Never in my life heard of Colin McHugh but he sounds like one hot pitcher. It doesn't even take that much to stop our bats.

After getting swept by AL Central-leading Detroit, the Cleveland Indians are running out of time in their bid to reach back-to-back postseasons for the first time in 15 years.

It doesn't appear to be getting easier as they face red-hot Collin McHugh and the Houston Astros.
The Indians hope to put an end to their longest losing streak since early August while denying the Astros a season high-tying fifth straight home win in Monday night's opener of a four-game set.
Although Michael Brantley continued his tear with two more hits Sunday, Cleveland's bullpen allowed two runs in both the seventh and eighth innings in a crushing 6-4 loss to the Tigers.
The Indians entered the series 3 1/2 games behind Detroit for the AL's second wild-card spot and four games behind then first-place Kansas City in the division. Now they're five games out of a wild-card spot and 6 1/2 behind the first-place Tigers.
"Now we're going to have to get real hot real fast," center fielder Michael Bourn said.
Brantley is batting .418 over his past 16 games, but Cleveland has averaged 3.3 runs -- almost one full run less than its 4.2 season mark -- over its last 10.
The Indians (76-72), who haven't dropped four straight since Aug. 5-8, totaled seven runs while taking two of three from Houston at Progressive Field from Aug. 22-24.
McHugh (9-9, 2.79 ERA) will try to keep those bats quiet while leading the Astros to their 13th win in 19 home games.
The right-hander has been one of the majors' top pitchers since the beginning of August with a 5-0 record and a 1.69 ERA that ties him for third in baseball over that span. He allowed one run and two hits over eight innings in Tuesday's 2-1 victory at Seattle.
"He's been tough on a lot of people lately," Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon told MLB's official website.
McHugh did not get a decision in his only meeting with the Indians, allowing two runs over 5 1/3 innings in a 3-2 loss Aug. 23.
Jose Ramirez went 7 for 13 in the August series versus Houston (66-83), while Lonnie Chisenhall went 4 for 9. Catcher Yan Gomes has gone 7 for 16 with a home run, triple and double in five career matchups with the Astros.
Making his first start since July 31, Zach McAllister (3-6, 5.97) will try to help Cleveland capture its ninth victory in 10 meetings dating to last season.
The right-hander gets another opportunity in the rotation despite going 0-6 with a 7.89 ERA in his last 10 starts because the Indians needed a spot starter following Thursday's doubleheader.
He pitched well in his only career start versus Houston, allowing one run over five innings in a 2-1 home win Sept. 20.
Slugger Chris Carter is 4 for 7 with a home run and a triple against McAllister. He's also batting .357 with three homers and seven RBIs over a 12-game hitting streak and has 10 home runs and 24 RBIs in his last 17 home games.
Jake Marisnick finished with three hits and Gregorio Petit added a home run, double and three RBIs in Sunday's 6-1 win that snapped the Los Angeles Angels' 10-game winning streak.
MLB hits-leader Jose Altuve went 2 for 4 to move within five hits of Craig Biggio's franchise record set in 1998.

Since we're planning for next year, I took a look at the 40 man roster for potential roster dumps.

McAllister is an obvious candidate. So are major recent acquisitions Chris Gimenez and Shuck. Throw in Scott Barnes. Giambi of course. Hard to see any reason to reward Bryan Price for his dreadful debut. Justin Sellers is not the kind of talent to ever winter over on a 40 man roster; he's a permanent spring training invitee. And I suppose someone or other has an expiring contract (e.g. Atchison; Aviles?, Rpczynski? Shaw?) so will come off too.

More than enough room to add any kids who are Rule 5 eligible, and who are worth protecting. Lindor; Urshela. No one else comes to mind. Perhaps Ryan Merritt or Shawn Morimando LH pitchers have enough service time. I guess we'll have to put someone on there. Scott Armstrong, RH reliever maybe.

Well! I thought we were one Nelson Cruz or one Jose Abreu away from winning this division. Jeff Ellis at IBI is suggesting we make a deal for Adrian Beltre. I'd like that. Shores up both our offense and defense.

for the first time (in 2013), the Gold Glove Award wasn't simply the voting of managers and coaches. They accounted for about 75 percent of the total. The other 25 percent or so was from SABR, a group of defensive metric experts designed to incorporate sabermetrics into determining the Gold Glove winner.

Is this the norm these days?

Only scored one run against the Astros. Gonna be really tough to get far in the postseason if they don't start scoring...

Well, it was a nice run for a team that had some holes. I get aggravated at Tito sometimes for constantly playing veteran bums but have to hand it to him. This team did better than I expected overall.

We'll get 'em next year.

Better than I expected too. Not convinced they'll get to 85 wins but prob will finish over .500.

Winning record and lots of quality young pitchers. Offensive core: Brantley and Gomes and Santana under contract. That's a good basis for moving forward. [We were close enough to being a playoff team that one significant difference, e.g. Kipnis also earning his salary, could have put us there.]

This was the classic give up year for the tribe. They rested on their laurels and added no one of consequence and were second division. The Cavs will be playing into June in 2015. Who would go to a boring baseball game next spring when the average runs per game will likely drop below 4? The combination of the lack of PED, the fact that good athletes are not playing baseball, fast throwing relief pitchers and analytics which is telling clubs in a more scientific way how to position their players for each at bat has made this sport just about unwatchable.

MLB is on track for the lowest combined batting average since 1972.

civ ollilavad wrote:Winning record and lots of quality young pitchers. Offensive core: Brantley and Gomes and Santana under contract. That's a good basis for moving forward. [We were close enough to being a playoff team that one significant difference, e.g. Kipnis also earning his salary, could have put us there.]

Kipnis is a good tweeter though

They rested on their laurels and added no one of consequence and were second division.

500+ record is first division.

They intelligently let Ubaldo go. They unwisely didn't gamble on Kazmir. They intelligently didn't overpay Masterson. They intelligently did not overpay for free agents like they did the previous winter for past his peak Michael Bourn, and over the hill Swisher. They paid the market rate for Murphy who gave them about what they paid for. They put a competitive team on the field and came just shy of making the playoffs again.

14 Ks for Kluber tonight!

I may be waiting until next year, but Kluber is still pitching for this year. He really has earned "ace" status and some Cy Young votes. Recent article I posted rated him No. 3 starter in the business behind Cys Hernandez and Kershaw. We've seen breakout seasons that didn't necessarily bode much for the future from f.k.a. Carmona and to a lesser degree Masterson so Corey can't yet be rated one of the best in the game but this certainly has been one heck of a sustained performance this year.

Making the case for Corey Kluber as the AL Cy Young Award winner
So, Corey Kluber is having a heck of a 2014 season – Cy Young worthy, in our view. There are other good candidates, of course, so we thought we’d help you make the case for CK, the Klubot, as this year’s AL Cy Young award. (All numbers updated as of Wednesday morning.)

16 – 2nd-highest AL win total
2.54—4th-best AL ERA
244—2nd-highest AL strikeout total
219.2—2nd-highest AL inning total
3—2nd-most complete games
10—3rd-best AL strikeout/9 IP total
24—3rd-most AL quality starts
6.3—3rd-highest AL Wins Above Replacement

More numbers:

16—Most wins by Tribe starter since 2008
244—First Tribe pitcher to reach 200 Ks since Sabathia in 2007
9—All-time Cleveland pitchers with 200 Ks (Feller, Score, McDowell, etc.)
1.84—Second-half ERA, third-lowest figure in MLB
14—Career-high Ks on Tuesday at Houston
6—Consecutive wins from 7/6-8/9; longest CLE win streak since Lee in ‘08
1.10—Run support average in his 9 losses
19—Consecutive batters retired (6.1IP) on 7/24 at KC
85—Number of pitches needed to throw first CGSHO on 7/30 vs. Seattle
25—Career-high consecutive innings without allowing an earned run (7/24-8/4)
60—MLB-leading strikeout total during month of May
1968—Last time a Cleveland starter had at least 9 double-digit strikeout games



In addition to all these great numbers, here’s what Kluber accomplished on Tuesday in helping the Indians stop a four-game losing streak:



His 14 strikeouts were the most in a game by an Indians pitcher since Bartolo Colon on May 29, 1998.
Logged his 9th start of 10 strikeouts or more this season; he now ranks behind only Sam McDowell in that category, who had 10 such games in 1970.
Registered his 19th start of 8 strikeouts or more, the fourth-most such starts in a single season in Tribe history (McDowell 2x and Bob Feller)
Moved into 12th place on the Indians single-season strikeout list, passing Gaylord Perry (234, 1972), McDowell (236, 1967), Perry (238, 1973) and Feller (240, 1938). Perry threw 344 and 342 innings, respectively, in those two seasons, while Feller threw 277 innings in 1938. McDowell threw 236. Kluber is at 219.2 innings, with two starts remaining.
Those players’ K/9 rates in those seasons:
Kluber (2014): 10.00
McDowell (1967): 8.99
Feller (1938): 7.78
Perry (1972): 6.15
Perry (1973): 6.23
Of Indians starters with more than 200 innings in one season, Kluber’s 10.00 K/9 innings ranks second, behind McDowell’s 10.71 K/9 in 1965 (325 K/273 IP).