Series Thread: ALCS: Toronto Blue Jays vs. Cleveland Indians

[dougplayer]

Iam picking the blue jays to win the 2016 ALCS.
i'am dougplayer and I approve this message

 

[Battlelyon]

Iam picking the blue jays to win the 2016 ALCS.
i'am dougplayer and I approve this message

 

[SlinkyRedfoot]

Iam picking the blue jays to win the 2016 ALCS.
i'am dougplayer and I approve this message

I'm Slinkton B. Redfoot and I too approve this message.

Thanks, Doug!

 

[SlinkyRedfoot]

Clearly you've missed the numerous endorsements Doug's given to Indians opponents throughout this season. Getting his stamp of disapproval is one of the best things we could hope for.

In fact, if the sports media realizes that dougplayer has picked the Blue Jays, they add this fact to the reasons why the Indians could pull it off.

 

[dougplayer]

Yuk yuk. I crunched the numbers slinky. That's how I see it going down. Tell chief wahoo to bang the drum slowly

 

[SlinkyRedfoot]

Yuk yuk. I crunched the numbers slinky. That's how I see it going down. Tell chief wahoo to bang the drum slowly

Doug "crunched the numbers." I wonder if anyone's ever going to tell him that Alphabits Cereal isn't numbers.

 

[dougplayer]

Should be a good series. I guess.it wI'll be good for eastern ohio to be able to see some post season play. Cavs and indians. Going to be sad for football in that area. Pro and college. So enjoy it

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

This wait is excruciating.

 

[WiggyRuss]

Yuk yuk. I crunched the numbers slinky. That's how I see it going down. Tell chief wahoo to bang the drum slowly

are these the same numbers you crunched predicting Detroit to win the Central?

I knew Justin Upton would suck this year. Enjoy watching a supremely unmotivated loser of a player steal truck loads of cash for the better part of the next decade.

 

[SlinkyRedfoot]

This wait is excruciating.

No doubt. Weather looks to be good in Cleveland tomorrow and Saturday, so -- knock on wood -- there shouldn't be any weather PPDs.

 

[Used 2 B Hu]

Doug "crunched the numbers." I wonder if anyone's ever going to tell him that Alphabits Cereal isn't numbers.

"Peter, those are Cheerios..."

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

Looks like a good crowd heading south:

Toronto Blue Jays fans snatch up downtown Cleveland hotel rooms in advance of ALCS

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

Lol. Also, fuck these things they've been driving me nuts for two weeks.

 

[dougplayer]

"Peter, those are Cheerios..."

Peter??? That name is fitting.
BAWWWWWWHAAAAA

 

[The Q]

A couple of interesting articles from fangraphs about this series:

The Underrated Part of the Indians’ Offense | FanGraphs Baseball

The Shared, Exploitable Weakness of Toronto’s Pitching Staff | FanGraphs Baseball

Toronto’s Advantage Against Cleveland | FanGraphs Baseball

Cleveland’s Baserunning Edge Could Extend to the Outfield | FanGraphs Baseball

 

[Darth Dawkins]

Toronto was a frustrating team to follow this year. I say follow because I'm not ready to call myself a fan yet, I was an Expo fan and still can't bring myself to call myself a fan of another team.

Toronto lollygagged through the season. Their O never really got going. It seemed like Edwin and JD had solid consistent seasons until JD struggled late with some nagging injuries. Bautista was hurt half the year. Tulo had a mediocre (for him) campaign offensively and Martin and Saunders were a tale of two halves. It seemed like only two guys were ever hitting in almost every game they played. Then they would blow somebody out and everyone would think the O was finally back followed immediately by four runs in the next series combined.

Their starting pitching was a surprise to everyone and I mean everyone. Sanchez should have been 22-2, he led the league in ERA and QS, if it wasn't for the blowpen shitting all over his starts he would be a Cy candidate and probably the leading one. If it wasn't the blowpen it was lack of run support. Happ somehow won 20 games and held the team together. Stroman started slow but finished strong and Estrada, well, I don't know what to make of him. It seems the Jays placed great faith in him last year in the playoffs and he responded by becoming a big game shutdown pitcher. I suspect this will continue for whatever reason. Klub may be the best starter in the series but the Jays probably have the next best five available.

Bullpen was terrible for most of the year, I mean horrific. They picked up some guys at the deadline and things stabilized. They have been lights out the last couple of weeks but I guarantee that no Jays fan can say with a straight face that they are confident with Osuna coming in for a save opportunity. Getting Liriano back will be big. With their O, even while being inconsistent, and starting pitching I think the Jays were probably at least 10 games below what they should have been and this was due mainly to bullpen struggles. It seems to have stabilized for now but anything can happen.

The manager. I am no Gibby fan, I swear he is happy once he gets to sit down in the dugout and start drinking. Massive edge to the Tribe on this one.

I keep reading about how good the Tribes D is. I get it, they are solid but so is Toronto. Wait until you see Superman dive for an impossible ball and come up with it two or three times in the series. Or Tulo or Donaldson make an insane play. Ditto for Martin. Jays won't be able to chalk up a sure win in the series because somebody throws the game away like the fucktards in Texas always do. Neither will Cleveland.

I have no idea how this series is going to go. At first I thought Toronto would destroy them. Now I am reading articles about how many bases the Tribe is going to steal and am getting some doubts. Will Cleveland outsmart, outsteal and outmanage Toronto and win 4-2 tomorrow or will Toronto club them 12-1? This is going to be fun.

Good luck Cleveland fans and enjoy it.

 

[navamind]

there's also the matter of Sanchez throwing "only" 192 innings. Unless someone's having a historic year or they've been miles ahead of their competition, 192 innings probably won't be getting you a CYA. It's not like his stats are that much better than Verlander/Kluber/Porcello/etc. Kluber had the best ERA+ in the AL (just ahead of Sanchez) and he threw 215 innings.

hell of a year no matter how you slice it though.

 

[Darth Dawkins]

Sure but I think Sanchez has pitched two games in the last three weeks. They limited him for that reason. The amount of starts where he left in the 7th up 1-0 or 2-1 and got a ND were astounding. I don't think I have ever seen a pitcher be more let down by his team than Sanchez this year. I mean look at his log from this year, he regularly threw six hit or less starts. Half his starts look like they were four hitters or less.

 

[Darth Dawkins]

Yikes, sorry, five hitters on average.

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

Toronto was a frustrating team to follow this year. I say follow because I'm not ready to call myself a fan yet, I was an Expo fan and still can't bring myself to call myself a fan of another team.

Toronto lollygagged through the season. Their O never really got going. It seemed like Edwin and JD had solid consistent seasons until JD struggled late with some nagging injuries. Bautista was hurt half the year. Tulo had a mediocre (for him) campaign offensively and Martin and Saunders were a tale of two halves. It seemed like only two guys were ever hitting in almost every game they played. Then they would blow somebody out and everyone would think the O was finally back followed immediately by four runs in the next series combined.

Their starting pitching was a surprise to everyone and I mean everyone. Sanchez should have been 22-2, he led the league in ERA and QS, if it wasn't for the blowpen shitting all over his starts he would be a Cy candidate and probably the leading one. If it wasn't the blowpen it was lack of run support. Happ somehow won 20 games and held the team together. Stroman started slow but finished strong and Estrada, well, I don't know what to make of him. It seems the Jays placed great faith in him last year in the playoffs and he responded by becoming a big game shutdown pitcher. I suspect this will continue for whatever reason. Klub may be the best starter in the series but the Jays probably have the next best five available.

Bullpen was terrible for most of the year, I mean horrific. They picked up some guys at the deadline and things stabilized. They have been lights out the last couple of weeks but I guarantee that no Jays fan can say with a straight face that they are confident with Osuna coming in for a save opportunity. Getting Liriano back will be big. With their O, even while being inconsistent, and starting pitching I think the Jays were probably at least 10 games below what they should have been and this was due mainly to bullpen struggles. It seems to have stabilized for now but anything can happen.

The manager. I am no Gibby fan, I swear he is happy once he gets to sit down in the dugout and start drinking. Massive edge to the Tribe on this one.

I keep reading about how good the Tribes D is. I get it, they are solid but so is Toronto. Wait until you see Superman dive for an impossible ball and come up with it two or three times in the series. Or Tulo or Donaldson make an insane play. Ditto for Martin. Jays won't be able to chalk up a sure win in the series because somebody throws the game away like the fucktards in Texas always do. Neither will Cleveland.

I have no idea how this series is going to go. At first I thought Toronto would destroy them. Now I am reading articles about how many bases the Tribe is going to steal and am getting some doubts. Will Cleveland outsmart, outsteal and outmanage Toronto and win 4-2 tomorrow or will Toronto club them 12-1? This is going to be fun.

Good luck Cleveland fans and enjoy it.

The Jays offence was gangbusters June and July (and Bautista missed a full month of that period) but dropped the hell off after the trade deadline. A lot of it was Donaldson having some sort of issue that was holding him back along with another Bautista injury but Saunders cooled the hell off after the ASG and Upton never really provided much to compensate for that.

I'm less confident in Liriano coming out of the pen than I am of Osuna. Part of the BP problems is that Gibbons has no idea how to use it situationally.