Tribe Won’t Do It, But We’ll Look Ahead…

Without a doubt, the Cleveland Indians are a frustrating team to watch. They struggle to score runs for sure, and heck, they’ve been no-hit twice this season, and we are only a little over a third of the way through the campaign.

Yesterday’s 10-4 win over the Orioles marked just the second time this year the Tribe scored over 10 runs in a ballgame, and it was only the fifth time Terry Francona’s team won by more than five runs. Contrast this to the division leading White Sox, who have won 12 games by five tallies or more.

What this means is even when they win, and they have won often enough to be on a pace to win 90 games in 2021, they keep you on the edge of your seat. There are very few relaxing victories.

Cleveland has already played their chief division rivals, the Pale Hose, 11 times this season, winning six. That means two things. First, the Tribe doesn’t have as many opportunities to catch the Sox in head-to-head meetings, they play only eight more times.

On the other hand, it also means the Indians have already played the majority of their games against the best team in the AL Central Division, meaning they have 35 games against the Royals, Twins, and Tigers, against whom they have a 15-7 record.

We know the front office or Francona aren’t looking ahead, but the next two months offer a strict contrast in terms of the schedule.

The rest of June includes five more games against Baltimore (including today’s tilt) as well as three against Seattle, three vs. Pittsburgh, and seven total against division rivals the Twins and Tigers.

Cleveland better continue their winning ways because once the calendar turns to July, the slate gets brutal.

Heading into the All Star break, the Tribe plays four vs. Houston and a three game trip to Tampa before coming back for a four game series at Progressive Field against the Royals.

Following the Mid Summer Classic (which it still is, by the way), Francona’s crew resumes play with a six game trip to Oakland (a recent nightmare for Cleveland teams) and Houston.

They come home for four with the Rays and two with St. Louis, before ending the month with a series in Chicago against the White Sox and then on to Toronto.

The trade deadline comes during the series against the White Sox. At that point, will the organization be looking to buy or sell?

The front office has made some changes in the past week, cutting ties with Jake Bauers to take a look at slugging first baseman Bobby Bradley, and seems to have settled on a rotation of Shane Bieber, Aaron Civale, Triston McKenzie, Cal Quantrill, and J.C. Mejia for now.

The off days Cleveland has had in the past two weeks have allowed them to stretch out Quantrill and Mejia without putting undue stress on the bullpen.

The Indians need the latter two to provide some good outings until Zach Plesac can return to the rotation, probably after the All Star break.

This team is still built on pitching, and without it, it is very, very difficult for them to win games. They have to have it be a close game heading into the six inning.

Both Quantrill’s and Mejia’s first starts were encouraging and if at least one of them can provide solid innings to start games, it helps the organization rebuild some depth.

The Indians need to take advantage of the June games to establish themselves as contenders before the trade deadline. Then, maybe the front office will be allowed to spend some cash to improve the current roster.

Everyone’s QB Question–Where Does Baker Rank?

We are in the middle of the NFL off-season and this is the time the football columnists start ranking players, and the position which draws the most attention is of course, quarterbacks.

Here in Cleveland, we have a QB that serves as a lightning rod for the national pundits, so there is constant debate around the football cognoscenti as to how good Baker Mayfield really is.

So we decided to enter the fray and decide where Baker Mayfield realistically be on the current ranking of NFL signal callers.

First though, some rules. Any rookie is not eligible for this list. So we will not be including Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, Trey Lance, Zach Wilson or any other rookie on this list.

We are also not going to include any players entering their second year in the NFL, and that is because of Mayfield. Remember how everyone was hailing Baker as the next great QB following his rookie season of 2018?

So do we, and a year later, he was thought by many (and still is by some) to be nothing more than average. That same thing can happen to Joe Burrow, Tua Tagavailoa, or the new hot commodity, Justin Herbert.

The second time around the league, defensive coordinators start to see your tendencies and make adjustments to take away what you like to do. So, we aren’t going to rate someone real high based on a strong rookie year until we see what happens in a second year.

You can go ahead and call that the Mayfield Rule.

We can be accused of watering down the group, eliminating seven players who could arguably start for their respective teams this fall. However, we feel to give an honest evaluation of the position, you have to have a solid two years of performance to examine.

We will start with the QBs clearly better than Mayfield based on their body of work. Those guys would be Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson, and Deshaun Watson. Tom Brady as well, despite his age. If this was a list of guys we’d rather have Mayfield than, we wouldn’t include the six time Super Bowl winner because of the number of years he will still play.

One can make arguments about Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Ryan Tannehill, Derek Carr, Dak Prescott, Matt Ryan, Kyler Murray, and Matthew Stafford, so whether or not you consider Mayfield better than them depends on how you evaluate quarterbacks.

So, at the very least, we’ve named 13 quarterbacks. If you think Mayfield isn’t as good as any of those names we’ve listed he is the 14th best QB in the NFL. We do not think all of them are better.

Personally, we would rate Ryan and Allen over Mayfield. Prescott is a solid QB and we will see this year on Stafford now that he is with a better team, the Rams. Our opinion is we would rather have Mayfield than those two, understanding both put up big numbers.

Understand in the NFL, if you are losing a lot, defenses give up a lot of yards. Take for example, Prescott’s statistics against the Browns a year ago. He was 41 of 58 for 502 yards and four TD passes. Great numbers, right? Until you understand the score going into the fourth quarter was Cleveland 41, Dallas 14.

It wasn’t Prescott’s fault they were losing that big, but it does make it easier to accumulate stats.

Jackson is a separate case for us, because really he and Mayfield play different positions. We know we are dating ourselves but the Ravens’ QB plays kind of a single wing tailback position. As a passer, Mayfield is better, but Jackson is the better player overall. After all, he won a league MVP.

With the same head coach and offensive coordinator for two consecutive seasons, 2021 should decide the issue on Baker Mayfield. Right now, we have him in the 8-12 range among the league’s quarterbacks.

Another playoff appearance and success there will have him rising up this list with a bullet.

No One At Columbus Is Grabbing The Opportunity With Tribe

We feel it is well established by now that the Cleveland Indians are offensively challenged. They rank 11th in the American League in runs scored per game at 3.92, almost a half run below the league average of 4.37.

They are second last in on base percentage, 11th in slugging percentage, and 13th in OPS, ahead of just the Tigers and Mariners.

The pitching staff has dropped to 5th in ERA, springing a few leaks as Zach Plesac went down with an injury and whoever has pitched in the 4th and 5th spots in the rotation have not been effective.

We have pointed out the team has just two hitters over 800 in OPS, Jose Ramirez and Franmil Reyes, and the latter is out for perhaps two months with an oblique strain.

What maybe even worse is that Terry Francona and his staff have given 11 hitters with an OPS under 700 (the league average is 709 over 50 plate appearances.

We have complained and wondered why some of those players keep getting opportunities. Some of them haven’t performed up to league average for over two seasons.

There is a simple and yet, troubling reason why the front office hasn’t made a lot of changes. There isn’t exactly anyone at AAA Columbus who is banging down the door to get a big league shot.

Obviously, Owen Miller earned a shot by hitting .406 in 64 at bats, and yet he has struggled with the Tribe, getting just four hits in 32 at bats (.125).

Bradley Zimmer received the call last week, and after a tough start to the season, had rebounded to hit .267 with a 780 OPS. He has fanned 26 times in 75 appearances at the dish, but his defense and speed are tools needed for the big club.

Daniel Johnson was thought to be the closest to be ready at AAA to open the season, but he entered play on Monday batting just .197 and striking out 33 times in 87 plate appearances. He has walked 10 times and has a 720 OPS.

The Tribe’s #1 position prospect, Nolan Jones, has had problems in his first taste of AAA action. He’s hitting just .189 with a single home run thus far, and although he leads the Clippers with 16 walks, he too has had contact problems, whiffing a team high 39 times in 91 plate appearances.

Oscar Mercado, who had success with the Tribe in ’19, is hitting .170 with no homers and five runs batted in. His OPS is just 490.

The people’s choice from spring training, slugging first baseman Bobby Bradley, does lead the Clippers in homers with 7 and is tied for the team lead in RBIs with 17. He’s also hitting just .170 with only seven walks and still is having contact issues, fanning 30 times in 94 times at the plate.

The best hitter (besides Miller) at Columbus is 33-year-old veteran catcher Ryan Lavarnway, who is hitting .283 with six dingers and a 955 OPS. Young infielder Ernie Clement, only 25, has missed some time with injuries, but is hitting .353 with 7 doubles in 34 at bats. He was the 27th man in Sunday’s doubleheader, so is he getting close to a shot in the bigs?

Without alternatives in AAA, it is tough to move on from the players who have been with the team all season, even though they aren’t producing.

If someone could emerge in the minor leagues soon, there are opportunities awaiting them in Cleveland. Our bet is the front office is waiting for the same thing.