Card thoughts: The Indians were an abysmal team in the mid-80s, mostly because of awful pitching. They finished last in 1985 (60-102). The 102 losses tied a team record, also set in 1914 and 1971. The record was subsequently broken when the Indians lost 105 games in 1991.
The
player: #59
Andre Thornton has already been featured in this blog.
I’m surprised the longest tenured Indian isn’t #136
Mike Hargrove.
Rear guard: The best position player on the Indians this season was Brett Butler, at a WAR of 4.7. As you can see from the offensive leaders, there was nothing wrong with the hitting, as you had budding stars Brett Butler, Joe Carter, Julio Franco, and Brook Jacoby all putting up good numbers (the Indians were in the top ten in many offensive categories in 1985).
On the other hand, well, the pitchers put up a 4.91
ERA, last in the league. The best of them was Bert Blyleven, who was put out of
this misery by being traded to the Twins late in the season. Most of bullpen
pitchers had ERAs over 4, and some with ERAs over 6. The starters had three
pitchers who lost 10 or more games, yet none who won more 6. Note that Neal
Heaton appears as the co-win leader with 9. Heaton wouldn’t have a Topps card
until the 1987 traded set. As a kid, this meant that for all intents in
purposes, Heaton did not exist.
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