Email a copy of 'Offseason Outlook: Cleveland Indians' to a friend
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By Steve Adams | at
Email a copy of 'Offseason Outlook: Cleveland Indians' to a friend
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chrisnyden
Given the Indians’ proclivity to mine for low-risk and high-reward guys, I have a hard time seeing them not bring Raburn back. Chisenhall is certainly the RF next year, but Raburn provides pop at DH and could play RF on Chisenhall’s rest days. As long as he hits lefties the way this year and 2013, $3MM is a great bargain. If he doesn’t, it’s not a high cost.
But great write-up. Bench depth is absolutely key, and it will be interesting to see if the front office takes some gambles this offseason. Fister is intriguing, though it’s obvious many other teams are intrigued as well.
basquiat
The Twins aren’t going to put Sano at third. Forget the Plouffe trade.
basquiat
After piddling around with Chisenhall and Santana for years at 3B, the Indians are giving up on Urshela after less than a season. The Indians haven’t had a regular 3B since Travis Fryman and they’re ready to give up on a rookie already.
chrisnyden
I don’t think they’re “ready to give up” on him. But the Indians are a contender next year, and as such, they need to hedge their risk. Urshela did not hit at an elite level anytime in the Minors except for AAA.
mytribe 3
What source has told you that the Indians have given up on Urshela. The Indians are aware that Urshela battled a bunch of nagging injuries and want to see what he can do when he is healthy. Don’t forget early on Urshela and Lindor were mirroring each other with .650 OPS’s, but Lindor got healthier as the season progressed while Urshela went in the opposite direction. At one point early on Urshela had something like a 12 or 14 game hitting streak. If Urshela can put up a .700 OPS the Indians would probably be happy with that and stellar defense.
mytribe 3
I am seeing almost EVERYBODY do a before all star break and after all star break analysis yet the changes the Indians made at the trade deadline were so under the radar nobody is willing to admit how impactful the trades were.
Anyone attempting to analyze the Indians season should basically use the first four months and the final 2 months and 3 games in October to get a more accurate rendering on the team.
Indians before their trades averaged 3.88 runs per game. After their trade they averaged 4.67, good enough for third in all of baseball when compared to the full season average for all teams.
The team defense improved around 100 runs. But once again the majority of that happened after Almonte, Lindor, Urshela and Chisenhall took over.
The most glaring weakness in my opinion is not batting Santana and his 108 walks in the lead off spot, and then sliding what will probably be 3 top ten in doubles next year hitters, Kipnis, Lindor and Brantley down a notch to 2,3,4. At that point, I would go for Ben Zobrist, who would take Mike Aviles’s spot on the roster. As solid s Aviles been in many ways, his production this past season was so below normal he actually ended up with 18 GIDP”s and only 17 RBI’s, a feat that few have probably accomplished.
Zobrist and his more walks than strikeouts and doubles proficiency would be the perfect number five hitter for the tribe and would allow Cleveland to give days off to their defensive specialists such as Chisenhall, Urshela, and Amonte.
That one change would give the Indians an instant offensive boost from the utility position and should get them to anywhere from 15 games to 30 games over a full season’s worth of games.
mytribe 3
How do we change our passwords from that auto generated one?
homeparkdc
Up in the right hand corner, click on -my tribe- there’s a drop down menu for your profile. With that you can change your password. That *should* work.
mytribe 3
Thanks, I forgot to try that.
bms00
This team badly needs a power hitter. It is not enough to bring back the same guys and figure that everybody who had a good year will have another good year and the rest will improve. These Indians aren’t a serious contender unless they add a bat. 141 home runs and 669 runs scored are characteristic of a .500 or worse team.