1987 Cleveland Indians season explained

Cleveland Indians
Season:	1987
League:	American League
Division:	East
Ballpark:	Cleveland Municipal Stadium
City:	Cleveland, Ohio
Owners:	Richard Jacobs
General Managers:	Joe Klein
Managers:	Pat Corrales, Doc Edwards
Television:	WUAB Joe Tait, Jack Corrigan
Radio:	WWWE Herb Score, Steve Lamar

The 1987 Cleveland Indians season was the 87th in franchise history. The team, predicted by Sports Illustrated magazine to finish first, finished seventh in the American League East. Club president Peter Bavasi would resign before the regular season began. Bavasi had joined the Indians in November 1984. As team president, he served on Major League Baseball's Executive Council.^[1] During the 1986 season, the team had an 84-78 record, its best since 1968, and attendance of 1.47 million, its highest since 1959.^[2] There was much optimism that the team would reach its full potential in 1987.

Sluggers Joe Carter and Cory Snyder were featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated on April 6, 1987, with the headline "Indian Uprising". The Indians were being predicted as the best team in baseball on the back of their two 30+ home run hitters. What sports writers overlooked was that Cleveland had the worst performing pitching staff in the majors, despite the presence of 300 game winners Phil Niekro and Steve Carlton, as well as Tom Candiotti (with Niekro and Candiotti, Cleveland had two starters whose main pitch was the knuckleball).

The 1987 Indians would fall well short of SI's bold prediction. They were not above .500 even once all season, and an 8–20 May ended any realistic hope of contention. They finished 61-101, the worst record in all of baseball. The season would go on to be associated with the Sports Illustrated cover jinx.

Offseason

November 7, 1986: Fran Mullins was released by the Indians.^[3]
November 28, 1986: Casey Parsons was signed as a free agent by the Indians.^[4]
December 23, 1986: John Butcher was released by the Indians.^[5]
January 19, 1987: Doug Frobel was signed as a free agent with the Cleveland Indians.^[6]
February 23, 1987: Curt Wardle was traded by the Indians to the Oakland Athletics for Jeff Kaiser.^[7]

Regular season

In 1987, the Cleveland Indians achieved a baseball first. The Indians had veteran pitchers Steve Carlton and Phil Niekro on their roster to add experience. Their most notable accomplishment was appearing in a game together against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Carlton and Niekro became the first teammates and 300-game winners to appear in the same game. Both were ineffective in a 10-6 Yankee victory. It would be Carlton's first and only pitching appearance at the legendary stadium. Neither pitcher finished the season with the Indians. Carlton would end up with the Minnesota Twins and win a World Series championship. Niekro would be picked up by the Toronto Blue Jays and come within two games of winning the American League East Championship.

Transactions

April 4, 1987: Steve Carlton signed as a free agent with the Indians.^[8]
May 11, 1987: Don Schulze was traded by the Indians to the New York Mets for Ricky Nelson.^[9]
May 12, 1987: Dave Gallagher was traded by the Indians to the Seattle Mariners for Mark Huismann.^[10]
July 15, 1987: Tony Bernazard was traded by the Indians to the Oakland Athletics for Darrel Akerfelds and Brian Dorsett.^[11]
July 31, 1987: Steve Carlton was traded by the Indians to the Minnesota Twins for a player to be named later. The Twins completed the deal by sending Jeff Perry (minors) to the Indians on August 18.

Draft picks

June 2, 1987: 1987 Major League Baseball Draft
- Albert Belle was drafted by the Indians in the 2nd round. Belle signed on August 27, 1987.^[12]
- Beau Allred was drafted by the Indians in the 25th round.^[13]

Opening Day Lineup

Opening Day Starters
	Name	Position
4		2B
2		CF
14		SS
30		LF
29		DH
26		3B
10		1B
28		RF
23		C
49		P

^[14]

Roster

1987 Cleveland Indians
Roster
Pitchers		CatchersInfielders		OutfieldersOther batters		Manager (Apr 6 - Jul 15) (Jul 16 - Oct 4)Coaches (Pitching) (Hitting/First Base) (Pitching) (Bullpen) (Third Base) (Bullpen)

Statistics

Batting

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; AVG = Batting average; SB = Stolen bases

Player	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	SB
align=left		50	154	17	41	6	0	3	16	.266	1
align=left		89	211	20	46	9	0	5	16	.218	0
align=left		38	125	14	27	9	1	2	13	.216	2
align=left		79	293	39	70	12	1	11	30	.239	7
align=left		137	522	91	154	25	8	9	41	.295	33
align=left		149	588	83	155	27	2	32	106	.264	31
align=left		89	220	27	55	17	0	11	31	.250	1
align=left		29	87	11	18	5	0	3	12	.207	1
align=left		60	141	16	25	10	0	1	9	.177	0
align=left		5	11	2	3	0	0	1	3	.273	0
align=left		128	495	86	158	24	3	8	52	.319	32
align=left		29	40	5	4	0	0	2	5	.100	0
align=left		15	36	2	4	1	1	0	1	.111	2
align=left		142	485	57	136	21	1	18	76	.280	5
align=left		67	257	31	68	9	3	3	21	.265	9
align=left		155	540	73	162	26	4	32	69	.300	2
align=left		19	17	2	1	0	0	0	1	.059	2
align=left		39	80	7	18	2	1	0	7	.225	1
align=left		18	25	2	4	0	0	1	5	.160	0
align=left		157	577	74	136	24	2	33	82	.236	5
align=left		151	553	66	170	34	3	11	86	.307	5
align=left		36	85	8	10	2	0	0	5	.118	1
align=left		22	64	9	11	4	0	1	4	.172	0
Team Totals	162	5606	742	1476	267	30	187	691	.263	140

Pitching

Note: W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; SV = Saves; IP = Innings pitched; H = Hits allowed; R = Runs allowed; ER = Earned runs allowed; BB = Walks allowed; K = Strikeouts

Player	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K
align=left		2	6	6.75	16	13	0	74.2	84	60	56	38	42
align=left		1	0	8.68	14	0	1	18.2	27	18	18	10	9
align=left		7	8	4.64	39	17	6	120.1	145	75	62	47	65
align=left		0	1	9.22	15	0	1	13.2	21	14	14	5	9
align=left		7	18	4.78	32	32	0	201.2	193	132	107	93	111
align=left		5	9	5.37	23	14	1	109.0	111	76	65	63	71
align=left		1	1	4.55	16	0	0	31.2	26	17	16	13	22
align=left		5	1	3.39	10	9	0	69.0	68	29	26	22	28
align=left		0	3	4.08	21	0	1	39.2	49	31	18	12	20
align=left		2	3	5.09	20	0	2	35.1	38	22	20	8	23
align=left		6	5	3.15	49	0	8	91.1	101	45	32	24	87
align=left		0	0	16.20	2	0	0	3.1	4	6	6	3	2
align=left		7	11	5.89	22	22	0	123.2	142	83	81	53	57
align=left		1	1	6.08	14	0	0	26.2	33	21	18	16	11
align=left		6	13	6.50	32	29	0	153.2	185	126	111	57	61
align=left		4	2	5.67	25	0	3	27.0	25	22	17	21	25
align=left		3	8	5.10	16	15	0	102.1	112	62	58	37	97
align=left		1	0	5.10	55	0	0	72.1	96	42	41	21	40
align=left		0	1	14.29	6	0	0	5.2	7	10	9	7	6
align=left		0	1	5.06	6	0	1	5.1	3	3	3	7	4
align=left		3	9	5.25	37	11	1	97.2	96	63	57	49	59
Team Totals	61	101	5.28	162	162	25	1422.2	1566	957	835	606	849

Award winners

All-Star Game

Pat Tabler, designated hitter, reserve

Farm system

References

http://www.bavasisports.com/principals.htm Principals
New York Times, January 24, 1987
https://www.baseball-reference.com/m/mullifr01.shtml Fran Mullins page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/p/parsoca01.shtml Casey Parsons page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/b/butchjo01.shtml John Butcher page at Baseball Reference
Web site: Doug Frobel Stats.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/k/kaiseje01.shtml Jeff Kaiser page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/c/carltst01.shtml Steve Carlton page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/s/schuldo01.shtml Don Schulze page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/h/huismma02.shtml Mark Huismann page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bernato01.shtml Tony Bernazard at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/b/belleal01.shtml Albert Belle page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/a/allrebe01.shtml Beau Allred page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TOR/TOR198704060.shtml 1987 Opening Day Lineup
Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007