Death. Taxes. Clase. All Hail To The Franchise Saves Leader

Since the Cleveland baseball team started the most successful period of baseball in franchise history in 1995, they’ve usually had an excellent closer.

It started with Jose Mesa and his tremendous 1995 season where he saved 46 games with a 1.13 ERA and finished second in the American League Cy Young Award race. Mesa also saved 39 victories in ’96, but by 1997, Mike Jackson was sort of sharing the job with him.

We all remember though, it was Mesa on the mound in Game 7 of the World Series, trying to protect a 2-1 lead for the world championship, but he didn’t save that one.

Jackson had the job for the next two years, which resulted in division titles, saving 39 and 40 games in back-to-back years.

With the bullpen struggling in 2000, Cleveland traded for Bob Wickman, who held the job through the middle of the 2006 season, saving 45 for the 2005 squad that just missed the playoffs. In total, Wickman saved 139 games, and passed Doug Jones as the franchise all-time save leader.

Jones was a relief ace in a different era, saving 303 games in his career. The great Peter Gammons once said that his changeup, his best weapon, was as dominant as Nolan Ryan’s fastball. He saved 129 games for Cleveland, mostly over a three-year period.

When Jones saved 36 games for Houston in 1992, he pitched 111 innings, something unheard of right now.

Cody Allen was the closer during the Terry Francona era from 2014-2018, although he arguably wasn’t the most heralded bullpen arm in that period. Andrew Miller’s performance in the 2016 AL Championship Series earned him the MVP of that series.

Allen was used hard, saving 149 for Cleveland, pitching in 67 games for five consecutive seasons.

Friday night, the Indians/Guardians put a new name at the top of the saves list, as Emmanuel Clase recorded his 150th save, topping Allen on the list.

When the Guardians traded for Clase after the 2019 season, getting him as part of the package for two-time Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber, we remember Francisco Lindor saying when he faced him in ’19, it was like hitting a bowling ball.

Clase missed the 2020 season under suspension for testing positive for a PED, and started the ’21 season sharing the closer job with James Karinchak. He quickly won the job, saving 24 games with a 1.29 ERA.

His save on Friday gave him his 40th of the year, the third consecutive season reaching that milestone. His highest ERA in any of those four seasons was 3.22 posted last season.

One of the things we always say about relief pitchers is they cannot walk people and cannot give up home runs. Clase is a prime example of that. The most hitters he has walked in a given season is 16 (’21 & ’23), and this year he has walked just eight.

Long balls? When the Pirates’ Andrew McCutchen took him deep Friday, it was shocking. Last year, a year Clase was dissatisfied with personally, he allowed four home runs. That’s his career high.

After this year’s All-Star Game, Royals’ veteran catcher Salvador Perez was asked about his biggest thrill of this year’s game. He replied it was catching Clase. That’s the kind of respect the right-hander has among his peers.

We said before the game that if the AL had the lead in the ninth, there was no question on who Bruce Bochy would give the ball to. It was going to be Emmanuel Clase.

He’s the best in the game right now without question. And now, he’s the best closer ever to wear a Cleveland uniform.

When he saves a game, we post the following on social media: Death. Taxes. Clase.

A Trio Deserving Of Heritage Park.

The Cleveland baseball franchise has its own franchise Hall of Fame out behind the centerfield fence called Heritage Park. Everyone may have forgotten this because the team hasn’t added anyone since 2016 when Albert Belle, Jim Thome, Frank Robinson, and Charlie Jamieson were added.

Why has it been six years since the franchise honored anyone? Quite frankly, we have no idea. We have theories, but they would all be the same as some of the other things the team has done to not do anything for the fans.

They just don’t do anything for the people who pay for tickets.

This needs to change next season. Since Progressive (nee Jacobs) Field opened in 1994, the Indians/Guardians have been among the best franchises in baseball, making the post-season 13 times, winning three American League championships, and 11 Central Division titles.

They’ve honored many of the greats from the late 90’s teams which won two pennants: Belle, Thome, Kenny Lofton, Omar Vizquel, Sandy Alomar Jr., Charles Nagy, and manager Mike Hargrove, who is also honored for his playing days with the Tribe.

It’s time to start honoring the players who played in the 2000’s, as those teams had some success as well.

We would start with Grady Sizemore. Sizemore spent parts of eight seasons with Cleveland, with injuries taking their toll over the last two, but he was a dynamic force from 2005-2009. He made three All-Star appearances (’05. ’06, and ’07), leading the league in runs scored and doubles in 2006.

That season was the down year between the 2005 team which just missed the post-season and the ’07 team which reached the ALCS. However, we maintain that if the Indians were contenders that season, Sizemore would have been the likely MVP of the league.

He batted .290 (907 OPS) with 22 homers and 53 two baggers, scoring 134 runs, while playing tremendous defense.

As we said, injuries cut his career short, as he only had one more season after 2009 (age 26) where he played more than 100 games. Still, he should be honored for the greatness he exhibited with Cleveland in that five year span.

Jason Kipnis was a mainstay of the early Terry Francona era teams, playing with the team from 2011-2019, making two All-Star teams, and key player on four Cleveland teams that made the post-season.

The second baseman has over 1100 hits (1120) and 123 home runs in a Cleveland uniform with an OPS over 800 three times in a four-year span from 2013-16. And he moved to centerfield in 2017 and 2018 for the post-season.

We would also like to see Cody Allen honored in Heritage Park.

Allen is the franchise’s all-time saves leader (149) and the closer in the run from 2016-18 where the Indians got to the World Series in the first of those years. He struck out 564 batters in 440-2/3 innings, leading the AL in games finished in 2015.

Along with Bryan Shaw and Andrew Miller, he was a huge reason Cleveland got to the Fall Classic in ’16 despite a starting rotation ravaged by injuries.

Honoring this trio would be a first step in re-establishing the franchise’s Hall of Fame. The 2022 squad re-awakened fan interest and the organization needs to keep that going.

Celebrating the history of the franchise is never a bad thing. The Guardians need to get back in touch with that.

Tribe Probably Looking For A New Closer…For 2021

It has been a long time since Terry Francona has needed to groom a closer, but other than winning baseball games, that might be his most important secondary chore in the 2020 season.

When Francona took over as Tribe skipper in 2013, Chris Perez was the closer, coming off a 39 save season in 2012, and although he had some injury issues during the campaign, he saved 25 for Cleveland in ’13.

When Perez was out, Francona used Vinnie Pestano and Bryan Shaw to close, but he was using a young 24-year-old right-hander drafted just two years prior as a set up man.

That pitcher was Cody Allen, and he took over the closer role the following season and saved a club record 156 games for the Tribe over the next five years, including seven in post-season play in 2016 and 2017.

With Allen on the roster and pitching effectively, Tito didn’t have to worry about who was pitching the ninth inning, he simply handed the ball to Allen, and the reliever was always ready to get four outs if need be.

Allen was such a good fit and a team player, that when the Indians traded for Andrew Miller in ’16, Francona used the southpaw as a “super reliever” bringing him in whenever the fire was the hottest.

He could do that because of the confidence he had in Allen.

In 2018, when both Allen and Miller started to leak some oil, perhaps because the extra work in the ’16 run to the World Series, president Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff traded for San Diego closer Brad Hand, who saved eight games that season, and 34 a year ago.

Hand is signed through this season, but has a club option for $10 million for the 2021 season, and even without the uncertainty of baseball finances next year due to the coronavirus, we would doubt Cleveland wants to pay a closer that kind of cash.

At the initial spring training, people were looking forward to seeing the combination of youngsters Emmanuel Clase, 21, who came over in the Corey Kluber trade, and rookie James Karinchak, 23, who debuted last September, setting up the veteran Hand.

A righty, Clase has a 100 MPH cutter that Frankie Lindor said was the nastiest pitch he’s ever seen, and appeared in 21 games for Texas, going 2-3 with one save and a 2.31 ERA in 23.1 innings with 21 strikeouts.

Karinchak is famous, at least here, for his gaudy strikeout rates coming through the Indians’ farm system.

However, Clase has been suspended for the ’20 season due to PED usage, so the manager will not get to see him under fire this season.

So, it would seem that if Karinchak can throw strikes, which has been an issue in his minor league career, he could give Francona enough confidence to use him as the closer in 2021, and in turn, allow the front office to either pick up Hand’s option and trade him or not pick up the option at all.

On the other hand, as former Tribe GM John Hart used to say, closers fall out of trees, so as the 2020 season plays out, it may be someone else who earns the skipper’s confidence.

Perhaps a veteran like James Hoyt or Phil Maton, or maybe injury plagued prospect Triston McKenzie gets used as a bullpen arm. Or it could be someone like Cam Hill or Kyle Nelson.

Remember, it’s not just the arm that makes a solid closer, it’s dealing with the pressure of pitching with the game on the line. The closer has to be someone who can shake off a bad performance and go out and do the job the next night. Kind of an “everyday” pitcher.

We know the Indians want to win ballgames this season, but finding a successor to Hand might be the most important secondary thing to come out of the 2020 season.

Tribe Bullpen Springing Some Leaks…Again

The Cleveland Indians’ bullpen was a trouble spot for the 2018 team, there can be no debate about that.

Losing Andrew Miller to injury early in the season didn’t help, and several pitchers who played key roles in 2017 were ineffective or injured, or both.

Dan Otero had a poor season. Nick Goody started the season getting hit and eventually went on the disabled list for the rest of the season. Zack McAllister’s luck getting by throwing one pitch for a strike caught up to him.

That put quite a strain on Cody Allen, and by the end of the year, the workload, perhaps an accumulation over the past three seasons, hurt him.

They turned to guys brought in over the winter on minor league deals, arms like Neil Ramirez, Ben Taylor, Matt Belisle, Evan Marshall, and Alexi Ogando.

Of that group, Ramirez did well upon his arrival, but faded as the season went on, very much prone to giving up home runs, a no-no for a relief pitcher, especially one who pitches late in a game.

In June, veteran Oliver Perez became available, and the Tribe signed him. And he helped stabilize the ‘pen, compiling a 1.39 ERA for the rest of the season.

In July, the front office dealt for closer Brad Hand and submarining righty Adam Cimber, to provide more options.

The bullpen was better, but not at the level of 2016 and 2017.

Last winter, Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff did pretty much the same thing, bringing in some arms on minor league deals, but some were hurlers with a solid track record, like Tyler Clippard and Alex Wilson, and made minor deals for Nick Wittgren, A.J. Cole, and Chih Wei Hu.

Unfortunately, when training camp broke, Clippard was injured, Wilson was released, and Wittgren and Hu were sent to Columbus.

That meant it was basically the same cast of characters again for the relief corps.

The bullpen was strong the first few weeks of the season, but it started to spring leaks in Kansas City and Seattle, and continued over the weekend at home vs. the Braves.

Hand hasn’t been an issue. Getting the ball to him has been.

Ramirez’ long ball woes returned. He’s allowed four in 10 innings to date, meaning he’s given up 13 in 52-2/3 frames since arriving in Cleveland. That’s an alarming rate.

Perez has regressed to the mean, and has allowed eight hits and two walks in 5-2/3 innings. Last year, his WHIP was 0.742.

Another lefty, Tyler Olson, has allowed eight hits and five walks in 7.1 innings. If you take out Olson’s scoreless streak at the end of the ’17 season, his ERA is 5.01 with the Indians, covering almost 55 innings.

He just isn’t that effective.

Otero has generally been effective, but he has given up a lot of hits. He tends to get ground balls though, so no complaints there.

Jon Edwards started the year with promise based on his September performance a year ago, but had problems throwing strikes and was sent back to AAA.

The bright spot over the last week has been Wittgren, who allowed his first run yesterday, and picked up a two inning save in the 1-0 win at Seattle. He’s fanned 11 and not walked a batter in eight innings.

It will be interesting to see how long the front office and Terry Francona keep confidence in Ramirez and Olson.

Cole has pitched well in Columbus, and could get called up today. And watch for James Karinchak at Akron, who has pitched eight innings and struck out 19 hitters. That’s domination at any level.

It seems like another case where the management’s disdain for change has hampered them. They may be forced to make alterations soon.

Tribe Bullpen Is Still A Concern Too

Another Cleveland Indian left the reservation yesterday with the announcement that Cody Allen is signing with the Los Angeles Angels as a free agent.

So, add him to the list of Michael Brantley, Andrew Miller, Edwin Encarnacion, Lonnie Chisenhall, Yan Gomes, Yandy Diaz, and we guess you can even include Josh Donaldson, as Tribe players who have departed since the end of the 2018 season.

Who has replaced them? Jordan Luplow, Jake Bauers, Kevin Plawecki, Max Moroff, Chih-Weh Hu, Jefry Rodriguez, and A.J. Cole.

One group isn’t a lot like the others is it?

Perhaps the front office has a big move up its sleeve, and perhaps it will be coming soon, but right now, you would have to be the biggest optimist in the world to think the Cleveland Indians are better today than they were when the season ended.

We understand why most of the players who are no longer here were let go. The Indians were getting old, and the front office needed to get younger players with upside.

It might work out that way in the end, but right now, the Indians might win the AL Central Division for the fourth consecutive year only because the rest of the division is in various states of rebuilding.

We agree with those who say a baseball team simply needs to get to the playoffs to have a chance, but with the current roster (and we know this won’t be the roster heading into the season, let alone the post-season), but clearly the Indians are behind their fellow playoff brethren, the Red Sox, Yankees, Astros, and probably the Rays and A’s too.

The outfield and bullpen are still a mess.

We have talked about the everyday lineup quite a bit, but the relief corps hasn’t improved since the end of last year, and it wasn’t a strength in 2018.

The best news is if those who say a bullpen is built from the closer back are correct, then Cleveland has a good foundation as they know their closer is Brad Hand.

The southpaw had 32 saves in ’18 and fanned 106 hitters in 72 innings.

Beyond that? Herein lies the problem.

Right now, who would be the set up men for Terry Francona?

Do any of these names inspire confidence? Adam Cimber, Neil Ramirez, Tyler Olson, Dan Otero? We didn’t think so.

Cimber was very good in San Diego and was thought to be an underrated piece coming over in the trade that brought Hand here, but he struggled with Cleveland, allowing 33 baserunners in 20 innings.

Besides, he’s a situational right-hander, and struggles against left-handed hitters.

Ramirez allowed nine home runs in 41 innings. That’s a lot. Otero allowed 12 gopher balls in 58 frames. So is that.

Olson is another lefty, the same as Hand. Francona likes Jon Edwards, who was a September call up, and had some moments after arriving, but he’s pitched eight innings in the bigs since 2015.

Maybe Ben Taylor or Rodriguez, who throws hard, or Cole can become reliable arms in relief, but that’s an awful large gamble for a team who is supposed to make a deep post-season run.

Stranger things can happen. But it’s a huge gamble for a team that should have World Series aspirations. If whoever breaks camp with the Indians doesn’t succeed right away, the front office will be shuffling the bullpen all year.

And perhaps they will be forced into a move made out of desperation.

It’s Up To Tribe To Cause Excitement In Team

The Cleveland Indians held their annual TribeFest last weekend, meaning spring training is just around the corner.

In about 30 days, the Tribe will convene in Goodyear, trying to defend three consecutive Central Division titles. The question is, who besides the players currently on the roster will be joining them.

Baseball seems to be in a bit of a holding pattern, waiting for the two marquee free agents, Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, to sign.

While many teams have been bolstering their rosters for the upcoming season, the Indians have said thank you for your service to several mainstays from the past three years.

Gone are Michael Brantley (Houston), Andrew Miller (St. Louis), Edwin Encarnacion (traded to Seattle), Cody Allen (free agent), Yan Gomes (traded to Washington), and Yonder Alonso (dealt to the White Sox).

Carlos Santana is back, but otherwise, no one would recognize any of the players the front office has brought into the clubhouse.

Right now, the projected lineup appears to be dotted with holes, and the bullpen, a major area of weakness a year ago, hasn’t been approved.

Meanwhile, ownership seems to have taken the position that because attendance was down in 2018, they not only aren’t going to increase the payroll, they aren’t going to hit the figure they spent heading into the ’18 season.

That position is the root of the problem baseball fans here have with the Dolan family. They feel the front office should spend when they have a chance to win the World Series, not simply when they get an attendance boost.

With arguably the best starting rotation in the game, and two of the best position players in baseball, why not take a shot at ending a title drought at 71 years. This isn’t the time to draw a line in the sand with the people who buy tickets to watch your team.

Perhaps once Harper and Machado sign, the front office will spring into action and will the holes that exist in the everyday lineup, notably the outfield and the bullpen.

There are plenty of options still out there, and maybe the waiting will play into the hands of the Indians’ braintrust and they will get real good players at below market prices.

However, that approach doesn’t exactly sell tickets. With all of the excitement surrounding the Browns right now, shouldn’t the folks at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario want to muscle in on that spotlight?

We understand it is a business and they have a right to make a profit, but on the other hand it’s an entertainment business. People go to games as a night out, a recreational activity, so you have to give them a reason to travel to Progressive Field.

There was a buzz after the World Series, and the Tribe capitalized on it by signing Encarnacion as a free agent. During the season, they added Jay Bruce when Michael Brantley was injured, and dealt for bullpen help in Joe Smith.

After that season, Santana left and Yonder Alonso replaced him, which got no one excited.

Last year, the Indians made a splash in the bullpen getting Brad Hand from San Diego and picked up Leonys Martin at the deadline. The Hand move created buzz, but it was more about trying to fix a disastrous bullpen.

What we are saying is that it’s the responsible of the team to create excitement, it’s not up to the fans.

We would tell everyone about Frankie Lindor, Jose Ramirez, Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, and the other all star caliber players wearing an Indians’ uniform.

Instead they complain about attendance and ask out loud why people don’t go to the games. That’s not going to help.

Hot Stove Season Opens For Tribe

Now that the World Series has ended, the Hot Stove season has started for major league baseball teams, and initially there are a lot of procedural things that must be done.

The first is making decisions on the contract options for many players. The Indians historically don’t offer many (if any) player options, they like to be the one making the decisions on an extra year for a player in question.

Both decisions made yesterday by the front office were no brainers, in our opinion.

The Tribe picked up the option on Carlos Carrasco, one of the best starting pitchers in the sport. Carrasco has won 35 games over the past two seasons, striking out at least 200 hitters in each year.

They passed on outfielder Brandon Guyer, saving $2.75 million. Guyer is a platoon player who feasted on left-handed pitching when he came over from Tampa in 2016, but in the subsequent years, he’s had injury issues and his production, while still good, isn’t at an elite level versus southpaws anymore.

Next on the agenda are making qualifying offers to the prospective free agents. We are sure such a deal will be offered to Michael Brantley, but the real questions would be Andrew Miller and Cody Allen.

If you make the offer, you have to be prepared the player will accept, and that’s why we would extend the deal to Miller only. If he’s healthy, which he hasn’t been since the middle of last season, he’s still a dominant reliever.

Allen has declined in performance in 2018, perhaps due to the wear and tear of making a lot of appearance over his seven years in Cleveland. It’s a tough decision and a tough business because Cody Allen has been a loyal player, willing to do whatever Terry Francona wanted him to do.

To improve the roster for the 2019 season, the Indians will need to gain some financial relief, meaning it would behoove the front office to look at highly paid players, who aren’t producing to the level of their contracts.

The chief players to look at here are Edwin Encarnacion, Jason Kipnis, and Yonder Alonso. It is doubtful Encarnacion can be moved, because being a DH limits him to American League teams.

The other two would be in play, but there is no question in our mind that Cleveland would have to eat some money to make any deal happen.

Moving both would lop about $22 million off the team’s projected salaries, minus whatever the team would have to pay to make it work.

Although they will be the favorites to win the AL Central for the 4th consecutive season, it would be hard to take them seriously as a World Series contender with an outfield of Kipnis in LF, Tyler Naquin in RF, and a platoon of Leonys Martin and Greg Allen in CF.

There is also the matter of rebuilding the bullpen, which with Miller and Allen’s likely departure has just Brad Hand as a proven, reliable option.

It appears the organization has high hopes for Jon Edwards, but it would be nice to have another proven arm in the ‘pen going into spring training. The cost for relief help would seem to be less than that of a solid big league hitter.

In a few days, we will know who is available in the free agent market and can examine some possible low cost options who could help.

The Indians have the stars, now they need to surround them with better secondary players.

A Tribe Post Mortem

The Cleveland Indians season came to a disappointing end in the American League Division Series for the second straight year, and this time they can’t even complain about blowing the series.

Giving up 21 runs in a three game series, while scoring only 6 doesn’t make anyone wistful about what might have been.

We were worried about the Tribe’s offense throughout the season, and our worst fears came true, as the Indians got just three hits in each of the first two games, and had only four yesterday until the Astros blew the game open off the Cleveland bullpen, which by the way, was another concern.

The offense was top heavy all year long, buoyed by excellent seasons by Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez, and Michael Brantley. When Ramirez’ bat went AWOL around the middle of August, the offense really sputtered.

One thing that is needed during the winter is the addition of some solid, consistent bats to pick up the slack with that trio, and Brantley may not be back, isn’t hot.

While we all look at statistics, particularly the new ones, the analytics people need to realize that going 4 for 5 on a given night, and following it up with a couple of 0 for 4s, makes you 4 for 13 (.308 batting average), but you didn’t do anything offensively on two of those nights.

This year’s Tribe had too many players (Yonder Alonso, Jason Kipnis, anyone playing centerfield and rightfield) who did nothing at the plate on a nightly basis.

Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff have a lot of spots in the lineup that need an upgrade.

And while the starting rotation is the cornerstone of the team, the bullpen will need a massive overhaul. Brad Hand and Adam Cimber will return, but beyond that duo, who knows?

Cody Allen and Andrew Miller are free agents, and it is doubtful they will be back.

Terry Francona tried to force Trevor Bauer into the Miller 2016 role in the series, but Bauer is a starter, and being moved out of his normal role didn’t work.

He did it because he no longer trusted Allen and Miller to get big outs when needed.

And speaking of the skipper, he needs to do some internal auditing as well.

The patience vs. stubbornness fine line continues to be an issue. He wanted Miller to be the ’16 edition when he brought him out of the bullpen in Game 2, and probably pulled Carlos Carrasco too early as a result.

But that Miller disappeared midway through last season. Hoping he would come back didn’t help against Houston.

Perhaps there should be a dissenting voice on the staff. The current staff has been with Tito for awhile, and they probably think a lot alike. Sometimes, it’s good to look at things with a different slant.

The first order of business will be the free agents. If Brantley wants to stay on a one or two year deal, we would welcome him back. Let’s face it though, he’s declined defensively, and ideally should spend much of his time at DH.

However, the Tribe has Edwin Encarnacion for another season.

The contention window is not closing. The Indians still have a strong rotation, and still have two of the top ten players in the sport in Lindor and Ramirez. However, you can’t have below average players everywhere else and get to where you want to go.

That and rebuilding the bullpen are the biggest jobs the front office has this winter.

For Tribe fans, this loss with sting until spring training begins in mid-February.

A Tough Series Ahead For Tribe

Tomorrow afternoon, the Cleveland Indians start their quest to end a 70 year drought without a World Series title.

To make matters tougher, they embark on the journey having to take on the defending World Series titlists, the Houston Astros, in the best of five Division Series.

We could be completely wrong on this, because well, baseball, but we feel it will be a very difficult series for the Tribe to emerge victorious.

The Astros lead the American League in run differential, meaning them, not the 108 win Boston Red Sox are the best team in the AL.

The Indians’ hallmark is their pitching, particularly their starters. Their staff ERA is 3.77, ranking 4th in the American League. However, Houston led the league in that category, more than a half run per game less at 3.11.

Cleveland has scored more runs, but only 21 more than the Astros on the season.

The teams are very similar offensively. The Indians scored three runs or less 58 times, which is over 1/3rd of their games. That seems like a lot, right?

Except the Astros did the same thing more often, having 64 games with three runs or less.

Using the 350/450/800 standard for being a very good offensive player, the Indians have three such players (Francisco Lindor, Michael Brantley, and Jose Ramirez), while the Astros have two in Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman.

Houston comes in as the hotter team, going 21-6 after September 1st, while the Indians went 14-14. But as we found out last year, being hot coming into the playoffs makes absolutely no difference.

As we said, both teams have exceptional starting pitching, and in our opinion, that’s what the series will come down to. Corey Kluber won 20 games this year, but at times has appeared mortal this season. His game one mound opponent, Justin Verlander, quite frankly had a better season.

The two teams met seven times in the regular season, with Houston having a 4-3 advantage.

In Houston, all three games were close. The Indians were either tied or ahead through 6-1/2 innings in each contest, and a tired starter gave up runs late. Remember, at that time, the Cleveland bullpen was having major issues.

At Progressive Field, Houston won in blowout fashion in the first two games, the latter with the Astros scoring 11 runs in the last two innings.

Even in the extra inning win the day before Memorial Day, the Tribe led 3-2 after seven, before Houston scored six in the 8th, matched by a five run rally in the bottom of the ninth by the Indians.

In that game, Trevor Bauer was left in to throw a season high 127 pitches.

So, this series could hinge on how well Allen, Miller, and Hand do. Only Allen was fully healthy at the time. Miller was about to go on the DL, and Hand was in San Diego.

If Ramirez doesn’t start hitting in this series, the offense could depend on whether or not Josh Donaldson can contribute.

The record says the Astros are better than the Tribe, but last year it said the Indians were the better team than New York.

We say it will be a great series, and these two teams are more evenly matched than it appears record wise.

If we have to make a prediction, we would go with the Astros in four. We also can’t tell you how wrong we would like to be.

Things To Watch After Tribe Wraps It Up

Sometime in the next week, the Cleveland Indians will clinch the American League Central Division title, their 10th since the three division set up was established in 1994.

They will also be making their 11th post season appearance in that time frame, trailing only the powerful, big market Red Sox and Yankees in the American League.

These are heady times for baseball fans in northeast Ohio, especially when you consider this team has several of the best players who have ever worn the Indians’ uniform.

Even after the Tribe wraps up the division crown, they will be very interesting to watch through the end of the season. Here are some things to watch–

Josh Donaldson. The former AL MVP will return to the active roster next week in Tampa, and then the seismic position shift will begin, assuming Donaldson’s calf holds up.

When he is ready to play the field, Jose Ramirez will move to second base, and Jason Kipnis goes to centerfield. That is, if Kipnis continues to swing the bat like he has over the last week to ten days.

If he slumps again, Terry Francona could go back to Greg Allen, who is a better defender, and has provided some timely hits since Leonys Martin fell ill.

The Bullpen. With Cody Allen back on the beam (hopefully), who will be in the bullpen for the post-season is still up in the air.

The first order of business is getting Andrew Miller healthy and back in the mix. We doubt he can carry the same load he did in 2016, but if he can give Francona an inning of quality relief two or three times in a series, that would be big.

Also to be determined is what other right-handers will the skipper want. Adam Cimber should be one, because of his success vs. right-handed hitters, but will the manager really want to bring Dan Otero or Neil Ramirez into a playoff game?

Our guess is that was why veteran Jon Edwards was given a look see after striking out 56 in 39-2/3 innings at Columbus this year.

And that makes it kind of curious that Ben Taylor wasn’t brought back for another look. The 25 year old made six appearances early in the year, and fanned 70 in 57-1/3 innings at AAA this year.

The Bench. There won’t be a need for 13 pitchers come October, so we figure two spots on the bench will open up.

In our estimation, Francona will go with four starters and seven arms out of the bullpen, so who gets those roster spots?

If Kipnis is in CF, one spot will go to Greg Allen for his defense, and Rajai Davis will be there as a pinch runner, but will that mean Yandy Diaz makes the roster this fall?

Remember, a year ago, Diaz was bypassed in favor of Giovanny Urshela’s glove.

This year, Diaz may be in the lineup vs. left handed pitchers, replacing Yonder Alonso, who is batting .212 with a 607 OPS against southpaws.

For a team coasting into the playoffs, the 2018 Cleveland Indians have a lot of things that are unsettled. We are sure the Tribe management would like things to crystalize in the next three weeks.