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CONTENTS

Cleveland Indians Preview................................................pg.2

Cleveland Indians Schedule .............................................pg.5

Cleveland Indians Promotional Schedule .......................pg.6

Lake Erie Crushers Schedule ..........................................pg.10

Columbus Clippers Schedule .........................................pg.11

Toledo Mud Hens Schedule.............................................pg.12

Detroit Tigers Schedule ...................................................pg.13

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Schedule .............................pg.15

NASCAR Sprint Cup Drivers ...........................................pg.16

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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 Slugger

Award 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 huntinto 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 can

play 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 goout 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 extensionthis offseason.

On the position player side,

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Cleveland Indians2016 season preview

Rajai Davis

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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 ayear 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. Advanced

metrics lookedfavorably uponhis season, ashe finished withthe eight-high-est Wins AboveReplacementamong MLBpitchers. Heeven finishedninth in AL CyYoung voting,despite that 9-16 record.

Carrasco fol-lowed his strongend to 2014with a breakout2015 season,winning a team-high 14 gamesand striking out216 – ninthmost in theMajors. Carrascoon two occasions nearly no-hithis opponent: On July 1, hecame within a strike of no-hit-ting the Rays, but Joey Butlerbroke it up with two out in theninth. In September, Carrascostruck out a career-high 15batters and one-hit the KansasCity Royals.

Salazar – at age 25 – alsobroke out, winning 14 games

to 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 Pitcherof 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-cona said. “If we trade one,how do you get one back? It’s

too 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 45

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Corey Kluber

Michael Brantley

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or 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 home

run 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 inGoodyear, 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.

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Yan Gomes

Jason Kipnis

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