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

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People defended Santana all season long. He wasn’t even a major league hitter this year. Putrid production- and he was the clean up batter.

To be fair, Alomar is the guy who put him in that position.

If I serve a turd for dinner, it’s not the turd’s fault for not tasting like filet mignon; it’s MY fault for hoping that a turd could fill the role of savory, delicious food.
 
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:
I have mixed feelings because I watched 62 Indians games this year instead of 162 so I feel I got screwed out of 100 games that I'll never get back. But on the other hand, a lot of folks thought there would be no season at all after the NBA shut down in March or that the season would have to be cancelled after a couple of weeks due to multiple positive tests. So I'm grateful for the 62 games and I'm hoping we get the full 162+ next season.

I agree there will be opportunities for teeth gnashing and I expect the organization will give us plenty, including a name change and a dumping of multiple contracts.

As for picking up for Derek on the small sample thing - you've got some big shoes to fill. He thinks anything short of three years is a SSS. :)
 
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To be fair, Alomar is the guy who put him in that position.

If I serve a turd for dinner, it’s not the turd’s fault for not tasting like filet mignon; it’s MY fault for hoping that a turd could fill the role of savory, delicious food.
Santana has always been a slow starter. I suppose in hindsight we could argue that Reyes should have hit 4th and Santana 5th, but I doubt the record would have been any different.
 
What if the Indians had lost one more game this year, like if they didn't have those big comeback wins over the White Sox or Pirates, for example? In that case they would have been seeded 7th and played the Twins in the first round. We might have lost, but we lost two straight to the Yankees. Would we have been better off facing the Twins, losers of now 18 straight playoff games and the biggest chokers in post-season history?

Yes, we would be on the road where the Twins were 24-7, but having won 7 of 10 in the regular season the pressure on them to break the 16-game losing streak and win would have been enormous.

We probably don't take two of three against the Twins in Minny, but the Tribe's strong finish winning 9 of their last 11 to catch up to the White Sox and get the 4th seed didn't do them any good. It might fall into the "be careful what you wish for" category.
 
I have mixed feelings because I watched 62 Indians games this year instead of 162 so I feel I got screwed out of 100 games that I'll never get back. But on the other hand, a lot of folks thought there would be no season at all after the NBA shut down in March or that the season would have to be cancelled after a couple of weeks due to multiple positive tests. So I'm grateful for the 62 games and I'm hoping we get the full 162+ next season.

I agree there will be plenty of opportunities for gnashing of teeth this off-season and I'm sure the organization will take full advantage, including a name change and a dumping of multiple contracts.

As for picking up for Derek on the small sample thing - you've got some big shoes to fill. He thinks anything short of three years is a SSS. :)
 
Didn't Naylor have one yesterday?
Yes. I was typing fast and didn’t fix it before posting. Thx
Proud of the fight on the team. But our best pitchers shit the bed and then we had an awful strike zone last night. If Naylor and Oscar kept this up to any degree, we might've have the offense to really make a run.

Honestly, this might not even rank in the top 5 playoff disappointments. 07 and 17 were more painful for sure. 99 was pretty bad. 95, 97 and 16 were way more fun, but probably all ended more bitterly. Hell, even 98 stings because we had a 2-1 on the best team in MLB history and blew it.
I found this post to be interesting. I got to thinking about Indians heartbreak last night. For me, the 1997 loss to the Marlins was the worst. They were winning the entire game 7 and to see Mesa implode was devastating. Plus, my g-pa was still alive then and wanted to see another title before he went.
I would rank what happened in 2007 next since they blew a 3 to 1 lead in the ALCS and probably would’ve rolled in the WS. I would rank blowing the Cubs series next and the loss to the Braves in 95 after that. As tough as some of the playoff losses in 1999, 2017 and last night were, they were only in the first round of the playoffs. It is hard for me to rank those as worse than the ones that came deeper in the playoffs.
 
Santana has always been a slow starter. I suppose in hindsight we could argue that Reyes should have hit 4th and Santana 5th, but I doubt the record would have been any different.

The slow starter thing makes Santana riskier now at 34. Hard to tell if he is just cranking it up or if he has lost it for good. Best to just invest elsewhere at this point.
 
To be fair, Alomar is the guy who put him in that position.

If I serve a turd for dinner, it’s not the turd’s fault for not tasting like filet mignon; it’s MY fault for hoping that a turd could fill the role of savory, delicious food.
Wasn't really bagging on Alomar as much as the organization for not giving Bradley a shot given how poorly the offense was performing.
 
A couple thoughts on last night's-to-this morning's game - Sucks to lose but in the abstract it was a pretty entertaining MLB game, lots of action, teams going ahead and then not ahead, good plays and bad. For all the grief Sandy takes he had his team ahead in the 9th inning with his closer, who led the league in saves, on the mound. In the end we were done in by two bad defensive plays by us and one spectacular defensive play by them. That and 12 walks (the ump was terrible for both sides). But for the final score I actually enjoyed it, and really thought up until the last swing that Hedges might just catch one of Chapman's fastballs on the screws.
 
To be fair, Alomar is the guy who put him in that position.

If I serve a turd for dinner, it’s not the turd’s fault for not tasting like filet mignon; it’s MY fault for hoping that a turd could fill the role of savory, delicious food.
If the chef is only given turds to serve for dinner, then how is it the chefs fault he was only given turds? The chef probably figured, too, that if the turd costs 16 million dollars it should st least sort of taste a little like filet mignon, or maybe was initially filet mignon before being eaten and coming out as a turd. Point is, the chef can only cook with the ingredients he was given, and he was given a giant plate of turds.
 
Santana has always been a slow starter. I suppose in hindsight we could argue that Reyes should have hit 4th and Santana 5th, but I doubt the record would have been any different.

I actually LIKE Santana, and I like that he has been a long-time Indian, who actually seemed happy to come BACK.

But he’s not a clean-up hitter. He doesn’t clean anything UP.
 
If the chef is only given turds to serve for dinner, then how is it the chefs fault he was only given turds? The chef probably figured, too, that if the turd costs 16 million dollars it should st least sort of taste a little like filet mignon, or maybe was initially filet mignon before being eaten and coming out as a turd. Point is, the chef can only cook with the ingredients he was given, and he was given a giant plate of turds.

Hmm. Point taken.

I might give the chef the benefit of the doubt, but that is a favorite trick of his! He does it at lunch, TOO!
 
Hmm. Point taken.

I might give the chef the benefit of the doubt, but that is a favorite trick of his! He does it at lunch, TOO!
I’m done with Sandy after he said the players kept grinding.
 
Urshela did this to us, make no mistake. The baseball gods have once again shat on all of us.You know it and I know it.
 
Yes. I was typing fast and didn’t fix it before posting. Thx

I found this post to be interesting. I got to thinking about Indians heartbreak last night. For me, the 1997 loss to the Marlins was the worst. They were winning the entire game 7 and to see Mesa implode was devastating. Plus, my g-pa was still alive then and wanted to see another title before he went.
I would rank what happened in 2007 next since they blew a 3 to 1 lead in the ALCS and probably would’ve rolled in the WS. I would rank blowing the Cubs series next and the loss to the Braves in 95 after that. As tough as some of the playoff losses in 1999, 2017 and last night were, they were only in the first round of the playoffs. It is hard for me to rank those as worse than the ones that came deeper in the playoffs.
I agree in terms of losses, the 2 game 7 losses were the worst individual feelings.

However, when I think of 97 and 16, I can't divorce them from the context of how fun the postseason was leading up to that point. 97 had that epic ALDS comeback off Rivera, then 3 last ABs wins in the ALCS. Plus, you had the rise of Jaret Wright, Chad Ogea getting 2 hits in a game and Omar Vizquel making one of the best plays in WS history. 16 had a sweep of Boston with a 3 HR inning, the heroics of Andrew Miller, the bloody finger game and Ryan Merrit, as well as Rajai's epic HR. So those memories are bittersweet. Years like 17 and 20 will always just be bitter.

2017 will always be the worst for me because we were the best team in the regular season that year and were up 2-0.
 

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