If the lineup the Indians ran out against the Mariners on Friday night wasn’t the worst since who knows when, it’s a close runner-up, like real close, like outleaned at the finish line close.
This was shades of the old Municipal Stadium days that led to the making of Major League I and II:
• Michael Brantley, CF (.198, 2 HRs, 10 RBIs)
• Asdrubal Cabrera, SS (.269, 2 HRs, 13 RBIs)
• Shin-Soo Choo, RF (.288, 14 HRs, 55 RBIs)
• Jordan Brown, DH (.259, 0 HR, 1 RBI)
• Trevor Crowe, LF (.257, 2 HRS, 30 RBIs)
• Andy Marte, 1B (.210, 4 HRS, 15 RBIs)
• Luis Valbuena, 3B (.169, 2 HRS, 17 RBIs)
• Jason Donald, 2B (.259, 3 HRs, 20 RBIs)
• Chris Gimenez, C (.136, 0 HR, 2 RBIs)
Sounds like runs, doesn’t it? All two of them in a 3-2 loss to the last-place Mariners.
I know the Indians are playing for the future and there weren’t many better options, but couldn’t manager Manny Acta at least have inserted Matt LaPorta and/or Shelley Duncan into the mix? It was almost like he was trying to lose, and with his ace Fausto Carmona on the mound to boot.
That lineup couldn’t beat pitching coach Tim Belcher let alone Seattle right-hander David Pauley, who got his first big league win at the Indians’ expense, throwing mediocre stuff at below-average hitters.
Sick thing is it’s not getting better any time soon, if ever, over the remainder of the regular season. This putrid Indians offense will continue to stink up Progressive Field and wherever else it goes on a regular basis.
Sure, the Indians figure to get Travis Hafner back before the end of the month, all .267, nine HRS, 33 RBIs, of him. Really and sadly, Duncan is probably a better option than Hafner at DH right now anyway.
How about that for a kick in the teeth? Hafner, who is making $11.5 million this season, isn’t much of an improvement, if any, over a guy Cleveland signed to a minor league contract.
And get this, Acta isn’t worried about the offense moving forward.
“I think if we had all our guys healthy (this year), everything would have taken care of itself,” Acta said. “I think this offense has been good for years. We have enough good hitters here. If we can keep them on the field, I’d have no complaints with our offense.”
The Indians will get Carlos Santana and Grady Sizemore back from injuries next year, but Santana started to sag after a hot start and Sizemore hasn’t been the same productive hitter since 2008.
Either way, Acta is dreaming if he thinks his offense is set for 2011.
Preach on
Don’t look for Acta to lighten up on two of his main focal points since spring training – pitchers throwing first-pitch strikes and fielders playing better defense.
“I’m going to die saying it,” Acta said. “We’ve been saying we need to throw more strikes and play better defense over and over and we still have 400 walks and 80 errors. That’s a lot of baserunners scoring.”
Raffy’s recovery
Gotta give some props to reliever Rafael Perez, who has resurrected his career after a terrible start that seemed to signal the left-hander would continue a downward slide that began midway through the 2008 season.
Perez entered Saturday having allowed just four earned runs over his last 32 games (29 1/3 innings).
Herrmann’s monster
Gotta take some away from reliever Frank Herrmann, who has plummeted back down to earth after a lengthy scoreless-innings streak that began in the minors and continued for a respectable time in the majors.
Over his last 16 games (161/3 innings) through Friday, Herrmann had allowed 13 runs on 24 hits and five walks.
A guy who looked as though he was en route to solidifying a spot in the bullpen for 2011 is now a question mark.
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.
