Recap: After a long, long season, the Indians were unable to convert the one-game playoff to win their second consecutive AL East title. They fell to the Yankees 5-4 in a one-game playoff. It came almost as a relief, as the team's bullpen had been ravaged all season long and they were forced to play the final two months without their best power hitter in Ernesto Garcia. Losing to the hated Yankees is always a bitter pill to swallow, however.
History: The Indians had been upset in the 1969 ALCS by the Twins and were the favorites to win going into 1970. This is why you play the games though. Prior to this, Cleveland had themselves a dynasty in the late 40s and early 50s; needless to say, nothing remains from that besides memories.
Outlook: Cleveland still has some good young players and they can't possibly suffer as many injuries to the bullpen as they did in 1970. I have to predict them to win the 1971 Al East trophy and see what happens from there.
Rotation
Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9
Matthews, Josh 24 LL 22 9 .710 2.96 39 39 0 11 4 0 297.2 258 111 98 19 118 2 201 1.263 7.8 0.6 3.6 6.1
Lagunas, Andy 29 RR 19 9 .679 3.82 36 36 0 7 1 0 233.1 222 102 99 24 94 3 174 1.354 8.6 0.9 3.6 6.7
Hamilton, Dylan 27 RR 17 15 .531 3.84 37 36 0 10 1 0 260.0 249 126 111 20 91 2 150 1.308 8.6 0.7 3.2 5.2
Regan, Chris 29 RR 6 6 .500 3.36 16 16 0 2 1 0 123.1 137 57 46 12 34 1 76 1.386 10.0 0.9 2.5 5.5
Diaz, Benito 30 SR 3 4 .429 3.35 16 11 3 2 0 1 83.1 72 39 31 7 37 1 61 1.308 7.8 0.8 4.0 6.6
Johnson, Malik 24 RR 4 4 .500 3.63 13 11 0 4 0 0 74.1 65 31 30 9 20 0 56 1.143 7.9 1.1 2.4 6.8
Martinez, Jose 25 RR 1 1 .500 2.56 8 7 0 1 1 0 38.2 31 12 11 3 10 0 52 1.060 7.2 0.7 2.3 12.1
Even coming up just short,
Josh Matthews was a workhorse and maybe just one tick behind the leaders in the Cy Young race. He finished 3rd in wins, games started, and innings pitched, 6th in complete games, 7th in shutouts, and 8th in strikeouts. His HR rate did double from 1969 to last year, but 19 HRs in 297 IPs is still not a lot of them. Only 24 years of age, the lefty has a career 47-19 record.
Andy Lagunas followed his first-ever 20 win campaign in 1969 with an up and down 1970. He started really hot - 2-0, 2.42 in April - got blown up a bit in May (though somehow he still kept winning: 4-2 with a 6.75 ERA) and from there he was never quite dominant, just very good. The national media and local media seem to have ignored him, by and large, which is too bad because he's the epitome of the phrase "hard work will get you anywhere".
Dylan Hamilton was also asked to do a lot for this team, perhaps too much. He's never going to be the equal of Boston's Justin Kindberg, for whom he was traded in April of 1969, and people need to stop getting on him for that. One thing he should work on is holding runners: he prefers to use a full windup with runners on base and last year that caused him to give up 39 steals in 50 attempts.
Malik Johnson goes into 1971 as the front-runner for the last starter job: he's been putting up unbelievable K numbers in the high minors the last couple years and he showed flashes of that in extended time in the majors last year.
Jose Martinez will challenge him; he struck out 155 men in 95.2 innings in AAA Witchita last year. There are questions as to whether or not he has the stamina to stay a starter in the major leagues but is reported to have been working on stretching his arm out this offseason.
Chris Regan, who led the league in starts from 1966 through 1968, is now on the outside looking in at this rotation after missing the second half of the year with a torn meniscus in his knee.
Bullpen
Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9
Godard, Eric 29 RR 0 0 .000 1.00 15 0 10 0 0 8 18.0 14 3 2 0 6 0 17 1.111 7.0 0.0 3.0 8.5
Whittier, Landon 25 LR 7 6 .538 3.50 46 0 27 0 0 6 64.1 57 30 25 4 49 2 44 1.648 8.0 0.6 6.9 6.2
Brda, Joe 26 RR 2 2 .500 4.45 27 3 18 0 0 7 54.2 48 27 27 10 28 2 43 1.390 7.9 1.6 4.6 7.1
Sanchez, Elias 32 RR 0 2 .000 2.55 25 0 14 0 0 5 35.1 29 10 10 3 13 0 21 1.189 7.4 0.8 3.3 5.3
Reyes, Bob 30 SR 2 4 .333 3.07 19 2 8 1 1 0 41.0 42 18 14 5 8 0 23 1.220 9.2 1.1 1.8 5.0
Mazyck, Deshawn 28 SR 1 2 .333 4.68 18 0 10 0 0 4 25.0 34 17 13 3 14 2 15 1.920 12.2 1.1 5.0 5.4
Ellis, Doug 25 RR 2 2 .500 3.91 17 0 11 0 0 2 25.1 31 15 11 7 6 2 18 1.461 11.0 2.5 2.1 6.4
Strong, Chris 29 RR 3 0 1.000 3.74 7 1 1 0 0 0 21.2 19 9 9 0 11 0 10 1.385 7.9 0.0 4.6 4.2
Becker, Chris 25 RR 1 1 .500 1.40 13 0 2 0 0 1 19.1 16 3 3 1 14 0 14 1.552 7.4 0.5 6.5 6.5
Castillo, Danny 26 LR 1 0 1.000 0.51 12 0 6 0 0 0 17.2 7 1 1 0 2 0 8 0.509 3.6 0.0 1.0 4.1
Elliott, Tim 23 RR 3 0 1.000 3.55 9 0 3 0 0 0 12.2 13 5 5 3 4 0 7 1.342 9.2 2.1 2.8 5.0
Lopez, Ramon 26 LL 0 0 .000 2.38 12 0 2 0 0 0 11.1 6 3 3 1 2 0 11 0.706 4.8 0.8 1.6 8.7
Hernandez, Vicente 26 RR 0 0 .000 2.70 14 1 0 0 0 0 10.0 12 3 3 2 4 0 4 1.600 10.8 1.8 3.6 3.6
Seoane, Carlos 23 RR 0 0 .000 0.00 2 0 0 0 0 0 5.0 2 0 0 0 6 0 5 1.600 3.6 0.0 10.8 9.0
Graham, Cody 37 RR 0 0 .000 12.46 6 0 0 0 0 0 4.1 9 6 6 1 4 3 7 3.000 18.7 2.1 8.3 14.5
As of this writing (October 19) the Indians have three players marked as "closer" on their 60 day disabled list. As you'd might expect, their bullpen was extremely bare by the time September rolled around. Their first big change was offloading Todd Thiesen to the Twins in the offseason, but they did bring back Senators hurler
Doug Ellis and it seemed like more or less a wash - that is, until Ellis went down with a sore shoulder in late May that's still weighing him down. They acquired
Eric Godard from the Tigers the day Ellis went down, but just over a month and 15 games pitched later, Godard, too, was out long-term. They next turned to
Elias "Judge" Sanchez, who they'd acquired in June to shore up an already fading bullpen, only to see him get knocked out in mid-August.
So down the stetch they were forced to turn to youngsters
Joe Brda and
Landon Whittier. Whittier, the 5th overall pick in the 1965 draft, continued to show the control issues that have kept him from achieving his full potential. He'll be called on for sure in 1971 but he remains an enigma. Brda finished the season as the closer if only by default. He doesn't really have that killer instinct you look for in a short reliever and word on the street is that he's not the brightest cracker in the barrel, but aside from some problems keeping his 90+ 4-seamer down (he allowed 10 HRs in just 54.2 innings), he was basically a positive. on the roster. Aside from
Deshawn Mazyck, who was traded away to the Brewers in September, there are a lot of arms on the above list who are probably better off in AAA. That was the lot of the Indians in 1970.
Catcher
Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos
House, Jonathan 28 LR 130 435 47 106 13 0 10 46 37 105 0 0 16 .244 .303 .343 2*
Zimmerman, Jason 28 RR 60 143 12 26 6 0 1 13 14 38 0 0 6 .182 .256 .245 2
Mexia, Cesar 29 RR 7 18 1 2 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 0 1 .111 .200 .111 /2
In his second full year in the majors,
Jonathan House was pushed into a larger role than the Indians intended. A left-handed batter, House hit only .205 against lefties last year but was nevertheless a full-time starter because of
Jason Zimmerman's complete inability to hit. Going forward at least so far, the team seems to be locked into this arrangement again. House doubled his HRs but also climbed over 100 Ks. It's hard to mess too much with success but he also threw out just 29% of opposing baserunners. I'd say the Indians are looking for an upgrade here but the fact is, even a league-average catcher can be hard to come by.
Infield
Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos
Kelver, Kyle 31 RR 120 375 45 109 19 1 16 73 44 71 0 1 13 .291 .369 .475 3
Garcia, Ernesto 26 LL 81 301 50 64 6 0 33 79 29 59 0 0 9 .213 .280 .561 3
Brull, Jason 40 LL 25 24 5 2 1 0 0 0 8 8 0 0 0 .083 .313 .125 /3
Pritchett, T.J. 34 RR 148 487 64 125 15 0 18 64 100 79 3 1 11 .257 .385 .398 4*
Aguillon, Tony 25 RR 53 108 10 31 4 0 3 17 5 4 0 0 9 .287 .325 .407 4/5
Grube, Chris 28 LR 20 53 3 7 1 0 0 3 2 13 0 0 1 .132 .161 .151 4/6
Hernandez, Roberto 28 RR 152 616 68 162 28 3 15 66 15 50 0 0 28 .263 .280 .391 5*
Ramirez, Bobby 22 LR 12 20 4 4 2 1 0 6 3 4 0 0 0 .200 .304 .400 /5
Johnson, John 26 RR 152 673 115 229 33 9 7 60 25 34 18 8 23 .340 .369 .447 6*
Velasquez, Leo 35 RR 8 35 2 5 0 0 1 2 0 7 0 0 1 .143 .167 .229 /6
Out of all the big injuries to happen to Cleveland last year, perhaps the least impactful one, ironically enough, was the loss of
Ernesto Garcia at first base. Garcia is perhaps the slowest runner in the major leagues and had just 1 double going into July. It's neat that 24 days later he had 6 but that's still a sticking point. In his stead,
Kyke Kelver brought not quite as much power but a lot of everything else. He's been used in the past to spell tough left-handed batters for Garcia so the rest of the team was pretty well familiar with him. That said, the 30 year old (he just turned 31 on October 10th) played about three times more than he's ever had the opportunity to play in the past and set career highs in pretty much every offensive category. The question the Indians have going forward is: do they sell high, or do they lock him back in to a harder platoon with Garcia next season?
TJ Pritchett had another unglamorous yet effective TJ Pritchett season. He may never receive accolades for his work (well, he did win 2 Gold Gloves earlier in his career, I guess) but he fields a solid second base, has good pop for a middle infielder (last year's 18 HRs were a career high) and has always found a way to get on base (last year being the first time Pritchett has ever reached the century mark in walks). He is getting to that age where players stop being able to handle the middle infield but reports so far are that he's as lively as ever, so we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Roberto Hernandez was having another good, solid Roberto Hernandez season through the end of August - a .282 average, 14 HRs, 63 RBIs - until things went sideways in the last month. He's always been a guy who likes to swing at the first pitch and is one of the harder players to strike out in the league. In September and October alone, though, he whiffed 16 times in 28 games. Did the pressure get to him, and if so, why now and not in years past? The Indians do have the 27th best prospect in baseball,
Bobby Ramirez, ready to push him in spring training; baseball is an unforgiving business.
If you're a fan of great shortstops, the AL in the late 60s and early 70s is a great time to be alive.
John Johnson, in his 4th year as a starter, blazed new trails, leading the league in at-bats, runs, hits (tied with Willie Vargas, actually), and finished 2nd in the league in average for the 2nd consecutive season. There was some worries last year that he'd regress after his average shot up more than 100 points from the year before but nope, it looks like this is who Johnson is now. American League beware.
Outfield
Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos
Huanosta, Alonzo 29 RR 139 585 87 202 37 2 20 92 37 52 3 1 15 .345 .384 .518 7*
Miller, Nick 25 LL 98 169 31 45 5 4 3 19 26 19 14 0 2 .266 .371 .396 7/9
Whitney, Travis 26 LL 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 .000 .667 .000
Hernandez, Carlos 28 RR 150 669 88 198 31 8 13 57 41 42 4 8 12 .296 .333 .425 8*/9
Fonseca, Chris 23 LR 19 47 6 19 4 0 1 4 2 5 1 0 0 .404 .429 .553 /89
Pron, Tommy 28 LR 133 509 63 168 35 0 8 70 63 37 0 1 19 .330 .401 .446 9*
Sanchez, Jorge 27 RR 45 130 15 32 2 1 3 16 6 30 6 1 3 .246 .275 .346 9/87
Valdez, Danny 27 LL 13 15 2 3 0 0 1 1 3 4 0 0 1 .200 .333 .400 /9
Kaplan, Bobby 23 RR 4 14 0 6 2 0 0 2 3 1 0 0 0 .429 .529 .571 /98
Alonzo Huanosta is, simply put, the heart of the powerful Cleveland offense. Even though he's probably known for his power and clutch hitting more than anything else, he led the league in hitting this year for the first time in his career, cleared the 1,000 hit mark, and has a lifetime .317 BA. He also set personal highs in hits, doubles, HRs, RBIs, and walks (though the latter has never been a big part of Alonzo's game). He won't even turn 30 until January. It'll be interesting to see what all of this looks like when his career is over.
The Cardinals cut bait on
Carlos Hernandez because they were overloaded at the corner outfield positions and wanted a guy who was proven as a centerfielder. That led them to send Hernandez to Cleveland in the offseason in exchange for Ray Herring. Herring wound up being a disaster for St. Louis whereas the Indians simply taught Hernandez, who escaped Fidel Castro's Cuba in 1968, to play center. He wound up being a better CF than the man he replaced - not that that's a high bar - and where Ray Herring regressed badly offensively last season, Hernandez was just as good in 1970 as he was in his "rookie" season of '69 if not better. Hernandez just missed being the 4th regular on the team to hit .300 - in fact, he was hitting .300 even as late as September 11.
Tommy Pron missed a month with injury and perhaps more distressing to the Indians seems to have lost his power hitting stroke last year. In '69 he set career highs with 19 HRs and 101 RBI; last year he didn't hit his 3rd HR of the season until August 23. On the upside, he did finish the season with 2 HRs in 2 games, including a solo shot in the 5-4 playoff loss to the Yankees. It's hard to fault a former batting champion who set a career high in average, but these small differences are the things that can make up a game or two in the standings over the course of a whole season.
Jorge Sanchez is listed here because he was the fill-in while Pron was out; he was pretty much a replacement level 4th outfielder and if he plays less in 1971 that would be a good sign.