Cleveland Indians: 2019 Opening Day Unsolicited Observations

The Voice of the Fan breaks down the state of the Cleveland Indians as the Tribe eyes it’s fourth AL Central crown in as many seasons.

The regular season is within touch and the Tribe is looking to win it’s forth AL Central tittle in as many years.

They should be favored as if you look around at the Central Division. The White Sox have been in a perpetual rebuild since 2006. The Royals are neck-and-neck with the Sox, adding speed to boost their version of a rebuild.

Detroit is also in the back of the pack with its rebuilding and none of these clubs look to be much competition for the Indians. But you never know for sure. Injuries can take their toll.

Just look at the Tribe in the first few weeks of the season: No Francisco Lindor, Jason Kipnis, and we think Jose Ramirez will be in the lineup after fouling a ball off his leg, but there’s not guarantee.

Two thirds of Cleveland’s infield, along with the heavily publicized unsettled outfield full of hopefuls like Jordan Luplow ,Greg Allen and Jake Bauers, none of whom have more than a small amount of major league service. Leonys Martin is the elder statesmen as an eight-year veteran.

Here are some unsolicited observations at the onset of the 2019 campaign.

1. Where is the power going to come from? I wonder about it. Other fans think about it. The media thinks about, too, including Bleacher Report’s Zachart Rymer.

Rymer picked the Twins as his “Cinderella team” and the Tribe as his most disappointing club as he predicted Minnesota will will the Central.

2. The Indians will ride the starting rotation, even more so this year as opposed to the last few seasons.

Injuries can always flip a season upside down for every team, but the Tribe’s warts will be on full display if Lindor or Ramirez leave the lineup for extended periods, or if Corey Kluber or Trevor Bauer go on the DL.

3. Now we can’t go without another Dolan statement that should infuriate Tribe fans. More or less he said to enjoy Francisco Lindor as we have him under control for three years and to enjoy those!

Such a statement could mean he won’t be here after that? But the problem is if that’s true, the window closes in that time period and he should be pulling out the stops to win it all.

4. Dolan has championship caliber starting pitching, which is half of the battle! Unfortunately the Dolans won’t go get the players needed to go further than the first round of playoffs.

Do they figure that’s enough to satisfy the fans ? The problem has been since 1948 that they continue to come up short when it counted, one or two players away from winning the World Series.

Now Cleveland is probably more than one or two pieces away with the loses suffered in free agency and trades to scalp salary!