The Indians’ Playoff Window Is Getting Smaller.
The Browns open their season this Sunday in Pittsburgh. With that being said, and as our stats have shown here at CST. It seems that 93.6% of you will not care about or read the following article. Those numbers are completely fictional. I made them up as I was typing. I just know that most fans in Cleveland mainly care about the Browns and the new look Cavaliers. There was a chance last Friday that more people were jumping on the Indians bandwagon, and then The Detroit Tigers came to town and kicked us right in the face, hence pushing all of the bandwagon fans back to the Browns.
Last Friday I was overly optimistic about the Indians’ chances to make the playoffs. At that point they had 7 games upcoming against Kansas City and Detroit, and the Indians were in a great position to make a run at the division lead. Fast forward to today, and the Indians are coming off of a horrendous series vs. Detroit, where they were outplayed and lost 3 of 4 games. I have lost most of my optimism. There are only 24 games left and the Indians are 5 games back of the second wild card spot and 6 games back in the division.
Since I am a diehard baseball fan, I am crazy enough to believe there is still a chance for the Indians to make a run. Crazier things have happened in baseball and this wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility. There is however a major problem with this Indians team. They are just not that deep and are severely lacking talent all over the roster. The Detroit Tigers are just deeper and better than the Indians. The top three run producers for the Tigers have a 260 combined RBIs. The top three for the Indians only have 214 combined RBIs. This is just the stats for the top three performers in the RBI category. The differential becomes even more substantial as you move through the roster.
Tigers runs to date – 640
Indians runs to date – 573
I guess this is to be expected, the Indians are a small market team with a small budget. They don’t like to spend money and when they do it’s usually spent at the bottom of the bargain bin. They did sign Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher to larger (for Cleveland) free agent contracts at the beginning of 2013, but of course this is Cleveland and both players have been below average thus far.
My problem with the Indians is that, even without a superstar payroll, they can still be winners. However, they are yet to consistently prove this fact. Last night’s game was a prime example. The game was tied 4-4 heading to extra innings and the Tribe lost 11-4! How on earth is a team competitive for 9 innings and then all the sudden they collapse. This is a major issue. Last night was a September game against a division rival, with huge ramifications for the playoff push and the Indians fell apart at home in extra innings. Excuse me while I find some more hair to rip out of my head.
As I said before, there are 24 games left this season. Do I realistically think they will make the playoffs…….No. However, it’s not impossible and I haven’t lost all faith just yet. At this point there is nothing to lose and everything to gain. It’s time for Tito’s bunch to buckle up and make the next three weeks as interesting as possible. It’s time to go and break some hearts. Here’s looking at you Kansas City and Detroit.
Written by Rick Giavonette
Follow me on Twitter – @CST_RickG
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