Excellent article in the Wall Street Journal this morning about the Tribe, and how they built this team to win. It's pretty amazing what they've accomplished in one of the smallest markets in baseball.

The Indians had been near the bottom of the league in scoring runs in 2015. As a small-market team that annually sits in the bottom-five of league payroll rankings, they weren’t about to make a free-agent splash by bringing in a big bat. But they needed to find offense somewhere.

They did so by assembling a group of players who are half-great.

It sounds a little like Money Ball, but they've taken it to a different level.

The Indians led baseball in gaining the matchup advantage this season, taking 70% of their plate appearances with the platoon edge. What makes that number so remarkable is that the rest of the league is going in the other direction: The league average for plate appearances with the platoon advantage is 53%, and has been falling steadily since 2013, when it peaked at 56%.

This matchup-centric thinking doesn’t just apply to hitters. The Indians also led baseball in getting the best pitching matchups, primarily through the way manager Terry Francona uses his bullpen. Indians pitchers had the matchup advantage 54% of the time, against a league average of 47%. The Indians are the first team to lead the majors in both hitting and pitching matchup edge since the 1985 St. Louis Cardinals.

If the Indians and the Cubs make it to the World Series this year, one of the two longest active droughts will be broken. My money's on the Tribe.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&...

[Edit - updated link.  Shouldn't have paywall issues.]