The Cleveland Browns got off to a slow start in their opener against the Cincinnati Bengals, and they finished poorly as well, leading to a 27-17 defeat at home.  Once again, for the 12th time in 13 seasons since returning to the NFL in 1999, the Browns are 0-1.

In between, the team played pretty well, overcoming an early 13-0 deficit set up by giving the Bengals excellent field position as a result of poor special teams play, to take a 14-13 halftime lead, which they extended to 17-13 early in the third quarter.

However, they couldn’t put their foot on the Bengals’ throat and allowed them to stay in the game with a less than aggressive attack, and then gave up fourth quarter touchdowns on a pair of blown defensive assignments.

The worrisome part of the 2011 edition of the Browns is their offensive line and it would be difficult to change that thought after watching this game.  Early false start penalties, two by guard Shawn Lauvao  put Cleveland in long yardage situations in the first quarter, and a horrible first punt by Richmond McGee gave Cincy great field position on their first three drives resulting in a 13-0 lead.

Josh Cribbs changed the momentum with a 51 yard kickoff return after that lead, and four plays later, the Browns were on the scoreboard after a 34 yard TD from Colt McCoy to TE Benjamin Watson. 

From then until the middle of the fourth quarter, Cleveland controlled the football game, forcing punts on seven consecutive Cincinnati possessions. 

Cleveland scored on its next possession on a 2 yard pass from McCoy to TE Evan Moore, but managed only one field goal the rest of the game.  That field goal came the first time the Browns had the ball after the half, meaning Cleveland had scored on three of their last four possessions. 

At that point, things were looking very good for new coach Pat Shurmur to get his first win as an NFL head coach.

The Browns tried to put the game away in the middle of the third quarter after stopping the Bengals.  A pass interference call gave Cleveland a first down on the Cincinnati 33, but a reverse to Cribbs lost three yards on first down, and McCoy was sacked on third down to force a punt.  That would be the closest the Browns would come to scoring for the rest of the game.

Except maybe for a punt late in the fourth quarter, with the Bengals leading 20-17.  Cribbs looked like he had some daylight on the return, but in blocking his man, rookie Greg Little ran into Cribbs, essentially tackling him on the CLE 44.  Without that incident, who knows how long the former Kent State product would have run.

The Bengals out gained the Browns on the ground, 139 yards to 83, but 39 for Cincinnati came on the game clinching run by Cedric Benson, so really the defense controlled the run. 

Cleveland didn’t get their ground game going, only attempting 26 runs while throwing the ball 40 times.  This despite having the lead for much of the game from the middle of the 2nd quarter until about five minutes left. 

McCoy was only sacked twice, but he was hurried throughout, probably causing shorter completions that Shurmur wanted in his version of the west coast attack.

On the flip side, the Browns had four sacks, but didn’t put consistent pressure on Bengal QB’s Andy Dalton and Bruce Gradkowski.  It was an uneven effort to say the least. 

Joe Haden showed last year was no fluke, breaking up several passes, and even though he was probably the victim on the pass to A. J. Green that gave the Bengals the lead, he wasn’t the only Cleveland player unprepared for the start of the play.

It is no doubt disappointing to the players and the fans that the Browns lost this football game.  It was indeed winnable, but too many mistakes spelled defeat. 

Now, it’s on the Indianapolis to take on the Peyton Manning-less Colts, who were spanked by Houston today.  Without question, they will be hungry for a win. 

Shurmur needs to clean up the mistakes and get the offensive line playing better.  Without improvement in that area, the new offense may not have a chance to succeed.

JD

The commercials are all over television promoting the new movie Moneyball, which details the success of the Oakland A’s in the early 00’s. 

Oakland GM Billy Beane used a statistic based approach, featuring the use of on base percentage and slugging percentage to take a team from a small market and make it a contender.

The A’s won some division titles, but never got to the World Series, let alone winning one. 

Several other teams use similar approaches to building their clubs, and the Indians are among them.  Of those teams, only the Red Sox have ever won a World Series, and you can make the argument  their triumphs are dependent more on their large payroll than the “moneyball” approach.

A lot of this approach makes sense.  For example, having a leadoff man with a high on base percentage is perfect logic.

Carlos Santana is a player you might think is having a poor season because he’s hitting .235, but he gets on base almost 35% of the time, and his slugging percentage has been over .450 for most of the year.

He’s having a solid season.

However, there are things that the moneyball people overlook. 

One is baseball IQ.  Older baseball people used to call this “doing the little things”.  This includes things like hitting behind the runner, hitting a fly ball with a man on third and less than two out, and hitting the cut off man.

With power numbers down in the sport, these things are becoming more and more important. 

It’s an area the Cleveland Indians need a lot of improvement in.

A second area overlooked is making contact.  The “seamheads” will say a strikeout is just another out, the same as a flyball and groundout. 

These people revere the “three outcome player” (home run, walk, or strikeout).  Guys like Adam Dunn or Russell Branyan.  However, those guys aren’t run producers for the most part.  Their RBI totals are low compared to their home run totals.

Of course, the stat people undervalue RBI’s in general, saying it is dependent on the number of times you hit with men on base.

This argument does have some basis in fact, but can they explain why Manny Ramirez drove in more runs than Jim Thome when they played together with the Indians?

The reason is Ramirez put the ball in play, driving runners home with singles and outs. 

If you read this blog regularly, you know this is another area where the Tribe needs to get better in.

The stat based people have even influenced the way the sport’s major award are voted on.  Last year, Seattle’s Felix Hernandez won the Cy Young Award despite winning just 13 games. 

Yes, he had an ERA of 2.27, but isn’t the starting pitcher’s job to win games?

This year, many of those writers are thumping for Toronto’s Jose Bautista to win the AL MVP, although the Blue Jays have virtually the same record as the Indians.

Old school people would point out that although Bautista is having a marvelous season, Toronto could probably finish 4th without him.

The point is that statistics need to be looked at and taken for what they are.  Manny Acta overlooked them in watching Orlando Cabrera, but in that case the intangibles didn’t outweigh the lack of production.

But devaluing strikeouts and not looking at the baseball smarts of players shouldn’t be overlooked. 

Hopefully, the Cleveland Indians keep that in mind this off-season.

KM

In a few days, the NFL regular season opens up with the now traditional Thursday night contest between the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers and the previous year’s winners, the New Orleans Saints.

As for the local team, the Browns will start playing for real on Sunday when the Cincinnati Bengals visit the lakefront. 

If autumn is coming in Cleveland, then fans are strangely optimistic about the Browns. 

This year, they have some right to be. 

For the first time in who knows how long, the front office and the coaching staff are on the same page.  They both want to win, and they both want to accomplish it in the same manner. 

You couldn’t say that when Eric Mangini was in charge, you couldn’t say it when Romeo Crennel was the coach and Phil Savage was the general manager.

Really, the only time you could say it since the team returned to the NFL in 1999 was when one guy held both jobs, like Butch Davis and in Mangini’s first year.

With a back loaded schedule that includes six winnable games in the first seven contests (Bengals, Dolphins, Titans, Raiders, Seahawks, 49ers) , it says here the Brownies will finish the season 7-9 or 8-8.  And they could make the playoffs if they can win three or four divisional contests, which is difficult because four of the games are against Pittsburgh and Baltimore.

The Browns have a QB in Colt McCoy that is perfectly suited for the west coast offense which new coach Pat Shurmur will run this season.  They will have a solid running game with 1000 yard rusher Peyton Hillis, who took basically no punishment in the pre-season to keep him fresh, and Montario Hardesty.

And the passing game will look like a legitimate NFL offense, which will make the performance of the young wide receiving crew look much better than they did in 2010.  McCoy will also exploit his very good tight end corps of Ben Watson and Evan Moore. 

The biggest question will be whether or not the offensive line can keep McCoy’s jersey clean, and more to the point, healthy.  The injury to G Eric Steinbach hurts, and T Tony Pashos needs to stay on the field, which hasn’t happened in the last two years.

It is said that the only thing worse than being a bad team is being a bad, old team.  Since the Browns were 5-11 last season they can be classed as a poor team.

And last year on defense, they had a lot of age with veterans like Shaun Rogers, Ben Coleman, David Bowens, and Eric Barton. 

That’s not to denigrate those players, several of whom played well for Cleveland last year.  It’s just not the way to build a team.  That has to be done with younger guys.

This season, the defense has just two players with 10 or more years of experience, CB Sheldon Brown and LB Scott Fujita.  So, this is a unit that should improve as the year goes on.

GM Tom Heckert rebuilt the defensive line by drafting DT Phil Taylor and DE Jabaal Sheard, one year after he changed the secondary by picking CB Joe Haden and S T.J. Ward in the draft, and acquiring Brown in a deal.

You would think next year the linebacking crew will be the object of Heckert’s revamping.

The Cleveland Browns are on the right track.  They are getting younger, building through the draft, and have a young quarterback who can lead the team in place.  They may not challenge for the playoffs this year, but they are no more than a year away. 

Browns’ fans can finally see light.  The chaos which surrounded the franchise since 1999 is finally being put in order.

JD

After a tough loss to Kansas City, coupled with a comeback win by Detroit, the Cleveland Indians have dropped to 6-1/2 games behind the Tigers in the AL Central Division.  Barring a sweep by the Tribe this week, it’s likely that this race is over.

Many experts have talked about how this season was a year early, that 2012 was supposed to be the year Cleveland was supposed to be in the hunt for a post-season berth. 

Really, how true is that?

The Indians are tied for ninth in the AL in runs scored, and despite claims of a great pitching staff, they are tied for 8th in the league in ERA, meaning there is work to do on both sides of the equation.

Offensively, right now the Indians have two legitimate hitters in the lineup:  SS Asdrubal Cabrera and C/1B Carlos Santana.  You would think that RF Shin-Soo Choo will rebound from a poor ’11 season, and Michael Brantley will improve on a season that started strong. 

But where will any more improvement come from?

Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner have proven to be unreliable over the last three and four seasons, respectively.  The front office simply cannot count on them to boost the run production.

Rookies Jason Kipnis and Lonnie Chisenhall could wind up playing 2B and 3B in ’12, but this season has not proven either to be a sure thing because of injuries (Kipnis) and inconsistent playing time (Chisenhall).  It says here that the latter should have been sent back to AAA at the beginning of August to play every day.

The organization has to decide what to do with Santana as well.  If he plays first, then that leaves light-hitting Lou Marson behind the plate.  That may be the correct move, but it really doesn’t help the offense.  If Santana stays behind the plate, then the Indians need a first baseman because it doesn’t appear that Matt LaPorta can hold down an everyday job.

And don’t forget the need for the solid right-handed bat, which the team has needed all year.  The organization craves a professional hitter that bats from the right side.  It looks like a trade would have to be made to bring one in.

Declining Sizemore’s option for next year (estimated at $9 million) would give the front office some money to play with in that pursuit.

On the mound, the strength is in the bullpen and anyone who knows anything about baseball knows that area is volatile from year to year.  So, you can’t really etch anyone of those names in stone.

In fact, Chris Perez could be a possible trade chip to fill some needs because Vinnie Pestano looks like he could close, and Cleveland does have some relief depth in the minors in LH Nick Hagadone, RHs Josh Judy, CC Lee, and Zach Putnam.

As for the starting rotation, right now, the Tribe has one guy they can really count on every fifth day in Justin Masterson, and perhaps another if Josh Tomlin is healthy, although he should be a back of the rotation guy. 

If you can tell me whether Ubaldo Jimenez and Fausto Carmona are going to pitch great when they take the hill, you should be setting odds in Las Vegas. 

As for the rest of the starters, David Huff has shown promise in 2011, but the Indians will need hurlers like Jeanmar Gomez, Zach McAllister, and Scott Barnes to be contributors next year, particularly if Carlos Carrasco misses 2012 with elbow surgery.

Cleveland has a promising future, but some of the organizational depth was dealt away to get Jimenez, and they didn’t find out if other young players could perform due to other things, mostly injuries.

Let’s not be so hasty to pencil the 2012 Tribe in as Central Division champs.

MW

 

While watching the fourth exhibition game for the Browns last night, several thoughts came and went through my head, most of them unrelated to the game itself.  Most of the starters didn’t play, so fans were watching battles for the last ten or so spots on the final 53 man roster.

While important to the players involved, it’s not real interesting viewing.

Two comments about the Browns:  First, they will be very active after other teams cut their squads to get down to the limit, and they will be looking mostly for offensive linemen and linebackers. 

Colt McCoy has the ability to be a good, if not very good NFL quarterback.  However, he cannot throw the football flat on his back or be effective running for his life.  These exhibition games have shown that Pat Shurmur’s crew is having a tough time protecting the passer.  This has to improve or it could be disastrous.

To be fair, Shurmur hasn’t really unleashed the running game and it takes pressure off the offensive line to be in 2nd and 5 and 3rd and 2 situations.  Also, young offensive linemen usually do a better job in run blocking.  But there is no question the five guys who are blocking up front will be under great scrutiny, well at least the three guys not named Joe Thomas and Alex Mack will be.

Second, it is great to see president Mike Holmgren go back to tradition and have the Browns wearing all white at home this year.  Cleveland was one of the few teams that did this in the 60’s and 70’s (Dallas, St. Louis, and Los Angeles did too) and although it means nothing in terms of performance, it is just another acknowledgment of the Browns’ storied past.

The most impressive debut this week is new sports talk station 92.3 The Fan, giving fans (pardon the expression) the option of an alternative to what has become the tired, contrived conversations at WKNR. 

Kevin Kiley and Chuck Booms have come back to recreated their entertaining format from national radio, while the other hosts and beat reporters are entertaining and not condescending to the listeners.  Andy Baskin and Jeff Phelps do the 10 AM – 2 PM shift giving people the perspective of two veteran Cleveland voices.

Newcomer Adam the Bull and Dustin Fox (2 PM – 7 PM) have good chemistry despite not having worked together, and Ken Carman is back doing sportstalk after his stint in Akron.  He was a great option to the KNR people when he was on 1350 AM.

The station also hired personal favorite Joe Lull on the weekends along with another Cleveland veteran, Kendall Lewis. 

It will be interesting to see WKNR’s response to the new competitor in town.

As for the Tribe, we will know by next Wednesday night whether or not this season will go to the wire after the first place Tigers invade Progressive Field.  Manny Acta will have Ubaldo Jimenez, Fausto Carmona, and Justin Masterson starting against Detroit.  A poor showing in the next six games could doom the Indians’ divisional title hopes.

The Tribe needs a resurgence from SS Asdrubal Cabrera, who has been carrying the team most of the season, but now is in a batting funk.  Cabrera seems to be trying to hit a big fly every time up, instead of hitting the ball hard, and muscling up when the count is in his favor. 

A productive Cabrera is definitely a key to the Cleveland pennant hopes.

MW

No matter what happens the rest of this baseball season, the Cleveland Indians should and probably will do an evaluation of the organization and what works and more specifically, what doesn’t work.

Certainly, a lot has gone right for the Tribe, who is surprisingly still in contention as we head to the beginning of September.  No one thought that would be the case at the start of this season.

That’s not an excuse for not making the post-season.  The team was 15 games over .500 at one point in time, and since then has struggled mightily.

The organization needs to focus on why the ballclub went through a difficult time over the last 100 games.

The Indian organization has embraced the “statistic oriented” analysis of the sport over the past several years, and there is a lot of good stuff involved with doing that.

The importance of on base percentage and slugging percentage is a good thing.  Understanding that a hitter with a low batting average can be a good offensive player by drawing walks (Carlos Santana) is invaluable.

One thing that is de-emphasized by the so-called “seamheads” is the strikeout.  They will say that a whiff is just another out, the same as a fly ball or ground ball, and better than a double play. 

However, the Cleveland Indians strikeout way too much, particularly when you factor in that they are not a real power hitting bunch. 

Old baseball experts will say you can live with players who strikeout 140 times if they hit 35 home runs.  The Tribe doesn’t have players like that.

The Indians top two home run hitters (Asdrubal Cabrera and Santana) lead the team in striking out, but the hitters who rank 3-4-5 in fanning have hit a total of 26 round trippers (La Porta: 11, Choo: 8, Brantley: 7).

Overall, the Tribe ranks 10th in the league in home runs and slugging, but lead the league in striking out.

Last year, Arizona lead the National League in whiffs and finished eighth in the NL in runs scored.  This year, they ranks 4th and have improved in scoring as well.

They made a conscious effort to get rid of some guys who strike out a lot, such as Mark Reynolds, now with Baltimore.

That’s one reason that Tampa Bay OF B.J. Upton isn’t a good fit here, even though he’s a right-handed bat.  He ranks 5th in the AL in striking out and is hitting .224 with a 701 OPS.

A player we do like is Oakland OF Josh Willingham, who is 6th in the junior circuit in striking out.  However, Willingham has hit 23 HR’s and has an OPS of 809.

That’s a good trade-off for the lack of contact.

The other thing that needs to be looked at is the conditioning program.  There have been too many pulled muscle, especially obliques, this season. 

Travis Hafner, Choo, and Jason Kipnis have all missed time with this injury, and those three players are critical to the offense.

The front office also needs to make tough decisions on the players who seem to be chronically injured. 

An injury here and there isn’t a concern, but guys who are hurt all the time are not reliable. 

The Tribe has two such players, Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner, who fall into this category, and who are making a boatload of money. 

Also, their injuries are different from those of Choo, who broke his thumb as a result of getting hit by a pitch.

Even with a middle of the road payroll, you can’t have two of your highest paid players unable to get into games on a regular basis.

If the Indians are going to make a run the next two or three years, these things need to be addressed.  Hopefully, the executives at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario are thinking the same way.

KM

Lost in the euphoria over the return of Jim Thome to the Indians was the news that the team put OF Michael Brantley on the disabled list with his problem wrist. 

Brantley had been in and out of the lineup because of the injury in recent weeks, and today was ruled out for the season and put on the 60 day disabled list.  OF Jerad Head was called up from Columbus to take his place on the roster.

Also, Shin-Soo Choo followed up hitting home runs in both games in Tuesday’s doubleheader by having to be scratched from the following day’s game with tightness in his lower back.  Choo came in for defense on Friday, and had two at bats last night before leaving once again.

And starter Josh Tomlin also had to go on the DL with an elbow problem, and now, the starting rotation, which was thought to be deep with three options at AAA, is down to one.  Jeanmar Gomez will likely make the start on Tuesday night in place of Tomlin.

Although we’ve been a little critical at times regarding Manny Acta’s in-game strategies, he has done a masterful job keeping this team together and in contention despite all of the missed time by key players. 

Besides the players already mentioned, everyone knows about the problems Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner have had, and also hot hitting rookie Jason Kipnis in already out with an oblique/hamstring problem.

Sizemore and Hafner have missed most of the last three seasons, so their problems cannot be a huge shock.  And those problems have to be brought to mind in the off-season when the front office determines should either or both be included on the 2012 roster, or at the very least, how much they can be counted on.

One question for the Tribe front office is are they too patient with the guys who are playing hurt?  Yes, as an organization, you want your players to be gamers.  You don’t want them sitting out with bumps and bruises. 

However, Hafner was in a second half slump before being put on the disabled list, and basically being replaced by Thome.  Was his foot problem a cause of the funk?  If so, having a DH hitting .220 with no power for a month isn’t helping the team. 

The same with Brantley.  While it’s admirable that he wanted to go out and play while hurt, he was hitting .211 with a .237 on base percentage in August while struggling with the wrist.  And it should be noted once again that the Tribe’s hitting has suffered greatly this year when Brantley, Hafner, and Asdrubal Cabrera aren’t going well.

Perhaps a move with the outfielder should have been made sooner, because it was obvious to all who watched him that he hasn’t been the same player who was hitting close to .270 before the all-star game.

So now Head finally gets his opportunity.  No question, a late bloomer, Head is having his best minor league season at age 28, hitting .284 with 24 HR and 70 RBI’s (864 OPS) at Columbus.  He’s also a right-handed hitter, something the Indians badly need. 

Head was also the MVP of the International League playoffs last season in leading the Clippers to the championship.

Lifetime he has an 814 OPS in the minor leagues, but he is prone to strikeouts, so he will fit right in with the Tribe, who lead the American League in that category.

The Indians organization prided itself on their depth prior to this season, but they probably didn’t want to have to use it this much, particularly in a year they are surprisingly in contention. 

However, they’ve had to, and for the most part, their manager and mixed and matched and held a patchwork team together.

MW

A few days ago, no one would have attached any significance to August 25th.  Sure, the Browns were playing a pre-season game against the Eagles, but it turned out to be much bigger than that.

It’s because Jim Thome, a future Hall of Famer, is coming back to the Indians, the team he spent much of his career with.

The Tribe acquired the veteran slugger for a player to be named later, and he’ll be in the lineup right away to take Travis Hafner’s spot at designated hitter. 

For those thinking this is more of a sentimental move, keep in mind these numbers since the all-star break:

Hafner:  .220 batting average, 3 HR, 14 RBI, 642 OPS                              

Thome:  .267 batting average, 6 HR, 21 RBI, 876 OPS

This is not to denigrate Hafner, but there is no doubt he has been in a slump as of late.  Thome has been more productive, and although he probably won’t be in the lineup everyday, he will provide some thump in the middle of the Indians batting order.

With the Tribe being 6-1/2 games behind Detroit, it probably will not be enough to get the Indians in the playoffs, but it gives them a better chance of doing it than they had without Thome.

As for the Browns, they took a step backwards last night, although they did play one of the better teams in the NFL in the Philadelphia Eagles.

Colt McCoy didn’t play his best game, hitting on just 9 of 18 passes for 89 yards, and he threw his first interception of the exhibition season. 

However, the most disturbing part of the evening was that the quarterback took several hits once again, a week after he was hit hard a lot against the Lions.

Eagle defenders sacked Browns’ QBs five times in total, and they were hit more times than that. 

Granted, guard Eric Steinbach was out of the lineup being replaced by rookie Jason Pinkston, but the offensive line as a group has to do a better job of protecting the passer.

It would be a refreshing change to see the Browns not have to use three starting signal callers in a season because of injury issues.

On the plus side, it was good to see Peyton Hillis get some work and have Montario Hardesty play and be healthy at the end of the game. 

Pat Shurmur still hasn’t shown a lot of the running attack in the exhibition contests, and success in that area will take some pressure off the passing attack.

Defensively, the Browns front seven showed some promise.  First round pick Phil Taylor looked impressive, getting a sack of the elusive Michael Vick, and Joe Haden rebounded from a tough game against the Lions. 

Haden showed once again that he is a solid tackler in the secondary, and rookie Buster Skrine looked good too.

Remember, Dick Jauron’s unit was missing starting LB Chris Gocong and perhaps both starting safeties in T. J. Ward and Usama Young.

It would not be a surprise if the Browns get to see a different side of their head coach during the upcoming week of practice.  Shurmur didn’t look happy with the performance of his team last night, and he now has his first teaching opportunity after the poor performance.

Next Thursday’s last exhibition will be dedicated to finding out who will get cut when the roster goes from 80 to 53 for the regular season.  So, it’s likely we won’t see much of the starters.

Still, the game didn’t count, just like the win over Green Bay and the loss to Detroit.  So, the things that went wrong can be corrected before the opener against Cincinnati on September 11th.

MW

 

The Cleveland Indians needed to come home after being swept by the Detroit Tigers, and win a whole lot during an eleven game homestand. 

It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. 

The Indians lost the first game to a Seattle team that had nothing to play for when their offense took another siesta, and their closer melted down coming into a 2-2 game in the ninth.  He hit the first two batters, and made an error on a sacrifice attempt to load the bases with no one out. 

In today’s day/night doubleheader, manager Manny Acta decided to let starter Justin Masterson stay in the game with a 4-3 lead going into the ninth. despite having thrown over 100 pitches.  Granted, he might not have wanted to use Chris Perez after he threw almost 40 pitches the night before, but he could have used Vinnie Pestano or Tony Sipp.

Masterson gave up two hits, and then Perez came on and gave up a two run double to give Seattle the lead. 

Luckily for the skipper, the Mariners’ closer, Brandon League, gave up a leadoff double to Ezequiel Carrera, and ultimately a game winning home run to Shin-Soo Choo.

In the second game, Acta watched his rookie starter give up ten runs, eight of them earned, before relieving him in the 4th.  The score at that point was 8-2. 

Zack McAllister gave up five runs in the previous inning, but the manager didn’t take him out until he gave up three more?  He should have been yanked after the first sign of trouble.  This wasn’t some game in the middle of June, so the rookie had to soak up some innings to save the bullpen. 

The Tribe needed a win, especially since Felix Hernandez is throwing for Seattle tomorrow afternoon.

A win by the Tigers would put the Indians six games back, and they are just a half game ahead of the White Sox.

Barring a horrific slump by Detroit or a prolonged hot streak by the Indians,  a season which held so much promise in May, will likely be all over.

Yes, the injuries are a factor.  Losing Grady Sizemore, Travis Hafner, and Choo for long periods of time was tough.  However, the first two have been battling injuries for several years, so it would have been a stretch to predict injury free seasons for either. 

The health problems even extended to rookie Jason Kipnis, who had to be shut down for a couple of weeks right after he had started to give the offense a spark. 

As it was, the hitting attack was far too dependent on Asdrubal Cabrera, who is showing the fatigue of a guy who has carried his team most of the year.  When the all-star shortstop wasn’t hitting, the Indians had trouble scoring runs. 

Choo was just starting to hit a groove after a terrible start when he went on the DL after a Jonathan Sanchez pitch crushed his left thumb.  He’s starting to look like the Choo of 2009-10 now, but it looks like it’s too late.

GM Chris Antonetti tried to help the surprising contenders, dealing for Ubaldo Jimenez and Kosuke Fukudome to help out, but other holes sprung up, like closer Chris Perez’ struggles over the last month.

The Indians gave it a good run, and may have done it a year earlier than expected.  Hopefully, everyone, including the manager, has learned from this experience of playing meaningful games in August, and carry it into next year.

However, no one should rest on laurels.  This team has played 15 games below .500 for a good chunk of the season.  That shouldn’t be forgotten.

KM

The woe is us people were out in full force after the Cleveland Indians were swept by the Detroit Tigers over the weekend, giving the Tigers a 4-1/2 game lead in the AL Central.  However, don’t give up the ship just yet.

This may be a cock-eyed optimist talking, but remember, the Indians are just three games out in the loss column, meaning the Tribe has played three fewer games that Detroit, and if they would win them all, this 4-1/2 game bulge would be just 3 games.

With the Tigers taking on Tampa Bay this week (although Justin Verlander will pitch one of those games), and the Indians making up a rainout against Seattle this week, it’s possible by the time next Sunday hits, Cleveland could be just two or three out. 

The first place team isn’t exactly the 1927 Yankees.  In fact, the Tigers are below .500 when Verlander doesn’t take the mound.

Unless you are 5 or more back on Labor Day, it says here that you still have a chance.

This much is clear.  The Indians MUST play well on this homestand, consisting of 11 games against the Mariners, Royals, and A’s.  That is followed by three more in Kansas City.  Three teams playing out the string.

Cleveland has to win all three series to make sure the last six meetings with the Tigers, and the eight games against the White Sox have some meaning.

The Indians need to start hitting again if this is going to happen, because they scored just one run in each game in Detroit.  When Michael Brantley, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Travis Hafner aren’t producing, this team can’t score.  That’s why the impact of Jason Kipnis was felt so much.  He gave Manny Acta another solid bat.

Now, for Ubaldo Jimenez.  We were against the trade because it was felt the Indians gave up too much for a pitcher who was struggling in 2011.  It was stated here before the deal that you couldn’t give up the organizations top two pitching prospects.

How’s that looking right now?

Jimenez has been bad in three of his first four starts.  Meanwhile, Alex White, who the Tribe front office said would not be ready to start for the rest of the season, will make his first start for Colorado Tuesday night.

And people wonder why no one has confidence in the front office?

Supposedly, the reason the Indians got Jimenez was for games like Sunday afternoon in the Motor City, and the big right-hander failed the test, giving up eight runs in less than four innings.  The Tribe needed something better, and they didn’t get it.

There is no question a roster move will be made on Tuesday before the day-night doubleheader against Seattle, in order to bring up a starter, probably Zack McAllister for one of the games.  It wouldn’t be surprising to see Luis Valbuena sent out, with Cord Phelps replacing him after the twinbill.

However, they may have to make another move with Hafner coming up lame yesterday. although the DH did say his foot did feel better after the game.

And with Lonnie Chisenhall not really providing an impact bat, does it seem right to have him on the big league roster?  It seems like Manny Acta seems more comfortable with Jack Hannahan playing the hot corner, and the latter does have a more patient approach at the plate.

So, perhaps Ezequiel Carrera stays when Shelley Duncan needs to be reactivated, with the rookie being sent down.

In the meantime, keep the faith.  It would have been nice to take one game in Detroit and come home just 2-1/2 out, but they still have a decent chance to win the division.  These next 11 games at Progressive Field will tell fans if they should prepare for meaningful September baseball.

MW