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2016 AL Central catch-all thread


southsider2k5

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By my count, the Twins will now be up 3-2 against Minnesota on the season series.

 

Even if they were to lose tmrw (Twins), that's a helpful 2 game swing between the Sox and Twins right there in the standings.

 

 

It's also why "not who you play but when you play 'em" means so much. NY had won 5 of 7 coming into the weekend, and just got Chapman back to form the most intimidating bullpen since the Nasty Boys in the late 80's/early 90's and arguably a better iteration of that trio in terms of overall ability.

 

We will also have the advantage of facing the Royals w/o Moustakas, Danny Duffy without having built up his arm strength after going to the bullpen the first six weeks and Dillon Gee. Finally, the KC pen is just not nearly as good as NY's, simply because Soria and the 7th inning have become such an adventure with Soria, and Hochevar hasn't been as sharp, either.

Edited by caulfield12
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Game over, 6-3 Indians (Gomes hit a homer in the 9th off Jepsen).

 

Still 5 GB. KC and DET still to play. If Baltimore wins tonight, they'll tie us for the best record in the AL again. Last week, they were something like 4 games over .500, and we should have been at +14 after Tuesday. (They beat up on the A's just like the Sox did, and took the first two against DET).

Edited by caulfield12
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Losing 11 of 12 or 12 of 13 or whatever it is right now...there might be no choice left for Avila but to can Ausmus and see if they can salvage the season somehow.

 

He's not the reason for the recent bullpen struggles, Miguel Cabrera and JD Martinez to be shades of their former selves (Cabrera actually pulled a 93 MPH fastball to left for his first "typical" homer in weeks), for Justin Verlander's fastball to be 90-92, for Anibal Sanchez to blow up every other start, for a talented rookie in Michael Fulmer to go through growing pains...the scapegoat more than anyone though seems to be Ausmus/Justin Upton and Anthony Gose to a lesser extent.

 

It's pretty remarkable with Castellanos, Zimmerman, Kinsler and Victor Martinez playing so well that they could lose that many games across a stretch of almost two weeks.

Edited by caulfield12
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QUOTE (dpd9189 @ May 15, 2016 -> 12:07 AM)
There's honestly no reason why the Sox shouldn't win the ALC this year. This division is garbage aside from the Sox.

 

May 20 - June 19

 

6 with Detroit

7 with Cleveland

10 with Kansas City

 

Opportunity to prove that.

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CLE

 

Weaknesses:

 

1) Brantley's hurt again, and Gomes' bat isn't quite back yet. 2) The rotation hasn't really clicked yet, and Kluber especially has fallen off from 2014 in terms of stuff. 3) Lack of resources to make big additions, have to trade from their farm system. 4) Bullpen in front of Cody Allen, and Allen has walked a lot of people for a closer although he flies under the radar except for roto owners/daily fantasy gamers. 5) Defense 6) Back end of the rotation, Tomlin and Anderson 7) Health

 

Strengths

 

1) Core of Kipnis/Lindor in the middle infield is one of the AL's best. Lindor is an even better fielder than Carlos Correa, more speed but less power and highly deserving of more national acclaim. 2) Additions of Uribe, Napoli and Rajai Davis have helped to stabilize the club. 3) Santana's OBP. 4) Potential of Bauer if he comes back to the rotation, 5) minor league system 6) stuff of Carrasco (when healthy) and Salazar

 

 

ROYALS

 

I'll just go through their weaknesses, lol.

 

1) Injuries to Moustakas, Medlen and Young (partially due to ineffectiveness as well, those DL trips)

2) Morales has looked like the version who sat out the beginning of 2014 and never got his stroke back

3) Escobar has a terrible OBP and has gone backwards offensively...Alex Gordon also has struck out too much and hasn't looked like the same player from 2014.

4) Swapping out Soria for Madson has been a disaster. The rest of the bullpen, especially Hochevar and even Herrera recently has been more human than the 2014/15 iterations.

5) Infante's basically toast and Mondesi's suspended, so no quick fixes there.

6) Cain, until recently...has struggled offensively and had single digit XB hits a week ago

7) Duffy hasn't stretched out his arm and Dillon Gee's a waiver claim...putting a lot of pressure on Volquez, Ventura and Kennedy to carry the rotation

8) Ventura hasn't emerged as the "true ace" he was projected to be and his stuff has degraded a bit in terms of crispness

 

 

Tigers...

 

Why bother discussing them for now? If they get closer to .500 I'll waste some time on them, but for now they're toast just like Ausmus.

Edited by caulfield12
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