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July 6, 2009
Allow me to be self-indulgent for a minute. As I write this article today, I do truly know that the Cleveland Indians and their successes and failures aren’t truly about me. I am writing this post for what I am guessing are a lot of people who are fans of the Indians and feel the same way I do. As the Indians sit as one of the worst teams on paper right now, I am feeling a bit like a failure myself. I have been one of the people out front defending the Indians, Mark Shapiro and even Indians’ ownership to a large extent. I need to come clean and admit that I might have been wrong to be such an apologist for this organization over the last few years.
When the Indians gave up and traded Bartolo Colon in 2001, I was sad to see the end of an era like everyone else. Still, I consider myself a market realist to a large extent. I get the fact that the Indians were playing over their heads salary-wise in the 90’s as a confluence of events including not having the Browns in town enabled the Indians to be the main attraction in local sports for a period. These are facts that cannot be denied. The Indians truly are a mid to small market team and their payrolls need to ebb and flow on a rebuilding model. The problem was that I took buying into that strategy to mean that Mark Shapiro and company knew what they were doing.
Today as we have disarray in all levels of Tribe pitching, young position players that hardly ever continue to develop and nary a trade for big league talent, I have to say that I wasn’t being very smart. It is one thing to accept the fact that payrolls have to be a certain way. It is quite another to put up with a complete lack of development of those youngsters that are supposed to develop into frontline talent like what has happened in Tampa Bay, Minnesota and periodically in Oakland. As those organizations continue to push players from the minors into the majors, they seem to get better.
Meanwhile the Indians, save Grady Sizemore, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Shin Soo Choo, are a walking cloud of regression. Ben Francisco, Kelly Shoppach, Ryan Garko, did I mention Ben Francisco? Jeremy Sowers, The Raffys, Jensen Lewis and on and on and on. Combine those with young promising players that never developed like Andy Marte and Josh Barfield and all of a sudden you have an organization that is failing from the ground up. And I was too busy making excuses by sniping at the Red Sox and Yankees to realize that even though the Indians had the correct fiscal policy, their organizational execution was failing miserably.
And that is the part that makes this realization so painful. Not only are the Indians ruining my summer, in a way it pains me even more because it feels like I co-signed for it. Now, I don’t know if any of you other fans out there feel the same way I do. I am ready for some wholesale changes though. Right now I can’t tell you the last time I watched a Tribe game wire to wire. Not caring about your baseball team by the 4th of July is the saddest thing of all. I don’t know exactly what changes need to be made. I won’t call for Shapiro yet, but I am guessing he needs a revamping of some of his coaching and scouting throughout the organization. I won’t pretend to know how to do that. I don’t know if it needs to be blown up or whether it can be done with some calculated injections of personnel. I do know something needs to change.
9 Comments
I agree with this article. We should collectively blaim Craig. And Denny.
And Scott for not making more comics.
For what it’s worth, the crying Wahoo is kind of awesome.
Anyway, I think the lack of development goes right to the coaches (and manager, and GM for not recognizing that it’s happening). It’s not a coincidence that that guys that have been good their whole career start to stink, they get sent to the minors, straighten out their act (maybe there’s good coaching down there) and then fall apart once they come back up.
I prefer our swine flu wahoo…
I’d “blaim” Craig, but I don’t know what that means!
Is that some sort of blogging instant message application that I don’t know about?
It’s almost hard to include Grady on the list of current successes, as he’s starting to regress a bit. And given the way things have been going with the club and its prospects, is it safe for us to (wrongly and bitterly) assume Cabrera and Choo are going to peak in about a year or two?
A few thoughts.
– Shapiro has his detailed “model” for the organization that encompasses everything, he has spent years implementing it and putting people into place. If the model contains substantial flaws, can he recognize that, or admit it if he does?
– The Dolans have had Shapiro as their guy since they bought the team and he he was being groomed to take over from Hart. Do they even have a Plan B, or another baseball person in their ears? These guys seem so over their heads and ineffectual, I’m guessing they stay with Shapiro and he tweaks, changes the manager in the name of “a new voice,” but does not overhaul his system.
– It’s true that market size dictates much of what the organization can do, but much also depends on the depth of the owner’s pockets. The Tigers are spending far more; is Detroit a bigger market than Cleveland?
No, its not blogging AIM. Its like tweeting, but reserved only for personal attacks and discussions of proper spelling.
Whomever does the drafting needs to be fired. One pitcher (CC) that we drafted ends up being a star and who is the last good position player that has blossomed into something that we drafted?
The Tribe’s failures (to me) are manager-driven and reinforced by the front office and Mark Shapiro. The Indians have the 4th best run and RBI # in the league – top 10 in OPS. They have the worst ERA in baseball, yes – but the Phillies, Angels, Brewers, and Yankees all sit there with them. We are average defensively (17th in Errors). But at 17 games under .500 – you’ve got to ask yourself how that is possible?
Only one thing I can point to and that is a lack of urgency. Eric Wedge’s Indians’ record of 529-525 proves as much (remember, there is a 96-win season in there too). We put up runs when we are mauling a team – lots of wins are of the 9-2, 7-1 variety. But we lose even more of 10-6, 13-3, 4-0, 5-3, and 10-5.
Obviously, the pitching has been suspect. The worst in the league – but the sense of urgency isn’t there either. This team can hit. Just not when it matters. We can knock them out of the park (93 on the year – 11th on the list). Just not when it matters. It’s a sense of urgency the team is missing – that feeling of malaise, and it extends to the front office when Eric Wedge, year after year, comes under ZERO fire from the top to change, to at least look at the potential of new players.
Oh – did I mention that he started Ryan Garko in the OF and Mark Shapiro didn’t even blink? Seriously?
I’m not sure if it’s any consolation Craig… but my name is Erica and I’ve been duped too.
I bought into thinking the Indians front office knew what they were doing. I wasn’t one of these fans that wanted to fire and trade everyone after the 2006 season… I felt vindicated in 2007 only to feel duped again in 2008 & this season.
I was willing to give the organization time to get things together, but I now realize that time has expired. As you mentioned, players we thought would develop have not.
How many times have we heard Wedge mention about Peralta or some of these guys that they are not kids anymore? They HAVE been around a couple years now. They are not rookies, they are more seasoned now and should not be making the same mistakes game after game. For that, I blame coaching… obviously, their message is not getting through to the players.
I too do not know all the answers on how to fix this, but I do know I love baseball and will always be a fan.
I’m one of the Tribe fans that made the pilgrimage to Wrigley a couple weeks ago… I can’t help it… it’s baseball… and I love it. I was inspired by how many Indians fans I saw in Chicago that weekend… for a LAST place team! We could have picked ANY weekend to go to Wrigley… but we picked the weekend our team was there… why… because we love baseball.
One thing I know for sure…. Indians fans deserve a better product on the field and we have been patient enough with the master plan that’s not working!