It is no secret the 2008 Cleveland Indians are off to a truly disappointing start in their quest to defend their AL Central title. Media energy is being allocated to opinions on the subject, though the largest local newspaper continues to conspicuously omit team stats from its regular editions.
Today's product, however, does go somewhat into detail about the team's inability to score runs, though key stats like OBP, OBS and RISP---all known to be significant indicators in the eyes of the front office, as well as to any meaningful assessment of an offense's efficiency---remain exempt from exposure.
Of these, only OBP is available for examination on the club's website. It is highly unlikely the other information is out of reach for those covering the club on a daily basis, however. Not only would the team's PR minions dutifully supply them, if asked, but they are probably included in daily game notes customarily generated by that branch of the organization, easily accessed by press-box occupants.
The point is, it is mysterious, to say the least, that reporting of them goes undone, particularly given their relevance.
Leaving such issues aside for the time being, it would be reasonable for critics, disgruntled fans and reactionary followers to keep a few things in mind, when preparing to propose solutions to the Tribe's lineup ailments.
This is not an especially well-financed franchise---which is NOT a slam on ownership. It simply is one operating on a fairly-strict budget, in deference to its being located in a mid-sized market, with a cold-weather climate further threatening critical attendance figures, as well as one that does not generate revenue from multiple streams evidenced in other locations.
That being said, it must be factored that money allocated to certain players virtually mandates that those players will continue to appear regularly as virtual core pieces. The relevance of that is their positions in the lineup will likely go undisturbed. Names on that list would include Casey Blake and David Dellucci, at least for a goodly portion of the season's first half, in order for the club to feel it has done all it could to get its money's worth from their contracts.
Those referenced economic realities also preclude the Tribe from adding a high-ticket remedy, such as those added by Detroit during the off-season: Edgar Renteria, Jacque Jones and Miquel Cabrera. Sure it would be nice, as one commentator opined, "to have a Matt Holiday (Colorado's MVP LF)," but not only is that organization not about to surrender him, but the Cleveland Indians cannot afford to absorb the money it would take to afford taking---much less keeping---him.
This is a long way of saying solutions must work around specific considerations. No expensive additions are forthcoming and whatever arrives must fit within a rather rigid core skeleton. Additional flexibility could be managed were the front office to decide Asdrubal Cabrera and Franklin Gutierrez needed to return to AAA Buffalo for further seasoning, since they last summer joined an already-rolling ballclub and therefore could perform under minimal pressure. But such a measure is not anticipated, though it is about to become recommended.
So, expect that first Manager Eric Wedge will be required to extract as much as possible from the on-hand personnel, a perspective fortified by the predictable 40-game talk Mark Shapiro trots out every April. For those unfamiliar, the GM maintains nothing dramatic should be done to alter the preseason vision until at least the quartermark of a season has expired.
Observers must endure with perseverence and patience the often-times brutal play of the same-old, same-old cast. Regardless of how loudly they may shout, how furiously they may stamp their feet in tantrum, how logically and meticulously they may present their rationales and research, fans should embrace that little can or will be done to amend the early formulas.
That's just the way it is. No wonder attendance figures and ticket sales wain. Thank goodness there is a hometown entry in the NBA playoffs to distract resident focus.
What is seemingly clear is the same cast that put the town through extended anguish last summer, when scoring was extremely rare and avoidable losses were accumulated, returns intact with its profoundly evident flaws. Certain LH bats resist waiting back on the ball to hit through the middle or into left center---which they once did so well as younger talents---opting instead to K or ground meekly to the right side, for example. There is nothing approximating team speed. The team can be overly-dependent on longballs for offense. An ungodly number strike out every fourth at bat. Fans know what is meant.
On the positive side, the team is not without talent, having enough to have won an MLB-high 96 games in 2007, a season that brought the club to within a single victory of the World Series, in fact.
But it may be time more of that talent were bunched in order to possibly optimize itself. Maybe Grady Sizemore, Victor Martinez, Ryan Garko, Travis Hafner and Jhonny Peralta should appear consecutively in the order, with table-setters positioned in advance of them.
Many are the organizations---most characteristically in the NL---employing just such a strategy to make an oppositional pitcher work and to, not surprisingly, score runs with lesser difficulty. Rather than trying, as Wedge reportedly does, to sprinkle a hot bat into each third of his order, perhaps he'd be better served to require the other team's pitcher(s) to confront a murderer's row of Indian assailants.
As it happens, the team does include a pair of semi-regulars displaying outstanding on-base-percentages who could precede the aforementioned collection of top talents in Wedge's batting order. LH LF David Dellucci is at .395 in OBP, with Jamey Carroll at .481. What is more, they have but five K's between them, though we're discussing but 53 combined at bats. Dellucci's batting average is only .257 and Carroll's but .222, but both are seasoned pros, can run a bit and have extensive experience in the top third of MLB batting orders. In other words, they have demonstrated abilities as table-setters at the big-league level.
With Grady at .368, Victor at .373, Garko at .423, Hafner (.325) would certainly figure to likewise find himself coming to the plate with RISP. That would, in turn, figure to result in increased scoring opportunities for the offensively-challenged Indians.
Such an arrangement also minimizes the damage incurred by positioning Peralta's horrid .282 as prominently as has been the case. Jhonny may have three homers, but his play has resulted in but five RBI, a .229 BA and 16 K's in 66 AB. Seventh, as has been written earlier, is as early in the order as he should ever appear.
Others struggling to amount to much as threats are Gutierrez, Cabrera, Blake and Jason Michaels, who began last week with an OBP such that he'd have needed 30 ABs to reach base 3 times. In 59 AB's, Gut is "hitting" .203 with 14 K's and an OBP of .266. Cabrera is at .193, 12 K's, .258 OBP in 57 appearances. Blake's OBP is .270 in 56 chances, with 13 K and a .179 BA. J-Mike has 10 K in 40 AB, with a .125 BA and a .213 OBP---and that is with Michaels appearing primarily against LHP, which he has historically handled well.
These are the guys I was alluding to weeks ago when I wrote that the club has too many marginal components in relied-upon roles.
By the way, .370 is the basement for an elite OBP figure, with anything under .330 considered seriously lame.
It is about this time that most commentators attempt to identify down-the-road pieces who might be brought up from the minors---or otherwise emerge from obscurity---to render emergency assistance. Regrettably, the only parts performing with promise at Buffalo is LH 1b Jordan Brown and MLB journeyman Andy Gonzalez. In fact, according to the stats provided in today's PD, those Bison who've been in the organization the longest are the ones with the least-impressive numbers.
Josh Barfield is pretty much doing what he did up here last season, which is how he got himself farmed in the first place. Ben Francisco might be stale and disheartened at AAA, owing to the fact that he has little more to prove at that level, having won its batting title last year and performed quite well again in spring training. Exchanging these two for Cabrera and Gutierrez would not be a terribly bad idea, but it might moreso be the latter duo that benefits than the varsity production.
Given their super sub versatility, however, Gonzalez joining Blake (instead of Barfield) as off-the-bench insurance might be the wiser way to go. Josh clearly needs more polishing, as well as to play with regularity. And synchronicity as a keystone partner for future SS Cabrera would be another advantage to the option of keeping Barfield at Buffalo for awhile longer.
As for Andy Marte, it is time to definitively find out whether he can or cannot become an MLB regular. Otherwise, what is he doing on a big-league roster? It is not as if Blake's play makes him indispensible. Andy and Ben can follow Jhonny at the bottom of the order, with either Blake or Michaels platooning with Dellucci.
So long as those invested in the Tribe's success must respect the 40-game restraint, let's have it provide answers to questions concerning the viabilities of Dellucci, Carroll (a .300 hitter two years ago for Colorado, by the way), Marte and Francisco, as well what will come from finally bunching the team's best threats consecutively in the meat of the team's batting order.
It is not as if what has been tried and what has been occurring is famously successful. What is being proposed may, at last, allow the club to take it to the next level, while simultaneously bringing some clarity to its many unresolved personnel matters.
And while this is going on, wouldn't it also be wise to get onto the AAA roster those prospects long considered future MLB stars and dispense with continuing to feature AAAA-types? Put out to pasture Ryan Mulhern and Jason Cooper in order to elevate Matt Whitney and Michael Aubrey. So long as the latter duo are still healthy, now is the time to challenge them with the next step in their progression. Aubrey, after all, is 26. The former number-one pick warrants more competitive exposure.
As for Whitney, the RH bat John Farrell once described as the best he'd seen in the system since Manny needs to return to 3b, where the organization does not have a planned succession. It could well be he'll end up playing more there---perhaps even this summer---than will Marte.
Deep with first-basemen (Garko, Brown, Aubrey, possibly Martinez fairly soon), the organization must determine whether Whitney or Beau Mills---the LH top draftee from last summer---can factor at the hot corner as alternatives to Akron's rapidly-rising RH Wes Hodges.
In case it has been missed, Rule 5 loss Brian Barton is at .375 in platoon usage for StL. The lanky RH OF doubled for the third time last night. He never was given an MLB audition by the Tribe, much as RHP Jeremy Guthrie was granted but a sole MLB start.
Sometimes it seems the Indians, all successes aside, cling too long to defective formulas while dismissing alternatives, some which go on to success elsewhere in exchange for next-to-nothing in compensation. Let's hope an end to such practices commences very soon.