Great news that the Blue Jays won! That gives us home field advantage v. them, and b/c the AL won the All Star game, we have it for the WS.

If you believe 2016 Cleveland sports is a zero sum game, the Cavs championship and the awesome Indians season requires the Browns to perform with extreme suckitude.

Well, the Browns are holding their part of the bargain then!

Indians management might be lambasted by Tribe fans but is obviously pretty well respected in baseball circles. Farrell migrated from Shapiro staff member to Blue Jays to RedSox. a current assistant GM is taking over in Minnesota. Previous emigrants from the Indians front office include Josh Byrnes. From Hart to Shapiro this front office has been one of the breeding grounds of the New Look in Baseball Management.

John Manuel says that the Indians currently have 7 former Baseball America employees working in their front office.

Poor Jonathon!

http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/art ... 04977.html

Joez said in the other thread there were 3 important plays in the game. I will argue that the only meaningful play was somehow lucking into having the idiot Red Sox firing Francona and picking him up. The guy is the anti Wedgeeee or Hargrove. He actually manages to try to win the game rather than managing by the "Book." The concept of having your best pitcher pitch the most meaningful at bats of the game rather than hoping your team is winning at the end so you can use him to get the final 3 outs which could be against the 7 8 9 hitters is so rational that it makes all the other managers look like dumbbells and maybe they are. By the way why did you decide to Phillips Phillips Wedgeee?

kenm wrote:Joez said in the other thread there were 3 important plays in the game. I will argue that the only meaningful play was somehow lucking into having the idiot Red Sox firing Francona and picking him up. The guy is the anti Wedgeeee or Hargrove. He actually manages to try to win the game rather than managing by the "Book." The concept of having your best pitcher pitch the most meaningful at bats of the game rather than hoping your team is winning at the end so you can use him to get the final 3 outs which could be against the 7 8 9 hitters is so rational that it makes all the other managers look like dumbbells and maybe they are.

kenm - great post there. It all starts and ends with Tito.

He gets the best out of his players, bottom line. Kudos as well to management for picking up Napoli and Miller especially.

The team chemistry (I credit Tito and team vets) just might have provided the fertile environment required for the blossoming of Jose Ramirez and Franky Lindor, our amazing core youth duo.

Another shout out to Callaway who gets great mileage out of his pitching staff.

I don't even know what there is to say about Tito. Can't put into words the job he is doing. I only wish we had him instead of Grover in the 90's. We'd probably have a couple world titles.

I will say, I do wish he would use Shaw and/or Otero for an extra out or two instead of push Allen past an inning. But that is it, and so far you cant argue with the results.

He seems hesitant to use Otero in a tight game so far and I don't know why. Not sure that guy could kick any more ass than he has kicked this year. Lefties only hit .197 against him this year. Righties hit .223. Miller and Allen is not the only guys you can use in back end of pen to get a tough lefty out.

Royals had a 4 man rotation in their bullpen that worked regularly and won them the series this year. I would like to see Tito use these 4 guys, and not wear Allen out. Miller I'm not worried about, but Allen I am a tad concerned he may wear down.

Totally disagree with you guys about the front office though. They acquired 4 guys in the offseason. Two of which, Byrd and Uribe were total disasters. And the other two while they contribute I do not see why everyone is so crazy about them. I guess if you hit 30 homers people will ignore other things you do (196 f'n strike outs!) or don't do. (.239 BA, .335 OBP, and a SLG% of .480)

Yes, Mike Napoli is such an awesome slugger that he had a .480 SLG%. That ranked him 58th in major league baseball this year. Asdrubal Cabrera was higher.

I'm sorry, but Indians fans are nuts when it comes to Napoli. Chicks and *icks dig the long ball I guess.

And Rajai, here is a lead off hitter that hit (or didn't) .249 and had an OBP of .306

Just what you want, a lead off hitter that gets on base (or don't) at a clip of .306

We just won the ALDS in 3 games, 3 games in which Mike Napoli and Rajai Davis did absolutely nothing.

That is the bad news. The good news is we just won the ALDS in which Napoli, Davis, (and Santana for that matter) did nothing.

Santana and Napoli are do for a big fly or 3 the next series if you ask me.

You guys need to face it, the only thing this front office did was pay through the teeth for a guy who everyone knows is a great reliever that was being openly shopped at the trade deadline. Wow, they are so awesome.

By the way, when I said chicks and .... I didn't mean that in a derogatory fashion. Meant guys.

I guess I've listened to a certain presidential candidate so long that I'm getting a potty mouth. I apologize to Loufla in advance for my locker room talk.

And I fully realize I'm in the minority with that opinion, but it's just the way I feel. I'm a huge On Base guy in baseball and I think Nap is hugely over rated.

But he and Davis are awesome locker room guys though, and in baseball you can't put a stat on chemistry. It's meant a lot I will say that.

I love Tito's managing also but even though Crisp hit a homer, I would have replaced him in left an inning earlier. One run scored because of his weak arm. The relay would have gotten the runner easily. I think Tito realized his mistake and replaced him after that. Another good aspect of his managing.

the front office picked up Guyer, who is very tough against lefties.
the front office picked up Crisp who had a lousy OPS this year but is an experienced quality player
the front office attempted to overpay for Lucroy and couldn't do anything [sensible] more to have added him
the front office built the team with smart moves like picking up Clevinger for Vinnie Pestano; Gomes and Aviles for I forget his name Rogers;
the front office learned how to scout, draft and develop talent with first round picks Chisenhall, Naquin, Lindor and trade pieces Frazier and Sheffield;
the front office knew how to find cheap low round amateurs and develop them into big league talent: Tomlin, Allen and Perez.

kenm: You are still here? I thought you waved the white flag before spring training even started this year!

Let me review my posts from this year to see if I did.

Hillbilly wrote:
But he and Davis are awesome locker room guys though, and in baseball you can't put a stat on chemistry. It's meant a lot I will say that.

Exactly!