Tribe Front Office Needs Realistic Viewpoint

The Cleveland Indians have hit the all-star break and are very clearly in contention for a playoff spot despite a .500 record for the first 94 games of the season.

The big question is can the Tribe put together a strong enough second half to make up the 3-1/2 games currently separating them from the American League’s final playoff spot. Right now, that belongs to Seattle.

The other serious contenders to play in the wild card game are Kansas City, Toronto, and New York. The first wild card spot looks like it belongs to the Angels. Quite frankly, several other teams could get back in the mix with a good hot streak too.

All four of the primary contenders are looking to add to their roster and to be fair, Tribe GM Chris Antonetti has said he is looking to upgrade the Indians as well.

As we have written in the past, the Tribe has been a slave to inconsistency throughout the roster for much of the season. The only real steady players this year have been Michael Brantley, Yan Gomes, Mike Aviles on the offensive side, and Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer, and the back-end of the bullpen (Scott Atchison, Bryan Shaw, and Cody Allen).

Management’s problem in evaluating the rest of the roster is that they look at the good side of each player’s streaks as what they truly are. For example, yesterday it was said that Asdrubal Cabrera was getting hot at the plate, on a 7 for 16 run.

However, he’s put together three or four good games in a row before, and then follows that with a 2 for 13 streak. That’s the kind of player he is, and he’s not the only one, he’s just the one picked for this example.

Look, not all major league players are great, nor are they steady day in and day out. However, you have to recognize that the one’s who can’t maintain regular production are not good players, and the team should be looking to improve at that spot.

The worst thing for a coach or manager to deal with is inconsistency. It drives them crazy if they don’t know what to expect when they put a player into the game.

It’s even worse for a starting pitcher, and that’s been the Tribe’s biggest problem as to why they haven’t been able to put together a long winning streak.

Justin Masterson has been mostly terrible since the middle of May. Josh Tomlin almost threw a perfect game against Seattle, but that was really his only good start in a six start span.

Zack McAllister started out 3-0 in his first five starts, but hasn’t won since. T.J. House has pitched well in some games, but has had trouble pitching five innings in several others.

It’s difficult to put together winning streaks when three fifths of your starting rotation can’t give you a solid six innings on a regular basis.

The lack of consistency is the biggest reason the Indians need to pull the trigger before the end of the month and they should look to bring in a right-handed bat, a spot Ryan Raburn hasn’t been able to handle thus far (.197 average, 2 HR), and a starting pitcher who can provide six or seven solid innings on most nights.

The biggest bait Antonetti may have is 2B Jose Ramirez, hitting .298 with a .353 on base percentage at Columbus. Ramirez is blocked in Cleveland by Jason Kipnis, and probably should be playing in the big leagues now.

Here’s hoping that the Tribe is willing to do something substantial at the deadline. It’s tough to rely on going 21-6 in September every year.

To Tank? Or Not to Tank?

The usual sports season in Cleveland goes as follows: Training camp, followed by exhibition games, the excitement of Opening Day, and then deciding if and when the old home team should go into full tanking mode.

Yes, there are exceptions, such as last year’s Indians, when the season concludes with a post-season berth, but even the Tribe went through a discussion about whether or not the team should start selling off assets.

It seems that anytime a Cleveland professional team reaches the halfway point in the season and are more than three games out of a playoff spot, the knee jerk reaction of many people is that the team should look toward next season.

Even in the NBA, it is beneficial to make the playoffs, especially if you have a young team whose future is ahead of them.

There are several things at play in determining whether or not a team should throw in the towel, and the relative age of the squad is first and foremost among them.

The only thing worse than being a bad team is being a bad, old team.

While we all know the Indians made it to the wild card playoff game last season, but in late July, Terry Francona’s team was sitting at 52-48 and had just the eighth best record in the American League.

The July 31^st trade deadline was coming up, and there were plenty of fans and people in the media who felt GM Chris Antonetti should think about dealing Asdrubal Cabrera and others for more prospects.

Obviously, they were wrong.

Now, you have people longing for the Cavaliers to get back in the draft lottery even though they were five games out of the playoff spot. That was a week ago. After four straight wins, they are 3-1/2 games out.

Yes, this is a good draft, but there doesn’t appear to be a LeBron James type player. So, you might get a player who will be an all-star one day, but he likely won’t be at that level for a few years.

Moreover, the Cavs are already a very young team. Does it make sense to add yet another young player? Or would they be better off getting some valuable playoff experience?

Since making the playoffs would be a step forward for the franchise, they should go for it. If they were stuck in a quagmire of first round losses over a three or four-year span, then they might be better off getting into the lottery.

So we come to the rules for when to tank and when not to. In football, since there are only 16 games, and virtually no trades are made, you can’t really tank. However, you can decide to play young players and hope they get better for the future.

In baseball, when it is clear you are out of the race, let’s say you are 15 games out of a playoff spot at the All-Star break, then you should trade older veterans and potential free agents for prospects to help with the club’s future.

If you are within five or six games of the last spot, why not try to improve the team and take a shot at getting in the post-season? Once you are in the playoffs, you have a decent shot at winning. That’s the way the sport is. Heck, the Cardinals won 83 games in the regular season a few years ago and won the World Series.

In basketball, again, if a team is clearly out of the playoff race, then they should try to get in the draft lottery. If there is a franchise player available and you probably can’t advance if the post-season, then you should tank.

However, if you are a young team on the way up and there’s no elite player in the draft, why not take a chance and try to make the playoffs.

We realize that younger fans lean more toward looking at next season, while older fans want to win now.

However, if you have a chance to make the post-season, you should take it. There are times to blow everything up and there are times to push forward.

In Cleveland, the reflex action too often is to tank a season.

Cleveland Fans Want Winner, but Ignore Tribe

While many sports fans in northeastern Ohio are worrying about who will be the back up offensive tackle and who will handle the punting chores for the Cleveland Browns, they are missing a pretty good drama taking place with the Cleveland Indians.

You see, the Tribe is in the mix for a playoff spot. And unlike the other sports teams in the city, who promise winning at some point in time, the Indians are winning.

They currently sit ten games over the .500 mark going into tonight game with the Angels, and are coming home for a weekend series with the Twins before heading out for a brutal trip to Atlanta and Detroit.

To be sure, it would be nice if Terry Francona’s squad would mix in an 8-2 victory from time to time, but the closeness of the games being played nightly only add to the intensity of a playoff chase that seemingly everyone is missing.

As we have said before, part of the indifference is the Indians fault. They spent several off-seasons trying to get talent out of the MLB dumpster until last winter, and the ownership made several odd statements to the fans, alienating more than a few of them.

They also could have changed radio stations last season, but opted to stay on news/talk station WTAM, instead of going to one of the all sports station in the city.

Do you really think 92.3 The Fan would be talking Browns 90% of the day if four hours of their evening programming was the Indians?

The argument that you hear for not taking the Tribe seriously this season is their inability to play well against the Tigers, their rival for the Central Division title.

Do you know what? Who cares!

This is baseball. It doesn’t matter if you beat Detroit just as long as you beat other teams enough to qualify for a playoff spot. The fact of the matter is Francona’s team has won 68 games (the same total as all of last year) so far, and if they qualify for the post-season, that’s all that matters.

In baseball, any team that makes the tournament has a chance, unlike the NBA where the 8^th seed has little chance to take down the team with the best record.

And it doesn’t matter what your record was against any other team was during the regular season once the playoffs start.

In 2007, the last time the Tribe made the playoffs, they went 0-6 in the regular season against the Yankees. They promptly won three of four in the first round series against the Bronx Bombers, eliminating them.

Cleveland sports fans talk all the time about wanting a winner. No matter what the Indians have done in the past, no matter how badly the front office mangled things, no matter how they have played against the Tigers, they are winning and they are in contention to make the playoffs.

And the last time any Cleveland team did that, LeBron James was wearing a Cavaliers’ uniform.

Yes, things are looking up for the Browns and Cavs, but they haven’t done anything yet. Meanwhile, the area’s baseball team is in a pennant race, albeit a non-traditional one.

Unfortunately, most sports fans seem to be missing it for a bunch of petty reasons.