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2017 ALDS | Indians vs Yankees

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Who wins?


  • Total voters
    61
  • Poll closed .
God, a bunch of you are being complete fucking pussies. I get bitchy during the games, but some of the dramatic shit you all are posting today would make Shakespeare blush.
 
God, a bunch of you are being complete fucking pussies. I get bitchy during the games, but some of the dramatic shit you all are posting today would make Shakespeare blush.

Like what?

The pussies played last night.
 
You mean Brantley? The guy who would maybe has 3 at bats all series if EE doesn't get hurt?

Brantley. Kipnis. Miller. I didn't feel confident in any of them.

We could have used Chisenhall and Jackson for the series without relying on Brantley at all. And hell, ever Lonnie was coming back from injury. Brantley was a complete non-factor two games in a row after not able to play in the regular season. He was certainly the biggest issue for me. Watching him at the plate was torture. Could've used Diaz instead of doubling down on defense (where the team let us down anyway).

Game 2 went 13 innings and Salazar was the last guy standing in the bullpen. You act like he unnecessarily burned Tomlin and Clevinger.

Going with Bauer in Game 4 still doesn't really make sense IMO. Tomlin went 2 innings in Game 2. Clev probably should have been the 4th starter anyway. It just felt like we had the pitching staff we needed and somehow got stretched thin again, which is really frustrating.

You wanted Merritt on the team? Who the fuck for? I don't think a single Indian fan saw the 25 man roster and thought, "oh damn, wish Tito carried Merritt"

Eh, fair. That's really more of a carry-over from last year's frustration. He should have gotten a start in the WS after his ALCS performance given how burnt out our starters were.

You're blaming Tito for the team scoring 0 runs in Game 3?

No. I'm putting some blame on him for the lineup but obviously I called out our players...

Because Miller is one of the most dominant relievers in baseball. What appearance from him could you possibility be upset about? Before the Greg Bird HR in the Top of the 7th, he came in after Cookie loaded the bases in the 6th and got Castro to pop out.

He was also coming back from injury and didn't look that good. He seemed to get in trouble every time he was on the mound. But looking back at the stats, he wasn't bad, so you're right. It just wasn't the same dominance we saw in the AL playoffs last year.

These takes are awful.

It's just a bit of venting after a shit series. You've defended Tito well.
 
Going with Bauer in Game 4 still doesn't really make sense IMO. Tomlin went 2 innings in Game 2. Clev probably should have been the 4th starter anyway. It just felt like we had the pitching staff we needed and somehow got stretched thin again, which is really frustrating.

I agree with Bauer in Game 4, I felt terrible going into that game. Just because a guy is better equipped than anyone else on the staff doesn't mean pitching him on short rest is the best move. Would have honestly preferred Salazar over Clev and Tomlin, even though he had gotten shelled early in a few of his recent starts. I was pissed when Tito first announced Clev would be coming out of the pen. But as the the series grew nearer and nearer, I realized if the Yankees beat the Twins, Clevinger may be the last person in our rotation I'd want starting a game vs. the Yankees: he just gives up way too many walks for a team that mashes like them.

Hopefully Clevinger can continue to develop his command because he'll be fantastic if he can cut his walk rate down.
 
Well, after a good nights rest I'm still pissed haha. Excited for next season though. Maybe next year, you know how it goes...
 
Well, after a good nights rest I'm still pissed haha. Excited for next season though. Maybe next year, you know how it goes...
I will enjoy waiting patiently everyday until pitcher's and catchers report in February.
 
Well, after a good nights rest I'm still pissed haha. Excited for next season though. Maybe next year, you know how it goes...

All we can do. Just wait 6 months then take another shot at it. I do know I will care much less about what happens in the regular season. Just make the playoffs, please and take another swing. We'll most likely whiff again, as that's baseball, but you can't ask for much else.

I'm still pissed today. Sports are an escape and you should really just wash these losses off and move on, but I'm just too invested in it. It'll go away in another day or two, but the bitter disappointment will linger all offseason as it did last year. Oh well.
 
All we can do. Just wait 6 months then take another shot at it. I do know I will care much less about what happens in the regular season. Just make the playoffs, please and take another swing. We'll most likely whiff again, as that's baseball, but you can't ask for much else.

I'm still pissed today. Sports are an escape and you should really just wash these losses off and move on, but I'm just too invested in it. It'll go away in another day or two, but the bitter disappointment will linger all offseason as it did last year. Oh well.

I agree. I use Cleveland sports as an escape also. It does take a few days for the sting to go away, but I know as soon as they make their first moves this winter I will start to get that tingle of excitement.
 
Not many other options.

It wasn't that noticeable because the team was winning (mainly because the pitching, defense and the top 6 hitters; Lindor, Ramirez, Edwin, Bruce, Santana and Jackson were all producing), but the Indians weren't exactly a beacon of health or certainty coming into this series, particularly in the outfield.

Zimmer goes down for the season on 9/10. Guyer goes down for the season on 9/14. Both of those guys were definitely going to be on the playoff roster. So that gave the Indians two less options in the outfield.

The fallout from that is Kipnis not only having to move to the outfield, but having to start in CF. He clearly doesn't have the range or the arm to play there and he only had 33 at bats from August 23rd until the end of the season. Not only was he out of position, but he simply wasn't ready to play either.

On top of that, with Zimmer and Guyer down, that meant Brantley and Chisenhall both made the roster. Brantley had all of 3 at bats since August 9th and clearly wasn't ready for playoff pitching. Chisenhall basically the same thing. Missed six weeks, came back for two and didn't hit at all, then missed another two weeks and ended up only having six at bats total in the three weeks leading up to the playoffs.

So you add all that up and now you have three guys in Kipnis, Brantley and Chisenhall all on your roster of 14 guys that for all intents and purposes are automatic outs. Toss in Double A outfielder Greg Allen who only made the team for pinch running and defensive replacement purposes and now you have four automatic outs out of 14.

Now we go a little bit deeper. The main reason why they moved Kipnis to the outfield instead of just playing Chisenhall or Jackson there (or biting the bullet and just starting Allen) is so they could have the best infield defense possible. The problem with that is that that meant Urshela starting at third base and it's abundantly clear he can't hit bad MLB pitching, much less playoff pitching. So now five of your 14 hitters are guys that we've established can't hit.

The curious decision to bring Gonzalez and not Diaz = a 6th player out of 14 that can't hit.

So now, through injuries, they've set up a situation where 42.8% of your playoff roster simply can't hit. That makes the margin for error nonexistent. You get one injury and your only solution is to bring in an automatic out from the bench.

You get other guys that were hot down the stretch that start scuffling like Lindor, Ramirez and Jackson did, and the rest of the roster just isn't able to pick them up.

Now all of these problems existed the last month of the season, but they basically didn't matter because the top 5 hitters were all on fire, the defense was top notch and the pitching, both starting and relief, was the best in the league.

This is great analysis.
 
I agree. I use Cleveland sports as an escape also. It does take a few days for the sting to go away, but I know as soon as they make their first moves this winter I will start to get that tingle of excitement.
It's going to be a take a big move for me to get a funny feeling in my pants. Something bigger than the EE signing
 
It's going to be a take a big move for me to get a funny feeling in my pants. Some bigger than the EE signing
What free agents are we going to have out there?
 
All we can do. Just wait 6 months then take another shot at it. I do know I will care much less about what happens in the regular season. Just make the playoffs, please and take another swing. We'll most likely whiff again, as that's baseball, but you can't ask for much else.

I'm still pissed today. Sports are an escape and you should really just wash these losses off and move on, but I'm just too invested in it. It'll go away in another day or two, but the bitter disappointment will linger all offseason as it did last year. Oh well.

I'm also bitter that, instead of getting to bask indefinitely in OUR ONE CHAMPIONSHIP, fate (or The Cleveland Curse) comes back with two of the most crushing disappointments in the history of NE Ohio sports! Like, where else does this kind of shit HAPPEN?!
 
Again.

162 games.

5 games.

Which sample size are you trusting? I'm going with 162 sample size...they are a better team this year, that went cold at the worst possible time. Anti clutch.
Thanks. I needed that.
 
I'm also bitter that, instead of getting to bask indefinitely in OUR ONE CHAMPIONSHIP, fate (or The Cleveland Curse) comes back with two of the most crushing disappointments in the history of NE Ohio sports! Like, where else does this kind of shit HAPPEN?!

Having multiple teams in championship contention is a double edged sword, as we've found out. The truth is, only one team ones in each sport every year, and for a city like Cleveland to have one of its teams even in contention, so much has to go right. For one to win it? Damn near everything must fall our way. Most of the time, we are going to lose, and sometimes, it will be in crushing fashion. Just the nature of making the playoffs. I suppose it's better than just being miserably bad year in and year out like the Browns, but it sure doesn't hurt much less.
 
I’d say they overachieved last year and underachieved this year, but neither year were they the best team in baseball. We should be very pleased with anothe AL Champions trophy to add to the case.

This isn't even remotely true. They were definitely the best team in baseball.

Their run differential topped everyone. The true stat, that tells you how good that team really is.

They were a +254. That's fucking, elite bro.

The Yankees were the second best team in baseball, just under 200. That led everyone after us.

It's bad fucking luck we just happen to play the second best team in the first round.

But still, we were definitely, by far, the best team in baseball this year. Wasn't even close. So we can't cry over playing them. We should have beaten them. We were the better team, they just played better, and we fucking gagged. Badly.

Which is why losing like this hurts. We will never likely see an Indians team this good in a long time.

That's why its funny when people in the game thread are talking about who should go, stays. There's no way to get better. :chuckle: Next year's team might still be good, and hell, go further in the playoffs, but odds are it won't be remotely as good as this team was.

We had a special team, it ended with nothing.
 

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