The Cleveland Indians’ front office decided it had enough during Thursday’s off day. With Travis Hafner going on the disabled list Wednesday, the team did activate David Dellucci for Friday night’s game in Detroit. However, it was after the 6-5 win that night that the fireworks really began.
For the Indians’ conservative management, it was akin to a massacre of the 25 man roster. Tony Graffanino was put on waivers, Trevor Crowe was optioned back to Columbus, and reliever Joe Smith was put on the disabled list. In return, the Tribe called up Matt LaPorta, the featured guy in the C.C. Sabathia deal, INF Luis Valbuena, and Josh Barfield returned to the big league roster. If the Tribe made this many moves on one day in the Mark Shapiro regime, I cannot remember it. It shows just how concerned the front office is about the disappointing start.
The Indians are 2-10 in games where they have not hit a home run, which points to their all or nothing offense. In addition, in the 12 games where they haven’t hit a dinger, they have scored 30 runs, and seven of those came Saturday afternoon. Scoring less than three runs a contest makes winning very difficult.
Now, the next shakeup must come in the bullpen, which continues to be awful. Jensen Lewis surrendered yet another home run Friday night, his sixth in 12-2/3 innings, and he must be part of the overhaul. It’s hard to imagine anyone coming up from the minors could be worse. Masa Kobayashi finally pitched in his first game in over a week, and if the skipper has no confidence in him, he should be let go as well.
The only reliable alternatives for Eric Wedge are closer Kerry Wood and Tony Sipp, who has only been on the team for a week. The lack of a viable alternative is causing the manager to make questionable judgments. Such as Friday night, when Wedge brought in Lewis in the 8th inning instead of Rafael Betancourt, or Saturday when Sipp was removed after a walk for Betancourt, instead of seeing what he could do with Brandon Inge.
It is also leading to leaving starting pitchers in for longer stints, such as Cliff Lee’s 120 pitch outing against Kansas City last month.
Since I’m a proponent of the "can’t do any worse" theory, I would be in favor of calling up veteran Matt Herges and perhaps Jon Meloan from Columbus to replace Lewis and Kobayashi, and the emphasis would be on bringing in guys who throw strikes. The only Tribe relievers who have strikeout to walk ratios of 2:1 are Wood, Sipp, and amazingly Lewis, who probably should not be laying it in there, judging by the amount of homers he has allowed.
At 9-16 on the season, and now five games behind in a closely contested division, now is the time to make bold moves. Doing something about the bullpen may have no effect, but it could turn the season around. The way the team is playing, Mark Shapiro has nothing to lose. The season is slipping away, and something, anything has to be done.
KM
Cleveland Sports Perspective 