Cleveland Sports Forum

As long as Brantley stays over 300 he has a good chance. Doesn't hurt that he leads the league in outfield assists. That his hitting is best with RISP. And looking at his numbers, although he doesn't walk a ton (19 BB) that equals his strikeout total. And although he doesn't steal a ton (8 SB) he's not been caught once. That's a lot of good things he's up to this season.

Kluber's wins, era and especially strikeouts are among leaders. There are lots of teams to include so lots of talented players get left out but Michael and Corey clearly deserve selection.

I'm behind the curve on 21st century stats, but I see Brantley is tied for 4th in the AL in offensive WAR He's 6th in "adjusted" OPS. 7th in "adjusted batting wins". 5th hardest to strikeout. I have no idea what "Win Probability Added" means buts he's second behind Trout. All of that sounds like an obvious All Star.

Kluber is 8th in "pitching WAR". He leads the league in "Fielding Independent Pitching". Not on some of the other advanced stat leader boards. For what that's worth.

"Pitching WAR"? Huh? What is THAT good for?

Absolutely nothing!

say it again......

good God...

Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is an attempt by the sabermetric baseball community to summarize a player’s total contributions to their team in one statistic. You should always use more than one metric at a time when evaluating players, but WAR is pretty darn all-inclusive and provides a handy reference point. WAR basically looks at a player and asks the question, “If this player got injured and their team had to replace them with a minor leaguer or someone from their bench, how much value would the team be losing?” This value is expressed in a wins format, so we could say that Player X is worth +6.3 wins to their team while Player Y is only worth +3.5 wins.

Manny Ramirez in 1999 had a WAR of 7.5. I think that is pretty good. We didnt need him.

He did not want to play in Cleveland !

Just like the other drug taker Thome !

Manuel fed the stuff to all of his boys.

kenm wrote:Manny Ramirez in 1999 had a WAR of 7.5. I think that is pretty good. We didnt need him.

That was FIFTEEN years ago, kenm. FIFTEEN YEARS AGO!

Looking for ways for the Cleveland Indians to snap out of their dismal funk -- Terry Pluto


CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Paging through my Tribe notebook:

THE TREND: If the rest of the Tribe season continues at this pace, their final record will be 72-90. It was painful to write that sentence, but it must be said.
One third of the season -- 54 games -- are finished. And the Tribe is 24-30. That's six games under .500.

HISTORY LESSON: The Tribe started slow last season, and ended up at 92-70. It took a 10-game winning streak to finish the season, but they made the playoffs.

THE LOW POINT, 2013: If history equals hope, the Tribe was about to take a head-first dive into the baseball trash at this point a year ago. They were 29-25, but about to lose 9-of-10 games. On June 10, 2013, they were 30-33. No one was talking playoffs.

THE FINISH: After being 30-33 on June 10, they finished the season with a 62-37 record. It was remarkable, and no one saw it coming. A key was the rise of the rotation. Justin Masterson was the anchor all season. Scott Kazmir and Ubaldo Jimenez began to pitch like the guys who would secure a combined total of $72 million in free-agent contracts. Corey Kluber discovered he was a very good starter.

THE DEFENSE: The Tribe did a decent (not great, but acceptable) job catching the ball. They ranked 11th in errors. At least they were mediocre. They seldom played games that made you scream, "Are they trying to catch the ball with a Dixie cup?"

THE SHORTSTOP: Asdrubal Cabrera should buy dinner for Nick Swisher (.211, .631 OPS) and Carlos Santana (.159, .628 OPS), because those two guys have negated some of the criticism that should be aimed at the Tribe's shortstop. Heading toward free agency, Cabrera is batting .245 (.693 OPS) with three homers and 14 RBI. This comes after a season where he was a .242 hitter with 14 homers and 64 RBI.


What veteran Tribe player has been the biggest disappointment this season?

Carlos Santana 43.45%

Nick Swisher 31.75%

Justin Masterson 19.6%

Asdrubal Cabrera 4.87%

Someone else 0%



THE MEMORY: Once upon a time -- 2011 and 2012 -- Cabrera made the All-Star team. In those two seasons, he averaged .271 with 20 homers and 80 RBI.

He is being paid $10 million this season. That's $10 million for a guy who is hitting .241 since opening day of 2013. He's a 28-year-old shortstop who has lost his range. That's not just my opinion. Fangraphs.com has rated him among baseball's worst shortstops for the last three years.

THE POINT: A year ago you could at least say Cabrera caught the balls hit to him. He had only nine errors in 136 games. This season, it's eight errors in 47 games. Routine plays are no longer routine. Cabrera is in better physical condition than in the last few seasons. Heading into free agency, he has the motivation to produce. But right now, Cabrera is a poor defensive shortstop who is not hitting.

LEANING LEFT: So the Tribe has Cabrera with eight errors at shortstop. Tribe third basemen have 16 errors! So the left side of the infield has made 24 errors. Nor does it have any range. Justin Masterson (2-4, 5.21 ERA) has not been good this season. But he's a ground ball pitcher, and the infield defense has made his life even more miserable on the mound.

Lonnie Chisenhall: Cleveland Indians 2014Now that he's hitting, Lonnie Chisenhall must improve his defense. He has eight errors in 20 games at third.Chuck Crow / The Plain Dealer
ABOUT THIRD: You have to love how Lonnie Chisenhall is hitting (.358), but he has eight errors at third. That's eight errors in 20 games! Santana (six errors) has started to look like a catcher at third after a promising start at his new position. Compare the Tribe's 16 errors at third this season to only 19 in 2013.

AT FIRST: Swisher had six errors at first base. The only infielder who has been above average is when Mike Aviles has played second base. That's it, one guy -- Aviles.

FREE GIFTS: A terrible defense is why the Tribe has allowed 39 unearned runs this season -- 11 more than anyone else in the American League. They make an error a game -- on pace for 162 for the season. A year ago, the Tribe had 98 errors and 51 unearned runs. Not great. Not even average. But at least, it was mediocre.

A THOUGHT: Something worth considering would be seeing if there is a trade market for Cabrera, and moving him. The next move would be bringing up 20-year-old Francisco Lindor straight from Class AA Akron, where he is hitting .288 (.790 OPS) with four homers and 30 RBI. Yes, Lindor has 10 errors in 48 games. Young shortstops tend to make a lot of errors in the minors. But he also has remarkable range. In spring training, Manager Terry Francona said Lindor was already a Major League shortstop with the glove.
Odds are the Tribe's offense will remain inconsistent. The pitching must be good and the defense has to rise to mediocrity to save the season.

GO FIGURE: It's astounding what has happened to the defense: Swisher, Cabrera, Chisenhall and even Jason Kipnis (before he was injured) all have regressed from 2013. Same with catcher Yan Gomes (nine errors), although he has settled down and not made an error since May 7.

ANOTHER THOUGHT: I wonder if a combination of Kipnis/Lindor/Chisenhall could perhaps pump some life into the team. If nothing else, that is the infield of 2015. Is it time to have them play together right now? Or perhaps, beginning in July?

HARD TO EXPLAIN: The Indians are fifth in the American League in runs scored. I checked three times to make sure that's right. And that comes after the last four games, where they have scored a grand total of seven runs.

THE STREAKS: Here's how it has been for the Tribe of late: They lost three games to Oakland, scoring six runs. ... They won 5-of-6 (including a three-game sweep of Detroit), and scored 43 runs in those games. ... They lost their last four games, scoring a grand total of seven runs.

THE KNEES: What are we to make of Swisher having problems with both knees? When the Tribe put Swisher on the disabled list, Terry Francona said: "Structurally, there wasn't anything out of whack, so that was really good. There's some arthritic changes, which we knew. ... He got both knees injected. That puts him down three to five days to let that thing calm down. ... Hopefully when his two weeks are up, he might be rarin' to go. We'll hope."

THE SLUMPERS: Swisher was actually batting .256 in his last 10 games, but had only one homer and four RBI. Are the knees why he has only three homers? Is that impacting his power, or is Swisher just not hitting? Other than a recent concussion, Santana has been healthy. It's his bat (.156) that has been hopelessly sick. Jason Kipnis was batting .224 when he was injured in late April. Unless at least two of these guys shape up, the offense will continue to sputter.

THE RUN PRODUCERS: Michael Brantley (.310, 887 OPS) and David Murphy (.268, .760 OPS) have combined for 70 RBI. They are the only consistent run producers. No one else on the team has more than 19 RBI (Yank Gomes).

TWO OTHER HITTERS: Chisenhall will have a chance to play against some lefties. His swing is short and quick, and it's exciting to watch him mature as a hitter. Michael Bourn (.284, .323 on-base) has been productivehas a leadoff hitter, especially since he seems past his hamstring injuries. But he is careful about stealing bases, only 4-of-7. A guess is that he's still worried a bit about that cranky hamstring.

THE STARTERS: When spring training ended, who'd have guessed that only two members of the rotation (Corey Kluber and Masterson) would still be starting by June? Gone are Carlos Carrasco (bullpen), Danny Salazar (minors) and Zach McAllister (disabled list). Taking their place are Josh Tomlin, Trevor Bauer and T.J. House. Kluber (5-3, 3.10) is the only starter with more than three victories. Or how about this: Masterson, Salazar, Carrasco and McAllister are a combined 6-15 when they were in the rotation.

THE CLOSER: They have none. Or they haven't designated anyone since John Axford lost the job. At some point soon, Francona has to pick someone to handle the job -- be it Cody Allen or Bryan Shaw. Or does he go back to Axford?

THE WAY BACK TO CONTENTION: The revised rotation with Tomlin, Bauer and House begins to click with Kluber and Masterson. Or McAllister recovers from his back problems and throws as he did when he opened the season at 3-0 with a 2.23 ERA, And someone emerges as a closer. The Indians need to have close to dominant pitching team to contend for a wild-card spot. And the defense must improve to mediocrity for that to happen. As for the offense, that also has to get better -- but pitching and defense will determine how the Tribe performs for the rest of the season.

I love this place!

They skipped Crockett over AAA and brought him up to Cleveland. So they might be willing to do so with Lindor who's a better prospect. Of course they then returned Crockett to AAA despite success is his "getting his feet wet" period with the Tribe.

Is there a team out there desparate enough for an SS (or perhaps a 2B) to want to trade for Asdrubal? I don't think it would take much in return to trade him

T.J. Zuppe
T.J. Zuppe began his broadcasting career in 2008 and has covered major...


CLEVELAND (92.3 The Fan) - As the Cleveland Indians continue their weekend series with the Colorado Rockies at Progressive Field, we throw open the twitter mailbag and dive into some of your questions from this week:

Q: @Michael_Enio – With Corey Kluber’s emergence as a front line starter, how does that change front office thoughts on Justin Masterson and a possible contract offer?

I’ll tell you the same thing GM Chris Antonetti told the media after signing Michael Brantley, Yan Gomes and Jason Kipnis to contract extensions this spring: One extension has no bearing on potential future extensions. The same can be said for performances. Keep in mind, Kluber isn’t scheduled to become a free agent until after the 2018 campaign, and while I’ve been his biggest fan for what he’s accomplished in the first two months of 2014, he still has a track record to establish before assuming his contributions will remain at an All-Star level. The biggest factor in this equation is the performance of Masterson. A near three mile-per-hour drop on his four-seam fastball has gone unexplained, and he is still battling command and the reputation of being an every other year pitcher. If they weren’t willing to bend to his demands before, nothing the righty has done this season warrants a change on that stance – yet. The question is: Will Masterson pitch is way back into that conversation or will he accept less than front of the rotation type money? Only time will tell.

Q: @Mchiff2323 – Will Indians trade for a power hitter? This team is awful to watch.

More than anything, the Indians need their best hitters to produce like it. This club is limited in what they can add to their current roster, and expecting a savior to arrive at the trade deadline is a bit far-fetched. The organization will tell you the lack of consistent offense is due to a number of players underperforming below career norms. There is a great deal of truth in that, as Nick Swisher, Carlos Santana and Asdrubal Cabrera have all gone through rough stretches. If those three never consistently lock it in offensively, it won’t matter what other power-hitting slugger they chase in July – it may already be too late.

Q: @Rschmot - How would you rate all the Indians starting pitchers?

The starting staff has been an incredible inconsistent unit that has existed at both ends of the spectrum. From Kluber’s potential All-Star candidacy to two-fifths of the rotation being demoted, there has been a lot of uncertainty in Terry Francona’s starting five. Masterson remains the biggest key to finding some consistency, but a return to form by Zach McAllister could be equally as important. If it’s possible is anyone’s guess considering his previous six starts before his DL stint resulted in an ERA above nine. Josh Tomlin has provided some stability, and Trevor Bauer possesses the highest upside. For now, the rotation behind Kluber remains a grab-bag with much to prove.

Q: @SPORTSYELLING – WHICH INDIAN HAS THE MOST FOUL MOUTH?

That’s not even a competition: Terry Francona. I think you two would be good friends.

Q: @Landyman_ - What’s keeping Tito from naming Cody Allen the closer? Why the committee approach?

As you know, the most important inning isn’t always the ninth. Making Allen strictly the ninth inning guy makes him unavailable in high-leverage seventh and eighth inning situations. If the organization had its wish, John Axford would work his way back into the ninth allowing Francona to mix and match Allen and Bryan Shaw in crucial late-game jams. Now, over a long season, relievers prefer having set roles to operate from. But in the meantime, you will likely continue to see a combination in the games’s final frame.

Q: WahooStrong – With the emergence of Gomes and Chisenhall, and Swisher’s contract at 1B, could Santana be moved if the Tribe falters?

The most ideal trades are made when a player’s value is the highest. No one will argue Santana’s is anywhere close. Even with his down 2014 season, he is extremely affordable through the 2016 season, and the club possesses a 2017 team option. Plus, it’s really difficult to fathom his slump continuing throughout the entire campaign. Bottom line: Trading Santana would not in any way be maximizing that asset.