Cleveland Indians Preview 

The Cleveland Indians decided several years back to rebuild their team with a young nucleus of players and it has paid off sooner than they might have expected with last season’s late run at the Chicago Whitesox as proof. They improved 12 wins in 2004 from the previous year and they improved another 13 wins last season to give them an impressive 93 victories in 2005. The Cleveland Indians are more responsible for the Chicago Whitesox World Series rings than most people know. Chicago was sliding down the stretch as they had been out in front for so long and they began to grow complacent. But a late surge front Cleveland made to Sox refocus and got them back to playing inspired baseball. Cleveland is hoping to be able to overtake the Whitesox in 2006, but I don’t think they quite have the starting pitching to get the job done.

One concern is that the Indians could reach a plateau this season after being the most improved team in baseball over the last 2 seasons. They lose pitchers Kevin Milwood and Scott Elarton who were a large part of a starting pitching staff which had the lowest E.R.A in the American League last summer. CC Sabathia is Cleveland’s ace, but he is more like an ace in the hole as he is yet to emerge into the dominant pitcher the Indians need. Bob Wickman is old faithful coming out of the bull pen to close down games but the rest of the relief staff is as unstable as walking on sand and will likely have trouble hanging on to leads.

With a young team you would expect them to play solid at home and struggle on the road, but last season’s Indians were just the opposite. They went 50-31 away from Cleveland and were just 43-38 at home losing backers 13 units. The same kind of road domination is unlikely although they should be a solid road team. However, I expect the to improve greatly at home and finish at least 10-15 games above .500 in Cleveland. It should be a profitable situation to look for good spots to take Cleveland on the road as an underdog when facing right handed pitching. They were not alone in the AL Central when it comes to having problems with left handed starters as the Whitesox also share this problem. If their home inconsistency continues, we may be able to find some value in going against Cleveland at home as a favorite when facing left handed pitching. It will be important to take a look at these trends in the early going before jumping right in on them as young teams can be sporadic and can take on a completely different complexion from the previous year, although I don’t see this happening.

To speak of how much the tribe struggled against lefties the past 2 seasons during their run to becoming the most improved team in baseball will shock you. They have won just 50 of 108 games against south paw starters the past 2 seasons in contrast to their 122-93 record versus righties.
 

2006 Baseball Previews

 

Baseball Picks by Jimmy Boyd