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Photo: Jon Fobes
"Some days are better than others, but it's a long season."
I found that quote from Eric Wedge while browsing around the internet this evening. It really says it all, but you could almost reverse it for the Tribe's sad state of affairs right now. Some days are worse than others, but now it's a short season: an incredibly short season as Eric Wedge stands stoic and tall like a tree in the forest that's been marked for demolition.
Let's get the obvious out of the way: Eric Wedge is not going to be back next season without his team playing .800 ball the rest of the season. The Indians have given Wedge more rope than any other Cleveland coach has had in my time following all three teams. Part of that is understandable. Wedge's first season (2003) was obviously the beginning of a rebuild for the Indians organization, and the Dolans put a lot of trust into Wedge and GM Mark Shapiro, who was John Hart's understudy during the glory days of my childhood. Out of respect, I guarantee that the front office does not want to cut Wedge loose midseason, but their hands are quickly becoming tied.
Wedge isn't your typical major league manager. He is relatively softspoken, and you could pull out archived press conferences and have a hell of a time telling yesterday's from Saturday's from July 4th, 2007's. He repeats himself a lot and doesn't elaborate much, and Eric defends his players in more circumstances than the average skipper. He's pretty even keel above all, only getting riled up and tossed out of a game if he has to make a statement for his team. Lately though, all that has changed.
In the last few trying weeks, Wedge has called out multiple players in the media, a tactic that many would've thought impossible coming from Wedge just months ago. Some of the victims are Jhonny Peralta, Kelly Shoppach, Fausto Carmona, and anyone who has planted their behind in the bullpen this season. All of them are fair game, but that's not the point. It's OUR job as fans to criticize the players and rip them apart, not the manager's. He's got to be in their corner, and right now, Wedgie isn't in theirs, a fact that may just be so surprising that it is shaking up the clubhouse right now.
Despite that, does anyone truly believe the number one culprit for the team's play over the last several weeks is Wedge? I don't. I blame it mainly on injuries to Grady Sizemore, Asdrubal Cabrera, Aaron Laffey, Joe Smith, Rafael Betancourt, Travis Hafner, Anthony Reyes, and others. Hafner's back, but he still can't play everyday, and they are without their top two hitters and two of their best defensive players in the everyday lineup. The bullpen's been atrocious and the injuries to Smith and Betancourt combined with the departure of Kobayashi, Chulk, and others that were expected to be here has scorched the very earth itself in the Tribe bullpen. Then, those that ARE healthy have been flatout embarrassing. Shoppach is hitting under .200 and striking out once every three at-bats, even worse his defense has really slipped recently. Peralta has fewer homers (3) than Luis Valbuena, and Francisco is in the midst of a long drought as well. Some, meanwhile, have performed remarkably well, such as Victor Martinez, Mark DeRosa, Cliff Lee, and Shin Soo Choo. But, they haven't been enough in this team sport, and the team's six game losing streak has set them 10 games back in the AL Central race and 13 games under .500.
I get really ticked off when I see Jeremy Sowers trot out there and give the team only two trips through the opponent's lineup before calling it a day, Trevor Crowe hitting .169 and making baserunning and fielding miscues, and blowup after heart-wrenching blowup in the bullpen. Wedge is trying to do the best he can with what he has. What he has is three starting pitchers (Ohka, Huff, and Sowers) who belong in Triple-A, only four bullpen guys who made the team out of camp (Lewis, Wood, Perez, Smith), and position players like Crowe and Shoppach who can't find their way north of a .200 batting average.
The bottom line here is that MLB managers run their course. As my dad put it best, every manager gets to a point where his message becomes tired and the fans are sick of hearing a broken record. It's basically gotten to that point with Wedge and the Indians. After seven seasons, his record of 525-518 has just one postseason appearance attached to it. Mike Hargrove got canned just one year removed from winning five AL Central Division titles in a row with two World Series appearances; I think Wedge has had his fair shake.
My parting message is this: The Tribe's cellar dweller play is not all Eric Wedge's fault, but every manager at some point in his career must face the music. For Wedge, that music is getting louder, and if I'm not mistaken, the song on the wind is "Man Overboard".
Kirk
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