Tribe Front Office In A Slump Too

The front office of the Cleveland Indians is well respected among Major League Baseball. Other teams are always interviewed people within the organization for jobs, people like Derek Falvey, now running the Minnesota Twins, Neil Huntington (Pirates), and David Stearns (Brewers).

Heck, even the Cleveland Browns hired a former Indians’ executive in Paul DePodesta.

However, the current front office is in a slump, otherwise it is hard to describe the moves made by the front office since the end of the 2018 season.

We understand the ownership ordered the executives to cut the payroll, even though the Tribe has won three consecutive division titles. That alone is a head scratcher, but we have already discussed that numerous times.

As the hot stove league started, we thought we understood what Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff were doing. The ’18 Indians were getting old. Among the regulars, only Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez were under 30 years old.

So, Michael Brantley left through free agency, and Yan Gomes was dealt to Washington, in a move that could pay dividends, as Jefry Rodriguez is now very much needed as a starter with the injuries to the rotation.

They traded Erik Gonzalez to Pittsburgh for Jordan Luplow and Max Moroff. Luplow has had a lot of minor league success that so far hasn’t translated into the big leagues.

The move that was really curious was dealing Yandy Diaz, an on base machine, to Tampa for Jake Bauers.

First, let us say, we like Bauers. He works counts, shows some pop, and is second on the Tribe currently in RBIs. But Diaz has started to hit with power, hitting seven homers to date with Tampa, and is still getting on base 36% of the time.

Only Carlos Santana can say that among the regulars with Cleveland.

The organization wanted to get younger and wanted to commit to younger players, but it seems the guys brought in were lottery tickets, they didn’t go all in and get a stud, like perhaps Alex Verdugo with the Dodgers, currently hitting .346 with a 981 OPS.

We felt the extension to the plan was to deal from strength, meaning moving a starting pitcher, either Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer, or Carlos Carrasco, for a package involved a stud bat.

Either the offer wasn’t there, or the front office overestimated the market value for one of their starters, but it seems like they stopped short.

As spring training wound down, the front office seemed to think it made a mistake, so they signed veteran bats like Matt Joyce, Hanley Ramirez, and Carlos Gonzalez. Only the latter is still here, and quite frankly, hasn’t been an impact bat to date.

Players like Asdrubal Cabrera, Derek Dietrich, Adam Jones, and Nick Markakis (yes, we understand he probably was only interested in re-signing with the Braves) were all available and signed for very little money.

One of them could have been signed to give the team the veteran bat missing with Brantley’s departure.

Greg Allen had a very good last two months in ’18, and a great spring training, but Terry Francona buried him on the bench early in the season, and he floundered. It is tough for a young player to be in a reserve role.

Maybe the front office is trying to show ownership that you need to spend to win, this is their subtle way of protesting the payroll cut.

The pitching moves are odd as well. Cody Anderson was brought up because the team needed someone to soak up innings after the bullpen was heavily used in the first game of a series vs. Kansas City.

Anderson was in AAA to get stretched out after Tommy John surgery to be a starting pitcher again. The right-hander was used that night for two innings, but then stayed on the big league roster for a week, instead of going back to lengthen his workload.

Now, he is starting today, and Francona is probably hoping to get four innings. Of course, they currently have nine relievers on the team.

It’s an odd way of handling things over the last eight months. Hopefully, it’s just a slump.

Tribe Season Review To Date: 27 Games In.

The late, great Mike Hegan used to say if you win three out of every five games, at the end of the year, you have 96 wins and you are probably in the playoffs.

Right now, the Cleveland Indians have completed 1/6th of the 2019 baseball season, and until the last two games in Houston, they were doing exactly what Hegan said. They were sitting at 15-10.

Even with the two defeats at Minute Maid Park, the Tribe hits the 27 game mark at 15-12, meaning they are still on a pace for 90 wins.

That’s the good news. The bad news is we have no freakin’ idea how they have achieved that record.

Really, we do. It has been pitching, pitching, and more pitching, particularly the starters, who have stifled some pretty good offenses. The Astros boast one of the sport’s best lineups and Cleveland held them to 12 runs in the four game series.

Tribe pitchers are 3rd in the league in ERA, and lead the AL in strikeouts per nine innings, and have the lowest rate of home runs allowed.

All that despite a slow start for Corey Kluber and a couple of hiccups for Carlos Carrasco, the two most veteran members of the rotation.

The question that still plagues Terry Francona and his team is will they score enough runs to make the post-season?

Cleveland ranks worst in the AL in slugging percentage and second to last in on-base percentage. It’s tough to generate a lot of runs if you can’t get guys on base and need two or three more hits to drive them in.

For the new age statistic people, the Indians have the worst WAR among non-pitchers in the Junior Circuit. They have over league average WAR at just three positions: Catcher, first base, and centerfield.

Now, we think shortstop and third base will take care of themselves with the return of Francisco Lindor and the return to form for Jose Ramirez, who is starting to come around, slowly but surely. And the catching is based more on the defense than any hitting being done by Roberto Perez and Kevin Plawecki.

The other spots? Quite frankly, we don’t see a lot of hope.

Even worse, are there any in-house solutions?

Right now, we feel comfortable with five hitters in the lineup, and to us, you need seven to have a solid offense.

Those five are Lindor, Ramirez, Carlos Santana, Leonys Martin (vs. righties), and Jake Bauers. They put together major league at bats.

Right now, Carlos Gonzalez is a lighter hitting version of Melky Cabrera–no walks, no pop. He has one extra base hit in 47 plate appearances.

Jason Kipnis is showing thus far that he is closer to the last two seasons than his outstanding 2016 campaign. He’s in a 1 for 22 slump after starting 7 for 20. In the past few years, he’s a feast or famine type guy, and when it’s the latter, he doesn’t help you.

There are hitters around baseball with 10 or more home runs on the season. Six of them to be exact. Martin leads the Indians in extra base hits with nine. Only Santana has more than six, he has seven.

It’s tough to score runs this way.

Oscar Mercado may be able to help, but remember, he’s never had a major league at bat. Expecting him to come up and be a consistent bat might be a pipe dream.

The organization has to hope Gonzalez and Kipnis regain the pop in their bats, but is that realistic?

And assuming Lindor and Ramirez return to form, aren’t the Indians in the same place as they were last year with a very top heavy offense?

It’s still early, but it’s not if that makes sense. Francona and the management have to find runs somewhere. Either that, or the pitching will have to continue to be overwhelming throughout the remainder of the schedule.

That might be very difficult.

Tribe Bullpen Springing Some Leaks…Again

The Cleveland Indians’ bullpen was a trouble spot for the 2018 team, there can be no debate about that.

Losing Andrew Miller to injury early in the season didn’t help, and several pitchers who played key roles in 2017 were ineffective or injured, or both.

Dan Otero had a poor season. Nick Goody started the season getting hit and eventually went on the disabled list for the rest of the season. Zack McAllister’s luck getting by throwing one pitch for a strike caught up to him.

That put quite a strain on Cody Allen, and by the end of the year, the workload, perhaps an accumulation over the past three seasons, hurt him.

They turned to guys brought in over the winter on minor league deals, arms like Neil Ramirez, Ben Taylor, Matt Belisle, Evan Marshall, and Alexi Ogando.

Of that group, Ramirez did well upon his arrival, but faded as the season went on, very much prone to giving up home runs, a no-no for a relief pitcher, especially one who pitches late in a game.

In June, veteran Oliver Perez became available, and the Tribe signed him. And he helped stabilize the ‘pen, compiling a 1.39 ERA for the rest of the season.

In July, the front office dealt for closer Brad Hand and submarining righty Adam Cimber, to provide more options.

The bullpen was better, but not at the level of 2016 and 2017.

Last winter, Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff did pretty much the same thing, bringing in some arms on minor league deals, but some were hurlers with a solid track record, like Tyler Clippard and Alex Wilson, and made minor deals for Nick Wittgren, A.J. Cole, and Chih Wei Hu.

Unfortunately, when training camp broke, Clippard was injured, Wilson was released, and Wittgren and Hu were sent to Columbus.

That meant it was basically the same cast of characters again for the relief corps.

The bullpen was strong the first few weeks of the season, but it started to spring leaks in Kansas City and Seattle, and continued over the weekend at home vs. the Braves.

Hand hasn’t been an issue. Getting the ball to him has been.

Ramirez’ long ball woes returned. He’s allowed four in 10 innings to date, meaning he’s given up 13 in 52-2/3 frames since arriving in Cleveland. That’s an alarming rate.

Perez has regressed to the mean, and has allowed eight hits and two walks in 5-2/3 innings. Last year, his WHIP was 0.742.

Another lefty, Tyler Olson, has allowed eight hits and five walks in 7.1 innings. If you take out Olson’s scoreless streak at the end of the ’17 season, his ERA is 5.01 with the Indians, covering almost 55 innings.

He just isn’t that effective.

Otero has generally been effective, but he has given up a lot of hits. He tends to get ground balls though, so no complaints there.

Jon Edwards started the year with promise based on his September performance a year ago, but had problems throwing strikes and was sent back to AAA.

The bright spot over the last week has been Wittgren, who allowed his first run yesterday, and picked up a two inning save in the 1-0 win at Seattle. He’s fanned 11 and not walked a batter in eight innings.

It will be interesting to see how long the front office and Terry Francona keep confidence in Ramirez and Olson.

Cole has pitched well in Columbus, and could get called up today. And watch for James Karinchak at Akron, who has pitched eight innings and struck out 19 hitters. That’s domination at any level.

It seems like another case where the management’s disdain for change has hampered them. They may be forced to make alterations soon.

How Have Tribe Outfield Issues Played Out?

One of the biggest questions heading into the 2019 season for the Cleveland Indians was their outfield.

After letting Michael Brantley walk away via free agency, the Tribe headed to spring training with their most proven player in the outfield being Leonys Martin, and he missed the last two months of ’18 with a life threatening illness.

Before spring training ended, they wound up giving a look see to veteran Matt Joyce, who was released, and signed three time All Star (the Indians keep reminding us of that) Carlos Gonzalez toward the end of the spring.

Gonzalez was activated to the big league roster on April 14th.

Again, we understand the season is just 21 games old, but the situation Terry Francona has to deal with on a nightly basis is still pretty clearly in flux.

Martin has been the one constant, starting all but one game in centerfield, but he still has big platoon split issues.

Against right handed pitching, Martin is batting .302 with a 932 OPS, belting three home runs. Versus southpaws? Not so good. He is 4 for 22 with three walks and nine strikeouts.

We said before the season started he should be platooned and we stick by that thought.

Tyler Naquin has garnered the majority of the starts in rightfield (17), but outside of the Toronto series when he went 5 for 11 in three starts, he hasn’t performed well.

He’s hitting just .220 with a 568 OPS. Take out those three games vs. the Blue Jays, and that mark falls to .167. He’s struck out 20 times, walking just twice. That might be fine if you are hitting the ball with power, but the early 2016 sensation has just one dinger.

It’s hard to understand Francona’s fascination with him at this point.

Jake Bauers has been the semi-regular in left, starting 12 times, with Greg Allen getting seven starts.

We are more impressed by Bauers the more we see him. He’s hitting just .219 with a 684 OPS, but he’s walked 10 times (with 15 strikeouts), and has held his own against lefties, going 5 for 20.

He’s getting more time now at first (with Carlos Santana DHing) with Gonzalez settling in left. We like his bat in the lineup.

Allen appears to be a young player who is having problems with a part-time role, starting the season just 4 for 34, with half of those hits coming Sunday night. He has fanned 11 times with two walks.

We would like to see Allen get regular playing time in right before determining if he needs to go back to AAA. As we said, his struggles may be the result of getting sporadic at bats.

We had high hopes for Jordan Luplow based on his numbers at AAA, but he struggled in spring training, and didn’t do much after opening the year with the Tribe. He has struck out 10 times in 25 at bats in Columbus.

The darling of spring training, Oscar Mercado, has continued to rake with the Clippers. He has an 897 OPS to date, and has stolen seven bases. We are sure the front office doesn’t want to call him up unless he will receive plenty of playing time, but he looks like he is forcing the issue.

And so is the lack of production that still exists in the outfield. Even if Gonzalez regains some of his form from his Colorado days, you still have a problem in CF against lefties, and RF is still a gaping hole of suck.

How and when will the front office resolve that problem? It this is still how things are going after 20 more games, action will need to be taken.

Tribe Survived Lindor’s Injuries

If the return of Francisco Lindor presents a line of demarcation for the Cleveland Indians, let it be noted they survived quite nicely.

As the superstar shortstop returned for the second game of last night’s doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves, the Tribe’s record was 12-7 and they led the American League Central Division by a game over Minnesota.

It is crazy to think this kind of record was possible despite an offense that ranked 14th (second from the bottom) in runs scored per game, and last in the league in on base percentage, slugging percentage, and of course, OPS.

Pretty much the only decent ranking offensively for the Tribe was being 8th in the AL in walks. The team batting average was a paltry .201, barely over the Mendoza line.

Yet, Terry Francona guided the team to a winning record behind tremendous pitching.

While it is a fact the Indians played seven of their 19 games against the Blue Jays and Tigers, who rank 13th and 15th respectively in runs scored in the Junior Circuit, they also went to Seattle facing the best offense in the league, and held them to six runs in the three game sweep, including a 1-0 win on Wednesday.

They also played five games against the Twins and White Sox, currently 3rd and 6th in the AL in runs scored. Those two squads scored 23 runs in five games, but 17 of those were in the series finales.

The Indians held them to under three runs in the other three contests.

Long time stalwarts Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco have combined for four starts in the 19 games where they simply didn’t have it.

However, Carrasco fanned 12 Seattle hitters Wednesday in the 1-0 game and Kluber looked like himself in the game one win yesterday. If those two start pitching like they have in the past, this rotation is scary.

Imagine if Mike Clevinger didn’t go down with a muscle pull in the shoulder/back region. He was dominant in his two starts.

A big question going forward is who will replace Clevinger long term. Right now, because of off days, he’s missed just one start.

The bullpen is starting spring some leaks though.

Brad Hand is the closer, no problem there. But on the recent trip, the relief corps struggled.

Neil Ramirez has 13 strikeouts in 9 innings, but has allowed 10 hits, four walks, and three homers. Since arriving in Cleveland, the long ball has been a problem. He’s given up 12 of them in 50 innings.

That’s a no-no for a relief guy.

Oliver Perez has not been the pitcher he was in 2018. He’s been okay, but last year he was incredible.

And in the second game yesterday, Adam Cimber couldn’t throw strikes. Generally, he’s been better than last season, but we are sure Terry Francona lost some confidence.

Nick Wittgren continues to be intriguing. He closed out the 1-0 win in Seattle, and to date has made five scoreless appearances, giving up just two hits and striking out nine in seven innings.

We may see him start to ease his way into a set up role.

Why Cody Anderson is still here is a mystery. We understand he is recovering from Tommy John surgery, but have him go back to AAA to stretch out his arm so he can be a starter.

He was brought up to eat some innings after Carrasco was knocked out in the first against Kansas City. After he pitched two innings that night, we don’t understand why he wasn’t sent back.

So, the Indians are still searching for the correct bullpen combination.

All in all, they survived not having their best player for 19 games. And that’s a huge relief to the front office and the fans, for that matter.

Can CarGo And Kipnis Provide A Lift?

It would not be an understatement to say the Cleveland Indians’ hitting has been disappointing to date.

Granted, only 15 games have been played (so tonight will mean 10% of the schedule is through), but there aren’t many categories the Tribe doesn’t rank near the bottom.

They are 14th in runs scored per game. The Tribe ranks last in the AL in on base percentage, which many people thought would be a hallmark of this season’s edition of the Indians’ offense, the ability to take pitches and work counts.

They are second from the bottom in slugging percentage, meaning extra base hits aren’t coming either. And for those old school statistic people, Cleveland is the only American League team hitting under the Mendoza line, sitting at .194.

We have been told help is on the way, with Carlos Gonzalez and Jason Kipnis now activated, and hopefully the return of Francisco Lindor, maybe as early as next week. However, will that be enough?

It has been well documented that Gonzalez has struggled away from the thin air of Coors Field for several years. Will he make adjustments to his approach now that he is not playing 81 games per year at altitude? And if he does, will the adjustments work in a new home park and a new league?

No doubt, Kipnis will be an upgrade over what the Tribe has had at shortstop, but that’s not where he plays. He plays second base, where Brad Miller has given the team decent production.

On the other hand, the longtime Tribesman has had an OPS hovering around the 700 mark in each of the last two years. If that trend continues, how much extra production will he be providing?

That leaves Lindor, which will be a dramatic offensive boost over the historically bad combination of Eric Stamets and Max Moroff at the position. Those two (and we know Moroff has played second as well) have combined for a 4 for 64 mark (.063) and 35 strikeouts.

One player will not turn around the hitting. If you don’t believe that, then analyze why Mike Trout has only been to the playoffs once in his big league career.

An obvious help would be for Jose Ramirez to start hitting like he has for much of the last three seasons. The good news is Ramirez isn’t striking out excessively, just 10 times in 61 plate appearances.

His walks are down greatly, with just two in 2019, compared to 106 all of last season.

We think Ramirez needs to go back to basics. He is overanxious right now, leading to not walking and a lot of pop ups.

He needs to get back to an all fields approach and we think he will be fine.

So, basically the Indians are in a spot where Gonzalez and Kipnis have to be above average hitters so the Tribe can start to generate some runs. If they aren’t, the front office is going to have to get to work quickly.

Leonys Martin has been very good after a slow start, and Carlos Santana has gotten off to a quick start, thankfully, because that is not his norm.

We have always said, a good big league lineup has six to seven solid bats.

Right now, you would have to say the front office’s plan this off-season hasn’t worked, but there is still time.

Let’s hope the faith they have in some players isn’t misguided.

Tribe Pitching As Good As Advertised To Date

The Cleveland Indians have played 14 games so far this season, and as of now, their pitching has been as good as advertised.

Opponents have scored more than four runs in just three of the contests, and remarkably, Cleveland pitchers have held the other team to three runs or less in 10 of the games on the slate.

That’s how the Tribe has managed an 8-6 record despite having the second worst runs per game total in the American League, ranking only ahead of Detroit.

Their pitchers rank third in the league in ERA, are fourth in strikeouts and have issued the third least walks in the AL. So to date, they are as good as advertised.

The usually reliable Carlos Carrasco has two of the three bad starts, but in his other effort vs. Toronto, he struck out 12 Blue Jay hitters in five innings. Corey Kluber had the other poor effort in the second home game of the year against Chicago.

It appears Shane Bieber has made the leap many projected for him in his two starts, and Trevor Bauer was dominant in his first two outings, and not bad in his third.

The loss of Mike Clevinger, who was spectacular in his first two starts, likely until after the All Star Game, does put a damper on things, but Jefry Rodriguez stepped up last night and gave Terry Francona a solid effort.

Yes, the Indians have played the other two worst offenses in the Junior Circuit to date in the Tigers and Blue Jays (the Tribe is the third), but they do get a solid test starting tomorrow in Seattle, where the Mariners have scolded the baseball through the first three weeks of the season, averaging over seven runs per game.

On the other hand, Toronto scored just six runs in a four game set at Progressive Field, but has averaged over four runs per game in games that didn’t involve the Tribe pitching staff.

So, the Tribe is keeping its head above water despite getting production above replacement player status from just two positions on the diamond, first base (Carlos Santana) and centerfield (Leonys Martin).

In fact, Cleveland shortstops and leftfielders rank as the worst in the AL. The first spot will take care of itself with the hopefully soon return of the league’s best, Francisco Lindor.

But LF has been manned by Jake Bauers, who is putting the ball in play and drawing some walks, but is batting just .159 so far, with an OPS of 518. The contact and patience make us feel good about his future, but his production is magnified by the black holes the Indians have at short, and Jose Ramirez’ continued slump.

And the bullpen has been fine too. Jon Edwards struggled with his control and was sent back to the minors yesterday, but otherwise, there have no major hiccups in the first few weeks.

When the offense has scored enough runs, they have made the leads stand up.

Hopefully, the hitting will give the pitching staff some relief when Lindor and Jason Kipnis return, and Jose Ramirez returns to form.

Right now, the pitching has been as billed. They may have to continue to be spectacular with the offense performing this way.

Starters Give Tribe A Chance Every Day.

In the past couple of season’s, we have seen major league baseball teams get very creative in how they are using starting pitching.

The “opener” became the new rage a year ago, after Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash, a protégé of Terry Francona, started using it.

Cash using Ryne Stanek as a starter 29 times, and for the season, he pitched a total of 66-1/3 innings. Similarly, Diego Castillo was the starter in 11 of the 43 appearance he made a year ago, and he pitched just 56 innings.

Milwaukee skipper Craig Counsell used the strategy in the playoff against the Dodgers, who heavily platoon.

While many of baseball’s new age people are celebrating this new use of a pitching staff, let’s make one thing very clear. Teams that have good starting pitching don’t use an “opener”.

And we see this everyday in Cleveland.

It’s very early in the season, but coming into the 2019 campaign, you can make a very good argument the Tribe has the best rotation in the major leagues.

Corey Kluber is a two time Cy Young Award winner and has pitched over 200 innings in each of the last five seasons. Since 2014, his ERA has been less than 3.14 four times, and he has fanned 200 or more hitters in five straight seasons.

Not only has Kluber won two Cy Youngs, he’s finished third twice.

Carlos Carrasco has won 35 games the past two seasons combined, and his ERA has been under 3.38 in each of the last three years. He has struck out over 200 batters in three of the last four years. He has a 4th place Cy Young finish.

Those two are the old hands, mainstays of the staff for several years.

Then you have the young guns, Trevor Bauer and Mike Clevinger, both 28 years old.

Since the All Star Game, Bauer has thrown 258 innings with a 2.46 ERA and 314 strikeouts. This season, he has pitched 14 innings and allowed just one hit. One run too, but amazingly, just one hit.

Clevinger went 13-8 with a 3.02 ERA last season, and fired seven innings of one hit ball in the Cleveland home opener. He came to the Tribe in a deal with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and no doubt if he were still there, he would be the ace of the staff.

The Indians’ fifth starter is another guy who would likely be a #2 or #3 starter on most teams, 24-year-old Shane Bieber. He struck out nine Toronto hitters in his first start on Friday night.

Many baseball people think Bieber will have a breakthrough season in 2019, similar to Kluber’s 2014 year.

We understand most hardcore Tribe fans know how good this quintet is, but as long as they stay healthy, the Indians have a chance to win every night they take the field. How many other teams can say that?

We aren’t reacting to the performances against a perhaps light-hitting Toronto team, or because it was very cold in Minneapolis. It’s how these guys have pitched over the last year and a half, or in Bieber’s case, since he arrived in Cleveland.

Dominating games aren’t unusual. Will they have some tough games? Of course, Kluber had one against the White Sox, and Carrasco didn’t pitch well in his first start.

All starting pitchers have a handful of games every year when they don’t have their best stuff, but when Terry Francona pencils in his starting pitcher, he knows he may see an incredible performance.

And he doesn’t need an “opener” to do it.

Ugly Numbers Continue For Tribe Offense

We thought the offense of the Cleveland Indians might struggle this season even with Francisco Lindor and Jason Kipnis in it. Needless to say, not having them available would be a problem.

However, no one could have foreseen this much of an issue.

After five games, the Tribe has scored just 13 runs. What’s even worse, is that 10 of those 13 tallies have occurred in the eighth inning or later. And of those 10, half of those have come with Cleveland on the wrong side of a lopsided score.

So, the vaunted starting pitching isn’t getting a chance to hold a lead, because the offense isn’t scoring any runs.

In the season opener, the Indians were shutout, and in game two, they scored a run in the 4th inning and Trevor Bauer allowed one an inning later.

Opening Day in Cleveland saw Mike Clevinger get one run of support in the seven innings he was on the mound.

What this means is the starters have been under immense pressure not to give up any runs. Think about this, no Tribe starter has taken the mound with more than a one run cushion through five games.

It hasn’t been a matter of clutch inning thus far for the Indians, it has been hitting period. Only two position players, Carlos Santana and Hanley Ramirez have batting averages of over .200.

H. Ramirez and Leonys Martin are the only Cleveland hitters with more than one extra base hit. Ramirez has the only two homers hit by the team, while Martin has two doubles.

And the strikeouts continue to pile up, with 58 in the five games, and what’s worse, only 16 walks drawn. Five of those walks came in the home opener, in which the Indians scored five runs, their high water mark of the season.

On the good side, the hitters did make the White Sox’ Carlos Rodon work, getting to the 100 pitch mark in just six innings. But they only had one walk to show for it.

Since the extra base pop hasn’t been there, you might think it would be a good idea to play small ball, do some bunting, play some hit and run. However, there isn’t anyone (besides Santana) getting on base to start some runners, and of course, you have the whole contact issue.

Hanley Ramirez has fanned seven times, but he has the two dingers. Martin and Eric Stamets have also struck out that many times, and the latter doesn’t have a hit yet. Max Moroff has 10 at bats, and has been punched out six times, while another player with limited at bats, Jordan Luplow, has seven AB’s and has whiffed five times.

Those numbers are unbelievable.

It’s not as though the team is hitting in bad luck, they just aren’t hitting period. When almost half of your outs are coming by not putting the ball in play, that’s a developing problem.

If they were putting the ball in play, and opponents were either defending the hitter perfectly or hard hit balls were being converted into outs, it would be a different story.

The pessimism is based on a lack of track record for many of these guys. No one know what Jake Bauers can do, nor Luplow for that matter.

Putting the ball in play would be a start though. The strikeouts are very alarming.

A Little Patience Needed For Tribe Hitters and Fans

First of all, it’s way too early.

The Cleveland Indians have played all of four games in the 2019 season, and depending on who is doing analysis, you can’t reach any conclusions about a baseball team until they’ve played at least 27 games (1/6th of a season) or 40 games (1/4th of the schedule).

Still, it’s not as though the Tribe allayed people’s fears after an opening series against the Twins in which they scored five runs, had three extra base hits, and struck out a total of 39 times, which for you math majors is 13 times per game.

You get 27 outs, so fanning 13 times in a game is almost half of the outs are coming without making contact.

To calm everybody down, the 1995 defending American League Champions, a team that featured Albert Belle, Carlos Baerga, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, and Kenny Lofton, also started the year scoring three runs in the first three games of the season.

They had one run and four hits in the opener, a single tally and nine hits the next game, and a run and six hits in game three. The difference? That team struck out 12 times. In the three games combined.

Right now, one of the issues is the lack of walks. The Indians had just 10 in the three game set vs. Minnesota. And if you are a frequent reader of this blog, you know we don’t like hitters who have high strikeout and low walk rates.

Imagine an entire team doing that. That’s as good of an answer as any as to why the Indians couldn’t score runs against the Twins.

Yesterday, at Progressive Field it was a different tale. Cleveland hitters struck out just six times and drew five free passes, including two in a four run eighth inning which gave the Tribe the victory.

The shame of the win was that Mike Clevinger didn’t get the victory. We know the new age baseball people have devalued the win, and we guess their point is made by Clevinger getting a no decision despite throwing seven innings of one hit baseball, striking out a career high 12 batters.

Some of the negative statistics simply cannot continue. Tyler Naquin is 1 for 10 with six whiffs, Brad Miller is 2 for 11 with five punch outs. And as a team, the Tribe has just six extra base hits, getting three yesterday, and only one of them is a home run.

As for walks, Leonys Martin has three, and Carlos Santana (Mr. Walk), Hanley Ramirez, and Greg Allen, who hasn’t played much, all have two.

We said before the season started the walk was going to be to have to be a big weapon for the Indians, and we are sure they will start coming more frequently.

The problem is the start of the season magnifies things, especially if it agrees with your preconceived notions. And we felt the Tribe’s offense was going to be a problem even with a healthy Francisco Lindor and Jason Kipnis.

In the meantime, let’s all take a deep breath and relax and let the season play out a bit. Almost all hitters go through these stretches as we showed with the 1996 Indians, who were as good a hitting team as there has been in the last 50 years.

More patience would be good for both the Tribe hitters and their fans.