Jackson’s Dismissal Was Inevitable

Whether or not the news came yesterday, or next week, following the Chiefs game, it was inevitable. Hue Jackson was going to lose his job by the end of the 2018 season.

Really, it was only the ridiculous organizational set up the Browns have, where multiple people report directly to owner Jimmy Haslam, that allowed Jackson to have started this season at all, because we doubt GM John Dorsey would have kept Jackson on as head coach after going 1-31 in his two seasons here.

After winning two of the first five games this season, two consecutive losses had the “dysfunction” returning to Berea. There were reports nationally that offensive coordinator Todd Haley could be fired after Sunday’s game. That’s the kind of news that permeated the media a year ago.

Sashi Brown was gone, Dorsey was here now. The only common denominators to the feeling the organization was in chaos were Jackson and Haslam, and the owner wasn’t going anywhere.

That leaves Jackson, whose best attribute as head coach seemed to be blaming other people for the losing.

We have heard reports that Brown wasn’t the person making the decision to start DeShone Kizer last season at quarterback, we would have been fine going with veteran Brock Osweiler.

And as for real football players, as Dorsey said early in his tenure, don’t forget not all of the players who have played well for the Browns this season arrived before the 2018 season.

Myles Garrett, Joe Schobert, Christian Kirksey, Jamie Collins and others were on the roster, yet the Browns couldn’t win a single game.

The Buffalo Bills are rebuilding this season, going into the year with rookie Josh Allen and second year man Nathan Peterman at quarterback, and when Allen was injured, they signed former Brown, Derek Anderson.

They’ve already won two games this season.

Our point is it is hard to lose every game, and even more difficult to win one contest in two seasons.

Hue Jackson accomplished it.

In reality, the reason he was brought back for a third year was Haslam not wanting to be perceived as an owner who goes through coaches like he changes underwear. He may be the only person on the planet who would have brought Jackson back for a third season.

When the Browns drafted Baker Mayfield, we are sure they told him things would be different now with Dorsey in charge, but halfway through the year, it was back to the same old Browns routine.

It was surprising that offensive coordinator Todd Haley was let go as well, meaning the offense is now in the hands of running backs coach Freddie Kitchens, and we would guess Al Saunders will be helping him out.

And even more surprising is the appointment of Gregg Williams as the head coach, and maybe that’s why Haley was let go. Picking one of the coordinators over the other may have made it uncomfortable.

Going forward, the Haslams need to change the structure of the organization and commit to Dorsey by giving him the power to hire and fire coaches. That’s how most, if not all, NFL teams work.

This kind of stupidity should not happen again. Here’s hoping the changes make a positive impact on the Browns for the rest of this season and beyond.

Lue Wasn’t A Good Fit With This Roster

We were going to write a piece today about how Tyronn Lue is coaching the team he wishes he had rather than the team he had. We were about halfway done with it when the news came down that Lue was fired this morning, six games into the season.

We are sure many people will hammer on Dan Gilbert, but really, it was Lue’s inability to adapt to the talent he had on the roster.

Yes, Lue was the head coach when the Cavaliers won their only championship in 2016, but in our opinion, his chief role on that team is he wasn’t David Blatt.

That’s not as harsh as it sounds. The players, led by LeBron James, didn’t respect Blatt, but because Lue played the game, they would listen to him.

And it paid off with a title, and Lue will forever be remembered fondly in Cleveland for that reason.

However, Lue couldn’t adjust to life without James.

His mantra was to “play fast”, but the Cavs’ best player is Kevin Love, who isn’t built for playing that way.

He seemed obligated to play veterans like Tristan Thompson, who also cannot play that style either.

Instead of trying to play like the Golden State Warriors, who play up tempo and have defenders who can play the switching style favored by Lue, and his defensive assistant, Mike Longabardi, why not try to play like Boston, a team who stresses individual defense (aka guarding your man).

We watched the Atlanta game, where the Hawks just set screens until they got Trae Young being guarded by Love. Heck, the Cavs did the same thing to the Warriors in the ’16 Finals, waiting until Steph Curry was on James.

It is early, but Lue didn’t seem to realize who his best players were.

Certainly Love and Cedi Osman appear to be the best players, but Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. have shown they are among top guys, and they rank 7th and 8th in minutes per game, behind Rodney Hood, George Hill, and Thompson.

The firing may have come quicker than normal because of the owner’s impetuousness, but it does make sense because it was becoming increasingly obvious the coach and the front office weren’t on the same page about the future of the team going forward.

We are sure management wanted to see Ante Zizic play more.

One of the things we questioned over the last year was the ignorance of size for an NBA team. Lue and his staff seemed to ignore the need for size in today’s game.

Even, the Warriors had five big guys on the roster. If a team played a big man, the Warriors had alternatives. Lue never seemed to warm to having Zizic on the roster, until all his big guys were hurt.

Defense never seemed to be a priority either. David Nwaba had a reputation for being a solid defensive player with the Bulls, but he couldn’t get off the bench here.

Was it unfair that Lue was fired six games into the season? Probably not, but he probably shouldn’t have been brought back at all. That was on the front office, hoping Lue could be different.

It will be interesting to see what else happens in terms of personnel. Will Kyle Korver and Thompson, two Cavs with some trade value, be moved sooner than later.

Lue should be thanked for being a part of the group who brought a title to Cleveland, but he wasn’t a fit for where the franchise is now.

Now is the time for a teacher to be brought in.

Hue Jackson’s Biggest Problem May Be Talking

When John Dorsey was hired as the general manager of the Cleveland Browns at the end of last season, it was thought the circus atmosphere around the franchise would end.

Guess again!

Just seven games into the 2018 season, a season in which they have already won two games and tied another, a big improvement over last year’s winless season, the Browns are in the center of controversy once again.

And this time it started because one of Hue Jackson’s issues came out once again, the love of his own voice.

After another tough loss in overtime to Tampa Bay last Sunday, Jackson was asked about the offense’s struggles in the first half. His answer was that was his area of expertise, and maybe he could help out.

Afterwards, he stated that he was the head coach of the football team several times.

Jackson doesn’t know how to deal with or handle the media. For one, he tends to speak in absolutes. For example, there was a big deal about Josh Gordon starting the opener against the Steelers, because Jackson announced he would not start.

Our point is why say Gordon would not start? Jackson could have just told the media he would decide later as to who would take the first snap.

He’s done that before too. He did it earlier in camp when talking about Joel Bitonio playing left tackle, proclaiming it plan Z. A week later, Bitonio was playing the position.

He don’t know if Jackson says these things to make himself feel important, or to be glib with the media, but he needs to learn how to speak to the reporters. Don’t say anything that can be held against you later.

As for the comments after the game about getting involved with the offense, why not say something like we have to get better at all facets of the game immediately after kickoff, there is no need to point fingers at a particular unit or coach.

That comment became the story, and after watching the offense the last two seasons, we are sure the last thing Browns fans want to see is having Jackson’s hands on it.

All of this became an issue because of the ludicrous organizational set up the Browns have, where the GM and the head coach (and who knows who else) reports directly to owner Jimmy Haslam.

We would assume that Dorsey would love to bring in his own coach, but as of this moment, Jackson doesn’t report to him, so he has no authority to replace him.

That’s not how winning organizations are set up.

We feared this very thing in the off-season when Jackson was brought back after a two year record of 1-31. We felt because of all of the losing the past couple of seasons, if the Browns struggled this season, there would be clamoring for the coach’s job.

And that’s exactly what is happening. After an encouraging win over the Ravens at home, the team laid an egg against the Chargers and played a terrible first half vs. Tampa.

The wolves started howling.

When you think about it, the situation wasn’t fair to both Dorsey and Jackson. The GM doesn’t have the coach he wants, and Jackson is questioned about his employment every time the Browns lose a game.

However, Jackson needs to learn to be quiet. As someone once said, it is better to be quiet and have people think you are stupid, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

To Get Better, Cavs Must Improve Defense

It is no time to panic yet, because the Cleveland Cavaliers have played just three games.

The players are still getting used to not having LeBron James having the ball in his hands most of the time on offense, and it is also the first training camp for many wearing the wine and gold, including those acquired in the deals at the trading deadline.

However, there is still something that was a problem a year ago, and has been a big issue during the opening three games on the schedule, and that is the defense.

The Cavaliers rank second to last in the NBA (ahead of only Dallas) in defensive rating this season. This is the exact same place they were a year ago, only then they ranked ahead of only Phoenix.

We thought some of the defensive issues in the regular season came out of trying to get rest for James for the playoffs. No reason to exert a lot of effort on that end of the floor when you know the end game is playing into June.

But James is no longer here and the defense hasn’t gotten any better.

Tyronn Lue’s squad has allowed more than 130 points in two of the three games played. Opponents are shooting almost 50% from the floor (49.5%) and almost 44% from beyond the three point line.

Lue and his lead defensive assistant, Mike Longabardi, have said they want a defense that switches at every position. We believe that approach is foolish.

The only way it works is if you have a solid defender at every spot. Golden State can do it because Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are great defenders. But, remember the Cavs took advantage of it in the 2016 Finals by setting screen until they got Steph Curry on James.

Sunday night, the Hawks forced the wine and gold to switch until they wound up with Kevin Love guarding rookie Trae Young. We don’t think Love is as bad of a defender as his reputation is, but there is no way on God’s green earth he can guard Young 20 feet away from the basket.

It seems that defense is an afterthought for Lue, which is odd because he was in charge of that side of the ball as an assistant under David Blatt.

Instead of imploring his squad to play fast, why not make the identity of your team a defensive one? Let that be the foundation of the team.

It was humorous that rookie Collin Sexton’s instinct is to fight over screens, which we feel is the correct way to play defense. Switching is a lazy principle.

The Cavs signed David Nwaba, guy regarded as a solid defender during his time in the NBA during the summer, and to date, he has played all of two minutes.

We believe the Cavaliers have some talent on the roster, and they are more athletic than they were a year ago, so there is no reason they shouldn’t be good on defense. Our thought is it just isn’t emphasized the way Boston does with Brad Stevens, or Chicago did with Tom Thibodeau.

For a young team, defense should be something the team can hang its hat on every single night they take the floor.

Again, it’s only three games, but it doesn’t look like that is the case. We felt the defense would be improved, and that was our reason for some optimism.

Unless it improves, it’s going to be a long season for northeastern Ohio basketball fans.

Changes should be made sooner than later. Really, that end of the floor should have been emphasized from day one. Unfortunately, they have seemed to ignore it since they won the title in 2016.

Browns Need To Play Two Halves.

Someday, perhaps even this year, the Cleveland Browns will play a total game and then, and only then, will they start to win football games.

Of course, this season Browns’ games have lasted five quarters more often than not, as Cleveland lost another overtime game, this one 26-23 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Hue Jackson’s squad has no dropped to 2-4-1 on the season, and 3-35-1 since Jackson took the helm before the 2016 season.

In the first half, the offense was non-existent and the defense was porous, and the Browns went to the locker room trailing 16-2.

We thought if major adjustments weren’t made by the coaching staff, it would be a clear sign that changes on the staff needed to be made.

But after halftime, the defense played much better, holding the Bucs to just a single score, and the offense played with much more zest, and Cleveland rallied twice from 14 point deficits to force overtime.

That said, the offense made key mistakes late, errors which could be attributed to a young football team.

In overtime, Jameis Winston was picked off by Jamie Collins on the Tampa Bay 45 yard line. Getting one first down, would have given Greg Joseph an opportunity for a game winning field goal.

On 3rd and 3 at the 38, Baker Mayfield took a sack, so the Browns had to punt. That cannot happen.

Then, after forcing a punt, Jabril Peppers, who had a great 32 yard return to set up the game tying scored pass to Jarvis Landry, fumbled after a 14 yard return, giving the Bucs the ball at the Cleveland 48, setting up Tampa for the game winning 59 yard field goal.

Other observations from this game–

The Browns’ offensive line needs to improve quickly. In our opinion, tackles Desmond Harrison and Chris Hubbard had big problems. Remember, Tampa was missing Pro Bowl DT Gerald McCoy in this game. Mayfield was sacked five more times today, although some appeared to have been caused by receivers not being able to get open.

Which brings us to the wide receiver position. Landry caught 10 passes for 97 yards, but the other wide outs struggled to get open, catching just five passes. We have asked this before, but why not use more two tight end sets with David Njoku and Seth DeValve, both of whom are solid receivers.

The defense gives up yards, but continues to force turnovers and sacks. Four turnovers and five sacks today. Myles Garrett had two sacks, and Emmanuel Ogbah was a force too.

We don’t like when regimes seem to move on from players because they didn’t draft them, which appears to be the case with Carl Nassib, who had two sacks today. He couldn’t help more than Anthony Zettel?

Denzel Ward is pretty good, eh?

Nick Chubb did a good job in his starting debut, with 80 yards on 18 carries, but we are worried Duke Johnson is nothing more than a change of pace back. Wouldn’t the Browns be better off just switching the Chubb and Hyde roles?

Another week, another overly officiated game. Twenty two penalties were called, which disrupts the flow of the game.

Among this week’s bad calls were picking up a flag after a Mayfield run because he hadn’t started his slide (he did), a roughing the passer after Emmanuel Ogbah tried to block a pass because his hand hit Winston in the helmet (weak), and another missed false start, which Winston thankfully took a 12 yard sack.

The league continues to put its head in the sands on this problem.

Next week, it’s on to Pittsburgh. Let’s hope the Browns come ready to play four quarters in this one.

Moving On From LeBron

Tonight, LeBron James makes his debut with the Los Angeles Lakers in a game that will be nationally broadcast. No doubt you are already aware of that, because several networks have hyped it.

We don’t care.

You see, we are old school. We’ve been a fan of the Cleveland Cavaliers since the day they were born back in 1970, and we are fans of the team, not any individual player.

Younger fans seems to follow players, they support LeBron James or Kobe Bryant or Stephen Curry, and that’s fine, that’s their right.

But James isn’t wearing wine and gold anymore, so our interest in all things LeBron has waned.

To be quite honest, we probably would have watched James’ new show on HBO, The Shop, if he was still a Cav, but since he’s joined the Lakers, the Yankees of the NBA, it’s not must see TV.

Sure, it will be cool when James starts nearing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all time scoring record, because a majority of those points were scored wearing a Cleveland uniform, but for the most part, our interest will be limited to keeping aware of what is happening in the league, just like we do any other team.

We will forever be thankful for the 2016 NBA title, something quite frankly, we never thought we would see. James was primarily responsible for that, as well as the four consecutive Finals appearances.

It’s almost as though he retired. His next glory moment here will probably be when his #23 jersey is retired by the Cavaliers, as the greatest player in franchise history.

And that event will be greeted warmly by fans in northeast Ohio, as it should be. After all, we appreciate greatness.

As for the Cavs, last night was their first game without James, and we should allow the players and coaching staff a little transition period.

First, the wine and gold may have played the best team in the Eastern Conference in the Toronto Raptors, who have one of the top ten players (some might say top five) in Kawhi Leonard.

Losing to them at home is certainly no disgrace.

However, Tyronn Lue and the coaching staff need time before we make any conclusions as to this edition of the wine and gold is a playoff team, a post-season contender, or a squad that should be looking toward the 2019 NBA Draft Lottery in May.

Already, we heard criticism of Kevin Love, because he shot 5 for 18 last night. This is the overreaction of one game. Love will shoot the ball better, he’s too good of a shooter.

Remember, this is a new system for the coaches and the players. And pretty much every guy on the roster has a new role, except for maybe Kyle Korver and Tristan Thompson. You have to provide time to get used to the newness.

Even teams with championship aspirations have periods of adjustment when new players are added in, so a team that lost the best player in the game should and will be no exception.

Let’s see what the Cavaliers look like in two or three weeks before jumping to any conclusions. After all, expectations are lower this season than the last four years.

Examining Tribe Free Agents & Other Stuff

It’s been a week since the Cleveland Indians’ season ended after getting swept in the American League Division Series by the Houston Astros.

Thus, the Tribe joins all but four major league teams in looking forward to the 2019 season. Barring something drastic, the Indians will enter next season as the favorites for a fourth consecutive Central Division title.

However, there has the potential to have a pretty large roster turnover for Cleveland, and there probably will be. What should the Indians do to improve next season?

First, the everyday lineup needs to be deeper. The lineup was top heavy for most of the past season, and when Jose Ramirez slumped in the middle of August, there wasn’t enough hitting by everyone hitting after Edwin Encarnacion, and by that we mean consistent hitting.

The Indians have 11 free agents this winter, including Carlos Carrasco and Brandon Guyer, both of whom have club options for 2019. The other nine are as follows–

Cody Allen
Michael Brantley
Melky Cabrera
Lonnie Chisenhall
Rajai Davis
Josh Donaldson
Andrew Miller
Oliver Perez
Josh Tomlin

We would exercise Carrasco’s option, but let Guyer walk. Guyer was lethal against southpaws when he arrived in 2016, but although he had an 804 OPS vs. LHP in 2018, he hit just .233, which isn’t good enough. And he’s 32 years old.

The qualifying offer for free agents will be around $17.5 million, and there is no doubt the Tribe will make the offer to Brantley. They may also pick one of the two relief pitchers, Allen or Miller, as well.

That will get them draft pick compensation depending on the size of the contract they sign with other teams, should they go elsewhere.

Out of the two, we would pick Miller, because he didn’t pitch as much this season, and let’s face it, he’s the more dominant of the pair. If he accepts it, and he might to rebuild his value, you have another back end of the bullpen reliever.

Allen seems to have shown the wear and tear of averaging 68 appearances per season in his seven seasons with the Indians.

As for Brantley, we would explore bringing him back, but only on a two year deal max. The outfielder will be 32 years old next May, and we have seen the negatives of signing players over 30 to multiyear deals.

He hasn’t had a fall off in performance with the bat, but his defense has declined, and he had the injury issues in both 2016 and 2017.

The organization seems to have an issue with Chisenhall, who would seem to be an ideal candidate to bring back on an incentive laden one year deal. The former first round pick has been limited to 320 at bats, batting .297 with 13 homers and 62 RBI in the past two injury plagued seasons.

He’s a solid offensive player, particularly against right handed pitching.

They have to make room for Yandy Diaz to play everyday. It seems absurd to think the organization sent someone to the minors coming off a year at AAA where he slashed .350/454/460.

Diaz can hit, and he needs to be doing it at the major league level.

And the front office has to improve the batting attack by getting more consistent hitters. We believe you need seven solid hitters to have a solid lineup.

We will look at the free agent list when it is complete to examine who is on the market.

Oh, and one last thing. After Manny Machado and Bryce Harper sign, start working on a long term contract with Lindor.

This is a big, big off-season for the Tribe front office. Simply put, they must improve this roster around the core of Lindor, Ramirez, and the starting rotation.

Hopefully, A Learning Experience For Browns

For those fans who thought Baker Mayfield had by passed the growing pains that go along with being an NFL rookie quarterback, you were proven wrong today.

The fact is, Mayfield is a rookie, and there were going to be days like today, especially when defensive coordinators were able to review some tape on the first overall pick in the draft.

The question now is will Mayfield be able to make the adjustments needed to come out and do well next week against Tampa? We believe he will learn from today and be better going forward.

But it was ugly to watch today, as Cleveland was dismantled by the Chargers, 38-14 at First Energy Stadium.

It was more disturbing to see what veteran QB Philip Rivers did to the Cleveland defense, which has played well in four out of the five games to date.

Make that four out of six.

The Chargers made big play after big play all afternoon, both in the running game and in the passing game. It seemed the Browns were clueless about stopping them.

LA averaged almost eight yards per play! Gregg Williams’ defense allowed over 200 yards on the ground, getting almost seven yards per carry.

Without the ability to stop the run, it was difficult for the Browns to muster the pass rush we have seen all year long.

In the air, Rivers connected on two long touchdown passes to WR Tyrell Williams (45 and 29 yards), the first of which Cleveland outmanned the receivers with three defenders, and he caught the ball anyway.

It was a dominating effort. Rivers was pulled in the middle of the fourth quarter, threw only 20 passes for the game, and was sacked just once (combination of Larry Ogunjobi and Joe Schobert).

Again, how the defensive unit comes back from this performance (or lack of it) next week is what should be taken from this game.

Now back to Mayfield, who completed just 22 of 46 passes for 238 yards and two interceptions, as Cleveland lost the turnover battle for the second time this season.

The lack of quality wide receivers didn’t help either as there were a few dropped passes, but that really didn’t make a difference in the grand scheme of things.

With Rashard Higgins out of there, the Chargers basically took Jarvis Landry out of the game, as he caught just two balls for nine yards.

Veteran Rod Streater, (yes, we know he was picked up off waivers, but he’s still a veteran) got hurt early, and Cleveland dressed just four wide receivers. That left them with only three.

Rookie Damion Ratley and TE David Njoku became Mayfield’s main targets.

And while the rookie held the ball too long at times, his offensive line didn’t have a great day either. It appeared tackles Desmond Harrison and Chris Hubbard struggled all day against a Chargers’ defense missing Joey Bosa.

One bright spot was the special teams performance of Jabril Peppers, who returned three kickoffs for a 23.7 yard average and also had a 33 yard punt return.

Another was the use of Duke Johnson, which we hope Todd Haley remembers going forward. Johnson had a 23 yard run and has a 33 yard reception as well. He needs to touch to ball more often.

Also, it wouldn’t be an NFL game without a horrific call, or in this case a missed call, by the people who are supposed to be officiating the game. On the Chargers last touchdown of the first half, LT Russell Okung came out of his stance at least a second before the ball was snapped, and wasn’t penalized for a false start.

The Browns looked a little like a team who started thinking they were better than they are after the overtime win over Baltimore last week.

Hopefully, the coaching staff will use today’s game to remind them that they still are one of the bottom feeders in the NFL, and they have to play much better to win games.

The best case scenario is to use this as a learning tool. The game itself was total domination.

Happy With Baker, But Let’s Ease Up A Bit

There is no question that fans of the Cleveland Browns are looking for things to be optimistic about.

After one win in the last two seasons, having a 2-2-1 record through five games certainly provides a glimmer of hope. There is even talk about playoff contention, and heck, if the Browns can get to Thanksgiving still in the hunt, that would be outstanding.

The rookie class is exceeding everyone’s expectations, with Denzel Ward showing signs he can be a shutdown cornerback, Nick Chubb showing flashes of being a top flight running back, and Genard Avery doing very well as a pass rusher.

And then you have the first overall pick, QB Baker Mayfield, who has been pressed into service quicker than most figured after the acquisition of Tyrod Taylor, brought in so the team could ease the rookie into the job.

Mayfield has completed 58.9% of his passes and has a passer rating of just 81.4, but he is providing football fans in northeast Ohio a reason to tune in the Browns every Sunday.

He put up 42 points in a loss to the Raiders, even though he turned the ball over four times.

He ranks 10th in the NFL in yards per passing attempt, meaning he’s not a dink and dunk type of passer, he’s picking up yardage in chunks

We have heard people in the local media and also fans saying the Browns have found their “franchise” quarterback, the franchise’s first since Bernie Kosar.

We say let’s slow down a bit.

We believe you have to string a couple of very good seasons together to achieve the franchise moniker. And while he like Mayfield a lot, let’s wait until NFL defense have seen the rookie and compiled a dossier on how to combat him.

Let’s look at the two quarterbacks taken with the first two picks of the 2015 NFL Draft, Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota.

Winston started all 16 games his rookie year, and after 12 games, the Buccaneers were 6-6. In those first dozen contests, he threw 17 TD passes vs. 12 interceptions as Tampa looked much improved from a 2-14 season the year before.

He threw for at least 177 yards in every game, topping out with a 363 yard effort in a 31-23 loss to the Rams in the 14th game of the year.

Three years later, does anyone consider Winston one of the top 10 QBs in the NFL?

Mariota started 12 games his rookie year, with the Titans going 3-9 in his starts. He completed 62% of his passes with 19 touchdowns, 10 picks, and a 91.5 passer rating.

His second year was even better–26 TDs, 9 interceptions and a 95.6 rating as Tennessee went 9-7 for the season.

They made the playoffs last season, but the quarterback’s performance declined. He threw 13 scoring passes with 15 interceptions, and this year they are 1-2 in his starts and he has a TD to interception ratio of 2:4.

Again, he wouldn’t make anyone’s Top 10 either.

And that’s our definition of a franchise quarterback, a guy who is among the top players at the most important position in sports.

Don’t forget Dak Prescott in Dallas, who was hailed as a future All Pro after his rookie year, when the Cowboys went 13-3. Now? He’s showing he may just be average.

So, while we are very excited about the former Heisman Trophy winner from Oklahoma, we aren’t ready to ordain him quite yet. He is playing very well right now, but let’s evaluate him in late November or early December.

By then, we will make more of a sample size to evaluate him. We do like what we’ve seen so far.

A Tribe Post Mortem

The Cleveland Indians season came to a disappointing end in the American League Division Series for the second straight year, and this time they can’t even complain about blowing the series.

Giving up 21 runs in a three game series, while scoring only 6 doesn’t make anyone wistful about what might have been.

We were worried about the Tribe’s offense throughout the season, and our worst fears came true, as the Indians got just three hits in each of the first two games, and had only four yesterday until the Astros blew the game open off the Cleveland bullpen, which by the way, was another concern.

The offense was top heavy all year long, buoyed by excellent seasons by Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez, and Michael Brantley. When Ramirez’ bat went AWOL around the middle of August, the offense really sputtered.

One thing that is needed during the winter is the addition of some solid, consistent bats to pick up the slack with that trio, and Brantley may not be back, isn’t hot.

While we all look at statistics, particularly the new ones, the analytics people need to realize that going 4 for 5 on a given night, and following it up with a couple of 0 for 4s, makes you 4 for 13 (.308 batting average), but you didn’t do anything offensively on two of those nights.

This year’s Tribe had too many players (Yonder Alonso, Jason Kipnis, anyone playing centerfield and rightfield) who did nothing at the plate on a nightly basis.

Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff have a lot of spots in the lineup that need an upgrade.

And while the starting rotation is the cornerstone of the team, the bullpen will need a massive overhaul. Brad Hand and Adam Cimber will return, but beyond that duo, who knows?

Cody Allen and Andrew Miller are free agents, and it is doubtful they will be back.

Terry Francona tried to force Trevor Bauer into the Miller 2016 role in the series, but Bauer is a starter, and being moved out of his normal role didn’t work.

He did it because he no longer trusted Allen and Miller to get big outs when needed.

And speaking of the skipper, he needs to do some internal auditing as well.

The patience vs. stubbornness fine line continues to be an issue. He wanted Miller to be the ’16 edition when he brought him out of the bullpen in Game 2, and probably pulled Carlos Carrasco too early as a result.

But that Miller disappeared midway through last season. Hoping he would come back didn’t help against Houston.

Perhaps there should be a dissenting voice on the staff. The current staff has been with Tito for awhile, and they probably think a lot alike. Sometimes, it’s good to look at things with a different slant.

The first order of business will be the free agents. If Brantley wants to stay on a one or two year deal, we would welcome him back. Let’s face it though, he’s declined defensively, and ideally should spend much of his time at DH.

However, the Tribe has Edwin Encarnacion for another season.

The contention window is not closing. The Indians still have a strong rotation, and still have two of the top ten players in the sport in Lindor and Ramirez. However, you can’t have below average players everywhere else and get to where you want to go.

That and rebuilding the bullpen are the biggest jobs the front office has this winter.

For Tribe fans, this loss with sting until spring training begins in mid-February.