Things did not go the way the Indians would have liked in 2012 to say the least. The same core of talented players that has been together since the Indians were the best team in the AL in 2007 was finally healthy all at the same time and looked poised to take a run at another Central Division title. Travis Hafner, Grady Sizemore, Rafael Perez, Fausto Carmona, Shin-Soo Choo and Asdrubal Cabrera have all been around since at least 2007 and were poised for career (or contract) years, while the recent addition of Ubaldo Jimenez looked to shore up the pitching staff. The young players were also promising, especially the bullpen including Vinnie Pestano, Chris Perez and Joe Smith and the two young infielders in their second seasons, Jason Kipnis and Lonnie Chisenhall.

Things started falling apart early with Carmona turning out to be Roberto Heredia Hernandez and Sizemore injuring his back (and his knee), ultimately ending his season before Spring Training even started. Within the first two weeks Rafael Perez joined him on the out for season DL, removing three important veterans from the Indians clubhouse within the first month of the regular season. Then the Indians made a huge mistake by signing Johnny Damon as an outfielder to replace the presence of Sizemore. Damon was later released when the Indians fell out of the race. Lonnie Chisenhall also missed most of the season, the first part due to a poor managerial decision to keep him in AAA and the latter part after he was hit on the fore arm by a pitch.

Despite these issues, and massive drops in production from the entire starting rotation, the Indians remained in contention through the All-Star break. Jimenez was the biggest disappointment on the staff, since his price for acquisition was the Indians top two pitching prospects, both of whom would have been playing for the Tribe this season otherwise. Nobody should forget another mistake made by management, however, that saw Derek Lowe continue to make starts long after his effectiveness has waned. Justin Masterson saw a huge drop off from last years break out performance just when the Indians were expecting him to move onto the next level and become the teams ace. When Jimenez and Masterson struggled it left the Indians without an ace after they went into the season thinking they had two.

In August, all the Indians problems aligned. Every starting pitcher struggled, even Zach McAllister, who was the most consistent starting pitcher all season. This lead to a pitching staff that allowed an average of 6.2 runs per game. The offense, which was without power all season, was brought down even further by the absence of Hafner (on the DL with a bulging disc), the only true power hitter on the team, and scored just 3.3 runs per game that month. When you put those two numbers together, the surprise should be that the Indians were able to win even the five games they did. Going 5-24 over the span of any month during the year is enough to keep any team out of playoff contention and it did just that for the Indians.

This was about the time when Manny Acta fell out of favor with the team. A few players have come out since his firing with comments that he simply didn't care enough when the Indians season was falling apart. Acta never really pressed his players to push themselves harder to win, instead taking a more laid back approach, feeling they were already pushing themselves too far. It's impossible to tell which is the truth, but the players on the field certainly looked as if they had given up.

Going into next season, the Indians cannot just be complacent and let the world move around them. Sandy Alomar, Jr. was named interim manager for the last three games of the year and is one of two applicants for the job in 2013, along with former Red Sox (World Series winning) manager Terry Francona. Both are former Indians players with great credentials to be the next Indians manager and either would be a fine choice. The more important moves will be in player development, retention and procurement. 

The most important thing for the Indians to work on in the off season is getting the players that are staying around either back to the form they once had, like in the case of Masterson and Jimenez, or pushing them to the next level in their development, like with Kipnis, Chisenhall and Ezequiel Carrera. The Indians should accept Jimenez's option as it is still cheap for a player of his caliber. This doesn't mean he can sit where he is right now and just wait for next year. He has great "stuff" and needs to work on maintaining a consistent delivery along with keeping better control over the strike zone. Jimenez was burned by base runners that got on base via the walk many times this year, and that should be something that is completely within his power to stop. Masterson is in a very similar situation and needs to work in the off season to get back to his 2011 form. It will be interesting to see now if the Indians go looking for a new pitching coach after the manager is signed or if they will stick with the in house option of Ruben Niebla.

The younger players like Kipnis, Chisenhall, Carrera and possibly Russ Canzler all need to work on avoiding the regress that has affected many young Tribe players over the past few years. There is a good chance that all four of these players could not just be on the 25 man roster next year, but could be starters integral to the Indians success. Kipnis' first two seasons are comparable to some of the best by any Indians rookie ever and could be very special if he continues on this path.

Personnel decisions are going to be incredibly important in the upcoming off season, especially the signing of Shin-Soo Choo to a long term deal. What the Indians do with Choo this off season will be the most telling aspect of the off season as far as their expectations and plans for the future. If he is traded, it will signify giving up on the next two seasons, while signing him long-term (3-5 years) would be a show of confidence in the current team. Three players that need to be said good-bye to are Hafner, Sizemore and Hernadez. These players are simply too high an injury risk to deal with their limited abilities at any price. While all three are very talented and could possibly produce more in their careers, it simply isn't worth the roster spot or money that could be given to a younger player with higher prospects.

Finally, the Indians need to sign players that are not currently involved in the organization. Whether this means veteran free agents (the Prince Fielder variety, not the Trot Nixon type), through trade (the Indians could spare to part with a left-handed reliever or two and those are always in demand) or on the international market. The Tribe really missed out this year by not signing Yeonis Cespedes, a player they were linked with before he signed with the Athletics (and helped them to a playoff spot) and they need to be more vigilant in the future. With the expiring contracts of Hafner, Sizemore and Hernandez, the Indians should have plenty of extra money to go after one or two players. With most of the roster already set for next year, the highest priority needs to be finding a designated hitter with significant power. After this, left field and first base are undecided positions as well that have possible fillings from within the Indians system, but could definitely be improved from the outside. While the starting pitching was terrible this year, the Indians still have a potentially decent five man rotation with Masterson, Jimenez, McAllister, Carlos Carrasco (coming back from Tommy John surgery) and a choice between David Huff, Corey Kluber, Jeanmar Gomez or Chris Seddon. Even T.J. McFarland or Eric Berger, currently in the minors for the Indians, could be ready for their debuts in 2013.

The 2013 Indians could be very good. A disappointing 2012 season will make them extremely underrated going into next year, an aspect that worked in their favor in 2007 and 2011, when they finished much higher in the standings than they were expected to. Any additions to the team, along with a new manager that will automatically be a fan favorite, would be a huge step in motivating a fan base that is jaded and tired of the same lack of inspiration, year after year. The change in management in addition to a fantastic bullpen and a young, talented core of athletic fielders (Choo, Cabrera, Kipnis, Michael Brantley and Carlos Santana) put the Indians in a prime position to make a couple moves to get them back into first. The winner of the central division ended the season with the worst record of all the AL playoff teams, showing just how winnable this division is. There is no reason at all for the Indians to not go all in for 2013.

Double your Wild Cards and Double Your Fun! Or does it. With the playoff spots just about decided, it seems like a good time to look back at the first season with two Wild Card teams. Of course, since this is an Indians blog, we'll always have an Indians centric view of the world.

While early in the season it looked like a lot of crazy situations could pan out, with about half the league vying for a playoff spot, things settled down fairly quickly. In the AL Tampa Bay and Los Angeles were in it until this past week, but Seattle was removed from the conversation long ago after making a slight post All-Star break push and the other four teams never had any chance. Chicago, who was eliminated from the division race yesterday, is actually 8 games back from the second Wild Card with just two games left. The National League was similar with most of the teams out by early September and just a few teams left fighting for that final spot (the Dodgers are technically still in the hunt at two games behind St. Louis).

For now, forget about the NL, because this is really all about the White Sox. While both the White Sox and the Tigers seem like elite teams in the AL, if the playoffs were completely decided by Win-Loss record, neither team would be in at all. There are only nine other teams in the league outside of the Central and six of them have better records than any team in the Central. This seems to happen every year, and is the number one reason for the creation of the second Wild Card. The big money teams, who spend about $100 Million more on salary each year than the Indians, wanted to make sure they all could make the playoffs, even when they play in the same division. This playoff spot was created for the Red Sox, they just didn't want it this year. Going back a few years, it is obvious who would have taken that last Wild Card spot.

Each team that would have won the second Wild Card in the last ten year, with the exception of the Indians in 2005, Oakland in 2004 and two ties by Seattle, is in the top ten in the MLB in spending. This gets those teams what they want, which is the playoff money bonus. If the Wild Card had been expanded 10 years ago, then Boston and New York (the two biggest spending AL teams) would have both made the playoffs every single year except 2006. In three of the last four seasons, three teams from the five team AL East would have made the playoffs as Tampa Bay found a way to field a good team without paying their star players over $20 Million a year.

The actual results from this new system seem like they may be the opposite of what is intuitive, however. The goal of any baseball team is not simply to make the playoffs, but to win the World Series, and the second Wild Card should make this much harder for both Wild Card teams. Having a single play-in game should waste each team's ace and start the wear on their bullpen before the significant playoff series start. This means that the teams with the best record in each league (already the favorite) get another advantage when they play the Play-In winning Wild Card team. Since the Wild Card teams are obviously not as good as the division winners, they will struggle with this disadvantage more than their opponents would have.

This movement of the benefit towards the division winner, rather than the Wild Card, makes this new system fair. The way the divisions are made up (especially with the changes coming in 2013 to put 5 teams in each division), puts the emphasis on the division winner and with the extra Wild Card, is stays there. As far as the Indians go, the White Sox have proven that they needed to win the Division outright to make the playoffs this season and will likely have to in the future. This is fine with Cleveland as it means when they do make the playoffs, they will be in the strongest position to make it deep into the playoffs.

This will be the last individual month power ranking for the Indians players, with just three games left in the season in October. The list has grown much this month, liberally using September call-ups, bringing the final total to 35 players instead of the usual 25. Because of this, there won't be stats or explanations for the bottom 10 players on the list, most of whom haven't played enough to really judge. Here is a link to last month's rankings for comparison, although as always I will include the change in place from last month in parenthesis next to their current rank.

1. Shin-Soo Choo Even (0)

0 HR: Choo's power seemed to disappear during the final month of the season as he had just 7 extra base hits, all of which were doubles. Of course the fact that he kept his batting average above .300 and his OBP above .400 make it easier to forgive his lowest slugging percent since his slow start in April. This could also be part of his changing role as he has been asked to become a lead-off hitter, instead of the middle of the order slugger he had been.

2. Carlos Santana Above (+3)

19 RBI: Santana lead all players in RBI in September and took over the season team lead as well. Santana has undoubtedly been the Indians best hitter since the All-Star break and continued strong through this last month.

3. Michael Brantley Even (+1)

.421 OBP: Brantley lead all hitters in OBP this month, hitting his way most of the way there with 20 hits in just a limited time due to injury. The one problem with Brantley this month is that almost all his hits were singles and he didn't steal any bases. In fact, of the 32 times he reached base, he only got to second on his own twice. One interesting note is that teams started paying attention to Brantley finally and he walked intentionally 9 times of his 12 walks.

4. Jason Kipnis Even (-2)

5 Doubles: After starting the season out slow collecting two baggers, Kipnis has knocked 14 since July, bringing him back up to respectability. Kipnis doesn't have amazing power, but he does have a line drive swing and good speed, so he should be a doubles machine.

5. Asdrubal Cabrera Above (-3)

.470 SLG: A grand slam on the last day of the month put a punctuation mark on a pretty good September for Cabrera. He played a lot more like the Asdrubal from 2011 than earlier in the season, raising his batting average to .274 with a .303 mark on the month.

6. Vinnie Pestano Even (0)

3.75 ERA: While this ERA might seem decent, it is absolutely unacceptable for Vinnie Pestano (his season ERA sits at 2.37). He ranked 8th this month among Indians relievers and has blown a save. Let's all over react. While this hasn't been his best month of the year, there is a reason he remains the top ranked pitcher on this list.

7. Zach McAllister Below (0)

.304 BAA: McAllister is another pitcher who has dropped off as of late, although his fall was much more significant than Pestanos. He had been the Indians most consistent pitcher prior to September, but seems to be showing signs of tiring from the longest workload of his career. This month he was the worst starter in the rotation not named Jeanmar.

8. Chris Perez Above (+1)

100% SV%: Perez is back on track and saved all six of his chances this month. This has put him among the top saves leaders in Indians history and he still has a chance to rise a little more up the list with three more games left.

9. Joe Smith Above (+1)

3 Runs Allowed: The Indians side-arming righty did it again, absolutely dominating out of the bullpen. He allowed those three runs in just under 12 innings while striking out 10.

10. Justin Masterson Below (0)

1 HRA: Masterson allowed just a single home run in the month of September, less than any pitcher with more than 11 innings pitched for the Tribe. This is just about the only good thing coming from his five starts in the month as he lost three games and was outpitched by three of the other four members of the rotation. Just because he didn't give up home runs, doesn't mean he didn't give up hits or runs. He allowed 31 hits (in addition to 13 walks) in just 28 innings.

11. Esmil Rogers Above (+1)

11 GP: Rogers has been made a serious part of the Bullpen Mafia, behind only Pestano and Smith in relief appearances, and has excelled. Rogers maintained an ERA under three and a WHIP under 1.00, all while keeping control, his biggest problem when he played for Colorado. Rogers has only walked four this month.

12. Travis Hafner Below (New)

4 Times on base: Since Hafner's return, he has only been on base four times. Twice after being hit by pitches, once on a walk and once he was safe on an error. He is hitless and homerless for the month, looking like a shell of his former self. It is disappointing to see his time with the Tribe end this way, but he does have approximately two more games left to try to get that elusive hit.

13. Casey Kotchman Below (-5)

0 Walks: In a month that saw the Indians have a game with 12 walks as a team and record over 100 total, Kotchman amazingly had none. With Kotchman certainly removed from the roster within the coming weeks, the biggest question here is why did he get to play in 24 games while Neal and LaPorta sat on the bench.

14. Lonnie Chisenhall Below (New)

2 HR: Lonnie surprised everyone by making it back to the big leagues at all this year after breaking his arm, but he has made an even bigger splash, hitting a couple home runs and knocking in seven in limited time.

15. Jack Hannahan Above (-1)

.447 OBP: Somehow Hannahan lead all Indians hitters in OBP. He has started to be phased out with Chisenhall getting the majority of the at bats at third, but has put together his best month of the year offensively. This may go to show what I have been saying all along, that Hannahan should be used in a limited reserve role and as a late inning defensive replacement.

16. Cody Allen Below (+1)

2.04 WHIP: This is the first time Allen has stumbled since being drafted last season. He has been horrendous this month (7 ER in 8.1 IP), but it shouldn't be anything to worry about. It is unlikely that Allen will make the team out of Spring Training next year anyway and this set back should only help motivate him as he moves on with his young career.

17. Ubaldo Jimenez Even (+1)

11 Walks: Jimenez's month was actually not that bad as he was hurt in his record (0-3) by seven unearned runs. He finally dropped his batting average against below .250 and his WHIP below 1.50, but control is still an issue. If he can get his walks under control, there is still a pretty good pitcher there under that wildness.

18. Jeanmar Gomez Below (-5)

18 Runs Allowed: Gomez gave up more runs than any other pitcher this month, which was quite a feat considering he pitched 12 less innings than Masterson (who also gave up 18). Gomez's season implosion is now complete as he has made his last start of the season. Jeanmar went from Spring Training surprise success to mediocre to the worst starter on the team in the span of a season. With the way he was unable to sustain as his innings pitched piled up, he seems to be a better fit as a long reliever than a starter at this point in his career.

19. Russ Canzler Above (New)

25 Hits: Canzler has been very consistant since his rise to the Majors, hitting in all but seven of the games he has played in. He has been given the most opportunity of the September call-ups and has jumped at his chance. He now sits as a favorite to make the team in 2013, possibly as a starting first baseman or left fielder depending on what other moves the Indians make.

20. Ezequiel Carrera Below (-4)

4 SB: Carrera has really shown his speed this month, going a perfect 4-4 in steal attempts. On the season he is now 8-9 when trying to steal. Carrera is the prototypical lead-off hitter/centerfielder and could possibly be used that way if the Indians keep the roster the way it is going into next year.

21. Tony Sipp Below (-5)

0 Holds: With a few young pitchers taking more prominent spots in the bullpen, especially Herrmann, Barnes and Rogers, Sipp has seen his innings drop, especially in pivotal situations. Sipp was only given a single chance at a hold this month and he blew the save.

22. Chris Seddon Above (+1)

7 Relief Appearances: Seddon has taken well to his unpredictable position of spot starter/long reliever and allowed just three runs this month in ten innings pitched, all in relief. Seddon has been asked to come in early in games when a starter has struggled and late in more normal relief appearances and has looked pretty good all around.

23. Brent Lillibridge Below (-4)

16 SO: Lillibridge struck out more often than any other Indians hitter at about once every 2.5 at bats. This could be a huge problem as he is not a high production hitter who can mask his strike outs with home runs. As an infrequently used utility player, Lilly time has to make the most out of every single at bat or his services will no longer be needed.

24. Frank Herrmann Above (New)

1.38 ERA: A regular in the great 2011 bullpen, Harvard Herrmann is back with a vengeance. His two runs allowed were the second fewest of any pitcher on the team (Barnes threw 7.2 innings allowing no runs) and he lead all pitchers in WHIP (0.62) and BAA (.156).

25. David Huff Above (New)

.250 BAA: Since his return to the Indians Huff has been nothing less than spectacular. He first pitched 2 games in relief, bailing out Gomez a couple times before ultimately taking his place in the rotation. He currently sits at 3-0 in five games with an ERA of 2.86 and 17 strike outs in 22 innings. Huff has one more start to make before the Indians decide if he is worth resigning for another attempt next year.

26. Lou Marson Below (-6)

27. Corey Kluber Below (-6)

28. Matt LaPorta Above (-3)

29. Jason Donald Below (-7)

30. Scott Barnes Above (New)

31. Cord Phelps Below (New)

32. Roberto Hernandez DNP (-8)

33. Vinny Rottino Below (New)

34. Thomas Neal Below (New)

35. Scott Maine Below (New)

The Indians have finally fired manager Manny Acta after three seasons of under performing with a lineup filled with young talent. While the manager doesn't have a whole lot to do with the final result of each game, they do control small situations within each game and the day-to-day make-up of the lineup.

Over his time with the team, the vast majority of Manny Acta's decisions have been the right ones for the time, but his mistakes have been obvious. As a manager of pitchers, Acta was as good as he could have been given what he has. For most of this season he has used the pitchers he trusted in the bullpen in situations that needed a pitcher of trust and used those he had little confidence in in blow outs. The only complaint you can have against his handling of pitchers was that he refused to allow pitchers to throw a complete game, although the situation rarely occurred this season when a pitcher deserved the chance.

The biggest mistakes from Acta have been with his dealing with the players individually and the setting of the lineup. Since the Indians are very tight knit and close lipped from the manager level up, it is hard to tell how much of this was the fault of Acta, and how much had more to do with General Manager Chris Antonetti. Use of reserve players in the everyday lineup is something this site comments on frequently and maybe things will get better without Acta. Aaron Cunningham played in 72 games this year while batting .175 and Lou Marson has played in 67 so far, hitting just .219. Russ Canzler and Ezequiel Carrera are now showing that there were better options in the minor leagues all year, but Acta doesn't have direct control over roster moves. He did have the control of whether or not to play those players he did have as often as he did. He also had the right to petition Antonetti to bring in new players, but since the Indians rarely speak of in house business, we can never know exactly what he wanted.

One player who Acta mishandled was Lonnie Chisenhall. When a team has a player they are placing their hope for the future on, that player needs to play. Manny Ramirez didn't have to split time in right field with Wayne Kirby when he came up, he was given the starting role. When Victor Martinez first made it to the Majors he competed with Josh Bard for the starting catcher job, won the competition and then was the starter for the rest of his time with the Tribe. Chisenhall, a first round draft pick in 2008 has been held back for two seasons by Jack Hannahan, a AAAA journeyman with a decent glove. Chisenhall has outhit Hannahan since day one and has played sufficient defense, but was never given more than a platoon chance at third. During this same time, Jason Kipnis (a second round pick from 2009) was given the reigns at second and has played almost every single game there since he was first promoted. This seems like blatent favoritism by the manager. Neither player has been perfect defensively and they stand with career OPS within 0.13 points of each other (.713 for Chisenhall, .736 for Kipnis), but Kipnis has managed to get himself into 182 games over the past two years while Chisenhall has played in 103.

The final straw against Acta was that when the going got tough, he gave up. This quote of his summed up his feelings during the Indians terrible month of August:

“They do need to relax. There have never been 25 guys released [at once] in the history of the game. They should relax. If one guy is going to go, it’s going to be me, not them. So relax and play the game.”

Here's one place he was completely right, all 25 players were not released at once and he was the one guy who was going to go. Well...him and Shelley Duncan and Aaron Cunningham.

I will end with this quote from Paul Dolan from this article claiming that nobody was going to be fired this season. 

"We all have a lot of work to do, but their jobs aren't at stake."

Well what should he have said, "we won't be firing anybody today, but look out right before the last home stand"?

Good luck to Sandy Alomar, Jr., the newest (interim) manager of the Cleveland Indians. May your reign be long and prosperous.

The Indians face an important decision this offseason as Travis Hafner's contract runs out. The man once known as Pronk has not played at a prominent level since 2007 when he knocked in 100 runs with 24 home runs. In the five seasons since he has knocked in a total of 213 runs with 58 homers. Hafner signed his current contract prior to that 2007 season after his best season in 2006 when he lead the league in OPS and finished 8th in the MVP race. Based off the strength of that season and the two seasons prior he was given $13 million for each of the last two seasons (2011-2012) and an option for next season at the same price (he also has a buyout of $2.75 Million).

Before the Indians make this all important and seemingly simple decision, there is one peice of information they should look at:

Here are a few numbers from the last three seasons when Hafner has been terrible compared to the beginning of his time with the Indians. Despite batting averages under .280 every year and never having more than 15 home runs in a season, the Indians have been significantly more successful with Hafner in the lineup. While variability in starting pitching has effected the win/loss record a lot more than the absence of Hafner, his bat has still been a significant part the Indians run scoring effort.

In a stat more directly effected by Travis Hafner's place in the lineup, the next chart shows the Indians runs per game while he is the lineup and when he is not. Interestingly enough, this is the first season of the last three when the Indians scored more without the Pronk than with him.

The reasoning for the overall discrepancy in runs scored and wins is a subject that has been broached many times on Burning River. What most people don't think of is that when you remove a player from the lineup, the player who replaces him in the lineup is not necessarily the player who takes his position. What this means is that when Hafner was removed from his designated hitting duties, whether it was for injury or child birth, his position is usually taken by a starting position player like Shelley Duncan or Carlos Santana. This player would already be in the lineup with Hafner there, so his true replacement is the player who comes in for the new DH. In the case of Santana (the most used Indians DH after Hafner in 2012) this means that 100% of the time his replacement will be Lou Marson. I've already written multiple articles about this situation with Marson so I won't go into that any further suffice to say that it is replacing a hitter with a career .889 OPS with a .609 OPS. For the most part, when Duncan was used as DH, Johnny Damon was the replacement.

The point is not that the Indians should accept Hafner's option for 2013, they shouldn't. However, Manny Acta has already talked about using the DH spot for regular starting position players all season next year. This means every single game we will see a reserve playing. This would make the Indians essentially a National League club playing in the American League (or like a team managed by Eric Wedge..."your opening day starter in left field, Jose Hernandez...") at a significant disadvantage to all other American League teams. If the Indians don't plan on contending next season then it would be a great way to reduce payroll, but there is no reason for the Indians not to contend. This team was in first place in late June with major pieces missing from the roster. Lonnie Chisenhall and Carlos Carrasco are two huge parts that will return in 2012 while Jason Kipnis and Micheal Brantley are really coming into their own. Giving up before the season starts next year would be a disservice to the team, the fans and the city. Exactly the kind of thing that really gets Chris Perez raging.

What the Indians need to do is to sign a player for 2013 with the expressed intent of using him solely as a designated hitter. That player doesn't have to be an All-Star, just better than Marson and Jason Donald. Hafner is still an option if he is willing to renegotiate after he takes his $2.5 million buyout payoff. He has shown during his limited time during this season that he still has some of that forgotten power, but his tendency towards injury is too great a risk for the Indians to give him another chance. If the Indians are able to fill the hole at first base from within the system (possibly with Russ Canzler), they could put all their offseason spending into one power hitter to use as a DH. With the expiring contracts Hafner, Roberto Hernandez and Grady Sizemore, the Indians should have enough to spend about $15 million a year for a single batter. While the upcoming free agent class doesn't look tremendous, there are still a few players worth looking at in the Indians price range, like Nick Swisher, Melky Cabrera or even possibly Jim Thome if he decides he doesn't want to retire again. Indians brass shouldn't limit themselves to free agents though, as many teams have taken to the salary dump as of late. While normally the Indians would be the ones dumping salary, they have enough wiggle room going into next year to accept some other teams mistakes. One that the Indians really should look into is the contract of Alfonso Soriano of the Cubs. He is owed $18 million each of the next two seasons. If the Cubs were willing to take on at least $6 million of that, the Indians could definitely spare a few young pitching and middle infield prospects. Since this is pure speculation I won't go any further, but it needless to say that a player of his talent level would help the Indians immensely.

As this season comes to a close and we look more towards next season, there will be more on what the Indians strategies should be, but for now remember, if you want to be an American League team, you need a designated hitter.

With the Clippers season over in Columbus (a positive one at 75-69, but not good enough for the playoffs) the Indians are bringing up most of the rest of the players they will want to look at for the last month of the season. The new faces on the roster as of tomorrow will be Vinny Rottino, Cord Phelps, David Huff and Scott Maine. Rottino will be making his second appearance with the Indians after a short stint with the Tribe last month while Travis Hafner was on paternity leave. Phelps and Huff have both played with the Indians in past seasons but will be making their first appearances of 2012.

There are a few options for Huff, the most likely of which is that he will be placed in long relief. Other options include the Indians expanded to a six man rotation, but with eight starters on the team (Masterson, McAllister, Jimenez, Kluber, Gomez, Hernandez, Seddon and Huff) even a six man rotation seems small. It is possible that the Indians will keep the regular rotation of Masterson, McAllister, Jimenez and Kluber going while splitting starts among the rest of the options as well. Phelps will be another middle infield reserve, joining Jason Donald. This is another position that may get crowded as Lonnie Chisenhall is set to return any day now. The roster currently set at 33 with a maximum of seven more players allowed to be called up. 

Scott Maine pitched 21 games with the Cubs before the Indians picked him up off waivers. He has played with Chicago for three seasons throwing 40.2 innings in relief and accruing 42 strike outs with an ERA of 4.87. Maine's greatest talent is that he throws a baseball with his left hand, a talent in great demand in the Major Leagues, especially by a certain team that plays a little to the north of Cleveland. They must be so jealous of the Indians. With Tony Sipp and Scott Barnes already, Maine just adds to the excess.

The rest of this piece goes to congratulate those Cleveland Indians Minor League affiliates that did make their respective playoffs. The Akron Aeros won the Eastern League (AA) Western Division and will go on to face the second place Bowie Baysox (Baltimore) in the first round of the playoffs. The Aeros have won the Eastern League championship three times since 2003. Lonnie Chisenhall and Carlos Carrasco are expected to rehab with Akron during their playoff series.

The Carolina Mudcats finished 7.5 games out of a playoff spot in the Carolina League Southern Division (Advanced A) with a record of 31-39.

The Lake County Captains finished 40-30 in the Midwest League Eastern Division (A), good enough for second place and the first Wild Card berth. They will go on to play the division champion Bowling Green (KY) Hot Rods (Tampa Bay). Most of the stronger players from Mahoning Valley and the Arizona Summer League have been brought up to Lake County to help them in their playoff run.

At 30-43, the Mahoning Valley Scrappers (Short Season) were the most disappointing team in the Indians farm system. Despite having star 2012 draft picks Joseph Wendle, Tyler Naquin and Joe Sever and great pitching from Luis DeJesus (4-2, 2.02 ERA in 14 starts), they finished fifth out of the six teams in the New York-Penn League Pinckney Division (yes, a league that has teams from Ohio, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maryland is called the New York-Penn League and yes they have silly divisional names). 

The Arizona Summer League Indians (Rookie) finished in second place with a record of 31-25. They were 3.5 games behind Los Angeles from winning the Arizona League Central Division (the Indians are the furthest team west of all the AZL teams, but are somehow lumped in the Central with the AZL Reds who play at the same facility). 

The Dominican Summer League Indians (Rookie) finished the season at 35-35 and ended in fifth place (of eight) in the Boca Chica Northwest Division.

Let's make sure to root on our two Ohio teams that did make the playoffs this year, the Akron Aeros and the Lake County Captains! Hurrah!

With the worst months in Indians history over there wasn't much movement up or down the power rankings. Most of the movement that did occur happened because seven new players were added to the 25 man roster. 

1. Shin-Soo Choo Even (+1)

30 SO: This is the first time for Choo in the number one spot after being held by Hafner for a month, then Kipnis for the rest of the year. The move was mostly made due to Kipnis' slump, as Choo has been very consistant all season. If he had one problem, it's that he lead the team in strike outs, six more than the next worse batter. Chances are he has been pressing with the rest of the team struggling and swinging at more bad pitches than normal as of late, leading to the increased strike out count.

2. Asdrubal Cabrera Even (+2)

7 2B: Cabrera lead the team in doubles in August and has 30 on the season as well. While the Indians don't have a true power hitter, having three players with 30 or more doubles can make up for a lot of that. Even in a month as poorly played as this one, 7 Indians had at least four doubles, which would project out to 25 or so on the year. 

3. Jason Kipnis Below (-2)

.180 AVG: If Choo is pressing, Kipnis is already flat. He basically went from being the Indians best hitter, to their worse over the course of two months. He still hit two home runs and stole five bases, enough to keep him in third place along with his prior achievements, but things did not look good for Kipnis last month.

4. Michael Brantley Even (-1)

3 CS: For a speed outfielder, you never want to see a caught stealing ratio of 3 caught to every one good steal, but that is what Brantley put out last month. Ideally a manager is looking for a stolen base percentage of above 75% to have it actually help the team. Brantley obviously has the speed, but needs to work on finding the best situations to steal and improving his timing.

5. Carlos Santana Above (0)

16 RBI: While his batting average remains low, Santana's production numbers really jumped in the last month, hitting four home runs and knocking in a team high 16. While on a normal team this wouldn't be anything to get excited about, on the Indians it's off the charts fantastic.

6. Vinnie Pestano Below (0)

3 IR Scored: This month, Pestano has been a little worse than his stats will show. Prior to this month, Pestano had been almost perfect, stranding every single inherited runner on base except for one.  This month, he allowed 3 to score. He certainly has not been his usual perfect self, but he is still the best reliever and possibly the best overall pitcher on the team.

7. Zach McAllister Even (+1)

8 Unearned Runs: The Indians defense failed one of their best pitchers this month allowing 7 unearned runs in a single game and 8 overall. On the season he has allowed 18 unearned runs, almost a third of his total runs allowed. This disproportionate number is not all to blame on the Indians defense as he tended to give up a lot everytime the team made an error behind him that extended an inning. This could possibly be a mental block when thinks an inning should be over, but it isn't and he kind of gives up.

8. Casey Kotchman Below (-1)

4 Walks: There is a huge split in talent level that occurs between the first five position players and the sixth, Kotchman. While he is still a starter and has played as many games as anyone else, he comes in last for the month among starters in runs, doubles, triples, RBI and walks. A positive note for him is that he is also last in strike outs. Kotchman is here as a defensive firstbaseman, but with an offense this bad, the Indians can't afford the luxery of a player at a power position who can't hit.

9. Chris Perez Below (+1)

2 Losses: Every single starting pitcher lost three games this month, but Perez lead all relievers with two losses. This has to be one of Pure Rage's worst months ever as he blew two saves and held an ERA of 6.75 as well.

10. Joe Smith Below (+1)

1.61 WHIP: What happened to Joe Smith? Although he only gave up four runs this month, he walked seven and allowed eight hits in just 9.1 innings. This is nothing like the Smith we are used to who garners his success by keeping runners off base.

11. Justin Masterson Below (+2)

16 Walks: Masterson lead the team in walks during August, leading to a team high 1.77 WHIP. When he was good, he was the best pitcher of the month, winning three of the Indians five games won, but when he was terrible, he was bad enough to net an ERA of 6.75 for the month and record three losses.

12. Esmil Rogers Above (+9)

2.04 ERA: Rogers continues to impress as he again lead all relievers in appearances and this time strike outs as well. He also walked just two batters, best on the team by any pitcher with more than 2 innings pitched. If Rogers can keep his command, he could be a big part of the Bullpen Mafia for the next few seasons.

13. Jeanmar Gomez Even (New)

1 IP: Gomez threw just one inning in relief this month, but it was a perfect inning with a strike out. He will get another chance in the starting rotation in September as he is scheduled to start on the first.

14. Jack Hannahan Below (+2)

1 RBI: Jack must have been really excited when he knocked in that run this month. I know it looks like he has moved up the rankings because he is two places higher than last month, but he has actually moved down. Three players ranked above him last month are no longer on the list and the one directly below has been removed as well. This means he actually fell one place.

15. Ezequiel Carrera Above (New)

11 Runs: Even though he didn't start every game, and was in fact used as a late inning defensive replacement when first called up, Carrera has still managed to score the second most runs on the team in August. If there was a Indians Heart and Hustle award for each half of the season (and I believe there is), Kipnis deserved it in the first half and Carrera deserves it for the second.

16. Tony Sipp Above (+7)

11 Base Runners Allowed: Sipp pitched just 11.1 innings this month, meaning he allowed less than a single base runner an inning. This is superb and is an outstanding effort for any pitcher not named Addie Joss.

17. Cody Allen Above (+7)

12 Games: While Allen did give up his first runs of his career (it was bound to happen at some point), he proved that he is not a fluke by throwing in 12 games this month and maintaining an ERA at 2.51. The 2011 draft pick has truly been a surprise and one of the few good ones the Indians have had this year.

18. Ubaldo Jimenez Below (-3)

37 K's: Ubaldo certainly has found his curveball, using it and his other breaking pitches to lead the team in strike outs. All he has to do now is allow less than 27 runs in about 30 innings and he could be a superstar again. The "stuff" is definitely there, he just needs to work on his command and his knowledge of American League hitters and he really could be something special.

19. Brent Lillibridge Even (+6)

3 Home runs: After not hitting a single home run for either of his two previous teams, Lillbridge has come to Cleveland and pounded out three in a month. Of course he batting .200 and only knocked in 6, so let's not get too excited.

20. Lou Marson Below (0)

15 Games Played: Why did Lou Marson play 15 games this month? That's more than half the total games played by the Tribe. He could very literally be the worst offensive (and possibly defensive) player on the team. Keep him on the bench unless Carlos gets his knee taken out again.

21. Corey Kluber Below (New)

2.89 K/BB Ratio: Although Kluber has not been quite as good as the Indians would have liked, but one aspect he has impressed in is striking batters out. This month he has the best K/9 ratio outside of Jimenez on the strength of 26 total strike outs. As soon as he can put those strike outs closer together with less hits in between he will be all set.

22. Jason Donald Below (New)

2 Extra Base Hits: Surprisingly, both of Donald's extra base hits this month were home runs. Not surprisingly, he has had an OBP of .255 for the month. If the Indians were going to improve their offense by adding another bat, a way to make it even better would be to keep the player that the new hitter would replace and use him in the utility role while releasing Donald.

23. Chris Seddon Even (New)

6 Relief Appearances: Seddon is hard to judge this month as he pitched mostly in long relief, instead of starting as he had all year for Columbus. Even when he had a chance to join the starting rotation again with Hernandez's injury, Manny Acta has decided to go with Gomez, who struggled during his recent stint in AAA.

24. Roberto Hernandez Below (New)

4 Home Runs Allowed: Sadly, neither Hernandez's 7.53 ERA nor his .304 BAA are the worst on the team for the month, but his four home runs in 14.1 innings pitched is by far the worst. In his last start Roberto was removed due to a sprained ankle early in the game, yet he still managed to allow a homer in that start as well. 

25. Matt LaPorta Below (New)

1 Hit: LaPorta is not doing a very good job of taking advantage of what should be his final Indians try out. So far he has had 12 at bats and he has a single hit along with five strike outs. If he keeps this up for about another week, the Indians can end this experiment before the year is out and give his playing time to Russ Canzler.

No longer with us (July ranking in parenthesis):

Johnny Damon Below (17)

Jeremy Accardo Below (22)

Vinny Rottino Below (DNP)

Jose Lopez Even (12)

Travis Hafner Above (9)

Josh Tomlin Below (19)

Frank Herrmann Even (DNP)

Shelley Duncan Below (14)

Pythagoras was a Greek mathematician who lived around 500 BC. He was also a huge baseball fan. He dedicated his entire life to devising a way to estimate how many games a team would win just by looking at their runs scored and runs allowed and his dream came to fruition with this equation:

Runs Scored²/(Runs Allowed²+Runs Scored²)

Some of that may not be true, but the Pythagorean winning percentage (named after the actual Pythagorean theory for finding the length of any side of a right triangle: A² + B² = C²) has turned out to be an extremely accurate indicator of how a team will perform. In the history of Cleveland baseball, only one season (1988) had a difference of more than .100 points (10%) between their actual winning percentage and their Pythagorean. On an average level it is usually much closer. In the 134 year history of Cleveland baseball (I include the Forest City's, Blues, Spiders and Infants as Cleveland baseball teams), 127 teams have had their Pythagorean winning percent within .050 (5%) of their actual winning percent. 45 seasons have been within .010 or a 1% margin of error. This is all just to show how accurate of a predictor it is.

Below this is a graph comparing the Indians actual winning percentage (in red) to their pythagorean winning percentage (in blue) for the 2012 season to this point.

The first thing you should notice is something surprising. The Indians have actually won more games than they should have given their run differential. There is a good reason for this that I will go over later. Now, look around game 49. This was a high point in the Indians season as far as record goes, but it was also the highest difference between the two percents. At this point the Indians were winning 9.5% more games than they deserved to according to our friend Pythagoras, a pace that has only been beaten once in Indians history (in 1988 when the Indians won 78 games, but should have won 53) for an entire season and has otherwise not even been approached in over 100 years of baseball. There will always be some random variation from the line (it would be more surprising if there wasn't any at all), but to have a difference of this magnitude is bordering on a miracle. It should have come as no surprise when the two percentages started creeping towards each other as baseball karma caught up with the Tribe. While two long losing streaks weren't necessarily expected, they also weren't unwarranted. 

You can see during the first losing streak (games 100-110) places where the winning percentage dropped (as it does after every loss), but the Pythagorean didn't. These were close games, the kind that the Pythagorean winning percent can't decipher. Since it is based completely off run differential, the smaller the differential the less effect it has on the projected winning percentage. This means unlike in actual winning percentage where each win counts the same as every other win, some games are worth more than others. The reason this works out is that over time the averages will always catch up to you. No team can score less runs than they allow and maintain a winning record long term. 

This Indians team does have a couple assets that make it likely to maintain at a level slightly above the projected one. The first is the extreme dichotomy of the starting pitching staff. Pythagoras acts like a pitching staff is one unit, going out night after night, but in reality, some pitchers are much better than others to a point that it really makes a difference. If Justin Masterson wins a close, low scoring game it counts as a win in actual winning percentage and a wash in Pythagorean, but if Ubaldo Jimenez loses a game by a margin of seven it counts as a giant loss for the Pythagorean record, but just a single loss in the real world. Because of this, teams with great offenses will often underperform compared to their Pythagorean (the last Indians championship season in 1948 ended the season 9 games under their projected win total) because they score a lot of runs that don't really matter. A team with a struggling offense should still win games when their star pitchers are performing, but will likely lose early if the other team scores much. This is exactly what has been happening with the Indians over the past month. In August the Indians have won five games, three of which were won by the staff ace Justin Masterson and a fourth by rookie phenom Zach McAllister, who has been the second best pitcher on the team all season. The Indians simply don't score enough runs to win when any other pitcher is throwing and both records reflect that.

The second part of staying ahead of Pythagorus is having a good bullpen. It is completely pointless to have great starting pitching (even two out of every five days) if your bullpen is just going to give it away. Again, the entire bullpen doesn't have to be great, just enough to get through the games the team is going to win anyway. Joe Smith, Vinnie Pestano and Chris Perez offer enough punch to get through at least three innings every time the two above average pitchers throw, so every single one of those games is still winnable despite the poor offense.

Looking at a couple of recent seasons for comparison, 2005 was memorable as one of the worst years for the Indians bullpen in recent years. Cliff Lee, C.C. Sabathia, Kevin Millwood and Jake Westbrook made up a dominant pitching staff, but were hurt by 15 blown saves (not all of which were the fault of Bob Wickman) and won five games less than they were projected to, a big enough difference to mean missing the playoffs. In 2007 the bullpen gelled behind great seasons from Rafael Betancourt and Rafael Perez who were so good it didn't matter that Joe Borowski was closing. That bullpen still has to be considered one of the best in team history and that team outpaced it's Pythagorean win total by four games. Mostly the same bullpen, but with a better closer in 2011 finished 5 games ahead.

This year the bullpen is just as good and the offense is even worse, leading to an impressive seven games over where they should be as of now. The Indians do have the talent to keep the difference at where it is now and finish the season with about 70 wins, but they will need to win every time Masterson or McAllister takes the mound. The only other thing they could do at this point to save the season from total embarrassment is to start scoring some runs. It would hurt their differential between Pythagorean and real life, but that is actually a good thing, because it would mean they would be earning their wins, rather than just sneaking a couple a week past the other teams. Management has to see this and understand that if the Indians don't score more runs, it doesn't matter how well they pitch. The number one priority in the offseason has to be picking up someone who already knows how to slug, not just another retreaded outfielder who can't find a home.

Pythagorean winning percentage is a good predictor of success, but a team shouldn't be trying to beat it, but instead should work with it. Just like in a single game, it really is as simple as the team that scores the most runs wins. 

Prior to the 2012 season, the Indians made a lot of signings. Looking for a new firstbaseman, particularly a right handed power bat, they signed light hitting lefty Casey Kotchman and Andy LaRoche. In an effort to shore up the starting rotation they traded for Derek Lowe and signed Kevin Slowey. To round out the bullpen they signed Dan Wheeler, Chris Seddon, Jeremy Accardo and Chris Ray. J.C. Romero was signed midseason for added depth. Looking for another utility infielder, the Tribe invited Christian Guzman, Gregorio Petit and Jose Lopez to camp and signed Russ Canzler. In search of a starting left fielder they picked up Felix Pie, Fred Lewis and Ryan Spilborghs. In mid season they signed Johnny Damon as a free agent since none of the other players worked out.

Where are these players now? Kotchman, Seddon and Lopez are still on the Major League team although Kotchman and Lopez have both underperformed and Seddon has only just joined the team (and as a starter, not the reliever he was signed to be). Slowey, Wheeler, Romero, Canzler and Petit are currently with AAA Columbus, most of whom haven't seen any time on the Indians this year. Wheeler did spend about a month with the team and was absolutely dreadful during his time in Cleveland.

Guzman was released on March 28th and retired. Lewis was released on April 2nd and went on to New York with the Mets. Pie was baked on April 4th (he has since been picked up by Atlanta. Now he's peach Pie). Spilborghs was sold to Texas on May 4th. On June 26th, the Indians released LaRoche (he was then signed by Boston). Ray was released on July 7th (then released by Oakland on July 26th). What do all these players have in common? They never got a sniff of the Major Leagues in 2012.

There is one last group of those mentioned above, the ones who played for the Indians for an extended amount of time, but no longer do so. This group consists of Lowe (released 8/2), Damon (8/4) and Accardo (8/5). This is what I call, taking out the trash. None of these players have done a single positive thing for the Tribe since May and they have all played below replacement level. The Indians have players in the minors better than all three of these old men, particularly those who were called up for them, Corey Kluber, Ezequiel Carrera and Seddon. These three have been a waste of time, money and talent for more than half a year, costing not just the Indians their payroll and the games they lost, but the minor league player's playing time. This wouldn't bother me if it was the first time, or an isolated incident, but this has happened before.

You may remember this list of players better or worse than those listed in the first paragraph: 

This is a fairly complete list of every free agent the Indians have signed since 2004 that has made the team and stayed for 3 or less years. It includes when they came, how and when they left, their OPS or ERA while on the team, how much money they stole from the Indians and the player(s) they took playing time away from. Here are a few notes about the listing:

• There were a couple of good signings by the Indians and these should be noted. Millwood lead the league in ERA in 2005 and was by far the Indians best pitcher. When it says a player didn't take playing time away from anyone it means that their replacement was worse than them or they played so little it didn't matter. Aaron Fultz was another good signing as relief pitchers tended to be the most needed position filled and the most successful. Breslow and Rincon were two other signings that didn't work out poorly. Paul Byrd was an innings eater for years that should be commended for his performance in the 2007 post season.
• Ed Mujica is listed next to Breslow, even though there is no question that Breslow was superior, then and now. However, Mujica did go on to close for Tampa Bay, meaning that one of the two teams misjudged him. 
• The OG next to Roberto Hernandez stands for original gangsta, so he would not be confused with the newly created Roberto Heredia Hernandez. This is the Roberto Hernandez that was an All-Star closer for the White Sox and Devil Rays before coming to the Tribe.
• In 2007 Borowski didn't take playing time from Betancourt, but he did take the closers role. Betancourt was by far the best reliever on that team, while Borowski wasn't in the top five, yet Borowski got almost every save opportunity while Betancourt set a team record for holds.
• The worst signings were outfielders. With an overload of minor league outfielders through the years mentioned including Coco Crisp, Grady Sizemore, Shin-Soo Choo, Franklin Gutierrez, Ben Francisco and later Trevor Crowe and Ezequiel Carrera, it is offensive that the Indians continued to sign below average players that cost the Indians more wins than they generated. This list includes Hollandsworth, Dellucci, Nixon, Kearns (twice), Buck and this season Johnny Damon. Special mention goes to Jason Michaels who is not listed because he was picked up in trade, but also stole more than his share of playing time from much more talented, faster and better defensive outfielders. The Indians believed they were so deep in outfielders that they continued to trade them away, even as they signed new ones. Gutierrez went on to star with the Mariners while Francisco won a World Series with Philadelphia. Crisp has also seen decent success with the Royals and A's and Crowe was recently signed by the Angels.
• A half a season of the reject from a terrible Tigers team, Jason Johnson, was worth not even looking at a first round draft pick before trading him. Jeremy Guthrie was kept out of the starting rotation in 2006 by the signing of Johnson and was then traded to Baltimore after just a single start for the Tribe. He went on to be the Orioles ace for the next five seasons.
• Two players are listed next to Chad Durbin's name, even though he only took one roster spot. When Durbin was signed, the Indians designated Laffey and traded him to the Mariners when he didn't clear waivers. Durbin was bad before the Indians signed him and they still gave up on the career of a left handed starting pitcher and a chance at seeing Frank Herrmann all season instead of moving him constantly between AAA and the pros. Durbin also cost the Indians some games as he was absolutely dreadful out of the bullpen and not usable during games that were decided by less than 5 runs.
• In 2011 with the future of the franchise (Kipnis and Chisenhall) ready for the majors, they decided to go with more expensive less talented veteran options. If Kipnis had played a full 2011, maybe he wouldn't be dealing with stamina issues in 2012. They compounded the mistake with Chisenhall this year by signing Jose Lopez. Instead of playing half a season before he broke his arm, he ended up playing less than a month.
• Most of the players were sold, traded or released mid season when their replacements finally broke through. This means the Indians paid them for a whole year, but only got half. The one exception is Kerry Wood, who had $8.4 million of his salary paid for by the Yankees after he was traded. Usually when a player is released midseason, the new team is only required to pay the minimum while the rest of the salary is covered by the original team.
• If the Indians had used minor league replacement level players instead of old men, most of whom never were very talented, they could have saved about $50 million in payroll over the last 8 years. That money could have been used to buy more midlevel players like Millwood (almost one a year), re-sign players like Choo or Cabrera to long term deals or to build another big windmill on top of the stadium. Whatever management found to be more important to creating a winning baseball team.

In general, starting players that sign for less than $5 million a year are being paid for their veteran status rather than their abilities. There is a threshold between there and about $12 million a year that include some very talented, but sometimes unappreciated players. This could include future free agents like B.J. Upton, Delmon Young, Luke Scott and James Shields and would have including Carlos Pena last offseason. Maybe the Indians wouldn't be interested in any of these players, but they have been linked to all them in rumors and would be able to afford them if they stopped over paying for replacement level talent. The Indians could have had Scott for nothing if they had just avoided trading him for Jeriome Robertson in 2004, another player that would have been included on this list if only the Indians would have acquired him differently. The Indians need to immediately cease this inane obsession with signing veterans on their last legs and never-wills who have spent enough time in the majors to know what they truly are. Look to Choo, Hafner and Rafael Perez for that veteran leadership (they've all been around for a day or two and have played through playoff hunts and the playoffs themselves). Trust your draft picks to amount to what you projected them to be and put more faith in the minor leaguers you traded your stars for.

The moral of the story is, "Go big or stay home."

A month that saw the Indians struggle as a group also saw them struggle as individuals. Many stars had their worst month of the season although a few unexpected players did shine through. Players ranked in order of importance to team for the entirety of 2012 to this point. The rating given (above, even or below) is based on July's expectations only and only considers that month. (Change from last month's ranking is in parenthesis). Here's this month's list:

1. Jason Kipnis Below (0)

9 RBI: Even though Kipnis had by far his worst month of the season in July, he remains atop the leader boards for another month. He continues to lead the team in RBI (9 more than the next best) and steals (10 more) while remaining in second in home runs and triples behind by just one in each stat. His defense remains strong at a very difficult and important up the middle and even at his worst he is one of the most effective parts of the Indians offensive machine.

2. Shin-Soo Choo Above (+1)

8 Doubles: This is Choo's highest place so far on the Indians Player Power Rankings as he started very low, ranked 15th after April. Since then, Choo has improved every month, culminating in team high 8 doubles in July, giving him 32 on the season, second in the American League (Alex Gordon). This recent success has lead to rumors of an early departure from the team for Choo that were thankfully untrue. No true Indians fan would want to see him traded away in the prime of his career.

3. Michael Brantley Above (+3)

.326 AVG: Brantley was the only Indian with more than 50 at bats in July to hit over .300 and joins Cabrera's April and Choo's June being the only times an Indian has hit over .300 in a single month this year. Brantley had a great July, showing some power (3 home runs, 11 RBI in July, 1 HR, 35 RBI previously) and patience as he drew 12 walks. If there is one draw back to Brantley, it is that he is not being used to his fullest potential as he was stuck in the middle of the lineup when he should be batting in one of the top two positions as a table setter. This has kept his steal attempts to three this month with just two being successful.

4. Asdrubal Cabrera Below (0)

.307 SLG: I would list the players with a higher slugging percentage than the Indians shortstop, but it is easier to go the other way. Hannahan, Lopez, Marson and Lillibridge were the only players to hit with less power on the Tribe during July. None of those other players had any expectations coming into this month, but Cabrera did. He has also struggled defensively including a recent game where he made two errors in the same inning. Luckily for him, the Indians signed Kotchman to make him look good or things would be even worse for the All-Star.

5. Carlos Santana Above (+6)

.433 OBP: Not surprisingly, Santana lead all Indians in both OBP and walks again this month and continues to lead for the season with 61 walks. Santana is extremely patient and has a great eye, to the point that he could end up challenging Jim Thome for his walks record if he sticks around long enough. July was Santana's best month to date as he is finally sitting about where he should on these rankings. Although an injury slowed him down, he appears to be hitting his stride and should provide power from the cleanup spot for the rest of the season.

6. Vinnie Pestano Above (-1)

12.75 K/9: The Indians flame throwing set-up man outdid himself this month, striking out 17 in 12 innings and lowering his season ERA to 1.47. How did he manage to lower his already minuscule ERA? Pestano didn't allow a single runner to cross the plate during the month of July. There is simply no Indians pitcher on the roster comparable to Vinnie Pestano.

7. Casey Kotchman Even (+5)

11 Runs: Casey has improved much this season, going from a huge detractor of the Indians offense to becoming almost an asset. His 11 runs scored from the bottom of the lineup show that he is getting on base more when it matters and his team leading 12 RBI in July show that he can score from both sides. If Kotchman had played the whole season like this the Indians still would have been disappointed (.239 AVG in July, .227 in 2012), but they would have been a lot less disappointed.

8. Zach McAllister Above (+6)

9 Runs Allowed: The Indians newest best pitcher was amazingly able to keep an ERA of 2.56 through the month despite giving up 5 home runs by keeping his walks down (9), his strike outs up (31) and by having players make errors behind him leading to a team high 7 unearned runs in one month. McAllister has been by far the most consistent starting pitcher on the team during his time with the Tribe and is very deserving of the top spot held by a starter in this month's rankings.

9. Travis Hafner Below (New)

5:17 BB/K: At some point in time Pronk got turned around and started swinging early in the count and taking pitches late. This has lead to an inordinate amount of called looking strike outs and a very slim amount of walks and hits. Travis used to be the Indians best hitter as far as getting on base, but this month in particular he has been awful. This is his first month back after missing a month with injury and he has shown some power (team leading 4 home runs), but it hasn't amounted to much (6 RBI). If he continues to struggle he may begin to lose playing time to Duncan who has been much better of late.

10. Chris Perez Even (-3)

1 Blown Save: I know how much he hates it, but when Pure Rage only throws 9 innings in a month, he is going to be judged on the one time he messed up. Perez blew his second save of the season the day before the All-Star break, and although he has been perfect since, he simply hasn't had the opportunities to make up for it.

11. Joe Smith Above (-1)

2 Wins: Smith was second on the team in wins in July and is tied for third for 2012 as a reliever. He has been solid all year (especially this month) and has taken advantage of many games where the original starting pitcher was not as dependable as the Indians would have liked. Smith is especially successful at racking up wins because he is only used in close games, but isn't used exclusively in wins like Perez and Pestano are.

12. Jose Lopez Below (+2)

2 RBI: Lopez wasn't exactly impressive this month, but absolutely terrible performances by a few Indians starting pitchers have seen him climb up the rankings. His .220 batting average and single walk during July have made deciding who to start at third a daily headache for Indians manager Manny Acta.

13. Justin Masterson Below (-11)

1.54 WHIP: So much for those flashes of brilliance as Masterson has fallen off the wagon and started walking people again. Fifteen this month alone along with 40 hits allowed have ballooned his WHIP and ERA (5.55), but the fact that he is nowhere near being the Indians third worst starter is what is really depressing. His fall of 11 places in the rankings in one month is by far the most of any player this season.

14. Shelley Duncan Above (+6)

1.103 OPS: Duncan surprised everyone in July by playing how he was expected to play all season. In no more playing time than normal, Duncan has hit 4 home runs (9 total) and knocked in 10 runs (25 total) this month. He also batted .306 and only struck out 4 times as he is practically demanding to take playing time away from the struggling Hafner and Damon. At this point there is no reason Duncan shouldn't be starting somewhere every day.

15. Ubaldo Jimenez Below (-7)

6 HRA: Jimenez had a 6.09 ERA and there were still two Indians starters worse than him this month. He is continuing to strike hitters out (29 in July, 94 on the year), but his 1.74 is embarrassingly bad. Jimenez pitched more innings in July than anyone but Masterson and the Indians have no choice but to stick with him and wait for him to turn things around.

16. Jack Hannahan Below (0)

11 Hits: The reason Lopez is still the starting third baseman can be found by looking at Hannahan's line, .193/.246/.298. He makes Jose look good. If only Lonnie Chisenhall hadn't taken one for the team, Lopez could have been traded to the Yankees for the next Zach McAllister and Hannahan would be a solid late inning defensive replacement. Instead, Jack has to be used in some sort of sado-masochistic platoon situation where the two players batting averages added together equal .413.

17. Johnny Damon Even (+1)

2 XBH: While Damon is still considered the starting left fielder for the Tribe (he starts more games in left field than any other player at least) he has managed to do something interesting in July. He hit one double, one triple and walked once during an entire month. The fact that he stole two bases is a minor miracle, but doesn't add much to his value as a baseball player. At this point there may be dozens of more capable candidates for the job and Damon is just holding them back. One was recently sent to Los Angeles (Trevor Crowe), never to be seen of again. Hopefully the Indians will remove this dead weight from the roster before any more promising young outfielders disappear.

18. Derek Lowe Below (-9)

10.03 ERA: It can't get worse than this. If Lowe is listed on next month's rankings it will be a sure sign that the Indians have been eliminated. His fall has been dramatic since he peaked at the #2 spot in the first ever edition of the Indians Player Power Rankings. Lowe may just be the second worst starter on the Indians, but he is bad enough.

19. Josh Tomlin Below (-4)

1 Relief Appearance: The Indians decided to make this move just before the month ended. With both Lowe and Tomlin struggling they have put them together like some kind of starting pitcher nightmare Voltron that combined can't make it through five innings. In their first combined effort they allowed 11 hits, 8 runs, 2 walks and just recorded a single strike out in 5 innings. Tomlin's replacement is to be called up on Thursday and the Indians will have to make a choice with what to do with him, and Derek Lowe, by then.

20. Lou Marson Below (+1)

.194 AVG: Lou's back to normal, don't worry about anything. That one good month was just a fluke. There's nothing to see here. Certainly not a batting average above .200 or a single home run.

21. Esmil Rogers Even (-5)

10 Games Played: At 10 games, Rogers was the third most used reliever in the bullpen and established himself as king of the losers. The Indians have two bullpens, one consists of Perez, Pestano, Smith and sometimes Sipp (the Bullpen Mafia), while the other is used in games that have already been decided by terrible starting pitching and poor run support. Rogers is the best of these others at this point. The good news for him is there is room for advancement and if he continues to pitch well, he may be used in a close game that the Indians are winning, provided that that particular situation happens again this year.

22. Jeremy Accardo Below (-3)

7 BB: Seriously how do you walk seven batters in 13 innings as a relief pitcher. The job of a reliever is to come in and throw strikes. Accardo hasn't allowed many hits and has been effective getting batters to swing and miss, placing the majority of his 4.15 ERA to blame on his awful control.

23. Tony Sipp Above (+1)

1.93 ERA: The Indians lone left handed reliever out of the bullpen just had his best month of the season by far as he will look to slowly regain his stature as the Tribe's best matchup lefty out of the pen. He seems to have put his troubles behind him and will need to work the rest of the season in regaining management's trust. Assuming he doesn't slam any doors he already has one left hander beaten out anyway.

24. Cody Allen Above (New)

.067 BAA: Allen's 0.00 ERA is impressive, but even more so is the fact that he has only given up a single hit so far in the Majors. Enjoy watching this kid as he is truly special. Players simply don't rise through the Indians farm system this fast. At least it should make an interesting fireworks show when this rising fireball burns out.

25. Brent Lillibridge Even (New)

9 At bats: With just 9 at bats and games played at four different positions, it's impossible to get a read on Lillibridge at this point. All we can say for sure is that he is a gigantic upgrade over whoever that old guy was.

Here are June's rankings for comparison.

No longer with us (June Ranking in parenthesis):

Nick Hagadone Below (22)

Jason Donald Even (25)

Scott Barnes Below (DNF)

Aaron Cunningham Below (23)