Is Anyone Awake at Progressive Field?

 

If you are a fan of baseball in this city, you have a big problem.  It hasn’t even hit summer yet, and the season is over for all intents and purposes.  The Cleveland Indians’ record has dipped to 19-33, they’ve lost 13 of their last 17 games, and no one in the organization seems to care.

 

Manager Manny Acta’s relief corps is a mess, and for the third straight season, GM Mark Shapiro has assembled a bullpen that is horrible.  Let’s see, for the most part, this is a bullpen that cannot throw strikes, give up way too many hits, doesn’t have a lot of strikeout guys, and has only a couple of guys that the skipper can count on.

 

Other than that, they’re pretty good.

 

And now, one of the guys Acta had confidence in, Tony Sipp, has completely melted down over the last week, giving up 11 runs in the last inning he has pitched. 

 

Yet, nothing happens.

 

Someone needs to place a call to the Tribe front office to see if anyone is there.

 

Acta said Frank Herrman, who has a 0.31 ERA at Columbus, would get a look-see from the big club sometime this season.  When?  Perhaps when his ERA gets around 0.25?  Look, the guy can’t pitch any better in the minor leagues, and the Indians’ bullpen stinks.  Let’s get him up here right away.

 

Carlos Santana continues to assault International League pitching staffs, but all the organization talks about is his catching ability, or seeming lack of it.  If this management group were well known for developing prospects, their critique would be thought of more.  These guys think Rafael Perez is still an effective pitcher, so should we really take their word on Santana?

 

The saddest thing about this current group of Indians is that only two or three players who play regularly in this lineup will probably be on the team next season!  And one of them, Travis Hafner, is only “guaranteed” a spot because of his contract. 

 

Jason Donald could be a regular next season, but he has only a little over 50 at bats this season, so that might be a little bit of a stretch.

 

Branyan, Peralta, Kearns, Marson, Valbuena, Crowe.  All of these guys will have a tough time being in the 2011 starting lineup, some due to their contract status (Peralta and Branyan), the others because they simply aren’t good enough to hold big league jobs. 

 

Who assembled this team?  We can all cry about the lack of spending by the owners, but why isn’t more heat put on Shapiro, who put this collection of “talent” together.

 

The problem is that there seems to be no sense of urgency to try something else.  Why not try someone else?  When Andy Marte is healthy, why not play him at 3B instead of Peralta?  Why not play Matt La Porta everyday?  Why not see what Jordan Brown and/or Wes Hodges can do? 

 

The most frustrating thing for this fan is the inertia in the front office.  It appears that no one associated with this team, outside of the players and coaching staff have any interest at all in either winning or finding out who can play and who can’t.

 

The front office probably thinks having guys like Peralta and Branyan give the team a chance to win with their “veteran” presence.  However, these guys are bums.  They give the team nothing besides a roadblock to finding out whether a young guy can play in the big leagues. 

 

Baseball teams are selling either winning or hope; the fans of the Cleveland Indians have neither.  It’s only June 4^th, and the baseball summer is over before it even starts.

 

KM