at least 8 or 9 at minimum. Not going to lose any players in Rule V and may add a player or two, plus a FA or two.

we really needed to at least win 4 games in this 9game stretch. so far, we are 1-6. it is that complete inability to win against competitive teams that makes any other efforts this month seem like a waste.

still, I hope they make me forget that by putting on a show the last 4 weeks, we go and beat out Boston or somebody worthwhile in the WC game and then they can hit me back with reality in the divisional series.

Masterson leaving the game yesterday with an apparent oblique injury (rib cage) does not help the cause. Do only Indians' pitchers get this injury? If it is an oblique, he's probably done for the season.

It's amazing we're still in this, only 3 games out. Tampa has really hit the skids, losing 5 in a row. That's the frustrating part, the last spot has been there all year. If we just played.500 the past week, we might be tied right now. The way ubaldo has pitched of late, they need to make him an offer. Nothing too crazy, but he has really turned the corner.

Jimenez seems to be getting better as the year progresses. He's under a 4 ERA now, at 3.95. He had a 3.09 ERA in June, a 2.83 ERA in July, and a 3.10 ERA in August. (Oh, and a 0 ERA so far in September)

I think that he has moved into the category of a player we need to look seriously into resigning. I don't think that he's going to accept his $8 million, one year option.

He's going to get $40 million in guarantees this offseason. Indians fans will be shocked at the amount he gets.

Under 10,000 at the game tonight, against a Wild Card competitor, 4 GB in September. Cleveland baseball fans are horrible.

I was listening to Pluto today, and was stunned about one thing regarding the Indians attendance.

The Tribe leads all of baseball in walk up tickets sold. No team sells more at the gate. Unfortunately, we are horrible in season ticket sales.

CBS has us 3 games out.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/standings/wildcard

Either Oakland or Texas will win the West. The other is the leader by far for one of the wildcard spots. We're 3 game back of the other spot.

You're right, my mistake. I read the standings on my MLB app incorrectly.

MLB list sus as 3.5 back, FWIW, and we do have to jump three teams to get the wildcard.

They can jump the O's by winning tonight, and pull even with the Yankees if they lose to the White Sox. The bad news is the White Sox are throwing a rookie against Sabathia tonight, so don't hold your breath. It is kind of fun scoreboard watching, though.

I'm one that typically hold out hope to make the playoffs, because once you get in, anything can happen. Sorry to be a debby downer, but not this year. Even if we happen to make the playoffs, does anyone actually exact us to do anything? I don't remember a "contending" team that had such an awful record against teams with winning records.

hmm...maybe the 2007 Colorado Rockies? they went on that absolute tear in-division to end the season (was it 21wins in 22games or something similarly ridiculous).

anyway, I agree on actual contention, but if we get the 2nd wild card and knock off the A`s/Rangers in that random 1 game scenario (doubt we could beat either in an actual series), then I'll be happy. Give some real hope for next season and some October experience for the youngsters.

Any MLB team can win three of five games. The Astros could beat the Red Sox three of five. The baseball playoffs are as random as you can get.

Some team would be crazy to give him $40 million. I would give him maybe a 3 yr deal worth $24 million, or maybe 2 at $20 million. He's had a good year this year, but his velocity isn't what it once was, and he still could be inconsistent with his control. Plus at best he is a 5-6 inning pitcher.. I do think he is better suited for the national league. American league teams tend to walk more, and make the pitcher work.