Can Kwan Do Something That Hasn’t Happened in 70 Years?

We understand that batting average as a statistic has been devalued in today’s game and that on base percentage is more meaningful, after all baseball is about getting on base (thus avoiding outs) and moving once you are on, which slugging percentage measures.

However, back in the day, when we were growing up, it was a big deal, the man who led their respective league in average was considered the “batting champ”, and it is still considered part of the traditional “triple crown”, a player who leads the league in average, home runs, and runs batted in.

We bring this up because in our lifetime, Cleveland has never had a batting champion. The last Indian/Guardian to lead the American League in average was Bobby Avila, and that occurred way back in 1954.

No, we aren’t that old!

A few players have come close. In the 1994 strike season, Paul O’Neill of the Yankees was awarded the batting title with a .359 average. Albert Belle was second at .357 and Kenny Lofton was fourth at .349.

Belle also hit 36 homers and knocked in 101 runs in just 106 games. No doubt it is among the things fans were robbed of by the players’ strike/lockout.

We bet most people won’t remember the previous high finish in the batting race, but it belongs to Miguel Dilone, who hit .341 in 1980 to finish third behind George Brett’s epic season of hitting .390 and Cecil Cooper who hit .352.

Dilone was a speedster who wound up with a lifetime .265 average, but for that season, he was a catalyst, with a .375 on base percentage and 61 steals, which at that time was a club record, topping the 52 swiped by Ray Chapman in 1917.

Could the string be broken this season? We don’t want to jinx the incredible Steven Kwan, but it sure looks like a possibility.

Kwan is currently second in the AL batting race, but that comes with an asterisk. The official leader is Bobby Witt of Kansas City at .326, and Kwan is second only because right now he doesn’t have enough at bats to qualify for the lead. If you add the necessary at bats in, Kwan ranks second at .318, just three points behind Witt.

However, Kwan’s real batting average is .380, 54 points better than the Royals’s shortstop and as soon as the Guardians’ leftfielder has enough at bats, he will have a sizeable advantage in the race.

The Guardians have played 66 games, and a qualifier has the have 3.1 plate appearances per contest, meaning Kwan would need 205 times at the dish. He currently has 183. Keep in mind, he is a leadoff hitter, so he often gets five at bats per night, so he should close that gap very soon.

Kwan is also putting up great numbers in how the game is viewed now. His on base percentage is .445 which would also lead the league with enough at bats, and he is slugging .534. His previous career best in that category was his rookie season, when he slugged .400.

Can it continue? If you mean hit .380, that might be a bit much to ask, but could he become Cleveland’s first batting champion since 1954? Let’s judge it when he finally qualifies for the top spot and see what kind of edge he has then.

We’ve been watching baseball in Cleveland a long time and we don’t remember a hitter like Steven Kwan. And even though batting average isn’t as important as it once was, doing something that hasn’t been done for 70 years is very much an accomplishment.

Memories Of Manny On Going Into The Cleveland Hall Of Fame

We happened to be in Minnesota on September 2, 1993 when a 21-year-old outfielder drafted just two years earlier made his major league debut.

Manny Ramirez, the Indians’ first round pick that year, arrived in the big leagues after hitting .333 with 31 HR and 115 RBIs at Canton-Akron (AA) and Charlotte (AAA). Ramirez, batting sixth, ahead of another young player, Jim Thome, went 0 for 4.

Thome, of course is in the Hall of Fame, something Ramirez will never do because of his ties to PEDs, but tonight, the Cleveland baseball team put Ramirez into their Hall of Fame, and the memories we have of him are plentiful.

Ramirez opened the season and then Jacobs Field in Cleveland in ’94 and had a game tying hit in late in the season opener. He hit 17 home runs and knocked in 60 in the strike shortened season in 91 games.

In 1995, he emerged as one of the game’s top sluggers, hitting .308 with 31 dingers and 107 ribbies, starting a stretch where he drove in 100 or more runs 12 times in 14 years.

He was an RBI guy. Granted, he spent a good period of time hitting behind Kenny Lofton, Omar Vizquel, and Roberto Alomar in the batting order, but he seemed to understand that hitting a groundball to second with a man on 3rd in the first inning got a run home. He didn’t try to hit one 400 feet.

He also would take the single to right-center to score runners. Playing with good hitters and having that mindset is how you have five seasons where you drive in 125 or more runs.

We were in attendance in 1999 when Ramirez homered to knock in his 163rd run of the season, breaking Hal Trosky’s club record of 162 which had stood since 1936. He finished the season with 165.

The last time anyone in baseball history had knocked in more than that was 1938, when Jimmie Foxx drove in 175 runners. Sammy Sosa came closest to that figure in 2001, collecting 160 RBI.

We were also there on a July day in 1995 (July 16th to be exact) when Ramirez hit a game winning homer against Oakland, off of Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley (also a former Indian). Eckersley was videoed saying “wow” when the ball reached the seats. He couldn’t believe someone had hit that pitch out of the park.

We watched a game in Yankee Stadium when Ramirez hit a line drive that we think the second baseman had a bead on but sailed over the fence in right-center. It was like he took out a driver and hit a golf ball.

We were also there on October 1, 2000, when pending free agent Ramirez, in what turned out to be his last at-bat as an Indian, homered off Blue Jay reliever John Frascatore. He received a curtain, and with new owner Larry Dolan in attendance, fans were yelling to his suite to keep the slugger in Cleveland.

To be fair, Dolan put together a great offer, and we went to bed on a Sunday night (we think it was Sunday) during the Winter Meetings hearing the great Peter Gammons report that it looked like Ramirez was going to stay in Cleveland.

Of course, the Red Sox swooped in at the last minute was signed him.

It was always reported that when Boston visited here during the regular season, Ramirez would remark that it was good to be home.

That’s the player the Indians/Guardians are honoring tonight. To our eyes, he’s the best right-handed hitter we’ve ever seen. Combining power and average.

In his eight seasons in Cleveland, he batted .313 with 236 home runs and a 998 OPS. That latter figure is a club record. He’s third all-time in home runs (Thome and Albert Belle) and eighth in runs batted in.

We know what happened later in his career, starting with the whole “Manny being Manny” stuff. But what a hitter. It was great to witness some great moments in his career.

Cooperstown Calls Again Today, Who We Would Vote In

Today, baseball will announce who, if anyone, will be joining Fred McGriff on the podium in Cooperstown this summer being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Is there anyone on the writers’ ballot who deserves induction into immortality. Every year, some writers make their ballot public and being what the social media world is, many of them are skewered for not voting for certain players.

We don’t do this, because, after all, it is the voter’s choice. We are sure they can give you a reason for their selections, although again, they can probably give you a bunch of reasons why a certain player should be inducted.

First of all, we favor a “small” Hall of Fame. Meaning, the elite of the elite. That doesn’t mean a player can only get in on the first ballot, so only the obvious players get in. When Tim Raines first was eligible, we weren’t positive he should be in, but over time, looking at his numbers, we changed our mind, and we were glad he got in.

FYI…hopefully, the various Veterans’ Committees will do the same for Kenny Lofton.

On the other hand, we think the analytical experts out there can find a reason for any candidate to get a vote. One writer on the MLB Network said he voted for Torii Hunter because he was one of four players to play 1500 games in centerfield, hit 350 home runs, and win nine Gold Gloves.

We like this writer’s work. But Hunter spent most of his career in the AL Central Division (Minnesota and Detroit) and at no time did we think we were watching a Hall of Fame player. He was a very good player, but as many have stated, the building isn’t the Hall of The Very Good.

If we had a vote, we would not vote for anyone who was involved with performance enhancing drugs. We understand there are players already enshrined who did use them, but if we knew about it, those players wouldn’t have received our vote.

We would also stay away from Carlos Beltran because of the Astros’ cheating situation. He has 435 career homers and was an excellent defensive player and baserunner, and he’s a guy with a very good case.

And we refute the argument of “they were great before they started using” too.

All of this said, we would vote for Jeff Kent, who is in his final year on the ballot. We have supported Kent’s candidacy for several years. He is the all-time leader for home runs at his primary position, second base, with 354, won the 2000 NL Most Valuable Player Award, and finished in the top ten three other times.

He also knocked in 100 runs eight times in a nine-year span from 1997-2005 and had a career OPS of 855.

We could be convinced to cast a vote for Scott Rolen as well. Rolen had several outstanding seasons but finished in the top 10 in the MVP voting just once, in 2004.

It is strange to us that neither Kent nor Rolen ever led their respective leagues in any major statistical category. And while Kent’s Bill James Hall of Fame Career Standard is 51 (the average enshrinee is 50), Rolen’s is just 40.

Todd Helton is another in that class. Helton is a victim of playing at Coors Field for his entire career, where he had an OPS of 1048, compared to 855 on the road. He has just three top ten MVP finishes, the highest being 5th in 2000, when he led the league in batting, hits, on base percentage, slugging, OPS, and runs batted in.

Other than that year, he led the league in a major category just one other time, on base percentage in 2005.

It’s also probably not fair to players like Dale Murphy and another player on the current ballot, Andruw Jones, that they had a bad ending to their careers. Had Jones retired after 2007, when he was just 30 years old, he would probably garner more support.

But he didn’t, and spent the last five years of his career with a batting average no higher than .247, and in none of those years was he a regular.

As we said, we don’t want a Hall of Fame where the very good are honored, or guys who had a very good five-to-six-year stretch. It should be for the best of the best.

A Trio Deserving Of Heritage Park.

The Cleveland baseball franchise has its own franchise Hall of Fame out behind the centerfield fence called Heritage Park. Everyone may have forgotten this because the team hasn’t added anyone since 2016 when Albert Belle, Jim Thome, Frank Robinson, and Charlie Jamieson were added.

Why has it been six years since the franchise honored anyone? Quite frankly, we have no idea. We have theories, but they would all be the same as some of the other things the team has done to not do anything for the fans.

They just don’t do anything for the people who pay for tickets.

This needs to change next season. Since Progressive (nee Jacobs) Field opened in 1994, the Indians/Guardians have been among the best franchises in baseball, making the post-season 13 times, winning three American League championships, and 11 Central Division titles.

They’ve honored many of the greats from the late 90’s teams which won two pennants: Belle, Thome, Kenny Lofton, Omar Vizquel, Sandy Alomar Jr., Charles Nagy, and manager Mike Hargrove, who is also honored for his playing days with the Tribe.

It’s time to start honoring the players who played in the 2000’s, as those teams had some success as well.

We would start with Grady Sizemore. Sizemore spent parts of eight seasons with Cleveland, with injuries taking their toll over the last two, but he was a dynamic force from 2005-2009. He made three All-Star appearances (’05. ’06, and ’07), leading the league in runs scored and doubles in 2006.

That season was the down year between the 2005 team which just missed the post-season and the ’07 team which reached the ALCS. However, we maintain that if the Indians were contenders that season, Sizemore would have been the likely MVP of the league.

He batted .290 (907 OPS) with 22 homers and 53 two baggers, scoring 134 runs, while playing tremendous defense.

As we said, injuries cut his career short, as he only had one more season after 2009 (age 26) where he played more than 100 games. Still, he should be honored for the greatness he exhibited with Cleveland in that five year span.

Jason Kipnis was a mainstay of the early Terry Francona era teams, playing with the team from 2011-2019, making two All-Star teams, and key player on four Cleveland teams that made the post-season.

The second baseman has over 1100 hits (1120) and 123 home runs in a Cleveland uniform with an OPS over 800 three times in a four-year span from 2013-16. And he moved to centerfield in 2017 and 2018 for the post-season.

We would also like to see Cody Allen honored in Heritage Park.

Allen is the franchise’s all-time saves leader (149) and the closer in the run from 2016-18 where the Indians got to the World Series in the first of those years. He struck out 564 batters in 440-2/3 innings, leading the AL in games finished in 2015.

Along with Bryan Shaw and Andrew Miller, he was a huge reason Cleveland got to the Fall Classic in ’16 despite a starting rotation ravaged by injuries.

Honoring this trio would be a first step in re-establishing the franchise’s Hall of Fame. The 2022 squad re-awakened fan interest and the organization needs to keep that going.

Celebrating the history of the franchise is never a bad thing. The Guardians need to get back in touch with that.

Our Two Cents On The Baseball Hall

Times have changed, that’s for sure. It used to be people could have a good debate about things, particularly sports and walk away friends.

It’s still possible, but in today’s times, usually the argument ends with one person calling the other stupid and criticizing them for having that opinion.

The voting for baseball’s Hall of Fame is one of those discussions. Some voters have their selections made public and then are ridiculed for not putting an “X” by a certain player.

Hey, the writer earned a right to vote by covering baseball for many years, and that’s who he thinks should get in. Most of the voters take the job very seriously.

We don’t have a vote (obviously), but if we did, here would be our criteria. And a few months ago, we posted on social media who we would vote for and several people took the time to tell us we were wrong.

Again, we aren’t saying we are right, it’s just who we think should get in.

First of all, we would not vote for anyone connected with PEDs. We understand there are players already in the Hall who used them, but we would not have voted for them, but if the electorate decided they were worthy, we aren’t going to go crazy.

And we understand Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, the poster boys for illegal enhancers, were great players before it appears they started to use, but they knew it was wrong and did it anyway.

As someone once said, if those players thought it was no big deal, they would have used them out in the open, not someplace out of view.

The world is filled with people who did many good things, committed a crime, and still were punished.

And by the way, we would not have voted for David Ortiz.

We are also a “small hall” baseball fan. We see many of the ballots that are published with votes for 10 players. Sorry, there are very few times, if any, where there are 10 Hall of Fame players on a single ballot.

Nowhere does it say you have to vote for that many, and in our opinion, writers shouldn’t be voting for the Top Ten candidates.

For the most part, you know a Hall of Famer when you see them play, but that doesn’t mean time and studying doesn’t make a person change their mind. Look at Tim Raines, for instance. He’s definitely worthy of the honor, but it took a lot of people time to realize it.

As for a Cleveland connection, we hope the veterans group does the right thing and put both Kenny Lofton and yes, Albert Belle in Cooperstown soon.

Lofton was a tremendous player and did it for a very long time, accumulating 2428 hits, with a lifetime batting average of .299 and an on base percentage of .372. In terms of players similar to Lofton are three players already enshrined (Raines, Harry Hooper, and Fred Clarke) and a fourth, Ichiro Sukuki, who will be soon.

Belle was a dominant offensive player for a decade (1991-2000), averaging 40 HR and 130 RBI per 162 games. Had he not retired due to a hip injury at age 33, he likely would have hit 500 home runs (he had 381) and had nine straight 100 RBI seasons when he left the game.

Let’s say he would have knocked in 500 more had he been able to play until 40. That would put him in the top 25 all time.

He had three top 3 MVP finishes (he was robbed of it in 1995) and is still the only player to hit 50 home runs and 50 doubles in the same season.

Instead of saying the Baseball Hall of Fame is irrelevant because of who is not in it, it should be and is a great source of discussion if you are a fan of the game. It’s also not the reason the sport has lost popularity. There are many more reasons for that.

As for the Bonds/Clemens debate? We’ll see how the former players who now hold their fate feel about putting them in. It might even be tougher for them to get in.

Hall Of Fame Voting Should Be Debated, Not Condemned

There’s an old saying that any publicity is good publicity, and in that vein, it’s been a good week for Major League Baseball. The debate around the Hall of Fame voting has certainly brought attention to the sport on shows that normally don’t talk about the sport.

We are a “small Hall” person. Cooperstown is the most difficult Hall of Fame to gain admittance to, and that’s fine. You should be a great player to be enshrined there.

Unfortunately, the social media era has changed things. Many voters are shamed according to who they vote for or don’t vote for. That’s wrong. The person voting earned a vote by covering baseball for many years and they are entitled to their opinion, something that isn’t taken into consideration these days.

Should some broadcasters be given a vote? People who cover the sport on a daily basis should obviously be considered along with writers. No problem with that at all.

One continuing controversy is what to do with the players who used PED’s. We feel they should not be included in the Hall. We hear the argument that many of these players were great before they started to enhance their performance, so they should be enshrined.

Try that argument on your significant other.

And please don’t use the tact that some PED users are already in Cooperstown. It’s a bad argument. It’s the same as using the fact that Rabbit Maranville (look it up) and his .258 batting average (658 OPS) are in the Hall, so others with similar statistics should be in.

That the writers (in this case) made a mistake does not mean more mistakes should be made.

We find it fascinating that people don’t vote for Curt Schilling because of things he has said or written, which gave him no advantage on the playing field, but vote for Bonds or Clemens. Bonds made himself a player you basically couldn’t pitch to after he turned 35 years old.

His best years were ages 36-39. That’s not unusual?

Look, we wouldn’t want to hang around with Schilling, and understand his views make a lot of people uncomfortable. But he’s a Hall of Fame pitcher, and despite his wishes about not wanting to be on the ballot next year, we are hoping he gets elected in 2022.

The writers do make mistakes. As Tribe fans, one of them that we hope gets rectified by the Veteran’s Committee is Kenny Lofton. The leadoff man on the great Indian teams of the ’90’s received just 3.2% of the vote in his first year of eligibility in 2013 and was removed from future ballots.

However, Lofton deserves the nod. With a .299 lifetime batting average and a .372 career on base percentage along with 2428 hits, we think Lofton was overlooked because he played in the same era as the greatest leadoff man of all time, Rickey Henderson.

It took Tim Raines, a similar player, ten years to get in. In fact, of the top ten similar hitters to Lofton (according to Baseball Reference.com), four are in the Hall, and a fifth, Ichiro Suzuki, will be.

The Veterans Committee has made mistakes too. The selection of Harold Baines raised some eyebrows.

For what it’s worth, if we had a vote, we would have voted for Schilling and Jeff Kent. That’s it.

The point is voting for the Hall of Fame is a subjective process. And because of sports, it should be fun to have arguments about it. It’s also a privilege for the writers who participate, and most of them take it very seriously.

A small Hall is fine for us. We’d rather that than the NFL’s method of putting in a lot of players simply because they now work on the broadcast side of things.

So Close…The 2007 ALCS

The 2007 baseball season is one of the big “what ifs” of Cleveland sports history.

Mostly because we all assume if the Indians, who had a 3-1 lead in the American League Championship Series over the Boston Red Sox, had played in the World Series against Colorado, they would have steamrolled them much like Terry Francona’s team did in a four game sweep.

Instead, the series is viewed as another huge disappointment.

The series began in Fenway Park with the Tribe getting bludgeoned 10-3. After both teams scored single tallies in the first, the Sox scored four in the third, three in the fifth, and two in the sixth.

C.C. Sabathia gave up eight runs in 4-1/3 innings, and with the ace getting hammered, things didn’t look good.

Especially with Curt Schilling pitching Game 2 for Boston.

It looked more glum after the Red Sox scored three in the third to take a 3-1 lead. But Jhonny Peralta hit a three run HR off Schilling in the 4th, and made it 5-3 when Grady Sizemore homered in the 5th.

Back-to-back dingers in the bottom half (Manny Ramirez and Mike Lowell) gave Boston a 6-5 lead, but Cleveland tied it in the top of the 6th.

And then no one scored. For awhile, as the game headed to extra innings.

In the bottom of the 10th, the Sox had David Ortiz, Ramirez, and Lowell to face rookie Tom Mastny, after Eric Wedge had used his most reliable relievers, Rafael Perez, Rafael Betancourt, and Jensen Lewis.

Talk about a feeling of dread…except Mastny retired them in order.

Cleveland scored seven in the top of the 11th, capped by Franklin Gutierrez’ grand slam homer (after run scoring hits by former Boston player Trot Nixon and Ryan Garko) and the Tribe went home even in the series.

Returning to Jacobs Field, the Indians won game three 4-2 with Jake Westbrook beating Boston, and Kenny Lofton hitting a two run homer, and took a commanding 3-1 series lead scoring seven runs in the 5th to win 7-3 behind Paul Byrd, who went five, and the bullpen.

Casey Blake and Peralta belted homers, and the Tribe was one win away from the pennant.

But Beckett spoiled the party, going eight innings in a 7-1 win. It was a 1-1 tie heading into the 7th, but Sabathia had given up 8 hits in his six innings, and was over 100 pitches.

Wedge sent him back out there, and he gave up back-to-back extra base hits to Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis, and the game spun out of control, sending the series back to Boston.

Game 6 was over before it started as Fausto Carmona (as he was known then) didn’t have it, giving up four in the first and six more in the third. Meanwhile, Schilling rebounded from his poor Game 2 start to throw seven innings, allowing just two runs to set up a one game playoff for the American League pennant.

Westbrook got the start for Cleveland, while Daisuke Matsuzaka got the nod from Francona. Before the game, it was revealed that Paul Byrd took HGH. Byrd said it was prescribed by his doctor.

It created a stir in the Indians’ organization and locker room though.

Westbrook allowed seven hits in the first three innings, but limited Boston to just single tallies in each frame, so he kept his team in it.

The Indians crept back into the contest with runs in the fourth (doubles by Travis Hafner and Ryan Garko) and a sacrifice fly by Sizemore in the fifth, following three straight singles. It could have been a bigger inning, but for Lofton getting thrown out trying to stretch the first hit into a double.

Westbrook held the Sox off the board through the sixth, so it was still a very close game heading to the seventh, with the Tribe trailing 3-2.

With one out, Lofton reached second on an error by Boston SS Julio Lugo. The next batter, Gutierrez, singled and third base coach Joel Skinner held Lofton at third, putting runners on the corners with one out, and a golden chance to tie the game.

The hit was down the third base line and caromed off the wall at Fenway into short left field. It looked as though Lofton hit third well before Ramirez picked up the ball in left, meaning it would have taken a great throw to get Lofton, who still had good speed.

Blake followed by swinging at the first pitch, banging into a 5-4-3 double play. Threat ended. And when Pedroia homered off Betancourt with a man on (ironically due to an error by Blake), the game was virtually over.

In retrospect, should Wedge have removed Sabathia earlier in game five to keep the game close? Would the bullpen have held Game 7 if Skinner had not held Lofton? Could the Indians have scored more had Lofton tied the game?

Those are the “what ifs”. Another case of so close, but yet so far…

What Lindor Could Be If Tribe Kept Him

While much has been written about Francisco Lindor and the willingness or feasibility of the Cleveland Indians signing him to a long term contract, we would like to look at the historical aspect of the Tribe’s shortstop in terms of statistics.

Our thought is if Lindor would play in Cleveland for 10 years, he would be considered the greatest position player in franchise history.

Let’s examine in terms of the numbers, saying the Indians and Lindor can come to an agreement to keep him here for five more years, although that seems to be a long shot.

Lindor has played with the Indians for five seasons already, although his first season consisted of only 99 games.

If he played an average of 150 games over the next five seasons, that would put him at 1467 games, just short of 10th place all time (Omar Vizquel played in 1478).

Doubling his current hit total of 835 (giving him 1670), would rank him 7th of the Tribe’s all-time list just behind Lou Boudreau’s 1706.

If we do the same thing with his other numbers, which probably isn’t fair to Lindor considering he is just 26 and entering the prime of his career, here is where he falls on Cleveland’s all time record list.

He would have 356 doubles, which would rank 6th in club history, again behind Boudreau’s 367. He would have 2866 total bases, 3rd all time behind Earl Averill and Tris Speaker.

His 260 home runs would rank #2 in team history, just behind Jim Thome’s 337, and his 768 RBI would put him 9th all time between Larry Doby and Albert Belle.

We probably aren’t being fair with the RBI stat because Lindor has spent much of the last two seasons hitting leadoff, and he may wind up hitting lower in the order, perhaps as early as this season.

He would have 956 runs scored, putting him 4th, in between Kenny Lofton and Charlie Jamieson, behind only Lofton, probably the greatest leadoff hitter in Indians’ history, and Hall of Famers Averill and Speaker.

Lindor’s stolen base total would be 7th, although if he hits lower in the order, our guess is he would be running less often.

From the advanced metrics standpoint, Lindor has accumulated a 28.6 WAR in his first five seasons, so doubling that would be 57.2, ranking him 4th behind a trio of Hall of Fame players in Nap Lajoie, Speaker, and Boudreau.

That total includes last year’s 4.7 WAR, the lowest since his rookie season. In 2018, the shortstop put up a 7.9 WAR. So, although he probably can’t catch Lajoie and Speaker, passing Boudreau is doable.

Again, we are probably figuring on the low side for Lindor based on the reduced games played in his rookie year, and that he still hasn’t reached his prime years.

However, at even this pace, we are talking about a Hall of Fame talent, provided he stays healthy, and if not the best Cleveland player ever, he’s in the top five.

So, when people say the management can’t or shouldn’t sign the shortstop long term, you are going to miss years of one of the greatest players ever to wear a uniform here.

Wouldn’t it have been nice to watch Kenny Lofton or Jim Thome here for his whole career. To us, it’s galling we have to share Thome’s legacy with Philadelphia or Chicago.

The Cleveland front office should take that sort of thing into consideration, and so should the fan base.

It’s Time To Move Lindor…Out Of The Leadoff Spot

The Cleveland Indians need to find a new home for Francisco Lindor.

No, we are not talking about trading the four time All-Star shortstop, who is one of the best players in the game. Rather, we are suggesting skipper Terry Francona find a new spot in the batting order for Lindor, a move that would help the Tribe score more runs.

Francona likes Lindor leading off because he “sets the tone” for the team, and we understand that line of thinking. But everyone knows the shortstop is the team’s leader, it’s unofficial captain, so why not bat him in a spot the benefits the club more?

First, the job of the leadoff man is to get on base. Lindor’s .335 on base percentage last season is nothing special. His lifetime figure is .347, good but not optimal for a guy hitting first.

Cesar Hernandez, recently signed by the Indians to play second base, has a career .352 OBP. Kenny Lofton, the great leadoff man for Cleveland in the 90’s, had a .375 mark during his time in northeast Ohio.

However, our biggest reason to drop Lindor in the order is his slugging percentage, which at .518 led the Indians. It is odd to us that the Tribe’s best on base guy, Carlos Santana, batted in the #3 or #4 hole all season, while the player with the best slugging percentage led off virtually every game.

Lindor’s walk rate of 7% was his lowest since his rookie season figure of 6.2%. In 2018, he had his best rate at 9.4%.

We understand in today’s game, the slugging percentage leader on a team doesn’t hit in the #4 hole, and we aren’t asking for the manager to hit Lindor there. You want him getting more plate appearances than most players.

Still, wouldn’t you want your best power hitter batting with men on base? With Lindor leading off, you are guaranteeing that once a game he comes up with no one on. That doesn’t seem optimal.

For us, if you went an two seasons (’18 and ’19) with Lindor hitting first, wouldn’t it be more prudent to have Carlos Santana there?

Santana got on base almost 40% of the time (.397 OBP) last season, and has a career on base percentage of .367. And his slugging percentage was virtually the same (.515) as Lindor’s .518 mark.

One of Cleveland biggest problems offensively was getting on base, they ranked 8th in the American League in on base average, dropping from 3rd in 2018.

That’s why getting Hernandez was a solid move, his lifetime mark in that category was 48 points more than the man he replaced in Jason Kipnis.

The Indians had only one player, Santana, among the regulars (Yasiel Puig isn’t counted because he played only two months here, but had a .377 OBP) that got on base more than 35% of the time.

By contrast, Houston, New York, and Boston all had five, and Minnesota had three. That’s a pretty telling statistic.

Jose Ramirez topped the .350 mark in 2016, 2017, and 2018, so if he’s very capable of getting on base at a high rate, but that’s why we’d be looking in that direction if the Indians are looking for another outfielder.

It’s also why we keep coming back to Puig.

We would move Lindor to the #2 or #3 position in the batting order, and would hit Ramirez or Santana (or both) ahead of him.

It might just be a good way to kick start the Indians’ attack.

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.