With AL Central begging to be taken, Cleveland Indians wasting time

While other  AL Central clubs have been active on the trade market, the Cleveland Indians responded by playing terribly coming out of the All-Star break.

In a matter of a week, two teams have already waived the white flag in the AL Central.

The Chicago White Sox have traded away ace Jose Quintana, Todd Frazier, Tommy Kahnle, and David Robertson in separate trades.

The Tigers began their fire sale by dealing J.D. Martinez to Arizona.

Instead of hitting the gas, the Indians have false started out of the gate to begin the second half, wasting away their window of opportunity in the AL Central.

Just how bad was the west coast swing for the Indians? Dennis Mandoloff of the Cleveland Plain Dealer shared an image worth a thousand words:

The  most frustrating part of this team has been how poorly they have played at times has somehow been so much better than the rest of the division. The Indians do remain a half game ahead of the Twins after dropping Wednesday’s series finale to the Giants, arguably the worst team in baseball. They also remain the only team in the division with a positive run differential. The Indians sit at +63 for the season while the Twins are -61, which is actually the worst in the division.

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Given that run differential, the Indians should be 54-39, good for the only winning expected record in the division and the 4th  most expected wins in the AL. According to Baseball Prospectus, the Indians have a 90.6% chance to make the playoffs still.

We’ve covered on this site before the season even started that the AL Central was prime for the Indians to simply run away with it, the way the Astros have in the AL West, where they lead the Mariners by more than 15 games. It was true in April that the Twins, White Sox, and Tigers all had questions. It was the Royals who appeared to be even remotely possible of challenging the Tribe.

So instead of seizing the opportunity, the Indians have stumbled. Maybe it’s losing Jason Kipnis and Lonnie Chisenhall before the first game was played after the break. Maybe it’s Tito Francona‘s health scares. Maybe it’s the loss of clubhouse presence Mike Napoli or Rajai Davis.

Either way, this team is too talented to let a really crappy division stay in the race.

Unlike the Cavs, the Indians can’t just flip a switch and finish in the top half of the league.

Next: Once an asset, starting pitching now concerning

In baseball, that isn’t good enough. The Indians are going to have to win the Central since it looks like their record won’t be strong enough to win a Wild Card slot. Either way, The Tribe’s California mis-adventure is closing their golden window of opportunity to pull away with a division title.