Indians Trade Deadline Message From The Past

When F.J. "Steve" O'Neil and Gabe Paul returned to the Indians ownership in 1978 Gabe Paul made reference to the Cleveland Sports fan as the "Sleeping Giant". His words were scoffed at through the hard years and finally came to fruition in the perfect storm of the mid to late 1990's.

It is often suggested that voices from the past speak to us but we are often not willing to listen. I hope Chris Antonetti, Mark Shapiro, and Paul Dolan can take a moment to reflect on the words of Gabe Paul:

"It [sleeping giant] only needs to be reawakened, that won't come with words, only action. But give the fans what they want, a winning team, and they will react like no other city."

"And if we don't succeed, we can't blame it on the people, only ourselves"

Is the front office willing to listen?

From Here To The Trade Deadline: Remaining July Schedules for AL Central Teams

In ranking the toughest second half schedules ESPN.com's Buster Olney ranks the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox as the two easiest and the Detroit Tigers as the 4th toughest. Olney's strength of schedule rankings are based on the number of games remaining against teams with a .500 record and at the time of his writing the  Indians had 33 opponents with a .500 record or better, the White Sox 35, and the Tigers 54.

Currently the Chicago White Sox lead the AL Central with a record of 47-53 and lead the Indians (44-41) by 3 games, the Detroit Tigers (44-42) by 3.5 games, the Kansas City Royals (37-47) by 9.5 games, and the Minnesota Twins (36-49) by 11games. The Indians trail the Baltimore Orioles (45-40) for the final wild card spot by 1 game and Tigers trail the Orioles by 1.5 games.

How  active the White Sox, Indians, Tigers, and even the Royals are at the trade deadline will be determined by how they perform between now and the July 31st trade deadline so let's take a look at who's playing who and where.

---

Cleveland Indians:

Home Games (7): Baltimore Orioles (4) Detroit Tigers (3)

Road Games (11): Toronto Blue Jays (3), Tampa Bay Rays (4), Minnesota Twins (3), Kansas City Royals (1)

Off Days: 1 (July 30th)

---

Chicago White Sox:

Home Games/Opponent: (3): Minnesota Twins (3)

Road Games (15): Kansas City Royals (3), Boston Red Sox (4), Detroit Tigers (3), Texas Rangers (3), Minnesota Twins (2)

Off Days: 1 (July 26th)

---

The Detroit Tigers:

Home Games  (7): LA Angels (4), Chicago White Sox (3)

Road Games (11): Baltimore Orioles (3), Cleveland Indians (3), Toronto Blue Jays (3), Boston Red Sox (2)

Off Days: 1 (July 23rd)

---

Kansas City Royals:

Home Games ( 11): Chicago White Sox (3), Seattle Mariners (4), Minnesota Twins (3), Cleveland Indians (1)

Road Games (7): LA Angels (3), Seattle Mariners (4)

Off Days: 1 (July 30th)

---

Minnesota Twins:

Home Games (12): Oakland Athletics (3), Baltimore Orioles (4), Cleveland Indians (3), Chicago White Sox (2)

Road Games ( 6): Kansas City Royals (3), Chicago White Sox (3)

Off Days: 1 (July 26th)

---