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’s Winter Inactivity Coming Back To Haunt?

All throughout the off-season, media and fans alike were questioning what the Cleveland Indians were doing offensively, particularly in the outfield.

It appears that these people were correct in asking these questions, and now it seems the front office has joined them.

Since spring training began, the Indians inked Hanley Ramirez, who was released by the Boston Red Sox in May last season to a minor league deal, and over the weekend, the club signed Carlos Gonzalez, late of the Colorado Rockies, to the same type of contract.

Whether either will help is up for debate.

As we said, Ramirez was released relatively early last season and no one signed him, and Gonzalez’ numbers away from hitter friendly Coors Field don’t scream “solution!”

The 33-year-old Gonzalez hit .276, with 16 homers and 64 knocked in last season (796 OPS) with look good until you see he batted .241 with 4 dingers and a 719 OPS away from the thin air in Colorado.

In fact, here are his numbers on the road for the last three seasons–

2018: .241/4 HR/17 RBI/719 OPS
2017: .203/6 HR/15 RBI/606 OPS
2016: .276/7 HR/36 RBI/744 OPS

Compare those numbers to another late signee, Adam Jones, who inked a deal with Arizona put up away for Camden Yards last season. Jones batted .276 with a 714 OPS in 2018 on the road.

It appears the Tribe braintrust is watching Jordan Luplow, Jake Bauers, and Tyler Naquin and isn’t liking what they see.

Luplow is 4 for 31 with 12 strikeouts, Naquin is 8 for 36 with 10 punch outs. Bauers is just 8 for 34. Let’s just say none of them have been overwhelming.

Our fear is Hanley Ramirez and Gonzalez won’t be either.

Which comes back to the organization not having a fallback plan after deciding not to pursue Michael Brantley during the off-season.

We said time and again (and we weren’t the only ones) the Cleveland lineup was very top heavy a year ago, and they lost maybe their most consistent bat in Brantley, and seemingly didn’t do much to replace him.

They traded Edwin Encarnacion too, but received Carlos Santana in return to cover that spot in the lineup.

While we understood getting younger players with a bigger upside in the organization in place of players like Melky Cabrera, Encarnacion, and yes, even Yan Gomes, they didn’t have a contingency plan in place.

Sure, they signed Matt Joyce just before camp started, but really, he’s in the same place in his career as Hanley Ramirez and Gonzalez. Those are low risk, high reward moves, but for a team with an excellent chance of making the post-season, they aren’t good enough.

It appears Terry Francona and the front office have realized the season opener is less than two weeks away, and they are worried about how they are going to generate any offense.

And yesterday, MLB Network’s Ken Rosenthal said the trade talks between the Indians and the Padres involving Corey Kluber or Trevor Bauer are still going on. San Diego has a surplus of outfielders.

As it is, the two best hitters during spring training have been Greg Allen, who came into camp as part of a platoon in centerfield, but may now be in there everyday, and Oscar Mercado, whose next major league at bat, will be his first.

Add in the possibility of Francisco Lindor’s absence for the first week or so of the regular season, and Jason Kipnis’ nagging injuries, and Tito can’t help but be concerned.

Unfortunately, with a little forethought, this situation could have been rectified during the off-season, but for some reason, it wasn’t.

Now, they are grasping at straws. It didn’t have to be that way.

Tribe Front Office Depends On Tito’s Magic

While we have been critical of Indians’ manager Terry Francona at times because of his problem with the fine line between patience and stubbornness, mostly we kind of feel bad for him because of what the front office does to him.

Tito has guided the Tribe to three consecutive American League Central Division titles, and has had to do so by having to put together a puzzle each and every season.

He has had great starting pitching, really since he’s been the Indians’ skipper in 2013, and in ’16 and ’17, had a tremendous bullpen as well. But, we think even he would like the opportunity to write the same names down in a starting lineup each and every day.

Prior to last Sunday, it looked like the only positions to be decided were left field and right field, and there were options in both spots. Not proven options, but the prevailing thought was a combination of Jordan Luplow, Tyler Naquin, Matt Joyce in those spots.

Then the front office signed Hanley Ramirez, a 35-year-old designated hitter, who really has had one above average season since 2014.

As a result, now the manager is looking at playing Jake Bauers in left, which would weaken the outfield defense.

Ramirez is in camp on a minor league contract, and if he can return to the hitter he was in 2016, when he hit .286 with 30 home runs, and knocked in 111 with an 866 OPS, it would be a boost to the offense. However, how likely is that?

As stated previously, that season is the only above average season the veteran has had since 2014 when he had an 817 OPS with the Dodgers. He was 30 at the time.

Seriously, is Francona making plans based on the long shot Ramirez can win a starting job? That seems like an extreme case of putting the cart before the horse. He hasn’t even had one at bat in Arizona as of yet.

This is the situation the Tribe front office always seems to put its manager in, having to manipulate the roster to get the most out each and every position player.

Last season, he was forced to play two defensive liabilities in the corner outfield spots in Michael Brantley and Melky Cabrera. And the front office rushed to replace Carlos Santana (since back) at first with Yonder Alonso, who the skipper figured out half way through the year couldn’t hit lefties.

In 2017, Francona platooned in CF (Bradley Zimmer and Austin Jackson) and RF (Lonnie Chisenhall and Brandon Guyer). The year the Tribe went to the World Series, he used four players, including Jose Ramirez, more than 20 games in left field.

Amazingly, in ’15, the Indians had only four position players who played in 100 games–Santana, Jason Kipnis, Brantley, and Chisenhall. That was shocking to us.

Francona has done a remarkable job maximizing what the organization has given him, but we’ll bet he would appreciate being able to write the same names on a lineup card on a daily basis.

Add to that, not having to be hopeful a veteran will regain the fountain of youth to add some pop to the batting order.

There are no bonus points for winning with the highest degree of difficulty.

This is why critics should overlook Tito’s quirks as manager. He gets a lot out of some marginal players. This off-season appears to provide the Indians’ manager with the ultimate test.