Tribe shouldn't shy away from improving lineup

Tribe shouldn't shy away from improving lineup,
writes columnist Terry Pluto
Friday, October 26, 2007

Mark Shapiro said he'd feel good about the Indians coming back with the same team as it had in 2007. That's no surprise, as most general managers would take that stance after a team overachieves by winning 96 games, beating New York in the playoffs and coming within one game of the World Series.

But Shapiro and assistant Chris Antonetti know the Indians need a left fielder with power. The Indians should have learned the cut-and-paste-and-pray approach doesn't work after watching the platoon of Dave Dellucci, Jason Michaels and later Kenny Lofton.

Lost in the Tribe's march to the playoffs was that they were 10th in the American League in runs scored in the second half of the season. They conquered the Central Division primarily because their 3.56 ERA was the lowest in the league after the All-Star break.


Modern baseball people love a statistic called OPS: on-base percentage plus slugging percentage. The Indians consider on-base percentage to be the most critical number.

Slugging percentage reveals a player's ability to hit for power, not just homers - but also doubles and triples.

The average big leaguer had an OPS of .760 in 2007; anything over .900 is outstanding.

In 2007, the average American League left fielder had a .758 OPS. The Indians were a dismal .719. Here's a quick left field breakdown: Kenny Lofton (.714), Jason Michaels (.721) and Dave Dellucci (.678). If you add together their homers (11) and RBI (74), you still don't get much.

The Indians do have Franklin Gutierrez and Ben Francisco, but let them handle right field. Try to deal for a left fielder. The Indians have players to trade. Cliff Lee (5-8, 6.29) is only 30 and from 2004 to 2006 he won 46 games. He's left-handed and signed through 2010. It would not be surprising if he came back to pitch effectively, but with the Indians he appears to have fallen behind Aaron Laffey and possibly Jeremy Sowers for the fifth starter's spot.

Other possibilities would be Josh Barfield, who lost his second base job to Asdrubal Cabrera. Shapiro insists Jhonny Peralta "will be our shortstop next year," but if a deal is big enough, the Indians should consider moving Peralta and Lee. They can play Cabrera at his natural shortstop position while giving Barfield another shot at second base. Barfield is only 24 and a career .301 hitter in the minors. He batted .280 as a rookie with San Diego in 2006 before falling to .243 this season.

While some fans have been begging for the Indians to deal for Carl Crawford (.315, 80 RBI, 50 steals), a better possibility may be Jason Bay, who averaged 33 homers and 105 RBI while hitting .296 for Pittsburgh in 2005-06. He also has a reasonable contract, with two years and $13 million remaining.

Bay was hitting .310 at the end of May, then .209 in the final four months. He's had some knee problems, and that may have been the reason for his decline. But even his subpar numbers of 21 homers, 84 RBI and .244 were more than the Tribe has been getting from left field the last two years.

At 29, Bay should be capable of a comeback. New Pirates GM Neal Huntington (a former Tribe assistant) will want a lot in return. But the Indians should talk to him, and keep the phones busy as they pursue one more big bat