2011 Cleveland Indians

• HitsRus

  

  I've been a diehard fan for 50 years, and have stuck with the team through thick and thin....even thru the worst of the worst years. But really, these past two years have shaken my fandom to the very core. As a season ticket holder for over twenty years, I have served as an unpaid ticket sales agent for the team adding 'partners' when necessary to keep our front row seats filled. This year, however, half my plan partners dropped because of the ineptness of the front office that offered little hope for competitiveness.....because of an owner that thought it more important to dump salary than to try to acquire real baseball talent for TWO Cy Young award winners. When the owner says "now is not the time to spend money"....some of my partners thought the same. The end result is that I could not find enough people willing to spend the money to sell out our full season plan, and I had to give up our front row seats. Despite my long time committment, the team would not cut me a break and let me keep my seats for less than a full season. Having to move out of the front row, I lost the rest of the guys willing to stay in. Now I just have two seats in the 4th row of the bleachers. Bleah. Basically the team lost 80% of our financial committment. Granted they try to add little niceties to try to keep the fans happy during 'rebuilding'...but on the important stuff...they failed. I'm left wondering WTF I even bought 2 bleacher seats for.
  
  I cannot say I have any optimism for the team this year or in the future. Anybody who is good enough to cost some money to keep... seems destined to be traded for another pile of second tier prospects.
• wes_mantooth

  

  hits....i feel your pain. This organization is sickening.
• HitsRus

  

  ^^^Most of the Tribe fans on here know me from way back on JJ...and I've never been a pessimist, or a detractor of the organization. But over the past two years this organization has imploded. This would have been a perfect year to regain it's fan base with Lebron leaving, had they positioned themselves for at least the appearance of trying to be competitive. Let's face it....third base is a joke...and it has been a joke since Peralta's modest salary was dumped. They did NOTHING to improve it. They seem content to waffle thru another season with multiple utility players playing one of the most important positions on the diamond from a defensive and offensive standpoint. Hoping that Chisenhall and Kipnis ( two AA players)are going to develop into all stars is no way to run a respectable major league team. Almost as bad is that you have nothing proven at 2 of the other 3 positions in the infield. At least the bullpen seems solid, and there is hope on the starting staff and outfield.
• BR1986FB

  Hits....that sucks.
  
  I love the Tribe and some of my fondest memories as a kid were listening to Eckersley's no hitter, watching Large Lenny's perfect game, etc so I've seen my share of the good & bad (mostly bad) with this team. Even when they were putrid and losing a lot in the 80's, early 90's I'd still find a way to either listen to them on the radio or watch a game on TV. Didn't invest in tickets like you though.
  
  Under Dolan's ownership I can honestly say I'm indifferent. The old saying is "hope springs eternal." It doesn't with this franchise anymore. It's like the real life "Major League" with ownership TRYING to lose. They don't care about the product they put on the field so WHY should the fanbase actually care? I still love em' but ownership can't go to Hell fast enough.
  
  
  Hasn't been mentioned on here yet but I heard on WKNR yesterday that Austin Kearns got a DUI in Kentucky back on February 12th or 14th. The Tribe didn't find out until Monday, I believe.
• THE4RINGZ

  

  I would agree with the role the Dolan family is playing in the demise of this franchise. I know the league can't force the ownership to spend their money, but with revenue sharing in MLB I am convinced the commissioner should be giving more direction to the franchises who seemingly have given up. Indians, Pirates, etc. But the current commissioner is the main reason I stopped being interested in MLB all together.
  
  Personally I always start April with an optimistic attitude toward The Tribe. This year there is a group of kids and has beens who might just shock the world. Let's just hope my attitude is the same come August.
  
  Cleveland fans certainly deserve better then what they are getting from the Indians. And we all saw what kind of support a winning team can muster in the mid to late 90's. So Mr. Dolan should do us all a favor and if he isn't willing to own a real major league franchise and run it accordingly, cut your loses and sell the team.
• Swamp Fox

  The Indians need so much it's really hard anymore to know where to begin. Not really being an Indians fan, I am ambivalent to a degree but I respect the Indian's past and feel sorry for the fans who haven't had much to celebrate for a decade or so, and if you want to look simply at World Series victories, we would have to adjust that to over six decades of frustration. Perhaps the current ownership either needs to play to win or try and find someone who would buy the team with the idea of actually being competitive this coming season.
• Commander of Awesome

  

  THE4RINGZ;696957 wrote:I would agree with the role the Dolan family is playing in the demise of this franchise. I know the league can't force the ownership to spend their money, but with revenue sharing in MLB I am convinced the commissioner should be giving more direction to the franchises who seemingly have given up. Indians, Pirates, etc. But the current commissioner is the main reason I stopped being interested in MLB all together.
  
  Personally I always start April with an optimistic attitude toward The Tribe. This year there is a group of kids and has beens who might just shock the world. Let's just hope my attitude is the same come August.
  
  Cleveland fans certainly deserve better then what they are getting from the Indians. And we all saw what kind of support a winning team can muster in the mid to late 90's. So Mr. Dolan should do us all a favor and if he isn't willing to own a real major league franchise and run it accordingly, cut your loses and sell the team.

  
  Oh you're conviently a Tribe fan huh? SMH.
• BR1986FB

  Swamp Fox;696963 wrote: Perhaps the current ownership either needs to play to win or try and find someone who would buy the team with the idea of actually being competitive this coming season.

  
  I really don't think the Dolan's would have a hard time finding a buyer. I just think they don't WANT to sell. They see this as a money maker, regardless of how bad crowds may be, and Dolan likes to "play" owner.
• THE4RINGZ

  

  Asses in seats = revenue.
  
  Consistently poor on field performances = fewer asses in seats.
  
  I don't understand how the Dolan's can see this as a money maker. They have to give shit away for people to even come down to the ballyard.
  
  In pro sports you cannot hoard your money. You have to spend money to make money.
• jordo212000

  

  BR1986FB;696975 wrote:I really don't think the Dolan's would have a hard time finding a buyer. I just think they don't WANT to sell. They see this as a money maker, regardless of how bad crowds may be, and Dolan likes to "play" owner.

  
  Agreed. Everybody in baseball is making money. Just go back and look at the Pirates financials that were leaked a year or two ago. They have been rolling in the money and they have been awful for a decade.
  
  There is a reason that whenever a team goes on sale, there are rich guys all over the place fighting for the chance to be an owner. Just think of the revenues they pull in. 20,000 people (conservative number) for each game, 81 games, and then the media revenues on top of that.
• KR1245

  

  Make a run
  tear it down
  rebuild for 3-5 years
  make another run
  start all over
• OQB

  

  THE4RINGZ;696981 wrote:In pro sports you cannot hoard your money. You have to spend money to make money.

  
  
  3/4 of the Owners do not get this unfortunately...
  
  
  I was watching All bets are Off yesterday, and Bruce had one of the VP's on the show...he was saying how the Indians put the most money into their farm system than all the other teams. I guess it was around 9-10 million every year they put into it. Their Minor league system is one of the best ones because they put money into it....now wouldn't logic tell you to be a successful major league team to put money in it as well? hmmm...
• THE4RINGZ

  

  No because they develop them on the farm then trade prospects away for over the hill talent they can get on the cheap.
• lhslep134

  

  THE4RINGZ;696981 wrote:Asses in seats = revenue.
  
  Consistently poor on field performances = fewer asses in seats.
  
  I don't understand how the Dolan's can see this as a money maker. .

  
  
  2 words. Revenue sharing.
• OQB

  

  Or they just give them that 7-8 years that they are in the Indians uniform, and once they win the Cy Young, or any other major awards we trade them away for prospects to put back in our farm system.
  
  This is exactly what they are doing....
  

  Make a run
  tear it down
  rebuild for 3-5 years
  make another run
  start all over

• THE4RINGZ

  

  lhslep134;697416 wrote:2 words. Revenue sharing.

  Yeah I understand revenue sharing, and as I said earlier I wish some of that money coming into clubs like the Indians could be designated for certain things.
  
  Baseball has really painted themselves into a corner with the fans.
• OQB

  

  Thank you Marvin Miller...
• Krugliack

  Maybe this is the year Cleveland gives us all a nice big shitburger to eat...and wins the whole effinnnn thing!
  
  
  If not, theres always next year.
• grodt

  

  OQB;697382 wrote:3/4 of the Owners do not get this unfortunately...
  
  
  I was watching All bets are Off yesterday, and Bruce had one of the VP's on the show...he was saying how the Indians put the most money into their farm system than all the other teams. I guess it was around 9-10 million every year they put into it. Their Minor league system is one of the best ones because they put money into it....now wouldn't logic tell you to be a successful major league team to put money in it as well? hmmm...

  The problem is they have only just recently started putting that kind of money into the minor league system. Ever since our system pumped out the talent that led to our dominance in the 90s it has been one of the weaker in baseball. Go back and look at our drafts and you can see why we've had to trade our talent for prospects. It was all about restocking the minors with talent. We just didn't have enough before to sustain success. Now the hope is that there is enough that we'll be able to sustain the success that the current crop of guys will (hopefully) have.
  
  BTW here's a recap of our drafts from 2001 to 2005:
  2005:
  Only 3 players that we drafted (and signed *cough Tim Lincecum) have even played in the big leagues. They are Trevor Crowe, Jensen Lewis and Jordan Brown. That's just bad even for baseball standards. The sad thing is this has been one of our better classes.
  
  2004:
  Again only 5 players that we drafted have even reached the bigs. And again they're nothing special. Tony Sipp, Chris Gimenez, Wyatt Toregas, Jeremy Sowers and Scott Lewis. Of the 5, only Lewis showed some staying power but then he got hurt and is trying to get back to the bigs. Sipp has had a decent run but it's not good when he was your best selection from that year.
  
  2003:
  Another stinker. Best player from the group is no longer with the team (Kevin Kouzmanoff). The only others to see the show were Aaron Laffey, Ryan Garko and Michael Aubrey.
  
  2002:
  A whopping 3 players reached the bigs, Ben Francisco, Jeremy Guthrie and Brian Slocum. In case you're not counting at home, that's 15 players in 4 drafts that even reached the bigs and maybe 1 (if you count Francisco in 2007) even remotely have helped this club compete. And only 1 other (Crowe, maybe Sipp) can be considered a piece moving forward.
  
  2001:
  Just sad. Only 2 players drafted reached the majors. Luke Scott was drafted then traded for a nobody and has ended up as a decent player for the Orioles the past few seasons.
  
  Of course we should have an honorary title for 2007, taking Beau Mills one spot before Jayson Heyward.
• OQB

  

  Nice post....kind of depressing to see the draft troubles we have had....let's just hope we can put some pieces together.
• Mulva

  

  Give Beau Mills a couple more years. He'll be the next Indians 27 year old "prospect".
• grodt

  

  Aaron Laffey was traded to Seattle today Matt Lawson
• dazedconfused

  

  grodt;697841 wrote:Aaron Laffey was traded to Seattle today Matt Lawson

  
  you know, being 25 years old, he's going to provide great veteran leadership for the aeros this season lol
• BR1986FB

  grodt;697841 wrote:Aaron Laffey was traded to Seattle today Matt Lawson

  
  Can never have enough utilitymen. :rolleyes:
• OQB

  

  Building that farm system up...oh yeah let's go Aeros!!