2016 Cleveland Indians

Spring Training has begun, marking the start to the 2017 baseball season. The new season comes on the heels of one of the best World Series ever, with an instant classic Game 7 that saw this scrappy, bullpen reliant Indians team nearly come back in the ninth inning again All Star closer Aroldis Chapman. Sadly, despite overcoming massive injuries to the rotation, the Indians will be remembered as that team that blew a 3-1 lead to the Cubs. In reality, Cleveland put together an amazing run, neutering high-powered Boston and Toronto offenses with savvy bullpen moves and clutch hitting.

The 2016 Cubs and Indians both have complete squads uploaded on the site, so feel free to use these teams to replay the World Series! Hopefully, your showdown simulation will be as epic as the real thing!

Hitting: The Indians batting order was not their strength, although the lineup is far from toothless. The brightest piece during the postseason was rising star, SS Francisco Lindor. The player with the best smile in the game put together a talented card, with a high OB, plenty of speed, and good defense. Ideally, I'd use Lindor as a stellar leadoff man, with do-it-all second basemen Jason Kipnis and power hitters Mike Napoli and Carlos Santana following him up. The emergence of Tyler Naquin (who put together a fantastic season in limited time) and Jose Ramirez would give my lineup some depth. Rajai Davis hit the huge homer in the bottom of the ninth during Game 7, but do not expect great numbers from him on a daily basis. Brandon Guyer took advantage of his platoon role and put up a stellar OBP. The catcher position is a mess offensively, but at least they both have a +6 arm! 

Below is the lineup that Terry Francona was using in the World Series. Overall, it's a lineup that should be able to get you at least 3-4 runs, which will often be enough with their reliable bullpen.

     

 Bench:

Rotation: While the Indians are stocked with talented young arms, injuries took their toll on their (on what seemed in the preseason) top notch pitching staff. Corey Kluber is the ace, working deep into games and consistently among the MLB's leaders in WHIP. Unfortunately absent in the World Series, Carlos Carrasco is close to breaking into that next level of aces. In 2016, he put together a strong, tier 3 season. Josh Tomlin was stellar throughout 2016, but he gave up a few too many long balls, resulting in the HR on his chart. Trevor Bauer is a former top-10 prospect with lots of talent but a funky delivery. He's a workable starting pitcher, and if he can give this team 4 to 5 good innings, their bullpen can deliver a victory.

Bullpen: The strength of this team and one of the major talking points of the 2016 postseason, led by emerging superstar Andrew Miller. Miller's high control and fantastic chart make it easy for managers to use him two innings every outing, plus easy to utilize him in three straight games. After all, a Control 4 pitcher who cannot give up doubles on his chart is a very good RP. Cody Allen was surprisingly "good" rather than great. He and Miller have amazing K rates, and opposing hitters should be ready for tons of advance-less outs. Dan Otero gives the Indians a third high-end arm as another Tier 1 level pitcher. While he doesn't strike a lot of batters out, Otero is easily capable of two innings at a very high level and his high control is useful against good lineups. Shaw is solid, especially as a fourth reliever. If pitched almost exclusively against the bottom end of orders, Shaw could put up extremely good numbers. Honestly, if used as well as Francona does, this 'pen could get the Indians many more wins than their sparce-with-power batting order and average rotation would suggest.