Factory Lines: Curtain Closes on Cleveland Indians Season, More Attendance Woes, Browns At The Bye and Tristan Thompson

Sep 23, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Indians left fielder Michael Brantley (23) reaches for the ball on a two-RBI double by Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez (not pictured) in the fifth inning at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Despite a long 158-game fight, the Cleveland Indians season died last night, and the upstart Kansas City Royals delivered the final blow.

Trailing Kansas City by 3 1/2 games for the final Wild Card Spot, the Tribe mustered just one run as KC spanked the Indians 7-1 at Progressive field.

At the most critical time of the season, the bats went silent, again. Not counting Monday’s suspended game, the Indians have 10 hits over the past two games, with one lousy run to show for it. As Jim Mora would say, “PLAYOFFS!?!?”

Adding a bat is a must come the Hot Stove season. Nick Swisher was supposed to fill that role, but who knows what type of player he’ll be over the next two seasons after undergoing multiple knee surgeries this summer.

• Jason Kipnis did his best to boost attendance at last night’s game, giving away two tickets on Twitter. Unfortunately, about 30,000 green seats remained, as the official attendance was announced at 11,735. This is up a whopping 1,300 fans from Monday.  Why don’t they just announce attendance as “Highly Embarrassing,” rather than give an actual figure?

• Not making the postseason is a discouraging, but on the bright side, the Indians are one win away for guaranteeing the franchise’s first back-to-back winning seasons since the 2000 and 2001 clubs did so under Charlie Manuel.

• This stat actually makes the low attendance even more puzzling. I can kind of buy the argument that people don’t want to buy into a team that has one winning season, and then wallows in the cellar for a few years before making another serious run.

Perhaps its because the lineup is void of a true superstar bat, or maybe its because the suburbanites can’t get to the ballpark because its a school night. In all honestly, there’s lots of reasons nobody’s going, but this one thing I know is true: The Indians have been more consistent winners than the Browns and Cavs the past couple seasons, and nobody seems to care enough to show up.

• How bad is attendance? The Indians are trying to stave off the Rays for the worst numbers

Cleveland Browns

No football this sunday, but the Factory’s Glenn Moore is gearing you up for the Bye Week Blues with a recent Browns By The Numbers post.

Aug 9, 2014; Detroit, MI, USA; Cleveland Browns cornerback Joe Haden (23) against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports

Brian Hoyer headlines the good, with a 97.5 passer rating, while the Baby Backs Terrance West and Isaiah Crowell have combined for 345 rushing yards. Joe Haden–now ranked as one of Pro Football Focus’ worst defensive backs–headlines the bad.

• The defense was supposed to be a strength of this team, but so far, it’s yielded disappointing results, which has led to questions about the way Mike Pettine and his defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil call plays.

Nothing will be changing on that front, as Pettine said as much yesterday, via Cleveland.com.

"“We collaborate on (the calls),” Pettine explained. “The most important thing that we do is we build the game plan together. We build the call sheet together. Sometimes, calling the game is – for us defensively the way we’re set up – it is very overrated because in a lot of way the call sheets are like a flow chart.A good number of the calls call themselves. It’s this area of the field, this hash mark, this personnel grouping, this down and distance, this situation of the game. There are very specific calls that he and I build together during the week.”"

Cleveland Cavaliers

• Tuesday was a big news day for Tristan Thompson. T-Squared could start the season at the center, and he’s also looking for a new contract in the range of $11 million per season, via King James Gospel.

Apr 9, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward Tristan Thompson (13) reaches for the ball against the Detroit Pistons in the second quarter at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Remember, LeBron James and Thompson share agent Rich Paul. Paul got a lot of credit for delivering James back to the Cavs and Dan Gilbert. He may be rewarded with a huge deal for Thompson.

I’m hesitant to give a player, who can’t score from more than two feet away from the basket and had a lot of shots blocked that kind of money, but if he continues to rebound, becomes some sort of shot blocker (which he has never shown in three NBA seasons) and plays with some Anderson Varejao intensity, I’d soften on making TT a lucrative offer.

Sheridan Hoops made the case against going long-term with TT:

"“The case against extending Thompson, especially for big money, is rather obvious. His career numbers — 10.8 points, 8.6 rebounds, 47% shooting in 29 minutes/game with a PER of 15.0 — are average at best for a starting power forward. Greg Monroe is a good example of a comparable-style big man with better numbers, and he had to settle for the qualifying offer in Detroit. Furthermore, with the recent arrival of Kevin Love in Cleveland, Thompson might soon be headed to the bench (though he could start at center).”"

The basketball blog then quickly noted Thompson, James and Paul’s relationship. David Griffin may be the GM by title, but we all know who’s calling the shots:

"“The X-factor, of course, is James. If LeBron pushes hard enough and sells his vision of the team with Thompson in it, there may be a deal to be struck this year. But unless James goes out of his way to pull strings, Thompson may have a hard time finding the type of deal he’s said to be looking for.”"

Remember last time James was our general manager? How’d that work out? #JustSayin.