The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Fall Classic hangover for Indians and Cubs
The World Series hasn’t featured a rematch from the season before in 40 years, and with the Indians and Cubs performing below expectations, it might not happen this year, Jeff Schudel writes.
Fortunately for the Indians, and just as fortunately for the Chicago Cubs, the two teams that met in the World Series a year ago each happen to play in the most mediocre divisions of their respective leagues.
The Cubs were heavy favorites as the season began to repeat as World Series champions. Most prognosticators had the Indians or Red Sox winning the American League.
Call it a World Series hangover or any term you choose. But a quarter of the way through the season, the Indians and Cubs are not living up to expectations.
The Cubs were 29-11 on May 20, 2016. One year later they are 21-20 and stalled in third place in the National League Central Division, but only three games behind the division-leading Milwaukee Brewers.
The Indians are treading water in the American League Central with a 2119 record, a game behind the Minnesota Twins in the A.L. Central.
Indians manager Terry Francona isn’t panicking, and neither is Cubs manager Joe Maddon.
The Indians’ problems are simple to explain, not so simple to solve.
The Tribe starting pitching, except for Carlos Carrasco (and he was rocked by Tampa Bay on May 15 in his last start) has been abysmal. It is alarming because starting pitching is supposed to be the foundation of the defending American League champions.
Carrasco has a very good ERA of 2.60. The rest of the staff — not so good. Corey Kluber, currently on the disabled list with lower back strain, has a 5.06 ERA.
Danny Salazar is next at 5.66 followed by Trevor Bauer at 6.65 and Josh Tomlin at 6.86.
The bullpen has performed well — the Indians are 15-0 when leading after six innings and 17-0 when leading after seven — but when the parade of relievers starts in the fourth inning, there is a real danger of the pen burning out by August if the starters don’t improve.
“It’s disappointing to see,” said Tomlin after giving up six runs, all earned, in just 2 1/3 innings on May 17 in a 7-4 loss to Tampa Bay. “We’ve got to do a better job as a unit. There’s no sugarcoating it. There’s no, ‘It’s early,’ or anything like that. It’s, ‘We need to do a better job from top to bottom.’
“We’ve had some guys that have pitched good games, but we haven’t strung together enough consistent outings as a group to give our team a chance to win, and that falls on us.” Jeff Schudel
Tomlin (2-5) gave up two home runs to the Rays. Salazar one night earlier struck out nine Rays but gave up four home runs in five innings. The Indians are among the league leaders in strikeouts, averaging nearly 10 a game. But they have also allowed 43 home runs.
Bauer has allowed eight home runs, Kluber seven and Carrasco six.
Bauer gave up 20 home runs in 35 games (28 starts) last year. Salazar gave up just 16 home runs in 25 starts last year. He has made eight starts this year and has already been dinged nine times. He can’t use the 2016 postseason as an excuse (he isn’t) because he pitched a total of three innings.
“We have to make it correct itself,” Francona said. “I don’t know that [things will improve] just by showing up and saying, ‘Well, it’s a new day.’ That’s a good way to start, but we need to do some things better.”
The Indians have plenty of time to get back on track, and so do the Cubs, but odds of a World Series rematch are long. There hasn’t been one in nearly 40 years.
The last two teams to collide in back-to-back World Series are the Yankees and Dodgers in 1977 and 1978. The Yankees won in six games both years.
Different times in NFL
The Browns got No. 1 pick Myles Garrett under contract for four years for $30.4 million on May 19. The important two words of that sentence are “under contract.”
The current CBA, now in its seventh year, includes a rookie slotting system that didn’t exist in 2000 when the Browns made Courtney Brown the first pick in the draft.
The Browns knew they would be taking Brown with the first pick, so the contract was negotiated before the draft. Brown was signed for seven years at the cost of $45 million with a $12 million signing bonus.
Seventeen years ago, the salary cap was $62.172 million. It is $167 million in 2017.
Brown didn’t hold out, but prior to the current CBA, first-round draft picks often did, sometimes waiting until training camp to stubbornly sign and then say, “It’s a business.” Predictably, they would pull a hamstring early in training camp because they were out of condition or they would be playing catchup in the playbook because they weren’t part of the team’s offseason program.
The current CBA has four more years to run, including 2017. The players union isn’t happy with part of the agreement, specifically the power wielded by Commissioner Roger Goodell. But the slotting system works for everyone. It works for the teams because holdouts are now rare and it works for the players because it leaves more money for the veterans whom they feel deserve bigger slices of the salary cap pie.
Quarterback Sam Bradford, drafted in 2010, was the last No. 1 pick taken before the slotting system began in 2011. He was given a whopping $78 million contract for six years with $50 million guaranteed.
One year later, top pick Cam Newton, also a quarterback, was signed for four years and $22 million, fully guaranteed, by the Carolina Panthers.
Newton cashed in on his second contract — five years for $103 million with $60 million guaranteed.
The days of ridiculous rookie contracts are over.
AHL wakes up
The Monsters have a great rivalry with the Grand Rapids Griffins, but playing the same team 12 times in the same season gets a little tiresome for players and fans.
The exact schedule hasn’t been set, but in 2017-18 instead of playing a dozen games against teams in the AHL Central Division, they will play eight games within the Central and four games — two at Quicken Loans Arena and two on the road — against the teams from the Pacific Division.
The new set-up gives teams the chance to develop new rivalries.
I didn’t know that
…until I read my Snapple bottle cap.
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Reach Schudel at JSchudel@News-Herald. com. On Twitter: @jsproinsider