Although it's only
been in the last couple years I've become a baseball fan, I knew what
I was getting into when I starting cheering on the Wahoos: they're
one of few teams who can boast going 455 sold-out games in a row only
to find themselves sometimes struggling to fill even a third of the
43,441 seats at the corner of Ontario and Carnegie. That's what
happens when you go from being a division contender to a last place
contender. It doesn't help when you lose the likes of Jim Thome,
Omar Vizquel, Cliff Lee, Victor Martinez, CC Sabathia, and Manny
Ramirez, all of whom have gone on to have successful careers with
winning teams (and also much larger franchises). With one of the
smallest payrolls in the MLB, the Indians simply cannot keep those
big names around; it is next to impossible to compete with the bank
accounts of giants like the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox,
who seem to have almost unlimited capital. When the Hot Stove season
rolls around in the winter, the biggest free agents go to whomever
has the deepest pockets, regardless of apparent loyalty. Right now
the Indians have one of the youngest rosters in the MLB with only a
handful of players on the 40-man roster over the age of 30, most
being in their early-to-mid 20s. Several of them have only recently
been called up from the Minors and are under team control for a
while, so no matter how big of numbers they put up, it will be a few
seasons before the Indians lose their youthful sluggers. Hopefully
though, they can pen some multi-year contracts before the likes of
budding rookies second baseman Jason Kipnis and reliever Vinnie
Pestano get snatched up by another club; Kipnis and Pestano are 24
and 26 respectively and both made huge impacts on the team. In an
era of free agents where the single-team player is all but extinct,
it seems unlikely though that many of the Tribe's starters will
remain in the coming years. But we need not worry until then, for
right now they're staying put in downtown Cleveland where they're
turn a developing team into a championship team.
Last year the
Indians finished with a losing season, though improving their win
record by 11 games and recording a second-place finish, just a
handful of games behind the Detroit Tigers—the major difference
being some painful losses for the Indians against the Tigers, both
home and away, at the end of the season. The Tigers, along with the
Texas Rangers, were the only major contenders with which the Indians
struggled, seeing big wins over the Yankees, Red Sox, and Arizona
Diamondbacks. Up until the final weeks of the season the Indians
even had the Tigers tamed, but a slew of season-ending injuries made
a strong finish difficult. The Tribe was also within one game of
sweeping the Reds in both home and away stints, a feat that has never
been done by either team since the start of interleague play in 1997.
Now here's the interesting thing: despite the unexpected success of
the team, the Cleveland Indians were one of the worst teams
offensively in the MLB, putting up a record number of strike outs, a
record a team certainly does not want to boast. With a significant
portion of the major hitters finding themselves stuck on the disabled
list, it is unsurprising that the Tribe struck out so often and did
not score more runs. For instance, at one time the entire starting
outfield was on the DL—Grady Sizemore, Shin-Soo Choo, and Michael
Brantley. The trio were some of the Tribe's biggest run producers
and are also some of the best defensive players around; when all
three are in good health, next to nothing gets by the Cleveland
outfield. The Indians also lost their designated hitter, Travis
Hafner more than once and third baseman, Jack Hannahan. Although
Hannahan started the season a bit sub par, he was at the height of a
hot streak and remained the best third baseman defensively in the
American League all throughout the season (he's my pick for Opening
Day over Lonnie Chisenhall). With so many injuries, players who
normally wouldn't be seeing this much time in the Majors for another
couple years were forced to learn on the fly. Naturally, this saw a
decrease in offensive production; a lack of depth was exposed.
When the 2011
season came to an end, the Tribe was led by switch hitters Carlos
Santana and All-Star shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera. Both are young and
will be essential to the Indians' lineup. Santana and Cabrera both
broke club records and defensively, Cabrera found himself featured in
many highlight reels with all sorts of acrobatic plays. Between the
two, they belted out over 50 homers, with Cabrera having one of the
biggest bounces in number of home runs in a season from one season to
the next in Major League Baseball history. If Cabrera remains
consistent (and there are no signs saying otherwise), then he could
easily become one of the best in the game, both offensively and
defensively. The same could be said of Santana who has excelled both
behind the plate and at first base, even starting a rare triple play
while playing first. Before the season was over, Santana found
himself being delivered intentional walks leading to him having one
of the highest amount of walks in the MLB. The important thing to
remember about Santana is that this is first full season in the
majors; he saw his debut mid-season in 2010, but was gone before the
season was over with a major terrible knee injury. The 2011 season
also saw the arrival of Jason Kipnis from Triple-A Columbus. Kipnis
made an incredible impact on the team becoming the first ever player
in MLB history to hit four consecutive home runs within two weeks of
his Major League debut. Kipnis too, however, saw himself land on the
DL, which immediately had effects on the team. With the heavy amount
of injuries, bench players Shelley Duncan and Jason Donald also saw
extended amounts of playing, each putting up big numbers and a strong
case for their addition to the Opening Day roster.
With all of the
injuries Cleveland face and the excessive amount of strikeouts, it is
a wonder how the team did so well and saw themselves as contenders
for much of the season when no one else did, save for their die-hard
Cleveland-area fans who were still angry about Lebron. The answer is
simple: pitching. Although the starting rotation also saw its fair
share of injuries (Carlos Carrasco won't be seen until the 2013
season having underwent Tommy John's surgery), the Indians' hurlers
were a huge part of the team's success. Although the starting
rotation had a fairly high ERA, it has some of the best and most
consistent arms in the game with Justin Masterson, Ubaldo Jimenez,
and Josh Tomlin—who, to date, has had only one start of fewer than
five innings, his final game of the 2011 season that ended with an
elbow injury. This season, the Tribe has much more depth in its
rotation and has unloaded some sub par starters. Even with Fausto
Carmona out of the mix for now due to his legal issues, the Indians
starting rotation easily has the potential of being one of the best
in baseball, countering the likes of the Phillies, Angels, and
Rangers, which recently acquired coveted Japanese pitcher, Yu
Darvish, for an outlandish sum. Where the Indians' pitching is best,
though, is in the bullpen. The Indians bullpen, anchored by All-Star
Chris Perez, had one of the lowest ERAs in the American League last
season and has been consistent and almost unchanged for the last few
years. In fact, going into this season there is only one spot open
for competition, a spot that was held by Chad Durbin, who had one of
the worst ERAs in the Cleveland bull pen. With the likes of Vinnie
Pestano (only gave up 16 runs on 41 hits in 62 innings last year),
Chris Perez (converted 36 of 39 saves), and Joe Smith (a meager ERA
of 2.01 for 67 innings over 71 games), the Indians bull pen is
capable of throwing strike after strike after strike and is what kept
the Tribe afloat in the race towards the Fall Classic.
An update to this post: http://colorshow72.blogspot.com/2012/02/update-to-why-cleveland-indians-will-be.html
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