The Cleveland Indians have a 1-1/2 game lead in the AL Central despite an offense that has been amenic at best for the last month and a half. There is no question that the pitching has been tremendous as the offense has scored three runs or less in 16 of their last 34 games. The question here is what can be done to get this team out of its collective funk or is this team just not a good hitting team?
The last time the Tribe attack sputtered this much the hitting coach, Eddie Murray, lost his job. Since Derek Shelton is in Eric Wedge’s inner circle and the Indians don’t make changes as wake up calls, his job is safe at least through the end of the year. One thing is noticeable, however. The once patient hitting style Shelton has preached since getting the job in June of 2005 has disappeared. In the past couple of weeks, starting pitchers rarely work up a sweat against Cleveland. How many times have starters entered the sixth inning having thrown less than 70 pitches.
I doubt that Shelton’s message has changed, so it appears the batters have tuned him out. Maybe that’s the biggest need for a change. The Indians have to get back to taking a lot of pitches and working counts and making the opposition hurlers work and work hard. This gets the team into bullpens where the pitchers would be starters if they were good enough.
In the meantime, Wedge should go back to a lineup that had success earlier in the season. Move Grady Sizemore back to the leadoff spot and put Travis Hafner back in the three hole. Both hitters are in the top five in the league in walks so they get on base and make pitchers throw a lot of pitches. In between, Casey Blake needs to be dropped to a lower spot in the order. In his place, I would put Asdrubal Cabrera, who has done nothing but impress since being recalled from Buffalo.
Put Victor Martinez back in the clean up spot followed by Ryan Garko. The bottom of the order would consist of Jhonny Peralta, Blake, and the RF and LF, with Kenny Lofton hitting ninth when he is in the line up. Lofton has not provided the spark many were hoping for when he was acquired from Texas last month. He has also stopped running so he isn’t creating scoring opportunities at the top of the order. The front office also has to make a decision on Trot Nixon who is now rarely playing. If Shin Soo Choo were hittng well at Class AAA, he would probably be on the 25 man roster now.
Since the attack is struggling, Wedge should get back to basics and start playing for one run when at all possible. Sometimes when you play for one run, you get two or three. That means bunting, hit and run baseball which means making contact. Perhaps a Chris Gomez gets more playing time because he can put the bat on the ball. The way the pitching has been over the last month or so, if the Indians can get five runs, they will win. Three of the best pitchers in baseball in the last month are on the Tribe (Sabathia, Carmona, Westbrook), unfortunately the offense hasn’t helped them out with any runs.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 