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** OFFICIAL ** Cleveland Guardians thread - spring training (3 Viewers)

Here's two since you guys quit posting in here halfway through August, might as well get to 20 pages. :thumbup:


CLEVELAND —

Terry Francona has won two World Series.

The Indians, in their history, have won two World Series.

Cleveland’s second and most recent world title came in 1948. Their manager was a player-manager, shortstop Lou Boudreau.

The Indians still seem a long way from winning the World Series, especially because they only now are beginning to establish a semblance of rotation depth. But they look a lot better than last year, when they lost 94 games and finished far behind the first-place Tigers in the American League Central.

The Indians lathered Oakland, 9-2, on Thursday for a four-game sweep and their 10th win in 11 games. They are 18-14 and and one game behind the first-place Tigers. Tonight at Comerica Park, Francona will manage the Indians against the Tigers for the first time.

The Indians have a considerably fortified lineup, and they entered Thursday night leading the AL in homers (49). But of their many important off-season additions, the most vital one might be their manager.

Winning atmosphereBrad Mills, Cleveland’s third-base coach, was Francona’s bench coach for much of his eight-year tenure as Boston manager. Mills was asked which of Francona’s strengths matters most now as he tries to turn the Indians into a contender.

“The atmosphere he is able to create — in the clubhouse, in spring training, on the field and in the dugout — can’t be overstated,” Mills said. “He gets to the park so early and gets his preparation done for that night to where he’s freed up to laugh and joke and spend time with the coaches and players.

“When people come in to talk to him, they aren’t taking away his time. He’s spent his entire life around this game, and he knows the importance of that atmosphere and how to put it together. That’s pretty cool.”

Cleveland reliever Rich Hill also pitched in Boston for Francona. “He’s very easy to talk to, very approachable,” said Hill, a U-M product. “There are no agendas. It’s baseball and that’s it, and that’s what guys love. You just feel very comfortable in the environment. Just play hard.”

Like Sparky Anderson when he arrived in Detroit from Cincinnati with his two world titles, Francona instantly has become the face of his new franchise. And like Anderson, he knows in his public statements when to philosophize and when to exhort, when to be serious and when to be funny, and how to support players when they struggle and to creatively extol them when they do well.

“You know he’s got your back,” Hill said.

It’s an approach that worked for Francona as Red Sox manager, a role that is akin to a lead part in a Shakespeare play for an actor. If he can excel at that, he can excel at anything.

But with Francona, this isn’t acting.

“He’s just himself,” Mills said. “That’s the person he is. He doesn’t have to sit down and say, ‘OK, I want to do this today to create this atmosphere.’ It just flows.”

The Francona persona and approach were crystallized recently when right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez, counted on as a rotation stalwart, broke free from his long malaise and beat Kansas City. Describing how it felt to see Jimenez pitch like that, Francona said, “We flew past encouraged and got excited.”

New facesThe Indians made four lineup additions for this season: Mark Reynolds, a slugger signed from Baltimore; Nick Swisher, the switch-hitter who departed the Yankees and came home to Ohio; Drew Stubbs, a potential combination of speed and power; and Michael Bourn, the majors’ leader in steals over the last five years who will return from the disabled list for tonight’s game.

At this juncture, it’s easy to feel a pang for Manny Acta, whom Francona succeeded. The Indians are the second team that Acta managed shortly before it began to spend liberally for good players. Washington was the first. Then again, two of the new Indians hitters joined Cleveland in significant part because of Francona.

“He was the main reason I signed here,” said Reynolds, who was let go by Baltimore. “At the time I signed, I think he was in the Dominican. (Francona was there in part to see Cleveland catcher Carlos Santana.) He took time out of his schedule down there to call me personally and tell me about their goals and their direction. That meant a lot.”

Reynolds took sole possession of the AL home-run lead when he hit his 11th Thursday. He has reduced his previously prolific strikeout pace.

Swisher said of Francona: “To be on his side, obviously that was a major factor in my coming here. This team is on the up-and-up, and we want to keep doing it. When you have a manager like Terry Francona leading the charge, it’s easy to do that.”

Then there’s what Francona did to bring Ryan Raburn to Cleveland.

A role for RaburnLast season, Raburn batted .171 for the Tigers with one homer.

“The day I got hired here, Chris Antonetti (the general manager) and I were in his office after the press conference,” Francona said this week. “He had his board (with the other teams’ rosters), and I looked at the Tigers and said, ‘Raburn had a tough year. If they take him off the roster...’ Chris said, ‘I agree.’ ”

Soon thereafter, the Tigers did take Raburn off the roster, making him a free agent.

“We reached out to him in a hurry,” Francona said. “We kind of full-court pressed him because we thought it would be a good fit. Just because a guy struggles once doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to struggle again. The Tigers thought enough of him to have him in their Opening Day lineup last year. He just didn’t hit. Sometimes those things snowball.”

A few injuries allowed Raburn into the Indians’ lineup recently. In a three-game stretch, he went 11-for-13 with four homers. He was named AL player of the week. “He’s been a really good role player for us,” said Francona, whose oft-used nickname is Tito.

Raburn said: “The Indians probably were my top choice from the get-go mainly because as soon as I became a free agent, Tito personally called me and expressed his feelings about me as a player and a person and that they would love to have me as part of the organization. That meant a lot to me, and it went a long way.”

Raburn is aware now that Francona recommended his signing.

“That means a whole lot to me, especially after the way the year went last year — that was such a miserable year,” Raburn said. “For somebody to have that much confidence in me and that much desire to have me, it definitely made me feel wanted.”

Close to homeFrancona would tell you emphatically that he’s the less accomplished of the two managers in tonight’s game. Early in his role as an ESPN analyst last year, he referred to Jim Leyland as the “gold standard” of major league managers. Is it worth noting the Tigers had 12 straight losing seasons until they won the pennant in their first year under Leyland?

The Indians hired Francona early last October, almost 12 months after he was let go in Boston. Francona said the Indians didn’t promise him they would bolster the lineup. He came to Cleveland in part because of his rapport with Antonetti and club president Mark Shapiro, developed when he worked for the Indians for one year in between his managing jobs in Philadelphia and Boston.

Francona, 54, has a four-year contract. It’s easy to see him as Indians manager for at least a decade. His roots are in western Pennsylvania, which is practically next door to Cleveland. As he points out in a radio ad, his father — the real Tito Francona — played outfield for the Indians for the first six years of Terry’s life. In Cleveland, Terry Francona is about as close home as a baseball lifer can get.

Anderson arrived in Detroit with two world titles won in Cincinnati. In his fifth full year in Detroit, the Tigers won the World Series.

Maybe Francona can be for Cleveland what Anderson was for Detroit. Indians fans, who haven’t had that ultimate moment since Lou Boudreau was the player-manager, should perhaps begin to be encouraged — maybe even excited — that Francona’s third world title and the Indians’ third world title will be one and the same.
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Posting in this thread is generally posting to yourself. I'd rather spend my time elsewhere. :shrug:

This team could hit themselves to 80+ wins or pitch themselves to 70 wins. If they want to truly compete, they'll need to go get a SP in June.

 
wadegarrett said:
Doctor Detroit said:
Here's two since you guys quit posting in here halfway through August, might as well get to 20 pages. :thumbup:


Doctor Detroit said:
Here's two since you guys quit posting in here halfway through August, might as well get to 20 pages. :thumbup:


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Doctor Detroit said:
>
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Yep...the sign of a great MLB fan is the number of posts they have in the Footballguys Baseball Forum. You're like a 4th grade girl.

:lmao: :lmao:
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Maybe you should gather up a few buddies and head down to the stadium one night to push attendance over 10k. :thumbup:

 
Bobcat10 said:
Posting in this thread is generally posting to yourself. I'd rather spend my time elsewhere. :shrug:

This team could hit themselves to 80+ wins or pitch themselves to 70 wins. If they want to truly compete, they'll need to go get a SP in June.
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Ubaldo looks good lately, worth a flyer at this point from what you've seen? Seems to have changed his delivery, and he's always had the stuff. Impressive tonight, lots on the black.

 
Doctor Detroit said:
wadegarrett said:
Doctor Detroit said:
Here's two since you guys quit posting in here halfway through August, might as well get to 20 pages. :thumbup:


Doctor Detroit said:
Here's two since you guys quit posting in here halfway through August, might as well get to 20 pages. :thumbup:


Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Doctor Detroit said:
>>

lockquote>Yep...the sign of a great MLB fan is the number of posts they have in the Footballguys Baseball Forum. You're like a 4th grade girl.

:lmao: :lmao:
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Maybe you should gather up a few buddies and head down to the stadium one night to push attendance over 10k. :thumbup:
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DD needs to have a cornhole in Cleveland that push the attendance by two
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Having trouble with the quote function Gopher?

ETA: I see where you went wrong there. Great humor though, congrats.

 
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Doctor Detroit said:
Maybe you should gather up a few buddies and head down to the stadium one night to push attendance over 10k. :thumbup:
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Was there on Thursday...and the Saturday before...and twice in April. Have had season tickets since '94.

See you in June for your next attendance update. They're enlightening. :thumbup:

 
Doctor Detroit said:
Bobcat10 said:
Posting in this thread is generally posting to yourself. I'd rather spend my time elsewhere. :shrug:

This team could hit themselves to 80+ wins or pitch themselves to 70 wins. If they want to truly compete, they'll need to go get a SP in June.
Click to expand...
Ubaldo looks good lately, worth a flyer at this point from what you've seen? Seems to have changed his delivery, and he's always had the stuff. Impressive tonight, lots on the black.
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I think he is....still start at risk of a meltdown game but then he's just as likely to bounce back the next game.

 
wadegarrett said:
Doctor Detroit said:
Maybe you should gather up a few buddies and head down to the stadium one night to push attendance over 10k. :thumbup:
Click to expand...
Was there on Thursday...and the Saturday before...and twice in April. Have had season tickets since '94.

See you in June for your next attendance update. They're enlightening. :thumbup:
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They're just total fish jobs. Detroit wasn't pulling jack #### until they became a better team...and now an annual WS contender. The figures are actually quite similar.

 
Any reason why Stubbs casually jogged after the ball that he so terribly misjudged?

How does Tito not remove him from the game immediately?

 
cheese said:
Bobcat10 said:
Is that the Tito we were warned about today? Too obvious to walk Votto I guess.
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Ya, terrible decision, especially with a DP machine on deck.

So are we going to see some tonight?
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I hope so. I was at that game yesterday....that was bull#### in the 9th. You don't throw two consecutive at Swisher's head because Asdrubal argued a 3rd strike. I didn't see the replay of the strike, so I'm not sure the merit of the argument, but it doesn't really matter. If Swish took that yard I woulda loved it being there even though we still would have been down a run. His trot around the bases would have been epic. Swisher had a few choice words for Aroldis as he passed by on his way back to the dugout.

I did see the replay of Santana's strikeout to end the game it the pitch was borderline...looked like a ball to me but it was close enough to go either way.

The best thing I've heard this morning on the radio is start Rich Hill tonight and throw two at Choo's head.

 
If they do it today, it will get interesting because Latos is a madman. If they just wait and hit Votto in Cleveland, everything will be fine. Kinda up to Cleveland now for how big of a thing they want to make it. Wouldn't blame them either way.

From a Reds perspective, I do wonder how often the offensive guys get tired of this stuff having Cueto, Latos, and Chapman on the same staff. We've had more than a few guys wear one because of our pitchers. The pitch Frazier took off the elbow Sunday easily could have put him on the DL after Cueto was doing stupid stuff out there. Something similar is likely to happen again in the next 3 days.

 
cheese said:
If they do it today, it will get interesting because Latos is a madman. If they just wait and hit Votto in Cleveland, everything will be fine. Kinda up to Cleveland now for how big of a thing they want to make it. Wouldn't blame them either way.

From a Reds perspective, I do wonder how often the offensive guys get tired of this stuff having Cueto, Latos, and Chapman on the same staff. We've had more than a few guys wear one because of our pitchers. The pitch Frazier took off the elbow Sunday easily could have put him on the DL after Cueto was doing stupid stuff out there. Something similar is likely to happen again in the next 3 days.
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Didn't think about waiting til Cleveland...then they don't have the chance of getting Zach run...or plunked himself.

 
Looks like they're going to give tickets to a new game

Limp Ditka said:
No reason this game was started tonight. You and your city is ****
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There actually were reasons having to do with scheduling and the weather projections for the rest of the weekend (Tampa's only trip to Cleveland).Looks like they've decided to give free tickets to a future game to those of us that had the misfortune of picking that night to go to the park.
 
Cleveland Indians closer Chris Perez, wife charged with misdemeanor drug abuseROCKY RIVER, Ohio -- Cleveland Indians pitcher Chris Perez and his wife, Melanie, have been charged with misdemeanor drug abuse after a package containing marijuana was delivered to their rental home earlier this week.

The charge is a fourth-degree misdemeanor, indicating that the amount discovered by police was small. There are reports that the package contained 5.8 ounces of marijuana.

U.S. postal inspectors and members of the Westshore Enforcement Bureau conducted a search of the Perez home on Parklane Drive on Tuesday.

Perez, 27, and his wife, 29, were released on their own recognizance. A hearing is scheduled for June 19.

The Perezes' attorney, Terry Gilbert, issued this statement this morning:

In the meantime, Chris and Melanie ask that their family's privacy be respected. Chris is eager to return his focus to his team and his family.
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Bigger embarassment for the Tribe: Perez having weed (allegedly) sent to his dog or the signing of Kaz Tedano?

 
vs. AL East: 6-17 :bag:

vs. AL Central: 9-11 meh

vs. AL West: 12-2 :pickle:

vs. NL: 5-3 :pickle:

Overall, just move us to the AL West and give us more Phillies.

 
It's going to be interesting to see If the Indians can keep the pressure on the kittens in the second half. First place going into July, wish I had that bet in Vegas

 
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