Line-Ups Announced for World Series Game 1

Providing further evidence that the Indians, are in fact, in the World Series, they have just announced their starting squad for game one against the Cubs’ Jon Lester.

There will be more surprises once the Indians head to Chicago and lose the DH (Santana in left field could potentially happen), but for now, Terry Francona will keep his squad the same as in both previous rounds.

There are a few points of worry for the Tribe in this, however. First, Kipnis severely sprained his ankle during the post-season celebration when his foot came down on Lindor’s after beating the Blue Jays. He says he’s ready to play, but we haven’t seen any actual game action from Kipnis since then, so it’s hard to say if his range, base running or swing will be effected. He’s been huge for the Tribe this post-season (and regular season), particularly defensively, and it would be a tragedy if Michael Martinez ever started a post-season for any team.

Secondly, there is Davis still leading off despite going hitless so far in the play-offs and batting .190 in September. Yes, he’s only had 12 at bats between the ALDS and ALCS, but at some point you have to wonder if the veteran has simply run out of energy. The long lay off between series should benefit him, Kipnis, Napoli and any others who have had problems with over work or injury, so this could all change quickly, but if it doesn’t, don’t be surprised if Francona changes his line-up around this series.

Considering his struggles and Lester’s inability to field his position or control base runners, don’t be shocked if Davis tries to bunt to lead off the game or does so multiple times later on. While Francona took it easy on Lester last time the two teams played, they should be running at every opportunity and Davis should be the biggest part of that.

Facing off against Kluber and the Tribe will be the Cubs starting nine:

The Cubs certainly pack a punch at the top of the line-up, with Bryant and Rizzo accounting for 156 extra base hits and 211 RBI during the regular season alone. Fowler and Zobrist had great years as well and if he had been healthy all season, Schwarber could be considered the top pure bat in the line-up.

While Russell had some decent power numbers this year and shouldn’t be overlooked, the bottom half of the Cubs line-up generally provides more on defense than they do on offense. This leads into the biggest surprise of the order, the lack of Jason Heyward, worth more than ten runs defensively over an average right fielder no matter what defensive metric you look at. Heyward is left handed and has hit right handers considerably better than lefties, but the Cubs are still going with Coghlan in the starting role after Albert Almora started in right against the left handed Clayton Kershaw in game six.

Coghlan wasn’t terrible this year, but he certainly doesn’t seem a great fit for an otherwise historically powerful Cubs line-up, particularly hitting ahead of Russell and instead of Heyward. In the post-season, Heyward is hitting just .071, but his replacement options, Coghlan, Almora and Soler, have combined to 0 for 21. Of course, this is in an extremely small sample size against some of the best pitchers in baseball and no one knows his team better than Joe Madden, so who are we to question? With this in mind, however, and the questions around Schwarber’s readiness, Kluber should be able to hold Chicago back if he can control the top four hitters in the line-up.