Cleveland Indians: 16 early-season complaints for listless Tribe

Complaining about the Cleveland Indians, who can’t seem to win without Shane Bieber…

1. Here’s what the Cleveland aren’t…exciting, especially two the last two teams they’ve played, the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago White Sox.

Want to make the case that Sox’s payroll puts them out of the Tribe’s league? Fine, but the Reds? They’re a small market who lost a Cy Young Award, but they’re keeping things interesting, largely because they hit!

The Indians, not so much. Their team average of .209 is 28th in the big leagues. They do hit home runs, of which they’ve belted 23 (tied for fifth in MLB), but unless they’re going deep, Cleveland looks incapable of driving in runs.

2. How much longer are we going to have to watch Jake Bauers at first base? He’s now 4-of-27 with a .207 on-base percentage. Realistically, a change is probably a few weeks away, but considering the woes defensively at first base over the course of the past week, would Bobby Bradley really be worse?

He didn’t start in the series opener against the Sox, but got two at-bats when he subbed in for Yu Chang. You guessed it, he went 0-for-2.

3. Speaking of Chang–he’s batting .214 with a .555 OPS. Chang’s teased us all with power, but apparently the left it all at last July’s Summer Camp.

4. Josh Naylor’s now committed two HUGE blunders in the matter of the last three games. He cost the Tribe a win on Saturday when he let what should’ve been the final out of the game roll under his legs. This time around, he blew past the stay sign rounding third base when Indians were threatening with two outs in the bottom of the fourth. To borrow a phrase from Tom Hamilton, he looked like a “Dead pigeon” at home plate and he ran the Indians out of the inning.

5. Cleveland’s margin for error is already razor thin, the mental lapses have to stop.

6. How many players do you know spending their season floating between shortstop and center field? I couldn’t name one until now, thanks to the Indians decision to find some use for Amed Rosario.

7. Tito didn’t start Andres Gimenez because he doesn’t want to play the 22-year-old against lefties. Fine, but what about all that talk about “catching the ball” that we heard in spring training? Nick Madrigalhit a tailor-made, double-play to Rosario in the fifth and it popped out of his glove.

Rosario collected the ball, and got the force out at second, but the inning should’ve been over. Keep in mind, this was the same frame in which the White Sox knocked Zach Plesac out of the game and then went on to hold a hit parade in the name of Cal Quantrill.

Quantrill got the next better to ground out to Jose Ramirez who made a great throw to finally stop the bleeding.

8. Per Fangraphs, of the players who’ve played at least 40 innings at shortstop in 2021, Andres Gimenez ranks as the sixth best defensive player at the position. Oh, Amed Rosario is 25th.

Again, this team isn’t good enough to squander the easy ones. Gimenez should be an everyday player.

9. It’d be in Rosario’s best interest to have him focus on center. That said, Luplow and his five home runs indicate that he deserves a look as a full-time player.  What to do with Rosario? I have no idea. It’s still surprising to me the Indians wanted him in the first place, and then for a double-whammy,  didn’t flip him to a team in need of a shortstop before the start of the season.

10. Luplow homered Monday night, but in the fourth inning, with the bases loaded and one out, he struck out, swinging at a pitch Shaq would’ve considered high. C’mon Luplow. Collecting solo homers pads the stats,  but if you really want to earn credits with the fan base, you’ve got to do it in the clutch, as well.

11. Speaking of high pitchers, we all know Eddie Rosario’s never met a pitch he doesn’t think he can’t hit. Just hope he starts hitting any kind of pitch at this point. Four extra base hits (1HR, 2 2B, 1 3B)  in 64 plate appearances…I think Yermin Mercedes did that over the weekend.

12. Plesac looked good early, but then it got bumpy, fast. He’s been charged with six earned runs in his last two starts. He’s supposed to be the NO. 2 starter. Right now, he’s a No. 2 with a 6.75 ERA.

13. Quantrill looked like he was throwing batting practice to the White Sox. He impressed a week ago when he got out of a bases loaded jam in Chicago, but in his last two starts, he’s surrounded five total hits (one HR) while issuing three walks.

14. Sam Hentges made his debut and the 6-foot-6 left hander struck out the side. It wasn’t all perfect though, as Jose Abreau gave the southpaw hammered a Welcome to the Big League home run over the mini-monster in left.

15. Still, Hentges showed us all why there’s been so much buzz around his name stemming out Spring Training. The Indians may still look at him as a starter down the road, but he can help out of the pen right now.

16.  For as flawed as the Indians roster may be, they’re 8-8 and keeping pace in the Central. That said, mental errors and fielding blunders will reveal themselves over the course of 162.