All-Time Indians RCF Fantasy Draft

[JDailey23]

12. Eddie Murray
13. Fausto Carmona

 

[Stark]

Figured I'd push the "way-back" button again. I've picked mostly modern-era players, but have also sprinkled in Sam McDowell, Andre Thornton, and Tito Francona.

With my 13th round pick, the Wailing Wahoos select Ken Keltner, third basemen.


Career w/ CLE: 1937-1949
Career Stats w/ CLE: .276 BA, .778 OPS, 163 HR, 306 2B, 69 3B, 1561 H, 850 RBI, 33.8 WAR, 7x All-Star, 1x World Series Champion

Keltner is one of the more underrated Indians in our franchise's history, and is actually 21st all time in Indians WAR. He also placed 37th on Let's Go Tribe's top-100 Indians list a few seasons back. He was a seven time all-star and finished top-15 in MVP voting four different times throughout his career. He put up pretty good counting numbers in his career with the Indians, and that was with missing the 1945 season (his age 28 year) while serving in the military.

His 1948 championship season stands out as the best for me, that year Keltner split .297/.395/.522/.917 with 31 HR, 119 RBI, 24 2B, 166 H, 146 OPS+, 89 BB, 52 K, and 6.1 WAR to go along with an all-star appearance, 14th place in the MVP voting, and a world championship. Kelter also played an above average third base according to the limited defensive metrics we have from that era.

Due to this selection, I'm going to be shifting my third round pick Jose Ramirez from third base to second base, and now have my infield set as:

C - Yan Gomes
1B - Andre Thornton
2B - Jose Ramirez
SS - Omar Vizquel
3B - Ken Keltner

Draft board is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vhOOAVnG0Q_8Iol125TTlzYdmgpyBo2v3oz28mybcD4/edit#gid=0

@sportscoach is on the clock

 

[sportscoach]

Keltner was on my short list... lol umm...

3B/RF Casey Blake

Decent player who netted us Carlos Santana, so let’s go with him

 

[daddywags]

I really like the Keltner pick, great value at this point. I think it's my turn.

With my 13th pick I'll take my closer Michael Jackson. In three seasons with the Tribe he had 94 saves, a 2.99 ERA, 161 ERA+, 1.108 WHIP, and 8K/9. In 1998 he saved 40 games with a 1.55 ERA, 309 ERA+, 0.875 WHIP, 3.8 WAR along with 4 postseason saves.

I believe @PIP is up next.

 

[PIP]

My pick is Richie Sexson

 

[Stark]

@Kevalier is on the board for back to back picks, draft board is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vhOOAVnG0Q_8Iol125TTlzYdmgpyBo2v3oz28mybcD4/edit#gid=0

Also remember, since we're getting later in the draft now, make sure that your final roster is able to fill out your typical 25-man MLB roster. Nobody is in danger of being far off an expected final product, but just wanted everybody to keep that in mind.

 

[Kevalier]

@Kevalier is on the board for back to back picks, draft board is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vhOOAVnG0Q_8Iol125TTlzYdmgpyBo2v3oz28mybcD4/edit#gid=0

Also remember, since we're getting later in the draft now, make sure that your final roster is able to fill out your typical 25-man MLB roster. Nobody is in danger of being far off an expected final product, but just wanted everybody to keep that in mind.

With my next two picks, I select the following Indians:



Cody Allen- CP



Ellis Burks- OF

 

[Stark]

@PIP is up

 

[sportscoach]

@Kevalier is on the board for back to back picks, draft board is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vhOOAVnG0Q_8Iol125TTlzYdmgpyBo2v3oz28mybcD4/edit#gid=0

Also remember, since we're getting later in the draft now, make sure that your final roster is able to fill out your typical 25-man MLB roster. Nobody is in danger of being far off an expected final product, but just wanted everybody to keep that in mind.

At the end how can we decide positions for guys? Just whatever they played when they were in Cleveland? I have Speaker and Averill who both played CF, and neither of them really played outside of CF (Speaker played a little 1B and Averill had a couple innings in RF, but when he went to Detroit he played LF). My most effective OF probably would be Choo in RF, Speaker in CF and Averill in LF in my mind.

 

[PIP]

Roberto Perez is my pick

 

[sportscoach]

@daddywags you are on the clock!

 

[Derek]

My pick is Richie Sexson

He was a guy I really liked growing up. Was mildly surprised to see how bad his advanced stats were when I looked them up recently.

He was worth a total of 0.9 fWAR during his time with the Indians across 4 seasons. In '99 when he clubbed 31 HR and had an OPS over .800, his wRC+ was just 98, and he was worth 0.4 fWAR.

It really speaks volumes to the offensive climate at the time that his statline was just a notch BELOW league average.

 

[Stark]

At the end how can we decide positions for guys? Just whatever they played when they were in Cleveland? I have Speaker and Averill who both played CF, and neither of them really played outside of CF (Speaker played a little 1B and Averill had a couple innings in RF, but when he went to Detroit he played LF). My most effective OF probably would be Choo in RF, Speaker in CF and Averill in LF in my mind.

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.

 

[daddywags]

With my 14th pick I'll finish my rotation with a lefty - Herb Score.

He pitched five years with the Indians but the latter three were marred by injuries. His first year, though, he won rookie of the year, led the American League in strikeouts with 245, and made the All Star team. His second year was even better - 20-9, 2.53 ERA, 2.78 FIP, 166 ERA+, 263 strikeouts, 16 complete games and 5 shutouts. He led the league in ERA, FIP, ERA+, K/9, strikeouts and shutouts. He was second in wins and WAR for pitchers (7.3). He was an All Star and 19th in MVP voting at the age of 23. If the awful batted ball to the face and subsequent arm issues hadn't derailed his career we would very likely be looking at another Cleveland Indians hat in Cooperstown.

@sportscoach is up.

 

[Stark]

@sportscoach