Week 1: The Browns Will Win If…
September 9, 2011Funny Video: Coastal Carolina’s Coach David Bennett is … An Original
September 9, 2011At the beginning of the season, we did a roundtable discussion about what we expected the Indians to do this season. I set the bar for a successful season at 81 wins.
Rick: Personally, I set the goal for wins at 81. A .500 team is not unrealistic if some of the pieces develop the way they should. I wouldn’t be mad at 70-75 wins, but 81 seems like a good, fair expectation.
I certainly wasn’t alone in that expectation-
TD: I’m with Rick – I think the goal should be .500. With so many questions in the starting rotation, I can’t envision a better scenario than that.
Craig: Barring injury, I like Rick’s over/under. Then again, there is a chance that Carrasco, Santana, Masterson and Matt LaPorta are all the real deal; Sizemore comes back and contributes; Choo and Asdrubal Cabrera play like they can. Then all of a sudden, you think maybe the Indians can battle for the Central. That’s what’s so weird about this team: I can convince myself that this is a 50-60-win team and then convince myself that 80-90 wins are a possibility.
So? Given the start the Tribe had, and taking into account the injuries is 81-81 still the goal?
The team sits at 70-71 right now, but would it surprise you if the team decided to ’empty the bench’ as it were? It wouldn’t surprise me to see Asdrubal Cabrera get a few days off here and there, especially with the nasty schedule coming up. They play 21 games in the next 20 days, with 1 day off (a travel day to Texas on Monday).
Justin Masterson has already thrown 200 innings. Our bullpen has been great this season, and stayed pretty healthy. They are starting to rack up the appearances however. (Sipp 64, R, Perez 64, Smith 62, Pestano 60, C. Perez 58, Durbin 50) With the division all but a mathematical possibility, would you blame the Indians for shutting a couple of these guys down?
It’s a tough question to answer. If I’m paying for a ticket to these last few home games, I want to see the best players we’ve got. I want to see them scrap like they have all year for runs, and let the pitchers carry them. I still want 81 games. I don’t think it’s unrealistic, but I’d hate to lose another player for next season. (Losing Carrasco hurts.)
What would you rather see the Indians do? Is it time to rest some of these guys and avoid injury risk?
10 Comments
Shut it down. At this point, first place isn’t happening, and I don’t see the value in risking guys that will be critical to any chance of success next year (remember, we’re all in for 2012-2013) for some symbolic win total this year.
let Huff and Jenmar duel it out for a spot in the rotation next year.
My expectations were changed after the great start, but I don’t feel crushed by the ending because of the injuries. You never want to blame injuries, but seriously… what happened to this team was incredible in a bad way.
Regarding the idea of reviewing expectations, it reminds me of what I’ve heard when it comes to the Browns. If the Browns finish 8-8 this season, would you be satisfied? Given the fact that they’ve gone 5-11 for two seasons, I think 8-8 would be an improvement and give me hope.
But, what if they start 8-3 due to their relatively easy early part of the schedule? It’s conceivable they lose twice to the Steelers and Ravens… then you have traveling to Arizona in-between.
That’s the question, but personally I figure if they are 8-3 going into December, they’re not losing 5 straight games. Confidence alone should put them over the top for one or two of those games. Anyway…… eternal optimism and all.
The great irony is, this season didnt answer as many questions as it begged:
Who the hell is Carmona anyway?
Is Huff for real?
If this is Santana’s soph season, what do we expect as a JR?
OMG, Laporta?
Is Kipnis the kid he showed in the show, or the one in AAA?
Will we have a 3rd baseman that can hit?
Are there REALLY any ML pitchers in Columbus?
Is Carrera a real ML player?
and of course, the age old questions: can Hafner and Sizemore stay healthy enough to play 100 games?
After what we saw this year, i have no clue how to predict next. Except there will be Dolan haters and fire Manny whiners. LOL
Shut it down. Who knows, we might do better down the stretch by bringing up a bunch of the prospects anyway.
@4- That’s what I keep saying! 162 games played and I am more confused than ever. Even Masterson and Cabrera, our two rocks this season – did they just have career years or are these the players they are? Jimenez is PERFECT for this team – sporadic and twitchy, performances of the extreme.
I was part of the “.500 is a successful season” crew in April, and I still am. Would still like to see them get to 81, but 78-80 is acceptable at this point with everything that has happened injury-wise.
Thanks for an entertaining season, guys. For the first time in a while, baseball was fun again this summer. Looking forward to next year, even with all the question marks. Hopefully we can pick up a quality bat or two this winter and stay reasonably healthy next year. It is with that in mind that I ask the Dolans and the front office…
“What if?…”
they made things interesting until the Browns captured our imaginations, can we hope for anything more than that?
I think the goal is still 81 wins, but I also think we should do it in a prudent way. No way should we force our players to play 7 days a week (or 8 in some cases). No way should we let Masterson go above 220IP or so (depends on actual pitch count). No way should we burn out our bullpen (individual situations vary).
But, just because we are playing a bunch of youngsters doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be shooting for that 81 number. Manny should let it be known to them that he fully expects them to win games and it’s not like KC, Minny, and Chicago won’t be doing the same thing down the stretch (and likely Detroit during that last weekend series as they lineup things for the playoffs).
Rick no one cares about the Tribe. Anymore call me when its spring training
So I’m hoping to see some, if not all, of the regular tribe players for the rest of our season. I’ve got tickets to the Jim Thome celebration game on Friday and will be unhappy to see unfamiliar players on the field.