DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Indians 2015

In case you didn't know, the first Spring Training game is now in the books. It was a 10-0 loss to the Reds.

With the Cavs and Blackhawks seasons going strong and March Madness starting soon, I'm not sure I'm ready to start tracking daily Tribe scores, but sports waits for no one.

#LetsGoTribe

I have a little hope for this season. This team has barely any room for error, though. They'll probably finish around 82-88 wins.

I wish we had an entirely new FO, a different owner, and more drive to avoid fires sales. This "flip before they're expensive!" business model in MLB disgusts me.

What owner is going to purposely lose money?

Jacobs didn't. He just had the advantage of having a seriously heavy duty excitement for the Indians, because of the new ballpark, and because the Browns were gone.

He still had a really strict budget. Any owner in this market will also do the same.

Green grass. Warm temps. Cloudy skies (I prefer cloudy when I'm at the ballpark). I love hotdogs with mustard and cheese.

Flying to Phoenix on Friday for 6 days of Cactus League baseball.

WD40:

Have an extra ticket?

I don't like watching baseball enough to pay attention, I will watch playoff baseball though (feel the same about hockey)

Are they really going to be that good this season?

There are those saying so, but I think that is based on both Kluber and Brantley repeating their breakout years. I expect both to remain good but not as good as they were last year. We have a pretty good rotation but to make the playoffs, we have to play better defense than last year and get better offensive production from Kipnis and Bourne. Eventually I see them bringing up their best prospect Lindor to play SS and move Ramirez (current SS) over to 2B. That would mean either moving Kipnis to the OF or trading him, but it would give us outstanding defense in the middle of the infield. How soon that happens depends on how ready Lindor is for the majors. He is looking very good in ST, but they will probably start him in AAA to avoid starting his FA clock.

Are we still all Kipnisses?

SI Jinx!

In 1987, SI predicted the Indians to win it all too.



Indians 1987 record was 61-101.

Looks like the Indians' season is over before it even started ... SI cover jinx.

I wonder if baseball will ever move to a digital strike zone ruled by cameras and lasers?

Also I thought it was laughable that E Golden of espn cleveland radio did not go to a single game last year? Not even radio personalities in Cleveland go to Indians games?

Once again, Kluber pitches well and gets no offense behind him. I got a feeling we're going to see a lot of games like last night's.

This is why fans are losing interest in baseball. I know pitching historically starts faster than hitting... but every team has played 1 game. That's 30 teams....

Half (15) of those teams scored 2 runs or less. 6 of them were shut out. In only 2 of the 15 games did the losing team score 3 or more runs.

It's weird, pitching duels can be fun to watch in the playoffs but during the regular season, I want to see offense. Especially if I'm at the stadium, watching a pitching duel on TV is ok but watching one in person is boring as hell.

I second that, DC. I was considering taking the kids up for the opening series with Detroit, but I want to see offense as well. The kids NEED to see it or it will be a miserable day at the park. My son is ADD, so he loses interest really quick, unless it's Minecraft. lol

j/c

Offense picked up right where it left off......

The Indians will score runs. They averaged over 4 runs per game last year, and that should improve with the addition of Brandon Moss, who appears to be a legit power threat. The main problem I see with the team is that its so lefty dominant, opposing teams are going to be sending nothing but lefty pitchers against us. The lineup needs more balance - too bad we couldn't have gotten Josh Donaldson from the A's last winter when he was available. He'd look good at 3B right now.

We choked at the plate very similar to games last year .. That average number ( runs )is misleading to me .. I just can't see how Rayburn made the twenty five .. There has to be a right handed batter out there some where in our system ..

What you may be overlooking is that every team was starting their best pitchers.

Good point.

And it was a little cold and dry too. Baseballs don't like that for flying over walls.

The weird thing about the Indians is you can throw King Felix, Chris Sale, James Shields, or Justin Verlander at them, and they will knock that guy around the yard. But pit them against some soft-tossing lefty, fresh out of AAA, with a decent change-up, and a little control, and they will looked entirely clueless at the plate.

Good point, had not thought about that.

Here is a good article... Web

Runs are down about 2 runs per game over the last 10 years. Strike outs have been on a consistent rise over the last 10 years... and homeruns have been on a consistent decline over the last 10 years. I think each has it's own cause but the cumulative result is that baseball isn't as exciting to watch.

I think strike outs are up for 2 reasons, pitchers are bigger and stronger and more polished than they have ever been in the past (plus the age of pitching specialization continues to rise) and second, nobody wants to hit for control any more, everybody wants to hit home runs. Used to be if you got deep into a count you choked up a little, went to the opposite field, tried to make contact or get a hit.. now half the line up, even with an 0-2 count and runners on base is still taking the home run swing instead of just trying to extend the inning.

Home runs are down because pitchers are more effective and the focus on PEDs and changes to the baseball.

Those two things combined mean that runs are down overall... Opening day may be exaggerated because of the pitching, but the trends have been going on for a decade.

Tribe wins 2-0. Great pitching all around, but Allen was just sick coming in for the save. 9 pitches, and I don't think he threw a ball in mowing down the Astros in the 9th for a 1-2-3 save.

Yeah, my fantasy team has both Carrasco and Allen, jumped from 6th to 1st thanks in large degree to them.

Indians just had a combined no-hitter broken up in the bottom of the ninth with a homerun.

I had the game on the radio, and Tom Hamilton could not stop saying how the Indians' pitchers had a no-hitter going from the 6th inning on. It used to be the announcer would never do that - would not utter the words "no-hitter" - until either the game was over or someone got a hit. Its always been a tradition in baseball. Herb Score used to go to great lengths to avoid using those words, saying things like "and its zeros across the board for the Astros" or "no baserunners for the Astros today, other than the 4 walks", etc. It just wasn't done. But Tom apparently thinks that's a silly superstition; he must have said "no-hitter" 50 times in the last 3 or 4 innings. Most annoying. Guess I really am getting old, but some traditions should be allowed to stand.

Listened to the Houston broadcast on siriusxm radio. They made 2 interesting statements. I haven't verified them myself.

1 - The Indians haven't thrown a no-hitter since Lenny Barker's perfect game in 1981.

2 - Houston has never been no hit in Houston. Including Minute Maid stadium, the Astrodome and all the way back to include Colt 45 stadium. They were no hit in one home game but that was played in Milwaukie. It was moved their because of Hurricane Katrina. So while technically a home game it wasn't actually played at home.

Ugly opener - Tigers hitting was relentless, although they had a few bloops and bleeders. Indians just don't have an answer for the middle of the Tigers batting order. Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez continue to wear us out, with 6 hits between them. Cabrera now hitting over .345, with 35 HR, and 113 RBIs in 130 career games vs the Indians. I was saying to a buddy once that they should just walk Cabrera every time they face him in situations he can hurt them (close games), if 1st base is open. He said "Why waste 4 pitches? Just hit him every time he comes up.". Its a thought, just not a good one. I wouldn't mind, though, if our pitchers would buzz him under the chin every now and then, just to get his attention and maybe get him thinking he shouldn't get too comfy in the box. Guy is entirely too dialed in against the Indians.

Afterthought: a caller to a post-game show said last night that the Indians record in recent home sell-outs is now 4-19, with 29 runs scored in those 23 games. I have no idea if that's true - it sounds wrong, but I'm not inclined to make the effort to verify. I do think though that they sure do seem to poop the bed a lot in front of larger crowds at home. It would be nice if they would give those larger crowds a reason to come back every now and then. Today they'll probably pound David Price around the yard in front of 13-14,000.

J/C

Any of you listening to Hamilton on the radio? He completely ripped into pitchers getting caught for steroids. He's hilarious.

Guy said "I have no idea how Stanozolol got into my body."

Tom Hamilton said "Uhh, a hypodermic needle?"

JERRY JERRY JERRY JERRY JERRY

+1

Detroit simply has our number. Poo.

It's still early.

Gomes injured with a sprained knee. He's having an MRI today and everybody is holding their breath hoping its not the "season-ending torn ACL". Brantley's back problems seem to be lingering; out yesterday, probably out today. Hope he isn't headed for the 15 day DL. Last, our bullpen is imploding in the early going. Guys like Shaw and Allen, who were the rocks last year, are having trouble throwing strikes and getting people out. Not the start we we're looking for.

Very shaky start after all the hype coming out of Spring Training !

Not great news, but better than an ACL tear....

Gomes out 6-8 weeks
As if dropping the first two games of their series against the Detroit Tigers was not a big enough blow, the Cleveland Indians will be forced to go to battle without catcher Yan Gomes. An MRI confirms that Gomes has a mild sprain of his right MCL and will miss the next six-to-eight weeks, an injury which occurred in the final minutes of Saturday afternoon’s 9-6 loss.

After the Tigers broke a 5–5 tie with a run to begin the top of the ninth inning, Gomes was injured when Tigers centerfielder Rajai Davis slid into his right leg while trying to score. Davis was ruled out on the force play, but Gomes appeared unable to stand on his right leg and left the game.

This team is going nowhere until they can pitch to the Tigers.

Otherwise, it's clawing and grinding to maybe get a shot at a 1 game playoff.

It's so painfully obvious how bad Detroit owns the Indians though. They flat out own them, and they know it.