Chad ochoseis

Not Colavito. And the statue does honor an actual Indians baseball player.

You got the two unsurprising ones - Feller and Doby. Not Lajoie.

Two teams will be meeting in Cleveland this weekend. One team came into the season with high expectations. They have some of the league’s best young pitching and are the consensus pick to win in a so-so division with three good teams and two rebuilding ones. But their flaws have been exposed this month. The hitting is spotty. They’re fair to middling at catching and throwing. The manager, a baseball lifer named Terry, is good with players but not exactly at the leading edge of sabermetrics. So far, they’re not exactly burning up the season and fans are starting to worry, even if the sample size is small. The other team, of course, is the Mets. Ladies and gentlemen, meet your 2016 dopplegangers, the Cleveland Indians. Fun fact – Since 2000, the Indians are the only team in MLB to have three different Cy Young Award winners (CC Sabathia 2007, Cliff Lee 2008, Corey Kluber 2014). At catcher, Yan Gomes is the first Brazilian-born player in the major leagues. His father-in-law is Atlee Hammaker, an old Giant pitcher who had a couple of great seasons and is mainly remembered now for having a funny name. Yan, who also has a funny name, is probably the best catcher you’ve never heard of. 2014 has been his only full healthy year as a starter; he won the job by default in mid-2013 and was injured for a good part of 2015. And he was one of the best in the game in 2014; threw out about 35% of runners while OPSing .785. He had a crappy 2015 which Indians fans are chalking up to him being rushed back from a sprained MCL, which I guess is to catchers what a strained lat is to pitchers. First base used to belong to Carlos Santana, who has heard all the “Evil Ways” jokes already. A meh, on-basey, good but not great power guy. Switch hitter, better from the right side. So bad defensively that the Indians got Mike Napoli as an upgrade, and Santana is now the DH. Mike Napoli, at 1B, is also meh. I guess he fields better than Carlos Santana. At second base, there’s the former superprospect Jason Kipnis. Did he meet the outrageously high expectations Indians fans had for him as a rookie? No, but he combines Murphyesque offensive dependability and decent middle infield pop with at least OK defense. And he’s a true member of the Tribe, sort of. At shortstop, 22-year-old Francisco Lindor is easily the best position player on the team, and the occasional heavy breathing media report has him as the best shortstop in baseball. Bats third. Has great range. .835 OPS last year and lost a close ROY vote to fellow shortstop Carlos Correa. Indians fans I know have been talking about this guy for two years or so. Then again, I’ve only seen him play live once – as an Akron Rubber Duck – and in four at bats, he popped up three times and got an infield hit. So he can be stopped. At third base, Lonnie Chisenhall is on the DL because of complications related to terminal mediocrity. Covering for him is our old friend and Good Clubhouse Guy Juan Uribe. Good Clubhouse Guy is, of course, a kind way of saying “he sucks, but somebody’s got to play third base”. Left field? Why, it’s Marlon Byrd! When the Mets got him in 2013, my reaction was, “Hey…he’s still in baseball?” And, whaddya know, it’s now three years later, and there he is, still in baseball. The Indians are paying him a million bucks to not embarrass the team in left field and maybe hit the odd home run in a tight spot. Funny game, this. A platoon is keeping centerfield warm until the poor man’s Andrew McCutchen, Michael Brantley, returns from November shoulder surgery in a week or two. Vs. lefties, we’ll see the very fast and otherwise not-very-good-at-baseball Rajai Davis. I checked his similarity scores on bbref just for fun, and my suspicion was confirmed. The most similar player to Rajai Davis, in the entire history of baseball, is Roger F. Cedeno. Nuff said. Vs. righties, we get the talented young Tyler Naquin. Naquin hit his way into the major leagues with a .400-ish Cactus League BA. The Indians haven’t seen many righties yet (with three weather related cancellations so far this season, they haven’t seen many lefties, either), so Naquin has only four ABs so far in his short career. Right field is patrolled by Collin Cowgill. I was going to say something more about this, but I start laughing uncontrollably every time I return to this graf. Yeah. We’re sweeping this series. Starting pitching - Schedulers and weather gods have been good to us, and we’re drawing the back end of the rotation. We face Cody Anderson on Friday and Josh Tomlin on Saturday before going up against 2014 Cy Young winner Corey Kluber on Sunday. All are righthanded, so De Aza may get some starts as DeH instead of Flores. I googled Cody Anderson, and all I found was that he showed up to spring training in the best shape of his life.. Also, according to Wikipedia, he’s an American professional baseball pitcher for the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball (MLB). Josh Tomlin hasn’t pitched yet this season. He’s made a six year career out of being that guy you hope the other team has to start because their pitching staff is jammed up. Despite all expectations, had a decent 2015. We’ll do our best to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Corey Kluber’s 2014 Cy Young award was not a fluke. Just putting that out there. Fastball is 95 mph, which was considered to be fast back when we were kids. It’s still not half bad. But his main weapon is an unhittable curve. Yes, he led the AL in losses last year, but that was mostly due to bad luck and crappy run support (3.3 runs per game). He’s off to a Harveyesque start this year (0-2, 4.85). Have you given up on Harvey? Don’t kount out Kluber. On the other hand, his career April ERA (3 1/2 seasons, natch) is 4.03. So maybe we can think about kounting him out after all. Bullpen – As part of the welcoming program instituted for the RNC this summer, Cleveland has gone with a bullpen that leans almost exclusively right. Its sole lefty is forgettable ex-National Ross Detwiler, who has had one (bad) appearance this season. If the Indians get a lead in the 9th, they’ll go to Cody Allen, who strikes me as a garden variety good closer, though (naturally) somebody somewhere has come up with a metric that shows him as “elite”. I think that means that he gets to board early on flights to Kansas City. Other bullpenners include the well-named Jeff Manship and odd man out of the rotation Trevor Bauer, who flew a drone into the US Cellular scoreboard last week. Injuries – Brantley, Chisenhall Players who have traded in Schaefer for Great Lakes – The aforementioned Uribe, Cowgill, and Byrd are batting a combined .067 (3 for 45) so far this season. Anthony Recker, that handsome devil, is currently breaking hearts at the Indians’ AAA affiliate in Columbus. Mets with Indian ancestry – Colon, when he was thin. Cabrera, when he was fast. Fun trivia question: Name the three players with statues outside Progressive Field.

Check out Skinny Bartolo and Mustachioed Bartolo. Recker is in the Indians org and on the 40-man, but hasn't yet been on the big club this season.

Facebook is pissing me off. I was driving all day and figured I'd stay off the CPF and keep myself in suspense until I had a chance to watch on MLB.TV this afternoon. But I figured a quick look at Facebook would be harmless. Nope...they now give a helpful headline that says "Mets win! How will you celebrate????" Eff you, Facebook. Anyway, I'm in the bottom of the third. Flores (!) flashing some leather with a 3-6-3 DP.

Frayed Knot wrote: A bit worried about Dabid's defense. There has always been a segment of Met fans who've been trying to move Wright over to the other side of the diamond since shortly after his rookie season. And while I've never been one of them understand that this current stretch could just be a case of small sample size, he's costing his pitchers outs at this point, maybe 3 or 4 just this season so far as basically anything hit down to him lately that isn't routine has become a 50/50 proposition via wide throws, weak throws, double-clutching, or just slower reactions. Last night it was the 1st inning play vs Yellich which, although turned out to be about the only thing that didn't blow up in Matz's face, it did cost him another half=dozen or so pitches to put the inning to bed and putting guys on with 2-outs in front of Giancarlo is going to come back to bite someone eventually. Like I said, maybe it's just SSS. Plus there's really no obvious solution, not now anyway. There's no opening across the diamond for him and we're not going to "Sandoval" him both because of the contract and because, unlike Panda, David can still hit and doesn't have a body shape where his belt breaks when he swings. Eh, it's this season, plus ST, plus the 2015 postseason, at least. The sample size isn't that small anymore. Dabidrye is officially my biggest worry. We probably won't "Sandoval" him, and that's annoying. The contract is a sunk cost. He's hitting well enough for now, but if that changes, his salary shouldn't have any bearing on whether the team elects to keep running him out there, trade him or, hell, convince him to retire with a plum assignment in the org and groom him to be Terry's replacement. One advantage of being a large-market team is that we (in theory, if we've recovered from Madoff) can sign big money players as needed. Another should be that we can face up to it when a big contract isn't working out, and not let it dictate the decisions regarding who plays and who sits. It's too early for panic, but I'm wondering if Walker can play 3B.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Not to repeat myself but I feel like shit about this team. What are we basing our optimism on? The best pitching staff in the league, and good enough hitting to make us three games better than the inevitably re-imploding Nationals. I'm not worrying too much about deGrom or Granderson. There's pitching depth and outfield depth to be had and I think Granderson had an awful start last year, too. Wright worries me. He hasn't seemed physically capable of playing 3B since last season, and we're paying him big bucks for five more years. What's your take on Matt Harvey? He looks pretty beatable to me so far. Well, he wasn't worrisome...dude can't go out and strike out twelve every start. But, yeah, "beatable" is a fair way to describe him. I can walk "best pitching staff in the league" back to "damned good pitching staff".

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Not to repeat myself but I feel like shit about this team. What are we basing our optimism on? The best pitching staff in the league, and good enough hitting to make us three games better than the inevitably re-imploding Nationals. I'm not worrying too much about deGrom or Granderson. There's pitching depth and outfield depth to be had and I think Granderson had an awful start last year, too. Wright worries me. He hasn't seemed physically capable of playing 3B since last season, and we're paying him big bucks for five more years.

What really helped these guys was hiring Tom Emanski ten years ago.

Zach Greinke has an RBI single, but is getting hit very hard in the 3rd against the Rox in Phoenix. 5-1 so far, one out, runner on 2nd. OE - 7-1 in the 4th, with Greinke still in. Trevor Story, who is replacing Jose at SS, has 2 HR, 4 RBI so far in his first MLB game. OE - Dbacks make it 7-5 with a bases loaded single. The genius in the booth notes that it's "the biggest hit of the Diamondbacks' season so far".

11 is also Duda.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that nobody had Cabrera as the first hit in the Mets firsts contest.

TheOldMole wrote: This iw why, during the McCarthy era, they changed their name to the Redlegs. I got 'em. I had no idea, but Wikipedia agrees with you. I always thought Redlegs was their original name. I just took the Pirates, and I'd already claimed the Indians. That leaves the Dodgers as the only unclaimed enemy outside the division.

TheOldMole wrote: I'll take one.You choose.

Frayed Knot wrote: In recent years the KTEs for divisional opponents, because they come so often and risk getting monotonous, have morphed into becoming more group efforts with updates since the previous series tacked on to the existing 'Division Opponent for 2016' thread. Doesn't mean one individual can't grab an NL East team on his own ... in fact we're short of a Marlins thread so that and a KTE for the 3rd series of the year would be a good combo thread. The knowledge we really need is for the out of division opponents who we'll only see once or twice. The knowledge isn't the only point, though. Sometimes, the KTEs for the Es that we already K about are the best written and funniest to read.

Fman99 wrote: I'm operating under the assumption that he's pooping his pants a lot today. It happens. That never stopped Angel Pagan.

Great list, but the guy I just watched on my telly flubbing a play at second base and wearing bright red didn't make the cut. Ruben Tejada's legs appear to be doing just fine, as he's OPSing .865. I could't find a split between how much of that hitting was done as a Met and how much was done with a bird on his bat. and...oops...hadn't noticed this was a March 18 post. Tejada was still Metly ten days ago, I think.

Edgy MD wrote: I'll do any and all Miami series. Signed you up for all six, though if someone wants to grab two or three, I'm guessing you'd be good with sharing the wealth.

A mere six days to opening day, and we still have no idea who's going to explain how the Royals have handled their departure from Zobrism. Or anything else about our upcoming opponents for 2016. So, well, here's a table. I've automatically signed up Fman for the MFY series, because Oscar Gamble in a leglock. The rest is up to you. DATES OF SERIESSWORN ENEMYVOLUNTEER EXPERT4/3-5@KCRLeiterWagnerFasterStrongr4/8-10PHIFrayed Knot4/11-13MIAEdgy4/15-17@CLEChad Ochoseis4/18-20@PHI4/22-24@ATL4/25-27CINThe Old Mole4/29-5/1SFGLeiterWagnerFasterStrongr5/2-4ATL5/5-8@SDPSeawolf5/9-12@LAD5/13-15@COLLefty Specialist5/17-19WASG-Fafif5/20-22MILTransMonk5/23-25@WASG-Fafif5/27-29LAD5/30-6/1CWSSeawolf6/3-6/5@MIAEdgy6/6-6/8@PITChad Ochoseis6/9-6/12@MILTransMonk6/14-6/16PITChad Ochoseis6/17-6/19ATL6/21-6/22KCRLeiterWagnerFasterStrongr6/23-6/26@ATL6/27-6/29@WAS6/30-7/3CHCFrayed Knot7/4-7/6MIAEdgy7/7-7/10WAS7/15-7/17@PHI7/18-7/20@CHCFrayed Knot7/22-7/24@MIAEdgy7/25-7/27STLLunchbucket7/28-7/31COLLefty Specialist8/1-8/2NYYFMan8/3-8/4@NYYFman8/5-8/7@DETMets Guy in Michigan8/9-8/11ARIGwreck8/12-8/14SDPSeawolf8/15-8/17@ARIGwreck8/18-8/20@SFGLeiterWagnerFasterStrongr8/23-8/25@STLLunchbucket8/26-8/28PHI8/29-9/1MIAEdgy9/2-9/4WAS9/5-9/7@CINThe Old Mole9/9-9/11@ATL9/12-9/14@WAS9/16-9/18MINTransMonk9/19-9/21ATL9/22-9/25PHI9/26-9/28@MIAEdgy9/30-10/2@PHI

Looks that way. #89 is batting for the Mets. I have no clue who he is.

Tejada rushes a flip to second base and gets zero outs instead of one or possibly two. Who would've thunk it?

1. Reach base safely - GRANDERSON 2. Get a hit - GRANDERSON 3. Draw a walk - WRIGHT 4. Hit a double - CONFORTO 5. Hit a triple - WALKER 6. Hit a home run - CESPEDES 7. Steal second base - WALKER 8. Reach by error - DUDA 9. Hit a grounds-rule double - CESPEDES 10. Score a run - GRANDERSON 11. Drive in a run - DUDA 12. Get hit by a pitch - D'ARNAUD 13. Drive in more than one run in a single plate appearance - DUDA 14. Hit into a double play - DUDA 15. Get caught stealing OR picked off base - CESPEDES 16. Strike out as a batter - WRIGHT 17. Bunt for a base hit - GRANDERSON 18. Get tagged out at home - WRIGHT 19. Pinch hit - DE AZA 20. Be pinch-hit for - CABRERA 21. Commit an error - CABRERA 22. Play a batted ball by an opponent in fair territory - WALKER 23. Be called on to relieve - BASTARDO 24. Strike out 6 or more batters in the same game - SYNDERGAARD 25. Hit an opposing batter with a pitch - SYNDERGAARD 26. Blow a save opportunity - BASTARDO 27. Get credited with a hold - REED 28. Strike out the side - SYNDERGAARD 29. Get a save - FAMILIA 30. Pitcher to get a base hit - SYNDERGAARD Bonus tiebreaker: Name the date when Terry Collins gets ejected for the first time, closest to actual date wins - MAY 7

And Ollie's back. Ollie. Really. And, as Keef has noted multiple times, he has a $7m, 2 year contract with Washington. Keef, by the way, is in grumpy old man mid-season form.

Coming off a tie yesterday. I should be starting half of today's IGT. Mets teeing off against Yusimero Petit. Kabooms from DWright and Conforto (after a deep triple from Walker). 3-0 good guys after 2.

El Toro seems to be having problems with el commando.