Are you kidding me?

Once upon a time, the Cleveland Indians were the best story in baseball. Remember?

Back on May 23, they beat the Red Sox with two runs in their last at-bat, to raise their record to 30-15, the very best (at the time) in the whole sport.

Then, unfortunately, the season refused to end.

Since that fateful day, the Indians are 16 games under .500 (47-63). Which means, they’re now below .500 (at 77-78), with a mere seven games left in the season.

If you’re thinking, boy, THAT’S hard to do, we can only reply: Well, correctamente.

It’s so hard, in fact, that in the history of baseball, only three teams have ever had that good a record over their first 45 games and then finished with a losing record.

There was Horace Helmbold’s 1890 Philadelphia Athletics, of the late, great American Association. They started 30-15 and wound up 54-78.

There was Babe Young’s 1940 New York Giants. They, too, were 30-15 once — and ended up at 72-80.

And then there was a team from Cleveland that also pulled this off. That was Bunk Congalton’s 1905 Cleveland Naps. They were 31-14 after 45 games — but were 76-78 by the time they hit the finish line.

So that’s no teams in the last 71 years, one in the last 106 years and only one in the entire history of the American League. To avoid joining that group, the Indians need to go 4-3 against the Twins and Tigers to finish at exactly .500, or 5-2 to finish with a winning record.

Boy, talk about adding drama to the last week of the season. You can’t beat this. Heck, even Bunk Congalton will be pulling for them, wherever he is.

The key to Jason Kipnis is that he has a much smaller sample size. But if you believe the hype, then he would be sold high and it would be the Tigers not the Tribe who would be sending money in a trade for Peralta. If you’d like to see a larger sample size, then you would not make a trade at all. Kipnis’ rookie season was far better than
Peralta was in his. Kipnis has a .904 OPS, Peralta’s was .621. Both batters struck out 1 in 4 ABs. Kipnis is hitting .284 and Peralta hit .227.

This is coming from a 2011 team that scores 4.3 runs per game. Peralta played on Indians’ team that had a much more consistent line-up instead of the revolving door that is the 2011 Cleveland Indians and scored 4.6 runs per game. Only because the 2011 pitching staff is better is why the 2011 team has won more games.

Manny Acta is an above average coach in an above average organization with a severely below average budget. This team completes when every few years when the young players develop at the right time.

As Stephanie pointed out, the last time the Indians’ AAA team won back-to-back International League championships was in 1991-92. And we all remember what 1993-2001.

I’m sure there are several Tribe fans who said the same about Santana last year.

I absolutely agree, though – Kipnis does seem like he’s the real deal (producing prior to and after injury).

Let’s hope Santana, Asdrubal, Kipnis, Chisenhall, and Brantley all product (by produce, I mean > .270 avg). If that is the case, we’re in great shape!

Go Tribe!

Adrubal’s #s: .276 avg, 32 2B, 3 3B, 25 HR, 92 RBI, .355 OBP
Jhonny P’s #s: .297 avg, 24 2B, 3 3B, 19 HR, 81 RBI, .345 OBP

Their #7 hitter has similar #’s to our MVP.

Tribe needs bats (or current ones need to produce).