Tribe Can’t Platoon In Too Many Spots

Cleveland Indians’ manager Terry Francona is one of the best in the league at using the platoon advantage.

It helps that his team has a number of switch-hitters who are regulars: SS Francisco Lindor, 2B Jose Ramirez, and 1B Carlos Santana were everyday players in 2017.

It enables Francona to platoon in right field where he used Lonnie Chisenhall and Brandon Guyer until both were injured and the front office acquired Jay Bruce.

He also did the same in center, using rookie Bradley Zimmer and veteran Austin Jackson out there.

In 2016, he did the same, using Tyler Naquin and Rajai Davis in center for the American League champs.

The players have to have decided platoon advantages for the strategy to work. Guyer is lethal vs. southpaws, and Jackson hit .352 against lefties last season.

We mention this because with Santana and Bruce now free agents, many people look at available free agents and wonder about fits for the Tribe.

One name that came up was 1B Matt Adams, recently non-tendered by Atlanta.

Adams, who swings from the left side, has an 828 career OPS vs. right handed pitching with a .286 batting average. We like Adams, who has been production even though he’s been an everyday player just one season.

However, there is one problem with the platooning. Francona also likes to carry 13 pitchers, including eight relievers. That means there are only 12 position players, which limits how many spots the manager can use a platoon system.

Plus, two of those dozen position players are catchers, so if you aren’t platooning with that position, it means there are only two spots that the manager can use different players against left-handers and right-handers.

And don’t forget the need for a utility infielder, preferably someone who can play shortstop defensively so you aren’t playing a statue when Lindor gets his infrequent days off.

So, if the Indians don’t re-sign Santana, they will either need a full time option there or decide that Zimmer has to play everyday in centerfield. Either that or have one less pitcher in the bullpen for Francona.

As things are right now, you have to think the current platoons will be Chisenhall and Guyer in right (again) and Zimmer and a right-handed bat to be named later in centerfield.

That’s why we still believe if Santana goes elsewhere, Michael Brantley will move to first base with Jason Kipnis playing left field. If Santana returns, we could see a deal involving Kipnis.

If you want to look at a player from another team that was non-tendered, how about reliever Hector Rondon.

The right-hander was in the Tribe organization until 2012, and had seasons of 29 and 30 saves for the Cubs in 2014 and 2015.

Last season, he was 4-1 with a 4.24 ERA for Chicago, with 69 strikeouts in 57-1/3 innings, so he still has swing and miss stuff.

We know the Indians like to reunite with former players, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if the reliever came back to Cleveland, especially since the front office has to be looking for arms to replace Bryan Shaw, who is a free agent.

With the Winter Meetings starting on Sunday, the Indians’ roster changes should start to take place. Just remember the number of platoon options are limited unless full time players are acquired as well.

Could Be A Busy Winter For Tribe

The hot stove league has officially started in Major League Baseball with the GM Meetings this week, and the Winter Meetings taking place in a few weeks.

After the past few years when the 25 man roster was pretty much set in stone, the next few weeks could be filled with several moves for the Cleveland Indians.

It was not surprise that the Tribe offered free agent Carlos Santana the qualifying offer, nor was it a shock when he turned it down.

Many experts expect Santana to return to the Indians after seeing what offers are out there, but president Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff have plenty of questions to answer before the team reconvenes in Goodyear in February.

Santana is the key to Cleveland’s off-season in our opinion.

The team would probably be interested in a reunion with Jay Bruce if the market comes back down much like it did with Edwin Encarnacion a year ago. But they probably won’t go more than two or three years for the veteran outfielder.

And what to do with Jason Kipnis? If Santana returns, there doesn’t seem to be a fit for him, as Michael Brantley would play LF in that scenario. However, if Santana departs, Brantley would likely go to 1B, with Kipnis playing left field.

The Indians do have some trade assets, although we believe they aren’t interested in trading their top prospect C/3B Francisco Mejia, one of the top 10 prospects in all of the minor leagues, nor would they be anxious to move Triston McKenzie, one of the premier pitching prospects in baseball.

We would think the organization would want to keep Mejia and OF Greg Allen in AAA to start the season and get them more experience.

However, we could see players such as Erik Gonzalez, Yu-Cheng Chang, and Willi Castro, all shortstops by trade who would seem to be blocked here by the presence of Francisco Lindor.

We also don’t know how the organization feels about the future of 1B Bobby Bradley, whose power is unquestioned, but he has a lot of swing and miss in his style. Does the front office think he can be a viable big league hitter?

With reliever Bryan Shaw also likely to be elsewhere in ’18, who fills his role in the bullpen. It has been rumored that perhaps Danny Salazar moves to the bullpen with his electric stuff as a bridge between the starter and Andrew Miller and Cody Allen.

If not, no doubt the brass will be looking for another bullpen arm.

The rotation shouldn’t see changes, but if Salazar does go to the ‘pen, it wouldn’t be a shock to see the Tribe look for a starter on the free agent market, probably toward spring training when the prices come down.

The Indians have a strong core with Lindor, Jose Ramirez, Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Trevor Bauer, Miller, and Allen. Unless he fails with the bat, Bradley Zimmer probably has a lock on centerfield.

The rest of the spots are fluid and the front office has some choices that are currently on the roster, young players on the uptick, and perhaps adding more pieces in deals.

There could be plenty of new faces in spring training for the Indians, and many of those spots hinge on Santana’s decision.

Tribe Dilemma: Brantley, Santana, Bruce

In a little over a week from now, the baseball hot stove season will be upon us, three days after the World Series ends.

Although we were hopeful at the end of the regular season that the Indians would be involved in the Fall Classic for the second straight year, the reality of the post-season for the national pastime creeped in and Terry Francona’s team was eliminated in the Division Series.

The biggest decision the front office has to deal with immediately is whether or not to pick up the club option on Michael Brantley, and how that decision affects the future of Carlos Santana and Jay Bruce with the Tribe.

Although Brantley has been with the Indians since 2009, he is actually the youngest of the trio as he will not turn 31 until May 15th next year.

Brantley is a professional hitter. He makes contact and gets on base on a regular basis, a career .349 on base percentage. He is also consistent, hitting at least .285 for the last five years.

But he has the least pop of the three, a career .423 slugging percentage, and unfortunately has played only 101 games over the last two seasons. And he had surgery on his ankle since the end of the year, and may not be available for five months.

His defense has declined in leftfield over the past couple of years, and with another leg issue, that seems unlikely to be reversed, so he may have to be a 1B or DH going forward, something we predicted a few years ago.

And the latter spot isn’t really an option with Cleveland, with Edwin Encarnacion on the roster.

If Brantley has to be moved, it would seem to force Santana out, and he is probably the best player of the three.

The switch-hitter has a lifetime .363 on base percentage and a higher slugging percentage than Brantley. He’s also made himself into an excellent first baseman defensively.

He is the oldest of the three, turning 32 early next season. He’s also a free agent, and if another team offered more than three years, the Tribe front office might be inclined to pass.

Bruce, who came over in August and made an immediate impact, is probably the least consistent, and is also a free agent this winter.

His 832 OPS in 2017 was his highest since 2012, and the third highest of his career.

We can’t forget he had back-to-back seasons in ’14 and ’15 where he hit .217 and .226 in hitter friendly Great American Ball Park.

Complicating the decision is what does the future hold for Jason Kipnis, who seems to be viewed as an outfielder now by the Tribe brass.

Our guess is the team will pick up Brantley’s option because of his tenure with the organization, although we would pass because of the uncertainty that he can play the outfield going forward.

Santana would be the priority because of his impact on offense and defense, and that he’s a switch-hitter.

He’s happy here and might sign a more club friendly deal to remain an Indian too.

Our second choice would be Bruce because he can still be a serviceable outfielder and he has revitalized his career by making a swing adjustment to hit the ball in the air more.

The Indians have spent more in recent years, but they aren’t a big market team, meaning they still have to be smart about who they spend big money on. They can’t have a lot of cash tied up in a player who isn’t available.

That’s why we would pass on Brantley. The organization probably won’t because that’s how they operate.

Still, it’s the biggest decision of the off-season.

Time For New Tribe Leaders To Emerge

It was not a good trip for the Cleveland Indians. They went 1-4 and had only one game where they scored more than three runs, and of course, that was their only win.

Terry Francona is questioning the “fight” in his ballclub, who seem a little full of themselves based on last year’s World Series appearance.

From appearances, it seems like there are a few players who want to make highlight plays, to get on MLB Network’s “Quick Pitch”, than making the right baseball play.

They seem to have guys trying to hit home runs and make spectacular defensive plays (like trying to flip a ball out of a glove), rather than do what is needed to win, which they did a year ago.

Reading between the lines, Francona bemoaned not having guys like Jason Giambi and Mike Napoli in the clubhouse, so what he was really saying is that he needs his veterans to step up and lead this current group of Indians.

Players like Jason Kipnis, Michael Brantley, Carlos Santana, and Yan Gomes have been here since Francona arrived prior to the 2013 season, and they were exposed to Giambi and Napoli and how they helped police the locker room.

It’s time for those four or perhaps someone else to take what they learned from those veterans, and start taking charge of this group.

Perhaps it isn’t in their DNA to be vocal, but they may just have to get out of their comfort zone, because the 2017 Cleveland Indians seem to be in some kind of malaise that they can’t escape.

In the 57 games the Tribe has played this season, they have scored three runs or less in 28 of them, virtually half of the games. There is too much talent on the roster for that to happen every other night.

For example, in Wednesday’s game vs. Colorado, the plate umpire, Jim Wolf seemed to have a tight strike zone. Trevor Bauer walked five batters in less than four innings. However, Cleveland hitters didn’t draw one walk through the first six innings.

The patience the Indians had at the plate a year ago is now sporadic. Some days, they work the count very effectively, on others, they go to the plate like they have an early dinner reservation.

And that’s where the veterans have to stress having the same approach on an everyday basis. Mickey Callaway often talks about how the starting pitchers copy the work that ace Corey Kluber does on a daily basis.

It has to be every game, not just two out of three.

The front office made a statement in 2015 when they traded Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn to Atlanta, and it effect handed the team over to the young veteran core mentioned before.

But if Francona is still referencing Giambi and Napoli, then perhaps they aren’t preaching the grit and fight needed to win consistently.

If they can’t do it, then it may have to fall on the team’s best player, Francisco Lindor, to do it.

The point is, somebody in the locker room needs to step up and set a tone similar to what Napoli did last year. The Tribe may not get going until somebody does.

Baseball Doesn’t Need Major Changes

Baseball is in the news this week, not for stuff pertaining to spring training or possible roster moves, but rather for changes being considered to speed up the game.

Although we agree that there are things that can be done to move along the pace of the game, the idea of starting a runner at second base to start an inning once the game in tied after nine is blatantly stupid.

Ideas like this shows us that Commissioner Rob Manfred is chasing casual fans in favor of the hardcore fans who love the game and everything that surrounds it.

We know the average game takes about three hours to play, and really cutting ten minutes off of that time would be great. But that can be done in a series of ways.

The first thing would be to eliminate the constant stepping out by hitters between pitches. Hitters need to stay in the box and umpires should allow pitchers to throw to the plate if they are ready.

Batters have to ask for time out, the umpires don’t have to give it to them.

The second thing is to call a strike a strike. How many times in the course of a game do you say to yourself, “where was that pitch?” We understand that there is an art to drawing walks, we have one of the best in the game in doing that in Carlos Santana.

We have no problem watching a game where there is a pitcher’s zone, as long as the umpire is consistent. The game moves much faster.

In terms of the extra inning rule, which will take effect in the low minors this year, there wasn’t a more riveting game last year for the Tribe than the 19 inning victory over Toronto on July 1st.

Yes, the fact the Indians had a 13 game winning streak helped, without a doubt. We were at one of the local casinos while the game was going on, and crowds were gathered around the televisions that are at the bars. They weren’t moving either.

And when Cleveland won, a huge roar went up throughout the building. No one was bored by the length of the game, except for a few young members of the media here. Of course, they don’t understand the game.

Why pick on baseball? The length of an NFL game continues to grow every year because no one runs the ball anymore and every time a pass is not completed the clock stops. Granted, it has become so easy to complete passes, there aren’t many stoppages of play.

We understand baseball is played everyday, while pro football is just once a week. But no one is complaining that NFL games that used to fit in a three hour window, now take 3:30 or 3:45 to play.

Remember, it takes that long to play 60 minutes of football.

The NBA games are also lengthening. Again, no one is complaining.

The people who are complaining about baseball are people who aren’t going to games. Do you ever hear someone who was at a 9-7 game that took three and a half hours, complain about the game being too long?

Of course not, the complaint usually comes from people who don’t like or understand the game.

Tribe Offense Has Been Big Surprise Due To Long Ball

Without a doubt, the biggest surprise for the Cleveland Indians this season has been the offense.

Everyone expected the pitching staff to excel, based on the Tribe having the best rotation in the American League, and perhaps the best in all of baseball. The bullpen could use some help, but for the most part, Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen have done a solid job in the back of the ‘pen.

They haven’t disappointed either, as the staff has the lowest ERA in the AL.

There were many who expected the offense to struggle, and had those who thought this known that Michael Brantley was going to play in just 11 of Cleveland’s first 94 games, it would’ve have been felt it was too much for the pitching staff to overcome.

The reason for the surprise is simply this–the Tribe has found the long ball.

Last season, the Indians finished 13th in the American League in home runs, led by Carlos Santana with 19.

Only four other Indians hit more than 10 dingers: Brantley and Brandon Moss (traded in July) hit 15, and Yan Gomes and Francisco Lindor hit a dozen each.

That’s it.

Turn the calendar to 2016, and things are drastically different.

The Indians are 5th in the junior circuit in home runs and the power is dispersed throughout the lineup.

You have Mike Napoli leading the way with 22 bombs, waging a seemingly day to day battle with Carlos Santana for the club lead. The latter has already topped his ’15 total by belting 21 homers this season.

Jason Kipnis is closing in on his career high of 17 home runs, and his next one will tie that mark. And Lindor and rookie surprise Tyler Naquin have each hit 12 circuit clouts.

Rajai Davis is poised to join the double figure club sitting at nine, and Juan Uribe and Lonnie Chisenhall should also hit more than 10 before the year is out.

Last season, the champion Royals based their offense on an up and down the lineup attack which featured six players with OPS of over 800 in their lineup.

The 2015 Indians had just three in Kipnis, Brantley, and Lindor, who didn’t join the team until the middle of June. Against left-handed pitchers, Ryan Raburn was added to the lineup.

That’s why the offense sputtered. There were too many inconsistencies in the hitting on a night to night basis.

This year, it’s the Indians who have the ability to keep pressure on the opponent’s pitchers throughout the lineup. Napoli, Kipnis, Lindor, Naquin, Chisenhall, and Santana all exceed 800 OPS.

That’s a solid lineup that Terry Francona puts out there every day.

We also shouldn’t lose the fact that runs scored are up around baseball this year, and it does make teams with good pitching stand out. When run scoring is down in the sport, everyone has good pitching numbers.

It gives the Tribe a bigger advantage against the teams they are competing with in the American League and throughout baseball.

Still, it wouldn’t hurt to add another bat before next Sunday. There is nothing wrong with making a strong unit even stronger.

The Indians need bullpen help, so they are looking to make their pitching better, so why not make the hitting better as well.

With a seven game lead in the division, the goal isn’t making the playoffs, it should be giving the Tribe the best chance it can have to win the World Series.

That’s a realistic goal. Right now!

Should Tribe Trust These Guys?

Outside of Opening Day, the next best day for starved baseball fans is coming this week when pitchers and catchers report to spring training.

By the way, if you happen to be going to Goodyear, Arizona, the forecast for this week is in the 80’s, a drastic departure from what we have experience in Cleveland this week.

The Indians are definitely a contender for a playoff spot in the balance American League, where pretty much everyone, save for perhaps Oakland, could be in the post-season.

It has been well stated that we wish the Tribe front office had done more to improve the ballclub this winter, particularly since they have one of the premier starting rotations in baseball, but even still if the hitting can generate enough runs, Terry Francona’s team should be in the mix heading into September.

However, there are some players we think the Indians may be putting too much faith in heading into spring training. Here they are, and our reasons for saying this.

Rajai Davis. One reason is that Davis is 35 years old and his game is built on speed. But the OF’s OPS languished under 700 from 2010-13 while playing for Oakland and Toronto.

The resurgence in the last two years comes from great numbers in Comerica Park where the speedster had a 785 OPS in 2014, and then shot up to 823 last season.

Can Davis put up respectable numbers without playing half his games in the Motor City? That’s something to keep an eye on in the early part of the season.

Carlos Santana. Fans around town are split on the switch-hitter, but can the Tribe brass count on him for a rebound season that the offense desperately needs?

The former catcher will turn 30 a couple of days after the season opens, and his production has declined each of the last two seasons, dropping 40 points in OPS in both seasons. Most of that drop comes from his slugging percentage, which was that of a middle infielder last season.

He will get a lot of at bats at DH in 2016, and if the power numbers don’t return to 2013 levels, Francona will be searching for a replacement very quickly.

Abraham Almonte. The Indians are putting a lot of faith into their play in August and September a year ago, and the switch-hitting centerfielder was a significant part of that success.

After two dismal seasons in San Diego, Almonte put up a 321/455/776 line in less than 200 at bats with Cleveland. That’s way above any kind of numbers he put up in the major leagues before that.

But he’s the primary guy in center coming into the season. That should make everyone who follows the Indians very nervous.

Jeff Manship. We have seen him mentioned by some as a major piece in the Cleveland bullpen and frankly, we aren’t buying it.

GM Mike Chernoff is still searching for relief help, which is why he signed Tommy Hunter on Friday, and also traded for Dan Otero and inked Craig Stammen to a minor league deal.

In Francona’s world, you can never have enough relief pitchers.

Manship was incredible a year ago, with an 0.92 ERA in 39 innings of work.

But do not forget for a minute, that the right hander never had an ERA under 5.00 in any shot in the bigs before last season.

Perhaps he found something to make him a reliable major league reliever, but more likely, he will regress to the mean, and that means he could be in Columbus to open the season.

There are other question marks, like Lonnie Chisenhall in RF, and is MLB Network’s Mike Lowell correct about Mike Napoli finding his bat speed in Texas last season.

While the AL doesn’t have a lot of mediocre squads, filling some of these maybe with positive would make us feel better about the ’16 Cleveland Indians.

However, if the players we mention come through? It will be a fun summer at Progressive Field.

Last Two Weeks Shows Tribe Need Off-Season Help

After GM Chris Antonetti made the deal with Atlanta sending Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn south, the Cleveland Indians started to play better and worked their way back to the outside fringe of the wild card race.

However, once in that position, the Tribe went back to a win one, lose one stretch, and dropping the first two games of a key series against another contender, the Minnesota Twins, virtually eliminates Terry Francona’s team from post-season consideration.

In a way, that’s good, because it won’t give anyone on the corner of Carnegie and Ontario a notion that the Cleveland Indians are a solid baseball team heading into the winter.

We see four position players who should have starting jobs when the 2016 season opens at Progressive Field on April 4th:

2B Jason Kipnis
SS Francisco Lindor
C Yan Gomes
?? Michael Brantley

Every other position should have competition.

The question mark around Brantley is because we think a move to 1B could be in the cards for him. He’s played the position in the minor leagues, and if the front office finds it easier to find a LF, then perhaps Brantley can be the new first baseman.

We say that because we do not think Carlos Santana will be back in ’16, because he will be dealt.

Santana, a polarizing figure because the sabermetric people love him because he walks, However, he is just slightly above average offensively in the AL, hitting just .234 with 17 HR and 79 RBI with a 749 OPS. The league average is 729.

The switch-hitter will be 30 years old next year, meaning he should be entering the decline phase of his career. It would be best for Antonetti to move Santana to a stat based organization while he still has value. Remember, the Tribe owes him $8 million next year with a club option of $12 million for 2017.

We would also like to see Jose Ramirez back with the team, although he might have the best trade value among the everyday players whom the Indians would be willing to deal.

3B? Giovanny Urshela is excellent defensively, but can he hit enough to play everyday?

CF? Abraham Almonte is a nice fourth outfielder, but the Indians need someone better to hold down the fort until Bradley Zimmer is ready to take over, and hopefully that will be late next season.

RF? Lonnie Chisenhall has been great defensively, but we have seen his up and downs with the bat over the years. Out of all the other positions, Chisenhall may be the guy we would give a shot to, at least in a platoon role.

LF/1B/DH? As we said, Brantley will hold down one of these spots, and he is developing into one of the league’s premier hitters. But the other two spots need people who can hit, and with the game changing, guys who hit for a good average, that don’t strike out excessively, and have a little pop would be fine.

Chris Johnson does whiff a lot, but we’d be willing to give him a share of one of these spots to start next year.

We understand that we are talking about a lot of changes, but we believe going with the status quo is not prudent if the Tribe wants to make the post-season.

Antonetti needs to be looking to upgrade at more than half of the positions in the lineup for next year. And we understand they may not be blockbuster moves, just incremental improvement at those spots would be acceptable.

We will discuss the pitching staff next week.

The Santana Dilemma

As the Cleveland Indians look toward the 2016 season, they know they are set in several positions.

Jason Kipnis and Michael Brantley have put together seasons, this year and last year respectively, that would merit MVP consideration. Kipnis won’t finish as high the third place position Brantley had in 2014 because the Indians’ record doesn’t figure to be as good.

And the starting pitching has at least four spots in cement, barring a deal for a legitimate bat, with Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Trevor Bauer, and Danny Salazar anchoring the rotation.

You also have to figure that Francisco Lindor’s showing in his first big league experience gives him a leg up on the SS position, and Yan Gomes and Roberto Perez give the Tribe a solid catching duo.

That leaves RF, CF, 3B (has Giovanny Urshela done enough?), and DH as wide open spots heading into the off-season.

Notice that we haven’t talked about first base.

The incumbent, Carlos Santana elicits much debate among Cleveland baseball fans regarding his worth as a key component to the Indians.

On paper, Santana is a pretty good offensive player having a poor season, although the stat based people will tell you he is just fine. Even with his .223 batting average in 2015, he still is above league average according to OPS.

Still, since belting 27 home runs and knocking in 79 runs in 2011 at age 25, Santana really hasn’t blossomed into the hitter that season seemed to indicate he would be.

He had hit more than 25 homers just once in that span (last year with 27), and knocked in over 80 runs just once, also 2014 with 85. That’s not quite the production you would expect from someone at a premier power position.

The switch-hitter had more value when he spent most of his season behind the plate. The kind of offense he provided as a catcher was well above average for the position. As a 1B/DH, his numbers are just so-so. And his biggest value on offense is his ability to take a walk. He struggles with men on base, mostly because he appears to be too anxious to hit a long ball.

That’s weird because of his normal patient approach.

The lack of run production stands out in the AL Central where Miguel Cabrera, Eric Hosmer, and Jose Abreu play the same spot. Here are their OPS–

Cabrera    1.034
Abreu         .861
Hosmer      .851

The production the Indians receive from their first baseman pales by comparison.

Cleveland owes Santana $8 million for 2016, and the question is can they afford to pay that much cash for below average (for his position) production.

The guess here is that Santana’s days in an Indian uniform are numbered.

For one, we are hearing the switch-hitter being criticized on the air by both radio and television announcers, which can mean that the front office personnel are feeding the media their dissatisfaction.

Secondly, Santana’s defense isn’t strong either. While work with the glove isn’t a high priority for a first sacker, the Tribe seems to be putting a new-found priority on defense, and may be looking for someone who can improve that spot.

The reality is that Carlos Santana is a solid offensive player, but he’s not a middle of the order bat, which is what the Indians need him to be. If their lineup was strong enough to bat them sixth or seventh, that would be fine, but right now, it is not possible.

So this winter, when GM Chris Antonetti looks for a big bat to help the ’16 batting order, he will be looking for one that can play first, while he dangles Santana to get help somewhere else.

Consistency is a Talent, Tribe Needs More of It

After losing both ends of a doubleheader last Sunday in Baltimore, and being shutout in both games, the Cleveland Indians reached rock bottom for the season. They dropped to 9-15 for the month of June at that point.

There was nowhere to go but up.

And up they went, winning the next five games and now they have a chance to win what looked to be a very difficult trip to Baltimore, Tampa, and Pittsburgh.

So, everything should be looking up in Tribetown and all the critics should be silenced, right?

From our point of view, not quite.

Why? Because of the consistency problem this team has, and has had all season long.

How many Indians have been consistent all year? After struggling in April, Jason Kipnis, Cody Allen have been excellent.

Michael Brantley’s power numbers are down from 2014, but he’s a guy who can be counted on to provide quality at bats every night.

Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer and Carlos Carrasco can be depended on to keep the Indians in ballgames on an everyday basis.

David Murphy and Ryan Raburn have solidified the DH spot with their platoon.

And since being called up, 3B Giovanny Urshela has been good on a day in, day out basis.

The rest of the roster? Not so much.

Carlos Santana is in the midst of a five-week long slump. SInce June 1st, the switch-hitter has gone 19 for 103 (.184), with 3 HR and 9 RBI in that span.

Over the last 28 days, Brandon Moss has hit .202 (18 for 89) with 4 HR and 12 RBIs. Over the last week, he’s gone 4 for 26.

MIchael Bourn has hit .185 with one extra base hit (last night’s double), three RBI and one stolen base over the last four weeks.

Mike Aviles has gone 4 for 26 over the last two weeks.

WIth Yan Gomes still struggling coming back from his knee injury, and Francisco Lindor going through the growing pains (at least at the plate) of being called up for the first time, this is why the offense has sputtered.

That’s five players in the batting order who have pretty much been terrible lately. That makes it very tough to put together any offense.

In the bullpen, Nick Hagadone has an ERA of 6.00 over the last month, but he’s really the only problem in that area.

Look, we understand that players aren’t robots, and they can’t all be the bastions of consistency like Brantley.

However, you can’t have so many players who are feast or famine either. That leads to months like the Indians had in April and June.

When Moss is swinging the bat well, and Santana is hitting too, the Tribe offense can look like a juggernaut. Unfortunately, that only happens in spurts.

And that’s why this is a frustrating team to watch.

Fans have clamored for a right-handed power bat, but recently, the Indians have handled southpaws.

What the Indians really need is another “professional hitter”, a guy who is going to give them quality at bats night after night.

The one thing to contemplate is what happens if Murphy and Raburn, particularly Murphy, who is hitting .327, but is a .276 career hitter, go into slumps.

Then it will be necessary for Santana or Moss to get hot over a month period.

Our point is that we shouldn’t be fooled by this five game winning streak. The Indians still need flaws they need to correct if they want to make a run at a post-season berth. They can’t afford another April or June, that will bury them.

Let’s hope the front office doesn’t become complacent about what has happened this week. That’s fools gold.