Spring 2016 Forecast Magazine - WEOL Radio 930...

Spring 2016 Forecast Magazine 1

2 Spring 2016 Forecast Magazine

LORAIN COUNTY SOFTBALL PREVIEW ..............................pg.4

LORAIN COUNTY BASEBALL PREVIEW...............................pg.7

LAKE ERIE CRUSHERS

Andy “Bull” Barch New Ownership and New Leadership ...pg. 9

CLEVELAND INDIANS Preview ..........................................pg. 12

BASEBALL SCHEDULES

LAKE ERIE CRUSHERS .......................................................pg. 10

CLEVELAND INDIANS ........................................................pg. 15

WEOL BROADCAST SCHEDULES

KOLCZUN & KOLCZUN DIAMOND DUELS ........................pg. 3

FROM THE DUGOUT ..........................................................pg. 13

About the Cover: Marques Inman: Marques Inman of Elyria had an outstanding senior season in 2015

earning the honor of Lorain County Mr. Baseball . During his final season, the Pioneersfirst baseman was a headache for pitchers hitting an impressive .400 with 10 doubles, 3triples and a home run. Along with being named First-Team All-Ohio, Inman was alsohighly regarded throughout the county. Perfect Game, a national amateur baseballpublication, had high praise for the Elyria native and named him high honorable men-tion on their All-American Squad. While Inman’s future will very likely see him playingprofessional baseball, the former Pioneer will be suiting up for the West Virginia Moun-taineers in 2016.

Anna Edwards: In the circle or at the plate, Avon’s Anna Edwards was a force to bereckoned with in 2015. Many would claim it was the pitching that led the Avon hurler tothe Miss Lorain County Softball award, and with a record of 8-3 and a 1.41 ERA it wouldbe hard to argue against. However, as good as Edwards was in the circle she was just asdangerous to opposing teams when she stepped into the batter’s box. In her career withthe Eagles, Edwards held a batting average of .438 and drove in 100 runs. After leadingAvon to their first conference title in 39 years, Edwards went onto to become just thesecond Lorain County player to win both the Miss Softball award and the Lorain CountySenior Player of the Year Award.

WEOL FORECAST MAGAZINESPRING 2016 PREVIEWA Publication of AM 930 WEOL

Volume 17 Issue 3

Station ManagerTim Alcorn

EditorMatt Douglass

Feature WritersAndy BarchTim Grattan

Joel HammondTodd Shapiro

Cover DesignBozCorn Productions

PublisherDouthit Communications


Welcome Letter, Spring 2016Yes, we’ve had a relatively mild winter. Even so, there’s nothing like spring and sum-

mer, sitting back and enjoying a baseball (or softball) game whether it’s on the localsandlots or professional diamonds. As my co-host of the WEOL Morning Show, BruceVanDyke has said, baseball is the soundtrack of summer.

Welcome to the 2016 spring edition of FORECAST. Inside, you’ll find team sched-ules, our broadcast schedules and previews of your favorite teams.

WEOL AM 930 is proud to bring you Cleveland Indians baseball, select games of theLake Erie Crushers and a busy schedule of high school baseball and softball gamesfrom Lorain County.

Thanks to all of our terrific sponsors who make these games possible along with themanagers, coaches and players from the majors to the minors and high school ball-fields.

Play ball!

Craig R. AdamsOperations Manager/News DirectorWEOL AM 930


By Todd ShapiroThe 2015 softball season

ended like so many others inrecent memory, with a LorainCounty team playing in thestate tournament at Akron’sFirestone Stadium and on AM -930 WEOL With the amount oftalent returning to the localsandlots this spring it’s likelythe 2016 season will play outthe in the same manner.

Keystone made its 14thappearance in the state tour-nament last season, losing toHebron Lakewood, 4-0, in theDivision II state semifinals.With nine of its 10 startersreturning from last year’s teamthe Wildcats are a favorite tomake it back to Akron andcontend for its fourth statechampionship. How good is

Keystone? They enter the sea-son ranked No. 14 in the coun-try in the MaxPreps Top 100national softball rankings.

The Wildcats have six Divi-

sion I recruits on their roster,led by seniors Summer Consta-ble and Sammie Stefan, whobatted .535 and .517 respec-tively last year. Keystone alsoreturns junior pitcher LaurenShaw, a University of Iowarecruit, who went 20-6 lastyear. Senior Destiny Weber isthe fourth Big Ten recruit onthe Wildcats roster. Weber, asenior catcher, hit .458 last sea-son.

Stefan was also LorainCounty's home run leader lastyear with six in the regular sea-son.

Keystone also has a pair ofDivision I recruits — MadiCendrosky and Paige Hartley— who will be staying closer tohome and playing their collegesoftball at Cleveland State Uni-versity.

In coach Jim Piazza’s 14years at Keystone he has sent18 players on to play NCAADivision I softball.

Elyria Catholic was onegame away from Akron lastyear, losing the Division IIIregional final against WarrenChampion. The Panthers, whowill be competing in the newGreat Lakes Conference thisspring, also returns almost itsentire starting lineup from2015, led by junior Sam Filiaggiand senior Leigha Donaghue

who both hit over .400 last sea-son.

Elyria had its string of 10consecutive district champi-onships broken last year byWestlake with its pitching aceKatie Lew, a Cornell recruit;but the Pioneers will be loadedonce again in 2016, as theylook to return to the state tour-nament for the 12th time. ThePioneers, who are now mem-bers of the Greater ClevelandConference, will have seniorElizabeth Ellis, a 20-game win-ner each of the last two sea-sons, in the pitcher’s circle. TheElyria offense will be led byEllis, senior Carly Bachna andsophomore April Howser. Pio-neers coach Ken Fenik joinedan elite group of coaches with500 career wins last season.

Avon broke a 39-yeardrought last year by winningthe final West Shore Confer-ence championship. This yearthe Eagles will join Midviewand North Ridgeville in shiftingover to the Southwestern Con-ference, joining Amherst andAvon Lake.

Avon will have to replace2015 Miss Softball award win-ner Anna Edwards but theEagles only had two seniors onlast year’s roster and return apair of .400 hitters in AlexKozich and Tina Clark.

See SOFTBALL, 5

2016 Lorain County HighSchool softball preview

KRISTIN BAUER / CHRONICLE

Keystone Coach Jim Piazza.


The Amherst Comets willhave a potent offense led byUniversity of Connecticutrecruit Ashlee Dahman, wholed the team with a .441 aver-age last season. Amherst alsoreturns its top-two home runhitters juniors Sarah Miller andMadison Cruzado.

Midview will have one of thedeepest teams in SWC, if notthe entire area, with ninereturning letter winners, led bypitchers Lauren Landers whowent 12-6 last season and SaraLowman, who was 7-2 with ateam-leading 1.12 ERA. Scor-ing runs should not be a prob-lems for the Middies with fourhitters who batted over .400returning to the lineup thisspring. Senior center fielderMorgan Hamker's .545 battingaverage last year was the bestin Lorain County. Landers(.440), Gabby Shackelford(.424) and Hally Ivan (.403)were Midview's other .400 hit-ters.

North Ridgeville will be ayoung team this spring butcoming off of a winning seasonin its final year in the WSC theRangers bring a wealth of tal-ent into the SouthwesternConference. Junior Addison

Mease proved herself as one ofthe area’s elite hitters last yearbatting .529. If the Rangers canget consistent pitching theyfind themselves competing inthe upper tier of the SWC.

The Avon Lake Shoregalswere a young team that experi-enced some growing pains in2015 but they had one of thearea’s top home run hitter injunior Sarah Scott and a fresh-man pitcher Lexi Andersonwho was among the top-10 instrikeouts.

The Patriot Athletic Confer-ence Stars Division has beenKeystone’s private playgroundsince the league was foundedin 2005 but the Wildcats are farfrom the only talented pro-gram in the Stars Division.

Wellington has the rare one-two combination of four-yearletter winners at pitcher andcatcher in Olivia Bradstock, an11-game winner last season,who will be throwing to Mor-gan Tandarich, who also hitthree home runs last season.

Firelands also brings back aveteran catcher in Alex Willis,who was Lorain County’s regu-lar season stolen base leaderlast year. While over at Brook-side a star was born last seasonas Summer Metcalf burst uponthe scene with three homeruns and 22 RBIs.

Black River returns its lead-ing hitter Madison Combs,who hit .428 last year and apair of veteran pitchers in Bai-ley Scheck and Hannah Barco,whose 123 strikeouts werethird highest in the county inthe regular season.

Over in the Stripes DivisionColumbia has won the lastthree conference titles.

The Columbia Raiders will

rely on the hitting of BrookeWhite, who batted .382 lastseason and the pitching of Alli-son Bouscher, who went 9-1 asa freshman with 65 strikeoutsin 59 innings.

Oberlin expects its strengthto be in the pitchers circlewhere senior Arianna Ambro-sio and freshman BryannaRivas will share time. ThePhoenix also return a pair ofsenior outfielders –JaynaMitchell and Rhiannon McKee— and junior power hittinginfielder Makenzie Tallman.

Clearview struggled last sea-son but expects to be muchimproved in 2016. Clipperscoach Denny Myers hopes thatan influx of new talent com-bined with a veteran seniorclass will give his team achance to make a run at itsfirst league title since 2012.

Vermilion is a team withouta conference this season. Lastyear the Sailors were part ofthe now defunct West ShoreConference and next year theyturn their gaze to the west andjoin the Sandusky Bay Confer-ence but for now first-yearcoach Lisa Hoffman is left toplay an independent schedule.

The good news for Vermilion isthat they return both of theirpitchers — Savannah Hitlanand Becca Oates — from lastseason and infielder CarleySkettle, who was second on theteam with a .337 batting aver-age.

Veteran coach Pam Jacksonwill have her Lorain Titans incontention to compete for theLake Erie League title.

Open Door ChristianSchool, is Lorain County’s onlyother independent team. ThePatriots will have their thirdcoach in as many season in2016 as Bill Dunston will beleading a team hoping to makea run in the Division IV tour-nament.

The best place to see all ofthe top local talent will onceagain be the Prebis MemorialClassic. This year’s Classic willbe played on April 29-30 atLaGrange Community Parkand Wellington RecreationPark. In addition to hosts Key-stone and Wellington, LorainCounty teams in the Prebis willinclude Elyria, Avon, Amherst,Midview and Columbia. Over-all 59 games are scheduledover the two day event and AM- 930 WEOL will be on hand tobroadcast from the event onApril 30.

Very few counties, especiallythose in a northern climate,can match the bounty of talentthat is on display annually inLorain County. So free up anafternoon this spring to checkout your favorite team andwatch some of the best softballon display anywhere in theUnited States.

SOFTBALLFrom 4


Black River’s MadisonCombs


Anna Edwards

By: Tim Grattan Twitter: @Tim_Grattan77The competitive Southwest-

ern Conference features one ofthe area’s top teams inAmherst, which is coming offan 18-11 season, second placefinish in the league and districtrunner-ups to St. Edward lastseason. Coach Matt Rositanowill have an extremely talentedand deep pitching staff. Lead-ing the Comets pitching staffwill be two first team All-Lorain County pitchers EvanShawver (5-2 last season, 1.23ERA) and Casey McConihe (2-2last season, 4.97 ERA). NotreDame College commit NickDeJesus will also be in theComets rotation. McConihe(.347 batting average, 13 RBIs,six doubles) will also look tolead the Comets on offense,including senior Joe Mastersand junior Mark Harris.

Avon Lake is coming off a10-16 season, where they lostto North Olmsted in the Divi-sion I sectional semifinal last

year. Coach Kevin Marlow lostJeremiah Campo (Walsh Uni-versity) and Garrett Kordish(Notre Dame College) to grad-uation, but the Shoremen willhave a veteran pitching staffcoming back. Mitch Sorensen,James O’Connor and HoldenOhm are all back for their sen-ior year and will look to leadthe Shoremen in the new SWCthis season.

There are new kids on theblock in the SWC, includingthe final West Shore Confer-ence champions Avon. FrankDeSmit led the Eagles to a 23-6

record and ninth in the finalCoaches Poll in Division I.

North Ridgeville looks toimprove on a 6-21 record intheir first season in the SWC.Coach Matt Ponting will lookto lean on his seniors JamesQualls and Seth Anderson toproduce on offense this sea-son. Senior left-hander NickSalvatore will look to be theace of the staff for the Rangersfollowed by junior right-han-der Chris Machovina andAnderson.

Midview will be entering anew era with new managerTodd Ratica. Ratica will be tak-ing over for Scott Jalowiec, whowill be looking to compete inthe new SWC. Ratica will belooking to lean on senior right-hander Brett Kopronica (3-3record, 1.52 ERA) and seniorDylan Brister (2-4 record, 2.51ERA) to lead the Middies pitch-ing staff. Gavin Taulbee willlead the Middies on offense ashe batted .400 last season.

After coming off a secondrecord 22 wins, Don Ransomreturns for this second seasonwith Firelands. Ransom led theFalcons to a share of thePatriot Athletic ConferenceStars Division title last seasonand a sectional championship.Coastal Carolina commit, firstteam All-PAC and lefty TrevorDamron (5-1 record, 1.23 ERA,five saves, 73 strikeouts) will be

the ace of the Falcons this sea-son. Junior Nathan Kovach(.309 batting average) had twotriples and drove in 15 runs forthe Falcons last year.

Keystone is coming off an18-8 season and shared thePAC Stars Division title. CoachBert Fitzgerald is back for hisfourth season with the Wild-cats and is bringing back anexperienced roster with tal-ented players. The Wildcats didlose the PAC and LorainCounty (Division II) Player ofthe Year in Aaron Brodnik (8-0record), but juniors DrewCompton and Turner Camp-bell will look to fill Brodnik’sshoes on the mound. PJ Prunty(.355 batting average) and ClayTodd (.324 batting average) will


See BASEBALL, 8

2016 Lorain County HighSchool baseball preview

Aaron Brodnik


look to lead the Wildcats onoffense.

Wellington finished with anunder .500 record (13-17) lastseason, but got hot in the post-season and fell to Akron Man-chester in the Division III Cop-ley District finals last season.First team All-PAC and All-Lorain County member Trist-ian Arno is back to help leadRoger Sasack’s Dukes. Arno(.327 batting average) led theDukes with 11 doubles anddrove in 29 RBIs. Sam Ech-stenkamper (.385 batting aver-age) will be back as catcher forthe Dukes after missing halfthe season last year due to aninjury.

Brad Bomback is back for hisfifth season at Brookside, asthe Cardinals finished third inthe PAC Stars last season. Afterleading the PAC in homerunsand his team in wins on themound, Dudley Taw returnsfor his senior season. SeniorBrad Hughes and junior TimAckerman will look to be pro-ductive for the Cardinals thisseason.

Columbia is coming off the2015 with an under .500 record(11-13), but won the PatriotAthletic Conference StripesDivision for the fourth year ina row. Bluffton commit andsenior Sam Krizek will look tolead the Raiders on offense. Hehad a team-high 31 hits anddrove in 17 runs in 2015. Firstteam All-PAC and All-CountyCody Reichard will be the aceof coach Justin Ramsey’s pitch-ing staff. Reichard was 5-2 lastyear with a 1.62 ERA and

struck out 34 batters. One of the best players in

Lorain County is back wearingthe Clearview Clipper uniformfor his senior season and hisname is Antonio Bennett. TheToledo commit Bennett (.506batting average) was a firstteam All-PAC and All-LorainCounty member as he had 10doubles, 20 RBIs and stole 35bases for the Clippers (10-7).Bennett has 67 stolen bases inhis career and has been caughtonly twice. Mason Sedivy (4-3record, 1.33 ERA) will look tocontinue his first team All-PACconference dominance on themound for the DennisPihlbald’s Clippers team in2016.

Oberlin finished in last placein the PAC Stripes with a 3-13conference record. Coach LynnGray looks to have animproved Phoenix team withCJ Ramsey and Sam Wilsonreturning for their senior sea-son.

Elyria Catholic will be play-ing in the new Great LakesConference this season afterthe West Shore Conference wasdisbanded. Nebraska commitand junior Andrew Abra-hanowcz and senior Sean Dar-mafall (Division III All-Ohiooutfield) will look to lead BruceLisicky club who won 23games last season.

Ed Piazza is back as coachfor Elyria, who is also enteringa new league in the GreaterCleveland Conference. ThePioneers went 12-15 last sea-son in the old Northeast OhioConference and will look to

replace last year’s Mr. BaseballMarques Inman (West Virginia)and Zach Minney (LorainCounty Community College).

Lorain High will be lookingto take the Lake Erie Leaguetitle after falling to Euclid (wholeft for the Greater ClevelandConference) for the thirdstraight season and improveon a 16-8 record last season.Coach Brad Ternes will bereturning some big hitters inthe lineup. Senior BrandonBartlome (.464 batting aver-age) stole a team-high 22 basesand had 32 hits. Ternes willalso be leaning on seniorAnthony Saegert and seniorSergio Soto to lead the pitchingstaff this season. AlejandroOrtiz is ranked third in hisclass with a 3.77 unweightedGRA and a 4.34 weighted.

Vermilion will be an inde-pendent for the 2016 seasonand will be joining the brandnew Sandusky Bay Conferencein 2017. Jeff Keck is back for his15th season with the Sailorsand went 20-9 overall and 8-6

in their final season of theWSC. Keck will have an experi-enced team with nine return-ing letterman from the 2015season. Lake Erie College com-mit Caleb Waller (.302 battingaverage, 3.32 ERA) looks tolead the Sailors at the plateand on the mound as theteams closer.

Matt Loescher returns forhis 15th years as manager atOpen Door looking to improveon a 2015 that saw the Patriotsgo 15-7 on the year. Tyler Haas(.531 batting average) will notplaying his senior season dueto an off-season injury. Firstteam All-Lorain County mem-ber Dustin Hackney (.430 bat-ting average) will lead thePatriots on the field as hedrove in 18 runs and stole 20bases.

Lake Ridge’s Jason Dimac-chia is entering his fourth sea-son at the manger for the Roy-als. Junior Collin Harris willlead the Royals’ offense. Seniorright-hand pitcher Niko Ortizwill be expected to lead the

BASEBALLFrom 7

By: Andy “Bull” BarchThe last few years, we’ve

taken this space to clue you inon who will be returning to theCrushers, and what to expectfrom some of the new playersthat will be invited to camp inearly May. This year, we’re tak-ing a different approach, as Isit down and conduct a Q andA session with the new ownerof the Lake Erie Crushers, TomKramig.

Last year was a down yearfor the Crushers on the field, asthey finished the season with arecord of 38-57, the worst intheir seven years of existence.

However, as you’ll read downbelow in my Q and A with Tom,there are plenty of reasons tobelieve that the product will bemuch better on the field in2016. Tom’s arrival, along witha new front office, will offer asense of renewed enthusiasm,as the Crushers look to turnthings around both on and offthe field under new ownership.

AB: Andy Barch TK: TomKramig

AB: You arrived a little lessthan six months ago to takeover as the President of theLake Erie Crushers. Duringthat stretch, how have the

Crushers changed? TK: The first task we faced

was rebuilding the front officestaff. There has been tremen-dous turnover in the frontoffice over the past few yearsand stabilizing and re-buildingthat team was absolutely jobnumber one. We have morethan doubled this group sincethe first of the year, and triedto bring in folks with profes-sional sports experience. Weare really excited about thenew team we have assembledand feel like they will beextremely helpful in buildingthe fan-friendly environmentwe are hoping to create.

AB: For those that are notfamiliar with the entire processof purchasing a team, take usthrough a timeline of theevents that occurred leadingup to you acquiring the Crush-ers.

TK: The process started latein 2014. We looked at severaldifferent opportunities in sev-eral different leagues includingthe Atlantic League, the FloridaState league and even someother Frontier League fran-chises. Avon, Ohio was by farthe most attractive of these,

and with my wife Jacquelineand I both being from Ohio,coming back to the BuckeyeState was a huge factor. Westarted talks with the formerowner in June and visited theballpark and area several timeslast summer. The opportunityhere was obvious from thestart and negotiations startedin the late summer and fall.We signed a purchase agree-ment and corresponding man-agement agreement in earlyOctober and took over day today operations the 2nd week ofOctober. The intention fromthe start has been to purchasethe team, but the process wasslowed, waiting for the State ofOhio to transfer the liquorlicense. Once that process wasfinalized in late January, wewere able to close the deal andtake full ownership.


Lake Erie Crushers:

New ownership and new leadershipgive Crushers new hope

Submitted photos

Tom Kramig

See CRUSHERS, 11


AB: What kind of plans doyou have for the immediatefuture for the Crushers (overthe next 6-12 months), and forthe long term future of theCrushers?

TK: Minor league baseball isall about the fan experience, soimproving that is our top pri-ority now that the staff hasbeen re-built. Customer serv-ice has suffered here over thepast couple of years, so there isa big emphasis on making surethe fans have a great timewhen they come out to watchus play. We’re looking atupgrading several areasincluding painting the ball-park, improving concessions,upgrading the Kid’s Zone,adding an awning and bar tothe picnic plaza as well asupgrading the luxury suites. Ithink fans will find a wholenew attitude in the staff, andquite honestly the team alsohas to be better. There’s noquestion Chris Mongiardo canwin in this league if he is pro-vided the right resources,which we think we are doing.We want to win on the field,with the fans, and in the com-munity…next year and foryears to come.

AB: Everyone has theirfavorite baseball story, what isyours?

TK: Growing up in Cincin-nati in the 70’s era of the BigRed Machine, I got to see a lotof great baseball moments,such as Henry Aaron hitting714 on opening day in 1974. Iwas fortunate enough toattend several of the 1970,1972, 1975 and 1976 WorldSeries games. And though thismay be painful to Indians fans,the 1970 All-Star game whenPete Rose ran over Ray Fosse. Itwas a great time and place tobe a young baseball fan. Peo-ple ask if it was always mydream to own a team…wellactually my dream as a kid wasto “play” in the major leaguesbut that ended when I got cutfrom my high school team.

Still, owning the Crushers is apretty awesome experienceand we couldn’t be happier tobe in northern Ohio.

AB: What are some of thethings that immediately stoodout to you when you arrivedhere in Avon?

TK: The growth in Avonjumped out at us immediately.There are lots of exciting thingsgoing on in this communitywith Cabela’s, Meijer andMenard’s all moving in. Theother factor that really excitedus was the passion of Cleve-land area sports fans. The fansin this area really support theirsports teams and we havealready found great support forthe Crushers. The communityhas been incredibly welcomingand supportive of our efforts tobuy the team, and we haveheard over and over how muchthey want the franchise to suc-ceed. If you provide fans innortheast Ohio a strong prod-uct, we have no doubt they willsupport you.

AB: From a fan’s perspective,how do you plan to improvethe overall value of the productover the next two seasons?

TK: Well first and foremostwe want to put a winning teamon the field. That starts withgiving “Mong” total control ofthe roster, line-up, and coach-ing staff, which we have done.We also want to improve everyaspect of the fan experience,from our new website, to whatthey find at the ballpark. Betterand more varied food optionsare big, and our new Food &Beverage Director has a lot ofgreat ideas. The previouslymentioned upgrades to theKid’s Zone, 3rd base picnicplaza and luxury suites are also

high priorities. Down the roadwe would like to add a videoboard but that may be a yearor two away. We are definitelylooking at this as a long-terminvestment.

The Crushers will begin the2016 season at home againstthe River City Rascals onThursday, May 12. The firstpitch at All Pro Freight Sta-dium is scheduled for 7:05 PM.For more information on the2016 season, please visit theCrushers’ website, atwww.lakeeriecrushers.com.

CRUSHERSFrom 9


By: Joel Hammond The Cleveland Indians fell

short of the club’s own andfans’ expectations in 2015.Then-General Manager ChrisAntonetti told reporters theday after the season ended thatthe fact he was sitting there,speaking with media, meansthe organization was disap-pointed.

But despite falling short,there are plenty of reasons foroptimism: The team boastsone of the best – if not the best– rotations in baseball, at atime when starters are com-manding massive contracts onthe free agent market.

Jason Kipnis and MichaelBrantley are perennial All-Starcandidates. They are joined byan again-healthy Yan Gomes –who won the Silver SluggerAward in 2014 as the AmericanLeague’s best-hitting catcher –and Francisco Lindor, whotook the league by storm lastyear in finishing as the runner-up in the AL Rookie of the Yearballoting.

Add to that core supportingcast members such as MikeNapoli, Rajai Davis and JuanUribe, and the Indians againfigure to be in the postseasonrace. After finishing 92-70 in2013 and playing in the ALWild Card game, the Tribe hasbeen in the Wild Card hunt

into the final weekend of eachof the last two seasons beforefalling just short.

This offseason, respectedadvanced statistics site Fan-Graphs has projected the Indi-ans with the best chance towin the American League Cen-tral and with the fifth-bestchance among all MLB teamsto win the World Series.

“We’ve shown that when weplay good baseball, we canplay with anyone. When wedon’t, we get beat,” said man-ager Terry Francona, now inhis fourth season at the helm.“It’s our responsibility to go

out and see how often and howconsistently we can play goodbaseball.”

The Indians are in positionto contend for postseasonspots and more for years tocome. Much of the core that’spushed the club to three con-secutive seasons is in place formany more seasons: Rotationmembers Corey Kluber, CarlosCarrasco, Danny Salazar, CodyAnderson and Trevor Bauer areunder club control through2020, while Josh Tomlin signeda two-year contract extension

See INDIANS, 13

Cleveland Indians2016 season preview

Rajai Davis

this offseason.On the position player side,

Kipnis, Gomes and Lindor areunder club control through atleast 2019, with Brantley herethrough 2018.

The team’s strength againwill be pitching, as the Indiansfollowed up a league-record1,450 strikeouts in 2014 with1,407 more last year. Fourpitchers struck out 170 ormore batters, only the thirdtime that’s happened in themodern era.

“I have the privilege ofcatching a staff that everyonetalks about,” Gomes said inSpring Training. “For me it’s,let’s not mess this up. It’s ayoung group. We all came uptogether, they’ve developedtremendously. It’s a lot of funseeing the recognition every-one is getting. Everyone’s a

year older, and I believe wehave the best staff in the majorleagues.”

Though traditional statisticsdon’t reflect it, Kluber followedup his 2014 Cy Young Awardwith an equally impressive2015. He went 9-16, but suf-fered from poor run support inmany of his starts. Advancedmetrics looked favorably uponhis season, as he finished withthe eight-highest Wins AboveReplacement among MLBpitchers. He even finishedninth in AL Cy Young voting,despite that 9-16 record.

Carrasco followed his strongend to 2014 with a breakout2015 season, winning a team-high 14 games and striking out216 – ninth most in the Majors.Carrasco on two occasionsnearly no-hit his opponent: OnJuly 1, he came within a strikeof no-hitting the Rays, but JoeyButler broke it up with two outin the ninth. In September,Carrasco struck out a career-

high 15 batters and one-hit theKansas City Royals.

Salazar – at age 25 – alsobroke out, winning 14 gamesto tie with Carrasco for theteam lead. He also struck out195 batters, 19th in the Majors,and was 12th in the bigs instrikeouts per nine innings.

Bauer, at age 24, won 11games and struck out 170 bat-ters in 176 innings, while Tom-lin and Anderson solidified theback end of the rotation:Anderson won the AL Pitcher

of the Month Award in Sep-tember, going 5-0 with a 1.38ERA, while Tomlin went 7-2with a 3.05 ERA in 10 startsafter returning from shouldersurgery.

In the bullpen, Cody Allensaved 34 games, struck out 99in 69 innings and had thehighest WAR among relieversin baseball (per FanGraphs).

“You saw what some pitch-ers were getting in free agencyand the cost in trades,” Fran-


INDIANSFrom 12

See INDIANS, 14

Corey Kluber


cona said. “If we trade one,how do you get one back? It’stoo hard. We never felt thatsomeone would give us whatwe asked – they would havehad to bowl us over.”

The Indians must generatemore offense, though, espe-cially with Brantley recoveringfrom right shoulder surgery.While the timetable for hisreturn still is uncertain, reportsfrom Arizona have been posi-tive, with Terry Francona peg-ging Brantley ahead of theoriginal return estimate of lateApril or early May.

That will be key, as Brantley– despite various nagginginjuries throughout the season– led the team with a .310 aver-age, which was fourth in theAmerican League. He also had45 doubles – leading the AL –and became only the fourthplayer in Indians history tohave consecutive seasons of 45or more doubles. (He also had45 in 2014.)

“I’m doing great – I’m mak-ing progress each and everyday. I’m excited where I am,”said Brantley, who spent alarge chunk of time in Cleve-land this offseason while herehabbed, not his nativeFlorida as he usually does.

“This offseason has been alittle different, because I loveto hit in the offseason. But, it’sa game of adjustments. I needto take my time, ease into myswing and get it ready to go. It’sbeen different in Cleveland inthe winter – I had to drivecarefully in the snow.”

The Indians lack a true bop-per in the truest sense of theword, but the game haschanged and those playershave become more scarce –and the reliance on the homerun has lessened. To wit: TheWorld Series champion KansasCity Royals hit fewer homeruns than the Indians did in2015.

More importantly, the Indi-ans also have a solid core ofposition players that the clubhas supplemented this offsea-son. In addition to Brantley,

Kipnis is now a two-time All-Star after a career year in 2015.That included an historic May,a month when Kipnis hit astaggering .429 with 51 hits.For the season, he led all ALsecond basemen in average,on-base percentage, sluggingpercentage and OPS; he led ALleadoff hitters with a .385 OBPand ranked behind onlyMichael Brantley in doubles,with 43.

Meanwhile, Lindor not onlywas one of the best AL rookieslast year, but one of the bestplayers in the bigs in the sea-son’s second half. His .345 sec-ond-half average was secondin the majors behind JoeyVotto, while his 99 hits werethird behind Jose Altuve andXander Bogaerts – and werefourth-highest in Indians his-tory. He was just the ninth ALrookie 21 or younger since1994 with 100 hits, 10 homersand 110 steals in a season,joining the likes of Mike Trout,Bryce Harper and more.

“It has impressed me theway my teammates have beenworking,” Lindor said in

Goodyear, of watching histeammates’ habits. “I alwaysthought I worked hard. Seeingthe guys work as hard as theydo, day in and day out, itshowed me – if they’re doing it,I’d better do it. They’re doing itat a great level and they’re suc-cessful – if I want to get to thatlevel, I need to incorporatethose things.”

Add in Gomes – who wonthat 2014 Silver Slugger butwas behind schedule after hisfirst-weekend injury last year –and Napoli, Davis and Uribe,and the Tribe should be betteragainst left-handed pitching, aweakness the last few years. Inaddition to their veteran lead-ership, Napoli, Davis and Uribehave been productive hittersagainst lefties.

“These are guys who aregood pieces, good teammates,”Brantley said.

That trio also will help theIndians defense, which actu-ally ranked second in theleague after Lindor and Gio-vanny Urshela were insertedon the left side of the infield.Napoli, Davis and Uribe eachrank as plus defenders at theirpositions, with Uribe rankingfirst among MLB third base-men since 2011 in fielding per-centage.

INDIANSFrom 13

Yan Gomes

Michael Brantley

Jason Kipnis

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