Tribe Starts Hot Stove Season Positively

The Cleveland Indians made their first moves of baseball’s off-season and they should have surprised absolutely no one.

First, the Tribe inked DH Jason Giambi to a minor league contract and there is no doubt that if he is healthy next spring, he will be on the Opening Day roster on March 31^st in his old stomping ground in Oakland.

The grizzled veteran hit just .183, but did hit 9 HR and knocked in 31 runs, many of them key.

He had perhaps the biggest hit down the stretch with his dramatic pinch hit two run homer off of Chicago’s Addison Reed to turn a 4-3 potential loss into a 5-4 victory.

Anyone who has read the book that Terry Francona did with Dan Shaughnessy about his years in Boston understands how much the skipper values veterans who provide leadership like Giambi.

The guess here is that as long as “Big G” can get around on a fastball, he will have a spot on a Francona led team.

GM Chris Antonetti also announced the Indians were cutting ties with closer Chris Perez. While the speculation will be it is because of his poor finish to the season and his off field problems, it really comes down to just dollars and cents.

If the Tribe was to keep Perez for 2014, they likely would have had to pay him in excess of $8 million, an amount way too exorbitant based on his productivity.

The shame of it is the Indians should have dealt Perez each of the last two seasons, because the signs he was losing effectiveness were there.

His strikeout to innings pitched ratio had declined, and at that time, Cleveland had a viable alternative in Vinnie Pestano, who was making a lot less than Perez, thus freeing up cash for other needs.

As it is, Antonetti and Francona have several in-house options to close out games, including Pestano if his arm bounces back, along with Cody Allen and Bryan Shaw.

Former Indians’ GM John Hart used to say that closers fall out of trees, and when you think about it, there aren’t a lot of teams who pay closers huge sums of money. This is mostly because they aren’t effective for long periods with Mariano Rivera being the exception.

The Indians completed the trio of moves by getting LHP Colt Hynes from San Diego. Hynes spent the second half of last year with the Padres, compiling a 9.00 ERA, which hardly sounds impressive.

However, he did hold left-handed hitters to 5 for 32 with six walks, making him a classic LOOGY (left-handed one out guy). He may be designated for assignment as the Indians make room on the 40 man roster before the winter meetings, but if he goes to spring training he has a chance to supplant Rich Hill in the bullpen.

The news today that Ubaldo Jimenez turned out his option for next year is no surprise either, and Cleveland will make him a qualifying offer by Monday to ensure draft pick compensation.

Jimenez will likely get a four or five-year contract offer from somewhere, and the Tribe is right in staying away from that length of deal based on the pitcher’s volatile career while here.

The hot stove season started as soon as the World Series ended for the Cleveland Indians. After a couple of days, things are going according to plan.

Browns Lost This One in First Quarter

If you want to defeat a quality football team on the road, you have to get off to a good start.

With that in mind, the Cleveland Browns lost today’s game to the Green Bay Packers in the first eight minutes of the first quarter.

The Browns have lost two straight and fall to 3-4 on the season with a 31-13 loss at Lambeau Field.

On Cleveland’s first drive, QB Brandon Weeden threw two incomplete passes, the second one on third and nine, sailing at least five yards over Greg Little’s head. It wasn’t even close.

Green Bay fumbled the resulting punt, but Cleveland couldn’t come up with it.

The Packers drove the 40 yards in just four plays, the last one a pass to Jermichael Finley for 10 yards and a touchdown when three Brown defenders had a chance to tackle the Green Bay TE, but failed to do so.

On the next drive, Weeden airmailed another throw to Davone Bess on third down, but a roughing the kicker penalty gave Cleveland a second chance.

After a nice throw and catch for 19 yards to Greg Little, the Browns had a fourth and one at the Packer 37, and Weeden threw an interception on a sideline pass to Bess that was short of the target.

Eleven plays and almost six minutes later, Eddie Lacy scored on a one-yard run giving the Pack a 14-0 advantage.

The Browns could have left Wisconsin right then and there, because this game was basically over.

From that point on, the Cleveland offense resembled the Pat Shurmur version, with runs that went nowhere mixed in with a dink and dunk passing attack.

The Browns gained just 216 yards for the entire contest, with a woeful average gain per pass play of three yards. Weeden hit on just 17 of 42 throws for a paltry 147 yards. He was also sacked three times.

The Cleveland offense gained just 83 yards on the ground, with Willis McGahee leading the way with 39 yards on 11 carries.

Either Green Bay did an exceptional job of shutting down WR Josh Gordon, or Weeden didn’t look his way because he caught only two passes for 21 yards.

A better guess is that it was pounded into Weeden’s head all week to get rid of the ball quicker, so he went with a ton of checkdown throws.

We understand that coach Rob Chudzinski and offensive coordinator Norv Turner think Weeden can play at this level, but that may be their coaching egos talking. They have to look at the results and consider some sort of change.

Also, we understand the front office wants to find their “franchise” quarterback in the next spring’s draft, but they should also realize the Cleveland fan base is tired of watching a non-productive offense once again.

Weeden did remember that Jordan Cameron was on the roster, hitting him seven times, but for just 55 yards.

You hate to keep going back to talking about Brian Hoyer, but he showed this offense does have some weapons, particularly Gordon and Cameron, with a splash of Travis Benjamin.

Those weapons are not being utilized by the current starting quarterback.

By the way, Thaddeus Lewis, disposed of by the current front office, hit 21 of 32 throws for 202 yards in leading the Buffalo Bills to a win in Miami. After last year’s game against the Steelers, why would you just release him?

We bring this up because apparently the staff isn’t going to use Jason Campbell no matter what.

Once again, we use the theory of not being able to do any worse. Could Campbell play worse than Weeden did today? Perhaps, but it couldn’t be that much worse.

Next week, the Browns have another tough test, traveling to Kansas City to take on the undefeated Chiefs.

If the offense has indeed reverted to checkdown city, it will be difficult to win another game this season.

Maybe Joe Banner and Michael Lombardi secretly don’t care that much about that.

What Should Tribe Do With Starters in ’14?

Baseball had a slight rebirth in Cleveland over the past two weeks.

Jason Giambi’s home run, which turned a defeat into a win on September 25th, awoke interest in a team fighting for a playoff spot, and for the next week, sports fans on the North Coast were wondering what was going on with the Indians.

The loss on Wednesday night that eliminated the Tribe has fans talking about next year, even in the midst of a Browns’ three game winning streak.

So, ownership, looking for a spark in fan interest the past few years, can’t blow it this off-season. They have to keep that interest alive over the winter and have people looking forward to spring training in late February/early March.

It should start with getting single game tickets on sale on Black Friday, the first huge shopping day of the Christmas season. We understand the push is to sell season tickets, not you have to give people the opportunity to get tickets while the 2013 season is fresh in their minds.

And, the front office needs to continue to improve the ballclub.

We understand (and we have said this before) that the Indians cannot have a $100 million payroll. They probably need to be around the mid $80 million range.

Still, that is possible. Heck, the Tribe did it this year, and teams like Tampa and Oakland do it on a more frequent basis that the Tribe has.

The biggest decision for GM Chris Antonetti is what to do about the pitching staff, with Ubaldo Jimenez and Scott Kazmir eligible to free agency. Jimenez and the Tribe have a mutual option at $8 million for next season, which the right-hander will certainly turndown.

We’ve gone back and forth on what Antonetti should do, and is both parties would agree to pick up the option that would be fine. However, in reality, Jimenez could draw three and four-year offers at more than $10 million per season. If that’s the case, the Indians need to look elsewhere.

There is just too much of a risk. Cleveland is not the type of franchise that can handle a long-term deal where the player is not producing at a high level.

The fact is this: Jimenez spent 14 months in an Indian uniform and had an ERA under 4.00 in less than half of those months (6). With the complexity of his mechanics, what if Ubaldo goes back to the type of pitcher he was for most of his career with the Tribe?

That’s too big of a risk for this franchise.

Now, if he wants to discuss a two-year deal, that is something that could be done without hampering the long-term future of the organization.

Remember, Justin Masterson is a free agent at the end of the ’14 campaign and he should be a higher priority than Jimenez.

Kazmir will be looking for a big payday too, as well he should since he was on the baseball scrapheap last year. Still, he should come at a lower cost and fewer years than Jimenez.

And since the Indians rescued him from the independent league, perhaps he will have some loyalty toward Francona and Mickey Calloway. Maybe a three-year deal at $6-7 million could get it done.

Remember, Danny Salazar should be in the rotation from day one in 2014, and the Tribe still has Corey Kluber and Zach McAllister as starters. If Trevor Bauer can get straightened out, he could be in the mix as well.

And you could get another low risk, high reward type signing on a one year deal for a pitcher trying to re-establish his career. Although Brett Myers didn’t help like he was supposed to, the signing was a good one. It was for one year, and when he didn’t work out, the Tribe just said goodbye.

It wouldn’t hurt to do that again with a different pitcher.

There is an old saying in baseball that you can’t have too much pitching. The Indians can’t get caught short, but they can’t put the future in jeopardy either.

Tribe Bats Just Couldn’t Come Through.

The Cleveland Indians were a hot ball club coming into tonight’s wild card game against Tampa Bay, winning 10 in a row and going 21-6 in the month of September.

This is more evidence that baseball is a funny game.

The 4-0 loss that eliminated Cleveland came down to the Rays taking advantage of their chances and the Indians not being able to go so.

After a dominant first two innings, Danny Salazar gave up a leadoff home run to famed humanitarian Delmon Young, and after that, the young flamethrower lost his ability to get guys to swing and miss.

He escaped the third allowing just the one run, but Desmond Jennings’ double down the leftfield line with two outs in the 4th gave the Rays a 3-0 lead.

After that, the Indians had threats in pretty much every frame after that, but couldn’t push a run across.

In the fourth, with bases loaded and one out, Asdrubal Cabrera hit into a double play.

In the fifth, the Indians had runners on first and third with no one out, and Michael Bourn struck out, Nick Swisher hit into a fielders’ choice, and Jason Kipnis hit a comebacker to the mound to end that threat.

In the seventh, one out singles by Yan Gomes and Lonnie Chisenhall, who had three hits on the night, went for naught when Bourn flew out and Swisher fanned again.

All in all, Cleveland collected nine hits on the night, and couldn’t push a run across.

That’s the nature of baseball though. Sometimes, you get the big hits and sometimes you don’t. The Indians just picked a bad night to be on the wrong side of that statement.

To be sure, many of the national pundits will bring up Terry Francona’s team’s record against teams with an above .500 record as a reason for the loss and say the Tribe didn’t deserve to make the playoffs.

That’s a load of crap. Cleveland won 92 games this season. If any other team had won that many contests, the same people would have clamored to add another wild card so teams with that kind of record can advance to the playoffs.

For those who want to question the decision to start the rookie, Salazar, in this game, keep in mind the Indians still had a chance to win this game until a couple of defensive miscues gave the Rays a fourth run in the top of the ninth.

Salazar, and the guys who followed him, Mark Rzepczynski, the seemingly always reliable Bryan Shaw, Justin Masterson, Cody Allen, and Joe Smith pitched well enough to give the offense a shot. They simply couldn’t get the big base knock.

You can’t win any games when you don’t score a run, and although they hit the ball fairly hard tonight, no one crossed home plate.

Tampa manager Joe Maddon said before the game that his team catches a lot of line drives, and they certainly lived up to their skipper’s prediction.

We will discuss the Indians’ future at a later time, but there is no question the 2013 season was a huge step forward for the Indians. Here’s hoping they build on it over the long winter.