Sign Lindor Long Term, He’ll Be Best Ever For Tribe

It should be fairly obvious by now that the Cleveland Indians have a very special player in shortstop Francisco Lindor.

He’s already the best player on a team that will likely make the post-season, and he’s just 22-years-old, not turning 23 until well after the season is over.

Since getting called up on June 14th a year ago, the switch-hitter has batted .316 with a 825 OPS, and this year, he has an outside shot at a 200 hit season.

We have been advocating since last year (yes, we know that sounds crazy), to sign Lindor to a long term deal to make sure he stays in a Cleveland uniform for a long, long time.

And we mean not just a deal to cover his arbitration seasons and maybe delay his free agency by a year or two. No, we would sign him to a ten year deal, keeping with the franchise through the prime of his career and beyond.

That’s how good we believe this kid is.

Throughout his minor league career, we thought that Lindor could be to the Indians what Derek Jeter was to the New York Yankees, and we’ve seen nothing that has made us change our mind.

Besides his playing ability, and remember, a baseball player’s prime is usually between ages 27 to 29, so he is five years away from that, Lindor’s joy for the game is always evident. His smile and zest for baseball should be marketed not only in Cleveland, but by Major League Baseball.

We also believe that if Lindor would stay for ten more years, he would become the best position player in the history of the Cleveland Indians.

We understand the names that came before, Hall of Fame players who spent the majority of their careers with the Tribe. Names like Nap Lajoie, Tris Speaker, Lou Boudreau, Earl Averill, and those players of recent ilk like Jim Thome, who will be inducted into Cooperstown soon.

Look at the Tribe’s list of all time leaders, and tell me Lindor wouldn’t top all of these lists if he remained healthy and played a total of 12 years here–

Games played: Terry Turner 1619. Lindor played in 241 after last night, and if he played 140 per season, which is probably conservative, he would be at 1641.

Runs: Averill 1154. Lindor has 142 to date with 92 this season.

Hits: Lajoie 2052. Frankie’s next hit is #300, with 170 hits per season, again conservative, the shortstop will be at 2000.

Doubles: Speaker 486. Lindor has 49 right now, and as he gets older and stronger, we can see 40 per year as a norm. Besides, it’s no disgrace to be behind “The Gray Eagle”, who is the all time leader in this category.

RBI’s: Averill 1084. Lindor has 121 for his career, and again as he gets stronger, should be able to start knocking in 80-90 per season.

By the time he would have completed that decade with the Tribe, the only major stats he would likely not be on top of would be home runs (although he would be in the top ten), and stolen bases, because that aspect of the game has been de-emphasized.

We don’t go crazy with superlatives either. Part of the reason Lindor could be the best Tribe player ever would be that the franchise has never really been able to keep great players for an extended period.

Even throughout the golden age of the 1990’s, none of the great players who played at Jacobs Field ever played their entire career in Cleveland.

The front office needs to make a long term deal with Lindor this winter. He is simply worth it, and it would show fans that this ownership is anxious to keep a player like this here for the long haul.

We are seeing the beginning of greatness with Francisco Lindor. Let’s hope we continue to watch for a long time.

Ramirez’ Emergence Not A Huge Surprise.

At the beginning of the season, we are sure you could have taken a lot of action on the Cleveland Indians being in first place by seven games on August 21st if people would have known Michael Brantley would only play 11 games this season.

Brantley is, after all, one of the best hitters in the game. He’s a guy who puts his bat on the ball, has some pop, and is one of the better hitters in baseball with men in scoring position.

Surely, if he were missing, the Indians’ struggling offense (as it was thought of before the season started) would not be able to score enough to put the Tribe in contention for the post-season.

Then again, at that point, no one was figuring Jose Ramirez for anything but a “super utility” role.

Coming into the season, Terry Francona planned to use the switch-hitter in the outfield and infield, being able to give breaks to Brantley, Francisco Lindor, Jason Kipnis, and play 3B to give Juan Uribe a break.

Brantley’s injury forced Ramirez into basically an everyday role in LF and at 3B, and when Uribe didn’t hit at all, and GM Mike Chernoff traded for Brandon Guyer to help in the outfield, the 23-year-old settled in at the hot corner.

While no one expected Ramirez to hit .311 in his first year as a regular, his pedigree in the minors, where he is a .304 hitter lifetime, shows Jose has the ability to hit.

We forget that Ramirez came up at the end of the 2013 season, when he was just 20, to provide speed and defense off the bench for the post-season push. He started that year in Akron where he hit .272.

If not for his speed and the ability to handle three infield spots (2B, SS, 3B), he wouldn’t have been added to the roster.

He started 2014 in AAA and was called up when Jason Kipnis hurt his oblique. He went 2 for 25 until he was sent back to Columbus on May 19th.

He did hit .302 (801 OPS) with the Clippers until he was recalled after Asdrubal Cabrera was traded to Washington at the deadline. He batted .283 with the Indians the rest of the season, establishing himself in the organization.

Keep in mind, that Ramirez was just 21 years old at the time.

Last year, he was handed the shortstop job out of spring training, but didn’t look like the same player that took over for Cabrera the year before. He hit just .176 and struggled in the field.

We believe there were too reasons for that. First, Ramirez is a natural second baseman, not a shortstop and he was also probably looking over his shoulder at the progress of Lindor, the organization’s top prospect.

After Lindor arrived, and Ramirez went back to the utility role, he hit .259 (775 OPS) the rest of the year.

In between, he batted .293 in Columbus.

This year, he feels he belongs in the big leagues, and he is also getting better with age, as most good players do. His average is at .311. His OPS is 821.

The good news is he is still just 23 years old, so it is likely he will continue to improve.

He’s been the key player for the Indians, a team likely to make the post-season.

We have said this before. The best thing to like about this Tribe squad is their two best position players are 22 (Lindor) and 23 (Ramirez).

That bodes well for the window of contention staying open at Progressive Field for a few years.

Tribe Offense Has Been Big Surprise Due To Long Ball

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’s it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’s a realistic goal. Right now!

Youth Is Served: Lindor, Ramirez Are Pacing Tribe Attack

The Cleveland Indians completed the first third of its schedule last night with a 7-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals.

It gave the Tribe their 30th win of the season, putting them on a pace to win 90 games this season. We would say that would give them a pretty good shot at their first playoff appearance since 2013.

Terry Francona’s club does have the third best ERA in the American League, which is kind of expected because this squad is built around their pitching staff, particularly the starting rotation.

The surprise is the Indians rank 4th in the AL in runs scored per game, and they have done it without Michael Brantley, who has played just 11 games this season.

Despite the veteran acquisitions over the winter, signing Mike Napoli, Rajai Davis, and Juan Uribe, the offense is being led by two kids, 22-year-old Francisco Lindor, and 23-year-old Jose Ramirez.

This is not to minimize Napoli’s presence in the middle of the order. He is on pace to belt 30 home runs and knock in over 100, something the Tribe has lack since the days of Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez.

And by the way, Napoli has more RBIs right now than the man everyone wanted the Indians to trade for in the off-season, the White Sox’ Todd Frazier.

But we digress.

It was expected that Lindor would be a key to the 2016 Indians, but most people figured he would have a slight decline offensively, since his big league numbers far exceeded his hitting stats in the minors.

We have been preaching about how special the shortstop is since his minor league days, and it appears he is one of those athletes who gets better when the lights are brighter.

The switch-hitter is batting .308 (804 OPS) with 5 HRs and 26 RBI and it seems he provides a sparkling defensive play each and every night. And his enthusiasm for the game is contagious.

Even at 22, he is an unquestioned leader on this ballclub.

He has now played 152 games at the big league level and has a .311 batting average, with 17 HR and 77 RBI (824 OPS).

And he should get even better.

The folks in the front office at Carnegie and Ontario should be thinking of tying his guy up for a long, long time, because his price tag goes up each and every day.

Ramirez is the bigger surprise, since he figured to be a utility player once the regular season started. The injury to Brantley put him in an everyday role, and he has flourished.

Also, a switch-hitter, JRam struggled last year playing shortstop, which is not his natural position. He was hitting under .200 and not making the routine plays defensively.

This year, he has made the step up, playing everyday at either LF or 3B, he’s hitting .317 with an 846 OPS, and is among the top ten in the AL in on base percentage at .387.

And at 23, you have to figure he will get better as well.

This isn’t to minimize others contributions to the Indians’ early success. Josh Tomlin is 8-1, Danny Salazar has become one of the AL’s best starters, we have talked about Napoli, and Jason Kipnis has played, like, well, Jason Kipnis.

The catalysts, at least offensively, have been Lindor and Ramirez.

And with guys like Bradley Zimmer, Clint Frazier (hitting over .300 in the pitching rich Eastern League), Giovanny Urshela, Mike Clevinger, etc., the Cleveland Indians are poised to make some noise in the American League.

That includes this season.

Tribe Positives and Concerns Over First 27 Games.

The Cleveland Indians hit the 1/6th mark of the season with a 14-13 record. They didn’t have the great April they needed to get casual fans revved up about them, but they didn’t bury themselves either.

And that can be done during the season’s first month, just ask the Minnesota Twins.

The biggest problem for the Tribe is the Chicago White Sox, who have ridden excellent pitching to take a five game lead in the AL Central.

Of course, they is a long way to go to make up that deficit.

Anyway, here is what we see as positives over the first 27 games, and also, things were are concerned about.

POSITIVES

Nobody doubts the talent of Francisco Lindor, but right now, there doesn’t seem to be any sign of a sophomore slump.

The 22-year-old is hitting .324 (814 OPS) thus far and is making a defensive gem on a nightly basis.

If you had Josh Tomlin as the staff leader in wins before the season started, you were in the minority. But the right hander sits at 5-0 with a 3.72 ERA and is showing remarkable control as usual with a 19 to 2 strikeout to walk ratio.

It seems like over the last few seasons, one starting pitcher makes a step toward elite status, and this year it is Danny Salazar following in the footsteps of Corey Kluber (2014) and Carlos Carrasco (2015).

Salazar has allowed just 18 hits in 37-2/3 innings, while striking out 43 batters. Yes, his walks are high (16), but for the most part, he has been dominating each time he takes the mound.

The Indians have been searching for a right handed power bat for years and years, and they may now have one in Mike Napoli. Yes, he strikes out a lot, on pace for close to 200 whiffs on a 500 at bat season, but he also has six homers and 20 RBI.

His history says the strikeouts will taper a bit, and he does see a lot of pitches, but he has a chance to belt more than 25 bombs this season.

CONCERNS

The bullpen still scares us and we know that Bryan Shaw has pitched better lately. Terry Francona likes to use Zack McAllister in the 7th, Shaw in the 8th, and Cody Allen in the 9th if the starting pitcher can only give him six innings.

You can probably count the game where each has provided a clean inning in the same game on one hand.

McAllister started great, but has struggled his last few outings. Shaw was a mess early on, and Allen still seems to go through periods where he can’t throw strikes.

Maybe Tommy Hunter can provide a lift here.

Yan Gomes is also having a hard time at the plate, hitting just .176 (541 OPS). Gomes has walked just four times, compared to 22 punch outs.

He never has walked a lot, and you have to wonder if many the word is out that you don’t have to throw him a strike to get him out.

He also needs to start taking the outside pitch to right centerfield.

Jason Kipnis’ diminishing contact is also troubling. He has almost struck out as much as Napoli. His career high was 143 in ’13, but right now, he is on pace to fan over 160 times.

Our last concern is the usual veteran problem. How long of a rope does Francona give some of these guys.

Juan Uribe has an OPS of 652. Rajai Davis’ is 690, and Lonnie Chisenhall’s is 626. Under 700 isn’t very good. The team already sent out Tyler Naquin who had a 753 OPS (.315 batting average) to the minors.

When you are a contending team, which the Indians are, you can’t wait too long to replace players who aren’t producing.

Francona needs to use Jose Ramirez more, because he has been productive (783 OPS), and he needs to leave Carlos Santana in the leadoff spot. We know it is a small sample size, but Cleveland is 8-1 when Santana leads off.

He walks a lot, and has already led off two games with home runs.

Overall, the offense has made a big improvement, ranking 4th in the AL in runs scored per game, and the pitching is starting to pick it up, ranking 7th in ERA.

Again, our biggest concern is the bullpen. With some improvement over the first 27 games in that department, the Indians could have been 17-10 instead of 14-13.

Tribe Farm System Starting To Pay

From the time Mark Shapiro took over as general manager of the Cleveland Indians to his departure last season, the overriding tale of the regime was lack of success in the amateur draft.

From 2000 to 2008, the most successful first round choice by the Tribe’s scouting staff was Jeremy Guthrie, and because he was signed to a major league contract, he appeared in all of 16 games for Cleveland, starting just once.

In 2008, the Indians drafted Lonnie Chisenhall, and while you can’t put him in the “star” category, he is a serviceable major league player, a step up from previous years.

In 2011, Cleveland selected a high school shortstop named Francisco Lindor, and since then the Indians’ first round picks show up among baseball’s top prospects, depending on the publication or website you are reading.

Lindor was followed by Tyler Naquin, who made the Opening Day roster this season, and Tribe fans are waiting patiently for the next group of top picks, namely Clint Frazier (’13), Bradley Zimmer (’14), and Brady Aiken (’15).

Both Frazier and Zimmer can be seen nightly about an hour south of Lake Erie, both toiling for the Akron RubberDucks. Aiken is recovering from elbow surgery after he was the first overall pick in 2014, and should pitch for one of the Indians’ minor league teams this summer.

During that drought, thankfully, the Indians were very good finding prospects in other organizations, so they did have some good young players in the pipeline, such as Shin Soo Choo (Seattle), Asdrubal Cabrera (Seattle), Michael Brantley (Milwaukee), and Carlos Carrasco (Philadelphia).

That has continued in recent years too, as the front office basically stole Yan Gomes, now one of the AL’s best catchers from Toronto, and when they dealt Choo before he became a free agent, they received Trevor Bauer and Bryan Shaw from Arizona.

There may be two more players unearthed in another team’s system on their way as well, both coming from the Angels system.

A few years ago, with Vinnie Pestano no longer a dominant set up man, then GM Chris Antonetti moved him to Los Angeles for a starting pitcher in the Class A California League with an ERA over 5.00.

The deal was regarded as ho hum, Cleveland got a warm body. After coming over to Kinston, the right-hander had a 4.87 ERA.

The Tribe pitching coaches re-did his mechanics, and last year he posted a 2.73 ERA at Akron and 145 strikeouts in 158 innings pitched.

That’s the story of Mike Clevinger, one of the organization’s top ten prospects, and a guy you may see at Progressive Field some time this season.

When the Indians seemed to be out of the race last year and wanted to make room for younger players, they moved veteran David Murphy to the Angels for a young shortstop who looked to be all glove, no hit.

Eric Stamets had a very good training camp, and has gotten off to a good start (albeit a couple of games) at Akron.

Could he be the next success story for the organization?

For a mid to small market team like the Indians, they must be able to develop players. The fates of Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher show what can go wrong with the free agent experiments.

Over the last five seasons, the Indians have made tremendous progress developing young players. We picked them to win the division this season, and with the young talent on the horizon, it could be another long run of success on the corner of Ontario and Carnegie.

Will Tribe’s Strengths Override Weaknesses

We remember reading Bill James’ Baseball Abstracts in the late 70’s and early 80’s, and his essays about the Montreal Expos, a talented team that just couldn’t get over the hump and win the division.

If we recall correctly, James’ theory was that even though the Expos had some great players like Gary Carter, Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, Tim Wallach, and Warren Cromartie, all near the top at their positions in the major leagues, the team was weighed down by the spots where they didn’t have great players.

The Cleveland Indians remind me of those Expo teams right now.

The Tribe has some of the best players in the game at their respective positions: Michael Brantley and Francisco Lindor were both ranked by MLB Network’s Shredder as the best left fielder and shortstop, respectively.

And Jason Kipnis and Yan Gomes are among the best second basemen and catchers in baseball too.

In fact, the network had five Indians among the game’s Top 100 Players Right Now: Brantley, Corey Kluber, Kipnis, Lindor, and Carlos Carrasco.

That’s a good place to start for any team. The hope is the weaknesses at the other positions don’t drag the Indians’ win-loss record down.

Without Brantley, it is well documented that Terry Francona has a lot of question marks to deal with in his outfield. Since Abraham Almonte was suspended, and he isn’t a great answer to any question either, the starting OF looks like Lonnie Chisenhall in RF, Rajai Davis somewhere, and the other spot is wide open.

And outside of prospect Tyler Naquin, the upside for Joey Butler, Shane Robinson, Robbie Grossman, and/or Collin Cowgill isn’t exactly awe inspiring either.

At the infield corners, the Tribe is going with veterans on the wrong side of 30 years old in Mike Napoli and Juan Uribe. Both have been productive recently, so it’s not exactly a huge risk, but neither is it etched in stone that these two will be productive.

The bedrock of this team is it’s outstanding starting pitching. But the question that most national pundits have is did the front office get enough offense to take real advantage of arguably the best rotation in the American League.

Look, because of their arms, the Tribe is going to be in most games barring an injury or two. Kluber, Carrasco, Danny Salazar, and Trevor Bauer give you a chance to win every night, and Cody Anderson and Josh Tomlin aren’t bad either.

However, we’ve seen what the Indians record over the years is when scoring three or fewer runs per game, even with this pitching staff:

2015 18-61
2014 25-56
2013 17-53
2012 16-63

In the last four years, the trend has been an offense scoring three runs or less in about half the Tribe’s games.

Imagine how good this ballclub would be with a consistent and more potent batting attack?

They would be the team to beat in the American League, and perhaps all of baseball.

The front office is also fortunate they don’t have to pay a king’s ransom for that rotation right now. Kluber, Carrasco and Tomlin are under affordable contracts, and the rest of the hurlers are under club control.

The story of this season is will the weaknesses in the outfield and the possible age on the corner infield outweigh all of the good things the franchise has going for it.

Or can the talented players on the Cleveland roster make up for the weaknesses.

Salary Cap in Baseball? There’s One For The Tribe

Major league baseball is the one sport where there is no salary cap, unless you are the Cleveland Indians.

It is funny to us that fans and media members talk about the Indians’ payroll ceiling being around $90 million, like it is mandated by the sport.

It’s not. The Indians seem to put the cap on themselves.

Our point of view is one that we have because we believe, as do others who cover the sports, that baseball is thriving and plenty of cash is available throughout the sport, and the Dolan family is making a rather nice profit annually.

And they are entitled to make a profit. That’s why you own a business, to make money. We certainly don’t begrudge them that.

It’s the amount of the profit and the willingness to spend money to try to win. There is a business tenet that says you have to spend money to make money. For the most part, the Tribe ownership has not been willing to go all in.

There is no question that the Indians have a championship quality pitching staff. If they can get to the playoffs, they will be a tough out because of it.

However, you need to score runs to win in the regular season, unless you are the Dodgers of the late 1960’s. We don’t know if the front office has done enough to help the lineup put runs up on the board.

Last week, we heard local sports talker Bruce Hooley on WKNR say he doesn’t talk about the Indians on his show because he is in the “interesting” business. Let’s face it, the organization on Ontario and Carnegie aren’t exactly flashy.

The Indians are dull, there is no question about that.

Yes, they have Francisco Lindor, one of the top young players in the game, but Michael Brantley and Jason Kipnis, the Tribe’s other two best position players, aren’t being talked about regularly by the national media.

They aren’t involved in a lot of trade rumors, they aren’t talked about much on MLB Network.

Much of the local sports talk in Cleveland about the Indians centers around them not doing anything. It is based more on complaining than excitement.

The Tribe has become the stable good friend of the opposite sex that you like to hang around with, but there is nothing romantic on the horizon.

Unfortunately, they have chosen to keep the status quo, and not try to revive the dormant fan base.

That doesn’t generate any interest in the team, and that’s reflected in the ticket sales.

The problem is they can’t give up. You have to keep trying. It’s like they are an inventor who has a great product, but can’t find a market for it, and decides it’s not worth the hassle.

Perhaps going the extra mile and signing a big bat would revive interest.

The pro-front office faction will say they tried that with the signings in 2013 of Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn, and people didn’t show up. They forget Cleveland won just 68 games the year before, and the starting rotation didn’t appear to be one of the best in the game as the 2012 season ended.

We have said it before, but whether it is fair or not, the perception of the Dolan ownership is they aren’t in it to win.

It’s up to them to change that perception.

Instead, what we have is a stalemate, and that doesn’t benefit the team or the fans.

That’s why change is needed

If Tribe Is Done, They Didn’t Do Enough.

Earlier this week, Indians’ president Chris Antonetti announced the signing of free agent 1B/DH Mike Napoli to a one year contract, and then said the Tribe is pretty much done when it comes to adding talent this off-season.

Let’s hope he is being coy.

Because if the front office is finished with the roster for the 2016 season, they haven’t done enough to improve the offense.

Getting Napoli and Rajai Davis are okay moves, and in a vacuum, you can’t complain about either player, especially because they were both brought in on one year deals.

Cleveland was 11th in the American League in runs scored last season, and will be missing their best hitter, Michael Brantley, for at least the first six weeks of the season.

Yes, we know that Francisco Lindor will be with the team all season, and Yan Gomes, a Silver Slugger winner in 2014, will hopefully be healthy for the entire season.

That will help the offense without a doubt.

Still, the Tribe didn’t get the impact bat, they so desperately need. They have a lot of players who will be put in the middle of the order in Cleveland, but for good offensive teams, they would hit somewhere between 6th and 9th.

That can work, but it requires every hitter in the lineup to have a solid season. There can’t be more than one spot where you aren’t getting offense.

We feel they will be better offensively in 2016, but not enough to put the Indians in the 90+ win conversation they need to win the division and avoid the one and done wild card game.

There is no question they have the pitching to contend and stay in the race. They finished 2nd in the AL in ERA, and their top four rotation hurlers might be without peer in the league.

But without better hitting, the Indians are going to lose too many games, 2-1 and 3-2. Games where they get excellent starting pitching and waste it.

Why not do something about it?

In a sport without a salary cap, it is funny to hear discussions about the Indians and talk about a $90 million payroll ceiling. Let us remind you that it is a self imposed figure.

There is nothing to prevent the Dolans from spending more than that figure except their own economical restraints.

Right now, the market is flush with free agent outfielders, and Terry Francona would have to start Davis, Abraham Almonte, and Lonnie Chisenhall out there if the season started today.

The Indians may have played the market correctly, and may be able to get a quality outfielder at a lower year commitment, something that is preferable for a smaller market team.

There was talk yesterday that Justin Upton may take a one year deal with Texas. And you know there is nothing bad about a one year contract.

So, the price tag for guys like Yoenis Cespedes and Gerardo Parra may not be as high as originally thought, and the trade value of players like Marcell Ozuna and Carlos Gonzalez may also be coming down.

We hope the Indians can take advantage of this and go out and get another solid bat to help length the lineup.

We hope that Antonetti was just being coy with the media and his people are still working feverishly to upgrade the hitting.

The Cleveland Indians can’t waste another year of excellent pitching without making the playoffs.

That would be a shame.

Tribe Can’t Sit on Recent Success This Off-Season

The Cleveland Indians played their best 27 game stretch of the season (1/6th of the year) going 17-10 over that time, and remaining on the fringe of the wild card race, just five games behind.

The problem right now is the number of contests in dwindling to a precious few, so the Tribe will need to be even better than 17-10 over the balance of the schedule to have even a chance.

The biggest news over the span of these games was the deal that sent underachieving and overpaid veterans Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher to Atlanta. Immediately, the team started playing better.

Why? Because of what we’ve been saying all along, replacing Bourn with even a decent player would help the team and the resurgence of Lonnie Chisenhall, the continued development of SS Francisco Lindor, and the addition of Chris Johnson (who came from the Braves in the deal) has helped.

Bourn, and his 608 OPS were replaced by Abraham Almonte, who was acquired from San Diego for reliever Marc Rzepczynski, and has improved the hitting with his 857 OPS.

Lindor’s OPS is 785, much better than Jose Ramirez, who was playing SS and had a figure of 542. And Chisenhall’s second half OPS of 897 is far superior than the man he replaced, Brandon Moss, who had a 695 figure.

Once again, the Tribe’s over patient approach got them in a rut that will be very difficult to escape.

The pitching got better as Josh Tomlin and Cody Anderson has turned the fifth spot in the rotation into a more that serviceable turn.

The staff ERA has now improved to the 4th best in the American League.

The bullpen has sprung some holes, mostly from the home runs allowed by set up men Zack McAllister and Bryan Shaw, who combined have allowed 13 dingers on the season.

The recent good play has fans the happiest they have been all season, but the worst thing the front office can do is buy in to this stretch of winning baseball.

In our view, Cleveland has four everyday spots that should be etched in stone going into the winter: LF Michael Brantley, 2B Jason Kipnis, C Yan Gomes, and Lindor, who the front office still needs a possible replacement around in case of a sophomore slump.

That would leave CF, RF, 1B, 3B, and DH as spots to fill.

In center, although Almonte has been very good defensively, there is no evidence he can hit like this on a regular basis. In right, Chisenhall has done nothing more than prove he is streaky, although his defense has been surprisingly good.

At 3B, Giovanny Urshela’s bat concerns us that he cannot hit enough to be a regular, and Carlos Santana has been better lately, but still doesn’t provide the offense needed at a premier offensive position.

We would like to leave the rotation as is, but GM Chris Antonetti may have to move a starter to get the bat needed. The Tribe is developing some depth with Tomlin, Anderson, currently disabled T.J. House, possibly Gavin Floyd, and youngsters Ryan Merritt and Adam Plutko ready to help in 2016.

The bullpen is wide open, and we would be open to dealing one of the three back end guys (Cody Allen, McAllister, and Shaw) with the bounty in the farm system, guys like Shawn Armstrong, C.C. Lee, Tyler Sturdivant, Trey Haley, and lefty Giovanni Soto ready to help next season.

The point is the front office cannot get complacent and believe this kind of play will occur all year in ’16 with these players. They have to improve the roster, simple as that.

If not, they might have the same problems that started this season and will discourage the fan base even more.