2017 Cleveland Indians

The second-longest active winning streak is three (PHI).

i'm watching the bottom of the 9th now

wow gordon was so close to getting lindor's double

yeah ramirez's double was ballsy as hell

against cain of all guys

ahhh this was nuts

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-qaihcXkAABzEp.jpg

don't ruin this with that thing

feels like a playoff game

but it's not.

i love having this MLB Extra Innings package for times like this.

3 - 3

he went around

didn't matter, wondering if we are going to have a night like last night?

KC is now up

they're an excellent team

wake me when they lose

not looking good

they were down one run going into the ninth last night. can they do it again?

still fun

couldn't have happened to a racister team

well there's always the red sox i guess

It is pretty impressive that Cleveland did this streak without Andrew Miller too, considering how big he was in their success last season.

True, but most of the games weren't close (only four or five one-run games I think?) so Miller wouldn't have made much of a difference.

Kluber's had one not-that-good start since May 2 (in that one he gave up 4 ER/9 H in 6.1 IP vs the ChiSox, though he also only walked one while striking out 12.)

hard to choose between him and sale for cy young

i would have said Sale til a month ago but it's Kluber now i think. almost as many IP as Sale despite missing a month (and Sale not missing any time), lower WHIP, lower ERA, lower BAA, much higher bWAR (though curiously a much lower fWAR), plus 5 complete games and 3 shutouts to 1 and 0 for Sale.

also, Kluber has one more win. ; )

he's within 1.0 fWAR after today's game. sale's FIP is a bit better because of all the strikeouts, but is maybe getting some home run luck -- kluber has the better xFIP

They've still got 2-3 starts each, so things could change, but today, I'd definitely vote for Kluber. Sale's been up and down since the break--awesome starts mixed in with poor ones. Kluber since he returned from the DL:

ERA - 1.77, .171/.209/.283 opposition slash line, almost a 10-1 K/BB ratio. And that's not counting today's start. Also: dominant during the winning streak.

does anyone else stay up at night feeling bummed about how kluber started too late to be a HOFer

he should do a DBZ fusion with cliff lee then they'd both get in

This gives Sale 4.9 runs of support, Kluber 5.4...I wouldn't give that a lot of weight without knowing how the runs were distributed.

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/stats?season=2017&category=PITCHING+II&group=1&sort=2&time=0&pos=0&qual=1&sortOrder=1&splitType=0

Kluber leads in bWAR 7.1 to 5.9 (which doesn't include yesterday's start).

Sale's durability (= his big lead in IP) was maybe his biggest advantage over Kluber, but that's pretty much gone. I think it's Kluber's award to lose now.

https://www.mlb.com/indians/fans/miniteam

Kluber's bWAR is now 7.9

greatest stretch run in baseball history?

I guess it depends how you define it. Their division title was not in serious doubt before the 22 streak, so one might favor a team that came from behind, like the '51 Giants or '69 Mets. (Both went 39-11 in their last 50 and made up deficits; Indians will likely do slightly better, but always were in first place.)

2007 rockies finished 13-1 to force a game 163 against san diego (in which matt holliday never touched home plate)

yeah, that was in the back of my mind... didn't the Angels blow a big lead vs Seattle in the '90s?

it was '95, but that was more an Angels collapse (12-27!) than an M's stretch run.

95 mariners were 12.5 back on august 20; they went 25-13 and the angels went 12-25 to force game 163.

nice run, but that feels more like an angels collapse (they actually had to win their last five just to get to 163, after a 7-25 stretch)

xp indeed

it would probably be rude to mention the 2007 phillies

that falls under Collapse and u know it

'78 yanks went 52-21 to force a one-game playoff

tribe needs to go 4 and 6 the rest of the way to match that, which seems pretty doable

so, really 53-21 :)

best adjusted team ERAs of integration era pic.twitter.com/QgdywjJGrX

— Jeff Sullivan (@based_ball) September 20, 2017

Over the Indians' past 28 games, Francisco Lindor has hit .352/.431/.750 with 11 HR, 6 2B, 2 3B, 25 R, 27 RBI and more BB (14) than K (11).

— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) September 21, 2017

Show Hey O'Tawny
Does mainstream media underrate the Indians pitching staff? Fangraphs is the only place I’ve seen call them the best pitching staff of all time, even though most of the WAR says so

Jeff Sullivan

I think, in general, people don't have a great mental grasp of how pitching has evolved. When you think about the best staffs ever, you tend to focus on the starting rotations. The other thing about the Indians is they're so deep they *never* give the ball to a bad pitcher

For the sake of argument, let's compare the Indians to the Braves from 1993 - 1999
That is, combining all those years

Braves starters had an ERA- of 77. The Indians starters have an ERA- of 79
But Braves relievers had an ERA- of 87. Indians relievers have an ERA- of 65
Maybe the Braves had more Hall-of-Famers. The Indians are better from top to bottom, because every pitcher on the staff counts

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/29/sports/baseball/cleveland-indians-chief-wahoo-logo.html

chief wahoo is going away! (in 2019) (and only from players uniforms, not from merch sold in the stadium) (and the team is still called the indians)

not good enough, obv

sounds like manfred has the right idea, though

But over the past year the commissioner of baseball, Rob Manfred, has pressured Paul Dolan, Cleveland’s chairman and chief executive, to make a change.

Citing a goal of diversity and inclusion, Manfred said in a statement provided to The New York Times that the Indians organization “ultimately agreed with my position that the logo is no longer appropriate for on-field use in Major League Baseball, and I appreciate Mr. Dolan’s acknowledgment that removing it from the on-field uniform by the start of the 2019 season is the right course.”

not good enough, but better than nothing, or outright hostility (see the washington catheads)

not good enough obv but i'm relieved that they are finally doing something

it will take decades if not more though for wahoo to disappear from cleveland entirely. i'm convinced there will still be some dive bar in parma, oh in 2118 that will keep its giant wahoo light-up sign above the bar