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All-Time Indians RCF Fantasy Draft

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I've been thinking a fair bit about this, and I've decided not to be extremely strict about it as long as your final position for your guys makes at least a decent amount of sense. Here's the position guys I've drafted thus far and the positions I think it would be fair to throw them at based on what they did in Cleveland:

- Albert Belle: LF, RF, DH - Belle never played an inning in the majors in CF, so I think slotting him there would be a bit past the scope of what we're trying to do here. He was predominantly a LF in Cleveland and a RF in Baltimore, so I'd say it's fair that he had the skillset to handle either corner OF spot.
- Jose Ramirez: 3B, 2B, SS, DH - Ramirez has spent most of his time as a third basemen, but also logged a fair amount of innings at both second and short, so I think any of those three positions are fair (as of now, I have him at 2B). He also has spent some time in LF, but I don't think it's enough to list it as a true secondary position for him.
- Omar Vizquel: SS, DH - Vizquel had over 22K innings at shortstop in his career, and even though he spent some time at 3B and 2B for other teams when he was a journeyman at the end of his career, I think Vizquel should stay with solely shortstop eligibility.
- Grady Sizemore: LF, CF, RF, DH - Sizemore was predominantly a centerfielder, but also did play innings in both corner spots in his career. I think in his prime, his fielding profile would've allowed him to have success in all three OF spots, but he'd be best utilized in CF.
- Andre Thornton: 1B, DH - He's played a few spot innings at both 3B and in the OF, but nothing even close enough for me to push him out of sole 1B eligibility.
- Yan Gomes: C, DH - Again, Gomes has spent negligible innings at 1B and 3B in his career, but the guy is a catcher, and would be expected to play at catcher or DH in the scope of this draft.
- Ken Keltner: 3B, DH - Keltner's only non-3B innings came in 1950, when he was washed up in Boston and spent a whopping two innings at 1B in a ballgame. He's strictly a third basemen in this draft.

Hope that kind of helps. I don't want to be super anal about it, but I also don't want to see Jim Thome in LF and Francisco Lindor playing first.

Same thing goes for pitchers. Any relievers can be your set closer (if you even want a set closer) and any predominant closers can be normal relievers.

I was looking at Averill doing LF, he technically never played there but Choo is the RF in my mind, so I was making sure that this was allowed. Speaker was better in CF than Averill and Choo is a solid RF. So would this be allowed?

And I’ll pick when I get home sorry, when I work I don’t always get a chance to actually get on until I can sleep and I fall asleep
 
I was looking at Averill doing LF, he technically never played there but Choo is the RF in my mind, so I was making sure that this was allowed. Speaker was better in CF than Averill and Choo is a solid RF. So would this be allowed?

And I’ll pick when I get home sorry, when I work I don’t always get a chance to actually get on until I can sleep and I fall asleep

My two cents- I can't really see any problem with moving outfielders around. (As long as it's not ridiculous like, say, Franmil Reyes in centerfield.)
 
I was looking at Averill doing LF, he technically never played there but Choo is the RF in my mind, so I was making sure that this was allowed. Speaker was better in CF than Averill and Choo is a solid RF. So would this be allowed?

And I’ll pick when I get home sorry, when I work I don’t always get a chance to actually get on until I can sleep and I fall asleep

I'm perfectly fine with Averill playing LF for you. He even spent a bit of time out there with Detroit after his Cleveland days, so I'm sure he would have been more than capable.
 
We're starting to get a bit late in this draft, and none of us have more than one reliever drafted yet. They are going to be a hot commodity soon.

With my 14th round pick, the Wailing Wahoos select, Jose Mesa, relief pitcher/closer.

Mesa.jpg

Career w/ CLE: 1992-1998
Career Stats w/ CLE: 33-16, 3.88 ERA, 341 G (48 GS), 447 K, 104 SV, 3.84 FIP, 1.36 WHIP, 10.4 WAR

We all know what the majority of the Cleveland fandom remembers Jose Mesa for, but outside of that black mark, Mesa had a pretty damn good career as a reliever in Cleveland. His metric numbers like ERA, WHIP, and FIP are a bit skewed from the seasons he spent as a starting pitcher in 1992 and 1993. Mesa's true dominance came when Cleveland shifted him into the bullpen and then later, into the closer role.

Mesa's 1995 season definitely stands out as his best as a Cleveland reliever. That season he went 3-0 with a 1.13 ERA, 2.70 FIP, 1.03 WHIP, an AL leading 46 saves, an AL leading 57 games finished, 6.9 H/9, 0.4 HR/9, 8.2 K/9, and 3.9 WAR, a high amount for a bullpen arm who only pitched 64 innings.

The back end of my bullpen now features the top lefty reliever in Indians history in Andrew Miller and one of the very best right handed relievers in Jose Mesa.

My current pitching staff:
SP - Corey Kluber
SP - Sam McDowell
SP - Trevor Bauer
SP - Shane Bieber
RP - Jose Mesa
RP - Andrew Miller

@JDailey23 is on the clock for back to back picks. Draft board is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vhOOAVnG0Q_8Iol125TTlzYdmgpyBo2v3oz28mybcD4/edit#gid=0
 
Time to finish up my rotation.

With my 15th round pick, the Wailing Wahoos select Mike Garcia, starting pitcher.
Garcia.jpg

Career w/ CLE: 1948-1959
Career Stats w/ CLE: 142-96, 3.24 ERA, 3.18 FIP, 1.31 WHIP, 1095 K, 31.1 WAR, 4x FIP leader, 2x ERA leader, 3x All-Star

Kind of surprised Garcia dropped this far. Throughout his career with the Tribe, he put together multiple high-level seasons, threw 27 shutouts, led the league in ERA twice, FIP four times, WHIP once, HR/9 twice, and SO/W once.

I was dancing between two different seasons to use for him, 1952 and 1954, and ended up settling on using 1954, his age 30 season.

That year, Garcia went 19-8 with a 2.64 ERA, 2.55 FIP, 1.12 WHIP, 5 SHO, 129 K, 6 SV, 4.9 WAR, and an all-star appearance. He led the AL in ERA, FIP, WHIP, SHO, and HR/9 that season.

Since Garcia's prime came in the 1950's, it's a bit tough to project how exactly he would fare in an all-time draft like this, but I for my 5th starter, I definitely think I could have done worse.

@sportscoach is on the clock; draft board is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vhOOAVnG0Q_8Iol125TTlzYdmgpyBo2v3oz28mybcD4/edit#gid=0
 
In the ten years from 1947-'56 Indians pitchers led the American League in ERA 6 times and were 2nd once. It was a golden time for Tribe pitching. Would love to think we're entering another one like it.
 
Well time to finish my rotation...

SP Mel Harder

Solid numbers in his career not great, but he could eat innings after innings when you needed him to. He is a solid 5th starter to save my bullpen!
 
Think it's my turn. With my 15th pick, I need a reliable lefty in my bullpen and they aren't easy to find. I'm going sort of off the board to select Sid Monge. The lefty multi-inning reliever pitched 5 seasons with the Tribe and totaled 46 saves, good for 10th most in team history.

From 1978-'80 he pitched 310 innings in 191 games saving 39 games with an aggregate 2.84 ERA. In 1979 he won 12 games, saved 19 (good for 5th most in the AL), had a 2.40 ERA (178 ERA+), a 5.6 bWAR (amazingly, 6th highest among pitchers), and made the All Star team.

I believe @PIP is up next.
 
I’m taking Buddy Bell with my next pick
 
With my next two picks, I select the following Indians:

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Rafael Betancourt- RP

D30D97E2-0587-4D6C-B782-0501E4FCAAC3.jpeg

Edwin Encarnacion- DH
 

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