Another Good Week for The Wine and Gold

When the NBA free agency period kicked off on July 1st, the front office of the Cleveland Cavaliers made news immediately, even though they didn’t add a player.

Instead, they kept one of their own, signing Kyrie Irving to a five-year contract extension which will keep him in the wine and gold through the 2019-20 season. No shorter deal like the one inked by LeBron James following his rookie contract.

Thus ends the speculation that Irving was not happy in Cleveland and wanted out as soon as possible.

We believe Irving wasn’t happy during the last season, and his disenchantment had every thing to do with the lack of respect he had for his coach, Mike Brown. The hiring of David Griffin as general manager and David Blatt as coach changed the two-time all-star’s mind. He now has a good feeling for the future of the franchise.

We have said this before, when coaches don’t play the right people, or design plays that do not work, the players lose confidence in them. To be sure, the total focus on defense in training camp which limited the offense early in the year did not sit well with Irving, and we suspect other players as well.

Remember, Irving played at Duke, coached by the legendary Mike Krzyzewski, who has won three national championships while there and is also the coach of the US National team, piloting two gold medal squads at the Olympics.

In short, he’s one of the most accomplished coaches in the history of the sport.

Imagine what the point guard thought when he saw Brown’s simplistic offense with little or no movement and totally designed on Irving’s (or someone else’s) ability to take his defender off the dribble.

You get the picture.

Remember when there were reports shortly after Luol Deng was traded to Cleveland regarding how Deng couldn’t believe the mess here. Deng played for Krzyzewski at Duke and then was coached by Tom Thibidoux in Chicago, two excellent coaches.

This is not to denigrate Brown, who by all accounts is a great guy and has paid his dues in the sport, but he’s not cut out to be a head coach in the NBA, and probably will not get a chance to be a head coach in the association again.

And this criticism of Brown doesn’t excuse the poor roster construction put together by former GM Chris Grant.

His roster was a collection of guards who like to have the ball in their hands (Irving, Dion Waiters, Jarrett Jack) and players more suited to play power forward in the NBA (Anderson Varejao, Tristan Thompson, Anthony Bennett, Earl Clark).

And he seemed reluctant to deal with strength, trading one of those players to fill obvious needs at small forward, shooting guard, and center.

From Irving’s point of view, he now sees a GM willing to make moves to improve the roster. He sees Andrew Wiggins, the first overall pick, who can play the #2 or the #3, and is an athletic freak, a guy who can run the floor with him.

He sees a coach who has won everywhere he’s been, and has a feel for both ends of the floor.

He sees a plan for this franchise going forward and he saw a chance for success.

That’s the reason for his change of heart and the reason he will wear the wine and gold for a long time.

Can Tribe Improve? That Depends on Front Office

Cleveland Sports Perspective

The baseball season is half over, and the Cleveland Indians have shown pretty much nothing in the way of consistency.

If you divide the season into six equal pieces, the Tribe has improved as each slice of the pie unfolds. They were 11-16 after the first 27 games, went 13-14 in the next sixth of the 2014 season, and finished the first half with a record of 15-12 over the last 27 contests.

However, to this point in the season, it doesn’t feel like a playoff squad.

The Tribe sits 6-1/2 games behind Detroit in the AL Central Division standings, and is just 4-1/2 games out of the last wild card spot, currently held by Seattle.

So, with the trading deadline coming at the end of July, right now you have to consider the Indians buyers. You can’t give up on a season when you are within striking distance. Remember…

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Can Tribe Improve? That Depends on Front Office

The baseball season is half over, and the Cleveland Indians have shown pretty much nothing in the way of consistency.

However, to this point in the season, it doesn’t feel like a playoff squad.

The Tribe sits 6-1/2 games behind Detroit in the AL Central Division standings, and is just 4-1/2 games out of the last wild card spot, currently held by Seattle.

So, with the trading deadline coming at the end of July, right now you have to consider the Indians buyers. You can’t give up on a season when you are within striking distance. Remember, Cleveland was five games out at the end of July a year ago, and still made the post-season.

Will the Indians’ front office make the necessary moves to reach the playoffs in back to back seasons for first time since 1998-99? That depends on whether or not the brass thinks changes are required to compete for a spot in the post-season.

We all realize GM Chris Antonetti and manager Terry Francona are very patient, and even the latter admitted earlier this year that sometimes that quality turns into stubbornness.

Will the belief that Francona has in his players preclude the GM from improving the current roster?

Yes, the Indians rank 5th in the American League in runs scored per game, but they have also scored three runs or less in almost half of their games (38 out of the 81 played).

That points to lack of consistency and means Antonetti should be looking for another reliable stick in the lineup. We all know about Nick Swisher’s horrible season to date, but Ryan Raburn has been equally disappointing with a .203 batting average, his second flirtation with the “Mendoza line” in three years.

The defense has been deplorable, leading the American League in errors with 70. Asdrubal Cabrera has been the chief culprit in that area, making most of his miscues on routine plays, including dropping three throws on possible double plays.

Swisher is here to stay because of his contract, but how long does management wait before making changes with Raburn and Cabrera? After reading in the newspaper this weekend that the team isn’t concerned with Cabrera’s glove, it doesn’t seem like any move will be coming any time soon.

On the pitching side, the only reliable starter has been stoic Corey Kluber. Trevor Bauer has kept the Tribe in the game in most of his starts, but has had issues holding leads when he gets one. Justin Masterson has been up and down more that a pogo stick, and the skipper can’t be sure what he’s going to get on a nightly basis when he takes the hill.

Josh Tomlin was not good in June until his one-hitter on Saturday night, and the last spot in the rotation has been less than stellar with rookie T.J. House and Zack McAllister not providing a lot of quality innings on a start by start basis.

The bullpen has been ridden hard with Cody Allen, Bryan Shaw, and Mark Rzepczynski all ranking in the top ten in the AL in appearances. The heavy workload is a result of Francona’s lack of trust in anyone else in the ‘pen. That may be changing with Carlos Carrasco’s good work since joining the relief corps.

The key will be when does the management feel enough is enough with the performance of certain players? And when they do, will it be too late to do anything about it?

The success of the 2014 season depends on the timing of making these changes. That doesn’t bode well based on past performance.

No Big Trades Yet for Cavs, But a Solid Draft Night

Many basketball fans in Cleveland thought draft night was going to be something monumental for the Cavaliers.

While it was an important night for the franchise, they simply used the draft picks at their disposal and apparently made one minor trade.

They used the first overall pick to draft Andrew Wiggins out of Kansas. Now, we would have picked Jabari Parker, because he is the more polished basketball player, but that doesn’t mean we don’t like the pick.

In four years, Wiggins could be one of the best players in the league. Our opinion is simply that for a team that claims to want to win now, they took a guy who could be much better down the road than he will be next season.

The newest Cavalier has a lot going for him. He’s an athletic freak and can probably play on the defensive end effectively as a rookie. He won’t be exposed when the other team has the basketball.

Another thing he has going for him is the new coach. The last head coach of the wine and gold didn’t like to play rookies and didn’t know how to handle them or develop their talent.

We have faith that David Blatt will put Wiggins in situations where he will have success. In fact, it’s almost like Blatt will have two high first round choices to coach because of the way last year’s choice, Anthony Bennett was handled.

On the second round, GM David Griffin addressed one of the team’s needs in getting a shooter, Joe Harris of Virginia. It will be interesting to see who wins the battle for playing time in training camp, Harris or Sergey Karasev, another first rounder buried on the bench by the old regime.

Remember that the latter played for the new coach on the Russian National Team a year ago, so he is well aware of his ability. Still, shooting was a big problem for the wine and gold, so the more they bring in the better. It is likely both youngster could figure into the mix as early as next season.

Harris looks like he has a quick release which is important in the NBA with defenders flying at you.

Later in the second round, it has been reported that Cleveland acquired another big man in 6’10” Dwight Powell from Stanford. The scouting report on him is he is a good defender and has a high basketball IQ, which is another thing Griffin mentioned when he was hired. He wanted smart players.

To get Powell, and veteran big man Brendan Haywood from Charlotte, the Cavs gave up Alonzo Gee, a small forward who didn’t have much of an offensive game, and had fallen out of the rotation for an extended period last season.

Haywood, originally a first round pick by Cleveland in 2001, but dealt for Michael Doleac, was probably included for salary reasons, but he’s a veteran big man. He missed all of last season with an injury. At 34 years old, it is doubtful he has anything left in the tank.

Now comes the trading season. The guess here is Griffin will deal Dion Waiters and one of his collection of power forwards, probably Tristan Thompson in the coming weeks to add more talent to this season’s roster.

Remember, Cleveland has a lot of available cap space. So, even though there was no blockbuster deal on draft night, it doesn’t mean there won’t be one when the league calendar flips the page in the next couple of weeks.

The restructuring has begun. Sit back and enjoy the excitement coming.

Big Night Looms for Cavs Tomorrow.

Tomorrow night could be a huge new beginning for the Cleveland Cavaliers. They have a new GM in David Griffin making the selections, including the first pick in the draft.

They also introduced a new coach in David Blatt. In his introductory press conference today, he proclaimed himself, not an offensive coach or a defensive coach, but a basketball coach. That is music to the ears of all critics of Mike Brown.

We still remember Brown’s ridiculous comment when the Cavs were struggling on the offensive end early in the year, and he said they didn’t spend any time on offense during training camp.

The new head coach realizes you have to play well on both ends of the court.

We believe the new team of Griffin and Blatt will make wholesale changes to the current roster, with at least 1/3 of the players (that’s at least five guys) being turned over this summer, and it could all start tomorrow night.

Will the wine and gold hold on to the pick or will they make a deal to bring in a proven young player to add to Kyrie Irving.

If they keep the number one choice, we feel they should take Duke forward Jabari Parker.

Parker, listed at 6’8″ and 241 pounds (although it has been reported he weighs 15 more than that) averaged 19.1 points and almost nine rebounds for the Blue Devils last season.

Why take him over Kansas forward Andrew Wiggins? Because although Wiggins is the better athlete, Parker is the better basketball player.

Many experts say Wiggins has a huge upside, but will he reach that vast potential? He shot just 44.1% from the floor for the Jayhawks last season. Parker shot 47% from the floor and has a better mid-range and post up game than his Kansas counterpart.

Of course, if Joel Embiid hadn’t broken his foot, it would be a moot point. Embiid might be the best big man to enter the league in many years, but the injury factor is too much to ignore. He also missed time this season due to a stress fracture in his back.

Still, Embiid may have impressed Griffin enough that he would trade down to the 4th to 6th pick range, pick up another young player and still take the big man later in the first round.

If the Cavs’ brass truly think the injuries are not career threatening, then they may do just that, thus having their cake and eating it too.

One thing the front office needs to ignore is the temptation to make moves on draft day to entice LeBron James to come back to Cleveland, because if he doesn’t sign with the Cavaliers, it could set the franchise back a few more years.

If James wants to come back to the Cavs, and we feel he will either do that or go back to Miami, then that will just be icing on that cake.

Cleveland has several good young players and could move some depth at the power forward and point guard spots to get another big man and a shooting guard. Even if James doesn’t return, they would still be set for the future.

After having the top choice in the draft in three of the last four seasons, here’s hoping we don’t have it again for a long, long time. That is, of course unless James leaves the Heat and we get it again through their first round pick.

Tribe Is In It, But They Are a Flawed Team

As the baseball season rapidly approaches the midway point, it is clear that the Cleveland Indians are a contender for a playoff spot due to the balance of the American League.

The Tribe currently sits at 37-39 on the season, but they are just five games out of first place in the AL Central, and are three games out of the second wild card spot in the AL.

However, it is also obvious that the Tribe is a flawed team, and it will be tough to make the post-season for a second straight year with the roster as currently constituted.

The Indians rank fifth in the AL in runs scored per game, but they have several holes in the lineup that have to be addressed. The league average OPS sits at 714 right now. The Tribe has three players getting regular at bats who sit way below this figure: Nick Swisher (595), Ryan Raburn (525) and Mike Aviles (631).

Since the Francona prefers 13 pitchers on the roster, that means 25% of the position players aren’t really producing at the plate.

Considering two of those players (Raburn and Aviles) get most of their playing time vs. left-handed pitching, you can see the Tribe is very susceptible against southpaws.

That forces the skipper to ride his regulars. Yan Gomes doesn’t get many days off and he’s playing a grueling position, as does Michael Bourn. David Murphy is probably being overexposed as well.

Also, Jason Kipnis isn’t hitting either (.247 batting average, 679 OPS), but he continues to hit in the middle of the lineup. And although Lonnie Chisenhall has been a pleasant surprise, even we would say it is doubtful he will continue to hit like he has thus far.

What happens when he cools off, which he has over the last two weeks.

Outside of Michael Brantley, who is having an all-star season, most of the players who are hitting are liabilities in the field. Chisenhall’s defense has been below average and SS Asdrubal Cabrera’s has been atrocious.

A logical move could be to move Cabrera to 3B, and let Chisenhall DH, and bring up prime prospect Francisco Lindor, but where does that leave the team’s highest paid player in Swisher?

As for the starting pitchers, Francona probably only feels comfortable when Corey Kluber takes the mound. The other four starters are inconsistent to say the least. Trevor Bauer shows the most promise, but no one knows what will happen when Justin Masterson and Josh Tomlin take the hill.

And there really isn’t any help to come from within either. The manager doesn’t have confidence in Jose Ramirez and Jesus Aguilar to use them on a consistent basis, and the only starting pitcher options are lefty T.J. House, who was okay when he was here, and Danny Salazar, who struggled earlier in the campaign.

That means GM Chris Antonetti has to make a deal, and based on the inactivity in the off-season, Tribe fans can’t feel optimistic about that. The Indians farm system is getting better, but the front office seems to fear being burned giving up a young prospect.

And they can’t and shouldn’t deal Lindor or last year’s first round pick Clint Frazier for a player who at best would play here for a year and a half.

The point is this, the Indians are probably good enough to hand around the playoff race, but they are flawed and they don’t seem to want to correct those flaws.

The manager still believes guys like Raburn and Swisher will start hitting, and the front office doesn’t seem anxious to go outside for help.

That’s very frustrating to say the least.

On Surface, Choice of Blatt is Outstanding.

The Cleveland Cavaliers made a bold choice yesterday and we love it.

They hired David Blatt as their new head coach despite the fact that he’s never been a head coach on American soil. He has however, been very successful in the European circuit and on the international level.

Now, no one can be totally evaluated until he starts coaching games in the regular season, but there is no question that he is able to handle professional players and he has coached men, not college kids.

And as for the argument that he will have a lot to learn because he’s never coached in the NBA, not many people made that argument when the Celtics hired former Butler University coach Brad Stevens last season, and let’s face it, there isn’t a lot of imagination in the NBA game anyway.

Most teams run isolation and pick-and-roll based offenses in the association, and defending that is something that every basketball coach learns early in their career. It’s more about getting players to want to play on the other end of the floor.

But what has us excited is Blatt’s reputation as a superior offensive mind. The new coach’s system is predicated on ball movement, much like the Spurs, and that is the way the game is supposed to be played.

Many have speculated that his approach will not mesh well with Kyrie Irving, but we disagree. Irving has grown frustrated in the past two years because in his second season, the whole burden was put on him, and last year, there basically was no offense.

It has to be frustrating when there is no movement away from the ball to free players up for good shots. In Blatt’s system there will be constant movement of the ball and players who don’t have it won’t be standing in one place, making it easy to be defended.

If Irving doesn’t love playing in that system, then we know what kind of player he is, and he can be moved on while he still has a tremendous amount of value.

The other reason hiring Blatt is the correct move is that it has everything to do with moving with the future. GM David Griffin hired a coach who is an actual coach, meaning he will try to make everyone better and will develop young talent.

They didn’t try to do anything else with the hire, and by that we mean trying to kiss up to LeBron James, which we think the Mike Brown hire was partially about, and the pursuit of John Calipari was all about.

If James wants to return here, great. But the Cavaliers needed to start moving forward and needed to stop making moves designed to lure the four-time MVP to come back.

We still believe that Blatt’s hire is just the first step in trying to get the wine and gold back to the playoffs. Griffin needs to restructure the roster and get away from the point guard/power forward heavy group assembled by former GM Chris Grant.

That means we will likely see a busy couple of weeks on the basketball front in Cleveland, as we think about one-third of the current 15 man roster will be turned over before training camp opens in October.

That’s because the way Griffin envisions his team and the way Blatt coaches is a match. That’s another thing to like about this hire.

Finally, there is a direction at Quicken Loans Arena.

Lack of Defense for Tribe Means it’s Time for Lindor

There were a lot of people who thought June would be the beginning of the end of contention for the Cleveland Indians.

With Texas, Boston, Kansas City, the Angels and Tigers all on the slate, many thought that meat grinder would be too much for Terry Francona’s crew.

However, right now they stand at 11-6 for the month following today’s come from behind win on Nick Swisher’s grand slam and head into a three game series at home versus Detroit before heading out for another west coast jaunt.

The offense has become more consistent with Carlos Santana starting to hit, and Lonnie Chisenhall continues to hammer away at a .368 pace.

Michael Brantley has become one the American League’s best offensive players, ranking in the top ten in the circuit in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

However, the defense, particularly in the infield continues to be atrocious, particularly on the left side of the diamond, most notably SS Asdrubal Cabrera.

It wasn’t too long ago that Cabrera was an all-star, making the team in both 2011 and 2012. He should be in the prime of his career at 28-years-old.

Instead, he is showing that last season wasn’t an off-year, it was the beginning of an offensive decline.

In 2009, the switch-hitter showed signs that Tribe fans had a player to watch when at age 23, he batted .308 with 6 HR and 68 RBI (799 OPS). After an injury plagued 2010, he started to show some power in ’11, belting 25 HR, knocking in 92 runs with a 792 OPS.

Another solid season followed in ’12 (.270, 16 HR, 68 RBI, 762 OPS), but his average dropped to .242 last season and so did his home runs and ribbies.

Offensively, he’s doing a little better this season (.255, 7 HR, 26 RBI, 732 OPS), but he’s made 13 errors already this season.

If Cabrera were hitting like he did in 2011, you could overlook his shaky defense. Furthermore, whereas the shortstop used to make highlight defensive plays on occasion, those plays are rare, and the majority of his miscues are on routine plays.

In the past couple of weeks, he dropped a simple relay throw killing a double play chance, and on Tuesday night, couldn’t come up with a roller to second, instead trying to tag a baserunner and then toss to first for a twin-killing. Instead, he got nobody out and the Angels scored three runs in the inning.

With several baseball people saying SS Francisco Lindor is ready to play in the big leagues, how much longer can the front office ignore the defensive suck fest that goes on at SS and 3B?

Lindor would add a better glove and some much-needed speed (19 stolen bases at Akron) to the Cleveland offense. He’s hitting .280 with 5 HR and 38 RBI at the AA level, so it’s not as though major league pitchers would knock the bat out of his hands.

Of course, the front office would have to move Cabrera to make this happen and because he’s a free agent at the end of the season, they probably won’t get much in return. Perhaps it would make the ballclub better if the future started right now.

We understand that the Tribe is in a post-season race right now and it would seem crazy to bring up a 20-year-old to play short in that type of situation, but the scouting reports on Lindor say he has an incredible make up and if any rookie could handle it, it would be him.

In Francona’s first season in Boston, the Red Sox decided to improve the defense by trading icon Nomar Garciaparra and getting Orlando Cabrera, a much better defender in a separate deal.

Does history repeat for Francona? It’s getting to the point where they may not have a choice.

Lost Season With Brown Hurting Cavs Now

New Cavaliers’ GM David Griffin has a very difficult job. We aren’t talking about how his boss seems to want to be involved in the basketball operations, including trying to hire a coach behind his back.

His real problem is evaluating the talent on this team after last season.

We really believe that you have to throw away the seasons that some of the players who have been on the roster for more than two years, particularly Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson.

You also have to discard any evaluation of last year’s first round draft pick, Anthony Bennett.

Irving and Thompson weren’t helped by Mike Brown’s coaching and it was obvious to everyone that the point guard didn’t trust his coach, and it affected his attitude.

That’s why talking about moving Irving is premature, unless he doesn’t sign a contract extension with the wine and gold.

We feel that Irving’s attitude will be much better with a new coaching staff this season. Thompson also leveled out under Brown’s tutelage.

What happens when a coach puts together sets and plays that don’t work, the players lose confidence in him. We all saw the difficulty the Cavs had last season with in bounds plays and plays at the end of games.

It’s easy to see why players like the two third-year players tuned out the head coach, and because of that, it is difficult for Griffin to evaluate both players going forward.

As for Bennett, yes he came to training camp out of shape due to off-season shoulder surgery, but since Brown found little time for Bennett to play, and when he did, he was put into schemes that didn’t put him into situations where he could succeed.

So, that’s three players that the new GM really can’t get a good read on. And he also doesn’t have a good gage on whether or not Dion Waiters can play with Irving because of last year’s coaching staff.

Tyler Zeller? Who knows? Brown hardly played him last season.

Outside of Waiters, what player who was here in 2012-13 made any progress in their game? You can’t name any. That’s why it is a difficult job for Griffin.

He does have to hire a coach soon, if only to get the new headman’s opinion on possible moves in free agency and in the draft. Whatever personnel moves they are considering, isn’t it better to find out what the guy who will be dealing with the players on a day in, day out basis is thinking?

We would support the hiring of either David Blatt or Lionel Hollins, who hasn’t received a second interview as of yet.

Blatt appears to be a true coach, a teacher, someone who will put players in a system that will take advantage of their abilities. That’s what this group needs. If his stuff works, the players will have confidence in him and play for him. That’s how it works.

As for Hollins, he would bring an attitude of winning. He would make it clear that losing is no longer tolerated. That change in culture is also needed. In the past few years, winning hasn’t been the first priority for the Cavs.

To be sure, Griffin didn’t take the gig because he thought it would be easy, he obviously loves a challenge.

However, what happened last year probably set the franchise back a year in the rebuilding effort. That’s something he has to overcome.

Francona Has Success, But He Does Make Mistakes Too.

When Terry Francona arrived here in the fall of 2012 to take the managerial job of the Cleveland Indians, it was considered shocking to many baseball fans, including ones right here on the North Coast.

This is a guy who broke the “Curse of the Bambino”, leading the Boston Red Sox to the world championship in 2004, their first since 1917, and then followed it up with another in 2007.

He took the job because of the relationship he had forged with Tribe president Mark Shapiro and GM Chris Antonetti when he worked in the Cleveland front office in between piloting the Phillies and Red Sox.

The shock turned to adulation when Francona took the Tribe to the playoffs in 2013, winning 92 games and losing in the Wild Card game to Tampa.

There is no doubt the Francona has earned his reputation as a good manager, and his style is forging a trusting relationship with his players. He never rips them in the media, and he treats them like men, which is how anyone would want to be treated.

He recently pointed out that his patience had turned to stubbornness when he finally removed slumping hitters Nick Swisher and Carlos Santana from the #2 and #4 spots in the lineup.

There is certainly no question Francona has more patience than most fans would ever have, and really, he has to. Most fans would take players out of the lineup after two bad games.

Still, Tito is a baseball manager and not everything he does turns to gold, nor does it mean that the person who makes the criticism wants the Tribe to have a new skipper.

This was brought to light during the first game in Boston, when with two outs and first base open in a game the Indians were trailing 1-0, Francona let right-hander Josh Tomlin face lefty swinging slugger David Ortiz.

Yes, we know Ortiz was 0-for-10 lifetime against Tomlin, but he also said prior to throwing one pitch, that the right move was to put the big slugger on.

Two pitches later, Ortiz hit a two-run homer and a 1-0 deficit was now 3-0. And the way Boston starter Jon Lester was pitching, it seemed the game was over.

The next night, Francona brought Cody Allen, who everyone agrees has been a tad overworked this season into a game with Cleveland trailing 9-3. The thought obviously was to get the closer some work since he hadn’t pitched since the previous Sunday.

Allen gave up a dinger to the first batter he faced and wound up throwing 21 pitches in a game he didn’t need to throw in.

The point is this, even though Tito has enjoyed tremendous success, he’s still a baseball manager, and that means he is not perfect.

This season, he has overused his bullpen at times. We have no qualms in trying to win any game you have a chance, but there are games the Tribe is losing where he will use Bryan Shaw and even Allen to keep the Indians within one of two runs. The way his relief corps in set up, he doesn’t have that luxury.

He should use guys like John Axford, Carlos Carrasco, and others in those situations and if they can’t get the job done, they should be replaced.

Francona has also fallen into the veteran skippers’ plight, that is, not being confident in young players. When Jesus Aguilar was sent back to Columbus this latest time, Tito said thought the rookie never got comfortable here. Perhaps that’s because he was playing once every five days.

He could’ve played him everyday in place of slumping hitters like Jason Giambi and Ryan Raburn, neither of whom hammered the ball when they were in the lineup, but he felt more comfortable with the vets.

He needs to realize that, yes he won 92 games with these guys last year, but this is a new season, and the way this team is put together, they need production from every player on the roster.

There is no question that Terry Francona is the best manager the Tribe has had in a long time. However, he’s human. Not every move he makes is golden. That’s just baseball.

We hate the second guess, but there are moves that deserve questioning.