The Cleveland Indians have played one-eighth of their schedule and the results haven’t been pretty. The front office or the fans didn’t expect a 7-13 start after 20 games. When they get good pitching, the hitting doesn’t produce, and when they score runs, they get no pitching. It’s a classic sign of mediocrity.
The Indians will point out that they are currently 5th in the American League in runs scored, but if you eliminate the 22-4 beat down of the Yankees, they rank near the bottom (10th in the league). They do walk a lot, but if you watched the Twins series over the weekend, if you throw strikes to this bunch, they have a hard time scoring.
And of course, they strike out way too much, currently leading the league in not making contact. It’s not just a couple of guys whiffing either; it’s the entire team. Only Victor Martinez and Ryan Garko are on pace to strike out less than 100 times this season. In addition to those two, the only hitters with strikeout to walk ratios of less than 2:1 are Shin-Soo Choo, Grady Sizemore, and Asdrubal Cabrera.
Jhonny Peralta (25K’s/8 walks), Kelly Shoppach (16 K’s/ 1 walk), and Ben Francisco (16K’s/6 walks) are huge offenders. Especially since Shoppach and Francisco have just 39 and 58 at bats, respectively.
The Indians have played 22 games this season and have five sacrifice flies, but three of them have come the last two nights against the Red Sox. Their previous total of two ranked last in the AL. Of course, it’s hard to hit fly balls with a man on third when you are striking out all the time. Both Martinez and Garko have two run scoring fly balls. Why? They put the bat on the ball.
Not putting the ball in play is not a recipe for success.
Last weekend against Minnesota emphasized how putting the ball in play and doing the fundamental things can lead to victories. Saturday night, they got hits on several seeing eye ground balls, and wound up taking a 5-1 lead. The Indians offense is too dependent on banging the ball out of the park, and when they aren’t hitting homers, they struggle to score.
That philosophy has to change, not only among the players, but among the management as well.
Add in the lack of pitching, and it’s even worse.
The Indians rank 11th in the junior circuit in ERA, and the poor performance is based on both the starters (13th in ERA) and the bullpen (10th in ERA) both stinking equally. Tribe pitchers lead the league in walks allowed, with the relief corps allowing bases on balls at a stunning rate.
I can’t blame this on pitching coach Carl Willis because he has instructed back-to-back Cy Young Award winners. However, there is nothing wrong with lighting a fire under some of these guys.
Something has to change, but will the always patient Mark Shapiro make any moves soon?
The best thing the Indians have going for them is the AL Central Division, where in spite of their bad start, they are still just 3-1/2 games behind the Detroit Tigers. They could be six or seven out in a better division.
With Travis Hafner going on the disabled list with a recurrence of his shoulder problems, David Dellucci will be back for this weekend’s series with the Tigers. Rich Rundles will be sent back to make room for him. I also believe Masa Kobayashi will be released or designated for assignment and another position player will be activated. Luis Valbuena should be a candidate, but it will probably be Josh Barfield.
The Tribe needs a shock, not a tweak. This team did not play well in spring training, so they have been struggling and losing since they took the field in mid February. It’s still early enough to make an impact, but waiting another couple of weeks could be too late.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 
Getting off to a slow start proves that this team is once again unprepared to start the season. I blame that on the manager and his coaching staff. The problems with this team are the same problems we see every year. Coach Wedge is a very prideful man who is on the verge of being stubborn. He sticks with things for too long and will not make changes when they are obviously necessary. We see him do that with the pitching, we see him do that with guys who go into hitting slumps and we see that with the coaching staff. Why is Joel Skinner still with the team after what he did in the playoffs a few years ago?.. And Derek Shelton can not honestly think his job is safe right now. The players and coaches don’t feel any pressure when things go wrong because they know the manager has no intentions of doing anything about it. Mark Shapiro has to step in and shake things up because Eric Wedge needs to know that the expectations in Cleveland are always high. It’s about time for Wedge to prove himself based only on wins and losses.