Wednesday October 3^rd, 2012

Sam Evans: With the 2012 season winding down, a lot of MLB teams can’t wait for the season to end. Houston, Chicago, Colorado, Minnesota, and Cleveland have been the five worst teams in baseball this season. While their seasons have all been disappointing and hard to watch, these teams will possess the most valuable picks in the 2013 Amateur draft. Here’s a look at how these teams have struggled and where they are projected to pick in the draft.

5. Cleveland Indians 68-93:

Baseball in Cleveland took a huge step back in 2012. Coming off of an 80-82 season, Cleveland was let down by an underperforming pitching staff. With Detroit and Chicago leading the AL Central, Cleveland was out of the pennant race for the better part of the year. The stretch that did them in was the month of August, in which Cleveland was 5-24.

Ubaldo Jimenez was one of the best starting pitchers in baseball just two years ago. Now, the Indians will be lucky if they can manage to get the performances of a #4 starter out of him. There have been many areas in which he has been less dominant than before but they all trace back to that his previous velocity and nasty stuff just aren’t there anymore.  Perhaps the problems with Ubaldo have to do with his age and the toll that throwing so many innings when he was younger took. Either way, by relying on Ubaldo Jimenez and his 5.40 ERA this season, the Indians weren’t putting themselves in a better place to contend. Read the rest of this entry →