2005 Cleveland Indians Season Wrap-up - The Good Things

Well, it has been a day or so and I feel like I can at least speak at this point. It was hard to watch this team as the wheels came off in the past week, but it has been an amazing season for the Cleveland Indians regardless. They were awful early on in the season, and they came back and made it a race. So, without further ado, here are The Good Things from this baseball season for the Cleveland Indians.

• 300 - The Indians had 4 players either hitting or truly flirting with a .300 batting average this season. Victor Martinez, Travis Hafner, and Coco Crisp hit 300 or just over, and Grady Sizemore finished at 289. By contrast, Travis Hafner was the only player in 2004, who played in over 100 games who had a 300 average.
  
  
• Double digits home runs - The Indians had 9 players who had 10 or more home runs this season. The top was Travis Hafner with 33. Jhonny Peralta gets major props for his 24 as a shortstop and breaking the Indians homer record for a shortstop. As a team, the Tribe hit 207 homers. In 2004, they hit 184.
  
  
• The Emergence of Cliff Lee - It was nice to see one of our young pitchers come into his own. Cliff Lee had more than a few milestones this season. He went 18-5 with a 3.79 ERA which is great, but even more importantly, he made 32 starts and pitched 202 total innings.
  
  
• Wickman, The Cardiac Closer - Bob Wickman, despite making us all crazy with his style of closing games, had an amazing year. 45 saves and a 2.51 ERA. These are important stats. Not only did this year's Indians team get in a position to win games, they had a guy who could close the door. There is nothing worse than not being able to finish out a game. That can be one of the biggest momentum breakers in baseball, and it is a game of streaks.
  
  
• Team Pitching - The Indians finished the year at the tops of the AL in ERA with a team total of 3.61. It was the combination of solid starting pitching and a good bullpen. You can't put up numbers like this without getting luck along the way, as well. The Indians' luck came in the form of health this year. There weren't a ton of injuries on the pitching staff this year.

There are more things for sure, but those are the things that stuck out to me. Overall, I am happy that this team competed this year. I have been pretty understanding of the rebuilding that this team has been going through since losing Manny, Jim Thome and then trading Bartolo Colon and Roberto Alomar, but without results, that understanding would have withered away very quickly.

While finishing second in the division and the wild card standings isn't "acceptable" per se, it is a good start for a young team. And hopefully that is exactly what this is. A start.