The Tribe is poised to make a second half run....Carlos Santana is hitting well, now that he is back to playing first base. Nick Swisher is starting to hit better now that he has been relegated to mostly DH'ing. Lonnie Chisenhall continues to pound the ball and has reclaimed 3B. Trevor Bauer continues to get better and Kluber is solid as ever. The bullpen is solid now that Allen and Shaw are in place to anchor it. Still, some pieces for a stretch run need to be found. We need at LEAST one other pitcher to step up and make quality starts....and the pitiful defense needs to improve....DRAMATICALLY.

The Tribe has made 76 errors in 94 games....on pace to make 131 over the season. Contrast that to 2000 when the Tribe fielded gold glovers Fryman, Robbie Alomar and Omar...the team made 72 errors THE WHOLE SEASON. the team is not only the worst in the majors...it is the worst by far....Way,way below just being average.

Despite that, the team sits at .500, just 3.5 games behind in the Wild Card race.


Anybody have any thoughts or predictions for the second half?

Im very pleased to be .500 at the ASG, because they have looked like shit for many more nights then they have looked good.

I think they will finish below .500 and well out of the playoff run. Can't expect them to duplicate last seasons' fortunate run.

Laley23;1636298 wrote:Im very pleased to be .500 at the ASG, because they have looked like shit for many more nights then they have looked good.

Pretty much sums up my feelings as well.

The wild card is going to be much harder this year than last baring a huge collapse by the Angels. They are 6.5 clear of Seattle so that wild card slot is basically locked up.

That is going to leave the Mariners/Tribe/Yankees/Jays/Royals competing for 1 slot.

Last year down the stretch it was 3 teams competing for 2 spots as there was significant separation between the top 3 WC contenders and everyone else.

I don't think they will fall out of it totally, but with everyone competing for essentially 1 slot instead of 2 (Angels have a 10 game lead on the Tribe) there is significantly less margin for error or extended period of bad play.

Also think .500 or a few games below. No play-offs.

My scenarios:

The Tribe make the playoffs if:

-Masterson comes back 'healthy' and returns to the form that made us all pissed he wasn't locked up long term. McAllister also has to give us something.
-Kluber stays Kluber. Bauer continues to improve.
-The guys with great 1st halves (Brantley, Lonnie, Gomes (not talked about often but for a guy basically just finishing his first calendar year in the bigs, he is incredibly promising long term) have at least solid 2nd halves.
-Cabby, Murph, Bourn (when back) continue to not hurt the team at the plate, shore up the D (Cabby) and finish out career average seasons.
-Guys with tons of room to improve (Kipnis, Swisher and Santana)- have big 2nd halves.
-Bullpen does what they have been doing.

Miss the playoffs-

If 2 of those don't happen. Bauer falls apart. Kluber comes down to earth. Masty sucks the whole year. Brantley and Chiz come down to earth as well. Swisher ends the season at .210. Gomes runs out of gas from catching 6 days a week.

Gordon makes a great play to take a knock away from Brantley.

He could get another AB if they can send 8 more to the plate in the 7th and 8th.

I really found it hard to get into the All-Star game with the Tribe being only minimally respresented.

Obviously a bit premature, but just as a topic for discussion....At what point do you consider Lonnie Chisenhall a 'core player'. I think the obvious answer is that you wait to see some consistency year to year, but I don't think that was the case with Jason Kipnis.