When Tribe Does Spend, Results Aren’t There.

One thing all baseball fans can agree on is that the Cleveland Indians are not a free spending organization.

For whatever the reason, the Tribe’s payroll is usually in the lower third of the American League, and much of that is due to the size of the television market.

The Indians can’t charge the same rights’ fees for local broadcasts, both TV and radio as teams located in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston.

So, the Tribe needs to spend their limited funds wisely.

The big problem is they simply haven’t.

The Indians’ highest paid player right now is Nick Swisher, who is suffering through a terrible season, and even last season, didn’t produce at a high level.

Before Swisher, Cleveland highest paid baseball player was Travis Hafner, who had a series of injuries after his last 100 RBI season in 2007, making the reported $10-13 million he was being paid an albatross across the organization’s back.

If you aren’t or are unable to spend with the upper echelon of payrolls in the sport, it is a killer when the players you make a major commitment to don’t live up to expectations.

You can’t lay all of the blame on Swisher either. The Tribe’s second highest paid player is Michael Bourn, who has battled hamstring issues all season long, and to be truthful, hasn’t performed like an all-star either.

We have always said that it isn’t about spending money for the Dolan ownership; it is all about spending wisely. Going out and overspending isn’t good for any franchise; look at the Braves with B.J. Upton.

If they don’t work out, these signings cause a lot of questions for the management. If Swisher were making half of what he is currently earning, or if he were on the last year of his contract, do you really think Terry Francona would continuously write his name in the lineup day in and day out?

Upton is currently hitting .212 for Atlanta (608 OPS), yet he has appeared in 106 of the 114 games the Braves have played.

Swisher’s 615 OPS figure is the lowest of any everyday player on the Indians. Not exactly a big bang for the buck.

As for Bourn, we didn’t like the signing at the time, and to this point we are proven correct. He has never been an elite offensive player, posting an OPS of 704 before signing with the Tribe.

His best asset on offense was stealing bases, having led the NL in that category three times in his career, including 2011, just two years before he arrived in Cleveland.

Since putting on Chief Wahoo, Bourn has stolen just 30 bases, and has been caught 15 times in almost two full seasons.

If you want to blame ownership for not spending money, then you also have to put heat on GM Chris Antonetti and president Mark Shapiro for blowing it when the Dolan family hands them a bag of cash.

When you have limited opportunities, you have to take advantage of them. The Indians’ organization has dropped the ball in that respect.

What can they do going forward? They may have to deal one of the two and pay some salary to improve at their respective positions.

Whether or not the ownership would sign off on that is debatable.

Unfortunately, these mistakes probably mean there will be less big spending in the future. Instead of getting it right, they will just avoid making the commitment.

Just another reason that it’s great to be an Indians’ fan.

Hoyer or Manziel? Whoever Can Win Should Play

The exhibition football season hasn’t even started yet and already there seems to be a quarterback controversy involving the Cleveland Browns.

Veteran Brian Hoyer has his supporters within the Browns fandom, and of course, there is a tremendous amount of buzz surrounding rookie Johnny Manziel, aka Johnny Football.

The incredulous thing to us is the Manziel supporters seem to be willing to suffer through another 4-12 and 5-11 campaign in order for the former Heisman Trophy winner to gain much-needed experience.

For a franchise that has lost the number of games Cleveland has over the past 15 years, that is ludicrous.

Who should start for Cleveland in the opener at Heinz Field against the Steelers? The player who gives them the best chance to win and get off to a good start.

Remember, the Browns have won their season lidlifter just once since returning to the NFL in 1999, so a victory in week one would be rarefied air indeed for the franchise.

The notion that Manziel should start no matter what is crazy. If he shows in the pre-season games that he deserves to be under center for the first offensive play of the regular season, then fine, let him start.

There is no hidden agenda for Hoyer here, and we believe the coaching staff doesn’t have an affinity for either QB at this point.

The guess here is that Hoyer is starting against Detroit this Saturday night and will play with the first team offensive unit with Manziel playing with and more to the point, against, the second teamers.

We also think the following week against the Redskins, the roles will be reversed, and the rookie will go with the first team offense against the Washington starters. As a matter of fact, that’s the fair way of doing things.

After those two outings, head coach Mike Pettine will make a decision before the third exhibition contest, the dress rehearsal if you will.

We understand the feelings toward both players. Hoyer is a hometown kid, and he sat and watched and worked with one of the sport’s all time greats in Tom Brady while at New England. He’s going to do a professional job.

Last year, he got an opportunity to start three games and the Browns won all three, although in his last start he was hurt and Brandon Weeden got the bulk of the action in a victory over Buffalo.

Hoyer’s second start, a workman like win over the Bengals at home, is more the type of game we would expect to see from the former St. Ignatius and Michigan State star. The Browns used a ball control offense and a tough defense to dominate Cincinnati.

Manziel is obviously the flashier of the pair, and fans want to see the guy who took college football by storm the past two seasons. He will probably make a lot of great plays, but the potential for some colossal mistakes because of inexperience is there as well.

Mike Pettine has a defensive background and those coaches generally try to win games with that unit. They don’t like quarterbacks to make mistakes which put the defenders in bad situations. That would seem to give Hoyer the edge.

However, the games will start this week although they obviously don’t count. So, if one of the two plays very well and the other doesn’t, the decision will be an easy one. If both Hoyer and Manziel play well or play poorly, then we believe Pettine will go with the veteran to minimize errors.

Either way, the guy who gives the Browns the best chance to win should start. The franchise needs to start putting numbers in the win column this season.

Disconnect Between Tribe and Fans Grows

The Cleveland Indians’ organization just doesn’t get it.

They don’t get the ever growing disconnect between the front office and the fan base.

Yes, the current team is flawed, they are a .500 team with over two-thirds of the schedule in the books. On the other hand, there are plenty of teams in the same boat, so as this is written they somehow are just four games out of a post-season berth.

They continue to operate under the premise that was stated by the current ownership many years ago, that is they will spend money when people start showing up to Progressive Field.

Compare that to the buzz surrounding the Cavaliers, who likely will put a title contender on display at Quicken Loans Arena, and the Browns, who drafted the most talked about rookie in the NFL last May.

They are shiny pieces, attractive to the eye. The Indians are like a gray sweater. They simply just don’t, or perhaps don’t know how to make a splash with the area’s baseball fans.

They made two good baseball decisions this week, trading two players who will be free agents this fall, and who weren’t producing as expected for the club either. They picked up two young players who may help the Tribe in the next couple of years instead of letting them leave for nothing.

Still, the fans expected them to take a shot at making the post-season for the second consecutive year, a feat not accomplished by the current ownership or management team.

Instead, they claimed they couldn’t or weren’t willing to get a deal done.

Team president Mark Shapiro, GM Chris Antonetti and the Dolan family are good people, well liked by the media in northeastern Ohio. Therefore, there wasn’t really much of an outrage when other teams around the Indians in the standings made move to improve their teams while the Tribe didn’t.

There seems to be an agreement between Shapiro and Antonetti and the ownership that the executives won’t bring up the lack of cash available and the Dolans won’t hold them accountable for the lack of success.

We even heard a member of the media floating the ridiculous contention by the organization that Tampa Bay wanted Danny Salazar, Carlos Santana, and Francisco Lindor for former Cy Young Award winner David Price.

Really? What did Tigers’ president Dave Dombrowski do, hypnotize Rays’ GM Andrew Friedman to convince to accept just Drew Smyly, Nick Franklin, and an 18-year-old prospect?

The fact of the matter is, there haven’t been enough results by this regime since the turn of the century. Just three playoff spots, the first done with holdovers from the division and pennant winners of the mid-90’s, and one of those a one game wild card game.

To be fair, the Indians would have made the playoffs as the wild card under the old rules.

You have to go for it when you have the chance. Now, we aren’t advocating dealing Lindor, who may just be the sport’s premier prospect, for a play who would spend a half season, or even a year and a half in a Cleveland uniform.

However, the Tribe does have middle infield prospects and power bullpen arms that could’ve been used to fill a weakness.

We have said it before, they didn’t need to get Price or Jon Lester, they just needed to get someone better than Justin Masterson, T.J. House, Josh Tomlin and Zack McAllister.

Instead they picked up another middle infielder, who likely will be moved elsewhere and has shown no strike zone judgment in the minor leagues, and yet another left-handed bat in an organization already top heavy from that side of the plate.

After making the post-season and winning 92 games a year ago, a way to bring fans back to the ballpark would have been to make the playoffs again. Show them that last year was no fluke.

It could happen, but it isn’t likely when you have two shaky starters, and that’s crossing your fingers on Salazar, who has been solid since returning to the majors.

It appears the only team Antonetti improved at the deadline was the Columbus Clippers. Somehow, the front office doesn’t understand the disappointment of its fan base.