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While yesterday was Opening Day for the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals, the rest of the MLB is getting their season started today. Clearly, many hosting stadiums hope to avoid the full-scale bathroom chaos Wrigley Field put its patrons through last night.
Unfinished stadium jokes aside, today is the start of a season filled with increased expectations for the Cleveland Indians. The team takes the field against the Houston Astros with the top half of their rotation recently re-signed, key players hoping for bounce-back years, and others hoping to build off a solid 2014 season.
Oh, and Sports Illustrated picked them to win the World Series. We can’t forget that little nugget.
As many Cleveland fans reminded themselves when seeing their favorite baseball team on the cover of SI, such an occurrence has happened before. The 1987 Indians were the publication’s pick to win the World Series that season, with Joe Carter and Cory Snyder gracing the cover. Of course, instead of winning it all, said Tribe team lost more games than any other club in the league.
So, with Michael Brantley and the newly re-signed Corey Kluber featured on this year’s cover, many fans began wondering if this Cleveland team could indeed win themselves a World Series ring at the end of this season. However, while the Tribe definitely has the potential to win it all this year, it needs to be said that a lot of things need to go their way in order to fulfill this prediction.
First of all, their starting pitching needs to live up to the hype it has been receiving. Obviously, it seems odd to say such a thing about Kluber, who is likely still polishing off his 2014 Cy Young Award. That said, much of the Tribe’s success will hinge on whether or not their ace can build off his performance from last season.
At the same time, the real wild cards are Carlos Carrasco and Trevor Bauer.
The former reportedly joined Kluber in receiving an extension of his own yesterday, thanks in part to his phenomenal second half of the 2014 season. However, Carrasco has been hot and cold during much of his time in Cleveland. He’s never looked better than he did after last year’s All Star break, but he’s certainly looked a lot worse. If Carrasco can continue to dominate the mound as he did late last season, Cleveland will reap the benefits. But, if he falls back to the struggles which have plagued him in years past, it won’t make the Tribe’s road any easier.
As for Bauer, the 24-year-old continues to be an enigma. There are games where he looks unhittable, and other nights where it appears someone hid the strike zone from him. Bauer has been notorious for his apprehension to receiving criticism, but his success in the majors is dependent on whether or not he can loosen up and take critique.
Along with the Indians’ top three starters, the team also needs to badly rebound from the heinous display of fielding they put forth in 2014.
The Tribe collected errors aplenty last year, which had a big hand in their missing the postseason. Things got a little better when Carlos Santana was moved to first base and struggling shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera was traded, but a ton of damage was done to the team’s hopes early last season thanks to the amount of unearned runs they gave up. If they want to get back to the playoffs, the Indians better improve their defense significantly.
Offensively, it’s lofty to assume Brantley can put forth the same numbers which earned him an MVP nomination last year. I’m not saying he should expect a rough year, just simply noting his 2014 season was remarkable, and expecting him to continue this on a yearly basis is setting hopes too high.
Second baseman Jason Kipnis definitely hopes to rebound from an ugly season last year, one which was plagued with plenty of injuries. New acquisition Brandon Moss will need to be the big bat the team has desperately craved for years, while also ensuring his recent hip surgery has no lasting effects. Though it’s unlikely Nick Swisher will be able to earn his $15 million price tag this season, Cleveland badly needs him to contribute. Recovering from surgeries on both knees won’t make said task an easy one.
Can the Indians win the World Series this year? Sure. The landscape is as open as ever, with plenty of teams having a legit shot to win it all.
However, if the Tribe indeed wants to live up to the contender label which was given to them this offseason, they’ll need more than a few things to go well for them. Otherwise, the SI cover jinx talk will be the biggest topic of discussion in Cleveland this year.
Casey Drottar is a Cleveland Beat Writer for www.Rantsports.com. Follow him on Twitter or “Like” him on Facebook
