Tribe Trade Is A Good First Step

The Cleveland Indians made their first move of the off-season on Saturday, dealing reliever Esmil Rogers to Toronto for infielder Mike Aviles and C/INF Yan Gomes.

Although Rogers was pretty effective for the Tribe since coming over from Colorado on waivers during the season, and may have been a closer option should the team trade Chris Perez in the off-season, it was a good move for GM Chris Antonetti, and an aggressive move at that.

If the Indians have any depth in their organization it is in the bullpen where they have several young arms ready to move up to the major leagues.

We have said the Tribe needs to get better with every move they make this off-season, and they did so with this move.

The 2012 edition of the Indians did not have a legitimate utility infielder to give SS Asdrubal Cabrera or 2B Jason Kipnis a day off. This took its toll after the all-star break when both were running on fumes and were producing.

Aviles, who will be 32 at the beginning of next season, is a legitimate major leaguer with a .277 lifetime batting average. However, last year was his first year with over 500 at bats and his hitting suffered, with his average dipping to .250.

So it appears he would be solid in a reverse role. He can hit lefties, with a lifetime .295 batting average and 797 OPS.

If the plan is to trade Cabrera and use Aviles everyday at short as a stop-gap until Francisco Lindor is ready, then it is not a good plan.

Aviles is not regarding as a good defensive shortstop and has a lower range factor than Cabrera did in 2012.

Still, the veteran is a better stick than Jack Hannahan and Brent Lillibridge, so the Indians are better after the deal than they were before, and that’s exactly what the front office needs to do.

Gomes is another right-handed hitter, which means perhaps the organization has come off the all left-handed hitter theory they embraced last season. He’s a corner infield guy who can also catch, meaning he’s a good bench player. And he has some pop in his bat, hitting four home runs in 111 big league at bats.

He hit .328 at Las Vegas last season, but the Pacific Coast League is a notorious hitters circuit and Vegas is one of the chief reasons for that reputation. From his minor league numbers, he looks like a free swinger. So he will likely open the season at Columbus and provide organizational depth.

After a slow hot stove season last winter, the Indians took a step toward addressing one of their weaknesses very quickly after the 2012 season ended. They should get kudos for doing that and for the move they made here.

Hopefully, this is the first move in a busy winter for Antonetti. And we also hope he is working very closely with Terry Francona to assemble a roster that the manager wants.

It feels like in recent years that the manager and front office weren’t on the same page when it came to who should be on the roster and get playing time.

Building some roster depth was needed, but the Tribe still needs a 1B, LF, and a DH or a catcher if Carlos Santana is moved to fill one of those other needs, as well as a couple of starting pitchers.

It may be that Francona has brought the sense of urgency that has been lacking since the Ubaldo Jimenez trade in July 2011.

That might be the new skipper’s biggest impact of all.

Shurmur’s Low Scoring Offense Makes Fans’ Shake Their Heads

The Cleveland Browns certainly are a creative bunch, aren’t they? They keep finding new and better ways to lose every week.

Today, they brought field goals to a touchdown fight, which is never a good idea.

They scored five times to the Baltimore Ravens four, but because they couldn’t get into the end zone, they lost once again, 25-15 heading into their bye week.

After a first quarter where the Ravens totally dominated the game and led 14-0, the Browns returned the favor in the next two and a half quarters, totally shutting down Baltimore and taking a 15-14 lead with 8:48 to go in the contest.

From there, Baltimore took over the game, aided by a questionable roughing the passer penalty on S T.J. Ward and marching 81 yards in nine plays to take back the lead at 22-15.

Then, Browns coach Pat Shurmur topped off a curious play calling game by going for it on 4th and 2 on their own 28 with almost four minutes to go. They called a slant pass which wasn’t close, giving Baltimore the ball back in point-blank range.

A worse play/pattern occured on third down and 4 when WR Greg Little for some reason ran a two yard out pattern which left Cleveland still short on fourth down. Little simply has to get past the sticks on that play.

Shurmur did do a good job in not going pass happy down 14-0 heading into the second quarter. He stayed with the ground game as was rewarded with another 100 yard game by Trent Richardson, his third of the season and second straight.

However, the play calling had a very conservative nature to it, with very few downfield throws. It was back to the dink and dunk attack showed by the Browns a year ago, particularly when Cleveland got inside the Raven 30-yard line.

New owner Jimmy Haslam had to be sitting there shaking his head like the fans of his new football team.

The question for Shurmur has to be why get timid? First of all, you are 2-6 and a win over the Ravens could have been the turnaround your football team needed.

Secondly, you have some decent skill players now. Why not give them the ball in space.

Lastly, on the biggest play of the game, the aforementioned 4th and 2, why did you go empty backfield and have Richardon split out as a wide receiver?

Those are things that make us all confused, including the new boss.

Cleveland outgained Baltimore 272 to 146 after the first quarter, yet only outscored the Ravens 15-11 in that time frame. How does anyone answer that?

Brandon Weeden was 20 for 37 on the game for only 176 yards and threw two interceptions, one of which after the game was already decided.

The problem is Shurmur’s offense which doesn’t product points.

Yes, they have scored 21 or more points three times this season, but that only means in 2/3 of the team’s contests this year they have been under that total. And now in 25 games coached by Shurmur, they have scored more than 21 points just four times.

In today’s NFL, you have to put points on the board. In today’s early games, every victorious squad scored at least that many points.

The Browns had five scoring opportunities on the game and did not penetrate the end zone once.

And it is not as though Phil Dawson, and once again, how great is he?, was banging out 50 yard kicks. His longest make was 41 yards.

Outside of the penalty on Little for illegal formation which nullified a TD throw to Josh Gordon, Cleveland never threw the ball into the end zone despite being in the red zone before every one of Dawson’s kicks.

It was almost as though the coaching staff was screaming “don’t turn it over” into Weeden’s helmet during the play.

One other bone to pick today. The officiating crew was awful today, with the worst call being a personal foul called on Gordon on a block on Ed Reed in the third quarter. If the NFL would like to explain how that was a penalty, let alone why a guy 30 yards away from the play called it, we are all ears.

It sounds odd to say, but there is no question that watching this football team play, they are better. However, their record says they are 2-7, and that’s all that matters.

Here’s a Marketing Plan for Tribe: WIN!

A little over a week ago, the Cleveland Indians sent an email to various fans asking for input on a new seating plan. They are studying taking out several rows of seating in the lower bowl between first base and third base and replacing them with tables to create a patio type area.

They were just feeling people out on doing something like this, nothing has been decided as far as we know.

Last year, there were rumors the Indians were looking at putting a hotel beyond the right field stands removing a portion of the upper deck.

This is exactly the kind of thinking that typifies the organization in recent years. That is a defeatist attitude.

They seem to be searching for various ways to draw people to Progressive Field, kind of reminiscent of the Cavaliers organization after the Brad Daugherty-Mark Price-Larry Nance teams.

At that time, the Cavs changed uniforms several times, even going to the popular color at the time, a black jersey. They brought in a supposed superstar in Shawn Kemp. They tried all sorts of marketing gimmicks.

It didn’t work, because the only gimmick that draws fans to games in Cleveland, Ohio isn’t a gimmick at all. It’s called winning!

Instead of taking out seats, the Tribe front office should be looking at accumulating talent so they can win and draw fans to a beautiful ballpark that doesn’t need a facelift. They are taking the easy way out instead of listening to the true baseball fans on the North Coast.

Here’s hoping new manager Terry Francona slaps some sense into the people running the Indians.

Recently, Indians’ president Mark Shapiro was interviewed by Fox Sports Ohio’s Patrick McManamon, where he talked about the number of wins the teams’ research shows a free agent worth $9 million will bring. The numbers show one victory is gained, which supports the decision the Indians have made not to sign free agents.

Obviously, it’s not as simple as that, and you need to look no further than Alex Rodriguez to see what spending huge amounts of money on aging players can do for you. For the Yankees, it’s a bothersome contract, for a team like the Indians, it would be suicide.

Still, the question that comes from here is all of this statistical analysis is nice, but what if it is wrong? And here’s a stat for Shapiro…nine losing seasons in 11 years. Your model is not working.

After this season’s disaster, it was thought that perhaps the Indians’ front office gained some humility, but maybe getting a skipper that has won two World Series to take the job in Cleveland has empowered the Tribe.

They’ve talked about how they have spent more days in first place than any other team in the Central Division the last two years like that’s an important statistic. Instead, it just brings more ridicule for bringing up something so inane.

The reason the Indians are losing season ticket holders is the hardcore baseball fans in this city no longer have confidence in the front office and ownership.

That’s what Dolan, Shapiro, and Antonetti need to repair, not come up with plans that have little to do with baseball. Those things are nice, but without the fanatics, attendance is going to continue to decrease.

That should be the basis for any surveys. Just one question: If we can build a team that can make a sustained playoff push (three or four straight years), will you buy tickets?

The answer would be a resounding YES!