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October 14, 2016Cage the Badgers: Ohio State – Wisconsin Preview
October 14, 2016When Craig asked me to take over his WWW spot today, the day of Game 1 of the ALCS between the Cleveland Indians and the Toronto Blue Jays, I couldn’t help but think of the big picture of this season for the Tribe. In the 90’s, we were gifted with one of the most prodigious offensive teams of a generation. They bludgeoned teams in defeating them, and were backyard bullies.
Since that era ended, we’ve dipped our toes into the pool a bit regarding the playoffs. In 2007, balanced by two of the top five pitchers in baseball and a pair of Rafaels, the Indians were on the cusp of the World Series, before Terry Francona’s massively talented and experienced Boston Red Sox just overpowered them. In 2013, with Francona now in Cleveland, the team was balanced by surprising pitching and a magical September run, before it came crashing to a halt in a one-game playoff.
Which brings us to this 2016 team.
I can’t help but think about how insane this run has been, and in many ways, dominant. But ponder a few things before I dive into today’s WWW. In March, I was writing and podcasting about an outfield that could be decimated by the loss of the team’s arguable best player, Michael Brantley. We were concerned that Yan Gomes skills wouldn’t return. As the season progressed, Carlos Carrasco missed substantial time…twice, and is now out of the foreseeable playoffs. Danny Salazar missed starts, and has joined Carrasco as well. Corey Kluber missed his last start of the season, and questions arose about whether or not he would be healthy.
But somehow, with major injuries to major players, this team is not only still standing, but has been a force from day one.
This team dominated the division, and in particular their biggest foes, the Detroit Tigers and the Kansas City Royals. This team controlled first place for the entire summer, and while worries cropped up in the fandom and social media, they never really stumbled.
When I think of this team, not one player stands out. Not one. Several do. They remind me of the old Steve McQueen horror flick, “The Blob,” in which an alien…well…blob…just engulfs its prey from every angle, growing bigger as it overwhelms whatever is in front of it. The 1958 ad campaign for the movie?
“Indescribable, Indestructible, Nothing Can Stop It!!!”
That just might be your Cleveland Indians.
Alright…enough waiting…
Sports is often defined by the superstars that take center stage on a nightly basis. Watching Mike Trout hitting a laser home run, or roping a double off the wall, or running the bases like a gazelle, or robbing someone of a single will always make headlines because of his Hall of Fame-worthy career up to this point.
The rarity of those quintessential players are often balanced by their bright light, blinding many from understanding that the best players don’t always, or even often, win championships.
Often times, the sum of a baseball team does equal more than the parts. Take your American League Division Series champion Cleveland Indians.
When you look closely at the Tribe’s roster, if you aren’t nuanced to the game of baseball, there likely isn’t a player who stands out as one of the true greats in the game today. While everyday followers of the Indians know that thought is complete rubbish, it really is true that there isn’t one guy that is among the game’s best from a historical standpoint. There are moments when one may shine brighter than the other, but the roles shift more than a five-speed transmission. This is a team that’s built on a true democracy, but out of fear of strolling into the political arena, let’s just say that the top tier of this ballclub is one built on sharing the load—and boy have they had to.
While it’s true that the team has been slowly built around guys like Michael Brantley and Jason Kipnis, this year’s Indians have been balanced by Francisco Lindor’s first-full-season brilliance, and Carlos Santana’s continued excellence, and Mike Napoli’s resurgence. With Brantley’s full-season absence, this team has had dominoes of fine play running into each other all season, and now into the playoffs.
Kipnis, who has always been known for his “Shooting Star” months when he’s played like Mike Trout, has often been undone by final-month collapses throughout his career. This season, while Kipnis hasn’t had that one month you can point to just yet, he has been as consistent a performer offensively and defensively as you can get.
Then came the series against Boston, where Kipnis showcased dominant offense in Games 1 and 2, with exceptional defense. Not only haven’t we seen a collapse, but on this team that is somewhat dilapidated by injuries, he’s stepped it up at a time when he normally is struggling physically.
When you then get a team-MVP worthy performance from uber-utility player, and current third baseman Jose Ramirez, you can see that the offense (and defense) has overcome the lost season of Brantley, as well as the lost season of catcher Yan Gomes. He continued that by leading the team offensively, with a .500/.583/.600 slash against the Sox, with several game-saving defensive plays at third…AT THIRD BASE!!! ARE YOU FLIPPING KIDDING ME?
So if you’re counting at home, Kipnis, #JRam, Santana, Napoli, and Lindor all have the ability to carry a team built right in. Often, more than one of these players is doing just that, and when they are on, 14-game win streaks happen, as well as ALDS sweeps against teams national pundits almost unanimously said were far superior.
Ooops.
As good as the core is, it’s not the end of the Indians’ story. Players like Chris Gimenez and Rajai Davis and Abraham Almonte and Lonnie Chisenhall and Tyler Naquin, and Roberto Perez have all been on that second tier of “really good” this regular season, and have added big performances when needed as the season has progressed.
In the playoffs, Chisenhall, Naquin and Perez all had big hits and big plays, and Roberto Perez is one of the most amazing catchers to watch behind the plate. I’ll get to that in a minute.
The team has power offensively, and is also one of the best baserunning teams in the game. They can beat you quickly, or slow burn you. They can run your pitcher’s arm dry by taking pitches, or can attack the first pitch. They can Big Time you, or win close games with key hits.
It’s an offense that is just…plain…good. Sure, there are stretches in which they struggle, as all offenses do, but this isn’t the 2013 Indians offense. There are similarities in that they don’t have that quintessential star, but the homegrown talent, the free agents, and the overall level of ability far supersede what we saw three seasons ago. They take walks, and attack pitchers. They can outhustle you, but have an immense amount of talent. Their “stars” can beat you, but the bottom of the order can as well.
This is a baseball team that is just damn hard to beat.
This was a team that was predicated on its starting pitching. With Carrasco and Salazar out for at least the first two rounds of the playoffs, they just shouldn’t be able to compete in these playoffs, right?
I would love to sit here and tell you that had Carrasco and Salazar been out at the beginning of the year, I’d have still predicted great things, but I wouldn’t have…and you wouldn’t have either. As a matter of fact, if you talked to most everybody at the All-Star break, they’d have likely crushed the bullpen as being a weakness, and knocked Francona for his idiotic way of handling it.
I always pondered the talent though. It always felt like Francona was hunting for someone else to pair up with Cody Allen. It always felt like he was hunting for someone with that kind of talent. So the Indians did something back then to supplement their pitching staff, and literally traded the farm for Andrew Miller, arguably the best relief pitcher in baseball. Little did we know that Miller and that pen would become its greatest strength, and that pen would quite literally become a starter in and of itself.
Once the rotation started dropping like insults between presidential candidates, the pen picked up the paces, and Francona began getting praise for his handling of Miller in high leverage situations. Now, the pen is literally depended on for a start, with hopefully a strong beginning from a sorta 2016 starter in Mike Clevinger (and who are we kidding, Josh Tomlin).
Now, our rotation looks a bit like Kansas City’s in 2015, and you know…they won the World Series.
It all clicked, and Francona’s Indians simply ran over Boston.
Can they win eight more baseball games? There hasn’t been a second…not one second…that these Indians haven’t believed they could win the World Series. I’m not an idiot, that’s often not enough, but what have they proved so far this year?
They don’t stop…ever. This team is defined by their relentless aggression, on offense, on defense, on the mound, and in utilizing IQ. Stopping them all, for any team, will be difficult.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
When Disney bought Lucasfilm, there were so many interesting reactions. I don’t know, when Disney (the Man) does anything, it’s immediately either beloved or criticized for a variety of reasons. A funny thing happened though. With Marvel, Disney more or less let the directors do what they needed to, and let the Marvel people more or less run the show, just with a boatload of money.
It’s clear that they are doing the same thing with Star Wars.
I’m not here to critique. I’m not here to bash. I’m just here to say that with this new movie, the first that’s not considered to be part of the linear story still being told with Episode VIII, coming out next December, it already looks like they’ve made several incredible moves.
They had me at Ben Mendelsohn, who is the main baddie (well, sorta) in this flick. If you don’t know Mendelsohn, his performance during season one of Bloodline, a Netflix original, was scintillating. And c’mon, anything with Forrest Whitaker looking crazy and half-robot is going to be good, right?
But seriously…they had me at Darth Vader…
We can be heroes…for your listening pleasure
In honor of your Cleveland Indians heading off into playoff glory, here’s one of my favorite performers, and performances. This isn’t my favorite David Bowie song, but it may be his most inspirational…
1 Comment
Feel bad that nobody commented on this really fine article. Enjoyed it. Great assessment of the Tribe.
And I cannot wait for Rogue One and my family’s Christmas Eve movie tradition!