Tribe Needs to Look at Ticket Prices

There is no question that the Cleveland Indians alienated their fans for the past several seasons.

After the 2007 season in which they missed the World Series by just one game, they acted like someone was going to tell them it was their turn to win someday, so they could be inactive.

They traded two Cy Young Award winners in C.C. Sabathia and Cliff Lee, and traded a professional hitter who said he wanted to stay here in Victor Martinez. All three were gone by the time the 2009 season ended.

Later, after a 2011 season is which they were surprisingly in contention until Labor Day, when the Detroit Tigers finally got hot and ran away, they were inert in the off-season following, setting up a 2012 campaign where they were depending on players like Shelley Duncan, Casey Kotchman, and Derek Lowe.

To be fair, they did deal two top pitching prospects for Ubaldo Jimenez at the deadline in ’11, but that move hasn’t worked out the way GM Chris Antonetti wanted. The fact it hasn’t worked out for Colorado is of little consolation.

However, last winter, the ownership seemed to get the message that the fan base was unhappy with the way things were being run. After Travis Hafner’s large deal finally ended, the front office went out and signed Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn to multi-year contracts.

Unfortunately, the people who buy tickets seem to be holding a grudge because the Tribe ranks last in the American League in attendance.

While many fans obviously have a wait and see attitude regarding this team, it is a better team and while they struggled mightily at the beginning of June, they have ripped off eight wins in the last 12 games and currently sit just four games behind the mighty Tigers in the AL Central.

And they are very good at home.

Whether or not the Indians can make the playoffs isn’t the issue because the American League is very strong. Heck, all five teams in the AL East are above the .500 mark.

We said at the beginning of the season that 13 of the 15 teams in the AL had legitimate chances to get to the post-season, and yes, the Tribe was one of those teams.

So where are the fans?

This is a city with blind loyalty to the Browns, a team with two winning seasons since 1999. In that same time period, the Indians have had five such seasons, making the playoffs three times.

We checked the prices for the next home series for the Tribe when they come home from this trip to Baltimore, Chicago, and Kansas City. They take on the Tigers on July 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th.

Seats in the upper deck and the bleachers are being sold for $23.60 apiece for the Friday night game. Meaning it costs almost $100.00 for a family of four to attend.

In order to sit behind home plate, it will cost you $80.00 for a single seat.

If the Indians want families to go to the games, they are making it tough, particularly when the fortunes of the team have soured a lot of baseball fans in Cleveland.

The Tribe did the right thing in lowering the cost of concessions in the off-season, but it doesn’t do much good if they don’t get people to make the trip to Progressive Field.

Perhaps it is time to look at the ticket prices as well. Lower them so people will want to see what the new Indians are all about.

The prices might be lower than many franchises, but apparently they are still too high for the fan base.

Whatever the reason, the front office needs to look at why fans aren’t clicking the turnstiles.

Combo of Walks and Homers Hurting Tribe Pitching

Despite the slugging teams of the 1990’s, including a team that scored 1000 runs in a season (the last team in major league baseball to do so), Jacobs Field/Progressive Field has always been a pitcher’s park.

That speaks to how great those Indians teams that featured Albert Belle, Carlos Baerga, Manny Ramirez, and Jim Thome really were. They placed half of their games in a park that helped pitchers.

Now, the Indians have a problem. Their ballpark helps the pitchers and it is making it look better than it is.

Not that ranking 12th in the American League looks good. Cleveland pitchers rank ahead of only Baltimore, Toronto, and Houston in ERA.

However, on the road it is worse as Tribe hurlers rank ahead of only Seattle in terms of that statistic. That would partially explain why the Indians have lost 10 games in the row away from Progressive Field. They have a 4.72 ERA away from home.

The particular problem that has plagued Cleveland pitchers on the road is the base on balls. They have issued 118 walks on the road, 14 more that the next worst group, the Chicago White Sox.

Opposition hitters are only hitting .253 against the Tribe staff, the 5th best rate in the AL. But they have allowed 35 home runs, the 4th worst mark in the league. If you walk people and give up home runs, you are going to allow a lot of runs.

At home, the Tribe’s ERA is a respectable 4.15, which is 10th in the AL, but only .08 behind the Red Sox staff, which is in the middle of the pack. The walks are a problem at home too, though, allowing the 5th most in the Junior Circuit.

If you have figured out at this point that Cleveland pitchers are allowing too many batters to reach base via the walk, you are correct. Tribe pitchers are 3rd in the league overall, behind just Houston and Boston.

They’ve also allowed the 4th most dingers in the league, behind only Baltimore, Houston, and Toronto.

The home runs are equally spread out among the starters and relievers. The starters have given up 48 bombs, 5th worst in the league, while the relievers have allowed the 3rd highest total.

The bases on balls are the same ways. The starters have walked the 3rd most in the American League, the relievers rank 4th.

The one thing that doesn’t make this combination an unmitigated disaster is the Cleveland pitchers ability to strike people out, ranking behind just Detroit and Boston in that category.

In their recent losing streak, however, it is the starting pitching that is really letting the team down, allowing 2o runs in the first three innings, putting the team in a hole right off the bat.

So, while the starters’ ERA is 4.46, that figure has been accomplished because they have righted the ship after falling behind early and they have given Terry Francona around six innings per start.

In the Yankee series alone, all three starters (Justin Masterson, Scott Kazmir, and Corey Kluber) gave up big innings in the first three frames, but settled in and gave the skipper at least six innings, thus protecting the bullpen.

Earlier in the season, Indians’ pitchers were not walking as many batters, ranking in the middle of the pack, but as of late, that has changed and the extra base runners are lengthening innings, and helping set up three run home runs.

If the Indians are going to get going again, and as we said before the season started that this would be a streaky team, then the pitchers need to throw strikes, and they must pitch better on the road.

Until that happens, the Tribe will continue to struggle.

Stats Support Tribe Start

Many times in baseball, statistics do not support a team’s success or lack of it.

For example, last season, the Baltimore Orioles scored just seven more runs than they allowed, but went 93-69 in the standings. The sabermetric people would say the O’s overachieved. They did it by having an astounding 29-9 record in one run games.

This year’s Cleveland Indians are no surprise according to the numbers. Their 19-15 record is legitimate.

The Tribe’s position players are also younger than the league average at 28.4 years of age. The American League average is 29.1. And if you take grizzled veteran Jason Giambi out of the equation, Cleveland would have the fourth youngest position players in the AL, behind just Houston, Kansas City, and Baltimore.

That certainly bodes well for the future.

Even better is that the Tribe’s pitchers are the youngest in the league at 27.6 years old, compared to the AL average of 29 years of age.

The Indians average 5.06 runs per game, the second best average in the Junior Circuit, behind only division rival Detroit. They allow 4.24 runs per contest, a figure that ranks ninth, so there is still room for improvement.

We said prior to the season starting that the Wahoos needed to be in the top half of the league in both categories to be serious contenders. They are close right now, ranking 8th in ERA.

As for the other key offensive numbers, the Indians rank 4th in on base percentage, and lead the American League in slugging percentage and OPS. They are 3rd in batting average, but are fourth from the bottom in drawing walks. That is a number they will need to improve upon, as pitchers down the road may prey on their aggressiveness.

While many fans (including us) were worried about strikeouts, the Indians aren’t even in the top half of the league in striking out, ranking ninth. No Indians ranks in the ten of the league in whiffing.

The Tribe power hasn’t just been home runs (they lead the AL), but they also rank fifth in doubles and third in triples. They’ve been hitting for extra bases a lot.

As for the pitching, it has joined the hitting in feast or famine mode, being tied for the league lead in shutouts with five (with Texas, Tampa Bay, and Seattle). It says a lot about the stuff of the Indians’ pitchers that they lead the AL in allowing the least hits per nine innings. They also rank fifth in the league in strikeouts.

However, there are a couple of areas of concern. Cleveland pitchers are walking more than the average team, ranking sixth in the league in walks allowed. They also are third from the bottom in innings pitched by starters so far this year, ahead of just Houston and Minnesota. Although Terry Francona has kept 13 pitchers on the roster for much of the season, there is a fear of burning out the relief corps, which is a huge strength for this team.

This team doesn’t have any weird anomalies or getting a great deal of luck involved in a pretty good start. Francona’s bunch are playing good solid baseball. They are 8-5 in games decided by one run, another good stat. Good teams win blowout games.

Right now, the Cleveland Indians are no fluke.

Good Start, But Tribe Needs Consistency

After Saturday’s 7-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins, the Cleveland Indians completed their 27^th game, hitting the 1/6^th pole on the season.

What have we learned about this baseball team?

We have learned that the offense is about what most people figured it would be, which is a lot of feast and famine. The Indians rank fifth in the American League in runs scored, but through 27 games, they scored three runs or less in more than half of the contests (14).

On the other hand, they scored eight or more runs eight times. That leaves only five games where they scored between four and seven tallies.

That’s very inconsistent, although to be fair, they have been missing Michael Bourn for the last two weeks.

We have also learned that it appears Carlos Santana is becoming the all around hitter we thought he would be when he was called up in 2010. The switch-hitting catcher is batting .379 with six homers thus far, with an OPS of 1.160.

While it would be crazy to suggest he will end the year with those numbers, it looks like Santana is on his way to an outstanding season.

Free agent signee Mark Reynolds has also had a tremendous start, and is on his way to topping 30 HRs barring injury. He will have a period where he struggles, based on his past, but he seems to be getting better as a hitter, giving in a little bit with two strikes.

He doesn’t even lead the Tribe in striking out so far.

Asdrubal Cabrera (.222, 2 HR, 13 RBI), Jason Kipnis (.218, 2 HR, 10 RBI), and Lonnie Chisenhall (.231, 3 HR, 11 RBI) are all off to relatively slow starts, and should produce better as the season goes on, and some of the hot hitters tail off a bit.

We have learned that the Indians have quality depth in INF Mike Aviles and OF Ryan Raburn, both of whom have been very productive when called upon. Yan Gomes and Jason Giambi have contributed as well.

The bullpen has been very good as Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen have allowed Terry Francona to have five solid hard throwing right-handers at his disposal. And Rich Hill has done a good job as the ‘pen’s LOOGY (left-handed one out guy).

The starting rotation, which figured to be the club’s biggest weakness, has been strong lately, but had a shaky start.

Ubaldo Jimenez continues to be the biggest question mark, pitching well in his first start and last start, however, the three in between were brutal. At this point, Francona can’t know what he is going to get on a start-by-start basis.

The other wild card is southpaw Scott Kazmir, who has got better in each of his three starts, and looks to be a very pleasant surprise.

Zack McAllister has continued to show that he is solid, capable of keeping his team in the game in every start.

Justin Masterson was tremendous in his first five starts, but the last two have been so-so. He needs to go out there and give Francona seven quality frames on most nights.

The key going forward for the Tribe is the number of quality innings their starters can give them. They need to get to the sixth or seventh most of the time. Doing that will keep the bullpen fresh throughout the season.

The first checkpoint for the season shows the Tribe has held ground. They’ve been up and down, but they haven’t played themselves out of the race.

If they can be more consistent, both on offense and in starting pitching, it may be an enjoyable summer of baseball at Progressive Field.

Great Move by Tribe to Upgrade Bench

Much of the excitement over the fine off-season the Cleveland Indians front office had been based on getting Terry Francona to manage the squad, and the signings of free agents Nick Swisher, Mark Reynolds, Michael Bourn, and Brett Myers.

They also remade the bench, and so far those guys have come up huge in the early going for the Tribe.

With the injuries to Bourn and Swisher, and remember Carlos Santana and Jason Kipnis missed some time as well, the bench guys have received playing time and have been productive.

Mike Aviles is tied for third in RBIs and Ryan Raburn in sixth on the club despite having played less than many of the players Francona writes in the batting order everyday.

And what may be even bigger, they understand their role.

Gone are the days of having to play Aaron Cunningham, Brett Lillibridge, and Vinny Rottino when a starter can’t go.

GM Chris Antonetti did an excellent job of getting veterans, who understand their job and their role, to come off the bench. These guys don’t need everyday at bats to stay sharp.

On the recent five game winning streak, Aviles had a five RBI game vs. Kansas City, and Raburn reincarnated Babe Ruth slugging a pair of homers in back to back games, and getting 12 hits in 14 at bats.

That’s getting help from the bench.

It helps that both Aviles and Raburn are 32 years old. They’ve been around the game for a while and they aren’t looking for a chance to play every day.

Aviles was the Red Sox’ starting shortstop last season, but his career shows he’s been much better when he doesn’t play everyday. He hit .250 in 2012, but is a career .276 hitter.

Raburn suffered through a terrible season in 2012, batting just .171 with only one home run. However, he averaged 15 dingers a year from 2009-11 with the Tigers and can play both corner outfield spots, as well as 2B and 3B.

Certainly, Aviles and Raburn have been the key contributors, but you can’t overlook the play of reserve catcher Yan Gomes and DH Jason Giambi.

Gomes, who came in the same deal with Toronto as did Aviles, is slowly but surely replacing Lou Marson as the back up catcher, showing more offense in his limited at bats as Marson ever did. The Brazilian native has four extra base hits in 31 at bats, compared to 10 all last year from Marson.

Giambi has two doubles, two homers, and three walks in limited playing time. He’s also well-respected in the clubhouse, a great role model for the young players like Jason Kipnis and Lonnie Chisenhall.

And Francona has experience in using a veteran bench too. He tries to put all of these guys in positions where they can succeed.

The production from the bench will also keep the regulars fresh over the long haul of baseball’s regular season. Last year, it was evident that Asdrubal Cabrera and Kipnis wore down from playing every day as the Tribe didn’t have a quality reserve that the manager, Manny Acta, could trust.

No one should expect Raburn to continue channel Hank Aaron for the rest of the season, and there will certainly be days and weeks where the reserve players won’t produce.

Still, the Indians filled some holes on the bench which are just as important as the ones they filled in the starting lineup.

Those moves have helped the Indians tread water during the first month of the season.

Make or Break Time for Ubaldo

In the English language, it is a general rule the every “Q” is followed by the letter “u”.

That is certainly true for the Cleveland Indians. Their biggest question is Ubaldo Jimenez.

He was a concern for the team after last season ended, a year where Jimenez lost 17 games and had an ERA of 5.40. He was second in the American League in walks, and led the league in wild pitches.

New manager Terry Francona visited the big right-hander in the off-season and new pitching coach Mickey Calloway has worked hard to smooth out Jimenez’ bulky mechanics.

So far, the results are mixed.

He did pitch well in his first start against Toronto in the second game of the season, but his next two appearances were terrible, the home opener against the Yankees, and a start vs. Boston that he couldn’t make out of the second inning.

He was okay against Houston, allowing a two run homer in the first, but at one point retired 13 men in a row. Still, he was pulled after throwing just 65 pitches and received a no decision.

It seems that Francona and Calloway are trying to avoid putting Jimenez on the mound, pushing him back in the rotation in each of his last three starts. He was supposed to pitch on Saturday night, but with the rainout Friday in Kansas City, they decided to start him Monday, by passing both games in a doubleheader on Sunday.

The question now seems to be how much longer is the rope for the former Rockie?

He still cannot throw strikes consistently, with 11 in 17 innings of work this season. And he is pitching backwards, throwing 30% split finger fastballs on the first pitch this season, and that pitch is usually used to finish off hitters.

It seems like the Tribe doesn’t have confidence in Jimenez, and worse yet, the pitcher himself has no confidence.

And soon, the Indians will have a decision to make.

Corey Kluber gave his team a very good start Sunday night in Kansas City, going seven innings and allowing just two runs. He’s earned another start.

Justin Masterson has won four games thus far, and Zack McAllister has kept Cleveland in the game in each of his five starts.

Scott Kazmir showed promise in his second start after a rocky outing in his first effort. The lefty is a project, but he has maintained a 90+ MPH fastball that he had when he was a top-notch pitcher with the Rays.

So, right now, by performance and as a result of being moved around in the rotation as needed, Jimenez is the Indians’ fifth starter.

What happens if Trevor Bauer, who will make a spot start on Wednesday against Philadelphia because of Friday’s rainout, pitches well? Or if Carlos Carrasco, who took a line drive off his pitching elbow last week, continues to dominate at AAA?

If things continue, as they are, which of course, is no guarantee, what choice does the Tribe brass have with Jimenez?

He can refuse being sent to the minors, so that’s not really an option.

Others have mentioned the bullpen, but teams really don’t use long men any more and he can’t throw strikes, so that’s doesn’t seem to work either.

His contract ends after this season, so the Indians could look at releasing him without being hurt long-term.

Whatever happens, Ubaldo Jimenez is pitching for his career with the Indians over the next few starts. That’s just reality.

Stubbs’ Struggles are Worrisome

Before the season started, most baseball experts felt the biggest weakness for the Cleveland Indians would be starting pitching.

It has been, with only Justin Masterson and Zack McAllister showing any consistency thus far. The other three spots in the rotation seem to be wish, hope, and pray to this point in the season.

However, the offense has struggled as well, despite last night’s 19-6 beat down in Houston, and we don’t expect that to continue for much longer. Two time all-star SS Asdrubal Cabrera is hitting just .150 with only four extra base hits. As skipper Terry Francona said the other day, Cabrera’s next 50 at bats could be as hot as he is cold right now.

And 2B Jason Kipnis will start to hit too, as will young 3B Lonnie Chisenhall, who is hitting just .224 with only one walk compared to 15 strikeouts to this point.

Also, CF Michael Bourn will return in another week, and he was off to a great start, hitting .333 through the first ten games.

There is one guy to be concerned about however, and that would be OF Drew Stubbs, because his start seems to be a continuation of the downward spiral his career has been taking.

The eighth overall pick in 2006, the outfielder burst on the scene in 2009, hitting .267 with eight home runs in 42 games that season. That promise showed through even more in 2010, when the big right-handed hitter batted .255 with 22 dingers in his first year as a regular.

It’s been downhill from there as Stubbs’ production has waned while his strikeouts have started to pile up. His power numbers dropped in ’11 to 15 home runs and 14 last year, while striking out 205 times in 2011 and 166 times (in 140 fewer plate appearances) last year.

This season, Stubbs has fanned 19 times in 57 times at the plate, while having just three extra base hits, all doubles. He leads the Indians in whiffing, amazing since the Tribe has notorious swing and miss Mark Reynolds on the roster.

Reynolds, though, has been productive when making contact, leading Cleveland with 6 HR and 17 RBI. Stubbs hasn’t hit one out yet this season, and he hadn’t scored a run this season until last night. While that is not totally his fault, it is a telling stat.

With his 3 for 4 evening yesterday, Stubbs is hitting .255 on the season with a 647 OPS. That’s the nature of early season statistics, they can fluctuate greatly with one good game. His batting average was .213 before last night.

To be sure, GM Chris Antonetti and Francona were hoping Stubbs would regain his pop with a different approach and that may still be the case. As we said, it is very early. However, his early difficulties continue the trend from the past three seasons.

It is much like saying it’s only two starts for Ubaldo Jimenez in 2013. You have to remember that this is a continuation of the right-handers struggles since he came to Cleveland in July 2011.

It’s a trend, and when things are going on a downhill plane, the player needs to show improvement right away.

Stubbs needs to produce soon, because when Bourn is back, he may lose playing time by moving Nick Swisher to RF, Reynolds to 1B, and using a combination of Jason Giambi, Mike Aviles, and Carlos Santana at DH.

The Tribe brass was hoping Drew Stubbs could regain the production of his early career when they dealt for him this winter. Right now, they have to be a little concerned that he won’t.

Tribe Organizational Depth in View Early

The baseball season is just 11 games old, and the depth the Cleveland Indians acquired in the off-season has already been put to the test.

First, the starting rotation had a horrible two turns through, with many pitchers not being able to go more than five innings. That took a toll on the bullpen, so Terry Francona and the front office were able to change on the fly and add an extra relief pitcher.

Of course, the two rainouts helped because they were able to skip a start for the fifth guy in the rotation.

Scott Kazmir made a rehab start with Columbus last night and he is on track to make his first start in Houston this weekend, so Francona got away without having to use somebody he didn’t want to use.

With the nagging elbow injury for 2B Jason Kipnis, the skipper has had to use Mike Aviles and Ryan Raburn, both established major league players, to fill in. This is different from having to use players like Aaron Cunningham, Austin Kearns, or Luis Valbuena as substitutes.

Aviles was the starting shortstop for Boston last season, and although the Sox wound up with virtually the same record as the Indians, both teams fell apart in the last two months, so it wasn’t like either team was like the Astros and Marlins of 2013.

Raburn is also experienced, having appeared in over 100 games three times with the Tigers and hitting double digits in home runs in three different seasons.

Tito has had to alter his catchers early this season too. Carlos Santana hurt his thumb/wrist during the home opener, and Lou Marson hurt his neck in a home plate collision, so Yan Gomes was called up from Columbus, and has done a good job handling the pitchers and also hit a home run on Saturday.

Now, CF Michael Bourn is going to miss perhaps of week’s worth of games with stitches in his finger. No problem. Francona will move Drew Stubbs to center, and he can play Raburn in right, or he can put Nick Swisher in right, use Mark Reynolds at first base and give Jason Giambi some at bats as the DH.

Giambi may be 42 years old, and won the American League MVP in 2000, but he has made his living in recent years by being a productive bat off the bench in Colorado.

Besides Gomes, the added depth also extends to the minor leagues. For example, with Bourn down and Kipnis out, the Tribe called up Cord Phelps, who had an excellent spring and has a very good history of hitting in the minors, to the 25-man roster.

They no longer have to use a player who has no business being in the big leagues.

At other times, they stayed longer with a struggling player because they didn’t have a better option available. This was the case with Johnny Damon last season.

And that bodes very well for the success of this ballclub. You have to have options because things never work out the way it is planned in the off-season. In the past few years, this organization had few alternatives.

This year, the depth they’ve accumulated is being put to the test before the first month of the season plays out.

Tribe Strengths, Weaknesses Show in First Week

Week one of the new baseball season has come and gone, and it is always funny to hear fans go crazy about one week of a 26 week season.

If the same results happened in late June, no one would think anything of it. This would apply to being shutout on back-to-back nights, which happened to the Cleveland Indians this week.

Because of the extremely small sample size, results in the first week are greatly magnified. No one really thinks (at least we hope not) that Jason Kipnis and Asdrubal Cabrera will hit .100 for the season, yet there they are, struggling at the onset of the new campaign.

On the other hand, let us get supporters ready for the reality that Justin Masterson will not win every one of his starts in 2013.

Still, one thing that could be a trend for the Tribe is the streaky nature of their offense, mostly because of the contact issues of many of the hitters in their everyday lineup. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the hitting had a few instances where they have problems scoring, just like they did in the first two games of the Tampa Bay series.

And the reason for that is they have a lot of all or nothing hitters. The trade-off to this is they will have streaks where they probably bludgeon their opponents as well, just like they did on Sunday afternoon in a 13-0 win.

It’s still better than last year, when the Indians had one of the worst offenses in baseball and had several hitters in their lineup where the opposing pitcher could relax during a game.

The other weakness that raised its ugly head was the starting pitching, which provided three or four (depending on how you feel about Zack McAllister’s outing on Friday night) good starts and three bad ones, most notably Brett Myers start in game three and Ubaldo Jimenez’ start in yesterday’s home opener.

That the worrisome thing about this year’s Indians, can the starters give them a chance to win on a night in, night out basis. That didn’t happen in Myers start, and it didn’t happen against New York.

Many fans and media members are concerned about Myers, who didn’t have a good spring and then pitched home run derby, Canadian style. But Myers has been better than Jimenez in the time period that has occurred since the latter was traded here in 2011.

Jimenez looked very good in his first start, but that’s exactly the thing that ticks people off most. In his second start, he was back to the Ubaldo we saw last season: unable to throw strikes consistently, his velocity down, and a lack of concentration that resulted in a stolen base by Chris Stewart, the Yankee catcher who had such a big jump he went in standing.

McAllister gave manager Terry Francona a good start, but he again gave up runs after his defense let him down, allowing two insurance runs in what was a 2-0 game after an error by 3B Mike Aviles. Francona said the big right-hander tries too hard to pick up his defense when miscues happen and that could be the cause of his problems allowing unearned runs.

Trevor Bauer had trouble locating his fastball in his start, walking seven in five innings, but he showed his stuff was good, allowing just three runs. If he can throw strikes with the heater, he could help before the year is out.

No overreactions here, just observations. However, nothing that happened in the first week should change any preconceived notions about the Cleveland Indians.

Young Vets Ready to Make Impact for Tribe

Much of the optimism for this year’s Cleveland Indians has centered on the money spent by the Dolan ownership, which resulted in the signing of free agents Nick Swisher, Mark Reynolds, Michael Bourn and Brett Myers.

However, another reason for the Tribe’s improvement offensively will come from three young players who have been on fans’ radar for more than a year. These three, 2B Jason Kipnis, LF Michael Brantley, and 3B Lonnie Chisenhall are poised to take the step into being better than average players at their position.

Kipnis, who will be 26 next week, burst on the scene when he joined the team half way through the 2011 season, posting a 841 OPS in 150 at bats. He got off to a solid start to the 2012 season, hitting .280 with 8 HR and 30 RBI through the end of May.

The pitchers adjusted after that and Kipnis hit just .246 with 6 HR and 46 RBI the rest of the season. He didn’t slug over .400 in any month for the balance of the year.

Besides the different way he was being pitches, fatigue also may have been a factor because it was difficult to give Kipnis a day off because the Indians had very little depth. This year, that shouldn’t be a factor.

The “JK Kid” has a great track record of hitting in the minors (863 OPS in almost 1000 at bats), so we feel confident he will bounce back and more resemble the ’11 edition of Kipnis rather than the guy who struggled the last four months in 2012.

Brantley has spent time in the big leagues every year since 2009, so it seems like he should be older than 26, which he will turn in May. He had his best season last year, hitting .288, 6 HR, 60 RBI, 750 OPS, but has steadily improved in each of the last three seasons, and at his age that should continue in ’13.

His improvement has come in both his on base percentage and slugging percentage, so it wouldn’t be a stretch if he could get the OPS over the 800 mark this season, which would make him a very good offensive player. He had 47 extra base hits in 2012, and as he gets stronger, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that some of the 37 doubles he had last year start to fly over the fence.

That extra base hit number represents an increase of 12 from the year before. It wouldn’t be a shock if Brantley had close to 60 extra base knocks in 2013, figure about 45 doubles and 15 homers.

Chisenhall, 24, is finally free of the managers’ infatuation with defense at the hot corner and will get his shot at being the everyday third baseman. He has 12 HRs in 350 big league at bats, which figures to 17 dingers in 500 plate appearances.

His struggles against southpaws are overblown because he’s had only 88 at bats vs. lefties in his brief time in the bigs, and still has managed five homers in those chances. That’s not to say we wouldn’t give him a day off against a guy like C.C. Sabathia, but he should get an opportunity to play virtually everyday.

He’s had a monster spring, which doesn’t always translate, but he has a smooth left-handed swing, and seems to be more selective at the plate. That may be because Terry Francona basically told him the job was his to lose and he relaxed at the dish.

These three guys, along with the free agent acquisitions, are the reason the Indians’ offense will be much better than the past two seasons. They will allow Francona to play most days with tough outs throughout the lineup.

American League teams need seven out of nine guys to be able to provide quality at bats. The Tribe has that in 2013.