At the end of ST in 2017, the Indians had to make a decision on Aguilar. He had a good ST, but was out of options. Tribe still had Carlos Santana playing 1B and EE was signed to a big bucks contract. They didn't have a big signing bonus to justify giving him more time, so they let him go. Brewers took a chance and the flower blossomed.

My TV clicked off at 1:00 AM EDT. I'm sure TVs all over the East coast went dark also. Game ended after 3 AM. Baseball has to wonder what it can do about a 7 + hr game that only extreme fans will watch to the end.

My television went off at 9:30. Have not watched an entire 9 inning game on TV in 20 years. Tooooooooo borrrrrrrrrring !

Agree - I am squeezing in the baseball postseason during commercials etc while scrolling through NBA games and mostly watching the NBA.

After watching an NBA game, then switching the channel, it's crazy how slow baseball looks.

I still love it, but I was ready to turn the page. It's autumn.

Another soccer game tonight. Nobody scores.

In retrospect, the Red Sox cruised through NY, Houston, then LA in quite the impressive way.

It all went their way, and they also had the best team. (108 wins) Add in that they had the resources to ADD
Steve Pearce and Eovaldi at the deadline to bolster an already loaded team.

It's been said before but our Indians have to win the division, then hope they catch that lightning at the right time.

I don't think they were the best team in the AL in 2016 but they did catch that lightning.

And with a healthy Bauer they certainly can roll good starters out in a series. But our Tribe is definitely outmanned by at least 2 teams, possibly 3 in the AL.

And to me that's EVEN with upgrading the obvious areas, they still would be the underdog amongst the AL powers.

The Indians are good, but they are not THAT kinda good.

Red Sox are led by a very strong group of their own draft picks. That's what got the Indians to the top in the second half of the 90s. Then fill in with more talent. We have the young pitchers, mostly from great trades. The core of the offense is home grown, ,but it's a 2-man core. There's no one on the near horizon in the minors to become anywhere near that good. The very bottom of the minor league system was perhaps the best in baseball this summer, so if you can wait half a dozen years perhaps we'll up one of the best, again. Maybe.

So will Tito survive Fire the Boss week in Cleveland? Even the Orchestra joined in, dumping their concertmaster.

Lol, Tito will cruise by quite easily.

We picked up Carrasco’s option for next year. Declined Guyer’s 3 mill option for next year.

Hillbilly wrote:We picked up Carrasco’s option for next year. Declined Guyer’s 3 mill option for next year.

$9.75 million for Carrasco next year. Just wow.

So we have to replace nearly the entire outfield: Brantley, Chisenhall, Davis and Cabrera are free agents. And Guyer is now, too. All we lose in the infield is Adam Rosales who was the 40th man on the roster anyway, and Donaldson who we merely borrowed. And in bullpen we need to replace Allen, Miller, Perez. And for batting practice we need to make up loss of Tomlin.

Well we have so many guys on the 60day DL that our 40 man roster is fuller than I thought. Those folks all switch over to the regular roster now we have 17 pitchers and 18 position players on the full roster. The no longer disabled are: Cody Anderson, Nick Goody, james Hoyt [you forget him?], Danny Salazar, Tyler Naquin and Leonys Martin. Brad Zimmer for some reason never went on the 60day DL. That list is not re-populated until the end of spring training.

The roster is well populated with Ys:

Yan
Yonder
Yandy
Yu

And:

2 Tylers
1 Taylor [last name]
1 Trevor

Brad
Bradley
Brandon
Ben

Cody
Corey
Carlos

2 Erics
1 Erik
Edwin
Edwards [last name]

I noticed they re-signed Leonys Martin for $3 mill. I could definitely live with him in center field if necessary, however it's the corner spots that are sorely lacking in this day of the superteams (Boston, Houston, NY).

One of the guys on MLB Network said it was pretty easy for Boston and the WS showed him that either Cleveland, Houston OR New York likely would have beaten Los Angeles.

That's fine and I probably agree but it makes it pretty difficult to get out of that American League.

I wouldn't even mind if Brantley signs back, but then that makes RIGHT field the big spot for that bat. And Yonser Alonso was a large disappointment. (Carlos Santana disappointed too for that matter)

I do agree with HB that much of it is who is hot at the right time, but making some strides (no one is suggesting Bryce Harper etc) towards offensive improvement at the corner outfield spot would be a great step. Look at what JD Martinez meant for the Red Sox!