by Before this season started, looking at the roster my thought was this will be a long season, we traded Frankie & Cookie and let Santana walk, not only that, but the Central Division seemed to be on the rise and fast.
I looked at our roster and said we have one outfielder in Eddie Rosario, an MVP caliber third baseman in Jose Ramirez, a good 2nd baseman in Cesar Hernandez and catcher in Roberto Perez. With DH also being set with Franmil.
Sounds like a solid core but that leaves 2 gaping holes in the outfield and a big hole at first base with a question mark at short stop, because lets face it, no casual fan had ever heard of Amed Rosario or Andres Gimenez. But I was willing to see what they could do. With all that we knew our pitchers were in good shape, but you need to hit to win.
With all that said, come to today (I started writing this before Josh Naylor got hurt) we got a win in the play of Josh Naylor with Eddie Rosario underperforming in the outfield. First base was the disaster I had predicted. Thank the heavens they called up Bobby Bradley.
The Shortstops honestly have been a mess. Roberto Perez and Franmil have both been out most of the season and not one of our opening day starters are in the rotation with Bieber, Plesac, and Civalie all to most likely be out till after the All-Star Game.
All that said the Cleveland Indians are in second in the Central and 8 games over 500!
How you ask? There is only one answer to that, Terry Francona!
Since 2004 he has managed to the world series 3 times. With an unneeded(arguably) rain delay coming between him and a perfect record in those series.
He has led the Cleveland Indians to a record above 500 in each of his 8 seasons and is now leading this team that with no help from the ownership(lowest payroll in the league) to have season 9 also a winning season despite all the injury’s and lack of needed talent.
So this brings up the question, is he the greatest of all time?
