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.

We Have Answers…

Thought we’d change it up a little this week and answer some questions posed to us over the last couple of weeks.

Who should the Cavs take with the first overall pick?

Well, our first thought would be to check for the highest bidder for the choice and get a proven player for the selection, but if that can’t happen, we would take Kansas center Joel Embiid.

We have doubts about any one of the three players that are the consensus top guys, mostly because they are one year out of high school, but if the risk is about equal, we’d take our chances on the player with the biggest upside, and that is Embiid.

If you can get a big man who is as good as he is advertised to be, you have to go for it. And yes, we know the NBA has become a league where point guards and wings are kings, but a great defensive presence is still needed.

Are you interested in the World Cup?

No.

Who should start at quarterback for the Browns in the season opener at Pittsburgh?

The answer here is not a cop-out. The correct choice is the player who gives Mike Pettine’s squad the best chance to win. This franchise has been down and out for so long, they can’t play someone because he’s a first round pick or because he will create a buzz around the country.

And that is not a bash on Johnny Manziel. If he shows the coaching staff enough to be the starter at Pittsburgh, then by all means, he should be in there.

We don’t believe that Pettine will be swayed by anything else than performance in making that decision. He strikes us as a coach who doesn’t have any other agenda other than winning. If he thinks Brian Hoyer can get the W, then he should start, if it’s Manziel, then he should get the nod.

That’s the way it should be.

Who do you want to win the NBA Finals?

The obvious answer is San Antonio, although not for the reason you think. We are old school when it comes to basketball and the Spurs play the game the way it is meant to be played. They move the ball, always looking for a player with a better opportunity.

This is in stark contrast to the pick-and-roll based offenses most teams play with players dribbling, dribbling, and more dribbling looking for an opportunity to take their defender to the basket.

Perhaps if the Spurs win, more teams will emulate that style of play. Teams usually copy the champions, and it would be another benefit if more teams played the game the way San Antonio does.

Is there a possibility LeBron James will come back to Cleveland to play for the Cavs?

If the Heat wins, no. If the Heat loses? Probably not. Moreover, the Cavs’ front office has to stop pretending that’s the only way they are going to get back to a title contender level.

If they put all the energy they spend on thinking of ways to impress James into building a competitive roster, they would be much better off.

Gilbert Needs to Build Team, Not Make Headlines.

Until a few years ago, the Los Angeles Clippers were the NBA’s poster child for a horribly run franchise.

They spent a great deal of time participating in the draft lottery, accumulating a bunch of high draft picks, and for the most part made the wrong pick, or the player they selected had injury issues.

They seemed always to be in a state of chaos.

Sound familiar?

Dan Gilbert needs to get his franchise in order, and he needs to do it quickly.

After giving David Griffin the keys to the kingdom in naming his as general manager a few weeks ago, it appears the owner tried to lure Kentucky head basketball coach John Calipari to the Cavs with a long-term deal and lots and lots of cash.

Perhaps Griffin was the guy who made the suggestion to hire Calipari, but it doesn’t seem like his style. It looks as though it has the fingerprints of the team’s owner all over it.

It’s time for Gilbert to start building a solid franchise and stop trying to make the quick fix, big splash move.

And as a franchise, the owner, GM, whoever the coach is, and everyone else who works at Quicken Loans Arena has to give up on the notion that if they make one move, then LeBron James will charge back to Cleveland on a white horse and rescue the Cavaliers.

Instead they need to put the pieces together to build a squad that can make the playoffs and start the process of contending for a high seed and eventually a spot in the conference finals. That will come by making the correct personnel decisions, hiring a head coach the players respect and developing an organization that expects to win.

If you look at what has happened since James departed, they spent the first couple of seasons not really trying to win, trying to follow the “Oklahoma City model”, which is basically stinking for a season, being able to draft Kevin Durant, and hitting the jackpot with future first round picks in Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka.

That requires a lot of luck, which the wine and gold have had in getting the top selection three times in four years.

They did draft an all-star type player in Kyrie Irving, who it remains to be seen if he has the toughness to be a franchise player. They picked Dion Waiters, a player much like Irving, Tristan Thompson, who looks like a journeyman big man, and Anthony Bennett, who was a wasted pick in his first year.

Why? Because when the front office hired the coach after Byron Scott, they hired a guy who has no track record of developing young players, despite having a roster full of them.

So now, they hire a new GM, and it appears the owner undermines him just a month after giving him the gig.

Again, maybe Griffin was part of that decision, but since he is interviewing assistant coaches like Tyrone Lue and Alvin Gentry, it doesn’t seem likely.

Gilbert is approaching joke status among national basketball writers. They can’t wait to see what happens next in Cleveland.

What needs to happen is for him to step back and let David Griffin run the organization. This team has some talent, but they need to get some players who compliment each other in exchange for all of the point guards and power forwards they currently have.

Cleveland basketball fans deserve more from the Cavs’ organization.

Tribe Young Core Looks to Be Good Sign for Future

We have been critical of the management of the Cleveland Indians in the past, particularly for not being able to sustain success.

After a division title in 2007, the Tribe got off to a horrible start in ’08. They finished strong to wind up at .500, but the season was over in July, leading to the trade of C.C. Sabathia to the Brewers.

That was followed by three out of four seasons with less than 70 wins, the only outlier being the 80-82 season put together by Manny Acta in 2011. That team was in the race until Labor Day, providing some excitement, but that was followed up by a 68-94 campaign that cost Acta his job.

The Indians didn’t start strong, but have followed up a playoff season in 2013 by being in the mix so far in 2014, currently sitting at 31-31 on the season, just four games behind Detroit, and very much in the wild card mix.

Now we hesitate to say this because it is Cleveland and it is the Indians, but the Tribe looks well set up for the future, at least the next three to four seasons.

They have a pretty good young veteran core that has been signed to long-term deals to keep them here over the next few seasons.

They have 2B Jason Kipnis, who just turned 27 in April, and is signed here through the 2019 season. Kipnis made the all-star team last season, and although he is off to a bit of a slow start this season, looks to be in the top-tier at his position in the American League.

They have Michael Brantley, who just turned 27 in May and is also locked up through 2017, and seems to have become a star player this season. He added the power missing from his game this season, and is hitting .305 with 9 HR and 42 RBI (857 OPS) at this point in the season. He is poised for his first all-star appearance this summer.

One of the gambles the front office took over the winter was a belief that Yan Gomes could be an everyday catcher, and he has fulfilled that belief. Gomes, who will turn 27 in July, has picked up right where he left off at the end of 2013, batting .271 with 7 HR and 22 RBI (756 OPS) thus far.

After a shaky beginning of the campaign defensively, he has settled down to the level he was at last season.

One player has to be added to the young core this season, and that is 25-year-old Lonnie Chisenhall, who has blossomed this year, hitting .362 to this point with 4 HR and 23 RBI, a mark which is third on the team. His OPS is 950.

That gives GM Chris Antonetti a half of a lineup, more than half if you count uber-prospect Francisco Lindor, that he can count on build the team around every year for the next few seasons.

That’s a good luxury to have and if you put those guys with a solid pitching staff, and that varies year to year, you have a pretty good chance you will be in the playoff hunt every year.

Now, it would be nice to start drafting well on a consistent basis, so that when Kipnis, Brantley, Gomes, and Chisenhall start to show signs of age, there will be people to replace them.

On the pitching side, the Tribe has Trevor Bauer (23) and Danny Salazar (24) on the rise to go with Corey Kluber, who is having a breakout season at 28 years old.

It helps building a roster every year if you have a core in place. Right now, the Indians appear to have that group. Let’s hope that leads to a stretch of good baseball over the next five years.

When Swish and Santana Get Back? Play ‘Em

The Cleveland Indians have won six in a row and have climbed back to the .500 mark for the season. Of course, since they are going on a 10 game trek and they have one of the worst road records in the game, that record may be short-lived.

But for the time being, things are looking good in Tribe Town, and naturally casual baseball fans are quick to infer that the team’s hot streak coincided with Carlos Santana and Nick Swisher going on the disabled list.

That leads, of course, to the conclusion that when both players are healthy, Terry Francona should keep them on the bench and leave the status quo.

Upon further review, that’s a dumb argument.

First, because Lonnie Chisenhall is hitting .361 and is currently tied for fifth on the team in RBIs and is hitting left-handers, he’s staying in the lineup everyday even when the two switch-hitters return to the active roster.

The two players who have gained time because of the injuries are Jason Giambi and Ryan Raburn who are sharing the DH spot, and Mike Aviles, who has been filling in at third base with Chisenhall playing 1B.

Neither Giambi nor Raburn have been particularly productive at DH, with Giambi just 5 for 35 on the season, albeit with 2 HR, and Raburn is still in a season long funk at .207 with just 1 HR.

While Santana is hitting only .159 on the season, he does have a .327 on base percentage, compared to Giambi (.250) and Raburn (.262). That means Santana is making outs 6-7% less times than do the men currently replacing them.

Giambi can be productive if his starts can be limited to once or twice per week. His production seems to ebb when he is playing every other day, which has been the case over the past week.

Raburn hasn’t been productive at all to this point in the season.

On the other hand, Aviles has been very productive in 2014, ranking third on the Indians in runs batted in right now, and he’s batting .274 on the year, although he doesn’t walk much, and doesn’t have much power. His OPS is just 673.

That’s only 42 points behind Swisher, who by most accounts is off to a terrible start, hitting just .211. Still, his on base percentage is at .311 meaning he also makes less outs than Aviles, who sits at .297.

Francona will find time periodically for the veteran who can play 2B, SS, 3B, and LF, and most of that time will come against southpaws because the Indians lack right-handed hitting.

While the Indians have been hitting well and winning with two regulars on the shelf, there is no question they would be much better off with a productive Santana and Swisher, and you can make a very good case that even with tough starts for the pair, they have been slightly better on offense than the players who have replaced them.

Now, no one is saying Francona should put either player back into the middle of the batting order, it wouldn’t hurt if he put them in the lower half of the order until they get going again, and for Santana, he could stop the experiment at the hot corner and use him at 1B when he’s not catching, with Chisenhall going back to third.

Don’t confuse the winning as meaning Carlos Santana and Nick Swisher aren’t important to the success of the Cleveland Indians. The Tribe has been winning with solid starting pitching, excellent relief by the overworked Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen, and some timely hitting from Michael Bourn.

Getting two switch-hitters with the track record of Santana and Swisher back will only help the Tribe attack.

Tito’s Bullpen Usage is Troublesome

Indians’ manager Terry Francona likes to have a lot of options in his bullpen.

Because of the versatility of players like Mike Aviles, Ryan Raburn, and now, Lonnie Chisenhall, Francona likes to carry 13 pitchers on the roster, including eight relievers.

That’s fine, because the skipper would rather bring in a fresh arm at the end of games, than use a starter who is running out of gas after throwing around 100 pitches.

But there is a growing problem in the relief corps, because it is fairly obvious that Tito doesn’t trust three members of his bullpen crew, and that lack of trust is causing fatigue and possible ineffectiveness down the road for the guys he does trust.

Since we are just a little over 1/3 through the long baseball schedule, this has the potential for disaster.

Currently, there are four Cleveland relievers in the top four of the American League leaders in games pitched: lefty Mark Rzepczynski and Bryan Shaw are tied for the league lead, while Cody Allen is tied for third in the AL.

Recently deposed closer John Axford had been in the top ten for most of the season, but has recently dropped out, mostly because he is one of the pitchers who has left Francona’s “circle of trust”.

As a matter of comparison, Kansas City, Detroit, and Boston all have two pitchers in the top ten in appearances.

Rzepczynski isn’t a real big deal, because he’s a LOOGY (left-handed one out guy) and many of his appearances are to face one or two batters, like last night when he came in to get David Ortiz out.

However, the heavy use of Shaw and Allen will come with a price. Francona admitted after last night’s win over the Red Sox that he shouldn’t have used Shaw, who was in his third consecutive game, and has thrown close to 100 pitches over the last seven days.

To be fair, none of the three are averaging over an inning per appearance, but you have to figure in warming up as well. All of that takes a toll on a reliever’s arm.

The only other bullpen guys Francona seems to feel confident with are veteran right-hander Scott Atchison and another LOOGY, Josh Outman.

The former started the year as a kind of mop up man, but his effectiveness in that role has earned himself opportunities with the game on the line.

That leaves Axford, who has had difficulty throwing strikes (17 walks in 21-2/3 innings), Carlos Carrasco, sent to the ‘pen after struggling as a starter, and the revolving door guy (Mark Lowe, Nick Hagadone) sitting around collecting dust if the Indians are winning.

Granted many managers deploy the relief personnel the same way, using certain guys with a lead, the rest get used when losing, but Francona has used Allen and Shaw in close games with the Tribe losing, trying to keep them in the game.

Also, the length the starters are giving the skipper is not helping the situation. It would be one thing if the starting pitcher went into the seventh, so Tito could use Shaw one day and Allen the next, but many times he has to use both to put the contest in the victory column.

That’s why GM Chris Antonetti needs to get the manager more arms he can trust, or another starter who can pitch deep into games.

If it doesn’t happen soon, the bullpen, which has been a mainstay for the Indians over the past few years, will simply run out of gas, and the house of cards which is the Tribe pitching staff will completely implode.

While Season Has Been Shaky, Tribe Finds Chisenhall Has Value

While the Cleveland Indians have been an up and down team so far this season, there have been some things that have worked out for them so far.

Many people (including us) seem to focus on the negative when it comes to this year’s Tribe, but there have been some positives to discuss as well.

First, would be the emerge of Lonnie Chisenhall as a major league player. The team’s former first round draft pick, Chisenhall hadn’t demonstrated the consistency needed to be a regular at the big league level. To be fair, he hadn’t really received a full chance.

Former manager Manny Acta was infatuated with marginal major leaguer Jack Hannahan’s glove, so the youngster, then 23 years old, didn’t get a full opportunity, despite hitting .268 with five home runs in just 43 games in 2012.

After two years as a semi-regular in Cleveland, Hannahan was a utility man for the Reds last season and is no longer playing professionally in the United States.

Last season, Terry Francona give him a share of the job in spring training, platooning him with Mike Aviles early, but when he didn’t hit in April and May, he found himself back in the minor leagues by the end of May.

While no one is saying that Chisenhall will end the season hitting at the .369 clip he’s currently at, he’s showed that the promise showed in the minors can translate to the bigs.

He’s made tremendous progress vs. lefties too, going 9 for 16 in a small sample size thus far, but his new approach at the plate has him spraying line drives all over the field. He’s not trying to pull everything anymore.

This is a surprise for many who wanted to deal Chisenhall last season, or were critical of his earning a spot on the Opening Day roster this season. By the way, even though right-hander Sonny Gray started the season lidlifter for Oakland, Chisenhall was not in the starting lineup, with Francona opting for Ryan Raburn as the DH.

We remember a radio interview conducted last season with former Tribe skipper Mike Hargrove, who was asked what players on the Indians’ roster had the potential to be perennial all-stars, like the ones he piloted in the 90’s. Hargrove mentioned Chisenhall as one of those players. That confirmed our belief that the left-handed hitter with the sweet swing could be a very good player.

So far this season, he’s demonstrating just that.

Now just 25 years old, he leads the Indians in doubles with 15, and has an on base percentage of .424 and a slugging average of .554, leading to a .977 OPS, an outstanding figure.

Yes, his average on balls put in play is extraordinarily high and it will come down, he still has all the look of a very good major league hitter, and a mainstay, along with Jason Kipnis, Michael Brantley, and Yan Gomes, with the Indians for many years to come.

His emergence may also lead to Carlos Santana moving to a 1B/DH role for the balance of the season. While Chisenhall isn’t Brooks Robinson or Mike Schmidt defensively, we feel that playing every day, he will provide a better glove than the converted catcher.

For a team with a recently struggling farm system, discovering a 25-year-old regular that they drafted is a great thing. With Francisco Lindor on the horizon, the Indians may have found the left side of their infield for many years.

Through hard work and determination, the emergence of Lonnie Chisenhall is one reason the struggles of the first third of the season have been a little easier to take.