Tito’s Patience Being Put To Test

One of Terry Francona’s best (and most famous) assets as a manager is his patience. Fans simply don’t understand this. As soon as a player has two hitless games, they are ready to try someone else.

It doesn’t work that way over the ups and downs of a 162 game, six month, Major League Baseball season.

Heck, right now, Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez are going through a down period. Lindor is 10 for 47 during the past two weeks, and Ramirez is 4 for 22 over the last week.

No one thinks they should be replaced or platooned, they are among the best players in the game.

Every player has ups and downs during the long season, and Francona understands that, and gives players who have performed for him in the past the benefit of the doubt.

And really, that’s the way it should be.

However, sometimes Francona’s famous patience develops into stubbornness. We are sure that’s a benefit for him in the clubhouse. Players want to know the manager has their backs, and aren’t going to go away from them at the first sign of trouble.

Jason Kipnis and Cody Allen are two players who should have Tito thinking that it might just be time to go in a different direction.

Both have been with the Indians since the day Francona accepted the managerial job in the fall of 2012, Kipnis coming up in 2011 and Allen in ’12.

Kipnis made his first All Star team in 2013, and he and Carlos Santana were the best offensive players on the roster. Allen led the team in appearances (yes, even more than Bryan Shaw!) as the primary set up man for Chris Perez.

Both were key players on the American League Championship team in 2016, Kipnis’ home run in Game 5 of the World Series, put away to contest that put the Tribe one game away from a world title.

Allen formed a tremendous back end of the bullpen duo with Andrew Miller, and saved six games in the post-season.

Unfortunately, Kipnis hasn’t been the same player since that World Series. He battled injuries in ’17, and hit just .232 (.291 OBP) with a 705 OPS a year ago, and this season, his number are worse, at .218 (although he is walking more–.307 OBP) and a 654 OPS.

Remember, he played the outfield in the ALDS because the Tribe was rolling with Jose Ramirez playing second, his natural position, and the combination of Yandy Diaz and Giovanny Urshela at third.

Why not give that a look again?

As for Allen, his strikeout rate is at a career low, his walk rate and home run rate are at a career high. He has pitched in over 67 games five consecutive years, and perhaps his arm is showing a little fatigue.

Francona leaned on him a lot early in the season when the bullpen was in shambles with Miller out. Perhaps that’s taken it toll too.

With Allen, there aren’t really alternatives. The only other right-handers in the ‘pen are Dan Otero and Adam Cimber, who struggles vs. left-handed hitters.

But maybe it’s time to give Allen a week to 10 days off, and see if an improvement occurs. After all, the Indians have all but put away the Central Division. Until then, Tito has Miller and Brad Hand to close, and he has used Hand in that role since coming over from San Diego.

Patience is a virtue. However, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

That’s the fine line Terry Francona sits on these days. It’s probably not a comfortable seat.

What Is Tito’s Second Half Secret? Mostly, It’s Pitching

Someday, maybe when Terry Francona accepts his plaque going into baseball’s Hall of Fame, he can explain why his teams get better in the second half of the season.

Since Tito took over the Indians in 2013, his teams have played at a .532 winning percentage (291-256) before the All Star Game, but a torrid .610 pace (236-151) after the Midsummer Classic.

Here is the tale season by season–

Pre All Star       Post All Star
2013                           51-44                  41-26
2014                           47-47                  38-30
2015                           42-46                  39-34
2016                           52-36                  42-31
2017                           47-40                  55-20
2018 to date             52-43 21-10

Sometimes, it’s because the roster has been reinforced, such as 2016, when the front office traded for Andrew Miller at the trade deadline, and then added Coco Crisp at the end of August.

One thing that does stand out is the staff ERA for the pitching staff. Check out these figures since Francona took over the Tribe–

Pre All Star      Post All Star
2013                             4.31                    3.13
2014                             3.98                    3.03
2015                             3.80                    3.53
2016                             3.65                    4.11
2017                             3.78                    2.76
2018 to date               4.00                    3.10

Only in 2016, the season in which the Indians went to the seventh game of the World Series, was the staff ERA not significantly less than it was in the first half of the season. In four of the seasons (including this one), the pitchers are yielding around a run less per game.

In 2013, Ubaldo Jimenez became unhittable down the stretch, and Scott Kazmir got his legs after coming back from a year outside the big leagues. Early in that season, Francona was using Vinnie Pestano as his set up man, and he proved to be ineffective. By the end of the year, Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen were in that role.

And Pestano was traded for Mike Clevinger.

The 2014 team saw the emergence in the second half of Carlos Carrasco, and T.J. House pitched great down the stretch. John Axford started the year as the closer, but he struggled and Allen took over the role, which solidified the entire bullpen.

That team fell three games short of getting in the Wild Card game.

In 2015, the pitching wasn’t significantly different in the second half, but they did get Josh Tomlin back from Tommy John surgery to make 10 very good starts (3.02 ERA) and Cody Anderson pitched well too.

Early in that season, the Tribe had Shaun Marcum (6 starts) and Bruce Chen (2) making starts. House started the year in the rotation based on his ’14 campaign, but started having arm problems.

The following year is the one season the bullpen ERA went up, and that was after adding Andrew Miller in mid-season deal. Mike Clevinger (rookie) and Cody Anderson (arm trouble) had to make 19 starts and had an ERA approaching 6.00 combined.

Last year, the second half was the time Trevor Bauer put it all together to become a dominant starter. Clevinger also joined the rotation full time and had a 3.11 ERA. In relief, Tyler Olson threw 20 scoreless innings.

This year’s improvement is due to an improved bullpen. Getting Brad Hand and Adam Cimber from San Diego, and Miller’s return from the disabled list helped a relief corps that was dismal in the first half.

Carlos Carrasco has had a better second half after he pitched below his standard before the All Star Game.

Sometimes a change in the lineup causes a surge too. In ’15, Frankie Lindor arrived and hit .313 after being called up. In ’16, Jose Ramirez settled in at 3B after beginning the year as a utility player.

But, by and large, it’s the pitching that makes the quantum leap. The organization’s development of the talent available can’t be appreciated enough.

Tribe Still Needs To Help OF, Bullpen Before September.

It has long been said that the Major League Baseball season is a marathon not a sprint, and certainly playing 162 games over a six month period is not an easy task.

(FYI, if the schedule would be shortened in the future, the only acceptable length to us would be 154 games)

Over that length of time, there certainly is a physical toll on the players, and the Cleveland Indians have been reminded of this over the past two weeks.

First, DH Edwin Encarnacion went on the disabled list with a left bicep issue which may or may not have resulted from changing his swing after he was hit on the hand by a pitch during the last game before the All Star break on July 15th.

Then, the Tribe’s best pitcher this season, Trevor Bauer, was hit on the ankle by a line drive Saturday night, and has a small stress fracture, an injury that will put him on the shelf for awhile.

So, with the August 31st waiver deal deadline coming up, we were wondering what Chris Antonetti can do to put the finishing touches on the Indians’ roster before the end of the month.

Offensively, because of Leonys Martin’s unfortunately health issue, the Tribe could still use another bat and/or glove in the outfield. Greg Allen has done okay since recalled to take Martin’s spot, but he still should be in AAA learning.

His platoon partner in CF, Rajai Davis is better once he’s on base than getting on base, with a .294 on base percentage and 604 OPS. His OPS vs. lefties, against whom he gets the bulk of his playing time, is just 544. Not exactly what you would call a platoon advantage.

In rightfield, Brandon Guyer has started hitting southpaws like he did when he came to Cleveland in 2016, but his partner, Melky Cabrera, has become a singles hitter who plays poor defense. If Terry Francona has the lead after the 6th inning, Guyer goes in for defense.

Certainly, Lonnie Chisenhall’s return would help, but that seems unlikely at this point.

Remember, that the front office picked Coco Crisp and Jay Bruce in the past two seasons in August, and both made an impact down the stretch for the Tribe.

The other area we would like to see an addition is in the bullpen because you can never have enough good relief arms in the post-season.

Right now, with the game on the line, Terry Francona feels very confident in Brad Hand. Andrew Miller still isn’t the Miller we came to know in 2016 and early ’17, but that may be a matter of building up arm strength.

Cody Allen is still having control problems, not walking people as much as falling behind hitters, and gives up too many home runs for our taste.

Oliver Perez has been very good in his loogy role, but it doesn’t seem like Francona has figured a role yet for Adam Cimber.

Neil Ramirez helped when the relief corps was really scuffling, but lately has had issues keeping the ball in the park. And Dan Otero can get a key ground ball, but this year has given up a lot of hits, and more homers than usual.

Getting another reliable arm would seem to limit the use of the latter two pitchers in high leverage situations.

The recent past says the front office will do something to bolster the roster heading down the stretch. Just exactly what will they do?

Tribe Needs Encarnacion, Alonso To Be Productive In October

We have been talking about the Cleveland Indians’ offense for over a month now and how strange it is that the Tribe ranks 3rd in the AL in runs scored per game with really only three players having above average seasons.

We will point out again that Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez are having arguably two of the five best hitting seasons in baseball, because if they weren’t, the Cleveland offense would be in big trouble.

Can they win in the post-season with only three players carrying the load at the plate?

Terry Francona’s squad ranks 4th in the American League in on base percentage, despite having only those three hitters above the league average in that category (.317).

Yes, Erik Gonzalez and Lonnie Chisenhall are higher, but they have limited plate appearances. Edwin Encarnacion sits right at the league average, while Yonder Alonso is just below at .314.

Alonso has an OBP of .365 in 2017, and his career mark is .336, so he is well below both of those marks. Encarnacion was at .377 last season, his highest mark since 2012, mostly because he reached a career high with 102 walks.

This season, his walk rate is down, and so is his batting average, down to .229 currently after hitting .258 a walk ago.

Here are the other on base percentages for the players who get the most playing time for the Tribe:

Yan Gomes .300
Jason Kipnis .307
Brandon Guyer .284
Rajai Davis .296
Greg Allen .264
Roberto Perez .247

The Cleveland attack is inconsistent because of it.

Among the teams with the highest run scoring totals in the AL, it was surprising to see the Indians ranking only behind Boston and New York in terms of number of games scoring three runs or less. The Tribe has done this 43 times, compared to 30 for the Yankees and 34 for the Red Sox.

By contrast, Houston has scored less than four runs 47 times, Texas 50 times, and Oakland 51 times.

The Indians do rank behind only Boston in number of games with 10 or more runs, having done that 14 times (Red Sox 17).

The concern for us is how this will work in the playoffs. The other teams are going to go out of their way to not allow Lindor or Ramirez to beat them, so it is important that someone, anyone, steps up.

It won’t be unusual to see managers pass Lindor to get to Brantley, and/or skip Ramirez to get to Encarnacion. Really, who else is going to hurt them the way the lineup is currently constructed.

The point is someone else has to step up or the front office is going to have to get another bat.

Leonys Martin looked like he could help vs. right-handed pitching, but he looks like he may be out of the lineup for awhile with a non-baseball related issue.

Will Chisenhall be able to get back in the lineup, and even if he does, can he stay healthy for the post-season?

We would say at this point, neither Martin nor Chisenhall will be useful come playoff time.

So, can the offense be more consistent and efficient unless changes are made? We’d say the most likely scenarios would be Encarnacion or Alonso getting better because they were better a year ago.

Gomes is who he is, and Kipnis hasn’t been good at the plate since the World Series in 2016. That’s a long slump.

Until then, we are officially worried about the hitting come playoff time. That’s the problem relying on two players, no matter how good they are.

The Yandy Question.

One of the great conundrums of this baseball season is the Cleveland Indians’ offense. The Tribe ranks 3rd in the American League in runs scored, yet it seems like it could be even better.

Part of that feeling is well documented on this site, the offense is very top heavy. Jose Ramirez may just be putting together an MVP season, and no doubt Francisco Lindor will be in the top ten, and maybe top five as well.

Ramirez is threatening to put together the greatest season ever by a major league third baseman. Think about that for a second.

As great as that duo has been, and they have been supported by Michael Brantley, and to a lesser extent, Edwin Encarnacion and Yonder Alonso, the bottom of the order can have either three or four hitters who are struggling.

The need for another solid bat makes the handling of Yandy Diaz more curious.

In the minor leagues, Diaz has been an on base machine, a .454 figure last season at Columbus, followed up by a .414 figure this season.

Unfortunately, the Indians’ organization has pigeonholed him as a third baseman, and as we already mentioned, that spot is being manned in Cleveland by perhaps the AL most valuable player.

Diaz doesn’t fit the new hot thing in baseball today, which would be launch angle. Although he hits the ball as hard as many in the sports, but he doesn’t hit it in the air, and that results in very few extra base hits. His slugging percentage is at .392, down from last year’s .460.

So, why the Joey Gallo’s of the world are thought to be good hitters, Yandy Diaz is not.

While Diaz doesn’t hit with power, what he doesn’t do is make outs. He gets on base over 40% of the time, and even last year with the Indians, he had an OBP of .352 in 2017. That figure would rank behind only Ramirez, Lindor, and Lonnie Chisenhall on this year’s roster.

Remember, when Cleveland had their 22 game winning streak in 2017, Diaz was basically the regular third baseman because Jason Kipnis was hurt, and Ramirez was moved to second.

The big question for us is with the issues the Tribe has had in the outfield this season, why didn’t they move Diaz to RF and work with him in spring training. He played 27 games there in 2016 and nine games in 2017.

Couldn’t he play the position at least as well as, let’s say, Melky Cabrera? No one expects him to be Roberto Clemente out there. What we’ve seen of him at the hot corner doesn’t suggest that he’s a butcher in the field.

It would seem to us that his bat could help the big club. He takes walks, makes contact, and when he was called up for four games right after the All Star Game, he went 7 for 14 with the Indians.

Diaz’ offensive prowess is being wasted because he will be 27 years old in a few days (August 8th to be exact), but for some reason, the organization doesn’t seem anxious to find a way to get his bat into the lineup.

A lineup that needs a boost. A lineup that is short on players who can get on base. A lineup that lost one of its best on base percentage guys last off-season in Carlos Santana.

What is the organization’s problem with Yandy Diaz? Instead of looking for a way to get his bat in there, there seem to be burying him.

The Kipnis Question

Certainly, one of the Cleveland Indians who has stirred up much debate this season is Jason Kipnis.

From the time he was called up in 2011 to the end of the 2016 World Series, Kipnis was a mainstay for the Tribe, one of their core players and one of their best offensive players.

However, since that time, Kipnis has battled injuries and a lack of production. And because his salary has jumped from a reported $9.17 million last season to $13.67 million in 2018, there are a lot of fans who want to move on, feeling that amount of cash could be spent elsewhere.

Last year, Kipnis batted .232 with a 705 OPS, this year, those numbers have declined further, with a .219 batting average and a 669 OPS.

His supporters will say he was turned the corner after a rough April and May, but since June 1st, he’s batted .252, with 7 HR and 20 RBIs. Over the last 28 days, he’s at .242 with an 800 OPS.

He hasn’t been able to maintain any success though. Over the past 14 days, his average is .207 with a respectable 757 OPS.

Defensively, he’s average at best, although my eyes tell me he doesn’t get to the balls he used to get four to five years ago, and he’s never been tremendous turning double plays. This isn’t to say he’s horrible with the glove, but we think having Jose Ramirez there (and we know he’s having a historic season at 3B), would improve the defense.

Kipnis’ struggles at the plate are magnified by the Indians’ problems in centerfield and rightfield. If they were getting decent production out of those spots, the scenario would be more like “if Kip would just get going, it would be great”.

As it is, when Roberto Perez is behind the plate, Terry Francona puts out a lineup where the 6th through 9 hitters in batting order are pretty weak. Besides Perez (459 OPS), he puts out Rajai Davis (606 OPS), Brandon Guyer (640 OPS), and Kipnis.

That isn’t good enough for a contending team.

We have seen people talk about how well Kipnis has hit since June 1st. In fact, several people have pointed out that he was hitting better than the recently traded Manny Machado since that point.

However, that’s the problem with picking an arbitrary date. As Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson used to point out, the season starts on a certain date. The games starting on Opening Day count just as much as the ones played today.

Besides, on June 1st, Kipnis was hitting .199 with a 586 OPS. He’s raised his average only 20 points in that time, and his OPS is up 83 points.

We reported what he has done since June 1st above. It’s not like he’s been at an all-star level since that date. He’s been a little better than average. So, he was terrible for the first 55 games, and above average since. It’s not as though he’s been torrid since then.

We didn’t advocate dealing Kipnis during the winter because coming off a bad year, they would be getting fifty cents on the dollar.

Now, the front office will be in a position where if they want to move him, they will likely have to pick up some of his $14.6 million salary for next year.

Perhaps Kipnis will get blazing hot from now until the end of the year. After almost a year and a half of mediocrity, that doesn’t seem likely. It is something the Tribe will have to face up to before July 31st.

Time For Tribe Front Office To Recover From “Slump”

Perhaps the executive branches of professional sports teams have hot streaks and cold spells just like players. If you agree with that premise, then the front office and management of the Cleveland Indians is in a bit of a slump.

It started in the off season, when the team predictably lost two relievers, Bryan Shaw and Joe Smith in free agency. However, president Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff didn’t really address the losses in the winter.

Sure, they brought in a collection of guys on minor league contracts, but no one with a proven track record. Because of Andrew Miller’s injury, this has resulted in having the statistically worst bullpen in baseball.

Miller being out has caused Terry Francona to have no bridge to Cody Allen for much of the season. Only in the last month have Neil Ramirez and Oliver Perez, released by the Yankee organization, stepped up to give the Tribe some relief in the 7th and 8th innings.

Worse, the bullpen situation, or lack of it, have caused Francona to extend his starters, and Corey Kluber is already having some knee issues. Hopefully, that’s the extent of the effect as the season continues.

Austin Jackson was also a free agent not pursued by the Indians after a season where he hit .318 overall, and torched left-handers to the tune of a .352 batting average and 1.013 OPS.

Look, we agree that Jackson was unlikely to produce the same way in 2018, but the issue was the front office wound up picking up Rajai Davis to take his spot with the team. Unfortunately, Davis has never been outstanding vs. lefties, a career 759 OPS against southpaws, and this year that figure has dropped to 523.

Spring training also caused some curious decisions, most notably not making Yandy Diaz more versatile. Diaz played 21 games in LF and nine games in RF last season in Columbus, but in the spring, they focused him at third base, a position he was never going to play in Cleveland with Jose Ramirez there.

Diaz has little to prove at the AAA level after hitting .350 there last season, and this season has a .415 on base percentage in Columbus. The Tribe could use some outfield help, and they could also use someone at the bottom of the order who doesn’t make outs.

It doesn’t seem like the organization has any plans for Diaz, despite hitting .263 last year and getting a lot of time down the stretch last season.

These aren’t second guesses, either. Most fans of the team wondering aloud during the winter and throughout spring training just what was the front office doing. Most felt because of the weak AL Central, the brass had until the end of July to fix things.

Well, that date is drawing near, and the fear is there are too many holes on this roster to fix them all within two weeks.

But the front office has a chance to redeem itself after the slump that has continued since the end of last season. The time to strike is now.

The bullpen is the glaring need and we do not believe it will be fixed simply with Andrew Miller’s return. Hopefully, Ramirez and Perez keep pitching well, but holdovers Zach McAllister, Dan Otero, and Tyler Olson aren’t inspiring any confidence.

The offense could be solved by simply bringing up Francisco Mejia (who was recalled yesterday) and perhaps Diaz as well and putting them into the lineup. On the other hand, neither are proven at the big league level, and the Indians need to correct the current top heaviness in the batting order.

If the front office pulls off a couple of solid moves that work within the next two weeks, no one will remember the past eight months. However, they can’t just ignore the issues this team has despite a big division lead.

The Tribe And Their Winning Streaks

The Cleveland Indians have been “Team Streak” over the past two major league baseball seasons, and they have already had two winning skeins this year of over five games.

Last night’s 4-0 loss to St. Louis ended a seven game streak.

In 2016, the Tribe broke a club record by being victorious in 14 consecutive games from June 17th through July 1st. The last win in that span was an epic 19 inning game in Toronto, a 2-1 decision over the Blue Jays.

Last season, Terry Francona’s squad had a record 22 game streak, starting on August 24th with a 13-6 victory over Boston and ending on September 15th with a 4-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals.

You can say the streaks have some luck involved and anytime you have one of let’s say ten games or more, there is obvious some good fortune involved.

However, when you have starting pitching like the Indians do, it’s easy to see why these streaks have occurred in each of the past two seasons.

In 2016, Cleveland hurlers allowed just 27 runs in the 14 wins, with three shutouts. The most runs allowed in one game was in a 7-5 triumph over Detroit, and the Tigers scored two of those runs in the bottom of the ninth.

In fact, they allowed three runs or less in 12 of the 14 victories. It doesn’t take a lot of offense to win when you are getting that kind of performance from your pitchers.

But Cleveland scored 82 runs in the run, outscoring their opponents by 55 runs.

Last season, it was much the same. Tribe pitchers gave up only 37 runs in the 22 wins, with an incredible seven shutouts in that three week span. The most runs allowed came in the first game of the streak.

Opponents were held to three runs or less in 19 of the 22 contests. And with the second best hitting attack in the American League a year ago, the Indians put up 142 tallies in the streak, so they outscored teams by a whopping 105 runs in that period.

It seems simplistic to say this, but when the pitching staff isn’t allowing any runs and the hitting is clicking, it’s tough to lose games.

This season, the six game string in late May/early June was a little different because the Tribe won a lot of high scoring games, allowing 33 runs in the half dozen games. The bats were red hot though, getting seven runs or more in every game.

The streak that ended yesterday is much like the ones in each of the last two years. The pitching staff gave up just nine runs in the seven games, with two shutouts. Opposing hitters have not crossed home plate more than three times in any of the games.

Meanwhile, the Indians have scored 54 runs, six times more than the other team. Once again, it’s hard to lose when that happens.

The point is when all of the Indians’ starters get on a roll, you can expect a long period of winning baseball. As we’ve seen, they can go through periods where the opposition averages just around two runs per game.

That would seem to guarantee you a substantial winning streak.

Will this year’s Tribe run off another 10+ game without a loss? That’s not probable, but there is no question the Indians are very capable of putting together a period where they win 20 out of 25 contests.

And that will probably get them back in the race for the best record in the American League again.

Tribe’s Stars Are Offset By Some Horrific Performances

So far, the 2018 baseball season has been filled with question marks for the Cleveland Indians. They have been solid offensively, ranking 4th in the American League in runs scored.

Four-fifths of the starting rotation has been very good, with Corey Kluber and Trevor Bauer having all star first halves of the season, yet the pitching staff’s ERA ranks 8th in the AL, mainly because the bullpen has been dreadful for a good portion of the season.

Yet, the Tribe is just 36-33 on the season. They lead the AL Central Division by 2-1/2 games, but that is mostly because the division is probably the worst in the majors.

They have struggled mightily against the other teams in the AL with winning records, going 6-14 vs. Houston, New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle. And that can be expanded to 8-20 if you include the Indians struggles against the Twins.

On the other hand, they did take six of eight against the two leaders in the NL Central, the Brewers and Cubs.

So, they have dominated the bums, which good teams are supposed to do, with a record of 22-11 against everyone else on the schedule.

Offensively, the top three hitters in the batting order, Francisco Lindor, Michael Brantley, and Jose Ramirez, are having fabulous seasons. On the other hand, the positions of second base and centerfield are black holes in terms of hitting.

At what point do the Indians reconsider there loyalty to Jason Kipnis? We attributed last season’s struggles to injuries, but this season, Kipnis has had 250+ plate appearances and is batting just .198 with a 580 OPS.

It might be time to start mixing in Erik Gonzalez at second, or maybe bring up Yandy Diaz to play some at the hot corner with Jose Ramirez moving to the keystone.

Centerfield is another matter. Bradley Zimmer started the year, but he had extreme contact problems, fanning 44 times in 114 plate appearance. He was sent to the minors after recovering from an injury and because Greg Allen was hitting, but as soon as Zimmer left, Allen went into a deep slump.

So Terry Francona has returned to his 2016 platoon of Tyler Naquin and Rajai Davis. Naquin has hit very well thus far, but Davis is showing his lone offensive skill right now is stealing bases.

What is being demonstrated right now, is the Indians have a number of dead spots on their 25 man roster, and no matter how great the performances of Lindor, Brantley, Ramirez, Kluber, Bauer, and Mike Clevinger have been, they have kind of been balanced by mediocre jobs by the bottom of the roster.

We aren’t including Kipnis in this group right now, but certainly Davis, and relief pitchers Josh Tomlin and Tyler Olson have basically unusable right now.

No one is asking these guys to produce like all stars, but they can’t be this bad either. It’s like Francona goes into each game with 22 players, with the other team having a full compliment of 25.

The way Tito likes to have specific roles for everyone, it puts the Indians at a disadvantage.

Of course, some of this is because of Francona’s famed loyalty. Davis has an OPS of 573 and isn’t a great defensive player, particularly in CF, anymore.

And having a pitcher on the roster who has allowed 18 home runs in 39 innings, and is a guy you are afraid to bring into a game where you have the lead, is ridiculous.

Until this is corrected, we are afraid the Cleveland Indians are just going to tread water, which they have done all season. Everyone has to be pulling in the same direction.

One Third Of The Way In, Tribe Kind Of Treading Water

On the eve of Game 1 of the NBA Finals, the Cleveland completed the first third of their schedule with a 9-1 win over the White Sox, a game in which Corey Kluber earned his 8th win of the season.

That win made the Tribe 29-25 after 54 games, and in the last 27 games, Terry Francona’s squad went 14-13, slightly less than the 15-12 in the first 27 contests.

The offense is back on track, jumping up to third in the American League in runs scored per game. They are sixth in on base percentage and third in slugging as a team.

Unfortunately, they are ninth in the league in staff ERA, and that’s despite having three starting pitchers with ERAs under 3.14 (Kluber, Trevor Bauer, and Mike Clevinger).

The offense has been led, or maybe a more apt phrase is carried, by Jose Ramirez, Francisco Lindor, and Michael Brantley, who have formed a lethal top of the order.

Ramirez and Lindor both rank in the top five in the AL in extra base hits, the former is tied for second in the league in home runs, and the latter is tied for third in doubles.

And all three are in the top ten in OPS, with Ramirez ranking 4th, Lindor 7th, and Brantley 8th.

Edwin Encarnacion has gotten hot with the weather, now ranking in the top ten in the league in home runs with 14.

With Lonnie Chisenhall, Brandon Guyer, and Tyler Naquin getting ready to come back from injury, Francona and the staff will have difficult decisions to make in terms of the roster.

Rookie Greg Allen is making it very tough for the decision makers. Not counted on to be a big contributor this season, the switch-hitter has hit .286 thus far, and has cut down on strikeouts over the last 11 games.

When the injured return, you have to think it will be difficult for Rajai Davis to keep a roster spot.

The problem for the pitching staff continues to be the bullpen, as 43% of the runs the Indians have allowed this season have come in the 7th inning or later. In addition, the relievers have coughed up more than a third of the dingers allowed by the pitching staff (28 of the 82) so far in 2018.

We thought Zach McAllister was prone to the gopher ball last season, allowing eight in 62 innings. To date this year, he has allowed six in 21-2/3 frames.

Although he hasn’t been primarily a reliever, Josh Tomlin has allowed a whopping 18 round trippers in 36 innings. He’s pitched in 12 games, and only NOT allowed a homer in four of them.

He leads the league in that category despite pitching 26 innings less than anyone else in the top five.

We understand the front office is aware of the problem, and brought in veteran Oliver Perez yesterday, and it may be the trade deadline before a permanent solution is sought, but until it’s fixed, it will be a very nervous time for Tribe fans in the late innings.

Yes, it’s true the Indians are 2.5 games ahead in the AL Central. It’s also a fact that the second place team, Detroit, is in rebuilding mode and isn’t even over .500 for the young season.

Cleveland was supposed to be one of the four best teams in the American League heading into the season, so from that standpoint they’ve underachieved.

On the other hand, if the Tribe fixes its bullpen, there is no reason they can’t make a deep run in the post-season with their starting rotation and hitting.

Perhaps in the next 27 games, we will start to see answers for the relief corps.