Streakin'

Puig & Santana; Two teams going in different directions

The current MLB season has been one of streaks, especially of late.

At one point, the Los Angeles Dodgers were on pace for 116 wins, as recent as August 19th with an impressive 87-34 (.719) record, looking like the team to beat for this year's upcoming World Series, it was theirs to lose. Around this time, baseball analysts and baseball fans like myself were starting to point out the same fact... that it was their season to lose.

Not sure if the Dodgers team started hearing these whispers, the label that has been placed upon them.. It quickly changed like a turn of the switch, the Baseball Gods suddenly turned on the Dodgers, they have lost 16 of 17 games between August 26th & September 11th, including a 11-game losing streak, the franchise's worst streak since the 1944 Brooklyn Dodgers.

They did finally win against the San Francisco Giants... barely though, and it took a great pitching performance by Clayton Kershaw (who has a great career pitching at Giants' AT&T Park) & their closer Kenley Jansen to close things out.

Meanwhile in the same N.L. West, the Arizona Diamondbacks put together a 13-game winning streak, which ended September 8th. The D-Backs were not exactly playing great prior to their excellent 15-1 stretch from August 21st through the 8th, they went 4-11 during a stretch between August 5th & August 20th. During their winning streak, their mid-season acquisition of J.D. Martinez became one of handful players in MLB history to hit 4 home runs in a single game on September 4th, against the struggling Dodgers, off 4 different pitchers.

Rattling Away: Martinez has been popping them out for Arizona.

J.D. has now hit 22 HR in 47 games with the Diamondbacks, collecting his 38th HR of the Major League season, and is looking for a big pay day this off-season, as he will likely be one of the biggest free agents to hit the market.

The Diamondbacks may also be one of the most under-appreciated teams in baseball, and could be a tough playoff hurdle to get past, as their rotation is consistently good 1-through-5, so that gives them plenty of options with match-ups.

Another team that matches up well for this upcoming postseason will be the Cleveland Indians, the best team in all of baseball. The tribe is solid all-around from top-to-bottom, and have put themselves in the record books yesterday, by tying the A.L. record of 20 consecutive wins; The record was previously by the 2002 Oakland Athletics (Moneyball).

The Indians will go for their 21st straight against the Detroit Tigers today, they put themselves in more interesting territory if they win their 21st today, joining the National League's 1935 Chicago Cubs at 21 straight. The Major League Baseball record of 26 consecutive wins belongs to the 1916 New York Giants.

None of the above with 20+ consecutive wins have ever won the World Series, the Indians are trying to become the first while they are trying to destroy another streak, a World Championship drought of 69 straight years in the making.

John McGraw piloted the Giants to 26 straight victories.

The 1916 New York Giants finished 4th place at 86-66. The Giants were slow out of the gates with a 2-13 record, but then would win 17 straight games, making them 19-13 on May 29th, 2016. Their MLB record 26 straight wins would not come until the tail end of the season. It's remarkable thinking they had two great winning streaks that totaled 43 victories, take those two streaks out of the equation and the Giants were horrible at 43-66. Their late momentum though (in 1916) was a great thing moving forward to the 1917 season, winning the National League pennant only to lose to the 1917 Chicago White Sox.

1935 Chicago Cubs'  lineup.

The 1935 Chicago Cubs were 38-32 on July 5th, and then would get hot by winning 24 of 27 games, which included a 11-game hitting streak in this stretch. Their 21 consecutive victories would come later in the season, just before the World Series, they would lose their last two games of the season, before losing the World Series to the 1935 Detroit Tigers, 4-2.

During the Indians' successful streak, there has been plenty of impressive numbers, I felt the biggest eye-opening stat was the fact that during this entire streak that has taken place 3+ weeks, is the fact that the Indians have only trailed a total of 4 innings... they have not trailed in 176 of their 180 innings.... that's insane!

More interesting stats of this streak....

• They have annihilated their competition, outscoring their opponents 134-32, giving them 102+ run differential, there is only 6 teams with a 100+ run differential for the entire MLB season.

• The Indians clobbered 39 home runs, while the pitching has only allowed 32 runs.

• Jose Ramirez has batted .383 with a .950 slugging percentage & .415 on-base percentage, including 8 home runs.

• Carlos Carrasco's 0.62 ERA with 34 strikeouts & one walk.

• Morning of August 25th: Los Angeles Dodgers (91-36), Cleveland Indians (72-56); Cleveland now 4 games behind Dodgers mark.

Jose Ramirez: Most undervalued player in all of baseball?

Jose Ramirez may be the most underrated player in all of baseball, he should get some serious consideration for the American League MVP Award, he has a .927 OPS, leads the league with 47 doubles, in which he is within reach of becoming the first player to hit 60 doubles in a single-season since Charlie Gehringer (Detroit Tigers) and Joe Medwick (St. Louis Cardinals) did it back in 1936... that's 81 years ago, folks.

In a single game, I watched Jose single-handily destroy my Detroit Tigers on September 3rd -- Going 5-for-5, with 3 doubles & 2 home runs, including 3 runs & 3 runs batted in. His 5.4 WAR & 135+ OPS is superior to his talented teammate Francisco Lindor (4.1 WAR & 112+ OPS), who has put together a fine season himself, becoming the third shortstop in Major League history to hit 30+ homers at 23 years or younger... the other two to do so? Alex Rodriguez and Nomar Garciapparra.

Another thing to note is that they have accomplished all of this without Andrew Miller, Jason Kipnis & Michael Brantley, who were all on the disabled list the entire time of the streak.

Terry Francona also deserves tons of respect, he's a certified winner, I cringed the day that Cleveland signed him to manage this ballclub (being division foes of the Tigers).. but he is one of the best managers in the game, he is well-on-his way towards enshrinement in the Hall of Fame, a World Championship for Cleveland would only further cement his place in the history of the game.

Francona will be enshrined in Cooperstown when its all said & done.

This MLB season has really been about the streaks, teams & players having polarizing splits. First it was the Houston Astros, then the Los Angeles Dodgers, now Cleveland. The Indians' season though wasn't all hunky dory, they started the season in sluggish limbo at 31-31 after a lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 14th.

Fortunately for Cleveland, they were in the weakest division in all of baseball, and had time to get their crap together -- They have gone 58-25 since, that's a .699 winning clip that would net a single-season's equivalent of 113 wins.

This team is that good, they are now the team to beat, I placed my chips on the Chicago Cubs last year prior to Spring Training & kept with my pick throughout the season. I am placing my chips now on the Indians, so to echo fictional character Jake Taylor (Tom Berenger in 'Major League' movie)'s words, I guess there is just one thing for the Cleveland Indians to do...

and that's to win the whole (damn) thing.