I love baseball, but usually I need to be invested in one team to really enjoy it. Even with Cleveland out of contention for half of the season, I loved the end of this season. Entering the final weekend, after 159 games played and 3 to go for each team, 2 of 8 spots were still up for grabs. The games all seemed to be dramatic, too. Extra innings. Walk-off homeruns. 1-0 pitcher duels. The White Sox got swept by the 2nd place Twins to go fro
m ahead by 2.5 to be behind by 0.5, then both went 1-2 the final weekend. The White Sox won their make up game with Detroit to pull even, then beat Minnesota in a one game playoff 1-0. Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and the NY Mets were jockeying back and forth for the two final spaces in the NL with Milwaukee winning by 1 game after CC Sabathia won his second straight start on only 3 days rest. He was absolutely incredible this season after a slow start and almost single-handedly dragged the Brewers into the post-season..
As far as Cleveland goes, it's really a shame that they had so many injuries and coudn't get it together. They started the season with two of the best pitchers in all of baseball, last year's Cy Youn
g winner, Sabathia and this year's likely winner Cliff Lee who ended up going 22-3. In the end they went from about 16 games under 0.500 to break even by the end of the year. If they had gotten it together earlier (and not traded Sabathia) they could have made the playoffs. Oh well, wait 'till next year. In the meantime I'll enjoy the playoffs - and the Hiroshima Carp - Yokohama Bay Stars this Saturday (and hopefully finally see a win after 4 losses!)
g winner, Sabathia and this year's likely winner Cliff Lee who ended up going 22-3. In the end they went from about 16 games under 0.500 to break even by the end of the year. If they had gotten it together earlier (and not traded Sabathia) they could have made the playoffs. Oh well, wait 'till next year. In the meantime I'll enjoy the playoffs - and the Hiroshima Carp - Yokohama Bay Stars this Saturday (and hopefully finally see a win after 4 losses!)
I'm one of the few who think even with C.C. we wouldn't have made the playoffs. The injuries are what did it. It is hard to overcome when 2 of your 3 best hitters (Hafner and Victor) are inept in the first few months of the season b/c they are battling secret injuries. Not to mention what it did to my fantasy teams since I drafted both of them :).
ReplyDeleteI certainly don't blame Shapiro for dealing Sabathia. By doing so he got something in return for Sabathia who will be a free agent any day now and probably wouldn't have stayed in Clevleand anyway. At the time the trade occured in early July, Cleveland was towards the end of a 10 game losing streak and around 16 games under 0.500 - hardly a team that looked likely to contend.
ReplyDeleteThat said, as things played out, Cleveland went on to play good baseball from there on out to finally break even at the end of the year (81-81). They ended up only 7 games out of 1st place. Had their worst pitcher been replaced with Sabathia, it is very likely that they would have won at least 7more games and made the playoffs; look at his stats with Milwaukee:
17 games
15 QS
11-2
1.65 ERA
They also would have been a tough team in the playoffs with a 1-2 punch of Sabathia and Lee; realistically enough to win the World Series since they could both pitch twice in each series.