2015 Season Opener -|- Indians @ Astros -|- April 6th, 8th, and 9th

[The Oi]

Gonna have to Giants it all year.

 

[Amherstcavsfan]

With Kluber, CC, and Bauer, we could have the best trio of pitchers in baseball. Hell, Kluber and CC may both be in the Cy Young discussion by the end of the year.

The hitting will come around.

 

[elcheato]

edit: nvm, I'm an idiot

 

[Stark]

Gonna have to Giants it all year.

I honestly agree with this. The teams are constructed pretty similar. We've got a legitimate ace, a near-legitimate ace, a potentially legitimate ace, and other more unproven guys rounding out the rotation.

Our bullpen projects to be pretty damn good. Allen might be a top 5 closer in the game.

Outside of Moss and Santana, we really don't have a ton of pop on our team, but we do have speed and guys that can hit for average if they play to expectation.

If we can play league average defense this year (which sadly, is a big improvement), I definitely think this team can contend.

 

[BimboColesHair]

I honestly agree with this. The teams are constructed pretty similar. We've got a legitimate ace, a near-legitimate ace, a potentially legitimate ace, and other more unproven guys rounding out the rotation.

Our bullpen projects to be pretty damn good. Allen might be a top 5 closer in the game.

Outside of Moss and Santana, we really don't have a ton of pop on our team, but we do have speed and guys that can hit for average if they play to expectation.

If we can play league average defense this year (which sadly, is a big improvement), I definitely think this team can contend.

We've been in the top half of the league in runs scored and home runs the past 2 seasons with this core (6th in runs, 10th in HRs in 2013, 11th in runs, 14th in HRs in 2014). No, we don't have that "one guy" who puts the fear of hell into you, but the lineup as a whole produces and produces at a high level. And that was all without Moss.

People are overreacting so much right now to 2 early season games, but that is expected early on.

 

[Stark]

We've been in the top half of the league in runs scored and home runs the past 2 seasons with this core (6th in runs, 10th in HRs in 2013, 11th in runs, 14th in HRs in 2014). No, we don't have that "one guy" who puts the fear of hell into you, but the lineup as a whole produces and produces at a high level. And that was all without Moss.

People are overreacting so much right now to 2 early season games, but that is expected early on.

We've got a ton of guys that can hit between 15-25 bombs if healthy.

Brantley, Moss, Santana, Gomes, Chisenhall, Kipnis, maybe Swisher

We also really don't have anybody that is going to go out and drill 40. Moss, maybe. Santana, maybe. I still expect both of them to hang in the 26-32 range.

 

[BimboColesHair]

We've got a ton of guys that can hit between 15-25 bombs if healthy.

Brantley, Moss, Santana, Gomes, Chisenhall, Kipnis, maybe Swisher

We also really don't have anybody that is going to go out and drill 40. Moss, maybe. Santana, maybe. I still expect both of them to hang in the 26-32 range.

Which makes the lineup hard to deal with. Much harder to deal with than if you have a bunch of soft hitting guys surrounding one of those 40 HR hitters.

Honestly, if Swisher comes back and even gives us a fraction of what he was able to do in 2013, as a switch hitter, and Lindor is able to come up later in the season and play like he did this spring, this lineup can be very scary. Scarier than any of the past few seasons lineups, and I already showed you what they were able to produce. Pair that with the pitching we are seeing, and its easy to see why people are high on us this year.

 

[DougHeil]

Wow. ... Carrasco looks All-Star-ick.

My heads a spinnin switching back n forth from Indians to Cavs. From Cavs to Indians for 2 1/2 hours. Being a big fan of both makes this time of year tricky.

And oh...... the new jersey is black.

 

[bigfoot5415]

How long is the rest of the pitching staff locked up and for how much?

 

[elcheato]

How long is the rest of the pitching staff locked up and for how much?

Bauer, House, & Salazar are all under team control through 2020 (salary pending because of arbitration). McAllister is under team control through 2018.

 

[BimboColesHair]

How long is the rest of the pitching staff locked up and for how much?

Kluber is locked up until 2019 at the earliest. 38.5 million. 2 team options after.
Carrasco is locked up until 2018 at the earliest. 22 million. 2 team options after.
Bauer is locked up until 2020. Arbitration for him starts in 2017.
House is locked up 2020. Arbitration for him starts in 2018.
McAllister is locked up until 2018. He's in the arbitration process next off season. He has a good year and he could see an extension next off season, as he is in essentially the same situation Carrasco was just in.
Salazar is locked up until 2020. Arbitration for him starts in 2017.
Allen is locked up until 2018. He is probably extension priority #1 next off season.
Shaw is locked up until 2017. He might be in line for an extension as well next off season.
Rzepczynski is locked up until 2016. Last year of arbitration is next season.
Atchison is locked up through this year. Team option for next year at 1 million.
Hagadone is locked up until 2018. In the arbitration process.
Crockett is locked up until 2020. Arbitration starts in 2018.

You get the picture...the entire staff is locked up for a while, most of them on cheap rookie pre-arb salaries.

 

[Otsego Mar]

Where the FUCK is my homeboy Tomlin??

 

[Frank Stallone]

Some overreactions on the hitting right now...

Indians have a .133 BABIP and 73% of their outs have been put in play. Beyond stats, eye test just shows me they've hit the ball hard and have some good ABs.

Just the way the ball has bounced so far IMO.

 

[Stark]

Where the FUCK is my homeboy Tomlin??

Out until August.

 

[Real Deal]

Some overreactions on the hitting right now...

Indians have a .133 BABIP and 73% of their outs have been put in play. Beyond stats, eye test just shows me they've hit the ball hard and have some good ABs.

Just the way the ball has bounced so far IMO.

There were a ton of weak grounders and flyouts in game one. They've made contact, but not line drive missles like you make it out to be.

But yes the hits will eventually find holes.