What the Dolans Should Do

The end of this baseball season can’t come soon enough, and it seems insane to keep going over the inadequacies of the current roster any more.

It’s starting to feel like piling on to mention that Casey Kotchman, Jack Hannahan, and Shelley Duncan stink. Oops, we did it again!

And since the people who run the franchise don’t feel any urgency to address the future of the franchise, we decided to fill a suggestion box and tell the ownership what they should be doing.

First, changes must be made in the upper reaches of the organization. At least two of the big three (Mark Shapiro, Chris Antonetti, and Manny Acta) have to be replaced.

And we don’t care how coveted Antonetti was several years ago. He completely messed up the off-season, particularly not giving Josh Willingham a third year, and giving Grady Sizemore $5 million to take a year off.

Bring in a new GM who has experience with a successful mid market team. Perhaps he can shed a fresh perspective on the way teams like the Indians have to operate.

Of course, that GM will want to hire a new manager. Let him. Although Acta is a small part of the blame this season, he’s not a difference maker. Right now, this young team needs someone who will be a disciplinarian, an old school type of guy.

That type of skipper doesn’t last long, and isn’t the type of guy hired by the Indians in a long time, but for the next couple of years, it would be the correct choice.

The next thing they have to do is raise the payroll. Again, no knowledgeable fan thinks the Tribe can have a payroll of $150 million. However, $85 million should be well within the Indians’ means.

That would mean a whole lot of money for the new GM to spend after the Travis Hafner settlement is reached.

It would also mean a competitive offer can be made to arguably the Tribe’s best player, Shin-Soo Choo. A nice 3-year deal at $10-11 million per year should work.

It would also allow the Indians to get a quality starting pitcher and a right-handed bat that it desperately needs.

The higher payroll commitment would stop the trolling for low risk, high reward free agents like Kotchman. The players the team signs are available after Christmas for a reason, no one wants them, at least good teams don’t want them.

It will also eliminate the need to keep these marginal players on the Opening Day roster at the expense of younger players. For example, the Indians should have handed Lonnie Chisenhall the 3B job from the beginning of camp, and told him it was his job to lose.

The player development department should also be overhauled. Mid market teams need to have a steady flow of talent acquired from the draft. That hasn’t been the case in Cleveland.

In addition, the Indians need to promote players quicker. Yes, Akron may win the Eastern League, but they are doing it with a lot of players who are repeating AA ball for a second year. There isn’t any reason why OF Thomas Neal and C/1B Chun Chen should still be in Akron with the numbers they’ve put up.

And if a guy hasn’t performed in several opportunities, cut him loose. David Huff comes to mind here. If he isn’t an option to help the big league team, then release him.

This is just the beginning of what should be done with the Cleveland Indians going forward.

It may be painful for the Dolan family to do some of these things, but what they are doing now isn’t working.

Changes should start on October 4th. The day after this nightmare season ends.

Tribe Needs to Keep Moving Forward

In the past few weeks, really since they were in the middle of their 11 game losing streak, the Cleveland Indians are playing for next season.

They’ve released four veteran players and replaced them with younger guys, trying to get a head start on talent evaluation for 2013. We’ve seen Corey Kluber have one good start and two clinkers, Chris Seddon (who’s actually kind of veteran, he’s 28) has had one good start and one so-so outing, and Ezequiel Carrera has shown Tribe fans that leftfielders can get hits every once in a while.

However, they shouldn’t stop there. When Travis Hafner went out with a back injury, manager Manny Acta said Shelley Duncan would get the bulk of the at bats at the DH spot. Why, exactly would the team want to do that?

Look, Duncan’s a hard worker, and Acta has a soft spot for him. But he’s 32 years old, and is 3 for 22 in the month of August. Wouldn’t it be better for the future if the organization gave those at bats to someone else?

For that matter, why should Casey Kotchman and Jack Hannahan continue to garner playing time. These two players, and Duncan, aren’t likely to be on the roster next season. And if they are, then the front office should have a lot of explaining to do.

The Indians keep looking for the player who batted .300 a year ago, but it’s quite obvious that guy isn’t showing up. His batting average continues to hover in the .220’s, and he shows no signs of having a hot streak.

Hannahan hit .250 a year ago, but he’s a lifetime .231 hitter, and his average this season is….231! And since May 1st, he’s batting just .205. Yes, he’s excellent with the glove, but he can’t hit big league pitching consistently.

It’s time to take a good look, not a September 1st call up, at players like Matt LaPorta, Russ Canzler, and Tim Fedroff.

We are stressing not waiting until the rosters can be expanded because of the baseball axiom to ignore what you see in April and September. Tribe management can get a good look at these players for almost 50 games.

On LaPorta, to be sure some of you are saying “not again”. But the Indians front office have to find out once and for all if he can be a productive big league hitter. He can garner almost 200 at bats the rest of the season.

If he hits, great. If he doesn’t, then the ballclub can release him with a clear conscience. However, they simply have to find out.

Canzler has been on fans’ wish lists since spring training when he hit the ball with authority. Dismissed by some as a “AAAA” hitter, he’s had just three major league at bats. Let’s find out if he can be a contributor in ’13.

Fedroff is 25 and has never reached the majors despite being a .297 lifetime hitter in the minor leagues. His problem is that he’s not a power guy with only 21 HR’s in five minor league seasons.

Along the same thought, it’s also time for Jeanmar Gomez to come back up and take a regular turn in the rotation. He’s 6-2 with a 2.59 ERA at Columbus, and had a better ERA in Cleveland than Josh Tomlin, Derek Lowe, and even Ubaldo Jimenez. For a team needing starting pitching next season, he should be getting an opportunity.

It’s probably something than Acta and GM Chris Antonetti don’t want to admit, but this season has set sail and it’s time to move forward to 2013. Giving these players a chance now would be helpful in that regard.

Who Is Tribe Management Talking About?

As the Cleveland Indians’ season continues to fall into oblivion, one of the mantras GM Chris Antonetti chants consistently is the players currently on the roster have to do better.

That’s easier said than done.

However, who is Antonetti talking about? How many players on the current roster are underachieving?

Certainly, the starting pitchers have not done as well as the organization thought going into the season. Justin Masterson, in particular, looked like a guy who turned the corner in 2011, and has been terribly inconsistent this season.

Ubaldo Jimenez? He’s been up and down since coming over from Colorado last July. Has he under performed? If you compare him to his excellent 2010 season, yes.

But if the front office expected great things based on what we did last year, then they are crazy.

Josh Tomlin had a solid year in ’11, but he’s a control guy with marginal stuff, and struggled in the second half of last season. It can’t be a total surprise that he hasn’t been good this year.

On the offensive side, no one can complain about the job being done by SS Asdrubal Cabrera, 2B Jason Kipnis (although he’s slumped lately), CF Michael Brantley (a breakout player this year), and RF Shin-Soo Choo.

You can’t expect more out of those four players.

Carlos Santana has been a disappointment after last season. His minor league numbers show he’s too good of a hitter to be consistently around .240. He does walk a ton, and lately has started to be productive.

Even in a disappointing season, he still ranks third on the team in RBIs, behind Kipnis and Brantley.

So, what players are failing?

Travis Hafner is having a disappointing season, particularly with his batting average, but the truth is, he hasn’t been really productive since 2007. Why would the front office expect more?

Casey Kotchman is a journeyman 1B, who had a good season in ’11 with Tampa, hitting .306. However, he has a lifetime .263 batting average. It doesn’t take a great deal of vision to see he probably wasn’t going to hit that well this season.

What are the front office’s expectations for Kotchman? It seems they may be looking for too much.

Jack Hannahan? He’s a journeyman as well. He’s 32 years old and has had over 400 at bats in a season just once. Why? Because he’s not a good hitter.

Was the front office fooled into thinking he woke up one morning and became Mike Schmidt?

The management completely ignored the LF issue, unless you consider signing the oft-injured Grady Sizemore as a remedy. Most people, including the fans and media, thought that was a bad idea.

So, again we ask, who exactly has underachieved?

It appears it is the front office because they deluded themselves into thinking that players who haven’t been productive for several years, or who have no real track record for hitting were going to start hammering the baseball.

That’s foolish, and it’s one more reason changes need to be made on the corner of Carnegie and Ontario.

There aren’t many players on the Cleveland Indians who aren’t doing what was expected. The disappointment comes from a management team who was expecting the impossible from certain players, who weren’t capable of performing.

Perhaps Antonetti is deflecting attention from the inactivity that has plagued this organization over the past 12 months.

The only people who need to perform better are in offices at Progressive Field. For the most part, the players are doing exactly what should be expected.

The Tribe Shouldn’t Sell Right Now

After losing the first three games of a four game set against the Baltimore Orioles, the rats are jumped off the S.S. Tribe very, very quickly.

There are people even saying that perhaps the Indians should now be sellers at the July 31st trading deadline instead of trying to improve the team.

As horrible as the Indians have looked since the All-Star break, and they have been bad, especially on offense scoring just 31 runs in 10 games with 19 of those occurring in two contests, they remain just 4-1/2 games out of first in the AL Central Division, and a mere 3-1/2 games off the pace for the second wild card spot.

A few people have mentioned how many teams the Indians would have to climb over to get the latter spot, but that would only hold water if there were a couple of weeks remaining in the season. However, there are more than 60 games remaining, more than enough time to pass a number of teams.

That’s why GM Chris Antonetti cannot start trading his most marketable people in the next eight days. In fact, he still should be looking to help the current roster, because it is obvious the Indians cannot make gains in the standings with its current personnel.

While everyone wants the team to make a huge splash, dealing for an all-star type player, that may not be necessary. Improving the roster could involve cutting bait on players who haven’t been productive for the Tribe from day one.

That would mean finding replacements for the deadwood currently on the team, guys like Casey Kotchman, Aaron Cunningham, Jack Hannahan, and yes, even Travis Hafner. Replacing two of them could have an impact.

The same would be true getting another starting pitcher, even replacing one with someone from Columbus. Who knows? You might just catch lightning in a bottle.

The other night saw a rumor saying the Indians were close to getting Phillies OF Shane Victorino, a free agent at the end of the season. That’s not a sexy pick up, but Victorino is a switch-hitting outfielder, who has been productive in the past.

Let’s say the Indians get him. They would no longer have a need for Cunningham because Victorino is a CF by trade. Victorino could play LF for the Indians, upgrading the OF defense.

It strengthens the bench because Johnny Damon or Hafner would no longer be in the lineup everyday, and it adds another right-handed bat (and a productive one, he’s hitting .318 with a 981 OPS vs. lefties) when facing a southpaw.

And it would also allow Michael Brantley and Shin-Soo Choo to get an occasional day off, keeping them fresh.

It would also lengthen Manny Acta’s batting order, where production ends after the cleanup hitter usually bats (although with Carlos Santana starting to hit a little, it would be after the 5th spot).

It’s one smaller type move, but it should make a decent impact on the team.

Plus, it would also show the players that the front office believes in them, and is concerned with winning baseball games.

Two or three more moves like that could make an even bigger impact, and we’ve been advocating making these subtle moves for over a month.

Yes, the White Sox have lost five straight, but look at the immediate impact Kevin Youkilis made upon his arrival. By the way, does anyone else think it’s odd that the Red Sox wanted either Josh Tomlin or Zack McAllister from Cleveland, but accepted Brett Lillibridge (since released) and Zach Stewart (in the minors) from Chicago?

We’ve always thought you are in the race if you hit Labor Day five games or less out of first. There’s still five weeks or so before that holiday and the Indians have a smaller deficit.

It’s not the time to sell right now. Antonetti needs to help his team, not take it apart.

Odd Facts on Tribe Stats

The second half of the season started Friday night with a 1-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays ending a four-day stretch without the Indians playing. It gave us some time to examine some numbers for the Tribe.

Some of the numbers will surprise you and others will back up the need for improvements for the balance of the 2012 season.

With all of the fans complaining about 2B Jason Kipnis not making the All Star game, it was certainly a little odd to see to the great variance in the OPS for Kipnis and his double play partner Asdrubal Cabrera, because the two-time all-star has an 821 OPS compared to the second baseman’s 764.

Kipnis’ style of play has won over the paying customers, but his on base percentage and slugging average are both less than Cabrera’s, mostly because the latter has 10 more extra base hits.

That’s surprising because Kipnis has led the Tribe in home runs for much of the season, but now is tied with Cabrera for the club lead, one ahead of Shin-Soo Choo.

In fact, Kipnis ranks just fourth on the club in extra base hits behind the other two, and also behind Michael Brantley.

Kipnis is having a fine season and will be an all-star soon, perhaps next year, but there is no question here that Cabrera deserved the honor more in 2012.

Most everyone would agree that Shelley Duncan is having a mostly disappointing season with a .222 batting average, 8 HR and 21 RBI, correct? But did you know he has the same number of long balls and just four fewer runs batted in than Travis Hafner in just seven more at bats?

It’s another reminder that Hafner is not the same player he was up to 2007, but the management of the Indians treat him like a panacea for what is troubling the offense. He can still contribute, but is no longer a presence in the middle of the order.

Another player that takes a lot of criticism is Carlos Santana. Fans are understandably frustrated with him after he hit 27 homers last year, and the internet commentators want him traded, which is ridiculous. He’s having a down year.

Still, the catcher has as many extra base hits as Casey Kotchman, and a higher OPS than crowd favorite Jack Hannahan.

Other numbers to note:

Brantley is having a fine season, but his OPS (755) is over 100 points less than Choo’s (866). Choo has a higher on base percentage and a better slugging percentage. He’s given the Indians the best leadoff man since Grady Sizemore’s heyday.
Since the end of April, Hannahan has gone 20 for 97, with just 2 HR and 6 RBI, and since returning from his back and leg problems, he’s just 9 for 54 (.167).
Jose Lopez has 27 RBI in 161 at bats. He has more ribbies than Hafner, Duncan, Hannahan, and Johnny Damon.
It has been said a good starting pitcher allows fewer hits than innings pitched and strikes out twice as many as they walk. The Indians have one such pitcher: Justin Masterson. They also have one that does neither, and surprisingly it’s Derek Lowe.

Most of these stats talk about offense, but the most meaningful team number is 13. That’s the Indians’ rank in ERA in the American League. Unless they improve in that area, by getting a starter and another reliever, it will be tough to keep pace with the White Sox and Tigers in the AL Central.

Lack of Long Ball Hurts Tribe

In the American League, the home run is king.

A look at the teams who lead the league in dingers closely resembles those who have the best records. Here are the top five teams in hitting the long ball:

Texas (31-19)          76
Baltimore (29-21) 75
New York (26-23) 74
Toronto (26-24)     68
Chicago (28-22)      62

Where do the Cleveland Indians rank in this category? 12th, ahead of only the Royals and Twins, who coincidentally are the two worst teams in the league.

This is just another statistic that doesn’t bode well for the rest of this season. And one of the players who is supposed to provide pop for this offense, Travis Hafner, just went on the disabled list (again!) with a knee injury.

This means the Indians lack the ability to have a big inning with one swing of the bat. In a lineup with several holes in it, this means they are dependent on having to bunch several hits, and that is tough to do consistently.

If you think that home runs aren’t the end all, be all and you getting extra base hits is just as important, here are the AL leaders in team slugging percentage:

Texas (31-19)           .475
Boston (25-24)        .456
New York (26-23) .455
Baltimore (29-21)  .440
Chicago (28-22)      .421

The Tribe ranks 11th in this category at .383, ahead of only Minnesota, Seattle, and Oakland, three teams all at least six games under the .500 mark.

This just reiterates what we’ve known about the American League for years. Yes, pitching dominates in the post-season, but to get there in the AL, you have to score runs.

One of the seasons they can’t score runs is they have no power.

Yes, Progressive Field is a pitcher’s park, and that hampers the offense. And they do have better success hitting on the road. But they still don’t have a guy who can come up with two guys on and put three runs on the board with one swing.

It was striking over the weekend in the series against the White Sox, and yes, they play in a great hitters’ park. Still, they have three players (Paul Konerko, Dayan Viciedo, and Adam Dunn) with more that 10 HR’s, and A. J. Pierzynski has eight.

As a point of reference, that number (8) would be tied for the Indians’ team lead with Jason Kipnis.

And only the now injured Hafner (6) has more than five home runs for Cleveland.

You can’t compete in this league without being able to hit for power, and this has been a theme for the last few years. Last year, the Indians ranked 10th in home runs, and in 2010, they ranked 12th.

They started off 2012 by hitting the long ball, hitting 16 in the first nine games of the season. But, they’ve hit just 25 in the last 40 contests, which over a full season comes to just 100 dingers. That’s a paltry figure in today’s game.

You can overcome not getting the home run if you hit for a high average as a team, somewhere in the .270-.280 range. Alas, the Tribe’s team average is just .248, ranking 10th in the league, right behind the Orioles, who have scored 22 more runs.

To be fair, the Indians’ offense is the best of the non-home run teams. They rank seventh in the AL in average runs per game, and every team they trail has hit 20 more home runs.

You will often notice the Tribe plays many games where they have one big inning, and struggle to put together anything for the balance of the game. That’s because that’s the inning they string a lot of hits together. Manny Acta’s bunch doesn’t have a lot of one run innings, where someone hits a bomb and that’s it.

There is really no way this Indians team is going to start blasting balls all over the park, so they have to come up with ways to overcome it. One way has already been a success, the ability to draw walks.

It’s just a tough way to play the game in the American League.

Tribe Offense Looks for Balance

A look at the American League leaders in offensive statistics, at least the traditional one, doesn’t show a lot of players who toil for the Indians.

Yes, Carlos Santana and Travis Hafner are in the top ten in walks received, and Asdrubal Cabrera is among the leaders in doubles and on base percentage, but by and large there aren’t many names among the lists.

For example, there are ten AL players who have driven in 30 runs this season. None wear a Cleveland uniform.

The Tribe ranks in the middle of the pack (8th) in the league in runs scored, so they can’t be considered to have a great offense or a poor one. The absence of a big bat probably is the reason for this ranking. Still, the Indians’ attack has gotten it done with balance.

With the season in between the quarter pole and the one-third mark, the Tribe has several players who are on pace to drive in between 80 and 90 runs this year. It’s that type of balanced attack that has kept the offense above water so far in 2012.

To date, Santana and Jason Kipnis have led the team in RBI’s with 24, with Hafner close behind at 23. Cabrera has driven home 20. All four players are on pace to collect more than 80 ribbies this season.

Jack Hannahan has knocked home 18 runners despite missing the last 10 games with a back problem. He likely would have more than 20 had he stayed healthy, although his career track would contradict maintaining this pace for an entire season.

The biggest problem for Manny Acta right now is that the guys in the middle of his lineup, Santana and Hafner, are not driving the ball. The three players leading the team in extra base hits are Cabrera with 19, followed by both Shin-Soo Choo and Michael Brantley with 16.

Santana and Hafner have just 12 each.

Doubles have been the hit of choice for the three leaders, with each of them ranking in the AL’s top ten in that category. If the middle of the order joined the extra base hit party, the Cleveland offense would be much improved.

One problem that has been quite evident of late is the lack of production from anyone off the bench, save for Jose Lopez.

While Lopez has been a huge bonus since returning from Columbus, going 12 for 39 (.308) with a home run (a game tying blast vs. Seattle) and seven runs batted in, the rest of the bench bunch has been impotent at the plate.

Backup catcher Lou Marson has been completely out of sync, with just three hits in 30 at bats (.100). Marson looks to be guiding his bat through the strike zone rather than swinging at the ball. Shelley Duncan has returned to being, well, Shelley Duncan, hitting just .200 in 95 at bats, striking out in one third of them.

Aaron Cunningham is the only back up CF, and that’s why he remains on the roster despite batting just .192 with a 519 OPS.

It’s a chicken or the egg thing. The bench probably needs more playing time to hit better and stay sharp, but it’s tough for Acta to take out one of his regulars for a player who can’t hit, especially when the number of good hitters in the lineup is short.

The bottom of the usual Tribe lineup has 1B Casey Kotchman (.216) and LF Johnny Damon (.162), two guys who a struggling. Why add a third or fourth poor hitter if you don’t have to?

It’s another thing that GM Chris Antonetti may have to address sooner than later. Until then, or until Santana and Hafner can turn singles into doubles and home runs, Acta will have to hope the balanced attack continues to provide enough runs to get a lead and turn games over to the bullpen.