Cleveland Indians' 126-Game Slump: Can Anything Be Done?

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.

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