Tag: jim thome

Time for Tribe to Honor Albert Belle

Over the last few years, the Cleveland Indians have honored several of the players from their playoff teams of the late 90’s by putting them into the club’s Hall of Fame.

Sandy Alomar Jr. was the first to go in, fitting because he was the first piece of the puzzle when the Tribe traded for him after the 1990 season.

Kenny Lofton and Charles Nagy quickly followed him and last year, Carlos Baerga received the honor. 

And there is no doubt that Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez will be inducted some day very soon, but their playing days ended too recently to be considered.

However, there is one name that is missing.  The central figure for the first few years of the winning seasons including the strike shortened 1994 season and the American League Championship team of 1995.

It is time for the Indians to put Albert Belle in the franchise’s Hall of Fame.

We realize Belle’s departure from Cleveland as a free agent after the 1996 season was not exactly friendly and he antagonized the fan base when he came back to the lakefront as a member of the White Sox in subsequent visits.  But you can’t ignore the fact that he’s one of the best players ever to wear an Indian uniform.

The slugger hit 242 home runs with the Tribe, leaving town as the franchise leader (he was passed by Jim Thome), and hit .295 with a 949 OPS in 913 games as a member of the team.

He led the American League in runs batted in three times with Cleveland, as well as leading the AL once in home runs, doubles, and runs scored once in his tenure here.

And in his last three seasons on the north coast, he finished second twice and third once in the MVP voting.

Of course, baseball historians will wonder years from now why Belle didn’t win the award in 1995 when he batted .317 (8th in the league) with 50 HR (led league) and 126 RBI (tied for AL lead) on the best team by far in the junior circuit.

He hit at least 34 home runs the last five seasons in Cleveland, and knocked in at least 100 runs in those seasons as well.  The significance of that is the 1994 season, the strike season, lasted only 113 games. 

Yes, Belle was a controversial figure to be sure.  He was suspended early in his career for different issues, and was once sat down because of a corked bat.

However, we also may have been the most studious players in the game when it came to his craft.  He studied opposing pitchers and made adjustments. 

In game five of the ’95 World Series, Belle went to school on new Hall of Famer Greg Maddux’ pitching him away and homered to right field in the first inning. 

There is no question when you went to an Indians’ game in those days; you waited in your seat for Albert Belle to come to the plate.  If you were at home, you made sure you were watching when Belle was hitting.

He was a “must see” player.

The Indians haven’t announced their honoree for the 2014 season yet, and the lately the antagonism between the Tribe and Belle has softened, so maybe he will get the nod.

But if they aren’t considering Albert Belle, they should.  And we have a feeling when Belle is inducted, the fans will respond with a thunderous ovation. 

Cleveland is a forgiving city, and they want to open their arms for the most exciting player to wear a Tribe uniform over the last 50 years.

MW

Combo of Walks and Homers Hurting Tribe Pitching

Despite the slugging teams of the 1990’s, including a team that scored 1000 runs in a season (the last team in major league baseball to do so), Jacobs Field/Progressive Field has always been a pitcher’s park.

That speaks to how great those Indians teams that featured Albert Belle, Carlos Baerga, Manny Ramirez, and Jim Thome really were.  They placed half of their games in a park that helped pitchers.

Now, the Indians have a problem.  Their ballpark helps the pitchers and it is making it look better than it is.

Not that ranking 12th in the American League looks good.  Cleveland pitchers rank ahead of only Baltimore, Toronto, and Houston in ERA.

However, on the road it is worse as Tribe hurlers rank ahead of only Seattle in terms of that statistic.  That would partially explain why the Indians have lost 10 games in the row away from Progressive Field.  They have a 4.72 ERA away from home.

The particular problem that has plagued Cleveland pitchers on the road is the base on balls.  They have issued 118 walks on the road, 14 more that the next worst group, the Chicago White Sox.

Opposition hitters are only hitting .253 against the Tribe staff, the 5th best rate in the AL.  But they have allowed 35 home runs, the 4th worst mark in the league.  If you walk people and give up home runs, you are going to allow a lot of runs.

At home, the Tribe’s ERA is a respectable 4.15, which is 10th in the AL, but only .08 behind the Red Sox staff, which is in the middle of the pack.  The walks are a problem at home too, though, allowing the 5th most in the Junior Circuit.

If you have figured out at this point that Cleveland pitchers are allowing too many batters to reach base via the walk, you are correct.  Tribe pitchers are 3rd in the league overall, behind just Houston and Boston.

They’ve also allowed the 4th most dingers in the league, behind only Baltimore, Houston, and Toronto.

The home runs are equally spread out among the starters and relievers.  The starters have given up 48 bombs, 5th worst in the league, while the relievers have allowed the 3rd highest total.

The bases on balls are the same ways.  The starters have walked the 3rd most in the American League, the relievers rank 4th.

The one thing that doesn’t make this combination an unmitigated disaster is the Cleveland pitchers ability to strike people out, ranking behind just Detroit and Boston in that category.

In their recent losing streak, however, it is the starting pitching that is really letting the team down, allowing 2o runs in the first three innings, putting the team in a hole right off the bat.

So,  while the starters’ ERA is 4.46, that figure has been accomplished because they have righted the ship after falling behind early and they have given Terry Francona around six innings per start.

In the Yankee series alone, all three starters (Justin Masterson, Scott Kazmir, and Corey Kluber) gave up big innings in the first three frames, but settled in and gave the skipper at least six innings, thus protecting the bullpen.

Earlier in the season, Indians’ pitchers were not walking as many batters, ranking in the middle of the pack, but as of late, that has changed and the extra base runners are lengthening innings, and helping set up three run home runs.

If the Indians are going to get going again, and as we said before the season started that this would be a streaky team, then the pitchers need to throw strikes, and they must pitch better on the road.

Until that happens, the Tribe will continue to struggle.

KM