Cleveland Indians
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Bad luck or just plain bad?July 5th, 2008
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It’s July, and Cliff Lee is second in the AL in ERA and Wins. CC Sabathia is first in the league in strikeouts. Grady Sizemore is first in home runs. The Cleveland Indians: 12.5 games out of first place in the AL Central, and the second worst record in the American League. Wait, what?
If you read my last post, which I seemingly wrote forever ago, you might remember that I wrote, “If ever there was a chance for the Indians to make up some ground in the race, the next two weeks are it.” Well, what happened? Not only did they lose ground in the race (four games to be exact), but they essentially threw in the towel for the rest of the season. Case in point: when the Royals have a better record than your team, it’s time to look toward next season.
But before the Indians trade CC (trade rumors involve the Brewers, Cubs, Red Sox, Dodgers, and Rays), I’d like to discuss what will probably be a hot topic in Cleveland come the offseason: were the Indians bad, or did they merely suffer from bad luck?
The case for bad is pretty easy: the Indians stink. Currently last in the AL Central, the Indians can’t hit (.247 avg is worst in the AL) and the relievers can’t hold leads (worst save:blown save ratio in the AL). And, the pitching staff as a whole, despite leading the league in shutouts with 9, has given up the most home runs in the league (94) and has the 4th-highest batting average-against (.270).
Sure, Cliff Lee has been spectacular, and CC Sabathia finally came around after his horrific start, but in the month of June, the Indians were last in the AL in ERA (5.27). You could easily blame injuries for the poor offensive output the Indians have given, but in June, they hit .273, which while still ranking in the bottom-half of the league, is the best they’ve hit all season. In other words: when they pitch well, they don’t hit. When they hit, they don’t pitch well. Maybe it’s a sign of bad luck, but more likely: it’s the sign of a bad team.
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Just when I think I’m out…June 19th, 2008
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The Cleveland Indians pull me back in.
Of course, then I head screaming for the hills after witnessing this game.
And then: somehow, some way, they pluck me from the mountain top and I’m right back where I started.
I’m not trying to be cliche, but where do I begin? Is it with the Tribe winning 5 of their last 7 (by an average of 2.5 runs per game, which is pretty amazing because that’s about the average offensive output per week of this team over the first few months of the season)? Or, is it with the losses of Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez, Fausto Carmona, Jake Westbrook, and Josh Barfield (i.e. a combined 30% of the team’s payroll) to injury? Read more
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Indians remember how to hit, forget how to pitch.June 7th, 2008
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First the good: the Cleveland Indians just completed a 2-2 series split against the Texas Rangers and managed to score 39 runs over the four games. That gives the Indians 40 runs over the first five games of June, which is six games faster than it took them to reach 40 runs in both April and May. In other words, the Indians are starting to score some runs.
Of course, scoring runs against Texas is nothing new. For anybody. The Rangers have the highest ERA in the Majors (5.09), and at home, it’s even worse (5.15). In other words, starting to score runs against Texas is like slump-busting with a prostitute; it may be a start, and it may make you feel better, but it’s nothing to be proud of.
That said, coming into the series, Indians hitters had accumulated a total of 155 extra-base hits over their first 56 games. That’s 2.76 extra-base hits per game. That’s: Awful. Anemic. Atrocious. Augh. (For comparison, the Indians averaged 3.34 extra-base hits per game over the past two seasons, ranking 8th in the majors.) However, the Tribe pounded out 18 extra-base hits during the Texas series, 13 of which were doubles. That’s an average of .5 more doubles per game during the series than the Tribe averages extra-base hits thus far in 2008; in other words, it’s either an anomaly or a good sign of things to come.
And then there’s the pitching. In May, Indians pitchers had a combined ERA of 3.12. So far in June: 9.21. Now, this is obviously a small sample size so far, but the truth is, it’s more than that: the Indians have given up four or more runs in eight consecutive games. During that span, the team ERA is 7.37. (For comparison, the Indians started May by only allowing four or more runs just twice in the first 11 games.) In other words, the pitching is beginning to regress to the mean.
Losing Fausto Carmona didn’t help either. Paul Byrd in the rotation instead of Jake Westbrook is not a plus. Calling up Scott Elarton (5.40 ERA), Tom Mastny (21.00 ERA), and Rick Bauer (27.00 ERA) haven’t seemed to work much. But the real difference this year is Rafael Betancourt. In 2008, he has pitched 25 innings and given up 17 runs. He gave up 13 runs in all of 2007. I’ll talk more about Betancourt in another post, but combine his numbers with Borowski (9.00 ERA), and Indians bullpen is just plain bad.
There’s no doubt the Indians have the potential to get back to the playoffs. As bad as they’ve played, they still only trail the Chicago White Sox by 6.5 games in the AL Central. If the hitting can round [the proverbial third-base] corner and the pitching doesn’t continue their recent nose-dive, the Indians can still win this thing.
In other words, it’s not time to give up yet.
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May-jor League Thoughts.May 30th, 2008
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The Indians are um, not good right now. So, instead of saying things like, “they need to make a trade (or four),” I have no confidence in any player unless they have an ‘SP’ in front of their name (besides Paul Byrd),” and “five of the worst fifteen (qualifying) batting averages in the American League belong to Indians hitters,” I decided to provide some miscellaneous thoughts from around the league from May. Also, a seriously-too-long rant in the middle that really gets me worked up:
There’s no way this and that aren’t related. In case you are too lazy to click, the first is a story about the government trying to subpoena 104 MLB players that tested positive for steroids in 2003. The second is a fantasy analysis on the state of relief pitchers in baseball, namely closers and their inability to, um, not suck. Hey, here’s a question: why are a lot fewer relievers throwing 95-100 mph? Everybody seems to be in the 88-95 mph range these days. Plus, they aren’t as effective as they once were, like 5 years ago. Also, on a completely different topic, over 100 players tested positive for steroids in 2003. That’s over 3 players per team. And that doesn’t even account for HGH. Must be a coincidence. Read more
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The Offense is Offensive.May 22nd, 2008
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Hey, remember that time when I wrote about the Indians offense being bad? What’s that you say? That’s all I’ve been writing about recently?
Well, I hate to sound like a broken record, but: the Indians still can’t hit. And, with the pitching staff seemingly coming back to earth after that absurd 23-runs-given-up-in-a-14-game-stretch, the Indians have now lost five in a row and have dropped from first to third in the standings.
So what’s the remedy? Without rehashing old ideas too much, here are some ideas:
Fire Derek Shelton: Look, I already wrote about it here, but enough is enough already; it’s time for someone to get blamed. Maybe it sends a message and fires the players up, or a new guy comes in and the players respond to the new authority. Or, maybe nothing happens because the hitters are beyond repairable. However, I do know this: statistically speaking, they can’t be any worse than they are right now, so the whole don’t-fire-a-guy-unless-there’s-someone-better-to-replace-him thing doesn’t really apply. It’s time to make a change.
Shuffle the lineup: This is something Manager Eric Wedge has tried, and the results have been equally as poor as the offense. In the last 10 games, Wedge has filled 9 different lineup cards. Ben Francisco has hit 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 8th; Jhonny Peralta has hit 2nd, 3rd, and 6th; Franklin Gutierrez has hit 5th, 6th, and 8th; David Dellucci has hit 3rd, 5th, and 6th; I could go on, but you get the idea. And remember, this is just in the last 10 games. Maybe you could blame Wedge for not sticking to a lineup that works (except none of the seem to work), or blame him for not trusting his players in specific lineup spots (he trusts they’ll be bad in all the spots), or even for not providing the players with lineup and playing consistency (even though none of them deserved it), but you can’t blame Wedge for not trying something different. Even if it’s different every single game.
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Weekend Recap: not good.May 19th, 2008
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It wasn’t a good weekend to be a Cleveland fan.
The matchup Friday night was a first-place Indians team on an 8-2 tear, facing a last-place Cincinnati team that was just starting to show some signs of life after winning three straight and six of nine. The most telling part of that night: down one run in the top of the ninth, Cincinnati closer Francisco Cordero not only struck out the side, but got both Casey Blake and Jamie Carroll to strike out looking.
Now I know the offense is bad, but down one run - I repeat, one run - they were too afraid to swing? Were they scared they might actually put the ball in play? I’m pretty sure, and someone should probably look this up, but if you don’t swing, your chance of getting a hit is 0, right? Besides, isn’t there some sort of rule that you should never get called out on a third strike in the ninth inning? Then again, at least the Cavs won that night, so it wasn’t all bad.
Saturday was all bad. After Fausto Carmona pitched another brilliant outing for the Indians, this time allowing one run on four hits with no walks, Masa Kobayashi came in and allowed a three-run walkoff homer to Adam Dunn. And, to top it off, Dunn tried to sac bunt earlier in the at bat.
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43 1/3 and counting…May 15th, 2008
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43 1/3.
No, that’s not the number of times I banged my head against the wall after last night’s Cavs/Celtics game before I passed out (it was actually only 22 1/2); it’s the number of consecutive scoreless innings that Cleveland Indians starters have combined to pitch. Oh, and it’s still counting.
The Indians have thrown four shutouts in the last five games, and over the past six games, Tribe starters have an ERA of 0.19. That’s point-one-nine runs per nine innings. Who needs offense with pitching like that?
Well, I hate to say it, but the Indians do. In the last four games, the Tribe offense has averaged just 2.25 runs on 5 hits per game. It’s a miracle they went 3-1 over that span, but as good as the Tribe pitching has been, I wouldn’t expect many more wins with the offense hitting .162 and producing just over 2 runs per game.
Honestly, I don’t know what’s more ridiculous; the obscenely good pitching or the obscenely offensive offense. For a minute, the Indians offense looked like it was back on track, scoring 18 runs in the first two games of the Toronto series last friday. Then the next game was rained out, and all of the sudden, the bats are lost again.
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Where are the fans?May 12th, 2008
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While last year’s Cleveland Indians playoff run brought the return of sold-out games to Jacob’s Field, it also brought with it the promise of thousands of additional season tickets sold for 2008. The Indians offered a “Playoff Payoff Program” promotion last postseason, where Indians fans could buy 2008 season tickets in 20, 40, or full season packages and receive 2007 playoff priority. Almost 5,500 fans signed up, and with the season ticket base hovering around 13,000, season tickets - and attendance - were fully expected to rise.
And why not? After winning the Central division and nearly reaching the World Series, it’s safe to say the Indians are good again. We all know what happened the last time the Indians were good: a sellout streak from 1995-2001, totaling 455 consecutive games. That’s a Major League record.
Besides, right now the Tribe has the reigning Cy Young winner in CC Sabathia, an exciting core of stars in Grady Sizemore, Victor Martinez, Travis Hafner, and Fausto Carmona, and a group of budding stars in Rafael Betancourt, Ryan Garko, Rafael Perez, Franklin Gutierrez, and Asdrubal Cabrera. All in all, the 2007 Indians were a fun team to watch, and this year, the team brought back almost the entire roster.
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Tribe’s Hitting Woes ContinueMay 7th, 2008
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I say, “Let’s play two.”
Then, maybe the Indians will actually put some runs on the board.
I’m talking about Sunday’s 2-0 debacle against the Royals, who concluded a two game sweep of the Indians. During the series, the Indians managed only 8 hits, and scored as many runs as they committed errors (2).
I was given free tickets along the third base line Sunday, and I still feel ripped off. Don’t get me wrong; the seats were amazing, the weather was a perfect mix of cool breeze and scorching sun, and if it weren’t for the guy sitting behind me, I’d have caught a foul ball.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t there for the seats, the weather, the foul balls, or even the hot dogs; I was there to watch baseball. And when the Indians came to bat in the bottom of the first, I looked up at the scoreboard and here’s what I noticed: .222, .215, .229, .209, and .198. That’s the Tribe’s 5-6-7-8-9 hitters, all in a row, all awful, and taking up a majority of the lineup. I felt like I was staring at the back of Mario Mendoza’s baseball card. Read more
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I Blame: Everyone.May 2nd, 2008
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Well, almost everyone.
It’s not often I’ll talk this much about a single game, but last night’s Indians 3-2 win against the Mariners in 11 innings had me pretty riled up. It was a classic game of who-wanted-it-less, where everyone tried their hardest to give the game away.
First, there was the listless Mariners offense against Paul Byrd. I know he’s pitching well of late, but: he’s Paul Byrd. The guy is almost as old as his fastball’s mph reading. He has so little stuff, he resorts to a double-windup to help throw guys off. He’s like a starting pitcher version of Joe Borowski. I mean, Wedge trusts Paul Byrd about as much as the public trusts Roger Clemens. Case in point: yesterday marked the second time Wedge pulled Byrd out of the game so far this year, while Byrd was throwing a shutout. You might say, what was his pitch count? I say: it was 78 pitches the first time, in an outing against the Red Sox on April 15th, and 92 pitches, which so far is his season high, last night against the Mariners. Byrd doesn’t have any injury concerns, the Tribe isn’t worried about fatigue, and Wedge isn’t worried about slowly building his arm strength up. Last year, in his first six starts, Byrd averaged 93 pitches per outing. This year, in his first six starts, he’s averaging 76 per outing. When a manager doesn’t believe in his pitcher even if he’s throwing well, that’s a bad sign; when an offense can’t produce against said pitcher, that’s even worse.
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