Tribe Needs To Cash In Bauer Right Away

The Cleveland Indians are 11-1/2 games behind the Central Division leading Minnesota Twins heading into a three game series against them starting tonight at Progressive Field.

Nobody saw that coming, mostly because no one thought the Twins would have the best record in baseball in the first week of June.

Even though the trail in the division by that huge margin, the Indians are just two games out of the second wild card spot and a chance to be the AL Champs.

The problem is, they can’t accomplish this with the roster they currently have. They need to make a bold move, and do it as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, this front office has never been a group to keep moves to come from behind. In 2016, when the Indians were in first place by around five games after the All Star Game, that’s when they traded for Andrew Miller, and attempted to deal for Jonathan Lucroy.

If the front office and ownership would be willing to salvage the season and get back to the post-season for the fourth straight year, they have one logical move to make, and it would be tremendously bold: Trade Trevor Bauer for some hitting.

This pains us to say it because we have always been a fan of the right-hander, since he arrived in Cleveland after the 2012 season.

In his first year in the organization, he was a spot starter, coming up for doubleheaders and some other spot starts. He progressed to a back of the rotation starter to one of the AL’s best starters in his tenure here.

A contending team should be willing to pay a high price for Bauer, a guy who takes the ball every fifth day, and is eager to pitch on short rest.

He is also under club control through the end of next season, meaning whoever would deal for him has him for a year and a half. And moving him sooner than later may just save the 2019 season for Cleveland, but also allow him to make maybe 12 additional starts for his new team.

If you can get two major league ready hitters for Bauer, which obviously limits who he could be dealt to, we say do it right now. There is no need to wait.

Right now, with Jose Ramirez in his lengthy slump, the legitimate threats in the Indians’ batting order end with Carlos Santana in the #3 hole. Getting two more bats would lengthen the lineup and should result in better results.

And if Ramirez returns to form, and he has shown subtle signs he is starting to, then that’s all the better. Suddenly, we start to resemble a big league offense.

Even without Bauer, your starting rotation is acceptable, assuming Mike Clevinger returns soon. Terry Francona can still trot out Carlos Carrasco, Shane Bieber, Clevinger, Jefry Rodriguez, and Zach Plesac out there on the nightly basis, although we know the latter two are very much unproven.

You have to score runs to make the post-season in baseball, and the AL Central is proof of that. The Twins lead the league in runs scored. The other four teams in the division are in the lower half of the league. That explains the 11-1/2 game lead.

Forget about the talk of the window closing and even that the season is over. If you can pull off a deal soon, you will have a better offense and a solid pitching staff.

And you will be set up for contention again in 2020. The time to act is now.

The Bobby Bradley Question.

With the Cleveland Indians’ offensive woes, there has been a lot of speculation among impatient fans about bringing up certain players from the farm, most notably, slugging first baseman Bobby Bradley.

We aren’t sure that will help the Tribe, though.

First, if you read this blog enough or follow on Twitter, you know our least favorite kind of hitter, the high strikeout, low walk, low batting average guys. The pre-2019 Joey Gallo would be the poster boy for that kind of offensive player.

That said, we aren’t anti-strikeout either. Big boppers like Hall of Famer Jim Thome, and the most recent vintage left-handed hitting slugger, Travis Hafner are great offensive players.

They strikeout a lot and walk a ton, leading to both great on base percentages and slugging percentages.

Bradley is not that. This year, he has fanned 67 times at Columbus, while walking just 18 times. To us, this doesn’t show a great knowledge of the strike zone. It also shows that he is a mistake hitter.

And in the big leagues, pitchers don’t make as many mistakes.

This isn’t unusual for Bradley. A year ago, he struck out 148 times and walked just 56.

He broke out as a prospect in 2016 at Lynchburg, when he hit 29 homers and knocked in 102 runs, hitting .235. He fanned 170 times, walking 75 times.

The following year, his strikeouts went down to 122, which is good, but he still only hit .251.

His OPS in both years hovered around 800, which is good at the big league level, but this was A ball and AA ball.

This year has been his best year yet. Although Columbus is a big time hitter’s park, Bradley has a 908 OPS on the road and has belted 7 of his 16 homers away from the Clippers’ home yard.

All in all, Bradley’s career minor league numbers show a .253 batting average and an 843 OPS.

For sake of comparison, Thome had a .317 batting average and a 920 OPS in the minors. Hafner was a .298 hitter in the minors with a 918 OPS.

Another comparison would be a player currently on the Indians’ big league roster. This player had a minor league batting average of .276 and an OPS of 775.

Fans are complaining that Jake Bauers isn’t hitting in the majors and his numbers aren’t all that different.

We are firm believers in the “can’t be worse” theory in sports, and we get the argument that Bradley might be better than what Terry Francona writes in the lineup on a daily basis.

We just don’t think Bradley should be viewed as a cure all for Cleveland’s offensive problems.

The other issue is defensively. Bradley is clearly a 1B/DH. He’s never played anywhere else, and he probably can’t.

If you bring Bradley up, where does he play? If he replaces Bauers, you lose some defensive flexibility, and that was a problem when Hanley Ramirez was here.

That’s not a huge deal, but it is a factor.

We are sure the Indians want Bradley to show more control of the strike zone that he has shown, and we are also positive they have told him that.

When he does, the front office will want to take a look at him.

And the first time he comes up in a clutch situation and flails at a pitch out of the strike zone, fans will want to send him back.

It’s a conundrum to be sure. But, right now, we question whether or not Bobby Bradley will ever be a big time hitter at the big league level.

For All The Talk About Hitting, Tribe Chances Depend On Starters

The Indians unlikely come from behind win over Boston Tuesday signaled the 1/3rd mark of the Major League Baseball season, and the Tribe sits right at .500.

They went 15-12 during the first 27 games of the season, so they reversed that mark over the next 27 contests.

Depending on your perspective, the Indians were either a huge disappointment to this point, or they are extremely fortunate to be at the break even mark considering the state of their offense.

We are well aware of the offensive issues at this point. Cleveland ranks in the bottom three in the American League in most offensive categories, but the most concerning thing might just be the starting pitching staff.

The starters were supposed to be the part of the team that Terry Francona would lean on. The quintet of Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Trevor Bauer, Mike Clevinger, and Shane Bieber were thought to be the best in the game.

Injuries have ravaged the rotation.

Clevinger was the first to go down, making just two starts before going down with an upper back muscle pull.

The bell cow of the staff, Kluber, always good for 200 innings over the last five years, fractured his arm getting hit by a line drive.

That forced Francona to use Jefry Rodriguez for seven starts (the same as Kluber), and Cody Anderson, and Adam Plutko have each received two starts. Zach Plesac, who wasn’t even considered in the big league club’s plans in spring training, made his major league debut on Tuesday.

It hasn’t been just the injuries though. Bauer was dynamite in April, but suffered through a poor May. Carrasco has been prone to the home run ball, allowing 14 on the season.

He has a very good 72 strikeouts to just 10 walks, but he’s allowing more hits than innings pitched, something he hasn’t done since he returned to the starting rotation in 2014. Normally one of the most reliable starting pitchers in the game, he has been anything but that in 2019.

Kluber wasn’t very good before he was injured either. The normally precise righty walked in runs twice this season, something he never did in his career. And he’s allowed more hits than innings pitched as well.

To this point, the guy who was the fifth starter coming into the year, has been the most effective. Bieber has the best ERA at 3.67, has allowed less hits than innings pitched (58 in 68-2/3) and has fanned 85 batters, walking just 17.

He didn’t have great stuff Wednesday night in the 14-9 win over the Red Sox, but still persevered long enough to get the win.

If the Indians are to get back in the race for the division title, and despite what you hear, there is still plenty of time to do just that, they need the April edition of Bauer, and the Carrasco they have seen in over the last four seasons.

Despite the recent offensive explosion in the past few days, we don’t think the Indians, as constituted, will be an offensive juggernaut. They need outstanding starting pitching.

The hitting being what it is, the determining factor on the Indians getting into the divisional title race will be the starting pitching. It simply has to get back to its expected level.

Tribe Decision To Cut Salaries Is Still Mind Boggling

Really, it can’t be said enough.

What exactly was the ownership of the Cleveland Indians thinking when they decided to trim the payroll for the 2019 baseball season? It is quite mind boggling to say the least.

Yes, the ballclub was getting older, but it had made the post-season for three consecutive years, and even though the Tribe was swept in three games by the Houston Astros in the Division Series, the last two games of the series were close for most of the contests.

The Indians led in the sixth inning of Game 2 before Houston got two on, one the result of swinging bunt, before Terry Francona took out Carlos Carrasco, who was pitching a shutout, after 77 pitches.

Andrew Miller allowed the two runs to score, and the Indians wound up losing 3-1.

Cleveland held a lead in Game 3 after six, before the bullpen, including Trevor Bauer, who made two errors in the inning, allowed 10 runs in the last three frames.

Yes, the team was showing some age, but they still had Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez, and an excellent starting rotation to build around.

Why not allow the front office, your baseball people, to keep the payroll the same as the previous two seasons? After all, the Midsummer Classic, the All Star Game, would be at Progressive Field this summer. Wouldn’t the excitement of a playoff team and a huge showcase cause attendance to rise?

Instead, a winter of pretty much inactivity soured the fan base. So did allowing fan favorites like Michael Brantley and Yan Gomes go, especially without replacements.

We understood the moves at the time, but we thought the plan was to re-allocate the payroll, bringing in some younger players with upside instead of the aging veterans.

It turned out, it was just a payroll dump.

When the season began, the offense was a huge question mark, at least to many fans, but the front office and the Tribe zealots said the hitting would be fine.

Granted some of that optimism was based on Ramirez returning to form, and that has left a huge gap, but even if he were performing at the same level as a year ago, this would still be a below average attack.

Don’t believe the BS that the team was losing money either. There are plenty of stories out there how major league baseball teams are awash in cash.

And if you own a professional sports team, yes, you want to make money, and we understand that, but you have an obligation to win! Especially when you own a team that has gone without a title in 71 FREAKING YEARS, and you are close to that elusive championship.

We have been around for three MLB All Star Games, and we don’t think there has ever been less buzz about the event being here. And it’s because the fan base has been deflated by the ownership.

Also, they see another organization in Berea going for it. Trying everything they can to get to the playoffs and win the Super Bowl for the first time.

The season is one-third over and we still can’t get our heads around this decision. It’s patently stupid.

And the people who are suffering are the tried and true baseball fans of Cleveland, who have watched this team get painfully close to World Series titles twice in the last 22 years, only to come up empty.

With the season hanging in the balance, the history of the Dolan ownership is to spend when they are front-runners, not to get back in the race. So, if Francisco Lindor will only be here through 2021, and Trevor Bauer is gone after 2020, you’ve wasted a year where the Indians have them.

What a mess. And really, how can anyone defend this decision?

Talk Of Tribe Fire Sale Is Crazy

The Cleveland Indians are struggling in 2019, there can be no doubt about that. But talk about the team’s window closing or going into a total rebuild is just stupid, in our opinion.

First, the Indians aren’t some old team that has been together for seven or eight years, and haven’t been able to get over the hump.

Nor are they are team loaded with free agents to be. When fans and media alike start talking about a fire sale, who are they talking about? The only players who will be a free agents after this season are Leonys Martin, and probably Jason Kipnis, because there is no way the Indians are picking up his option for 2020.

Those two players aren’t bringing you back anything substantial in a trade.

And talk of trading Francisco Lindor is just living in your own fears. Look, we have serious doubt that ownership will pony up the money to keep Lindor here long term (although they can and should).

But Lindor will not be a free agent until after the 2021 season, meaning they still have him here for 2-2/3 seasons. Remember, he’s one of the five best players in the sport. It would be foolish to move him now.

Despite some blips in the radar recently, the Indians also have an excellent pitching staff, still ranking 3rd in the AL in ERA. And in addition to Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer, and Carlos Carrasco, they have developed more hurlers who look to be top of the rotation starters.

Mike Clevinger was excellent last year and got off to a tremendous start before going on the IL in April. He should be back in a couple of weeks. Shane Bieber is another horse who looks like he will be a very good starter.

And Tuesday night, it appears we will see this year’s version of Bieber when 24-year-old Zach Plesac starts against the Red Sox. Plesac is 4-1 with a 1.41 ERA in nine starts at the AA and AAA levels this season, allowing 38 hits and striking out 56 in 57-1/3 frames.

The Indians are still over .500 and just a half game out of a wild card spot. The problem is the ownership has a history of trying to make a big splash only when the Tribe is in front, they don’t seem to do it when they are trying to catch up.

Now, dealing from a strength is a different story. It’s what we thought the Indians would do in the off-season.

With Kluber’s injury, he can’t and won’t be moved. But Bauer is another story.

We should say here that we love Bauer, and have always thought he could be a staff ace. But the best trades are made from a position of strength, and a rotation of Carrasco, Clevinger, Kluber, and Bieber in ’20 would still be one of the game’s best.

Especially if you can get an impact bat. We believe they shopped Kluber and Bauer in the winter to try to get a young stud hitter, but they couldn’t get one, or demanded a second piece.

If you can do it now, it might make a big difference.

The Indians have what everyone wants, pitching. However, if you want to rebuild, trading a young, great player isn’t the way to do it. You build around that guy.

It’s also too soon to think about 2020. The Indians can still make the post-season, but the front office has look to add, not subtract before the deadline.

Talking Tribe Lineup Change

Former Indians’ manager Mike Hargrove used to say that two things everybody thinks they can do better than you are cook a steak and manage a baseball team.

Those Tribe squads that Hargrove managed were so loaded offensively, it probably didn’t matter what order the skipper put them in, they were going to score a lot of runs.

This season’s edition of the Cleveland baseball team cannot make the same claim. They are 13th in the American League in runs scored, so lineup construction is very important, or at least it should be.

Terry Francona’s batting order is curious to say the least.

For example, the Tribe has one hitter with an on base percentage over .400 and one hitter with a slugging percentage over .500.

Logic would tell you it makes sense to have the man who gets on base batting before the player with extra base power, but that’s not how the Indians do it.

Francisco Lindor has a slugging percentage of .513 but he leads off on a daily basis. Carlos Santana gets on base 40.9% of the time (he also has a .488 slugging percentage) and he bats third right now, and hit 4th for much of the year.

Lindor also led off last season when he had the third best OBP on the team (behind Jose Ramirez and Michael Brantley).

We understand Francona wants to A). get Lindor as many at bats as possible and B). likes the shortstop to set a tone in each game, but he is the team’s best hitter, and the new age baseball people will tell you the best hitter should bat 2nd.

The manager has used Santana in the leadoff spot before, but for much of this season, the switch-hitter has been the only source of offense.

Jose Ramirez has been hitting in the #3 or #5 hole all season long, even though he has a 600 OPS. The struggling third baseman is second on the team in walks, so we thought perhaps a switch to the top of the order would have him concentrating more on getting on base, rather than driving the ball.

The Indians have informed us that Jason Kipnis has reached base in 17 straight games, going 17 for 67 (.259) with nine walks. This is a big improvement, but he’s hardly tearing the cover off the ball.

Again, Francona’s logic in hitting the second baseman there is that he’s comfortable. We understand the feelings of the players should be taken into consideration, but the Indians need to make the most of their run scoring opportunities.

What would we do? Here is the lineup we would put out there vs. a right-handed pitcher:

Ramirez 3B
Santana 1B
Lindor SS
Bauers DH
Luplow RF
Kipnis 2B
Perez C
Martin CF
Mercado LF

We know Francona has a problem with hitting all the switch-hitters together, but again, dire circumstances. The rest of the lineup features an alternating left and right.

If Mercado keeps performing, he can be moved higher in the order, but having him right before Ramirez, Santana, and Lindor should help the offense.

We hesitated with Bauers at the #4 spot because he has struggled as of late, but he has done well working the count, and can hit left-handed pitching.

Something has to change to get this out of the funk, and patience has to be thrown out of the window.

Mostly though, this change was designed to get Lindor at the plate with runners on base, instead of coming up at least once a game with no one on. And Santana gets on all the time, so it makes sense.

The Ramirez change is done hopefully to shock him back into being Jose Ramirez. Again, let him focus in getting on base, so maybe it stops him from chasing.

There have been too many games where the quantity of hits and walks isn’t producing runs. Mainly because there are guys not producing mixed in with those who are.

Maybe next week, we’ll tell you about a good way to cook a steak.

Callaway Was Very Good, But Pitching Is Still Very Much A Strength

One of the things that is interesting about Cleveland sports fans is their intense loyalty if an athlete or coach has ever had any success in the city.

The latest example is the pining for current Mets’ manager Mickey Callaway to return to the Tribe if and when he gets fired by the team, which according to what you read, could be as early as today.

Callaway became the Indians’ pitching coach in 2013 when Terry Francona became the Cleveland skipper.

He took over a pitching staff that finished 14th in the American League in ERA in 2012, and improved that statistic by about a run per game, ranking 7th in his first year at the big league level.

He had been in the organization as a minor league pitching coach since 2010.

His biggest accomplishment was coaxing a dominating second half of the season out of Ubaldo Jimenez. That season also saw the first regular use as a starting pitcher by Corey Kluber.

The Indians as a team improved too, going from 68 wins the year before to 92 wins and a wild card spot. The pitching improvement was a big key, no doubt.

The following season, the staff ERA improved once again, dropping from 3.82 to 3.56, 5th in the AL. Kluber became a bona fide staff ace, winning his first Cy Young Award.

Callaway also rebuilt Carlos Carrasco, putting him in the bullpen to emphasize being aggressive from the minute he took the hill. After rejoining the rotation in August, Cookie was dominant as a starter, and really hasn’t looked back since.

In 2015, the Tribe’s team ERA rose, but their ranking in the AL went to #2. Carrasco and Kluber made for a formidable 1-2 punch, and much like T.J. House a year earlier, Callaway guided Cody Anderson into a very good second half (7-3, 3.05 ERA).

The Indians won the pennant in 2016, with a pitching staff that ranked 2nd in the American League in ERA. By then, Trevor Bauer and Danny Salazar were mainstays of the rotation, and the mid-season deal for Andrew Miller gave Cleveland a dominating back of the bullpen, along with holdovers Cody Allen and Bryan Shaw.

Injuries to Carrasco, Bauer, and Salazar ultimately took its toll in the post-season as Kluber and the bullpen showed wear and tear.

In Callaway’s last season here, the Tribe finished first in the league in ERA, and Mike Clevinger basically replaced Salazar in the rotation.

Carl Willis took over as pitching coach in 2018, and the ERA ranking dropped to 4th, but that had more to do with the bullpen’s problems. Miller and Allen kind of collapsed under the heavy workload from the previous two seasons, and Shaw departed as a free agent.

On the other hand, Kluber was a Cy Young finalist (again!), Carrasco was still very good, and Bauer and Clevinger became top of the rotation types for basically every team but Cleveland.

You also have to credit Willis for bringing along Shane Bieber, who looks like another very good starter for the Indians.

The point is the pitching staff, which currently is 3rd in the AL in ERA isn’t the problem.

It would be great if the Tribe brought him back in the organization if he loses his job because adding talented people is great, the more, the merrier.

However, the criticism being directed at Carl Willis is idiotic. The pitching staff is doing well. He has brought along Clevinger and Bieber, and you can make a very good argument the starting rotation is even better than it was when Callaway departed.

Mickey Callaway is a very good pitching coach, and may be a very good manager someday. But don’t let nostalgia get in the way of evaluation Carl Willis.

The Tribe’s Off-Season Plan And Where It Went Wrong

After being swept in the 2018 American League Division Series by the Houston Astros, the front office of the Cleveland Indians developed a plan.

They looked at the roster, which featured a starting lineup of position players all over the age of 30, with the exception of the team’s two stars–Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez.

We believe they felt the hitting was incapable of improvement except for the pair of young players, and so they set out on making the roster younger.

Oh yeah, at the same time, ownership wanted them to cut the payroll.

One of the team’s best offensive players, Michael Brantley, was a free agent. We believe he was a guy the baseball people wanted to resign, but the move to cut the players’ salary prohibited that.

So, Brantley, the professional hitter the team desperately needed, went off to Houston, leaving a big hole in the lineup.

You see, the Tribe was very top heavy last season. For the most part, when the Indians scored runs, it was because of Lindor, Ramirez, Brantley, and slugger Edwin Encarnacion, the only players with OPS over 800 on the roster.

Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff knew this, and that’s why they traded for Josh Donaldson at the end of the season. They needed another productive bat (or two).

They also knew Encarnacion declined from his first season with the Tribe (881 OPS in ’17, compared to 810 in ’18), and he would be 36 years old in 2019. So, they took the opportunity to move him and get a younger, though with less powerful hitter in Carlos Santana, who has been very good (840 OPS) thus far.

The brass also moved Yan Gomes (31), Yonder Alonso (32) in deals, and let Melky Cabrera (34) walk as a free agent. Coincidentally, the first two also were very well paid, so they saved money.

The also gave up on right-handed hitting Yandy Diaz, with his ability to get on base and a hitter who hit the ball hard, although on the ground. Still, Diaz didn’t make outs, he got on base.

The front office did bring in some young players, like Jake Bauers, a top prospect with Tampa (for Diaz), and Jordan Luplow, a good prospect for the Pirates. But, they didn’t bring in another proven bat, to lengthen the lineup.

The entire hope was that Bauers and Luplow, and perhaps Greg Allen, would step in and perform right away and give the batting order some oomph.

When the young guys struggled early in training camp, the front office panicked, bringing veterans like Matt Joyce, Hanley Ramirez, and Carlos Gonzalez. Joyce was released in camp, signing with Atlanta, and the latter two appear to be through as productive big league hitters.

So, the plan failed in not bringing in at least one bona fide hitter to replace Brantley, and then not sticking with Bauers and Luplow immediately.

There were some veteran bats out there in free agency and in the trade market. We believe the plan was to deal Corey Kluber for a young, stud bat, but when they couldn’t get what they felt was a great return, they stopped short.

We also think if the organization could have dealt Jason Kipnis, who falls in the same category as Gomes and Alonso, he would be gone as well.

One more thing, there was one young hitter who stood out in Arizona, Oscar Mercado. Cleveland sent him to the minors to start the season, and he was very impressive, and finally was called up last week.

But, the front office didn’t trust what they saw in Mercado. Would he have hit in the bigs like he did at Columbus? We will never know.

If you were going to go young, you should have done it. The slow start in spring training by the young guys caused someone to have cold feet.

Hopefully, it works out and Bauers, Luplow, and Mercado can be productive big league hitters and the offense improves. Otherwise, the front office has a lot of issues with the moves they made last winter.

Time To Take Action For Tito, Tribe.

Another week has gone by with the Cleveland Indians apparently ignoring a big problem. Their offense isn’t good enough to win the American League Central Division.

The Tribe continues to rank near the bottom of the league in not only runs scored, but pretty much every offensive category.

Here’s the tale of the tape–

Runs scored 14th
Slugging Percentage 15th
Doubles 15th
Triples 15th (in fact, they don’t have one)
Home Runs 14th
OPS 15th
OPS+ 15th

The season will be 25% over when this trip ends in Chicago on Tuesday night, so you can’t say it’s early anymore. And with the 2nd best ERA in the league, if the Indians don’t start scoring runs soon, they are going to waste a yeoman effort by their pitching staff.

You can’t place blame many places, but really, what does that accomplish? You can’t go back in time and sign Michael Brantley, a professional hitter this lineup so badly needs.

Currently, the league average in OPS is 741. The only Indians who have a figure higher than that are Jordan Luplow (851), Carlos Santana (815), Francisco Lindor (745), and wait for it…Brad Miller (742), who was ceremoniously released when Lindor returned to the active roster.

The roster is poorly constructed with tons of left-handed hitters, so when a southpaw faces the Tribe, Terry Francona is forced to play Jason Kipnis (.148 vs. LHP) at second, and at least two of these outfielders: Leonys Martin (.171 vs. lefties with 14 strikeouts in 35 at bats), Carlos Gonzalez (.167 with 10 whiffs in 24 at bats), or Tyler Naquin (.214).

The ugly numbers continue. The league average for scoring to date is 4.65 runs. The Indians have played 10 games in May and scored 25 runs. Even the most mathematically challenged can discern that’s 2.5 per game.

They’ve scored five runs three times, and that’s the high water mark for the month.

Outside of the debacles last Sunday and Monday in which Cleveland lost 10-0 and 9-1, the pitching staff has held the opposition to four runs or less in every other game this month.

With a league average offense, that would mean eight wins. Instead, they are 4-6.

We have some suggestions as to what the Indians should do, but really, when it comes down to it, isn’t doing the same thing the worst thing they can do?

The organization, from Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff down to Francona have to stop burying their heads in the collective sands and start doing things differently.

Here are our recommendations:

End the Gonzalez experiment. The veteran didn’t have good numbers away from Coors Field last year, and it is time to start giving time to Jordan Luplow, who has an 874 OPS in AAA.

Let’s find out what the 25-year-old right handed hitter an extended shot at a job.

Bring up Oscar Mercado. Let’s not make Mercado the savior, but he had a great spring training, and outside of a 1 for 25 stretch at AAA, has been very good there, hitting .303 with a 909 OPS.

Plus he has 14 stolen bases in Columbus. It might be against the grain in today’s game, but why not run as much as possible with the hitting suffering.

An outfield of Martin, Luplow, and Mercado should be very good defensively too. This would also free Bauers to play some first base, giving Santana some rest.

Mike Freeman hasn’t done a bad job as a backup infielder (he had two hits yesterday), but he’s a left-handed hitter, so Francona has no alternative to Kipnis.

This recent stretch has nothing to do with the injury to Corey Kluber. This has been a problem since day one.

The frustration from the fans and media alike is the lack of trying something different. It’s time to take action.

Oh, and by the way, this isn’t helping sell tickets, Mr. Dolan.

How Long Of A Leash Will Some Tribe Players Get?

When you rank last in the league in runs scored, shouldn’t patience go out the window?

We have always said people in the front office have to be more patient than fans. Heck, many fans want to cut players because they go hitless in two straight games, or even worse, strikeout with the bases loaded in a one run game in the bottom of the ninth.

Baseball professional always talk about the numbers on a guy’s baseball card. What they mean is players who have reached a certain level will almost certainly return to those levels.

It’s why the Tribe brass isn’t panicking about Jose Ramirez’ slow start, even though it extended from the last six weeks of last season.

Last year, Paul Goldschmidt, a frequent MVP candidate, hit .144 (14 for 97) in May. He rebounded to hit .364 with 10 home runs in June.

That’s the way baseball is.

However, there should be a sense of urgency when you have played roughly a fifth of a baseball season, and your team in last in the AL in runs scored, which is the tale of the Cleveland Indians’ 2019 season right now.

Surely, it is easy to have patience with Jose Ramirez, who is 26 years old, and coming off a season in which he finished in the top three in the MVP voting. He may have been the best hitter in the league from the beginning of the 2018 season until the middle of August.

However, when a player gets past his 30th birthday, and he goes into a slump, it is natural to wonder if it is indeed a slump, or the beginning of a decline.

In the Indians’ case, if the offense was rolling, and everyone except for one player was producing, it would be easy to overlook the struggling player and give him time to work out whatever issue he is having at the plate.

But when they are only one or two hitters putting up decent numbers, there comes a time where the manager simply can’t wait anymore. And save your overly patient Tito comments for the time being.

Which leads us to ask, how long does the rope go for two non-performing veterans right now, Jason Kipnis and Carlos Gonzalez?

Since the end of the 2016 season, Kipnis has hit .227 with a 688 OPS. That’s below average production.

CarGo has just two extra base hits in 65 plate appearance this year, and last season had just 17 non-singles in 265 times at bat. Compare that to 35 in 239 times at the dish in Coors Field.

The question of whether or not the veteran outfielder was a product of the thin air in Colorado seems appropriate.

Keep in mind, Kipnis is 32 and Gonzalez is 33.

We get that it is not fair, but that’s the way it is in baseball today. Young players get the benefit of the doubt. Studies have shown ball players reach their peak between ages 27 to 29.

Once you reach 30 years old, there is additional pressure to maintain your production in order to keep a roster spot.

So, if the Tribe’s offensive struggles continue, at what point do they move on from the two veterans?

In Kipnis’ case, there really isn’t any alternative. The club’s best middle infield prospect in the high minors, Yu Chang, is hitting .151 at AAA. Does journeyman Mike Freeman start getting at bats in place of Kipnis? Not likely.

As for CarGo, the shadow of spring training sensation Oscar Mercado looms. If he starts hitting like he did earlier in the season, can the club afford to leave him in Columbus?

And if they bring him up, whose playing time decreases?

The point is the overall malaise of the offense doesn’t afford the opportunity to be patient for Terry Francona and the front office.

It’s not fair, but it’s reality.