Great outing, Johnny.

I'd have to start my swing when Chapman starts his motion. Geez.

The Red Sox have a better offense (by a large gap) and are also less power dependent than the Jays. Cleveland has handled them so far.

Kluber is a good matchup against Toronto (as good as you will find).

What I think has been overlooked by many is how good Cleveland's offense has been. They were the second-best offense in baseball this year, behind the Red Sox.

And their offense can win multiple ways... With HRs, with stringing together hits, with working counts and drawing walks... And also with speed.

Toronto might have a better-looking rotation, but Cleveland trumps them everywhere else and has a good enough bullpen to make its lesser starters play "up."


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Bad call there.

I believe they were 3rd best offense at home and 6th best on the road, but your point stands, it's not talked about.

Too bad you can't review whether or not a bat breaks the plane. Could have been a much different 9th inning there.

Donald Trump just said Javier Báez is stealing our American jobs.

All good points. My concern is simply how badly Tomlin and Bauer pitched to end the season. A 7 game series could force them to spread out a lot of mediocre to bad starters over that series. Tomlin has been atrocious, but their Game 4 starter would be even worse.

If Tomlin and Bauer can at least keep Cleveland in the games (like our starters in 2015) I like Cleveland's odds in the later innings.

Cleveland was my AL WS pick btw, and it'd be great if one of my postseason predictions in a non-Royals year came true.

Man that was a great game.


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The bat breaking the plane isn't the rule. It's the ump's judgement if he thought the batter intended to swing, there is no way to review that call. It was a bad call though, because he clearly didn't swing.

***OFFICIAL 2016 MLB POSTSEASON*** Who you got?
 

If Bauer can get through the Toronto lineup two times, Cleveland will take it and have a good chance to win by utilizing it's excellent pen (that Francona can maximize).

Bauer just did that against a better offense.

And unlike Ned Yost, Tito isn't going to fall prey to the temptation of trying to get an extra inning out of a weak starter. If he gets five from Bauer in a close game, he's not going to send him back out for the sixth against the top of the order (third time through).

If Yost was making the calls in Game 7 of 2014, you likely would have seen Herrera in the 4th and 5th, Davis in the 6th and 7th, and Holland in the 8th and 9th. He would not have let Guthrie go another turn (which is what ultimately cost KC).


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I actually believe we lost the 2014 World Series in Game 4. Imagine if Tito had been managing for us in that game? He would have pulled Vargas the instant he started struggling in the fifth and instead of fooling around with Finnegan, he would have gone straight for the kill with Kelvin.

Ned's reluctance to go to borgs in Game 4 (since he wanted to save them for a potential Game 5), ended up costing us the series. If he had gone for the kill, we likely would have tied up the series in Game 6 and Bumgarner wouldn't even have had a chance to bury us in Game 7.

I hope you're right about Bauer. I think the Indians can definitely take the Jays, I don't like the potential of the Jays having multiple games to adjust to Bauer and Tomlin, but as you said, if there's any manager who can guide them through that series, it's Tito.

In baseball history, only 4 NL Rookie of Year winners have gone on to win an MVP!?

I would have thought that number was higher... no?

I hope the Cubs kick Smardjiza's ass


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Love me some Zobrist, but playing him in Left is less than ideal, and it showed in game 1. Cubs lucked out that some of his deficiencies out there didn't cost them.

It definitely reminded me to appreciate the luxury of Gordo we've had there.