What's Your All-Time Indians Team?

[sportscoach]

So, a couple comments on the posts so far....
1) How could I have forgotten Greg Swindell?
2) IDK if it's bias or actuality, but I'm surprised how little Frankie Lindor is regarded in the responses so far(including my own)
3) This highlights our relatively recent pitching factory status.
4) It also reflects the talent we had in the 90's....

great memories.

Starting in the 60s-70s what talent did we have until the 90s?

 

[Lee]

Dennis Cook thought he was pitching in Calauhuga County....

Jason Grimsley retrieved AB's bat...

A guy i worked with dad was the umpire that confiscated AB's bat. I met him once, did a mortgage for him. Had an amazing career. Dave Phillips, really neat guy to talk to. Also best friends with Bob Costas according to my co-worker. They are both St Louis guys. My friend was very baseball privileged, he was given a golden ticket for his 25th birthday for example by his dad who used to be the head of the Umpire's Union.

Lots of stories he told me over the couple years we worked together, we sat by each other...fun stuff. Over the years for some reason i have made some crazy connections in baseball even though i would consider myself only slightly above average in baseball knowledge and nowhere close to most of you on here.

Daughter was on a traveling soccer team with a former 2 time GM in baseball, one of my best friends from college's brother is 2nd in charge of the Oakland A's and Mr Phillips one of the most influential umpires of all time.

I have heard many of story over the years, baseball has its characters for sure.

 

[CATS44]

A guy i worked with dad was the umpire that confiscated AB's bat. I met him once, did a mortgage for him. Had an amazing career. Dave Phillips, really neat guy to talk to. Also best friends with Bob Costas according to my co-worker. They are both St Louis guys. My friend was very baseball privileged, he was given a golden ticket for his 25th birthday for example by his dad who used to be the head of the Umpire's Union.

Lots of stories he told me over the couple years we worked together, we sat by each other...fun stuff. Over the years for some reason i have made some crazy connections in baseball even though i would consider myself only slightly above average in baseball knowledge and nowhere close to most of you on here.

Daughter was on a traveling soccer team with a former 2 time GM in baseball, one of my best friends from college's brother is 2nd in charge of the Oakland A's and Mr Phillips one of the most influential umpires of all time.

I have heard many of story over the years, baseball has its characters for sure.

What wonderful stories you must have heard!

 

[Alabuckeye]

Starting in the 60s-70s what talent did we have until the 90s?

My exposure to the Indians started late 70's with Toby Harrah, Ron Hassey, Mike Hargrove, etc.....so I have little first hand, but from what I know...... LITTLE TO NONE! A Chris Chambliss here, a Phil Niekro there, but largely a clown show of middling AAAA talent that cycled thru.

 

[Lee]

What wonderful stories you must have heard!

The ex gm started out as a scout for the Indians, he had a bunch of good stories, talked about CC Sabathia as a rookie. He was assigned to show him the ropes for 2 weeks before rookie ball, but right after he signed.

I used to see him and talk to him a couple times a week while our daughters were on the same team. He believes 80% of baseball took PEDs, i completely changed my stance on PEDs because of him, blame baseball allot more than the players and all of them that deserve to be in the HOF should be in, like Bonds, Sosa, McGuire, baseball writers are hypocrites, he believes that too.

The umpire son had fun stories too, mainly his stories growing up a Cardinals fan and literally getting to hang out with ALL of the players. Or going to multiple World Series games with various series in his life.

 

[2 For The Brew]

My exposure to the Indians started late 70's with Toby Harrah, Ron Hassey, Mike Hargrove, etc.....so I have little first hand, but from what I know...... LITTLE TO NONE! A Chris Chambliss here, a Phil Niekro there, but largely a clown show of middling AAAA talent that cycled thru.

Dennis Eckersley and Rick Manning - unfortunately Manning’s injury hurt his career and directly resulted in him stealing Eckersley’s wife so we lost Eck also.

Andre Thornton, Julio Franco, Gaylord Perry, John Denny - we had some pretty good players, not superstars, but some good players. Wayne Garland was a big signing for us but he had a career-ending injury and never pitched much for us. Bert Blyleven was damn good. Problem then was team never had any money, it was even worse than now.

 

[sportscoach]

The ex gm started out as a scout for the Indians, he had a bunch of good stories, talked about CC Sabathia as a rookie. He was assigned to show him the ropes for 2 weeks before rookie ball, but right after he signed.

I used to see him and talk to him a couple times a week while our daughters were on the same team. He believes 80% of baseball took PEDs, i completely changed my stance on PEDs because of him, blame baseball allot more than the players and all of them that deserve to be in the HOF should be in, like Bonds, Sosa, McGuire, baseball writers are hypocrites, he believes that too.

The umpire son had fun stories too, mainly his stories growing up a Cardinals fan and literally getting to hang out with ALL of the players. Or going to multiple World Series games with various series in his life.

I personally feel like the steroids were so wide spread that just about everyone had it by accident at some point... if everyone took them wouldn't that make the game equal since everyone did? But that probably should be a convo for another thread...

 

[sportscoach]

Dennis Eckersley and Rick Manning - unfortunately Manning’s injury hurt his career and directly resulted in him stealing Eckersley’s wife so we lost Eck also.

Andre Thornton, Julio Franco, Gaylord Perry, John Denny - we had some pretty good players, not superstars, but some good players. Wayne Garland was a big signing for us but he had a career-ending injury and never pitched much for us. Bert Blyleven was damn good. Problem then was team never had any money, it was even worse than now.

I feel like if ya look at the Indians history up until the 50s it felt like the Indians had some good teams and players then I dont see anything again til the 90s... at least it feels that way when I look at team leaders....

 

[CATS44]

Once Frank Lane got thru demolishing the Tribe offense, we had half teams until the 90s.

We either had pitchers or hitters. So we would trade pitching for hitting, and then hitting for pitching.

The org also went thru a string of owners who were different than today. Even though they knew that there was no money to put a competitive team on the field, they felt it was their civic duty to keep the team in Cleveland.

They also did not have the money to invest in foundational things like we have today. Departments for player acquisition and development, etc. And they had a rotten stadium, which they did not control.

 

[Alabuckeye]

Von Hayes is another one that had some talent in the 1980's.

 

[Tonedef75]

So, instead of a starting lineup I’m going to do an all time Indians TEAM. I’ll go with a 25 man roster since it’s been the standard for an active roster since 1914. I also tried to choose players that had an all around game, but in a lot of cases, they were so good either defensively or offensively that I had to go with them regardless. I’m looking at you Manny! There were quite a few players I didn’t choose since they were only with the Indians for a few years. Since the Indians had a ridiculous amount of historic starting pitching and my roster only had a 9-man pitching staff, I didn’t choose any closers. I figured Garcia or Lemon could come out of the bullpen since both were relievers for substantial time in their career. Almost all of my starters went long innings throughout their careers so a bullpen wasn’t really needed. Also, I chose outfielders regardless of position since so many of the OF I chose were centerfielders.

Catcher: Victor Martinez and Sandy Alomar Jr.

First base: Jim Thome and Carlos Santana

Second base: Nap Lajoie and Carlos Baerga

Shortstop: Omar Vizquel and Lou Boudreau

Third base: Al Rosen and Ken Keltner

Outfielders: Tris Speaker, Larry Doby, Kenny Lofton, Manny Ramirez, and Albert Belle, and Earl Averill

Pitching staff: Bob Feller, Addie Joss, Corey Kluber, Sam McDowell, Stan Coveleski, Mike Garcia, Mel Harder, Bob Lemon, and Earl Wynn.

 

[sportscoach]

Hal Trosky > Carlos Santana at least hitting wise at 1B...

 

[Mott the Hoople]

My Top 5 Plays From Cleveland Indians Games
5. Rajai Davis ties up game 7 of 2016 World Series
Would've been#1 if we won.

4. Rick Manning ends Len Barker's perfect game.

3. Albert Belle's walk off grand slam off Lee Smith

2. Carlos Martinez homers off Canseco's head

1. Lofton scores from 2nd on passed ball in 1995 ALCS

 

[Mott the Hoople]

I forgot Bill Wamsgans unassisted triple play in the 1920 World Series.

 

[Derek]

C - Victor Martinez
1B - Jim Thome
2B - Jason Kipnis
3B - Jose Ramirez
SS - Francisco Lindor
LF - Albert Belle
CF - Kenny Lofton
RF - Manny Ramirez
DH - David Justice
BN - Alvaro Espinoza
BN - Tony Pena
BN - Jeromy Burnitz

SP
1. Kluber
2. Sabathia
3. Carrasco
4. Bieber
5. Lee

RP
1. Miller
2. Allen
3. Hand
4. Betancourt
5. Clase