Tag Archives: Cleveland Indians

In defense of the Cleveland Indians front office

January 8, 2015 Ai Leave a comment

I don’t know why I keep doing this. I’m not even that big of a Dolan/Shapiro/Antonetti guy. There have definitely been times where I’ve sworn out loud at the Dolans just like everybody else. Yeah, they don’t make it rain like the Yankees. Or the Dodgers. Or even the White Sox, Rockies or Padres. They’re not great at drafting. I wouldn’t argue otherwise. But over the past 5 years, Baseball Prospectus has ranked the Tribe farm system as about the 15th best in the big leagues on average. Directly in the middle of the pack. It was even as high as 3rd and 7th in 2010 and 2011, respectively. I obviously understand that it’s just one site’s opinion but I think it’s pretty much a similar story most anywhere you look. There are other good things about our farm other than Francisco Lindor.

In light of how the Cavs season and Browns off-season is going, it (should) makes you appreciate what you have as an Indians fan. What’s the most important thing for a front office (besides winning, which neither the Browns nor Cavs have done nearly as much as the Indians in the past couple years)? Continuity. That word is LOL-worthy over at Browns camp in Berea. 8 head coaches, 12 offensive and 10 defensive coordinators (feel free to check me on that) in the 15 years they’ve been back. The Cavs have had four head coaches, er 3 since they hired the same one again three years after firing him, and 3 GMs in the past 5 years.

The Indians? Mark Shapiro held the General Manager position for ten years (named Executive of the Year by The Sporting News in 2005 and 2007) before handing it off to Chris Antonetti after the 2010 season (Antonetti himself has been with the Indians since 1999). The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Dolans have owned the team since 2000.

But…but….we hired a new manager two years ago! That’s not continuity!

You’re right. It isn’t. But the hiring of Terry Francona is ARGUMENT NUMBER ONE that the Indians most certainly do not have the worst front office in Cleveland. And if you’re trying to measure the immeasurable “desire to win” of each respective front office? How about hiring a coach who has won a championship in his sport before like the Indians did with Tito? Let’s take a look at the last 5 NBA and NFL Champions:

…so I definitely thought there would be way more returning champion coaches before I took a half hour to put that thing together. But it supports my point nonetheless. Every single coach in both sports over the past 5 years has had some amount of success before winning a championship. Wouldn’t a front office that “wants to win” hire a coach who has proven he knows what it takes to get the job done?

Pettine: zero head coach experience. Chud: zero head coach experience. Shurmur: zero head coach experience. Mangini: three years HC experience, one Wild Card appearance (lost), followed by a 4-12 year and one of the most epic collapses in recent memory (8-3 start, 9-7 final record in 2008). Combined record with the Browns? 25-55. But that front office wants to win.

Mike Brown: at the time of hire, zero head coach experience. Byron Scott: OK fine he was a pretty good coach. Mike Brown again: lol. David Blatt: zero NBA head coach experience. Their combined records with the Cavs (starting in 2010 with Brown)? 116-232. But that front office wants to win.

It’s not accidental I’m just looking at the past 5 years. Honestly it really doesn’t matter how far you go back with the Browns, it just gets worse. The Cavs were the closest thing we’ve seen to a championship team during LeBron’s first tenure here. But that was all about him, not about some genius maneuvering by the front office or Mike Brown out coaching people. We won 17 games in 2002 and lucked into the first overall pick the year the greatest basketball player of our (possibly any) generation was available. If anything, the Cavaliers front office dropped the fucking ball big time by not being able to surround him with enough talent TO win a championship.

So quite simply, if you agree with the top of this list:

https://twitter.com/SC_Cleveland/status/552937333222547456

Or with this:

https://twitter.com/SC_Cleveland/status/552933969629818881

…I respect your opinion but you seriously could not be more wrong.

The only real knock that keeps coming back from Indians haters/fans is that the Dolans don’t spend money. The original ClevelandSC guy and I had a financial back and forth a couple months ago, so I’m not going to re-hash that here, but I will say this: like the hiring of Francona, the fact that the Dolans don’t spend money how people want them to actually reinforces my argument (to a point).

The people who clamor for the Scherzers, Sandovals and Shields don’t realize how things need to be done in a small market. There are no years where you “go for it”. There’s no real “re-building” years. It’s a constant battle to draft and acquire young, controllable talent that can produce at the major league level for a little bit, maybe even lock some of them up at a reasonable price (see: Kipnis, Brantley, Gomes). But if you don’t, you need to shop that talent before they hit the open market in order to acquire more young, controllable guys.

People were already bitching about the Swisher and Bourn signings like two weeks after they happened. Those were two big contracts for the Indians to give out. Now this winter people are already talking about getting them off the books because they’re making too much. Can you imagine what would happen if those were some of your “big name” guys making 80, 90, 100 mil? We wouldn’t be locking up some of our young talent, that’s for sure. Teams like the Yankees can afford to take those chances since they can just go right back to the well and get another guy. They can afford to swim as fast as they can because if they get tired and pass out or get attacked by a shark, they can pay the coast guard to come save them. We can’t do that. We have to constantly tread water and hope to god we hit land.

KEEP THE CHIEF

Indians

Cleveland Indians 2014 year in review

December 31, 2014 Ai Leave a comment

You don’t survive being a Cleveland sports fan if you can’t embrace moral victories. That’s just a fact. And that’s what 2014 was for the Cleveland Indians. True, we went from 92 wins and the playoffs to 85 and no playoffs. Sure, our 2013 All-Star second baseman slashed a mammoth .240/.310/.330. Yeah OK maybe the biggest things we got from Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn were a couple knee surgeries and a bum hamstring. It’s possible we did some things defensively that I’ve never seen on a baseball field before.

But Corey Kluber emerged as one of the best pitchers in baseball. Hell our pitching staff as a whole did. Michael Brantley had a legitimate MVP-caliber season. Yan Gomes proved he can produce over 162 games. Jose Ramirez. Cody Allen. Carlos Carrasco. Kyle Crockett. Zach Walters. Scott Atchison. Bryan Shaw. TJ House. All did positive things.

People love to say the season was a complete failure because we didn’t make the playoffs. Those people can

High Points

April 2nd, 8th, 13th, 19th, 24th, 29th, May 4th, 9th, 14th, 19th, 24th, 30th, June 4th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, 30th, July 6th, 11th, 19th, 24th, 30th, August 4th, 9th, 15th, 21st, 27th, September 1st, 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st, 26th: All of Corey Kluber’s starts. A few that stood out:

July 30 – complete game, three-hit shutout against King Felix and the Mariners
August 15 – one run, five hits, 10 k in 7.2 innings against Baltimore
September 16 – first Indians pitcher to 15 wins since Cliff Lee (yes, seriously)
September 26 – 8 innings, 11 k, no runs against Tampa Bay

Those four games can be seen on STO tomorrow, BTW.

June 9th: Lonnie Chisenhall goes boom three times, drives in 9

I’d be fucking dancing too if I just went 5-5 with three bombs and 9 RBI.

August 13: Zach Walters walk-off bomb after coming over from Washington

This was cool just because he was the new guy making an immediate impact. We learned pretty quickly the kid can hit BOMBS. Like this one in the 10th inning on August 27. Also my favorite Hammy call of the year.

Low Points

May 4th: Axford blown save after Kluber goes 8 innings, 3 hits, 1 run and 13 Ks. This was like a week after he blew another save, against the same (divisional opponent) team, after Kluber threw 7 and a third. Nothing like cutting the guy you signed to be your closer in August.

Sometime in April: Kipnis hurts his oblique, subsequently sucks the rest of the year. Needed a better followup to his All-Star campaign in 2013. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see him in the outfield next year, but regardless he’s part of the team’s young core of guys and will be counted on to produce.

September 1st: Tigers come to Cleveland on national television, ace (David Price) against ace (Klubot), pull the Indians pants down and do things to them that will put a man in prison. Final score 12-1, Detroit notched 19 hits and Kluber gave up 3 bombs. Set us back in the wild card race as well.

Biggest Surprises

Yan Gomes – I don’t even want to call him a surprise because he had a good year in 2013, but there were question marks as to if he could produce as a full-time catcher. Yup. He can. Other than some defensive hiccups early in the year, he had one of the better seasons of any catcher in baseball.

Carlos Carrasco – I was so pissed when he won the 5th spot in the rotation out of spring training simply because he was out of options. Lol.

Jose Ramirez – I don’t know if it was because Asdrubal was so goddamn bad for so goddamn long, but watching this little nugget play shortstop was like watching Omar. Jk. But he really was good.

Biggest Disappointments

Jason Kipnis – I also hate to call him a disappointment because I know how oblique injuries can linger in a sport that requires so much turning of your body, but Kip was just flat out bad. I’m betting on a bounce back year.

First half Carlos Santana – I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a slump like that out of Carlos before. He could have put together a pretty impressive season if he would have existed in the first three months.

The fans – My feet are stapled to this soapbox. This was a borderline playoff team coming off a playoff appearance the previous season, and we still can’t put butts in the seats. But…..it’s the Dolans’ fault.

2015 Outlook

I’m not usually an optimist. I’m really not. But this was a 92 win team two years ago. Almost made the playoffs last year while getting nothing from Kip and Swish, a rough start from Carlos, not a full year of Cody Allen as closer and inexplicably horrible defense. Our pitching staff is one of the best in the league. Our bullpen is solid. Adding Brandon Moss gives the lineup a little more pop. At this point, less is more in terms of what the front office will do the rest of the winter. This team is ready to compete.

Baseball, Indians

Tigers trading for Cespedes isn’t as scary as you think

December 11, 2014 Ai Leave a comment

https://twitter.com/CJNitkowski/status/543051898186903552

From HardballTalk:

“UPDATE: Alex Speier of the Boston Globe says the Red Sox will send two additional players to the Tigers. Which makes this deal make more sense.

9:40 AM: The Tigers and Red Sox are pulling off a big trade according to Fox’s C.J. Nitkowski: starting pitcher Rick Porcello to Boston in exchange for outfielder Yoenis Cespedes.

Porcello is a perfect fit for Boston who, as you may have heard, is in the market for a starting pitcher. He’ll turn 26 at the end of the month but he already has six full seasons as a starter under his belt. In those seasons he’s 76-63 with a 4.30 ERA and 655 strikeouts and 263 walks in 1073.1 innings. Those numbers have a lot of learning curve built into them, however — he started extremely young — and a lot of TERRIBLE Tigers infield defense over the years, which has hurt the groundball-heavy Porcello a lot. In 2014 he was outstanding, going 15-13 with a 3.43 ERA and 129 strikeouts against 41 walks in 204.2 innings.

Cespedes certainly has pop, an arm built for a big outfield like the one in Detroit and the potential to uncork an excellent season, but his on-base percentage — .294 last season, .316 in his three seasons, heavily weighted by his first one — is a major problem. Also: Comerica Park is not going to be the best place in the world for his home run stroke.

Both Cespedes and Porcello have one year to go before free agency.”

Sit down. Take some deep breaths. Count backwards from 30. You with me? Good.

This trade isn’t nearly as scary as it seems. You could argue it actually helps the Tribe. Yeah, Yoenis Cespedes is a pretty big name. Even the casual baseball fan remembers him for the shows he put on in the past couple Home Run Derbys, and for throwing runners out with the Moonraker laser he has attached to his body. He’s a monster of an athlete and he hits bombs. I’m not denying that. But he’s posted an OBP of .301 and .294 the past two years, both seriously underwhelming. His 5.4 BB% last year was downright awful, and 6.4% the year before that isn’t much better. The guy has struggled to get on base, simple as that. His fly ball % has gone up each of the past three years (40, 46, 48), yet his home run/fly ball % (14.8, 14.4, 9.6) has gone down. This trend should continue with his new home park dimensions in Comerica. And I have zero stats or actual facts to back this up, but there were rumors swirling around Boston that he’s a big giant asshole. I just got giddy picturing him and Miggy getting in each other’s faces in the dugout. Sure, on the surface a lineup that has Kinsler, Miggy, both Martinez boys and Cespedes seems scary. But Kinsler has been on a decline and I just don’t think there’s any way either Martinez has the year they did last season.

Cespedes is certainly an above-average player. He’s just not the STUD a lot of people make him out to be. But the Tigers getting rid of Porcello is FANTASTIC news. He’s been pretty average, some might say below average during his 6 year big league career. But the guy is still only 26 years old and seemed to turn a corner last year, winning 15 games with a 3.43 ERA and three complete game shutouts. He’s always been a ground ball pitcher and the Tigers have (mostly) always had a below average infield defensively. The Tigers should have their defensive wizard Jose Iglesias back at short this year. And he always seems to shove it up the Indians’ ass.

Not to mention the fact that, if the Tigers do lose Max Scherzer to free agency, they’re going to have to replace about 425 innings and 33 wins in their rotation. That, on top of their abysmal bullpen makes me pretty confident the Tribe can go toe-to-toe with them on any given night, something they haven’t been able to do in the past two years/ever.

But if they do resign Scherzer, or this Johnny Cueto to Detroit rumor materializes, disregard this entire blog, turn all the lights off and curl up in a corner. Jk. Kinda.

KEEP THE CHIEF