Over the past seven months, people all over Northeast Ohio have been watching the Cleveland Indians fight for their first American League Central division title since 2007.  With the Cavaliers back into mediocrity, the National Basketball Association (NBA) on hold, the Browns still rebuilding, Cleveland sports are in disarray.  It was suppose to continue that way for the Indians as well.  The Indians have been the one constant over the past seven months, not knowing if the National Football League (NFL) would have a season and with the Cavaliers not being close to contending.

After finishing 69-93 last year, most media around the country expected about the same record from the Tribe this year.  Even the local media were cautiously optimistic about the Indians, with many of them expecting the Tribe to battle with Kansas City for fourth place.  All of a sudden, the Indians came storming out of the gate.  After a terrible first series against the Chicago White Sox, the Indians were the biggest surprise of the early season.  After 45 games, the Indians had a record of 30-15, the best record in the major leagues at the time.  Things were starting to look up for the Tribe, and many experts started to jump on the bandwagon.

As the season continued, the Tribe started to slow down quite a bit.  Teams started to figure the Indians out and they could no longer surprise teams.  As many players and managers say constantly: The season is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.  The large lead that the Indians had in the division started to become very slim, and pretty soon afterwards, the Detroit Tigers caught the Indians and overtook first place.  For a team that was at one point seven and a half games ahead of the next closest team, this was a real blow to their morale.  They were still in the race for the division, but it started to feel like that the momentum had shifted to the Tigers.

General Manager Chris Antonetti felt that things were beginning to get out of hand, so he made a move that not only was unusual for a small market team like Cleveland, but a radical one as well.  On the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline, the Indians acquired arguably one of the most dominant pitchers in the National League, Ubaldo Jimenez, from the Colorado Rockies.  That was the good part, but the questionable part was the amount of good talent that the Indians gave up in order to acquire Jimenez.  In exchange for the Rockies pitcher, the Indians sent pitchers Alex White, Drew Pomeranz, Joe Gardner and and batter Matt McBride.  Drew Pomeranz was the Indians number one pick in the 2010 MLB draft and Alex White was the Indians number one pick in the 2009 draft.  Many experts had Pomeranz and White as the top two pitching prospects in the Indian’s entire organization at the time.  White had already pitched in the major leagues and looked good while Pomeranz was progressing quickly through the minor  league levels.  These two young pitchers were suppose to be part of the Indians future, but Antonetti felt that the time to win was now, not later, and pulled the trigger.

It’s safe to say, the plan has backfired. Now while Jimenez performed pretty well, the Indians continued their slide down the standings.  The Indians went from having a large lead to being completely out of the division race, as the Tigers locked it up.  The positive thing out of this is that Jimenez is under contract with the Tribe through the 2013 season at a price that the Tribe can afford.

2011 was not suppose to be a good year for the Indians and it was not suppose to be until next year that the Indians were suppose to be a serious contender in the American League Central.  Now while they didn’t win the division this year, they outperformed many people’s expectations.  There is some very good, young talent on that team.  It was just amazing that the Indians were still playing important games until September, not starting slow and being out of the divisional race by mid-summer.  2012 is the target year and with a few signings in the off season, the Indians will be on the right path and will give Cleveland people something to cheer for that they haven’t had in a long time: a winner.