Indians "Likely Would Have Won Central Divsion if they had Resisted Urge to Dump Sabathia"
This links to a new ESPN feature of one-minute blurbs of opinion. In the 10/7 edition, Dan Davis rips the Indians front office for not re-signing CC to a long-term contract and for giving up on him mid-season. It's almost as if our best two hitters and second best pitcher never missed time this year.
about 1 month ago
NickFantana
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All of us are unique little snowflakes, special in our own way. Even the dumb ones.
by Toxicadam on Oct 8, 2008 2:34 PM EDT 5 recs
Wasn’t the Tribe’s second half record lights out anyways? I understand the guy’s overall thinking, but how much better could they have played in the second half even with CC?
I’m sure some of the starts he would have pitched ended up being wins anyways, right?
I still think the decision to trade was a sound one, all things considered.
by fivekmd on Oct 8, 2008 2:35 PM EDT 0 recs
The Indians were 6-9 in CC’s spot in the rotation after CC was traded (assuming he pitched every 5th day), and by my count were 7-9 in the games started by the pitcher that could be deemed to be filling CC’s roster spot (which actually rotated a bit based on injuries, etc.). Even if the team went 13-3 in those games (the Brewers were 14-3 in CC’s 17 games), a doubtful proposition given that (1) the AL > NL and (2) they didn’t start playing well until it didn’t really matter anymore, they likely don’t win the division. Even if they somehow win the division, they probably don’t fare any better than Chicago did, and they wouldn’t have LaPorta and Brantley.
by FredOx on
Oct 8, 2008 2:54 PM EDT
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Hmmm…..I’d like to hear his definition of “likely.”
I don’t think the national media realizes how great the Indians were in the second half of the year. He just saw that Cleveland finished 7 games back, looked at CC’s record in Milwaukee, and assumed that CC would have made the difference. What people don’t realize is that even Bonds in his prime probably wouldn’t be worth 7 games over a half of a season.
The best thing probably is to hit [Grady] 2nd -- Jay
by Buckeye Brad on Oct 8, 2008 2:56 PM EDT 0 recs
Yep. This is the epitome of lazy sports “analysis.”
Burn on, big river, burn on...
by Turkmenbashi on
Oct 8, 2008 2:57 PM EDT
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exactly, and like someone else pointed out, it wouldn’t benefit the club in the long term (unless you win the WS, but that would’ve been very unlikely)
by JP_Frost on
Oct 8, 2008 2:59 PM EDT
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Right. And he also forgets the context in which CC was dealt. The Indians were into the “easy” part of their schedule, with interleague games against weaker NL clubs and some relatively easy AL games as well. They proceeded to play really poorly and lose a lot of those games. There was no real reason to expect they would suddenly turn it around. That they played well in the second half is actually remarkable, but expecting to play even BETTER than that, given how they played in the first half, is a feat of imagination I am not capable of.
by peter m on
Oct 8, 2008 3:32 PM EDT
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Absolutely, this is what it is. And the Indians should have signed C.C. to a long-term contract? C.C. said long ago he was taking a hike.
by odradek on
Oct 8, 2008 3:57 PM EDT
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All we did was politely ask CC to sign. Did we threaten his family? NO. Did we subject him to water boarding? NO. Did we threaten him at gunpoint? NO. Did we threaten to withhold post game food? NO. Shapiro’s heart was never in this negotiation.
by elsandito on
Oct 8, 2008 4:34 PM EDT
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And, if “ifs” and “buts” were berries and nuts, we’d all have a happier Christmas.
My favorite “gem” in Davis’ crock of … is his pronouncement that sharing a rotation spot with CC would have gotten Fausto off his snide.
In fact, had we just kept CC, I am certain that the team would have won all of its remaining games, going 110 and 52 for the year.
How could the FO be so shortsighted?
FIRE WEDGE, FIRE SHAPIRO, FIRE DOLAN.
"It's hard to win when you don't score." Cliff Lee, 9/28/05.
by Harry Doyle on Oct 8, 2008 4:50 PM EDT 0 recs
For whatever it’s worth, I personally have zero second thoughts about this. I feel that had we kept C.C. — and Byrd and Blake for that matter — our chances of making the postseason would have been poor, even if you assume that Shoppach, Choo and everyone performs as well as they did. Not only did we finish seven games behind, but we were seven games behind two different teams — and we won five out of six games against those two teams just to get to the point where we’d finish only seven games back. I see a blazing race to the finish where over the final three weeks, we close the gap from eight games to three — at best.
by Jay on Oct 9, 2008 9:47 PM EDT 0 recs
We could have kept CC, Byrd and Blake AND signed Manny Ramirez and we probably wouldn’t have made the playoffs this year. This particular brand of hindsight is absurd.
Burn on, big river, burn on...
by Turkmenbashi on
Oct 10, 2008 9:56 AM EDT
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we would have just needed omar to push us over the top.
by Brick. on
Oct 10, 2008 10:26 AM EDT
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and Lofton!
"It's hard to win when you don't score." Cliff Lee, 9/28/05.
by Harry Doyle on
Oct 10, 2008 11:07 AM EDT
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Besides, if we hop in the DeLorean to go back and un-trade CC, who’s to say that the Sox don’t get in their own DeLorean and tell Quentin not to be an idiot in that game against the Tribe? We didn’t make the playoffs, and in a couple of years when Santana, Meloan, LaPorta and Brantley are roaming Progressive Field, we’ll all be happy we didn’t.
by FredOx on
Oct 10, 2008 11:02 AM EDT
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Or, more realistically, 3 of the 4 if we’re lucky. But still.
by Logodaedalus on
Oct 10, 2008 1:42 PM EDT
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And hopefully they’ll be, ya know, playing. Like on the diamond. Not literally roaming the grounds of Progressive Field.
Burn on, big river, burn on...
by Turkmenbashi on
Oct 10, 2008 3:07 PM EDT
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Right — the roaming doesn’t happen for another 75 years or so, when they become zombies.
by Logodaedalus on
Oct 10, 2008 7:56 PM EDT
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