Tag: new york mets

Guardians Winning Shouldn’t Be Taken For Granted

We are critical at times of the Cleveland Guardians’ organization, mostly due to the lack of funds given to the front office by ownership. At some point, not winning a World Series in 78 years should be something the entire organization wants to rectify.

On the other hand, you have to tip your caps to the run this franchise has been on since 1995. the Indians/Guardians have played in the post-season 16 times. They’ve made the playoffs nine times since 2013.

We understand the post-season has expanded since the move to three divisions in 1994, but not many franchises have played in October more often than Cleveland.

The consistency of putting out competitive teams year in and year out should not be minimized. Since ’13, the fewest wins for this franchise in a full season is 80, two games below the .500 mark. There has been no tanking, no sacrificing a season for the greater good.

Cleveland has been host to 14 consecutive years of average baseball at the very least, and a team good enough to be in the World Series at the very best.

We have mentioned many times our first memories of Major League Baseball was in 1965, and the Indians finished fifth in the American League with a respectable 87-75 mark. They would not win that many games in a season again until ’95, when the AL Champions raised the fourth pennant in history with a 100-44 mark.

They finished at .500 in ’66 despite winning their first 11 games of the season, and finished third in ’68 with a, 86-75 record. The next time they won more than 81 contests was 1986. Eighteen years later.

And that season was sandwiched by two 100 loss years.

So, while we won’t be satisfied until the Commissioner’s Trophy is being raised in the middle of the diamond by the Guardians’ owners, we also aren’t going to be angry because they won the AL Central or qualified as a wild card.

Do you know what the chances of winning it all are if you don’t make the playoffs? That would be 0.

We have seen the 1986 Minnesota Twins, who finished at 85-77 and were outscored by their opponents by 20 runs during the season, win the Fall Classic.

The next season, the Dodgers who won 94 games in the regular season but with a lineup decimated by injuries, defeat the powerful Oakland A’s in a five game World Series.

In 2006, the St. Louis Cardinals won a paltry 83 games but beat the Tigers in five games to be World Champs and in 1973, the New York Mets went 82-79 in the regular season, beat the mighty Cincinnati Reds in the League Championship Series and took the A’s to a seventh game before falling.

Sometimes we don’t know how the Guardians’ do it, because trying to make the playoffs with one of baseball’s worst offenses usually doesn’t work out, but here they are again, in the tournament to determine baseball’s champions.

The consistency of putting together teams that can compete well enough to advance past the regular season should not be pooh-poohed. As someone who watched also-rans for 30 years, seeing Cleveland playing in the post-season doesn’t get old.

On this, the organization should take a bow.

Does Tribe Have MLB’s Best Pitching?

Lost in the championship fever that has stuck Cleveland and northeast Ohio is the possibility that another of our major league teams can make a post-season appearance.

That would be the Cleveland Indians, who have won six straight overall, 11 consecutive games at Progressive Field, and currently sit three games ahead of the Kansas City Royals in the AL Central Division.

The Tribe is led by their pitching staff, which leads the American League in ERA at 3.57.

Do the Indians have the best pitching in baseball?  You can make a case they do.

Cleveland’s ERA would rank 6th in the National League, but you have to take into account that AL teams score more than their Senior Circuit counterparts by an average of .15 runs per contest.

However, you also have to figure in the ball parks that each of the five NL teams play in.

This season, Progressive Field is the second best hitters park in the major leagues, behind only the thin air in Colorado at Coors Field.

So, the Tribe hurlers are compiling that low ERA playing half of their games in the best hitters yard in baseball that rests close to sea level.

The five NL teams with lower team ERA’s are the Cubs, Mets, Dodgers, Nationals, and Giants.

The best offensive yard of those teams is AT & T Park in San Francisco, and it ranks 17th in favoring offense.  Remember, there are 30 major league teams, so they are in the bottom half of that category.

Wrigley Field has a reputation as a great hitters’ yard, but the wind must be blowing in so far this season, because it ranks 26th.

Citi Field (Mets) is 18th, Nationals Park is 22nd, and Dodger Stadium is ahead of only Tropicana Field in Tampa in promoting offense.

What would the Indians ERA be if they didn’t play in a hitter’s park?  Their ERA on the road this season is 3.47.

That figure is better than San Francisco (3.56) and Los Angeles’ (3.80) figure on the road, and virtually the same as Washington’s (3.46).

This means the Cubs and Mets aren’t just pitching great at home in pitcher friendly stadiums, they are doing it on the road too.

The factor that favors the Indians is that 10 of the parks favoring batters are in the American League, the only “pitchers’ parks” in the Junior Circuit are Tampa, Oakland, Seattle, Houston, and Chicago.

By the way, the only surprise there in US Cellular in the Windy City.  The NL shocker is Cincinnati, which we call “Great American Bandbox”.

So, perhaps the Indians don’t have the best pitching staff in the majors, but it’s pretty fair to say they are definitely in the top three.

And that’s with some bullpen issues that raise their heads occasionally.  Remember, the Tribe has lost eight games that they were tied or led after six innings, and dropped three others where they tied it up after trailing after six.

If they had won half of those games, the Indians would be 47-24 today, and have a commanding lead in the division.

That’s why we feel the biggest need for this team at the deadline is another arm in the bullpen that Terry Francona trusts.

As Tito often says, when you think you have enough pitching, you go out and get a little more.

MW