Tribe Starters Need Length, Decisions to be Made

First of all, let’s all calm down Tribe fans. The season is only one week old and the Cleveland Indians emerged at the break even mark at 3-3 even though the performance of the starting pitchers wasn’t good.

It is too early to panic because outside of Justin Masterson, each of the starters made just one appearance. Let’s give each of the starters three or four starts before jumping to any conclusions.

However from a team standpoint, Terry Francona can’t be happy about having to use his bullpen this much this early. Already, the Indians’ starters have gone less than five innings in exactly half of the games, and the club has had five straight starts where the starter hasn’t gone six complete frames.

So, it will be interesting to see the games tonight and tomorrow when Corey Kluber (3-2/3 IP) and Zack McAllister (4 IP in his first start) take the hill against the San Diego Padres. If both can pitch up to the level they achieved last season, then any concern will be eased for both fans and the skipper and Mickey Callaway.

Fortunately, the bullpen has done the job so far, allowing just seven earned runs in the six contests, and five of the eight members of the relief corps haven’t allowed an earned run as of yet.

But it’s the amount of innings they have pitched so far (24-2/3, an average of 4 per game), that has to concern Francona and Callaway

We could be sitting here a week from today after five consecutive solid outings by the starters and be concerned about the relief pitchers getting enough work. That’s why you can’t make bold statements regarding a baseball team after one week.

The Tribe front office will have some decisions to make in the next week or so regarding the make up of the roster when Michael Bourn and Jason Giambi are ready to be activated from the disabled list.

OF Nyjer Morgan has gotten on base (.500 OBP) so far, and it is easy to say he stays over Elliot Johnson (0 for 5 thus far) when Bourn is ready, but it is more complicated than that because Morgan swings from the left side, and the Tribe is overloaded with left-handed hitters.

If Morgan was right-handed it would be a no-brainer, and it is difficult to see Francona and GM Chris Antonetti going with six left-handed batters (with three more switch-hitters) among their 12 position players.

The fact that Johnson can hit from the right side may be (along with his versatility) his biggest edge. With the opponents throwing southpaws in five of the next six games, Johnson will get a chance to prove he should stay.

When Giambi comes back, it could be at Lonnie Chisenhall’s expense, or the Tribe could decide to go with one less relief pitchers. This would assume the starting pitching gets straightened out.

If that’s the case, the two candidates to sent back to Columbus would be Vinnie Pestano and Blake Wood. Wood had a leg up until yesterday when he took to loss by walking two, hitting a batter, and then allowing a three-run double to give Minnesota the lead.

Pestano has allowed runs in both of his outings in the young season.

The battle(?) between these two is something else to keep an eye on this week.

Even though spring training is over, the front office and the skipper still have roster decisions to be made. That’s something to watch this week.

No Big Move for Tribe Now

The trading deadline came and went for the Cleveland Indians, and the only move they made at this point was getting another left-handed reliever, Marc Rzepczynski from St. Louis for a minor league shortstop.

The move certainly filled a need because Terry Francona needed another southpaw to go with Rich Hill to match up against tough lefty hitters.

While many are looking at the newcomer’s 7.84 ERA with the Cardinals and sneer, remember that he pitched just 10-1/3 innings in the big leagues in 2013, and with relief pitchers, ERA can be a very misleading statistic.

For his career, Rzepczynski has faced 365 left-handed hitters and limited them to a .224 batting average with 94 punchouts and a 607 OPS. This year he allowed five hits in 18 at bats vs. left-handed batters with four strikeouts, but right-handed batters were crushing him.

He most definitely is a LOOGY (left-handed one out guy) and Francona will most definitely use him that way, limiting his exposure to batters from the opposite side of the plate.

The bigger news coming from the deal is who the new guy replaced on the roster, as the Tribe sent VInnie Pestano back to Columbus.

While many fans were outraged by this news, after all, Pestano was arguably the best set up man in the big leagues the last two seasons, we believe it was the only move that could be made.

Who else should have been sent out?

SInce being taken out of the eighth inning role by Francona a few weeks ago, Pestano hasn’t done anything that showed the skipper he is ready to resume his usual spot in the bullpen.

And right now, the only pitcher who is struggling out of the ‘pen is another veteran Joe Smith, who took over Pestano’s eighth inning duties, and not with good results. However, Smith has over five years of big league time, so he can’t be sent out without his permission.

That makes Pestano, who has lost the confidence of his manager, the logical one to go.

The former set up man needs to go back, regain his own confidence (his walks are way up this season) and get back to helping this team in the stretch drive. The last two seasons, he walked 24 batters in 62 and 70 innings respectively, while this year he has issued 19 free passes in 33 innings of work.

It would have been nice to get another proven starter for the rotation, not that the starting pitching hasn’t been good thus far, but there aren’t a lot of proven pitchers on the list, so getting one would have enhanced the Tribe’s chance.

It also would have been nice to get another right-handed hitter to replace Mark Reynolds, who has fallen out of favor with the management because he’s really done nothing since the end of April.

GM Chris Antonetti said the asking prices were too high, and really, there weren’t a big slew of deals at this deadline because some teams are looking at the second wild card and thinking they are still in the race, a misguided notion for many of those teams (Seattle, Philadelphia).

There still is the waiver wire and some nice pieces could be moved in August. As long as the Indians play well, they will be in the market to help their ballclub.

For now, the deal they did make will help.

Tribe Management Gun Shy?

With last night’s win over the Detroit Tigers, the sixth in seven meeting against the Motor City Kitties this year, the Cleveland Indians are now just three games out of first place in the AL Central.

This means even if they were to drop the last two games of the three game set, they will be only five games out of first place as we hit the last weekend of July. Where we come from, that’s being in the race.

And don’t pay attention to folks who point out all the teams ahead of the Tribe in the wild card race. That might be a factor if this were the beginning of September, but the schedule still has over 60 games remaining, so there is plenty of time to pass all of those teams.

So, why isn’t GM Chris Antonetti making any moves to help a team this close to first place?

It may just be the sins of the past catching up with the organization.

Last year, Antonetti was aggressive going out and getting Ubaldo Jimenez from the Rockies for a slew of top ten prospects in the organization. Although Jimenez pitched well in the series opener last night, that trade hasn’t worked out as well as the GM probably anticipated.

To be sure, the Indians thought Jimenez was a top of the rotation starting pitcher with swing and miss stuff. He would be classified as the #2 starter for Cleveland right now, but he would be lower on most American League teams.

He currently leads the league in walks allowed and is tied for 10th in giving up home runs, never a good combination.

His lack of success may have the front office a little gun-shy go out and obtain another big name guy.

And of course, because of that deal, the Cleveland farm system is not as deep as it was in 2011. Several publications have the Indians ranked in the bottom 10 in all of the major leagues.

Still, there are some positions in the organization where there is some depth, most notably middle infielders (particularly at the lower levels), catchers, and relief pitchers.

Another factor that makes the organization hesitant to trade young players is the success of Brandon Phillips. We are all familiar with then manager Eric Wedge’s non-favorable opinion of the second baseman, which led to his trade, and ultimately a few all-star appearances in Cincinnati.

Cord Phelps is a good example of what happens now. The third round pick in ’08 reached the AAA level in 2010 hitting a combined (with Akron) .308 and an 825 OPS.

Last season, he didn’t hit in a cup of coffee in the majors (he was used sporadically), but put up a .294 batting average and 868 OPS in his time at Columbus. It would seem someone looking for a 2B might be interested, especially since the emergence of Jason Kipnis has made him an expendable commodity.

This year, his numbers have dropped at AAA to a .263 average and a 781 OPS, thus lessening whatever trade value he may have. His career has grown stale.

Maybe the Indians tried to deal Phelps over the winter, but there was no market for him because of his struggles (.155 in 71 at bats in Cleveland last season), but that seems unlikely. There was usually teams looking for middle infielders with a little pop.

Phelps might be able to play, but you never hear his name in the trade rumors which swirl at this time of year.

The Indians can’t afford to be this conservative. They need to trust their talent evaluators and go out and get some players who can help a team very much in the post-season race.

Come to think, maybe that’s the problem. They don’t trust themselves to get the right players. And if that’s true, that’s a bigger problem for the Indians’ front office.