Sports Illustrated rather infamously picked this crew to finish in first place in their division- of course, they finished in last place. The reason they picked them was probably not so much that they had some highly regarded young players, but because a different team had won the division every year since '81 (Yankees, Brewers, Orioles, Tigers, Blue Jays, Red Sox) so I guess they were a trendy pick. The year before this, Cleveland had a rare winning season, and although they had some fine teams in the next decade, in these years they were generally awful. This team had some young talent, but only Joe Carter ever became a real star, and guys like Brook Jacoby and Cory Snyder flamed out quickly. Veterans Brett Butler and Julio Franco had very good careers and fine years in '87, and the hitting as a whole was actually not so much of a problem. They finished tied for 3rd in steals, and obviously had some guys who could run- Carter, Butler, and Franco had at least 30 steals apiece. However, the pitching staff was simply atrocious, as no pitcher won more than a paltry 7 games,and they had a horrific 5.91 E.R.A as a whole. The bullpen, other than Doug Jones, was a nightmare, and their only regular starting pitcher who played with them for a considerable amount of time and had much of a career was Tom Candiotti, though Greg Swindell had some good years later on in relief. Phil Niekro and Steve Carlton were positively decrepit, and no longer the hurlers they had been when they started out in Babylon and Nineveh. The fielding was awful, they led the league in errors and had the worst fielding % in the A.L. A bad club that should have been better than it was, though not a truly horrible all- time squad. Probably a direct inspiration for the "Major League" movies.