Four Ohio State players suspended for season opener
July 30, 2015Farewell Indians, Hello Terrelle Pryor, plus 1,000 Foos: While We’re Waiting
July 31, 2015The Martians, the Zombies and the Mindless Marauders have been defeated. We’re safe … for now.
Near the beginning of the Indians game against the Royals on Wednesday, STO play-by-play man Matt Underwood asked his partner Rick Manning if, when he was still playing, an Indians losing streak was perceived as an end-of-the-world scenario as it’s portrayed nowadays. I suppose that caught my attention, having just finished reading The Dog Stars by Peter Heller.
Heller’s novel was not as hopeless, unappetizing or full of dread as, say, The Road by Cormac McCarthy. There are scenes in The Road that require most civilized people to avert their eyes, even from the printed page. But were those fictionalized accounts of a post-apocalyptic world more difficult to read (or watch) than the Cleveland Indians trying to get a hit with runners in scoring position? Score runs? Win a game on their home turf? Oooooh, it’s been scary!
Manning replied that, no, he just recalls going out every day and focusing on his own job. There was no omnipresent, omnipotent media in his day, stirring the cauldron of ghoulish nightmares. Hey, it’s just a game of baseball and the Indians just need to relax and play the game.
Coincidentally, prior to Wednesday afternoon’s game against the Royals, which the Indians won 12-1 (!), I imagined a pre-game talk by Terry Francona with his troops, telling them, “Hey, guys, let’s try this. Let’s be honest with each other. Let’s just forget about the World Series, okay? You’re not going to the World Series. Unless you buy a ticket. Okay? In fact, let’s forget about the Central Division. And let’s forget about the Wild Card stuff. Okay? Let’s just do one thing. Let’s play a game of baseball. Today. Throw the ball, catch the ball, hit the ball. Let’s not think about anything else. No pressure. Okay guys?”
Whether or not Indians players heard such a talk prior to Wednesday’s walloping of the Royals, they’ve probably gotten the message. As far a contention goes, the Indians have thrown in the towel. They’re not buyers as the trade deadline approaches. They’re sellers. Off went David Murphy to the Angels (we’ll see him again in a few days in LA). Off went Brandon Moss to the Cardinals for left-handed pitching prospect Rob Kaminsky.
The Indians’ trade for Brandon Moss back on December 8 was perhaps questionable. Yes, they needed some offensive help, but another left-handed bat? A batter who has always struck out a lot? The Indians’ trade of Brandon Moss was a lot more understandable. He was hitting .217 for the Tribe. Yes, he led the team with 15 home runs, but he also led the team in strikeouts by a wide margin (with 106; Michael Bourn is next with 70). His OBP (.288) and average with runners in scoring position (.185) were both ranked near the bottom of Indians hitters.
Moss was as disappointed and frustrated as any other Tribe member over the course of the season, but perhaps a change of scenery, a new home away from Progressive Field, and being on a team with the best record in baseball will breathe some life into his career. We’ll see.
And maybe, just maybe, Lonnie Chisenhall will return to the Tribe with a consistent bat. Who knows? It happened with Mike Moustakas this year. Why not Lonnie?
Enemy territory for the Tribe this year is at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario
Enemy territory for the Tribe this year is at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario
In Rob Kaminsky, the Indians obtained one of the Cardinals top five prospects. He’s a 20-year-old left-handed pitcher, the first pick of the Cardinals in the 2013 draft. He’s 5-foot-11 and 191 pounds. The one hesitation scouts have regarding his game concerns the velocity of his fastball. He’s generally in the 88-91 mph range but can get it up to 92-93 at times. Kaminsky has good control, and a plus curveball and changeup. Of course, he doesn’t turn 21 until September 2 this year so he’s still young, but thus far, scouts project him as a fourth starter or reliever.
Decisions to call it a day (or a season) don’t require formal announcements or press conferences. That’s just the way it goes, but as Browns head coach Mike Pettine is fond of pointing out, that doesn’t mean the season is canceled. What the team does next is simple. They play baseball. There are a lot of baseball fans who have attended/watched/listened to countless Indians games without the fantasy of thinking a postseason berth is just around the corner. The professional game is supposed to be entertainment, not a herculean effort to save the world.
Another quip made by Mr. Underwood at the beginning of Wednesday’s game was that the Indians, already losers of the first six games of a seven-game homestand, would be trying to “sneak out of town” with one victory. That phrase, sneak out of town, is usually reserved for a road trip series when your team gets a victory in enemy territory and then makes a tactical withdrawal. But that slip of the lip seems entirely appropriate for the 2015 Cleveland Indians since they happen to have the second worst home record in the major leagues at 20-32. Enemy territory for the Tribe this year is at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario.
The Indians did, indeed, get their victory over the Royals at Progressive Field on Wednesday and they did, indeed, sneak out of town and head for friendlier territory: The Road, where the Tribe has one of the best records in the majors at 26-22. Strange!
The series beginning Thursday night in Oakland is the first of a four-game set which matches up two last-place teams, but to appreciate how far the Indians have fallen over the past several weeks, compare the Indians’ stats with those of Oakland, which has spent almost the entire season in the cellar. The A’s have actually outscored the Indians 430-392. The A’s rank 9th in runs scored. The Indians are 12th. The A’s have outhit the Indians 895-841. Oakland’s run differential is plus-36. Cleveland’s is minus-38.
The A’s actually lead the American League with a team ERA of 3.48, while the Indians are eighth at 3.93. The A’s starters also lead the AL with a 3.15 ERA while the Tribe’s starters are ninth at 4.29. Only Cleveland’s bullpen looks good compared to Oakland. Indians relievers (with an ERA of 3.21) are fourth in the AL, compared to Oakland’s next-to-last ERA of 4.31.
On July 10-11-12, the A’s won two of three games against the Indians at Progressive Field.
So, it’s really no mystery why the Tribe has fallen to last place. Yes, they lead the American League in walks and their pitchers have struck out more opposing batters than any other team in the AL, but they’re simply not doing much else that wins them games.
The series in Oakland offers a smorgasbord of starting times at a decreasing level of stay-awake-difficulty:
Thursday 10:05 P.M. ET
Friday 9:35 P.M. ET
Saturday 9:05 P.M. ET
Sunday 4:05 P.M. ET
Pitching matchups for the series (all eight are righties):
Chris Bassitt (0-3, 2.94, 33.2 IP) vs. Carlos Carrasco (10-8, 4.26, 118.1 IP)
Kendall Graveman (6-7, 4.13, 89.1 IP) vs. Danny Salazar (8-6, 3.72, 111.1 IP)
Aaron Brooks (0-0, 6.23, 4.1 IP for KC) vs. Cody Anderson (2-2, 3.26, 38.2 IP)
Sonny Gray (11-4, 2.16, 145.2 IP) vs. Trevor Bauer (8-8, 4.13, 124.1 IP)
Following the series in Oakland, the Indians travel to Los Angeles (er, Anaheim) to play the Angels in a three-game series. Speaking of “buyers.”
Appreciating the end-of-the-world, post-apocalyptic genre (and tying it to the Indians 2015 baseball season) requires some suspension of disbelief, but personally, I draw the line at zombies, which have a zero percent chance of becoming reality. Although it must be said that on more than one occasion this season, the Indians’ moribund play on the field has been described by a beat writer or two as zombie-like. I won’t go that far, however. I appreciate that these players are trying their best. It’s just that their world as they knew it has been exploded. They’ve just been in a state of semi-shock.
That’s why I appreciated The Dog Stars. Sure, a lot goes catastrophically wrong. After all, it’s the end of the world almost. But there’s the powerful struggle to survive. There’s some beauty, some poetry. There’s even some love to be experienced. Not everyone dies at the end. At the end, slim though their hopes are, they’re still there, waiting. You know, for next year.