# MLB. And here comes the Post Season! **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [September 29, 2016, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171 "2016-09-29T00:43:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 38
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171/741 "2016-10-29T16:29:34Z")
I was an Indians fan from the late 80s through late 90s. Not a super fan but I watched a fair number of games and went to a few games most years. I lost interest in baseball around then in part because of the lack of salary cap - it felt like the Indians were the farm team for high paying teams. Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee (I know the last two came later, but reinforced the perception) and a bunch of others I can’t remember. It felt like Cleveland was good at finding and developing young talent, and keeping them for a couple of years, when one of the big payroll teams would come snatch them away. Is this how it’s going to go with this team? Is indians ownership still too poor to keep their players? Are their players even worth poaching? Outside of pitching it doesn’t feel like there are any star players to snatch away- just guys doing their job with good consistency and chemistry. Just wondering what the outlook is in terms of the Indians keeping the players they have and making a run every year. As is obvious, I know very little about anything baseball nowadays. So I’m a bandwagoner here. But I figure being an Indians fan for like 12 years when I was younger and just generally suffering the whole Cleveland sports thing my whole life entitles me to get into it when any of the Cleveland teams are doing well. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171/742 "2016-10-29T16:43:23Z")
Jesus dude - let’s hold off on the “Cleveland sports are the worst!” pity parties until at least the offseason. Just enjoy this for a minute. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171/743 "2016-10-29T17:40:49Z")
The Cubs and Indians World Series was just mentioned during the broadcast of Liverpool vs Crystal Palace in Premier League football. The announcer was mentioning the lack of World Series wins for the Cubs and Indians and comparing that with Liverpool’s lack of Premier League titles over the past 26 years. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171/744 "2016-10-30T00:45:22Z")
John Smoltz, a few minutes ago, referred to Cleveland as the “Rodney Dangerfield of the playoffs,” because no-one gave them a chance. Yeah, sorry John, but i don’t recall seeing anyone write them off, at least not in the articles i’ve been reading. And i certainly wasn’t interested in writing off a team with 94 wins, second-most in the American League. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171/745 "2016-10-30T00:48:04Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Jesus dude - let’s hold off on the “Cleveland sports are the worst!” pity parties until at least the offseason. Just enjoy this for a minute. That wasn’t what I was posting - I was asking as someone who doesn’t know the situation what’s going to happen. I don’t know if they’re all young kids with 4 years left on their contract or if the Indians are going to have a surge in payroll after a world series run (although that didn’t seem to help in the mid-90s), or if there are any players even worth poaching by a high paying team. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171/746 "2016-10-30T00:51:43Z")
Well, that’s one way for Kluber to assure himself a win! He just got an RBI, after the previous batter was intentionally walked. Kluber was supposed to be the automatic third out. Guess not! ---
**Author:** ![Fugazi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@Fugazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fugazi)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171/747 "2016-10-30T00:53:06Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > John Smoltz, a few minutes ago, referred to Cleveland as the “Rodney Dangerfield of the playoffs,” because no-one gave them a chance. > > Yeah, sorry John, but i don’t recall seeing anyone write them off, at least not in the articles i’ve been reading. And i certainly wasn’t interested in writing off a team with 94 wins, second-most in the American League. Then you haven’t been following things very closely. Almost nobody picked them to beat Boston. Almost nobody picked them to beat Toronto. And almost nobody picked them to beat Chicago. Even Cleveland beat writers were writing them off after Salazar and Carrasco got injured in Sept. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171/748 "2016-10-30T00:55:42Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > John Smoltz, a few minutes ago, referred to Cleveland as the “Rodney Dangerfield of the playoffs,” because no-one gave them a chance. > > Yeah, sorry John, but i don’t recall seeing anyone write them off, at least not in the articles i’ve been reading. And i certainly wasn’t interested in writing off a team with 94 wins, second-most in the American League. Plenty of people wrote them off before the playoffs even started, including [one of their own local writers](http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/news/cleveland-indians-carlos-carrasco-sportswriter-paul-hoynes-jason-kipnis-trevor-bauer/181kgwveb1akh16atn6ugmam36). To be fair, some of that was due to the injuries they were dealing with, but it felt like no one seemed to take them seriously at the outset. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171/749 "2016-10-30T01:23:04Z")
> [@desertmonk](#): > > The MLB At Bat radio package is something like $20 for an entire season. But it won’t synch with a TV broadcast without introducing a delay. The point is to be able to _watch_ the game, but with the radio call instead of the TV call. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171/750 "2016-10-30T02:04:50Z")
[I looked it up](http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/wsmgrej.shtml) out of curiosity when Lackey was doing all of his bitching at the home plate umpire. The last player to be ejected from a World Series game was Danny Cox of the Cardinals way back in 1987. I don’t know if umpires are more patient, players are less argumentative, or it’s all coincidence. But that’s a pretty long streak. According to the list, Braves manager Bobby Cox was the last person overall to be ejected from the World Series: once in 1992, and once in 1996. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171/751 "2016-10-30T02:21:15Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > I was an Indians fan from the late 80s through late 90s. Not a super fan but I watched a fair number of games and went to a few games most years. I lost interest in baseball around then in part because of the lack of salary cap - it felt like the Indians were the farm team for high paying teams. Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee (I know the last two came later, but reinforced the perception) and a bunch of others I can’t remember. It felt like Cleveland was good at finding and developing young talent, and keeping them for a couple of years, when one of the big payroll teams would come snatch them away. That doesn’t even make sense. The Indians won two pennants with these guys. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171/752 "2016-10-30T02:36:04Z")
How does it not make sense? Yes, they put all that together when guys were still cheap on their rookie contract because they found and developed a lot of talent. They were able to make a run for a couple of years while those guys were still on contract and cheap. But when that was up, they couldn’t retain them, and big payroll teams came and took them. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171/753 "2016-10-30T02:45:26Z")
Top of the 7th. Tribe 7, Cubs 1. - I smell goat. ---
**Author:** ![Fugazi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@Fugazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fugazi)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171/754 "2016-10-30T02:55:34Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > But it won’t synch with a TV broadcast without introducing a delay. The point is to be able to _watch_ the game, but with the radio call instead of the TV call. One of the best things MLB did for the 1st time this year was to sync up the radio with the video automatically in the At Bat app. Unfortunately that’s only a regular season thing. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171/755 "2016-10-30T03:00:43Z")
> [@Fugazi](#): > > One of the best things MLB did for the 1st time this year was to sync up the radio with the video automatically in the At Bat app. Unfortunately that’s only a regular season thing. The synching still works if you’re using [MLB.TV](http://MLB.TV) on your computer, for what it’s worth. Even in the postseason. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171/756 "2016-10-30T03:16:08Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > John Smoltz, a few minutes ago, referred to Cleveland as the “Rodney Dangerfield of the playoffs,” because no-one gave them a chance. > > Yeah, sorry John, but i don’t recall seeing anyone write them off, at least not in the articles i’ve been reading. And i certainly wasn’t interested in writing off a team with 94 wins, second-most in the American League. I wouldn’t say the Indians have been written off, either, but I do think they have gotten less credit for their success than they probably deserve, at least in the commentary I’ve seen. It verges on “get[ting] no respect,” so Dangerfield is not a bad comp. Part of it is that much of the storyline with Cleveland has been “the other team isn’t hitting the way it can/should.” The Red Sox didn’t score much against Cleveland. The Blue Jays’ offense didn’t really show up. The Cubs didn’t bring their hitting shoes. Andrew Miller has gotten a lot of credit in what I’ve read and heard, and justifiably so; but overall, the lack of run scoring by Cleveland’s opponents has been attributed (again, in much of the commentary that I’ve seen) more to deficits in the other team than to really good pitching by the Indians. I’d actually go farther–I saw several people, and not just partisan fans on message boards or random radio callers, arguing after the first round that Boston actually played better than Cleveland and “should” have won. Attributing Cleveland’s success to luck rather than skill is exactly the “no respect” argument that I think Smoltz is making. I don’t think I’ve seen this kind of discounting of a WS team’s achievements since the '06 Cardinals (who really were nowhere near as good as the Mets or the Tigers). Maybe if the Indians win the WS the narrative will change. Or, maybe not. Obviously, YM varies. But I do think there’s something to what Smoltz is saying. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171/757 "2016-10-30T03:35:03Z")
On the northside of Chicago and there is a decidedly hircine aroma beginning to waft through the air. ---
**Author:** ![Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171/758 "2016-10-30T04:02:15Z")
The second game of the ALDS was a blowout and felt like it. I don’t know about you, but while I was watching the first and third game, though, it did seem like Boston was outplaying the Tribe, and I was always a little shocked to look up and see that the Tribe still in the lead. Especially in the third game. A bigger part of the “no respect” thing is probably Francona’s managing of the team. He hasn’t left the starters in the game very long, which has lead to Andrew Miller being the biggest story for the team this off season. Had Francona let Ryan Merritt stay in long enough to get a win, or had bothered to use him again, at least sportswriters could talk about him. But there’s not a heck of a lot of praise that you can really heap on specific players when your starters are going under 5 innings, and the same three guys trundle out of the dugout to close the second half of each game in some order or another. As far as the offense goes, and I know I say this on a night that the Indians bats really came alive, it’s stunk. They hit .168 in the ALCS. Before tonight’s game, they were hitting .237 in the World Series. Santana can draw walks, and Lindor can hit, but that’s pretty much all there is to say about their offense. When I see a team with one starter, one hitter, and handful of relievers as plus players in the post-season, I tend not to get excited about their chances. Possibly this is why watching the Indians win this year has been a phenomenally gut-wrenching experience. That’s just the sort of team that I think usually gets the no respect moniker. Beyond whatever wizardry is happening between Tito’s ears, there just isn’t a good explanation for how a team playing the way the Indians have been this post season, matching up against teams that played the way they did in games leading up to facing them, is up 3-1 in the World Series. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171/759 "2016-10-30T04:40:07Z")
**Results and (Likely) Starting Pitchers** G1: **CHC 0 @ CLE 6** ; CHC LHP #34 Jon Lester @ CLE RHP #24 Corey Kluber; WP Kluber, LP Lester G2: **CHC 5 @ CLE 1** ; CHC RHP #49 Jake Arrieta @ CLE RHP #47 Trevor Bauer; WP Arrieta, LP Bauer G3: **CLE 1 @ CHC 0** ; CLE RHP #43 Josh Tomlin @ CHC RHP #28 Kyle Hendricks; WP LHP #24 Andrew Miller, LP RHP #6 Carl Edwards Jr, Sv RHP #37 Cody Allen G4: **CLE 7 @ CHC 2** ; CLE RHP #24 Corey Kluber @ CHC RHP #41 John Lackey; WP Kluber, LP Lackey G5: CLE RHP #47 Trevor Bauer @ CHC LHP #34 Jon Lester > **[Baseball Probable Pitchers](https://www.mlb.com/probable-pitchers)** > > The official probable pitchers page of Major League Baseball including up to the minute stats, preview and ticket information. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171/760 "2016-10-30T04:52:09Z")
Woohoo! Another big Cleveland win. Very pleased by how the Tribe has been playing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171.md?page=37) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-and-here-comes-the-post-season/767171.md?page=39)