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I would say they're so much better than they were at the start of the 2019 season it's scary. Look at the situation then.Not to get off topic, but how do you guys see the Tribe doing this year?
Can I come back to Baseball fandom?
Corey Kluber was our #1 starter. He had been held back in spring training after flaming out late the previous season and having pitched 200+ innings five consecutive years. We didn't know it at the time but he was running on fumes. His ERA was 5.80 before his season was mercifully ended by a line drive.
We didn't know it but another top starter, Carlos Carrasco, had cancer. He had a 4.98 ERA before the problem was diagnosed two months into the season.
Leonys Martin was our starting centerfielder. He was coming off an illness that almost took his life. He hit .199 in 236 at-bats before the Indians pulled the plug.
As if having Martin in center wasn't bad enough, they also gave 154 at-bats to Hanley Ramirez and Carlos Gonzalez, hoping to squeeze one more decent year out of their corpses. They hit .184 and .210.
Franmil Reyes, Oscar Mercado, Zach Plesac, and Aaron Civale did not join the team until later in the season. This year they'll be there from day one, replacing the ineffective Martin, Ramirez, Gonzalez, Kluber, and Carrasco that we were depending on last year.
They also gave Jake Bauers 372 at-bats in the middle of the batting order. He hit .229/.683. I doubt he will be playing much. Those at-bats will probably go to Jordan Luplow, who proved he deserves to play more last year, and Domingo Santana, who is a bit of an unknown but at least he is young and was very productive last year until injuring his elbow.
You could also argue that Hernandez is an upgrade from Kipnis and not get much pushback.
On paper this team returns all its' best players from last year and has significantly upgraded the starting pitching and outfield from where they were when they broke camp last year. The bullpen is the big question but the only good reliever that left was Tyler Clippard and he was a middle inning guy. Otherwise the relievers that left were not very successful, although Goody wasn't bad.
Brad Hand, the key reliever, had a great first half but after coming in five times in six days in late June the bottom fell out and he ended up with a 5.83 ERA in August and 7.71 in September. With a 60-game season this year he'll only have a first half to worry about.
We still have Wittgren as a setup man but the big question is whether Karinchak or somebody else can take Clippard's spot. Nobody talks about Clippard but in 62 innings he gave up only 38 hits and struck out 64. He had 8 holds and a 0.85 WHIP. He had no trouble finding a job after the Indians let him go. In fact, the Twins signed him and I heard they're not a bad team. Ciippard's loss concerns me a bit but I think Karinchak can step into that spot and do as well.
The Indians weren't as good as they looked on paper in April of 2019. They look a lot stronger now, but there were things we didn't know then and there could be things we don't know now. At least we're not counting on over-30's like Kluber, Martin, Hanley Ramirez, Gonzalez and Otero this year.
The wild card, of course, is the coronavirus, which could throw all the plans and expectations out the window.