Vent #2

 Yes, I really do think the Indians had enough to win the WS this year IF they just got more hitting.  Look at the lineups the Indians have carved up this year.   

It doesn't make sense because the Astros are the Astros and other teams have as good or better a chance than do the Indians.  We would have needed two quality bats: one for CF and one for LF to be able to truly compete for a WS title this year.   Obviously the phrase that anything can happen if you make the playoffs is true.  IF Clevinger had returned to his ace-like self we would have likely won our first two series and been in good shape to win the AL title and even the WS.   So three IFS and the reality, at least Antonetti's and Dolan's reality, is that there were no bats we could afford (in dollars and prospects) who would have helped us enough to make us a REAL WS threat.  

So there you have it.   The Indians needed what they couldn't, apparently, get: a cheap, great outfielder who can hit for average and power who was controllable for 3 years (or a couple of rentals like Starling Marte and Jonathon Villar).

So why trade Clevinger?  If it was about that $4 million increase in salary he would have gotten next year it is, as I and others have now said, very telling.  What happens this winter?  What happens when Bieber and Civale, et al, become arbitration eligible?  We dump them in Von Hayes-like trades, also?

I get the long-term competitive thing, I really do.  However, just like the '94 Indians, when you see the window you have to spend, at least somewhat, to climb through it before it closes.

The Indians didn't...and they won't.   It is time for Dolan to sell the team.   It really is.   If he thinks a football town will put up with above .500 records, with an occasional first round play-three-and-head-to-the-sea first round exit, he is sadly mistaken.   If Antonetti thinks this is a mental exercise where he tries to see how much he can do with very little, then he doesn't get the Cleveland mindset.   Clevelanders don't just want teams that are a little above the mean, they want winners.   And winners are much more than a little above the mean and they do their best to stay THERE, not regress towards the mean or camp out just above it.

So, Dolan and Antonneti, you guys need to realize that none of us will put up with this veiled attempt to look competitive fueled by an aberration of a draft year and a few trades that created a Frankenstein of the rotation.  We want you, once you get to where you see the brass ring, to buy a stool, get on it and get that ring.  Hey if you have to trade some of your starting pitching to get some hitting well, don't worry, those of us from the '70s and '80s are used to that and won't blink.