Did Cookie Galvanize The Tribe?

The 2019 Cleveland Indians are certainly a different type of team.

After floundering around the first 60 games of the season, perhaps this squad finally found a rallying point with Carlos Carrasco’s blood disorder.

Different things unite teams every year. In 1997, the favored Indians were scuffling. Kenny Lofton had been traded during spring training, Albert Belle left during the winter as a free agent, and Carlos Baerga had been moved the season before.

Cleveland, coming off two straight division titles, had to integrate Matt Williams, David Justice, and Marquis Grissom into the culture.

Then, on Jim Thome’s birthday, August 27th, with the Tribe sitting at 67-61, the Indians decided to wear their red socks high to honor their teammate, and won 10-4.

They went on to win 9 of the next 11, increasing their division lead from 2.5 to 5.5 games and coasted to a third straight division title. And a post-season run that didn’t end until the seventh game of the World Series.

Carrasco is a respected and popular teammate who has been in the organization since the 2009 season when he came over in the Cliff Lee trade. He’s gone through Tommy John surgery and a heart procedure.

He was ineffective as a starter, and was sent to the bullpen to figure things out and get more aggressive. When he returned to the rotation, he simply became one of the most reliable starting pitchers in baseball.

And he means a lot to his teammates, who may have wanted to win that night for their teammate, and perhaps Carrasco’s illness may have reminded the other 24 players in the locker room that baseball is a game, and having fun is part of playing the game.

In the past four games, Francisco Lindor’s smile has been front and center in the dugout. We don’t remember seeing it as much earlier this year, although we might be blocking it out because the offense has been dormant.

Make no mistake, Lindor is the leader of this baseball team, and probably has been for a few years.

Yes, Michael Brantley and Jason Kipnis, both players with more seniority, have been part of the leadership group, but Lindor is the Tribe’s heartbeat, one they were missing throughout the first month of the season.

How long will this continue? There’s no way to tell, heck it could end today. The Indians start a long stretch against some of the sport’s lesser teams, and maybe they lose their edge and settle back into a malaise.

If they do, it’s a sign there are bigger things wrong here.

Yes, the Tribe still has a long way to go. They are still 9.5 games behind the Minnesota Twins in the division.

However, they are still just a game and a half behind Texas for the second wild card spot, a half game behind Boston. Can you imagine the Red Sox saying they are going to be a seller if they were in the Tribe’s position?

Of course not. That’s why if the standings are about the same when the Midsummer Classic is played at Progressive Field a month from now, and the front office is talking about moving productive players, they are doing you a disservice as fans.

We will see how the next few weeks play out for the Indians, but if they go on a little run here, Carlos Carrasco might be a major contributor, even if he doesn’t throw one pitch.

Tribe Decision To Cut Salaries Is Still Mind Boggling

Really, it can’t be said enough.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It turned out, it was just a payroll dump.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Talk Of Tribe Fire Sale Is Crazy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Talking Tribe Lineup Change

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Time To Take Action For Tito, Tribe.

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

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

Here’s the tale of the tape–

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are our recommendations:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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.

Tribe Fans Get Doused By Dolan’s Cold Shower

Man, it is tough to be a fan of the Cleveland Indians right now. The team has lost its last six post-season games, and after three straight division titles, the aura around the team is negative.

With Opening Day coming up on Thursday, and the home opener arriving in just six days, the thoughts of northeastern Ohio should be that of anticipation of another post-season berth, and a chance to end a 70 year World Series drought.

Instead, the focus is on the team’s finances. In the past few weeks, Paul Dolan has done several interviews with local media, and in each one, has pointed out the team is losing money on a yearly basis, and the organization made a conscious decision to cut the payroll for players after the 2018 season.

Keep in mind, last year’s roster had arguably the best starting pitching in the game and two MVP candidates (and top ten players in the sport) in Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez.

This flies in the face of the famous statement from the Dolan family that they will spend when it is appropriate. Isn’t it appropriate now?

We have said this before, but Paul Dolan isn’t good at doing the whole media thing, so it would behoove the front office not to have him make the rounds.

Whether it is true or not, and quite frankly, we find it doubtful that an owner of a major professional sports team is losing money in this day and age, fans don’t care. The owners don’t announce when they make a profit, so they shouldn’t announce when they are losing money.

If that is the case, then sell the team to someone else, and let them worry about it.

What is very odd to us is the support around the city the ownership gets from some fans. Those people do understand they are taking the side of a multi-millionaire claiming to be losing money.

Dolan told fans in a piece in The Athletic that Tribe fans should enjoy Lindor while you can, a clear indication the franchise was not going to try to keep him on a long term deal when he becomes a free agent following the 2021 season.

Can you imagine the outrage if Jimmy Haslam said Baker Mayfield would likely only be a Brown until his rookie contract was up? Or Dan Gilbert said he was going to let LeBron James walk away without a serious contract offer?

Yes, James left twice, but not because the Cavs owner wanted him to go.

The other thing about the comments is the timing. Why make these comments right before the season is about to begin? We don’t think Dolan is trying to destroy interest in his team, but the outrage we’ve seen over the past two days cannot be construed as positive.

We have always thought the reasons for people to own a sports team are to win, to make money, or to have fun. Dolan admitted it was fun after the ’16 season, in which the Indians made it to Game 7 of the World Series.

But if you are losing money and aren’t actively trying to win, what kind of fun is it?

We also doubt that the attitude in the clubhouse will be the same as it was toward fictional owner Rachel Phelps in the movie Major League. It has already been reported that players found Dolan’s comments to be disingenuous.

Fans of the Tribe want a winner. They’ve enjoyed the past 25 years of good baseball since Progressive Field (nee Jacobs Field) opened. But there is one thing missing, and that hasn’t happened since 1948.

They would like the owner to want what they want. Oh, and for the franchise to keep Lindor.