Shapiro’s Message Isn’t the One Fans Want to Hear

There was a lot of conservation today regarding Indians’ president Mark Shapiro’s interview with Kevin Kleps in Crain’s Cleveland Business. Most of the discussion had to do with Shapiro’s comment that the Tribe will use every method they can find to improve the team other than “the highest level of free agent”.

In reality, that’s understandable.

If you look at the list of free agents, particularly hitters, which is the team’s biggest need, it consists of a lot of players in their 30’s, an age where skills are declining.

To be fair, to get one of those players, the franchise would have to get involved with a bloated deal, which runs for longer than the player is useful.

We get that, and most intelligent baseball fans understand it.

However, to say it this while most ticket buyers are still a little upset that the Indians did not make the playoffs, probably isn’t the smartest thing to say, particularly if you already have an attendance problem.

Shapiro thinks he is just being honest and realistic, but he’s now dealing with a fan base that has seen two of the biggest stars in basketball choose to come to Cleveland, and the Browns have a national face in Johnny Manziel.

If the front office is going to make any public statement, it should be something like they are disappointed not to make the post-season in 2014 and the organizational goal is to win a World Series, and everything we do this off-season is working toward that goal.

That isn’t saying you are going to go hog-wild and spend millions and millions of dollars. But it is proclaiming to everyone that the Cleveland Indians organization is about winning, a thought that many baseball fans in the area don’t think is the case.

Instead, fans get more talk about budgets and positives.

We hate to bring up the past, but when the Dolan family bought the team, they told everyone they would spend when it was appropriate.

Our question is when will it be more appropriate than right now.

They say the name of the game in baseball is pitching, and over the last two months of the season, the Tribe’s starting pitching was championship quality.

Cleveland now has an ace at the top of the rotation in Corey Kluber, who will no doubt finish in the top two in this year’s Cy Young Award voting. To compliment Kluber, they have a cadre of young, hard throwers in Carlos Carrasco, Danny Salazar, and Trevor Bauer.

Adding another arm to compete with lefty T. J. House, Zack McAllister, and Josh Tomlin, along with some much-needed hitting to put the 2015 Indians in position to be right where the Orioles and Royals are right now, a chance to get to the World Series.

Again, we understand the market constraints and the probability the Indians can’t (or won’t) support a $100 million payroll. However, isn’t this off-season the time to get out of their $80-$85 million “comfort zone”, and add another $10-$15 million to get this team the help it needs?

We realize that high payrolls don’t always result in a playoff spot or a title, but it helps, and both Kansas City and Baltimore aren’t in the upper echelon in terms of salaries, they do outspend the Indians.

The television ratings show there is interest in the Cleveland Indians, it’s time the ownership and front office gave the fans a reason to buy tickets to Progressive Field. That reason is showing they want to win and win now.

Improving the Park is Fine for Tribe, Improving Team Would be Better

If you were looking for someone to write a handbook on how to anger your customers, may we suggest the people who run the Cleveland Indians.

Just one week after not doing one damn thing to help a ballclub who, flawed or not, were in the middle of a race for a post-season spot, the team announced they would undertake a major renovation of Progressive Field.

That’s fine. The stadium is now 20 years old and the Tribe brass doesn’t want it to ignore things so it gets to be rundown like Municipal Stadium, which was basically a dump when the Indians moved out after the 1993 season.

The problem is team president Mark Shapiro said the renovations would be paid for by the Indians. They want to make sure they improve the “fan experience” at Progressive Field.

We are pretty sure that the “fan experience” would be much better in the team won. In fact, if the Tribe ever won the World Series and played at the city dump, baseball fans in Cleveland would be pretty happy.

For a franchise that has a history of tossing around nickels like manhole covers, telling your supporters you are going to spend cash on renovating the ballpark instead of getting better players is tantamount to kicking them in the face.

At the risk of having the Indians tell us it is a different situation because football has a salary cap, the Browns told us the same thing last winter. They were going to make major renovations to First Energy Stadium over the next two years, and supporters of the brown and orange were irritated as well.

Hell with the facility, get us a winning team.

Since then, the Browns have filled a lot of holes through the draft and free agency, and they brought in the most talked about player in college football over the past two seasons in Johnny Manziel.

Suddenly, no one talks about wasting money on the stadium.

It is doubtful the Indians will do the same thing this winter.

The whole removing seats concept also tells you everything you need to know about the Tribe front office.

There is no secret that attendance has been a problem basically since the Dolan family took ownership of the franchise. We believe it is due to the lack of sustained success (can’t put two consecutive over .500 seasons together), and the perception of baseball fans of distrust in ownership/front office.

Instead of building a team that will fill the seats (and there is interested in the team judging by the local television ratings, which ranks in the top five in major league baseball), the solution from Dolan and Shapiro is to remove seats that they cannot sell.

The Indians need to realize that yes, they are competing for your entertainment dollar, but they are also in the baseball business, one that measures success by wins and losses. That should be the most important goal for the franchise…winning!

The Tribe prides itself on treating players well, but does that help them attract players to the north coast? No.

Shapiro does a lot of things the right way, he treats his employees well, he is part of the community, if you go to Progressive Field, it is a great atmosphere for the family.

However, the primary objective for a major league baseball team is to win and win consistently. This is where the Tribe comes up short.

The Indians’ organization would be better served spending money on putting better players on the field and giving a facelift to a iconic ballpark.

If they could do both, fine. But once again, the priority for the Tribe seems to be off the field things rather than where they should be.

Has Tribe Done Enough This Off-Season?

The last time the Cleveland Indians made the playoffs prior to 2013 was in 2007, when Eric Wedge led the Tribe to the American League Championship Series, losing to the eventual World Champion Red Sox (managed by Terry Francona) in seven games.

After that season, then GM Mark Shapiro basically hibernated. The lone transaction of note was acquiring utility infielder Jamey Carroll from Colorado.

Later in spring training, Shapiro added left-handed reliever Craig Breslow on waivers from the Boston Red Sox.

That was it.

Many fans and baseball experts were critical of the Indians for not following up a Central Division championship season by strengthening the ballclub.

That brings us to 2014.

After a terrific month of September that sort of ignited baseball interest in Cleveland, GM Chris Antonetti hasn’t made a big splash in terms of getting help for his baseball team.

The biggest moves were signing OF David Murphy and reliever John Axford as free agents and trading OF Drew Stubbs for lefty reliever Josh Outman.

That won’t have fans flocking for ticket booths.

Now, we liked the Murphy pick up because it appears that the 2013 season was a blip on years of being a solid hitter, and Stubbs was superfluous because of that signing. Axford’s had some good years as a closer, but didn’t have the job last season. But it isn’t enough to have people excited about the Tribe.

Nor does it offset the loss of starting pitcher Scott Kazmir and the real possibility that Ubaldo Jimenez, the team’s best pitcher down the stretch, will be elsewhere this season.

The organization will explain things away with the usual discussion about the economics of the game, but they won’t tell you where the money from the sale of SportsTime Ohio and the new televsion contract is, and skipper Terry Francona will tell everyone that this team can and will compete for the division title this season.

And truth be told, Antonetti has done a good job bringing some low risk, high reward free agents such as pitchers Shaun Marcum and David Aardsma, and OFs Jeff Francoeur, and Nyjer Morgan.

He did the same last season in getting Ryan Raburn, Kazmir, and Jason Giambi, and those moves worked out pretty well.

We still believe the Tribe will sign another starting pitcher before spring training begins, now that the Yankees have signed Masahiro Tanaka, thus freeing up the market for starters.

That’s why we said it’s a possibility that Jimenez will be gone.

Maybe the attitude brought here by Francona and the veteran leadership he brought in last year will indeed allow the Indians to battle into the playoffs in 2014.

Still, if the team slips back to the .500 mark, people will point to the relative inactivity by Antonetti as the reason for the decline in the Tribe’s win total.

While we agree with not trading the system’s top two prospects, SS Francisco Lindor and OF Clint Frazier, the organization is ranking in the middle of the pack among all major league farm systems, meaning there are players desirable to other teams.

Why not trade one of these pieces to get another proven bat or another starting pitcher, players who could vault the Tribe into the favorite role in the division?

Instead, they have chosen the conservative route once again. The path that doesn’t get a fan base excited.

There seems to be a parallel to 2007. Let’s hope for a different result the season after a playoff berth.

Shapiro’s Comments On Spending Are Concerning

Over the weekend, Cleveland Indians team president Mark Shapiro had an interview with MLB radio in which he talked about the future of his team.

Among the things he said was that the Indians did their spending last season when they inked Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn.

This is troubling because if ever there were time to go the extra mile in spending, it would be this winter.

The Indians made the playoffs last season and won 92 games. With the Browns ending another terrible season and the Cavs still below .500, a solid winter would get fans excited about the 2014 baseball season.

Nothing like throwing a wet blanket on the fan base.

Look, we understand the Indians cannot have a $100 million payroll, but Baseball Reference.com estimates they will spend $81.1 million on players next season.

Why can’t they get closer to $90 million?

Last year, the organization said they were able to sign Swisher and later Bourn because of the sale of Sportstime Ohio to Fox. That’s great!

However, this year teams are reaping the benefits of the new national television contracts, which put an additional $25 million in each team’s pockets. Even though the Swisher and Bourn deals get heavier in this, their second year, ownership should be able to spend a little more because of this windfall.

The problem is management, mostly Shapiro, continue to talk about financial constraints. They think they are being honest and forthright, but to fans’ ears they sound like excuses.

We believe most Tribe fans get that the team can’t spend like the Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers. Still, supporters of the team would like them to be aggressive and build on the positive momentum created in September.

Not hear the team president talk about the financial constraints of major league baseball.

We haven’t been upset with the signings the Indians have made this off-season. We’ve talked about how we liked David Murphy, and inking John Axford to a one-year deal to be a contender to replace Chris Perez as closer makes a lot of sense.

But the Tribe still needs to find two starting pitchers to make up for the loss of Scott Kazmir and the likely loss of Ubaldo Jimenez. And now, getting Shaun Marcum doesn’t make up for one spot, although he’s another low risk, high reward deal for the Tribe.

Are the Indians willing to spend a significant chunk of money to get a proven major league starting pitcher? They should be, because they have to be thinking about getting back to the post-season, and this time as a division winner.

Most of the free agent signings in baseball this winter have been players to ridiculous contracts, and we are glad the Indians aren’t involved.

The beef here (and always has been) the constant bringing up the availability of money with the Cleveland organization. Other teams in small markets put out competitive teams every year, like Tampa Bay and Oakland.

Those organizations are bold and creative.

The Indians need to adopt those teams’ philosophies of maximizing the performance of their highly paid players. If you are paying big money to a player, he simply has to produce.

Really, it comes down to this. Stop talking, and just improve the ballclub. And maybe, just maybe, the Tribe will be the popular team in Cleveland once again.

Fair or Not, Dolan’s Must Win Fans Back

The attendance on the Cleveland Indians’ last homestand brought up a discussion on why no one is going to the games for a team that is very much in the playoff hunt.

Some people thought it was the way the tickets are priced for different days and different series, and others thought the team wasn’t very exciting.

However, many of the fans we talk to bring up the ownership. They simply do not trust the Dolan family’s commitment to building a winning franchise.

While that may or may not be true, a wise man once said that “Perception is Reality”, and that is the uphill fight the Tribe ownership has to battle.

The Indians’ front office tries to fight that notion, and will site the free agent signings made over the last off-season, and amount of money spent on player development as examples that they are trying to win.

This winter, the ownership and the leadership of the franchise, led by team president Mark Shapiro should keep this in mind…actions speak louder than words.

Therefore, they shouldn’t complain in the media about the poor attendance during the 2013 season. They have every right to be disappointed. Fans have clamored for a winning team since 2007, and Terry Francona’s crew has delivered, only to be ignored by the populace.

Still, it will only inflame the ticket buying public already poor opinion of the ownership. So, the best course of action is not to say anything.

Instead, they should continue the same plan they did last winter, meaning continue to add to the roster and show the fans they are doing everything they possibly can to get into/back to the post-season in 2014.

Remember, the Indians have another off-season where a lot of cash comes off the books in the salary column.

Mark Reynolds and his $6 million deal will be gone, as well as the failed Brett Myers experiment and his $7 million contract.

It is doubtful that Chris Perez, who is making approximately the same amount as Myers will be offered arbitration either, meaning GM Chris Antonetti will likely part ways with the team’s closer.

And just in case you think it will be about Perez’s off field troubles or his controversial comments, it won’t. It will be a baseball decision. If Perez is still on the roster, he could earn up to $10 million next season.

He isn’t worth that based on his performance.

We understand that other players will get raises, in particular Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn, whose free agent deals escalate from the first year of their contracts.

They also have to try to keep Justin Masterson, who will be a free agent after next season, and try to keep one of their free agent starting pitchers, Ubaldo Jimenez and Scott Kazmir.

They won’t have $20 million to spend.

However, that doesn’t mean they can’t continue to improve this baseball team.

That is what they have to do in order to win over their critics.

Yes, getting rid of the way tickets are priced currently will help. So will other things that can help the gameday experience.

But the biggest thing will be to gradually decrease the number of people who think everything about the Cleveland Indians is related to money, and make everyone understand that ownership is trying to bring a winner to Progressive Field.