Thanks for the memories

First, for the 84 hits on my blog site from Russia in the past 4 hours, WTF!?!?!  I should probably get the Attorney General on the phone and have him investigate that. 

About the Indians, nothing else really to say at this point.   Great season, great results but, in the end, you gotta hit, you gotta pitch and you gotta play defense.  And, if you can't do all of those things AT LEAST you gotta step up at crunch time and deliver.  We had almost NONE of that hero stuff that makes up for uneven play.   Too bad.  We needed it.

Here are some other thoughts:

Kluber - The guy is hurt.  I think it is unlikely he will pitch next year if he is hurt as seriously as I think he is.  I was thinking what John Smoltz said, you just can't put that many relievers in without the chance of one of them (in this case Allen) having a hiccup.

Miller - I think Miller has some miles on him, too.  I think he will come back strong if his knee gets healthy.

Jose Ramirez - What can you say?  Did the Yankees have a good scouting report on him or a good pitching plan?  I guess we will find out next year after baseball takes note of this series.   Otherwise, I guess all you can say is that he didn't perform on the biggest stages there is.   His AB in game 2 against Sabathia with the bases loaded was probably the worst AB I have seen from an Indians' batter in the past two years (even worse than Gomes AB in the WS last year).  And Ramirez never came back from that AB.   You have to be able to pick up your team if you are the hitter we thought he was.  But he didn't.

Lindor - Take away the grand slam and he had nothing this series.   A young guy put in a pressure situation and he didn't perform.  Given the shape we were in, we needed more from him.   His double play ball in the 5th when we had already scored two runs was really a killer, topping off a really bad series for him...other than that incredibly important grand slam. 

Encarnacion - Mercifully (or unfortunately) he got hurt.   On the glass half empty front he could have had a series like Ramirez if he wasn't hurt, based on Game 1 and Game 5.  On the glass half full side he might have run into a couple of HRs if he wasn't hurt, like in Game 3. 

Brantley - His injury is really concerning to me.  Not the injury, which will likely heal by next year.   But the TYPE of injury, almost a non-contact, scratch your head kind of injury and the time it took to recover from that after the time it took him to recover from his shoulder surgery last year.   I am afraid his body is falling apart.  He needs another big intervention to make his body solid.  Otherwise, it will be one thing after another every year and with a guy like Brantley, that might take him out of the league in another 2 years.

Bruce - He was a leader for two games and then disappeared.   Still, had everyone played as they should his performance would have been considered solid.  Right now it just looks like he had a couple of games of magic and then not much else.   But, in truth, he played pretty well.  He's gone anyway as I would not be willing to pay him what he wanted which is likely Encarnacion money.

The loss of Zimmer - I don't think it hurt us at all.   If we thought Brantley was flailing Zimmer would have been much worse.  Think Aaron Judge bad.

Rest of the team - Olson was good.  Gomes and Perez played good defense (mostly) and had their offensive moments.  Olson and Shaw were good.  Carrasco was great.   Joe Smith was OK until the end of the last game.  The other guys did only a little or, in some cases, nothing to distinguish themselves.   We needed more out of the rest of the team but maybe with more experience next year we will get what we need.   I mean last year it was Perez and Chisenhall (especially against David Price).  This year, except for the Perez HR in a way losing effort, there wasn't much.   Last year we got some Bruce-like performances out of guys.  

Guys who are in the minors or in the majors but left off the roster - Right now, I don't see any Lindors, Ramirezs or even Clevingers on the horizon.   Just spare parts like the major leaguers who didn't make the post-season roster.  Too bad because we could use a hitting 3B guy or could use Mejia to jump in and do a Sanchez impersonation next year.   Don't think we will get than so what you saw this year is likely to be what you will get next year from all these guys.

Francona - He is a very good manager, but he is not a wizard.  Unfortunately, this team needed some wizardry in the post-season and he couldn't provide that this year. 

This team was a lot like the Cavs last year.   Lots of talent but not able to finish the job.   I don't know any way around that other than to get guys hungry for next year.   If a pathetic post-season like this doesn't make guys hungry, then they are not breathing.  Certainly now they have the post season experience of what it is like to fall on your faces and embarrass yourselves on national TV.

Hopefully they will use that to fire their preparation for next year.

Good season, guys.   Finish the job next year.  And, on the glass half full side, thanks for giving me three weeks of my time back for the rest of October.