Many are asking where the Cleveland Indian’s offense has gone lately.
Well, I am here to inform you that it hasn’t just been the 31 games this season, but the entire second half of the 2007 season and the 14 playoff games—this slump has been with us for 126 games.
I always thought slumps lasted three to five days and that it would only be two or three hitters—not 80 percent of the team.
Looking at some of the Tribe's offensive statistics from last year’s second half of the season, one should note a few things. (As a reference, there are 30 major league teams and remember that the National League still uses pitchers to hit.)
2007 Season, Second Half Stats
The Tribe finished 21st in batting average; 17th in OBP; 27th in slugging percentage; 25th in OPS; 22nd in home runs, RBI, and runs scored; 21st in hits; 25th in total bases; and 20th in at-bats.
The 2008 stats after 31 games
The Tribe is ranked 25th in batting average, 17th in OBP, 25th in slugging, 26th in OPS, 22nd in home runs, 18th in RBI, 21st in runs scored, 28th in hits, 29th in total bases, and 26th in at-bats.
These stats are actually slightly higher than they were back when I first started writing this article a couple of weeks ago.
Scoring 15 and 11 runs in two of the games elevated some of these stats, but unfortunately the extra runs can't be used in other games where we scored fewer than three runs. 16 of the 31 games this season, we have scored less than thee runs.
This, my friends, indicates that this is not a slump.
Slumps are supposed to last a week to ten days, at the most. This pathetic offense slump is not passing 126 games!
All winter, many posters and writers have stated that we needed to get more help offensively. For whatever the reason, General Manager Mark Shapiro and Manager Eric Wedge decided that what we have is good enough.
Now the David Dellucci and Jason Michaels platoon in left field did not work last season, even before Dellucci’s injury. Then they have a still untested, but promising, rookie in Franklin Gutierrez start in right field making both corner outfields positions questionable for the 2008 season.
With no trade occurring, many thought Ben Francisco and Shin-Soo Choo should have been given the opportunity for left field, once Choo was eligible to play. However, Shapiro and Wedge continued to publicly state that they were confident with our outfield.
All of that has been well documented so no reason to pursue that any further.
Then, include having Andy Marte becoming a utility player—even though he can realistically only play third base. Of course, the reason they kept him on the roster was because he was out of options and Shapiro was fearful that Marte might turn into another Brandon Phillips situation. They then decide to not give Marte any chance to prove himself on whether he could ever start for the Tribe on a steady basis.
Include the thought that Casey Blake, who is starting at third base, even though his statistics have started to degrade even further, will become a free agent at the end of he season.
So is all lost, offensively?
If changes are not made soon, we should expect the same type of offensive performance that make pitchers like Dushscherer, Gaudin, Eveland, Mosely, DiNardo, Lester, Galarraga, Blackburn, Baker, Bastista, and Hochevar look like Hall of Famers.
This is where Derek Shelton and the scouting system need to take some heat—actually, a lot of heat.
I know that our pitching staff would love to face our hitters. Starting with the second half of last season, the league has gotten a report on how to pitch to our hitters and be successful.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.
Depending on the hitter, throw soft and curves off the plate and for some, with two strikes high fastball.
I am not a scout but it is so obvious to figure out how to pitch to us.
Former Indian John Farrell just took it up another notch in his approach to our hitters in the American League Championship Series. The other teams have just copied that recipe on how to pitch to the Tribe hitters and so far have been very successful.
Why hasn’t the Tribe coaching staff adjusted the opposing team’s approach?
It appears that our coaches are saying "This worked for the last part of 2006 and early 2007 so why do we have to change?"
Well have hope, Tribe fans. here are a few relatively easy and inexpensive ways to fix what ails our offense.
Move # 1
Trade release Dellucci and Michaels. Dellucci has his batting average all the way up to .267 now and Michaels has reached .207.
Maybe they have shown enough for some team to be interested?
I doubt any team will take Dellucci with us still owing him around $7.75 million for this and next season.
Whatever it takes, these two needs to off the Tribe roster.
Move # 2
Call up Ben Francisco.
I don’t care what he is batting at Buffalo, call him up. Most players would be discouraged and not have their head in the game if they were sent back to Buffalo for the third time after outperforming all of his competition.
Move # 3
This is the big one.
Trade for Reggie Willits of the Angels. They have called him back up from AAA at Salt Lake City. It is obvious he is not in their plans this year, with an outfield of Hunter, Guerrero, Matthews, Jr., Anderson, Rivera, and even Figgins.
I don’t care if it takes a prospect like Trevor Crowe, we need to get a guy who can lead off and play left field—now!
No one knows how many years it will take Crowe to be ready to play for the Tribe and by that time, he could be out of options too.
I need to explain further why we need Willits. Yes, I would love to have Carl Crawford, Alex Rios, or Jason Bay, but Shapiro is not going to give up three or four of his precious prospects for them.
The price tag for Willits should be minimal compared to the other guys. But Willits is a switch hitter, great glove and good arm, great speed to play left field and can steal bases. He has a good eye at the plate with excellent on base average and is only 26 years old and is making $432,000 a year.
He has the makings of a core player for the Tribe.
Most importantly, he can lead off and will allow us to move Grady Sizemore to the No. 3 hitting position in the lineup and move Travis Hafner down to the No. 5 position.
To remind you of what Willits has done in his Major League career with the Angels:
In 476 total at-bats, 89 runs scored, 139 hits, .292 batting average, .394 on base average, 80 walks, and 31 stolen bases.
Imagine a lineup of WILLITS, CABRERA/CARROLL, SIZEMORE, MARTINES, HAFNER, GARKO, PERALTA, GUTIERREZ/FRANCISCO AND BLAKE/MARTE.
Certainly a lot better than what we are currently putting on the field.
If anyone has any concern about Sizemore not batting lead off and batting third instead, look at his stats last year and this season hitting with men on base versus no one on base.
Briefly, for this year Sizemore is hitting .226, .317 OBP, .358 slugging, and .675 OPS with no one on base. With runner(s) on base, he is hitting .350, .481 OBP, .350 slugging, and .831 OPS.
Last season he had the same type of improvement with runners on base. So that tells me that Sizemore is a much more focused and dangerous hitter with men on base.
Batting third would give him more opportunities to hit with runners on base. We have been told for years now that Sizemore needs to be batting lead off by Wedge and company. I don’t know if that ever was really true but if we get a lead off hitter, he can be put in the third position, which will make our entire offensive more productive.
Move # 4
Either play Andy Marte or trade-release him.
We need to find out what his status is before Choo is activated from the disabled list and rehab assignments. At least one of the two must be eliminated. Adding Andy Gonzalez could help this team as utility more than Marte has been able to.
Move # 5
Someone has to pay for the ineffective offense by the Tribe hitters. The first place to start here is the hitting coach, Derek Shelton.
We have too many good ballplayers that are slumping badly and have obviously the wrong hitting philosophy. The scouts around baseball have found out how to pitch to our hitters (change ups and curve ball off the strike zone mainly) and our coaching staff has not responded back adequately.
The man in charge of this offense needs to be held accountable and it should have been done last season, probably in 2006.
In summation, we have some very good offensive players with the Tribe but we have a couple of weak spots that need to be eliminated if we are to be serious contenders for the World Series this year.
Mr. Shapiro and Wedge may have to swallow some pride but they need to look at the larger picture of what is best for the team, not only this year but for years to come.
With the trade to obtain Willits, which would start a chain reaction of moves, we are not going to be robbing our farm system. That was the main fear of Shapiro and others when the names of Rios, Crawford and Bay were mentioned as trade possibilities.
In addition, the offense has been inconsistent for a number of seasons and Shelton needs replaced by bringing in someone with a different and better strategy. My first thoughts here are to pay someone like Tony Gwynn to come in and take over this area. I believe that hitting philosophy is most of the problem and Gwynn can certainly articulate what the Tribe hitters need to do to improve.
One final thought.
In the picture of Shapiro and Wedge celebrating the 2007 Central Division Championship, notice the crowd in the background. To get back to that point of attendance and excitement, something has to be done quickly, to really get the Jake, oops, sorry, Progressive Field rocking again.
We need to make these moves for the team and the fans.
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5 months ago
I am sorry readers that my next to last paragraph probably doesn't make sense. My orginal photo was of Wedge and Shapiro celebrating after the 2007 AL Central Division Championship game and the stands were filled with avid Tribe fans.
Other than opening day, I have not seen that type of atmosphere in Cleveland. Give them a real team that can compete, the fans will come back.
5 months ago
My comments: Move #1- Exactly what I have been saying for months way back to last year. Delucci and Michaels are journeymen who do not help a team. Move #2- Francisco should demand a trade if he's not in the Clevland lineup EVERYDAY. He's proven that he can hit right-handed pitching. I just heard today that he has been called up. Hope our geniuses use him effectively. Move #3- Getting Willits would be a brillient trade. Move #4- The front office used the only option they could- they optioned Marte to the bench. Play him to find out what he can do or trade him. Move #5- Replace Shelton.
My lineup is Sizemore, Willits, Garko, Martinez, Hafner, Peralta, Francisco, Cabrera, Marte.
The Indians have to understand that this is not 2007. Also release Borowski- PLEASE.
from 5 months ago
It is funny but sad that most of the Tribe fans (close to 90% in a poll taken on MLB Indians web site) knew before the season started that Ben Francisco needed to be on the roster and playing most of the games and drop Michaels or Dellucci. So they are going to desiginate Michaels (finally) and bring up Ben. Francisco is not going to make the difference by himself but it is a start. I just hope that he doesn't try to do too much.
We are keeping Dellucci and it is funny that this week players of his caliber (maybe even better) have been released: Jacque Jones, Brad Wilkerson and Greg Norton. Do you see a trend there?
Conrad, we agree on all 5 items and have 1 1/2 of those fulfilled. They still need to fire Shelton, trade for Willits and playing Marte or release him. At this point, I think I would keep Dellucci until Choo is ready to come back and then make a decision based on how Dellucci is doing at that time.
I wonder what we could get in trade for Michaels, Dellucci/Choo, Marte & Sowers (even though I like him, I just don't see any openings for him the way the other guys are pitching).
I like your lineup but I still think it would be better with Grady batting 3rd and maybe one day we all can find out how it will work out.
5 months ago
great research. I like the Willits possibility. He would be a much cheaper option and a possible leadoff hitter.
I still think the team will get through this, everyone is trying to do it themselves right now. Hopefully this day off and a new left fielder will help put some energy into these guys.
from 5 months ago
Thanks Michael. It was information that I had collected based on a little tidbit by Buster Olney last winter about the Tribe's futility offensively, the second half of 2007. I just expanded it from there.
I have thought about Willits for quite some time (actually the first time I saw him play) and I think that he could be that lead off hitter that we have been waiting for, so that Sizemore can hit 3rd.
And it would have a low risk tag with it, which I am sure would make Shapiro happy. And the combination of Willits, Francisco & Gutierrez as our corner OF'ers would make our OF very solid and young.
I saw where Willits PH today and struck out. His average dropped down below .500 to ONLY .444 so the Angels may want to get rid of him.....
I agree Michael, this team has too much talent to continue this offensive slide and hopefully Ben can inject a little fire.
5 months ago
Move one and two are already in the works.. Michaels is going to get traded or released relatively soon here and Francisco is getting called up. He got yanked from the second game of the double header on Sunday.
I love Reggie Willits, but I'm not in love with that move.
I'm also not in love with moving Sizemore to the three hole, what is everyones obsession with that? There are plenty of players in the league like Grady hitting in the three hole and it working. Soriano does it, and Granderson does it. Him in the leadoff spot is a much better option than the three hole. You don't want him trying to steal bases with Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner at bat, you just don't. You want someone like Dellucci batting. It doesn't make sense to me, I'm sorry, and I think that is the reason Wedge has been so set on having him there, that an there is no other lead off hitter on this team.
from 5 months ago
I agree, I love Grady in the leadoff role. He is a guy who gets on base and makes things happen. Sure he is not the prototypical no power, speed guy with average, but what he does do is get on base at a good percentage, steal some bases, hit some HR, drive in some runs, etc. I have never really understood why "leadoff" is such a tag on players. In reality they likely will only "leadoff" once, maybe twice a game anyway. Especially in the American league where the pitcher is not batting ahead of him.
from 5 months ago
Yes, I am thankful that at least parts of the first two are apparantely being done.
I am a little surprised by your statement of 'love Willits but not in love with the move". Could you explain further?
Nino, I know that we have different opinions about Sizemore batting 3rd and I am fine with that but I would still ask that you look at what Grady does when men are on base versus no one on base. It surprised me when I first saw the huge difference. In Soriano's case, I am still not sold that he helps the team batting leadoff. I know that he prefers that but is he as productive as he could be? Granderson batting leadoff is only because of the other hitters that they have. They have talked about moving him down when they eventually have to do something with some of their aging bombers.
I just feel the Grady would be much more productive (key is that we get a guy like Willits to lead off) and help the team out even more. I could see him leading the team in RBI's and batting around .310 with the protection that he would have.
But that is what is great about baseball, we all can have different views and opinions but still able to talk about this wonderful game with wonderful fans.
from 5 months ago
It's not so much I don't like the move, it's more like I don't really think it is realistic. These sort of trades we make up in our minds are great ideas in thought, but we really have no clue what Shapiro is thinking. I just get really tense when people bring up their dream trades, even if there is a lot of thought. You can't do it, because really it is unrealistic to expect it to happen.
With Grady. It's about the rest of the team, not Grady. The rest of the lineup does not benefit from it in my mind. That's great that he does what he does when there are men on base, why not just let him do it from the leadoff spot. He gets the most ABs and like I said I think he is our best base stealer by far, and if you put him in the third hole you are basically taking that element of his game away. Victor isn't going to want to sit around and wait for Grady to steal, you know he swings early and often.
Another thing is the mentality... Grady has been batting leadoff for years now, he has that in his mind. How do you think he will take it? It is a different animal in the three hole, there is a lot more pressure, just ask Peralta. I'm not doubting Grady, I'm just saying.. It would be so much easier to stick with what has worked for Grady and the rest of the team, instead of blowing it up and having 9 spots to fill rather than a few.
5 months ago
One more thing guys to think about when discussing Sizemore leading off or batting 3rd.
I am saying this somewhat in jest but what if Leo Durocher played a Wedge and thought because he had speed and a good eye, that Willie Mays should only be a lead off hitter?
Now I am not saying trying to say that Grady is in Willie's class as he did a lot of things that other players couldn't do. Grady has potential to be like that in some areas. Sizemore doesn't have the arm obviously and not the power yet but even being discussed in the same sentence in quite a compliment.
5 months ago
"WILLITS, CABRERA/CARROLL, SIZEMORE, MARTINES, HAFNER, GARKO, PERALTA, GUTIERREZ/FRANCISCO AND BLAKE/MARTE. "
You must know alot about the indians and feel you can make a good GM. Learn to spell MARTINEZ the correct way artard. You think you can write an article and say your ideas are so good. Yet you can not even spell the name of the only player on the time who is hitting. Put it in MS word and Martines fails spell checik.
from 5 months ago
I do apologize for not spelling Martinez correctly. It was an oversight that I saw after I posted my reply. For my articles, I run it through spell check but for replies, I normally do not.
I am not real sure what artard is and maybe I don't want to know.
I (and you) can write articles on what we believe. I don't think I said anywhere in the article or replies that my 'ideas are so good'. It is just what I have seen from this team over the last number of years, watching almost every Tribe game.
Your view may be entirely different and that is fine. I didn't realize that not spelling one word correctly (actually more of a typing error because I have written Martinez many times) is grounds for making a reply bad.
By the way 'You', not that I am angry with you or think less of your opinion, but the very last word of your reply (checik) is not spelled correctly. I had a fine gentleman tell me once that a person should 'put it in MS word' to make sure their reply is correct.
5 months ago
Who cares if willits can steal. If wedge doesn't send him he won't. Look when we signed showalter. All of a sudden we hit and ran and stole bases, wedges contract was renewed and all that stopped. Wedge leaves pitchers in to long, and continually makes the wrong move with the bullpen. It shouldn't matter if we score 2 or 3 runs as long as we STOP the other team from getting 3 or more. To do this borowski needs to be gone and wedge needs to be gone. Wedge is almost as bad as romeo crennel. (probably spelled wrong but I don't write articles criticizing the browns and calling my self a super fan) Wedge needs to go. and borowski needs to go. AND last but NOT least. YOU Need to stop writing if you don't know anything.
5 months ago
I know that Wedge is very hesitant to let his base stealers run and we actually only have two real base stealers in the starting lineup. Also, I agree that it sure seems that with Showalter out of the picture, Wedge has returned to his old style of managing. His managing is much like Shapiro's ability to obtain a needed bat; both are fearful of something going wrong so they just sit there and make no move.
I will say that at least we are bunting more and that is because of our lack of offensive production, he has had to do it. Plus, we have some guys who can actually lay down a sacrifice bunt.
In my opinion, the Tribe's problems, this season and the second half of 2007 is not because of our starting pitching but our offensive being tamed. That is not a negative but the honest truth when you look at the statistics for both.
Much of what I wrote is based on statistics and actual performances of the Tribe team. I tried to keep my personal feelings (even though I have been a huge Tribe fan for over 50 years) out of it as much as possible and report the facts. Obviously, you do not appreicate the facts being submitted to you.
5 months ago
Hey, go_away- go away. We don't need immature teeny boppers on this site.
5 months ago
YOU can go away too for the same reason.
5 months ago
Conrad, Go Away, You, or whatever your name is, you certainly are a great debater.
Such good points and background information you use to make your point, whatever your point is. Or more importantly, why.
4 months ago
UPDATE;
The Tribe's offensive slump is now past 137 games of futility.
The 2 hottest hitter right now is Francisco and Aubrey but we have to remember that Shelton hasn't gotten to them yet. So expect them both to be around .200 after a few weeks.
4 months ago
IT IS NOW 148 GAME HITTING SLUMP....
THINK IN MIGHT BE TIME TO DO SOMETHING?
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