DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS
It’s truly getting to the point where the Indians defense has become nothing short of laughable. The Tribe has made 43 errors in just as many games, a ratio that is absolutely unheard of this late into the season. Dead last in defense with a .973 fielding percentage is just one of many problems for the 2014 Cleveland Indians.
How does this happen?
It’s all a mental game. Obviously, these players are professionally trained and have the capabilities to field the baseball well. There are some that are definitely better than others, but everyone is at a major league level out on the diamond.
Catcher Yan Gomes leads the negative charge with nine errors from behind the plate. It seems like every time he revs up to gun it down to second base, you cringe just knowing there’s a good chance that ball will go way into center field. Last year, he was godly from behind the dish. In over 2x the attempts, Gomes made 3x less the amount of errors than he has this year.
Shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera is second with six errors this season. There have been a few plays this year that just don’t seem Cabby-like. Lack of concentration and bone-headed decisions are common these days. Throughout his seven-year career, Cabrera is been really great at 2B and SS. It’s odd to see him struggling like this…
Moreover, our two anchors on the corners in Carlos Santana at third and Nick Swisher at first each have five errors.
It’s absolutely unbelievable to see this lack of defense spread like a cancer throughout this whole Indians ball club. Every night there’s someone new that makes a bad throw, botches a ball or simply does something wrong on defense.
The worst part of this problem is there isn’t anything manager Terry Francona and the rest of the staff can do to fix it besides yelling at the guys to figure it out. It comes down to the players focusing in on the simple plays. Treating each and every ground ball like your life depends on it. Making all of the throws absolutely perfect because that’s the way it needs to be.
The Tribe needs to go back to the basics. Back to focusing on the fundamentals, or else this year will not just be a playoff-less year, but an extremely embarrassing and disappointing one at that.
It’s time to string a couple of games together with ZERO errors. Then, LET’S HIT THE BALL!!!
-Zach Shafron
