Good And Bad So Far From Browns

Thank goodness that half of the NFL’s preseason schedule is over for the Cleveland Browns.

After the first exhibition game against Green Bay, where the Packers stopped just short of bringing fans out of Lambeau Field to play against the Browns, last night we got to see the brown and orange play against legitimate players, at least for the first half.

Yes, Cleveland lost to Atlanta at First Energy Stadium last night, but at least now we can make some judgments on this football team, as they head into a week of practices against Tampa Bay next week, followed by the “dress rehearsal” a week from today in Florida.

Robert Griffin III has shown flashes of why he was the 2nd overall pick in the draft a few years ago. He has a big arm, has been accurate for the most part, and has learned how to slide when he runs with the football.

We said in the off-season that signing the former Heisman Trophy winner was the ultimate low risk, high reward gamble. After all, it’s not like Griffin is replacing Tom Brady, the alternative is veteran journeyman (and media favorite) Josh McCown.

The right move is finding out if Griffin can play, and so far, so good.

A year ago, Mike Pettine and his staff cut Terrelle Pryor right before the regular season started, then brought him back later in the season and virtually ignored him.

We realize that Pryor has greatly improved his wide receiver skills in the off-season, but you still have to wonder why the previous regime didn’t feel the need to work with him more. After all, the guy is a special athlete.

The running game looked good last night as well. Isaiah Crowell and Duke Johnson have been effective and Terrell Watson has looked good against second team defenders. We’d like to see him with the first unit next weekend. If the Browns are going move the ball effectively and try to shorten games, they must run the football.

And we would also like to see rookie Carl Nassib with the first team defense at times. You can’t help but notice the 6’7″ kid from Penn State, and not just because of his size. He’s all over the field when he’s in.

The problems on defense continue to be the inability to stop the running game and not being able to get off the field on third down. Those two issues have plagued this franchise since they returned to the NFL in 1999.

If you can’t run the ball and you can’t stop the run, you can’t win in the NFL despite it becoming a passing league. The Cleveland defense seems to be consistently in second and short situations, and if they do get to third down, it’s usually at a make able distance.

We would also like to see more of the young wide receivers. We still believe that Andrew Hawkins will not make the opening roster, but so far, we haven’t seen a lot of the rookie wide outs taken this spring. We know injuries play into that, but it’s still a problem.

We understand this is still pre-season and much of the game plans are very vanilla. However, it is easy to spot these trends.

On the other hand, we are halfway done in regards to the exhibition games. Based on the quality of these game, be very thankful for that.

Tribe’s Struggles Vs. Good Teams: Fact or Myth?

After yesterday’s 3-2 loss in a make up game against the Boston Red Sox, the whispers surrounding the Cleveland Indians started up again.

The Indians cannot beat good teams.

There are nine teams in the American League that have records over .500 and the Tribe is 23-25 against those opponents. That sounds okay, until you see that 11 of those victories and only one of the losses came versus the Detroit Tigers.

Against all the other winning teams in the league, the Tribe is 12-24.

Overall, the best records against teams over the .500 mark is owned by the Texas Rangers, who are 39-22, buoyed by an 11-2 mark vs. Houston. Toronto is next at 37-26, as they are 21-14 against the other three contenders in the AL East, the Red Sox, Orioles, and Yankees.

That would make it seem that indeed Terry Francona’s squad is struggling against good teams.

Here is a breakdown against each team, excluding the Tigers.

Texas (1-2, all games in Cleveland): The Rangers were here on Memorial Day and hammered both Josh Tomlin and Corey Kluber, defeating them 9-2 and 7-3 respectively. Trevor Bauer stemmed the tide in the finale, but Cody Allen blew the save and the Indians won in 11 innings.

Cleveland travels to Texas at the end of the month, but the Rangers saw only one of the Indians’ best three starters.

Seattle (3-4, 1-2 at CLE, 2-2 on the road): Carlos Carrasco beat the Mariners 3-2, and Danny Salazar lost a 2-1 decision, before the Mariners won in extras on a Robinson Cano HR off Allen in a game started by Cody Anderson.

In Seattle, Bauer won the opener 3-1, before Anderson lost 7-1 and Carrasco lost 5-0. Tomlin pitched well in the last game, with Cleveland scoring three in the 8th for the win.

One game was a bullpen loss, and Seattle has seen the “Big Three” times. Wouldn’t say Tribe was dominated.

Houston (1-2, all on road): The Astros got to Kluber big time winning 7-1, before Bauer won the second game 4-0. The last game went 16 innings with Anderson giving up a game winning HR.

The Astros come to Cleveland on Labor Day, and the last game of the series could’ve went either way.

Baltimore (1-5, 1-2 in CLE, swept in the Charm City): The Birds won two of three at Progressive Field taking advantage of the Indians’ bullpen. Salazar got the win. The other starters were Bauer and Mike Clevinger.

The Tribe offense was stymied on the road, scoring just six runs in the three game series, the last game was a walk off. Bauer, Tomlin, and Kluber started.

We would agree the Orioles have dominated the Indians.

Boston (2-4, 1-2 in both CLE and BOS): The Sox won the season opener vs. Kluber and lost late in a game started by Carrasco.

At Fenway, Kluber shutdown Boston, but Bauer and Salazar struggled before the make up game loss yesterday in which Tomlin pitched well.

This is a little concerning as well.

Toronto (2-2, all in Canada): Carrasco carved up the Jays in the series opener and the second game was the 19 inning epic battle started by Tomlin.

Because of that game, Zack McAllister was pressed into service in the third game and Kluber simply didn’t have it in the finale.

The Jays are here this weekend so we will get a truer test.

New York (2-5, 1-3 in CLE, 1-2 in the Bronx): The series in Cleveland was right after the 14 game winning streak, and the Tribe was on fumes heading into the All Star break.

At Yankee Stadium, Tomlin struggled, but Kluber shutdown the Yanks bats. The third game was a tough 3-2 loss by Carrasco.

The Yankees aren’t really a contender for a division title, and the performance just before the break makes this hard to evaluate.

The only excuse we would make is the Cleveland bullpen is much better with the arrival of Andrew Miller. We see four games blown late because of the relief corps. Reversing these games makes the Tribe 20-24 on the year against these teams.

These teams have also taken advantage of the back of the Indians’ rotation, winning 10 of the 15 games started by pitchers other than Kluber, Carrasco, or Salazar.

Tomlin, in particular, has struggled against these teams, with the Tribe winning just two games he started against these squads.

The good news is outside of the Tigers (seven more games), there aren’t too many games left vs. these teams, only nine, and six of those (Toronto and Houston) are at home.

Francona’s team struggled against the Orioles and Red Sox, and we can’t come to a conclusion against Toronto or Texas.

Otherwise, you shouldn’t be too concerned about the lack of success against the AL’s better teams. Remember, in 2007, the Yankees beat the Indians in all six games in the regular season, only to lose in the Division Series three games to one.

Tribe Wise To Wait On Inking Napoli, Davis

The Cleveland Indians are sitting pretty on top of the American League Central Division with a record of 66-48, five games ahead of the Detroit Tigers.

Two big reasons for their success offensively have been the players they signed to one year contracts over the off-season, Mike Napoli and Rajai Davis.

Napoli has provided the right-handed hitting slugger the franchise has needed for years, and to date has belted 29 homers and knocked in 83 runs with an OPS of 875. The home runs and RBIs rank in the top ten in the AL.

Davis, at 35 years of age, currently leads the junior circuit in stolen bases with 31, and has led the Tribe’s aggressive base running style which started on Opening Day. Davis has also contributed a career high in HRs with 10 this season.

The Indians’ success has fans excited and rightfully so, but talk of extensions for both players should be responded too by hitting the brakes just a bit.

First of all, remember how the Tribe acquired both players. They took one year contracts for a reason, because they were both coming off down years.

Napoli hit just .224 a year ago, with 18 HR and 50 RBI and a 734 OPS splitting time between the Red Sox and Rangers. His last season, prior to 2016, where he has an OPS of over 800 was 2013, when he hit 23 dingers and knocked in 92 runs for the World Series Champions.

Players who have career bests in home runs and runs batted in at age 34, don’t usually repeat those numbers going forward.

We understand that Napoli has been a great guy in the clubhouse and has become a fan favorite with his “Party At Napoli’s” t-shirts. But the front office’s job is too make an honest evaluation of what the slugger can do in the future, and how long he can do it.

Davis is a different case in that he did have a career renaissance in Detroit in 2014 and 2015. He had an OPS under 700 from 2010 to 2013 in Oakland and Toronto before signing with the Tigers, where his numbers picked up mostly as a result of Comerica Park, where he flourished.

We were skeptical as to how he would perform at Progressive Field, but he is putting some similar numbers with Cleveland, and leads the league in steals at age 35.

Look, it is great that fans feel connected to this current Tribe roster, and that Napoli and Davis have contributed greatly to this team’s success.

And it’s not as though we don’t want them back. However, remember the problems this organization had giving Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn multi-year deals?

If either player or both would sign one year contracts over the winter, it would be easy for Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff to say yes.

Our guess is that some team will offer Napoli a three year contract at over $10 million per year, and that’s something the Indians need to stay away from.

It’s more likely Davis could be back on a one year deal because he’s more of a platoon player.

Fans shouldn’t forget that the Tribe’s three best position players are Francisco Lindor (22), Jason Kipnis (29), and Jose Ramirez (23). And those guys will be here for awhile.

Our opinion is it is more likely the front office will be looking at guys similar to Napoli and Davis who will take a one year deal for 2017.

There’s no such thing as a bad one year contract.

We love Napoli and Davis and how they have impacted this roster. But the front office has to remember the sins of the past. And those sins are named Swisher and Bourn.

Did Tribe Give Up Too Much For Miller?

It has now been a little over a week since the Cleveland Indians made their big deadline deal, trading four prospects, two of them in the top 100 in the sport for left-handed reliever Andrew Miller.

We have heard people, media and fans alike, still debating the merits of the Tribe’s biggest trade since getting Ubaldo Jimenez in 2011.

Did the Indians give up too much to get Miller?

The cost was steep as Cleveland gave up their top prospect (or #1A with Bradley Zimmer) in Clint Frazier, perhaps their top pitching prospect in Justus Sheffield, and two bullpen arms in Ben Heller and J.P. Freyereisen.

For the most part, the Indians dealt from strength. They have Zimmer coming, and with the emergence of Tyler Naquin, and prospects like Greg Allen and Anthony Santander having outstanding minor league seasons, the front office felt they could make this move.

We like Frazier, in fact, we would have rather moved Zimmer in this deal, but at the time of the trade, he had 21 at bats at the AAA level. Remember, when you are a good team, prospects aren’t valued as heavy as they are when you are building.

Sheffield has been very good, but we all know that pitchers are a volatile commodity. He’s just 5’10”, and we have seen reports that he can be a big time starting pitcher, while others see his future in the bullpen.

As for the other the bullpen arms in the deal, the Indians have a lot of guys who are profiled as relievers, even if they haven’t been given a good shot in the big leagues. Again, the organization was dealing from strength.

Ordinarily this would be a hefty price for a relief pitcher, particularly a closer, which is how many have perceived the trade.

However, the way Terry Francona has used Miller so far, he is much more valuable than a closer.

Yes, we have problems at times regarding how the skipper uses his relievers, but to date, he has been using out of the box thinking on using his primary guys at the end of the game, namely Miller, Bryan Shaw, and Cody Allen.

So far, we have seen Francona use Miller in the 6th inning in a game where the Tribe wanted to end a three game losing streak to the Twins and his starter gave him less than five innings.

He also used him Tuesday night in the 7th inning to close out an inning in a 2-0 game, and then used him for two more hitters in the 8th.

So, he’s using Miller at the key point of the game, not strictly the ninth inning. Really, it would be a waste to use this weapon simply to get the last three outs of a game when you are winning.

This versatility is what makes Miller perhaps the best reliever in the game. And his ego isn’t such that he has to pitch the ninth. And neither is Allen’s which makes this all work.

Because Francona can use Miller at the most important part of the game, ninth inning or not, means the Indians haven’t paid too much to get the big lefty.

And we can see Miller being even more of a weapon if the Tribe gets to the playoffs.

This ability also means that perhaps Cleveland took care of their bullpen woes with just one addition.

If the Indians win the World Series this season and Miller is a big part of that, which he will have to be, then the price is not excessive.

Hue’s Decision At QB Was A Logical, Simple One

Imagine you are an NFL head coach and you are taking over a team that went 3-13 a year ago, and hasn’t had a winning season since 2007.

Your bosses have tried several way to build a successful franchise, and in the off-season, they traded away or cut several veterans, and let a few more leave via free agency.

So, there isn’t a lot of pressure on you to win immediately, but the owner, the front office, and the fan base would like to see some progress as the season goes on.

You have several candidates for the starting quarterback position–

One is the former second overall pick in the draft after winning the Heisman Trophy, and in his rookie year took his team to the NFL playoffs. He blew out his knee in that game, and hasn’t been the same since.

The second candidate is a 37-year-old journeyman with a career record as a starter of 18-39, and over the last two years, seasons in which he started 19 of 32 games, his record is 2-17.

He has started just 57 games in a 13 year career.

You also have on the roster a third year QB who started five games in his second year in the league and was pressed into service to start two more games with your team a season ago, both of which were losses.

And you have a rookie third round draft pick from one of the elite college programs in the country. He’s a guy you really like and you went out on a limb to take him where you did. Still, he’s a rookie and you don’t want to expose him to the NFL before he’s ready to play.

The team in question of course are the Cleveland Browns and the quarterbacks at Hue Jackson’s disposal are Robert Griffin III, Josh McCown, Austin Davis, and Cody Kessler.

Jackson picked Griffin, and really, didn’t have much of a decision. That’s the logical move.

The Browns’ players and coaching staff will no doubt try to win every game, but there is little expectation going into the regular season of the playoffs.

Let’s face it, the only QBs currently on the roster who have a chance to be a quality NFL signal caller are Griffin and Kessler, and once again, the latter is a rookie.

The organization knows what McCown is. He’s a terrific teammate, a hard worker, and a guy you can put into a game without your franchise being embarrassed.

They also know what he isn’t, and that’s a quality NFL starter, and a guy with a history of winning football games. McCown is good enough to give you a decent performance and he will keep you in a game, but likely you won’t win.

Heck, the guy who started two of the three victories by the Browns a year ago, isn’t even in the NFL right now.

We have no idea if Griffin can become a successful passer from the pocket, because his success in Washington was with a hybrid offense. But in a rebuilding season? Why not find out.

If Griffin can make the transformation, the Browns have caught lightning in a bottle. If he doesn’t, you still have Kessler and a likely a high draft pick in next year’s draft.

But this is a year to experiment. That’s why Jackson’s decision was just the logical move.

Tribe’s Slump Is Normal (Not That It Makes It Better For Fans)

When the Cleveland Indians completed the first half of their 2016 schedule, they had just ended a club record 14 game winning streak, and were on pace for 98 wins for the season, sitting at 49-32.

In the next 27 games, 1/6th of the season if you will, they didn’t continue the torrid pace they were on leading up to the halfway point, but they weren’t exactly awful either. Here is how they have handling each 27 game stretch thus far:

First 27 games: 14-13, 5 games out of 1st place
Games 28-54: 16-11, total record 30-24, led AL Central by 1/2 game
Games 55-81: 19-8, total record 49-32, led AL Central by 5-1/2 games
Games 82-108: 13-14, total record 62-46, lead AL Central by 2 games

So, as ghastly as the last week has been, with the team’s strength, the starting rotation getting cuffed around by the Twins and Yankees, the last sixth of the season hasn’t been much different than the beginning of the campaign.

And in reality, most teams, even teams that reach the playoffs don’t play .700 baseball all season long. If the Tribe played the entire season like they did from game 55-81, they would have ended the season with a record of 114-48.

Cleveland’s starters had an ERA of under 3.00 during the month of June, a month in which Terry Francona’s squad went 22-6 and didn’t lose a home game. Although we predicted a division title before the season started, even we didn’t think that the Indians are as good as they played in that stretch.

The pitching as a whole did drop off, falling off the top spot in ERA to ranking 3rd in the AL currently, but much of that was due to the past week, when opponents were scoring 10 or more runs per night on a regular basis.

Danny Salazar’s absence will be felt, but if Cleveland is to maintain its grip on first place, they will need Trevor Bauer to pitch like he did before July 1st. He has struggled since pitching five innings in relief on July 1st, the 19 inning win over Toronto.

They will also need Mike Clevinger, or someone else from the Columbus roster to provide some solid outings. Clevinger has proved he can dominate at AAA, but his starts in the bigs have been tainted by an inability to command the strike zone. Perhaps getting comfortable up in the majors will help this.

The addition of Andrew Miller gives Francona the ability to put games away if the Tribe leads after six. For all the criticism around him (we have done it too), Bryan Shaw is a solid arm, and Cody Allen is too, although he would be better if he threw more strikes.

The offense continues to surprise, ranking 2nd in the league in runs scored.

Mike Napoli continues to bash the baseball, closing in on a career high in HRs, and Jason Kipnis has always topped his career best in that category.

And Francona has done a great job getting the most out of Rajai Davis and Lonnie Chisenhall, new acquisition Brandon Guyer has contributed already.

Tyler Naquin has shocked everyone (except Peter Gammons) by blossoming into a Rookie of the Year candidate, but with Davis, Guyer, and now Abraham Almonte performing well at the dish, it’s hard to argue with the skipper’s handling of his playing time.

Does the Tribe need to go on a nice winning stretch again? Of course, but the last 27 games haven’t been as bad as people have made them out to be.

If Detroit can stay this hot, then tip your cap to them. Our guess is they will have a slump just like Cleveland, and the lead in the Central will grow once again.

Browns Flying Under The Radar Right Now

After finishing 3-13 a year ago, probably no team wants to be under the radar more than the Cleveland Browns.

With the Cavaliers winning a title about six weeks ago, and the Indians currently in first place, it seems like no one is paying a great deal of attention to the opening of training camp in Berea.

With a new front office and new coaching staff, the lack of a spotlight should be refreshing to the new men in place in these positions.

The first thing that stands out here is the experience level of the coaching staff. Whereas Mike Pettine was a young coach and surrounded himself with other inexperienced coordinators (and yes, it was a tough blow to lose your offensive line coach right before the season), Hue Jackson has been a head coach in the NFL before.

He also has on staff a bunch of guys who have been around the league for a long, long time. Ray Horton, Al Saunders, Pep Hamilton, Hal Hunter, Johnny Holland, and the rest of the coaches know how to do the job at the professional level.

Besides the 14 draft picks in camp, of which we would expect at least 10 will make the team, we are anxious to see what happens to last year’s rookie class, who we feel we not developed by the prior regime.

It will be very interesting to see what last year’s first round picks, Danny Shelton and Cam Erving do under the new coaches, and both have made body changes.

Shelton lost about 30+ pounds, which should translate into being quicker off the ball, and Erving looks noticeably stronger in his bid to be the starting center.

In addition to those two, will players like Xavier Cooper, Ibraheim Campbell, Duke Johnson, and Nate Orchard get more of an opportunity than they received under Pettine and his staff.

Campbell looked like he had some promise when Donte Whitner was injured a year ago, but as soon as Whitner returned, Campbell disappeared.

Johnson seemed to disappear at halftime. He would be very effective in the first half, but rarely touched the ball in the second half in most games.

We are more confident that Jackson and his staff won’t go away from things that are working.

Being patient and working with young players will be of high importance for Jackson because it is very likely that at least 25% of his roster will be first or second year players.

Under the prior regime, they wouldn’t be able to find enough players to put on the field because of the hesitancy to play inexperienced guys.

We also feel there will be a clear direction for the players, especially on defense, so the “read and determine” scheme will be gone. We saw a lot of players thinking when the other team had the ball, rather than just playing.

On offense, the Browns may actually use weapons. We love that he seems to be trying to find out if Terrelle Pryor can play, knowing if the Browns can put him on the field, defenses will have to account for him.

Last year, he was cut, then brought back, and rarely used when he was returned. Considering they were 3-13, he couldn’t have played more?

We are anxious to see how the pre-season plays out, not in terms of wins and losses, but in terms of who is getting time, and how the young players are progressing.

However, the way the Browns are being low profiled, will anyone know the exhibition games are being played? That is probably just how the organization likes it.

Tribe Bullpen Still Needs Depth

Certainly, the Cleveland Indians acquisition of Andrew Miller, arguably the best relief pitcher in the game was a huge get for the team.

If the Indians have a lead after seven innings, it will be a daunting task for the opposition knowing they will have to see Cody Allen and Miller in the last two innings.

However, last night’s series opener against the Minnesota Twins illustrates why we advocated for another arm to be added to the relief corps.

It was clear from the get go that Danny Salazar didn’t have it (we fear an injury may be involved), but when Terry Francona removed him from the game, the Indians only trailed 5-3.

But Austin Adams came in and couldn’t limit the damage, allowing a bases loaded triple. Suddenly, the score was 8-3 and the game was over for all intent and purposes.

Look, we understand that games like this happen and every team goes through them, but the front end of the bullpen has been a problem all year.

Adams throws hard, but hasn’t been able to get hitters out consistently, allowing 10 earned runs in 14-1/3 innings in his various opportunities on the big club.

Zack McAllister has turned into a mess. Recently reactivated after having a “sore hip”, the right-hander was put into an 8-0 game on Sunday and couldn’t finish an inning allowing a double and walk, and then last night gave up five hits in an inning and a third.

He cannot throw any pitch besides a fastball for a strike and if we know that, we are pretty sure hitters know it too. That said, we can’t see him being used in anything more than a mop up role, and the way Francona likes to use his bullpen, that’s not an option.

Cody Anderson has been just thrown into the mix, but he has allowed 70 hits and 12 home runs in 48 innings pitched this season. While he may wind up being a good reliever some day (we think his future is as a starter), he’s not a guy Tito can trust right now.

By the way, Anderson allowed a home run in relief last night.

Kyle Crockett was the only reliever who did the job last night, putting up a zero in 1-2/3 innings.

Jeff Manship is currently on the DL with another “injury”, but this season, he has been the pitcher he has been throughout his major league career, save for the last two months of 2015. And that’s not good.

So, more changes need to be made.

Why not take a look at Shawn Armstrong, who almost headed to Milwaukee in the ill-fated Jonathan Lucroy deal.

Armstrong is 25, and struck out 11 in eight innings of big league work a year ago. And he’s improved his control this year at Columbus.

Maybe take a look at Jeff Johnson, a 26-year-old righty, who has a 2.79 ERA in AAA this year, following a 1.05 ERA at Akron a year ago.

They can’t do worse than what we’ve been seeing.

On another note, the Tribe made a small move yesterday before the deadline, getting OF Brandon Guyer from Tampa for a couple of prospects.

Although many probably don’t know Guyer, it’s a good pick up for Cleveland. He’s a .255 lifetime hitter, but against left-handed pitchers, he’s a beast.

In almost 400 at bats vs. southpaws, Guyer is a .283 hitter with an 848 OPS. So, Francona can put him in RF in place of Lonnie Chisenhall or in CF for Tyler Naquin, and he should give the Tribe quality at bats (not to say the other players mentioned won’t).

The Indians are better than they were last week, but they can still get better. The front office shouldn’t consider the bullpen a finished product.

Tribe Is Next Cleveland Team To Go “All In”

Edited to reflect Jonathan Lucroy voiding the deal to Cleveland

After the Cavaliers broke the drought for titles in Cleveland, we joked about how there is a new world order for sports.

That was never more evident than the past 12 hours when the Indians, yes, the Cleveland Indians, looked at the landscape around baseball, looked at their roster, and said we are going to try to go to the World Series and win it for the first time since 1948.

President Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff traded from their now deep farm system, and received the probably the best position player available and also the best relief pitcher on the market in catcher Jonathan Lucroy and southpaw Andrew Miller.

We have been harping about the Cleveland bullpen since the beginning of the season, and Miller, because he is signed through 2018, was the best bullpen arm on the market.

Since Miller became a reliever with the Red Sox in 2012, his highest ERA has been 3.35, and in his year and a half as a Yankee, he has struck out 177 batters in 107 innings pitched.

And he saved 36 games for New York a year ago.

Terry Francona should have no more worries when guys like David Ortiz, Eric Hosmer, etc. come to the plate in a late game situation any more. He has the best lefty bullpen arm in the game at his disposal.

Our guess is Tito will use Miller and Cody Allen as “co-closers”, meaning if there are tough lefty matchups in the 8th, Miller will pitch, and if there are tough right-handed hitters, Allen will go first.

That will move Bryan Shaw to the 7th, which puts less of a burden on one of the best starting rotations in the game.

And in the post-season, it could be invaluable as we’ve seen with the Royals the past two seasons.

There is no question the Indians gave up a lot of promising young players, but every single one of them hasn’t done a thing at the big league level.

And the Tribe dealt from strength. Clint Frazier is the player we wanted to part with least, but we figured either him or Brad Zimmer would have to go for Lucroy.

Justus Sheffield is a prime arm, but the Tribe didn’t give up Mike Clevinger, and still has Adam Plutko and Cody Anderson to help the rotation if need be.

Cleveland has a plethora of bullpen arms in the minors too.

Even though the deal with Milwaukee fell through, it shows the front office realizes the catching spot is a source of concern, and they are willing to do something about it.

They also understand the need for another quality bat to lengthen the lineup and compete with the Bostons, Torontos, Texas, and Detroits of the league.

Our guess is that Antonetti and Chernoff address both spots before 4 PM Monday afternoon.

The Indians want to get back to the World Series for the first time in 19 seasons. They are probably the favorite right now to do just that.

For Tribe, The Time For A Big Move Is Now

When the Dolan family took over ownership of the Cleveland Indians in 2000, Larry Dolan told his fan base that the team would spend money when it was appropriate.

Many Tribe fans are still waiting for that day.

While we aren’t sure about the money situation, it is time for the front office to go for it at this year’s trading deadline, with the Indians sitting at 57-42 and a 4-1/2 game lead in the American League Central Division.

In the Dolan era, there have been four instances after 2001 where the Indians entered August in a full fledged pennant race.

The 2005 squad had a 51-48 record after 99 games, but remember that was the year the White Sox got off to a hot start, so really at that point in the year, the Tribe was hoping for a wild card spot.

No major moves were made unless you consider dealing Jody Gerut for Jason Dubois a big move. The Tribe came up one game short at the end of the season.

The closest situation to this year was 2007, the last time the Indians won the division. They were 58-41 at this point in the season, and GM Mark Shapiro dealt catching prospect Max Ramirez to Texas for Kenny Lofton, who did make an impact the rest of the year and in the playoffs.

Manny Acta’s 2011 team got off to a good start (30-15) and were 51-48. The Indians made a big deal moving their top two pitching prospects (Drew Pomeranz and Alex White) for Ubaldo Jimenez.

The new pitcher struggled the rest of the year, and the Indians didn’t make the playoffs or even finish .500 for that matter.

In 2013, Cleveland’s most recent playoff appearance, the team was 52-47 and GM Chris Antonetti made one move, getting situational lefty Marc Rzepczynski from St. Louis.

Of course, the team ran a 21-6 record in September to a spot in the wild card game, where they lost to Tampa Bay.

This year is different from the others though.

Only in 2007 was were the Tribe considered one of the best teams in the American League, and at that time, the farm system was a desert in terms of developing solid major league players.

Remember that from C.C. Sabathia to Lonnie Chisenhall, Cleveland’s first round picks were busts. None of them, save for Jeremy Guthrie (released by the team) ever had a meaningful major league career.

This time, the Tribe system has many young players that organizations’ covet and have some surplus to deal to get back a substantial player who can help the major league team right now.

They also need to gain the trust of the fans in Cleveland too.

This may irritate the legions of people who swallow everything the organization feeds them, but many fans in the area feel like the front office doesn’t make winning the highest priority.

A big move for an impact player will show those fans the Indians want to be the next team from Cleveland to have a championship parade downtown.

And if that sells some tickets in the process, than so be it.

There is no move in major league baseball that guarantees anything, all you can do is increase your chances to get to the World Series. And we certainly do not want to mortgage the franchise’s future to do that.

The time for the Indians to make a move that does just that is right now.

You just have to pull the trigger.