Indians defense in 2014 was terrible

We may not have Indians baseball until March, but at least we've still got Fridays. Right? Right?! Now where's my coffee? You wouldn't want to mess with me before my coffee! LOL!

Yesterday's baseball

A hot night of ALDS action produced a satisfying outcome for Tiger haters around the world. Meanwhile, the Royals captured a very Royals-y victory thanks to slick glove work from Nori Aoki and Mike Moustakas' 11th inning homer.

• Orioles' offense makes resounding statement in rout | MLB.com - Orioles 12, Tigers 3
• Moose's drive ends stalemate | MLB.com - Royals 3, Angels 2

Indians news & notes

The horrible, awful, no-good Indians defense | It's Pronounced 'Lajaway' - IPL uses DRS (Defensive Runs Saved) to take a sad look back at the 2014 Indians defense. They also argue that simply removing Asdrubal Cabrera is a positive for the defense in 2015.

The Tribe's comedy of errors | Did The Tribe Win Last Night? - While we're beating the dead horse of Tribe defense, DTTWLN** say the Indians were the worst in the league regardless of whether you're using traditional statistics or fancy SABR numbers. Bad is bad is bad. If "to err is human," then the Indians are more human than human.

**Editor's note: Check the comments here to see YoDaddyWags take apart some of the claims from the above article.

The AL Cy Young battle | Fangraphs - For once, it seems like the traditional stats actually show the real picture in the race between Corey Kluber and Felix Hernandez. Fangraphs (well, Tony Flengino at least) gives the edge to King Felix.

Around the league

The strengths and weaknesses of every playoff team | Fangraphs - This article does exactly what you'd expect from the headline. In short, all the teams have some players that are really good, but also some players that kinda suck.

Tigers-O's series rests on Verlander outing | Hardball Talk - Thanks to the fantastic bed pooping contest the Tigers bullpen held on Thursday, the Tigers must now count on a man who has been pooping the bed all season.

Royals still playing like it's 1985 | Sports on Earth - I'll let this passage speak for itself:

No one plays like this anymore! This has been proven -- and proven is the right word -- to be an inefficient way to run a baseball team. Even with home runs down from their insane early-aughts levels, there are still a ton more of them than there were in 1985, and why not? Home runs are great! Everybody loves home runs ... except the Royals.

Molitor favored for Twins manager job, but alphabet soup also in contention | CBS Sports - Has there ever been a bigger gap in player talent level between managerial candidates than there is between Paul Molitor and Doug Mientkiewicz.

Nats going with Strasburg for game 1 | CBS Sports - Erstwhile Washington phenom Steven Strasburg will get the call for Game 1 of tonight's Nationals vs. Giants ALDS game.

Eddie Vedder thinks Pete Rose should be in the Hall | Fox Sports - Going so far as to call it an "injustice," the legendary Pearl Jam lead singer makes his thoughts on Charlie Hustle known. You wanna talk about injustices? Let's talk about every Pearl Jam album after Yield.

Using tiny helmets to predict a World Series winner | CBS Sports - A nice little Friday diversion.