Will the Real Indians Please Stand Up?

As has been noted, no Lazy Sunday yesterday as there was literally NOTHING of interest in the Sunday print columns. That is, unless of course, you're interested in Sheldon Ocker bickering with people from his mailbag about whether global warming is real or not.

When that's the best out there, well...

But, on to more important things:

Mr. Garko-my-God-did-you-see-how-far-he-hit-that? saved us all from the very distinct possibility of losing a series to the Devil Rays and looking bad doing it. For all intents and purposes, the Indians should have lost Sunday's game as they were dominted by James Shields (who?), continued their disturbing trends of mental mistakes on the basepaths and in the field, and plated 5 of their 6 runs via the HR.

The series, and the performance of the team thus far, raises an interesting question:
Are the Indians simply not playing their best baseball yet (their inability to generate runs in a rally, instead popping out and striking out with men on base is mystifying), and the fact that they've won 4 of their 5 series a sign that they are talented enough to overcome imperfect games to win?

Or is it that the Indians are a more acutely flawed team than we thought coming out of Spring Training? Is their reliance on HR (and waiting for Pronk to launch another majestic moonshot) and their miscues on the field of play a sign that this team is fundamentally unprepared to execute the simple, but necessary, aspects of the game that consistently win games?

Except for the Yankees' series, the rotation and (knocking firmly on wood) the bullpen have kept this team in games, regardless of what you think of Wedge's handling of the arms. Is this the design - to eke out these wins, generally playing bad baseball full of men left on base and fielding errors? Or is the offense and defense simply not clicking yet?

As I sat watching the Sunday game, as Westbrook was left in an inning too long, as Martinez completely missed two Mastny offerings (and looked bad doing it) after airmailing a ball into CF earlier in the game, as the Tribe flailed away at whatever Shields was dealing - the disgust of watching the same problems of last year had me boiling.

Then, Garko steps up to the plate in the 9th and wins it for the Indians...and all of the problems are forgotten, right?
No chance.

4 of the 9 regulars are hitting under .225 (Peralta, Blake, Marte, and Barfield), the team is hitting .212 with RISP, and the Indians are tied for the lead in the AL in errors (despite the fact they missed the ENTIRE Seattle series and have played 4 fewer games).

And, miraculously, they're still 8-7. Maybe it's by luck, maybe it's a sign that they can win when not clicking on all cylinders.

Whatever it is, this team needs to pull themselves out of whatever extended Spring Training they think they're still in, before they run into a team (like the Yankees) that will simply exploit their flaws and their mistakes. Otherwise, this team is going to sink quickly to the bottom of the standings and dig themselves a hole too deep to get out of once (or if) they can correct these problems and play complete, error-free, fundamentally sound games.