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2020 Wild Card Series - Cleveland Indians vs. New York Yankees

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I think that might have been the last Indians playoff game for a few years forthcoming
 
Lindor was 1-for-8 in the series with one walk. He finished the season, and probably his time in Cleveland, with 2 hits in his last 21 at-bats.

Santana was 0-for-8 with a walk and 3 strikeouts. Reyes 0-for-7 with two walks and struck out five times. The Yankees totally abused those guys. You can't win when your 4 and 5 hitters fail to get a base hit and strike out 8 times in two games.

Naquin was 1-for-8 with 4 strikeouts. His single came in the 9th inning with the Indians down 12-2.

At least we finally got some production out of left field. Naylor and Luplow were stellar. Something to build on, hopefully. Hernandez, Hosey, and especially Naylor had a great two games and gave the Indians a chance in game two.

Too bad Hand choked. It would have been fun to see what Plesac could do tonight in an elimination or advance game.

At least the Twins got smoked and have now lost 18 playoff games in a row. But we're right behind them with 10. It's getting so you don't expect a win.
 
PIP said:
I think that might have been the last Indians playoff game for a few years forthcoming
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The Indians could very well be better next year. OK, they lose Lindor, but he hit .258 overall, .167 with runners in scoring position, and .190 with RISP and two out. His overall WAR per Baseball Reference was 0.8 which is about 2.0 for a full season. He was a decent player this season but not a star by any means. If the Indians can find a good fielding shortstop who can hit .250 and just .200 or so with RISP then we won't be any worse at the position than this year.

Hand was great but he gets replaced by Clase. That's an unknown, but the guy hits the high 90's with heavy sinking action. He could be very good.

Santana hit .199 with an OPS+ of 91 and a WAR of 0.6, which is about 1.5 over a full season. Naylor could probably get us at least a 1.5 at first base.

Hernandez is not replaceable; if he doesn't get resigned that will hurt.

Their outfield was a black hole, combining to hit .196/.270/.304 for major league-worsts in wRC+ (54) and WAR (-1.0). -Fangraphs

Baseball Reference gave the outfield a WAR of -2.8 which ranked 29th ahead of only Pittsburgh. That equates to a shocking -7.6 over a full season. In 2019 it was +5.3. It's almost impossible to overstate how bad the Tribe's outfield was this season. "Black hole" is pretty accurate.

I have to believe this will be better next year. Maybe Naylor and Luplow get more at-bats, maybe Reyes moves to right field, maybe Mercado bounces back or Daniel Johnson emerges, or maybe they get somebody in a Lindor trade that provides some production. But they can't be this bad again. The outfield production was 54% of average.

The catchers combined to hit .138 which was the lowest in baseball history by a whopping 21 points. Much of that was due to Perez's shoulder injury. It can't get any worse than the worst in history.

I'm confident we'll get more offense from the outfield and catcher next year. If Naylor moves to first base I'm confident he'll hit better than .199. Lindor was a .258 hitter who failed to hit when it mattered most. The Indians finished 13th in runs per game in the A.L. I'm sure that will improve.

The pitching probably drops off a bit. I'm expecting Hand and Clevinger to be replaced by Clase and McKenzie so we'll just have to see how that goes. Quantrill is a wild card - if he breaks into the rotation they could put Carrasco, McKenzie or Civale in the bullpen. Otherwise Quantrill improves the bullpen.

If they go back to the old playoff system it will be tough to win the division or a wild card with both Minnesota and Chicago in our division, so you may be right. But I don't think it's a given the Tribe will be worse if we lose Lindor, Hernandez, Santana, and Hand.
 
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If you are going to stink offensively do it with as much youth as possible. That's all I ask. No more Domingo Santana, Carlos Gonzalez, Hanely Ramirez time wasting experiments. No giving Delino Deshields 400 ABs. While Urshela and Willi Castro and Anthony Santander and Yandy Diaz deliver much needed production in other uniforms Put out as much youth as possible. See what Bauers, Chang, Mercado, Zimmer, Bradley, Miller, Jones, Freeman, Arias and whoever you get for Lindor and maybe Hand can do with 400-500 ABs for the next couple of years. Give them the time to iron it out and see what happens.
 
As lousy as it feels to lose in the moment, I was very happy to have had this season -- thoroughly enjoyed it. It will be an interesting off season, not just for the Tribe, but for most every team as they examine the landscape. There will soon be all new opportunities for gnashing of teeth, etc.,, but in the end, baseball has always been a hopeful sport -- cannot wait for it all to start up again.

Also -- I will try to pick up the slack for @Derek as to small sample sizes and such. :cool:
 
DerekG123 said:
If you are going to stink offensively do it with as much youth as possible. That's all I ask. No more Domingo Santana, Carlos Gonzalez, Hanely Ramirez time wasting experiments. No giving Delino Deshields 400 ABs. While Urshela and Willi Castro and Anthony Santander and Yandy Diaz deliver much needed production in other uniforms Put out as much youth as possible. See what Bauers, Chang, Mercado, Zimmer, Bradley, Miller, Jones, Freeman, Arias and whoever you get for Lindor and maybe Hand can do with 400-500 ABs for the next couple of years. Give them the time to iron it out and see what happens.
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Does anyone else feel like this is the FO's real blind spot? You don't see teams like the Rays do this. Just because you pay someone like Pablo Sandoval $800,000, doesn't mean you need to give him 350 ABs and block promising prospects.
 
Wham with the Right Hand said:
The Indians could very well be better next year. OK, they lose Lindor, but he hit .258 overall, .167 with runners in scoring position, and .190 with RISP and two out. His overall WAR per Baseball Reference was 0.8 which is about 2.0 for a full season. He was a decent player this season but not a star by any means. If the Indians can find a good fielding shortstop who can hit .250 and just .200 or so with RISP then we won't be any worse at the position than this year.

Hand was great but he gets replaced by Clase. That's an unknown, but the guy hits the high 90's with heavy sinking action. He could be very good.

Santana hit .199 with an OPS+ of 91 and a WAR of 0.6, which is about 1.5 over a full season. Naylor could probably get us at least a 1.5 at first base.

Hernandez is not replaceable; if he doesn't get resigned that will hurt.

Their outfield was a black hole, combining to hit .196/.270/.304 for major league-worsts in wRC+ (54) and WAR (-1.0). -Fangraphs

Baseball Reference gave the outfield a WAR of -2.8 which ranked 29th ahead of only Pittsburgh. That equates to a shocking -7.6 over a full season. In 2019 it was +5.3. It's almost impossible to overstate how bad the Tribe's outfield was this season. "Black hole" is pretty accurate.

I have to believe this will be better next year. Maybe Naylor and Luplow get more at-bats, maybe Reyes moves to right field, maybe Mercado bounces back or Daniel Johnson emerges, or maybe they get somebody in a Lindor trade that provides some production. But they can't be this bad again. The outfield production was 54% of average.

The catchers combined to hit .138 which was the lowest in baseball history by a whopping 21 points. Much of that was due to Perez's shoulder injury. It can't get any worse than the worst in history.

I'm confident we'll get more offense from the outfield and catcher next year. If Naylor moves to first base I'm confident he'll hit better than .199. Lindor was a .258 hitter who failed to hit when it mattered most. The Indians finished 13th in runs per game in the A.L. I'm sure that will improve.

The pitching probably drops off a bit. I'm expecting Hand and Clevinger to be replaced by Clase and McKenzie so we'll just have to see how that goes. Quantrill is a wild card - if he breaks into the rotation they could put Carrasco, McKenzie or Civale in the bullpen. Otherwise Quantrill improves the bullpen.

If they go back to the old playoff system it will be tough to win the division or a wild card with both Minnesota and Chicago in our division, so you may be right. But I don't think it's a given the Tribe will be worse if we lose Lindor, Hernandez, Santana, and Hand.
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100% in agreement on Hernandez. I know a lot of people are hollering for Tyler Freeman but I just do not see what all the excitement is for this guy. I am aware of his bat to ball skills but I need to see some power. This is 2020, not 1990.
 
Kiddo said:
These guys will all be on the roster next year and it very likely will be an improvement over this season

Nolan Jones
Daniel Johnson
Bobby Bradley
Jake Bauers
Tyler Freeman
Yu Chang
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It is an absolute fking travesty Bradley wasn't even given a chance this year. But hey Santana drew some walks out of the 4 hole for a week or so this year.
 
I’m okay with it this year but under normal circumstances no series should be as short as 3 games. I think they should all be 7. Even if they do expand the playoffs. Shorten the regular season by a couple weeks. And get the robot strike zone to replace these bums behind the plate.

Glad I’ll never have to watch Brad Hand again. Naylor looks legit and will take over for Santana. Still, if everyone performs the same, I don’t see how you can say we’re going to be significantly better next year without a huge trade or signing. Keeping Cesar should be a priority. Another 1 year deal.
 
ice cream man said:
I’m okay with it this year but under normal circumstances no series should be as short as 3 games. I think they should all be 7. Even if they do expand the playoffs. Shorten the regular season by a couple weeks. And get the robot strike zone to replace these bums behind the plate.

Glad I’ll never have to watch Brad Hand again. Naylor looks legit and will take over for Santana. Still, if everyone performs the same, I don’t see how you can say we’re going to be significantly better next year without a huge trade or signing. Keeping Cesar should be a priority. Another 1 year deal.
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The robot strike zone will never happen. The league and the networks want to maintain some control over outcomes, so they can help big-market teams advance. The smaller strike zones for big-market teams is no accident. It’s also an incentive for players to go to big-market teams, where they will have more favorable strike calls, and thus better stats (pitchers AND hitters).
 
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