Written by Brian McPeek

---

If you’re going to suck, suck historically. If you’re going to lose, lose in record-setting fashion. Any collection of stiffs, humps and mediocre ball players could have probably won at least a game or two in Kansas City, Minnesota and Detroit, but this collection of stiffs, humps and mediocre ballplayers, put together by men who truly understand mediocrity, well, they went to great lengths to at least do something that no collection of Cleveland stiffs, humps and mediocre ball players (and there have been hundreds in my lifetime alone) has ever done in the 112 year history of the team: they went 0-9 on this recent road trip and they earned every single loss honestly.

It’s the Weekend Wrap.

Gutless

That’s the word I keep coming back to when I look back at these past nine Indians games. Teams lose ball games. Teams will often go on little streaks when the hitting suffers and the pitching is poor and mistakes are made. It happens to every team every year.

But this past 9-game trip, that started after the most energizing win of the season against Justin Verlander and the Tigers ten days ago, well, this was a complete team effort. And while the Indians didn’t pitch well and didn’t hit and got blown out in at least seven of the nine losses, the most appalling part is there was no fire and no passion.

This team doesn’t seem to care.

I don’t see what goes on behind clubhouse doors while the Indians are on the road, but there’s no leader on this club. Their All Star SS goes into dark funks and throws balls all over the field, has lapses in concentration and seems to take the week before the All Star break until two weeks afterward completely off. Their elite, All Star closer is a loud mouthed cartoon character who seems to be more in a hurry to get back to his Twitter account than to throw strikes. Their young 2B actually does play with passion and play with inspiration but this is his first full season and he’s in the middle of a horrible slump.

There are maybe 6-7 really solid players on this team. Guys that other teams might actually want. And two of them are Asdrubal Cabrera and Chris Perez. Of those 6-7 players maybe , MAYBE, Perez is elite. The others like Cabrera, Santana, Brantley , Choo, Kipnis and Pestano are solid. But aside from Perez (who needs to do what he’s done this season for a couple straight years to truly be ‘elite) there’s not a guy on this club who other teams would kill for. There’s probably not a guy on this team who would 3-5 on a good offensive team.

And you know whose fault that is? It’s not our fault, whether we go down there and watch mediocre players or not. It’s the fault of the front office and the ownership that has put that product on that field and tried to get away with running mediocrity out there every night against teams that are better than that.

That’s it. That’s the bottom line. When your offseason move is acquiring Derek Lowe from Atlanta because they’re paying 2/3 of his $15million salary you probably shouldn’t be surprised when Lowe is cut before August is a day or so old. Is there any team in baseball looking to get rid of quality pitching? Is there any team in the league looking to get rid of quality pitching AND pay $10million to have it leave? Are the Atlanta Braves, proud World Series organization that featured Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, the kind of organization that’s looking for less pitching?

No. They were well aware that Lowe was on fumes when he choked and sputtered his way into August and September last season.

But that’s how this organization operates. They beg for your patronage, charge Major League prices for tickets and beer and that put a product out on the field that’s significantly less than equipped to beat teams that actually acquire better players.

I’m not sure why that’s surprising. While the Tigers were acquiring Omar Infante and Anibal Sanchez and while the White Sox were acquiring Francisco Liriano and Kevin Youkilis, the Indians were bringing us Brent Lillibridge and Lars Anderson. And again, on a team that matched the Tigers acquisition of Prince Fielder with Casey Kotchman and who believed Shelley Duncan and Johnny Damon, why would we expect anything more?

The front office is risk-averse. That’s the politically correct word I’ll use instead of gutless. If the people making the decisions don’t have the talent or the balls to make big decisions or step up and take a chance or make a move then it should really come as no surprise that the team itself doesn’t have a guy who will take a situation or a teammate by the neck and try and turn around a miserable situation.

This team has no leader. And that leader needs to come from the ‘collection of talent’ that makes up the roster. This team is void of that guy. Kipnis is too young, Cabrera too lazy, Travis Hafner too broken down, Carlos Santana too selfish and schizophrenic, Perez too combustible and likely to speak before thinking and the rest too mediocre and ‘just happy to be here’ to be that guy.

You can understand the talent disparity given the front office. People are promoted without any culture of winning being developed, people go years without being held accountable for their poor performances and there’s rarely a peep hear from the ivory towers where the owners sit. As long as the profits are pouring in and as long as the franchise continues to appreciate in value then why should they actually care whether the team wins or loses on the field when they’re winning on the bottom line?

The thing a guy like Chris Perez doesn’t understand is that we’ve watched this same tired stuff for decades. Many of us were being teased by what turned out to be bad Tribe teams from the time our mothers would let us ride the bus from E 260^th St. down to 9^th street and back. He can make a name for himself all he wants with his blustering bull crap and holier than thou rants about supporting this team but the bottom line is he’s got to be either stupid for believing this team can compete over 162 games or he’s an insincere bag of wind that’s more interested in re-tweets and followers than in actually saying what’s true.

I think it’s the latter, really. I cannot imagine that Chris Perez is stupid enough to turn around and see Jack Hannahan at 3B for the Indians while he’s pitching to Miguel Cabrera, the 3B for the Tigers, and can’t see that the Indians might be losing that individual position battle. I can’t imagine he doesn’t look the other way and say that the Tribe might be behind in the Prince Fielder- Kotchman comparison too.

It’s Perez’s fault for being a d-bag and whining about it in order to pick up followers and publicity. But it’s his organization’s fault for saddling him and us with mediocrity seemingly everywhere he turns. Let Perez act the little girl when 2,500 people show up for the next few nights. Maybe the suits counting their money will look up for a moment and take note of the fact that this season went up in flames. And maybe one or two of them will realize it was they who put the guys who lit the destructive fire.

I highly doubt they’ll notice. I’m not sure so sure all of them are awake.

You’re Worried About the Colors?

 

Are we really going to inundate Jimmy Haslam, the new Browns owner, with cries and screams about logos on the helmets and uniform colors?

For the most part the Cleveland fans are considered knowledgeable and passionate about their football team. I’ll give Browns fans one of the two. They are passionate. That’s often misguided and takes the form of downright embarrassing at times, but they are passionate.

 

Knowledgeable is an entirely different story.

 

Unless you’re 60 or so, please tell me what genuinely affectionate memories you have of the Browns and their helmets or uniforms. Which Super Bowl victory or AFC title game win endeared you to the current colors and logo-less helmet?

 

Why does anyone care?

 

I have no idea what Haslam will do with the colors and the uniforms and, to be honest, I couldn’t care less. And I worked for the team when last they didn’t blow. What I do know is a dude that spends $1billion on the team gets to call the colors and the shots. Do what you want with that Jimmy.

 

I doubt Haslam will change the colors, especially since the burnt orange of Tennessee is a close enough approximation of the Browns colors to give the UT guy his fix, but I honestly don’t whether he does or not. To put that anywhere near the top of the list of concerns after the team is sold is pathetic.

 

Put a winner on the field. Staff the organization with competent people who know what they’re doing. Don’t make us feel like idiots for renewing our season tickets or spending our Sundays watching a pathetic product. You want to run guys out there in pink helmets with a little elf on the side then go for it.

 

For God’s sake, I’ve watched Terry Kirby, Tim Couch and Darrin Chiaverini run around in Browns uniforms and they couldn’t look any more ridiculous that someone wearing neon orange and purple.

Just give us hope and give us quality and we’ll continue to give you cash and support. The guy you replaced forget about his end of that bargain for the last ten years. 

Follow @Peeker643