Pretenders

The day after the trade deadline, Brian Cashman said this about the Yankees:

After peaking at 56-52 last week, the Yankees dropped back to .500 with four straight losses, including a three-game weekend sweep by last-place Tampa Bay.

“A true playoff contender, you know, not a playoff pretender, wouldn’t do that,” general manager Brian Cashman said bluntly before the Yankees’ 6-5, 10-inning win at the Mets in the Subway Series opener.

At the time, I thought this was both false and brilliant. Good teams get swept by bad teams all the time. Three games here or there were meaningless. The Yankees were an old, mediocre team that needed to be rebuilt, and a winning or losing three games to Tampa Bay would not change that. It was brilliant, however, as it was the sort of statement that could light a fire under a team, and the Yankees have won two of three since.

Which brings us to the Cleveland Indians, who just lost three in a row to the really lowly Minnesota Twins. The Indians didn’t just lose to the worst team in the American League, they are being pummeled, outscored 35-16, the Twins scored at least ten runs in all three games. Today’s match-up of Hector Santiago, newly acquired by the Twins against rookie Mike Clevinger seems to favor Minnesota as well? By Cashman’s statement, the Indians are pretenders as well.

We know that’s not true. The Indians are having a bad series. A veteran, Joe Mauer, found his power stroke, and a rookie, Max Kepler, unleashed a barrage of home runs. Everyone else on the Twins offense seemed to follow suit.

So are the Indians pretenders? They do play in Ohio.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2aklhCq