Article Revisit: Why I’m Not Afraid of the Cleveland Indians in the Postseason

With tonight’s start to the American League Division Series just a couple hours away I feel this urge to “put up or shut up” after posting this article we are about to revisit just three weeks ago. The article was titles “Why I’m not afraid of the Cleveland Indians in the postseason” and boy was it a popular one for us here on the blog. Whether the view count, tweet mentions and comments made the article “famous” or infamous remains to be seen but I felt compelled either way to post it again before the New York Yankees begin their quest to make me look like a wizard, a Messiah and a God by basically calling the upset here in the ALDS. I mean, I guess the team could make me look like a complete homer and a fool as well but since the Yankees are expected to lose and come in as huge underdogs I see this as a no-lose situation for me anyway…. So enjoy the article revisit and get pumped for the start of the ALDS tonight inside Cleveland’s Progressive Field.

Thursday, September 14, 2017

Why I’m Not Afraid of the Cleveland Indians in the Postseason

The Cleveland Indians are one of, if not the best team in Major League Baseball here in 2017 but you know what? If the New York Yankees and the Indians meet in the playoffs here this season I am not at all worried and here is why.

They call the playoffs baseball’s second season for a reason, what you did in the regular season and $15 will get you a beer at Yankee Stadium. It means little to nothing and I personally, as a fan, refuse to be psyched out or taken off my game because the Indians won their division, won 21 games in a row, etc. etc. etc. I’m not scared. The playoffs are usually won by the hottest team at the time and aren’t always won by necessarily the best team. That’s the great thing about baseball, any team can beat any pitcher and any opposing team on any given night. You can’t predict baseball so you can’t necessarily predict that the Indians will be the hottest team when the calendar changes to October. Hell you can’t predict that the Indians will be the hottest team tonight or this weekend, they could go on a slide much like the Los Angeles Dodgers have of late. You just don’t know and I’m not that scared of them to be honest. None of this is to disrespect the Indians, their team or what they have done this season either. They are a great team and they are playing extremely well, much respect to all, but respect and fear are two entirely different things.

The New York Yankees are built for short series and the postseason. The team is young, energetic and overall healthy at this point in the season when most teams cannot say the same here in September. The pitching has been fantastic, the bullpen has the potential to be absolutely and completely dominant when on and used properly and the offense can hang a crooked number on the scoreboard at any given inning. Again, not to say that the Yankees are better than the Indians or that Cleveland cannot do the same because they can. I am merely saying that I have confidence in this group of Yankees players and the team. Again, I am not saying the Yankees will necessarily reach the ALDS or ALCS (more than likely the ALDS though if New York does not win their division) and meet Cleveland, I am just saying IF they do I am not worried. I think New York can stand and throw punches with the best of teams in baseball this season and at the end of the day, win lose or draw, whoever they are facing will know that they were in a fight for their lives.

How did the 2002 Oakland Athletics fare in the postseason, the last team to win 20 games in a row in a season, you ask? After winning 103 games and after having both the AL MVP (Miguel Tejada) and AL Cy Young Award Winner (Barry Zito) the team lost in five games to the Minnesota Twins in the American League Division Series. 

Why I’m Not Afraid of the Cleveland Indians in the Postseason

The Cleveland Indians are one of, if not the best team in Major League Baseball here in 2017 but you know what? If the New York Yankees and the Indians meet in the playoffs here this season I am not at all worried and here is why.

They call the playoffs baseball’s second season for a reason, what you did in the regular season and $15 will get you a beer at Yankee Stadium. It means little to nothing and I personally, as a fan, refuse to be psyched out or taken off my game because the Indians won their division, won 21 games in a row, etc. etc. etc. I’m not scared. The playoffs are usually won by the hottest team at the time and aren’t always won by necessarily the best team. That’s the great thing about baseball, any team can beat any pitcher and any opposing team on any given night. You can’t predict baseball so you can’t necessarily predict that the Indians will be the hottest team when the calendar changes to October. Hell you can’t predict that the Indians will be the hottest team tonight or this weekend, they could go on a slide much like the Los Angeles Dodgers have of late. You just don’t know and I’m not that scared of them to be honest. None of this is to disrespect the Indians, their team or what they have done this season either. They are a great team and they are playing extremely well, much respect to all, but respect and fear are two entirely different things.

The New York Yankees are built for short series and the postseason. The team is young, energetic and overall healthy at this point in the season when most teams cannot say the same here in September. The pitching has been fantastic, the bullpen has the potential to be absolutely and completely dominant when on and used properly and the offense can hang a crooked number on the scoreboard at any given inning. Again, not to say that the Yankees are better than the Indians or that Cleveland cannot do the same because they can. I am merely saying that I have confidence in this group of Yankees players and the team. Again, I am not saying the Yankees will necessarily reach the ALDS or ALCS (more than likely the ALDS though if New York does not win their division) and meet Cleveland, I am just saying IF they do I am not worried. I think New York can stand and throw punches with the best of teams in baseball this season and at the end of the day, win lose or draw, whoever they are facing will know that they were in a fight for their lives.

How did the 2002 Oakland Athletics fare in the postseason, the last team to win 20 games in a row in a season, you ask? After winning 103 games and after having both the AL MVP (Miguel Tejada) and AL Cy Young Award Winner (Barry Zito) the team lost in five games to the Minnesota Twins in the American League Division Series. 

USA Today’s Five Worst $100 Million Contracts Includes One Yankee

In the world of Major League Baseball in the year 2016 it seems like handing out a $100 million contract is more common place than a marker or milestone anymore. There is so much inflation in the game and so much money in the game right now and the team and players both know it leading to some interesting contract negotiations and deals every single winter. USA Today picked on those deals that have crossed the $100 million threshold and picked the five worst in the history of the league and unfortunately one of those men is wearing a Yankees uniform today. 

The crew over at USA Today did not simply use fandom, bias or anything like that to make their decisions but instead they used total WAR over the course of the $100 million deal to find the worst value per contract and with that equation they found that CC Sabathia has one of the worst $100 million contracts of all-time. Here is what the crew had to say about the fourth worst contract over $100 million in MLB history according to WAR: 

4. CC Sabathia (2012-16), Yankees 

Salary per 1.0 WAR: $23.2 million Contract details: 5 years, $122 million WAR over contract: 4.2 

Sabathia's first mega-deal with New York, a seven-year, $161 million commitment signed before the 2009 season, actually turned out quite well for the Yankees. It was a five-year extension signed midway through that contract that's proven to be an albatross, as Sabathia has struggled to overcome issues on and off the field over the past few years.
Once a durable workhorse whom you could annually count on for 200 innings and a sub-3.50 ERA, Sabathia recorded a 4.81 ERA while averaging 141.1 innings between 2013-2015. He hasn’t looked any better this year, despite admirably seeking help for his alcoholism last fall. 

Like Howard, Sabathia is only under contract through the end of this season. The Yankees will have to pay him a $5 million buyout for 2017, however. 

To finish out the list Carl Crawford came in 5^th with his seven-year deal worth $142 million that the Boston Red Sox gave him while Sabathia came in fourth with his current five-year and $122 million contract he signed before opting out of his previous deal. The third worst contract belongs to Mike Hampton of the Colorado Rockies who gave him an eight-year deal worth $121 million and only got a total of 3.0 WAR back in return while the second worst contract can be found in San Francisco. The Giants gave Barry Zito a seven-year deal worth $126 million only to see a similar 3.0 WAR returned. Rest assured Mr. Zito and Mr. Hampton and Mr. Sabathia that none of these contracts are as bad as the contract that the Philadelphia Phillies handed Ryan Howard before the 2012 season. 

Howard signed for five-years and $125 million and to date, the contract expires after this season so it is a bit incomplete at this time, the first baseman has given the Phillies a -3.0 WAR. That’s not a typo, he has had a negative WAR. Howard is the only $100 million man to ever accumulate a negative WAR and that is something special, just not special in the way that you want to be remembered for. So remember Yankees fans you may not like the CC Sabathia contract and you may not like him being on the team anymore but at least he isn’t Ryan Howard. Think of it that way. 

Tim Hudson, Barry Zito & the New York Yankees

Who doesn’t remember the latter part of the “Dynasty Years” with the New York Yankees when the same teams kept coming up and meeting New York in the postseason. You had the Minnesota Twins, you had the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, you had the Boston Red Sox and you had the Oakland Athletics. Leading the charge for the Oakland A’s was a three-headed starting pitching monster that few could emulate, or beat for that matter, in Mark Mulder, Barry Zito and Tim Hudson. When all was said and done all three men left Oakland for greener pastures, pun intended money reference, and when all is said and done in 2015 the threesome will all officially be retired.

It was announced earlier during the season that Hudson, currently listed on the San Francisco Giants roster, would retire and around lunch time on Monday Zito, who will retire an Athletic after leaving town also for the San Francisco Giants, announced that he would be doing the same. Two great ambassadors and representatives in the game are leaving after 2015 and while most are sad I have a sneaking suspicion that the New York Yankees are not.

Zito and Hudson had varying degrees of success against the Yankees in their careers, Hudson more than Zito obviously, so I thought it would be fun to go over exactly what each did against New York respectively. The stats and such are meaningless in the grand scheme of things by today’s standards but just have fun with it as we inch closer to the World Series and the long, cold winter that we call the offseason.

Zito:

I	Split	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	BAbip	tOPS+
	New York Yankees	16	407	61	93	14	17	6	46	78	.264	.354	.460	.814	.293	127

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

I	Split	W	L	ERA	G	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP	SO9
	New York Yankees	3	9	5.20	16	90.0	93	61	52	17	46	78	1.544	7.8

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Hudson:

I	Split	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	BAbip	tOPS+
	New York Yankees	12	329	35	70	13	7	5	25	58	.237	.298	.353	.651	.270	92

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

I	Split	W	L	ERA	G	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP	SO9
	New York Yankees	2	4	3.83	12	80.0	70	35	34	7	25	58	1.188	6.5

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

If The Giants Can Do It Why Can’t the Yankees?

Before we get too in-depth with this post I just want to start it off by saying that as unpopular of a decision that it was I actually agree with the Yankees decision to move Adam Warren back to the bullpen and to keep the likes of CC Sabathia and Nathan Eovaldi in the starting rotation for this team. There is zero doubt in my mind that Warren pitched better than either of these men and deserved to be in the rotation more than these two men but that’s not what was best for the team. Truth be told what’s best for the team is a trade, DFA or phantom injury to Sabathia but that’s also the unlikeliest of the scenarios as well but what can you do? Warren helps the bullpen more than Sabathia or Eovaldi could and Warren is also approaching his career high innings limit with a shade over half the season remaining which begs for disaster in September when he’s exhausted. This is not the last we’ve seen of Warren in the starting rotation I believe, and truth be told he is an injury away from being right back in it and with the Band-Aid that holds this rotation together being as flimsy as it is I’d expect him back at some point, but at least for now he’s in the bullpen and I think it helps the 2015 Yankees out more than anything and that’s all that really matters in the end.

The discussion and debate about whether Warren should be in the rotation and whether Sabathia should be in the bullpen is a discussion for another day, I will instead focus on why the Yankees made the move and why teams like the San Francisco Giants win World Series in the modern game and why teams like the New York Yankees do not. The Giants run their organization like it’s a multi-million dollar company while the Yankees run their organization like they are a mom and pop organization trying to compete with the new Super Wal-Mart in town. Hank can go on and on about how he isn’t cheap because of his payroll but what he wants us to forget is the contracts of Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and other high-priced Yankees players were handed out by George Steinbrenner, not Hal. Sure the Yankees owner did shell out over $500 million in an offseason but in a large sample size, there’s that whole sample size thing again, Hal has been more of the Coupon Clipper than the Yankees Clipper.

This mindset was brought to the front of the line when the Yankees moved Warren to the bullpen and kept Sabathia in the starting rotation. Again, for this team it was the right move but how many times have we seen the same decisions happen when it wasn’t the right move? The Yankees have used excuses like how much a player is owed to keep him in the rotation, to keep him on the field and to keep him on the roster but why? The Giants, the team that seemingly wins a World Series every other season and the Giants who are the reigning World Series Champions, aren’t afraid to make the moves that need to be done in order to propel the team to the ultimate prize. Do the names Tim Lincecum and Barry Zito ring a bell? Both players were making in excess of $20 million per season and both were struggling in the rotation much like Sabathia. The difference here is that the Giants trusted their analytics and trusted their scouts and weren’t shy about moving those players into the bullpen to make room for the players that helped the team win.

When the Yankees pull moves like this it does not instill confidence in me as a fan, it makes me believe that the bottom line is what’s most important and screw the on the field product as long as the team itself is making money. Sure it’s a business but it takes money to make money and with bonehead moves and policies like this I cannot see me and many other fans spending much more of our money to support a team that only cares about the money. This all sounds rich coming from a guy who owns a blog called The GREEDY Pinstripes but that greed comes from the team getting the players it needs to win by any means necessary and less about the financial greed. The financial greed comes with winning and comes with recognizable faces, maybe someone should let the Yankees owner know that.