Sorry. There Is Room For “Old School” Baseball.

We want to apologize to anyone who will be offended by this piece.

We have been very free about our age. We started following the Cleveland Indians in 1965 as a youngster and baseball became and still is our favorite sport. However, the way the sport is viewed now is kind of disturbing.

We were talking with some longtime friends about the game about a week ago, and one of them said they remembered when a guy who hit .250 was considered an average player, a JAG (just another guy) in today’s vernacular.

We brought up that someone asked us if we thought Dave Kingman (302/478/780, 442 career home runs) was a good player back in the day. Kingman played from 1971-86. We replied no, and that no one else thought he was good either. He made just three all-star teams in his career.

When Bill James wrote The Baseball Abstract, it changed our view of the game. We grew up thinking you had to have speedy players at the top of the order, batting average was king, etc. But reading that book, we realized the job of the leadoff man was to get on base, no matter how good a defender you are, you have to be able to hit, and many other things.

The advanced statistics started by the sabermetric movement have value, no question about it. However, it should not be the only prism the game is viewed through, and James himself will tell you that.

Batting average isn’t meaningless. It measures how many hits a batter gets in his at bats. It may be less important than on base percentage, but it shouldn’t be ignored.

Someone once told us that analytics get used as a fallback for when something is tried, and it doesn’t work. Coaches or managers can say “the numbers” said it was the correct decision. Sometimes it’s true, but people need to realize that sometimes it isn’t.

The game is still about getting 27 outs and scoring more runs than your opponent. One of the reasons that sacrifice bunting has all but disappeared from the sport is that James and other pointed out that the number of outs in a game is precious and a team shouldn’t give one up unless it provided a huge advantage.

The way MLB has promoted itself hasn’t helped. They focus on the raw athleticism of today’s players, which is nice, but as former player John Kruk once famously said “I’m not an athlete, I’m a baseball player”.

There is considerable focus on hitting the ball hard or the speed of pitches, neither of which helps to win a game. Now, we agree that if you hit the ball hard consistently, you will very likely succeed in the sport, but it isn’t a necessity.

For example, Whit Merrifield, Charlie Blackmon, and Geraldo Perdomo all rank near the bottom of average exit velocity, but all three are solid offensive players. Meanwhile, Kansas City’s M.J. Melendez is in the top 10 in this category. He has a 713 OPS.

It probably bodes well for Melendez’ future, but that’s why it should be a supporting statistic.

Strikeouts aren’t a big deal anymore, but when there is a runner on third with less than two out it is. How many times in today’s game do you see a team get a leadoff double and the runner never moves. The “get ’em over and get ’em in” rules no longer apply.

Hopefully, the new rules enacted by the sport this year start reversing the launch angle era and get back to the fundamentals of the sport. We don’t want to take away from the entertainment and showmanship in the game these days, but playing the right way isn’t a bad thing.

If Tribe Can Get A Bat, What Kind Should They Get?

The Major League Baseball trading deadline is less than a week away, and we all know the Cleveland Indians have gaping holes in the lineup.

They are tied for 13th in the American League in runs scored per game, and they remain last in the league in slugging percentage and second to the bottom in OPS. The one statistic they are doing well in is drawing walks, they are 4th in the AL.

Although it seems like they strikeout a lot, they are only 8th in the league, but in thinking about some of the rallies that have died recently, it seems as if when they need a big hit, instead they get a strikeout.

Obviously, when your starting outfield is batting under .200 collectively, any batter doing anything offensively would be an improvement. However, to us, what the Tribe needs is more of a professional hitter than a big time slugger for this offense.

The Tribe has five hitters in their lineup right now than have belted 30 home runs or more in the their careers: Jose Ramirez, Francisco Lindor, Carlos Santana, Franmil Reyes, and Domingo Santana.

However, how much would getting another all or nothing slugger like Reyes (35 strikeouts, 8 walks) or D. Santana, who surprisingly has walked 12 times this season against 24 whiffs, help this offense greatly.

We confess we do not like hitters with poor strikeout to walk ratios. While there are exceptions, we find those players ultimately have a shorter span of usefulness because eventually pitchers do not have to throw them strikes to get them out.

Case in point, it is why we had doubts about Oscar Mercado coming into this season. He fanned three times as much as he walked last season. This year, he struck out 14 times, walking just three.

Players with high strikeout totals and high walk totals, are usually very good offensive players. Jim Thome and Travis Hafner come to mind.

Think about Carlos Santana. The switch-hitting first baseman is batting just .212 this season with only three homers. You know what he’s not doing for the most part? Getting himself out. He leads the AL in taking walks by a large margin.

One guy we would love to have is (and we aren’t saying he’s available) would be a player like Whit Merrifield of the Royals. He’s a .296 lifetime hitter (791 OPS), and although his strikeout rate has gone up a bit in recent years, he puts the bat on the ball. And he’s versatile, capable of playing 2B and the outfield.

If Arizona decides to sell, Starling Marte would be of interest too. He has a career 794 OPS, and although he doesn’t walk a great deal (career high 35 in 2018), his strikeout totals have steadily declined since he came into the league.

One thing is for certain, the Tribe certainly needs to lengthen its batting order. Although Tyler Naquin has been on a little hot streak recently, most nights once Reyes bats, it would be a good time to refill whatever snacks you are eating while watching the Indians. Not much is going to happen.

Don’t complain about the catchers hitting either. Understand, the Cleveland organization values defense and handling pitchers first and foremost from their backstops. If they get any offense, like they did a year ago from Perez, that’s a bonus. They don’t care if they hit .150 as long as they do their primary job.

We feel confident the front office will do something before Monday’s deadline. The pitching is at World Series winner level. The offense is at expansion team level. Improving the latter could lead to a long post-season run.