After last night’s loss sent the Indians even deeper into the American League Central basement, I started to wonder why this team might be having such trouble. I decided that it must be due to the weird start times, especially those 6:10 home games, which is the sole reason for last night’s loss. Shockingly, the data actually back me up on this one, although none of the numbers are pretty when a team is as bad as the 2015 Indians. In my opinion, baseball games should start at either 1:05ish or 7:05ish local time. Any start time aside from those is done as a gimmick for national television, the fans, or both. And since baseball is a game of superstitions, this theory makes complete sense.
Through 31 games, the Indians are 10-21. Of those games, ten have started at atypical times. The Indians’ circadian rhythms must be off, as they are 2-8. In games that start just after 1 PM or 7 PM local time, the Indians are 9-12. Though 9-12 amounts for a .429 winning percentage, it is over 200% higher than the .200 “earned” in the abnormal start time games. Not to mention attendance still stinks, which was the whole reason for the switch. There are people getting paid a lot more than me to try and figure out the on-field issues, but since everyone wants to think they have the answers, I came up with a few not-so-serious theories.
For the start time issue, the theory I have is that Terry Francona likes to take 90-minute naps every day at 4 PM local time. With a 1:05 start time, this happens right after the game ends, while a 7:05 start means that he will be up and ready for first pitch. This also means that Tito sleeps right through 4:05 games and he is still out of it for those bizarre 6:10 starts. This puts the Indians at a disadvantage since Brad Mills has to take over and he can’t manage his way out of a paper bag.
I also have two theories about the season as a whole. First, in a display of true fielding excellence, every player aside from Michael Brantley and Jason Kipnis showed that they are unable to catch a popup, instead getting hit in the head and becoming secretly concussed. For various reasons, the concussion doesn’t affect Carlos Santana. Second, Nick Swisher saps the life out of his teammates in order to keep up his extremely happy and bro-heavy demeanor.
Just like the SI Cover Jinx, these are all real and legitimate theories based on hard data and evidence. They’re also as well-rounded as the wheels on Francona’s scooter. Take that, Ryan McCrystal!
– bottom third of the order is a black hole horrorshow. when 1/3 of your players have zero prayer of getting on base, that is a huge problem.
– related, jose ramirez has been extremely damaging with both the bat and the glove. he needs to go to AAA, stat. doesn’t even matter who he is replaced with, just get him off the major league roster. even before last night, he was killing us.
– inability to prevent 2 out hits and inability to get 2 out hits of our own. last night’s game was the perfect example
– brandon moss has played more like russell branyan than a competent ballplayer. again, last night was a great example. 3 k’s in huge RISP situations. i’m honestly starting to wonder how one can be a major league ballplayer with such a comically obvious hole in your swing. anything low and away might as well be a thimble fired from a cannon at 500 mph because moss is going to swing every time and has zero chance of hitting it.
Couldn’t agree more. Ramirez needs to come to Columbus. What a letdown from last year. This whole team is a complete train wreck right now.
I like when teams like the Cards come to town. I get to see that baseball is still a great game when played correctly/well. Spring training needs to change because these guys come back from Arizona in a funk.
Bottom line is we lack the talent to compete. Of your everyday players, only Brantley and kipnis are keepers. (And Gomes, when he comes back). Murphy and Rayburn should be the starters in the outfield with Brantley until they too crush under the weight of playing in Cleveland.
as much as i obviously want them to win, the problem isn’t even that – it’s that they’re playing unwatchable baseball: you know before the game starts they are going to repeatedly strikeout and/or swing at the first pitch in any meaningful game situations, you know there’s going to be at least 1 error and 2 “hits” that should have been classified as errors, and you know you’re going to have to sit through 7 pitching changes. the pitching change clownshow is tolerable when it’s working, but when it’s not, boy is it unpleasant to watch the final 3 innings getting constantly interrupted.
You forgot Santana, hitting well out of the second spot…
You are correct. He has been better. I just looked at his stats and he is ranked 10-15 among AL first baseman except walks, where is numero uno! I don’t know his avg with RISP, though. I think batting second is the right place for him.