The Indians

[Mike Aller]

Are playing fantastic baseball.

 

1 inning away from 10 wins in a row. I guess they should have traded away a top 5 pitcher, a solid positional player, and placed Hafner and Martinez on the DL at the beginning of the season? :-k

 

Nah, they're just playing good baseball and some of their players are finally doing a little bit of what they should have done all year. Of course, it doesn't hurt when Cliff Lee is as close to an automatic win as there is in the league and Reyes looking like an absolute steal so far.

[manbearcub]

Front page of MLB.com:

 

 

 

"The Indians have been unstoppable as of late ... does anyone think they have a chance to get back in the division race?" -- chisox8105 Visit the message boards »

 

 

Um, no thanks, I think I'll pass on that offer.

[Mike Aller]

Front page of MLB.com:

 

 

 

"The Indians have been unstoppable as of late ... does anyone think they have a chance to get back in the division race?" -- chisox8105 Visit the message boards »

 

 

Um, no thanks, I think I'll pass on that offer.

It's pretty ridiculous to assume they have any chance.

 

Although...they DO play Seattle next followed up by a 3 game set with the White Sox. If we can play Chicago on a 13 game winning streak, it might at least make ESPN make a statement of some sort towards the series.

[Cynosure]

Indians should have been much better this year... MUCH better.

[Mike Aller]

Indians should have been much better this year... MUCH better.

Yeah. The way people played at the beginning of the season was absolutely ridiculous. Sabathia was terrible for quite awhile, Betancourt was bad, and Perez followed suit. Not to mention that until about a month ago, we didn't have an outfielder not named Sizemore that knew how to play professional baseball.

[UMFan83]

I dont think the Chicago Tribune knows what the Indians are doing. They still have Detroit listed as the third team in the AL Central Standings sidebar, even though the Indians passed them a couple days ago.

[shnsajax]

Indians should have been much better this year... MUCH better.

 

The Tigers can say the same thing.

[chuckywang]

If they had not traded away Sabathia, where would they sit? I don't think it'll be a stretch to say they might be 5.5 games out with him.

[Clem Fandango]

Baseball Prospectus correctly predicted the fall of Travis Hafner. However, they predicted it'd be a 22HR season or so, not an injury riddled 4HR season.

 

Although they were spot on in his decline. They don't expect him to be worth a damn in the next 2-3 years. All of his comparables were players who peaked in their typical prime years and then fell of the earth after their prime and didn't last much longer after that. Seems like he's fitting the mold

[badnews]

What happened to Verlander this year, I wonder.

[Clem Fandango]

What happened to Verlander this year, I wonder.

 

What happened to everyone except Magglio and Cabrera I wonder. Cabrera has actually performed better than I had expected, to be honest. But yeah the restof that team is an anomaly. They should've torched the AL

[NewUserName]

What happened to Verlander this year, I wonder.

 

What happened to everyone except Magglio and Cabrera I wonder. Cabrera has actually performed better than I had expected, to be honest. But yeah the restof that team is an anomaly. They should've torched the AL

 

 

I was looking over the Tigers roster a couple of weeks ago and came to the conclusion that I was not surprised about how anyone did....it just seemed that they had a large number of players preform at the low end of expectations than at the higher end

[17 Seconds]

I thought it was clear before the season started that the Tigers didn't have enough pitching, yet everyone was all over them because they added Cabrera and Renteria. Really all they did by getting Miguel was start to offset the production they'd lose from 2007 when some of their guys put up numbers that they weren't going to duplicate in 2008 (Magglio, Polanco, Granderson, Sheffield, etc.).

[Little Slide Rooter]

If they hadnt traded CC, theyd probably have at least another 5 wins under there belt and be 5.5 out instead of 10.5. Thats why you dont have a fire sale in early July.

[Mike Aller]

If they hadnt traded CC, theyd probably have at least another 5 wins under there belt and be 5.5 out instead of 10.5. Thats why you dont have a fire sale in early July.

Eh, I disagree.

 

With our injuries and under performing players, you can't exactly assume a 10-game winning streak in late-August. Besides, Sabathia is gone at the end of the year, and both Byrd and Blake were free agents. Despite possibly making us miss the playoffs this year, the "firesale" will work out in the end.

[TruffleShuffle]

don't look now, but the tribe has a 2 in 1000 shot at making the playoffs!!!

[imb]

If they hadnt traded CC, theyd probably have at least another 5 wins under there belt and be 5.5 out instead of 10.5. Thats why you dont have a fire sale in early July.

 

even if this was true, if you can give up three months of Sabathia for an impact hitter you can cheaply own for a long time, it'd be silly not to make the move just so you can hold onto feeble hopes of a useless playoff run

[treebird]

If they hadnt traded CC, theyd probably have at least another 5 wins under there belt and be 5.5 out instead of 10.5. Thats why you dont have a fire sale in early July.

 

even if this was true, if you can give up three months of Sabathia for an impact hitter you can cheaply own for a long time, it'd be silly not to make the move just so you can hold onto feeble hopes of a useless playoff run

 

exactly. worrying about setting yourself up to be 6 games back of two teams that are definitely better than you is a bad way to build a team.

[treebird]

oh, and cc's only made ten starts since leaving cleveland. there's no way that's a five game swing.

[17 Seconds]

If they hadnt traded CC, theyd probably have at least another 5 wins under there belt and be 5.5 out instead of 10.5. Thats why you dont have a fire sale in early July.

 

So instead of being completely out of the playoff picture, they'd be......almost completely out of the playoff picture.

[Vanilla Ice]

If they hadnt traded CC, theyd probably have at least another 5 wins under there belt and be 5.5 out instead of 10.5. Thats why you dont have a fire sale in early July.

 

even if this was true, if you can give up three months of Sabathia for an impact hitter you can cheaply own for a long time, it'd be silly not to make the move just so you can hold onto feeble hopes of a useless playoff run

 

exactly. worrying about setting yourself up to be 6 games back of two teams that are definitely better than you is a bad way to build a team.

tell that to ed wade

[sneakypower]

Shin-Soo Choo

 

for Ben Broussard- the worst Bavasi acquisition?

consult post-ASB numbers before scoffing at the premise

[RedFlash]

Shin-Soo Choo

 

for Ben Broussard- the worst Bavasi acquisition?

consult post-ASB numbers before scoffing at the premise

 

Good choice, but no...The Adam Jones/George Sherrill among others for Erik Bedard has to be the tops in worst trades of Bavasi tenure.

[sneakypower]

Sherrill's awful, but Chris Tillman isn't. i know the Orioles are going to profit more in that trade than the Indians in the Choo trade, but Bedard had ace potential and that was the market for him. oh, it was misguided, but there was never any legitimate reason to give up a really solid prospect for a 1B with upside as simply an average hitter playing 1B if you platoon him right.

 

and it obviously went south really, really quick.

[rookiecmon]

Shin-Soo Choo

 

for Ben Broussard- the worst Bavasi acquisition?

consult post-ASB numbers before scoffing at the premise

 

Maybe not the worst but if Bavasi check Choo's OPS in last 30 days(5th place 1.173 )and last 7 days( 1st place 1.794), he would scraching his head. The worst acquisiton? We'll see.