AL Central Discussion

[WiggyRuss]

Frankly, I think its all about management. Francona has the ability to get players to be better than they really are and has for years. LaRussa seems to be aloof and not really engaged in the game at times. Baldelli makes too many mistakes with his pitchers.

Tribe's bullpen could have gone one of two ways- either great- or fallen apart with lack of experience adn veterans.

Francona was masterful.....now they have a 5 guy core of Clase, Karinchak, Stephen, Hentges and Sandlin- all of whom are under control forever and are cheap- that compose one of, if not the best bullpen in baseball.

All of them have talent- but confidence is a tricky thing. Francona really worked his magic with the bullpen and getting guys in the right roles with confidence and now it is a dominant unit that costs less than half of an elite closers salary

 

[Shanemansj13]

It’s crazy the White Sox arent walking away with this shitty division.

No kidding. The last couple years they were projected to not only win the division but make a deep run. With all the signings and young talent it is a huge underachievement if they don’t win the division let alone make the playoffs. Makes me smile though. South side trash

 

[catman]

It doesn't appear that the Twins want to finish .500 this season.

 

[Shanemansj13]

hahahaha I hated AJ

 

[catman]

hahahaha I hated AJ

He should have been right. Unfortunately, the Sox badly underperformed and the Guardians played really well this year. As I said earlier, it is all about management. LaRussa was disengaged too much this year and Francona got his players to overacheive.

 

[navamind]

He should have been right. Unfortunately, the Sox badly underperformed and the Guardians played really well this year. As I said earlier, it is all about management. LaRussa was disengaged too much this year and Francona got his players to overacheive.

TLR's been awful but they also got some huge performances last year that have not repeated themselves this year. Grandal, Moncada, Lynn, Giolito and Robert (went from a 154 OPS+ to 109 this year) have all been significantly worse than last year. They also lost Rodon to free agency, though the Cueto signed helped ease of some of that along with Cease improving. Tim Anderson missing most of the season and Garrett Crochet missing the entire season hasn't helped either.

That's not to say that that was to be expected.

 

[mr.hockey4242]

Guess he wont be canned.

Falvey ready to go down with him. Personally I love it. Get rid of all incompetence in one big move

 

[mr.hockey4242]

TLR's been awful but they also got some huge performances last year that have not repeated themselves this year. Grandal, Moncada, Lynn, Giolito and Robert (went from a 154 OPS+ to 109 this year) have all been significantly worse than last year. They also lost Rodon to free agency, though the Cueto signed helped ease of some of that along with Cease improving. Tim Anderson missing most of the season and Garrett Crochet missing the entire season hasn't helped either.

That's not to say that that was to be expected.

It is not a coincidence that the Sox showed some life and made a push for a bit the moment TLR AND Anderson went away.

TA is addition by subtraction.

 

[Shanemansj13]

It’s actually 11 games

 

[Wamu]

It’s actually 11 games

Damn.

The game's gonna be televised out here but it starts about a half hour before the Buckeyes.

Gotta say I'm surprised what this young team has done this season. Wasn't expecting it.

 

[catman]

The Guardians, as I have said, appear to want the division a lot more than the Sox or Twins do. Not sure the Twins want to finish above .500 this year, although it is possible. The Sox have been a major disappointment for their fans and management. The team underperformed badly. AJ Pierzynski should have been right. The Sox should have won the division going away.
With the Guardian's pitching, I wouldn't want to face them in a short series.

 

[WiggyRuss]

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Guardos with the 7th best ERA in baseball- and a hair away from 5th. tied for 7th best record in all of baseball.

@tlance

best is yet to come too- the really top level prospects are not up yet.

Guardians team is the best in baseball at not striking out, putting the ball in play, taking extra bases. No one will benefit from the shift rules more than the Guardians next year because of it.

 

[WiggyRuss]

If Kwan can add just a little pop he is going to make a lot of all star teams. Even though he might deserve it anyway- so hard to make an all star team with very little power.

The guy does so much else though. Great leadoff guy. High OBP. High avg. I think he has the best strikeout rate in baseball (or at least did at some point). He is prob. the best LF in baseball.

Since the 90's Tribe of Baerga, Lofton, Belle, Thome, Manny (reading that is just crazy) they have not had this many good young developed hitters.


Gonzalez, Gimenez, Naylor, Kwan all look like keepers that should be around for a while.

Next year they need to find a right handed DH/1B to share with Naylor- and figure out catcher. I would be happy if they could re-sign Hedges and have him share the position with Bo Naylor who should be ready.

After that? I dont know what they need- it is hard to say they should spend 20M a year on a marginal upgrade somewhere.

I would run the rotation back with Bieber, McKenzie, Quintrell, Civale, Plesac as the core---- but Morris looks ready (though you always need depth as we have seen). I could see a Plesac trade.

 

[WiggyRuss]

 

[catman]

Congratulations to the Guardians on winning the AL Central. This team could be a very good one for a while.

 

[catman]

I still wish they would have changed the name to the Spiders, though.

 

[VikingFan2k2]

Guess he wont be canned.

Falvey ready to go down with him. Personally I love it. Get rid of all incompetence in one big move

Still plenty of time for Falvey to change his mind. But even if Rocco is fired, there is no guarantee that Falvey doesn't hire another pencil-pushing robot that follows all of his instructions to the letter with no ideas or imagination of his own.

 

[mr.hockey4242]

Still plenty of time for Falvey to change his mind. But even if Rocco is fired, there is no guarantee that Falvey doesn't hire another pencil-pushing robot that follows all of his instructions to the letter with no ideas or imagination of his own.

Yeah lets be honest, these public votes of confidence mean very little when its not even the off season yet.

But you're probably right. We most likely just get another Baldelli.

 

[Robotech]

I didn't even know until today that the Guardians are good. Congrats.

 

[Voltaire26]

Congratulations to the Cleveland Baseball Team!!!! At the beginning of the season, I pretty much gave the division to the Chicago White Sox. If Chicago fell, the Tigers we set to move in. Cleveland and Minnesota fighting for third and Kansas City cleaning up. Months later and looking up from the cellar, what a well play year by Cleveland. All my respect ... there is only one thing left to do