The Time for Lindor is Next Monday

Next week the major league baseball rosters can expand to 40 active players, and the Cleveland Indians will be faced with a very difficult decision, one we think they will make a mistake with.

Their prized prospect, SS Francisco Lindor, could be called up to the big leagues, but we think the Tribe will pass on that at this time and will cite having to add him to the 40 man roster and that he wouldn’t receive enough playing time to justify the move.

In our opinion, the real reason is the Indians do not want to start the service clock on the prized prospect by calling him up now. They are also hoping that Lindor struggles a little in spring training next year, so they can justify not bringing him up until the time has passed so he doesn’t receive a full year service in 2015.

We believe that is shortsighted thinking, and Lindor should make his MLB debut on Monday afternoon against the Tigers at Progressive Field. Why? Because he makes the Tribe better right now.

In 121 games combined at Akron and Columbus, the switch-hitter is hitting .278 with 10 HR and 60 RBI, stealing 28 bases. He has had contact issues at AAA, striking out 31 times in 144 at bats, walking just six times.

However, up until his time at Columbus, he has had a very good strikeout to walk ratio.

Defensively, Lindor is rated as an excellent defender and could combine with Jose Ramirez to field a dynamic duo with the glove up the middle for the rest of the year and going forward.

Could Lindor be ruined by coming up to the bigs and failing? Of course, anything is possible, but the folks at Baseball Prospectus feel the 20-year-old’s make up is off the charts.

Look at his progress at AAA. He’s hitting .278 in the state capital, but to get there he overcame a slow start.

As for playing time, we have a perfect solution.

Right now, Chris Dickerson is still receiving an inordinate amount of at bats with the Tribe, and Terry Francona could easily move the current DH, Zach Walters to RF, and give Jason Kipnis some DH at bats (before moving his to another spot), in order to give Lindor some at bats.

Therefore, the question would be could Lindor do more with the bat than Dickerson, who has hit .179 since the All Star Game. Based on that figure, we are pretty sure he could.

He and Ramirez would also add some much-needed speed to the Cleveland lineup.

As for the service time issue, do what Tampa Bay did with Evan Longoria and Houston did with Jonathan Singleton. That would be signing him to a long-term deal right away to take him out of the arbitration process and a little beyond. He would have to be interested if offered a 8-10 year deal before playing a month in the major leagues.

The added bonus would be finding out if he can play in the big leagues now, allowing the team to make the appropriate plans in the winter. We don’t doubt he can, but it doesn’t hurt to make sure.

It will also create some buzz around town too. Baseball fans have been waiting for the shortstop to arrive and it may put a few extra people in the seats at Progressive Field with Lindor’s debut.

The guess here is the Tribe will take the safe route with one of the game’s best prospects. That’s the path they normally take.

Things That Wouldn’t Surprise Us About The Tribe

The Cleveland Indians are hanging on by their fingernails at a possible post-season berth. They sit five games out of the second wild card berth, and our opinion is you have to be within five on Labor Day to be a real contender.

And in doing nothing at the trade deadline to add a significant piece to the current roster, it appears the front office is starting to look forward to the 2015 season, as the Indians are currently the second youngest active 25 man roster in the major leagues.

So, even though we haven’t officially given up on this season, we have started contemplating what will happen with the 2015 edition of the Cleveland Indians.

It wouldn’t surprise us if:

Jason Kipnis moved to third base. The Tribe brass has hinted they would like to see a keystone combination of Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez because of the defensive upgrade it would provide. If that happens, then Kipnis would have to find a new position.

Logically, Kipnis would move back to LF, his college position, but Cleveland’s best player, Michael Brantley, is in that spot. So, we wouldn’t be surprised if GM Chris Antonetti either traded Lonnie Chisenhall or moved him to another spot (RF?) and put Kipnis at the hot corner.

We understand about the defensive movement of players seeming to have an adverse effect on the ’14 Tribe, but if this is done early enough, the players involved could come to spring training playing their new positions and be ready for Opening Day.

Nick Swisher bounced back. It is no secret that the Indians’ big free agent acquisitions before the 2013 season haven’t worked out, but of the two players (Michael Bourn being the other), Swisher is a better bet for a comeback in our view.

First, it is likely Swisher will be a DH, keeping his ailing knees away for the pounding of defensive play.

Second, Swisher’s 2014 season is an anomaly. Although, he didn’t drive in a lot of run last year, he still banged out 22 HRs, on par with his career numbers.

On the other side, Bourn’s numbers seem to be in steady decline. He’s never been a great offensive player, but his stolen base numbers continue to drop and he’s not an effective leadoff man anyway because of his low on base percentage. If he can’t steal bases any more, then he should be hitting at the bottom of the order.

We aren’t saying Swisher is going to hit .280 with 30 homers, but he could hit in the .250 range with a lot of walks and 20+ dingers. That wouldn’t be bad.

Terry Francona decides he’s done. This is a long shot to be sure, but Tito’s had problems with his legs over the years, and there seems to be a little disconnect between himself and the front office, which is the reason he came here in the first place.

While it appears Francona has slipped into the veteran manager’s viewpoint of trusting only veterans, that seems to be in conflict with the front office’s desire to give opportunities to players like Tyler Holt and Ramirez.

Perhaps it is the other way around and it is Francona who would like to play the youngsters, but his continued play of Chris Dickerson says otherwise.

Again, we believe this is a long shot to happen, but we wouldn’t be surprised if it did.

In another week, when the rosters can expand to 40 players, we may start to get an idea of what the 2015 Cleveland Indians will look like. We could see Lindor arrive along with Jesus Aguilar and maybe 3B Giovanny Urshela and of course, a boatload of bullpen arms.

Here’s hoping the current players can put that off by getting on a hot streak over the next week.

Improving the Park is Fine for Tribe, Improving Team Would be Better

If you were looking for someone to write a handbook on how to anger your customers, may we suggest the people who run the Cleveland Indians.

Just one week after not doing one damn thing to help a ballclub who, flawed or not, were in the middle of a race for a post-season spot, the team announced they would undertake a major renovation of Progressive Field.

That’s fine. The stadium is now 20 years old and the Tribe brass doesn’t want it to ignore things so it gets to be rundown like Municipal Stadium, which was basically a dump when the Indians moved out after the 1993 season.

The problem is team president Mark Shapiro said the renovations would be paid for by the Indians. They want to make sure they improve the “fan experience” at Progressive Field.

We are pretty sure that the “fan experience” would be much better in the team won. In fact, if the Tribe ever won the World Series and played at the city dump, baseball fans in Cleveland would be pretty happy.

For a franchise that has a history of tossing around nickels like manhole covers, telling your supporters you are going to spend cash on renovating the ballpark instead of getting better players is tantamount to kicking them in the face.

At the risk of having the Indians tell us it is a different situation because football has a salary cap, the Browns told us the same thing last winter. They were going to make major renovations to First Energy Stadium over the next two years, and supporters of the brown and orange were irritated as well.

Hell with the facility, get us a winning team.

Since then, the Browns have filled a lot of holes through the draft and free agency, and they brought in the most talked about player in college football over the past two seasons in Johnny Manziel.

Suddenly, no one talks about wasting money on the stadium.

It is doubtful the Indians will do the same thing this winter.

The whole removing seats concept also tells you everything you need to know about the Tribe front office.

There is no secret that attendance has been a problem basically since the Dolan family took ownership of the franchise. We believe it is due to the lack of sustained success (can’t put two consecutive over .500 seasons together), and the perception of baseball fans of distrust in ownership/front office.

Instead of building a team that will fill the seats (and there is interested in the team judging by the local television ratings, which ranks in the top five in major league baseball), the solution from Dolan and Shapiro is to remove seats that they cannot sell.

The Indians need to realize that yes, they are competing for your entertainment dollar, but they are also in the baseball business, one that measures success by wins and losses. That should be the most important goal for the franchise…winning!

The Tribe prides itself on treating players well, but does that help them attract players to the north coast? No.

Shapiro does a lot of things the right way, he treats his employees well, he is part of the community, if you go to Progressive Field, it is a great atmosphere for the family.

However, the primary objective for a major league baseball team is to win and win consistently. This is where the Tribe comes up short.

The Indians’ organization would be better served spending money on putting better players on the field and giving a facelift to a iconic ballpark.

If they could do both, fine. But once again, the priority for the Tribe seems to be off the field things rather than where they should be.

When Tribe Does Spend, Results Aren’t There.

One thing all baseball fans can agree on is that the Cleveland Indians are not a free spending organization.

For whatever the reason, the Tribe’s payroll is usually in the lower third of the American League, and much of that is due to the size of the television market.

The Indians can’t charge the same rights’ fees for local broadcasts, both TV and radio as teams located in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston.

So, the Tribe needs to spend their limited funds wisely.

The big problem is they simply haven’t.

The Indians’ highest paid player right now is Nick Swisher, who is suffering through a terrible season, and even last season, didn’t produce at a high level.

Before Swisher, Cleveland highest paid baseball player was Travis Hafner, who had a series of injuries after his last 100 RBI season in 2007, making the reported $10-13 million he was being paid an albatross across the organization’s back.

If you aren’t or are unable to spend with the upper echelon of payrolls in the sport, it is a killer when the players you make a major commitment to don’t live up to expectations.

You can’t lay all of the blame on Swisher either. The Tribe’s second highest paid player is Michael Bourn, who has battled hamstring issues all season long, and to be truthful, hasn’t performed like an all-star either.

We have always said that it isn’t about spending money for the Dolan ownership; it is all about spending wisely. Going out and overspending isn’t good for any franchise; look at the Braves with B.J. Upton.

If they don’t work out, these signings cause a lot of questions for the management. If Swisher were making half of what he is currently earning, or if he were on the last year of his contract, do you really think Terry Francona would continuously write his name in the lineup day in and day out?

Upton is currently hitting .212 for Atlanta (608 OPS), yet he has appeared in 106 of the 114 games the Braves have played.

Swisher’s 615 OPS figure is the lowest of any everyday player on the Indians. Not exactly a big bang for the buck.

As for Bourn, we didn’t like the signing at the time, and to this point we are proven correct. He has never been an elite offensive player, posting an OPS of 704 before signing with the Tribe.

His best asset on offense was stealing bases, having led the NL in that category three times in his career, including 2011, just two years before he arrived in Cleveland.

Since putting on Chief Wahoo, Bourn has stolen just 30 bases, and has been caught 15 times in almost two full seasons.

If you want to blame ownership for not spending money, then you also have to put heat on GM Chris Antonetti and president Mark Shapiro for blowing it when the Dolan family hands them a bag of cash.

When you have limited opportunities, you have to take advantage of them. The Indians’ organization has dropped the ball in that respect.

What can they do going forward? They may have to deal one of the two and pay some salary to improve at their respective positions.

Whether or not the ownership would sign off on that is debatable.

Unfortunately, these mistakes probably mean there will be less big spending in the future. Instead of getting it right, they will just avoid making the commitment.

Just another reason that it’s great to be an Indians’ fan.

Disconnect Between Tribe and Fans Grows

The Cleveland Indians’ organization just doesn’t get it.

They don’t get the ever growing disconnect between the front office and the fan base.

Yes, the current team is flawed, they are a .500 team with over two-thirds of the schedule in the books. On the other hand, there are plenty of teams in the same boat, so as this is written they somehow are just four games out of a post-season berth.

They continue to operate under the premise that was stated by the current ownership many years ago, that is they will spend money when people start showing up to Progressive Field.

Compare that to the buzz surrounding the Cavaliers, who likely will put a title contender on display at Quicken Loans Arena, and the Browns, who drafted the most talked about rookie in the NFL last May.

They are shiny pieces, attractive to the eye. The Indians are like a gray sweater. They simply just don’t, or perhaps don’t know how to make a splash with the area’s baseball fans.

They made two good baseball decisions this week, trading two players who will be free agents this fall, and who weren’t producing as expected for the club either. They picked up two young players who may help the Tribe in the next couple of years instead of letting them leave for nothing.

Still, the fans expected them to take a shot at making the post-season for the second consecutive year, a feat not accomplished by the current ownership or management team.

Instead, they claimed they couldn’t or weren’t willing to get a deal done.

Team president Mark Shapiro, GM Chris Antonetti and the Dolan family are good people, well liked by the media in northeastern Ohio. Therefore, there wasn’t really much of an outrage when other teams around the Indians in the standings made move to improve their teams while the Tribe didn’t.

There seems to be an agreement between Shapiro and Antonetti and the ownership that the executives won’t bring up the lack of cash available and the Dolans won’t hold them accountable for the lack of success.

We even heard a member of the media floating the ridiculous contention by the organization that Tampa Bay wanted Danny Salazar, Carlos Santana, and Francisco Lindor for former Cy Young Award winner David Price.

Really? What did Tigers’ president Dave Dombrowski do, hypnotize Rays’ GM Andrew Friedman to convince to accept just Drew Smyly, Nick Franklin, and an 18-year-old prospect?

The fact of the matter is, there haven’t been enough results by this regime since the turn of the century. Just three playoff spots, the first done with holdovers from the division and pennant winners of the mid-90’s, and one of those a one game wild card game.

To be fair, the Indians would have made the playoffs as the wild card under the old rules.

You have to go for it when you have the chance. Now, we aren’t advocating dealing Lindor, who may just be the sport’s premier prospect, for a play who would spend a half season, or even a year and a half in a Cleveland uniform.

However, the Tribe does have middle infield prospects and power bullpen arms that could’ve been used to fill a weakness.

We have said it before, they didn’t need to get Price or Jon Lester, they just needed to get someone better than Justin Masterson, T.J. House, Josh Tomlin and Zack McAllister.

Instead they picked up another middle infielder, who likely will be moved elsewhere and has shown no strike zone judgment in the minor leagues, and yet another left-handed bat in an organization already top heavy from that side of the plate.

After making the post-season and winning 92 games a year ago, a way to bring fans back to the ballpark would have been to make the playoffs again. Show them that last year was no fluke.

It could happen, but it isn’t likely when you have two shaky starters, and that’s crossing your fingers on Salazar, who has been solid since returning to the majors.

It appears the only team Antonetti improved at the deadline was the Columbus Clippers. Somehow, the front office doesn’t understand the disappointment of its fan base.

Tribe’s Substractions OK, But No Additions Have Us Saying “Huh?”

The Cleveland Indians made two deals before the trading deadline, and we have no problem with either of them.

We do have a problem with the trade or trades that they didn’t make.

Dealing Justin Masterson, who was suffering through a terrible season and can’t put together two solid seasons in row is fine here. He’s a free agent at the end of the season, and the Tribe wasn’t going to make the qualifying offer, so to get a solid prospect in James Ramsey, a top ten guy in a solid farm system like the Cardinals, is a good move.

Moving SS Asdrubal Cabrera, a player who has declined at the plate and in the field, and is also a free agent at the end of the year also makes sense.

The player coming back from Washington, INF Zach Walters, is a switch-hitting power hitter who strikes out a lot. He’s listed as a shortstop, but with Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez, and Erik Gonzalez in the system, his future is likely at third.

Power hitters are worth a gamble, and again, the Tribe wasn’t going to keep Cabrera anyway, why not take a look at someone with a little pop in his bat.

The problem is GM Chris Antonetti didn’t address the problem areas on his squad, even though the Indians sit just five games out of a playoff spot.

They didn’t address their pitching problems.

Now, we understand the Indians didn’t have the prospects to go out and get a Jon Lester or David Price, and though it would be nice to do that, they really didn’t need to.

They needed to get someone better than Zack McAllister, Josh Tomlin, or T. J. House, and they failed in doing that.

The Twins traded Sam Fuld, SAM FULD!, to get Tommy Milone out of Oakland. Milone is a better pitcher than any of the three players we mentioned. But he won’t be coming to Cleveland.

Currently, the Indians are in a race for the second wild card spot, or at least on paper they are, even though the front office obviously doesn’t think so.

Three of the other four teams in the race, the Mariners, Yankees, Royals, made moves to strengthen their teams. The Indians chose to sit this one out.

Antonetti needed to go out and get someone to bolster his pitching staff, and he failed. Again.

That’s the profile of this organization. They rarely go out and make a bold move, either in the off-season or at the trading deadline. We guess based on that we shouldn’t be all that disappointed.

However, the Indians seem mystified that the fans in Cleveland aren’t drawn to them. It’s because of the lack of faith in the organization, and they can’t figure that out.

Earlier in the week, we tweeted that an organization that is 3-1/2 games out (which the Tribe was at the time) and didn’t make a move deserves the ire of their fan base.

And if they did want to create some buzz, they would bring up Lindor and let him play shortstop the rest of the season. Of course, they won’t do that either.

When you have a chance to make the playoffs, even a one game wild card contest, you have to take the chance because you don’t know when you will get another shot.

Instead, the Tribe will go with their usual strategy of wishing and hoping for guys like House and/or McAllister to come through.

Maybe they should also hope fans will show up at Progressive Field.

Tribe Doesn’t Need Big Splash, Just Need to Address Holes.

The Cleveland Indians are not a good baseball team. That is implied by their 51-53 record as of this morning.

It is easy to say the Tribe shouldn’t do anything before the trade deadline because they aren’t consistent and are hovering around the .500 mark.

However, if you look at the American League as a whole, the Tribe is just 3-1/2 games out of a playoff spot and they are pretty much in the same boat as the Yankees, Blue Jays, Mariners, and Royals.

Those teams are around the break even mark too, and they certainly are not phoning in the rest of the season.

Neither should the Indians.

Last year at around this time, the Tribe was five games out of the second wild card spot and they wound up winning 92 games and won a post-season berth.

Now we acknowledge it would be darn near impossible for Terry Francona’s crew to go 21-6 in September again to make the playoffs, but it is incumbent on the front office to shore up the problems that have beset this baseball team since April.

And that would be finding consistency in hitting, and reliable starting pitching.

Reading other sites and listening to fans talk about the deadline, you hear people discussing pitchers like Jon Lester and David Price, two guys likely with higher price tags than the Indians are willing to look at.

However, the reality of the matter is GM Chris Antonetti just has to replace the guys who aren’t performing with players who are better than them, they don’t have to be all-star caliber players.

What we mean is that Antonetti merely has to get a starting pitcher better than Justin Masterson, Zack McAllister, Josh Tomlin, T.J. House, or Danny Salazar. He doesn’t need to get Lester or Price.

That’s how you improve your team.

On the offensive side, he just needs to upgrade over Ryan Raburn or Nick Swisher. You don’t need to get Giancarlo Stanton, not that Miami is going to trade him.

Based on the sabermetric statistic WARP (wins over replacement player), there are three Indian players received significant playing time that are not as good as the average player at their spot–David Murphy, Raburn, and Swisher.

There is no question that Swisher isn’t going anywhere because of his contract, but if you can find hitters better than Raburn and/or Murphy, then you’ve made your team better. And isn’t that the job of management?

Last night, the Tribe handed McAllister a 5-0 lead in a game that needed desperately. He didn’t do the job, which is pretty much something he’s done since his first four starts of the year.

And the game winning HR was given up by Nick Hagadone, a guy who is very familiar with the route between Cleveland and Columbus, and a guy most known for not having a good grasp on throwing strikes.

The night before, the game winning blast was allowed by John Axford, whose performance has ebbed and flowed all year-long.

These are the guys Francona has to turn to when he needs victories? To me, it says the front office isn’t being diligent in improving this baseball team.

If the Indians do nothing in the remainder of the month, they deserve all of the ire and vitriol their fan base will heap upon them. We’ve all seen the warts on the 2014 edition of the Tribe.

Doing nothing just re-emphasizes their lack of trust in the current administration and ownership.

Tribe Front Office Needs Realistic Viewpoint

The Cleveland Indians have hit the all-star break and are very clearly in contention for a playoff spot despite a .500 record for the first 94 games of the season.

The big question is can the Tribe put together a strong enough second half to make up the 3-1/2 games currently separating them from the American League’s final playoff spot. Right now, that belongs to Seattle.

The other serious contenders to play in the wild card game are Kansas City, Toronto, and New York. The first wild card spot looks like it belongs to the Angels. Quite frankly, several other teams could get back in the mix with a good hot streak too.

All four of the primary contenders are looking to add to their roster and to be fair, Tribe GM Chris Antonetti has said he is looking to upgrade the Indians as well.

As we have written in the past, the Tribe has been a slave to inconsistency throughout the roster for much of the season. The only real steady players this year have been Michael Brantley, Yan Gomes, Mike Aviles on the offensive side, and Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer, and the back-end of the bullpen (Scott Atchison, Bryan Shaw, and Cody Allen).

Management’s problem in evaluating the rest of the roster is that they look at the good side of each player’s streaks as what they truly are. For example, yesterday it was said that Asdrubal Cabrera was getting hot at the plate, on a 7 for 16 run.

However, he’s put together three or four good games in a row before, and then follows that with a 2 for 13 streak. That’s the kind of player he is, and he’s not the only one, he’s just the one picked for this example.

Look, not all major league players are great, nor are they steady day in and day out. However, you have to recognize that the one’s who can’t maintain regular production are not good players, and the team should be looking to improve at that spot.

The worst thing for a coach or manager to deal with is inconsistency. It drives them crazy if they don’t know what to expect when they put a player into the game.

It’s even worse for a starting pitcher, and that’s been the Tribe’s biggest problem as to why they haven’t been able to put together a long winning streak.

Justin Masterson has been mostly terrible since the middle of May. Josh Tomlin almost threw a perfect game against Seattle, but that was really his only good start in a six start span.

Zack McAllister started out 3-0 in his first five starts, but hasn’t won since. T.J. House has pitched well in some games, but has had trouble pitching five innings in several others.

It’s difficult to put together winning streaks when three fifths of your starting rotation can’t give you a solid six innings on a regular basis.

The lack of consistency is the biggest reason the Indians need to pull the trigger before the end of the month and they should look to bring in a right-handed bat, a spot Ryan Raburn hasn’t been able to handle thus far (.197 average, 2 HR), and a starting pitcher who can provide six or seven solid innings on most nights.

The biggest bait Antonetti may have is 2B Jose Ramirez, hitting .298 with a .353 on base percentage at Columbus. Ramirez is blocked in Cleveland by Jason Kipnis, and probably should be playing in the big leagues now.

Here’s hoping that the Tribe is willing to do something substantial at the deadline. It’s tough to rely on going 21-6 in September every year.

Tribe’s Biggest Enemy: Consistency

The numbers say the Cleveland Indians should be going after a pitcher.

After all, the Tribe ranks 5th in the American League in runs scored, while the pitching staff’s ERA is 11th out of the 15 AL squads. Sounds simple, right?

However, we believe that GM Chris Antonetti should be looking for a starting pitcher and a bat to help the offense as well. Why? Because, even though Cleveland is in the top half of the league in scoring, most of the hitters in the lineup are inconsistent to say the least.

Outside of Michael Brantley and Yan Gomes, the Indians’ batters go through streaks of being either real hot or real cold.

That’s mirrors the team’s hitting, either they score 5 or 6 runs a night for a week or so, or they go through periods like last week when they get one hit in back-to-back contests. There is no consistency to the Cleveland attack.

Let’s take Jason Kipnis for example. Since the beginning of last season, here are his monthly batting averages: .200, .261, .419, .272, .250, .287, .234, and .255. So, in the last eight months, last year’s All-Star representative has two good months and one unreal one.

He’s supposed to be one of the Tribe’s best players.

How about Asdrubal Cabrera? His monthly breakdowns are as follows: .226, .278, .204, .221, .242, .220, .274, .243. That would equal two solid months and the balance being mediocre.

Carlos Santana is a key to the Tribe offense because he’s one of the few Tribe players capable of hitting 20 HR in a season. His last two seasons break out this way: .389, .200, .250, .294, .240, .271, .151, .169, .308. You get the picture.

We understand that not everyone can be steady as she goes, and we certainly know that Brantley and Gomes have periods where they go 1 for 14 and 2 for 19 too.

But that isn’t 1 for 44, like the streak David Murphy just ended.

When Kipnis, Cabrera, and Santana are all going well, the Indians’ offense is very productive, the problem is when you have those months where the three aren’t producing, it’s a tough team to watch.

And that’s why the runs scored statistic is misleading. Yes, Cleveland ranks high in the league in scoring, but they also are among the leaders in games in which they score less than three runs in a contest.

The inconsistency also extends to the starting pitching, where Corey Kluber and really, Trevor Bauer can be counted on the provide the same type of outings every time they take the hill.

Yes, Josh Tomlin threw a one-hitter against Seattle. In his other four starts his June 12th, the “Little Cowboy” has pitched 20-2/3 innings, allowing 18 runs.

Justin Masterson’s struggles are well-documented, as he has pitched less than five innings in four of his last seven starts. He really has had only one quality outing since May 3rd, that being a seven inning, one run performance against the Angels.

So perhaps Antonetti’s biggest challenge is to bring in some players who are steady, guys who Terry Francona can count on a nightly basis. Maybe it’s a solid .270 hitter, or a starter who can provide six or seven decent innings per start.

They may not have to be all-star type players. Just ones whose performance isn’t up and down like an elevator.

The times when the Tribe players are all hot are a joy to watch, but too often it is followed by a losing streak. That’s why they have sat around the .500 mark for most of this season.

Can Tribe Improve? That Depends on Front Office

The baseball season is half over, and the Cleveland Indians have shown pretty much nothing in the way of consistency.

If you divide the season into six equal pieces, the Tribe has improved as each slice of the pie unfolds. They were 11-16 after the first 27 games, went 13-14 in the next sixth of the 2014 season, and finished the first half with a record of 15-12 over the last 27 contests.

However, to this point in the season, it doesn’t feel like a playoff squad.

The Tribe sits 6-1/2 games behind Detroit in the AL Central Division standings, and is just 4-1/2 games out of the last wild card spot, currently held by Seattle.

So, with the trading deadline coming at the end of July, right now you have to consider the Indians buyers. You can’t give up on a season when you are within striking distance. Remember, Cleveland was five games out at the end of July a year ago, and still made the post-season.

Will the Indians’ front office make the necessary moves to reach the playoffs in back to back seasons for first time since 1998-99? That depends on whether or not the brass thinks changes are required to compete for a spot in the post-season.

We all realize GM Chris Antonetti and manager Terry Francona are very patient, and even the latter admitted earlier this year that sometimes that quality turns into stubbornness.

Will the belief that Francona has in his players preclude the GM from improving the current roster?

Yes, the Indians rank 5th in the American League in runs scored per game, but they have also scored three runs or less in almost half of their games (38 out of the 81 played).

That points to lack of consistency and means Antonetti should be looking for another reliable stick in the lineup. We all know about Nick Swisher’s horrible season to date, but Ryan Raburn has been equally disappointing with a .203 batting average, his second flirtation with the “Mendoza line” in three years.

The defense has been deplorable, leading the American League in errors with 70. Asdrubal Cabrera has been the chief culprit in that area, making most of his miscues on routine plays, including dropping three throws on possible double plays.

Swisher is here to stay because of his contract, but how long does management wait before making changes with Raburn and Cabrera? After reading in the newspaper this weekend that the team isn’t concerned with Cabrera’s glove, it doesn’t seem like any move will be coming any time soon.

On the pitching side, the only reliable starter has been stoic Corey Kluber. Trevor Bauer has kept the Tribe in the game in most of his starts, but has had issues holding leads when he gets one. Justin Masterson has been up and down more that a pogo stick, and the skipper can’t be sure what he’s going to get on a nightly basis when he takes the hill.

Josh Tomlin was not good in June until his one-hitter on Saturday night, and the last spot in the rotation has been less than stellar with rookie T.J. House and Zack McAllister not providing a lot of quality innings on a start by start basis.

The bullpen has been ridden hard with Cody Allen, Bryan Shaw, and Mark Rzepczynski all ranking in the top ten in the AL in appearances. The heavy workload is a result of Francona’s lack of trust in anyone else in the ‘pen. That may be changing with Carlos Carrasco’s good work since joining the relief corps.

The key will be when does the management feel enough is enough with the performance of certain players? And when they do, will it be too late to do anything about it?

The success of the 2014 season depends on the timing of making these changes. That doesn’t bode well based on past performance.