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Photo: Jon Fobes/Cleveland.com
I had a feeling it was coming, I knew it was needed, and yet I breathed a sigh of relief when it finally came to fruition. Mark Shapiro pulled the plug on the Eric Wedge regime today, the entire regime in fact, as the entire coaching staff, including pitching coach Carl Willis, hitting coach Derek Shelton, 3B coach Joel Skinner, 1B coach Luis Rivera, bench coach Jeff Datz, and bullpen coach Chuck Hernandez, were relieved of their duties effective at season's end.
And so ends the underwhelming tenure of Eric Wedge. In his seven seasons, he compiled a record of 560-568 with his lone playoff appearance coming in 2007 with the AL Central Division crown, and he brought the team to the brink of their sixth World Series appearance, only to be shredded by the Red Sox in three straight games. Wedge nor his team or its fanbase have truly recovered from those three games, and they may not for some time.
The flaw that will be cast against Eric Wedge in the history books will be his April records. His career record in April is 72-95, but if you take out the '07 season (14-8), which is the only season where he was more than one game above .500 in April, his record plummets to 58-87. What some fail to recognize is his disappointing September record as well. His career mark in September is 93-95. Again, removing the '07 campaign (19-9), you get a 74-86 mark. Granted, most of those years the Tribe was nowhere near contention in the final month, but it shows how Wedge's "one day at a time, one game at a time" motto never seemed to stick with the players as much as he would've liked. It is crystal clear that the team has given up on Wedge, going 6-20 this month and losing 11 in a row at one point. I realize that the talent is greatly diminished from the start of the year, removing the All-Star catcher, Cy-Young starter, another key starter, starting first baseman, best setup man, starting third baseman, and starting leftfielder through trade, but the fact remains that mental errors and lack of effort at times abound right now. Some of the mainstays on this team (Jensen Lewis, Rafael Perez, Fausto Carmona, Jhonny Peralta) look unfocused and unmotivated, and part of the manager's job, especially one that was touted as a rebuilding guy like Wedge, is to get his players to perform to the best of their abilities. If anyone thinks those four are performing at their best, please speak up.
Yes, Wedge had one year left on his deal and the team will be forced to eat the $1.3 million. It's not the most cost-effective move by any stretch, but where do you draw the line? What if Wedge gets the team to 85 wins next year? Then, you have a decision to make. Some argue that the Tribe should keep Wedge throughout the 2-3 year rebuild that the team is poised to endure. I disagree because eventually, we hope, the team is going to be competitive again. At that point, you cannot fire Wedge as the team is improving, and even if you did, you would be bringing in a manager cold with no experience with this team. If you go through another Wedge cycle, he would end up being the longest tenured manager in Tribe history for being no more than a .500 manager. For God's sake, he lasted almost as long as Mike Hargrove, the greatest manager in club history, who had six winning seasons and won five central division titles and two pennants in his nine seasons!
I liked Wedge for a while, I really did, but any manager's rhetoric gets tired and stale after a while, especially when it's not backed up with wins. Wedge had issues with young players at times, such as Brandon Phillips and Milton Bradley (rightfully so there), and he fell in love with grinder types perhaps a little too much and played them over prospects (see Jamey Carroll). The players loved him it appeared, but the core of Victor Martinez, Grady Sizemore, C.C. Sabathia, Cliff Lee, and Travis Hafner deserved better.
The real question now is who the Tribe will turn to as their skipper. Do they go the young, cheap route with a Torey Lovullo, John Farrell, Travis Fryman, or other first time man at the helm? Or do they try a re-tread such as Buck Showalter, Terry Collins, or Mike Hargrove? It's a tough question, and it's one that I'm not willing to answer fully at this point. I will say this, however... you have a better chance of getting a servicable guy by going the retread route, but the better chance for great success (or failure) lies in choosing a first-time guy.
This offseason will be an interesting one for the Tribe. One thing's for sure, the Indians have effectively wiped the ENTIRE slate clean and the true rebuilding begins now.
Kirk
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