Despite his spring training struggles, Travis Hafner will hit fourth in today's opening day lineup. Manager Eric Wedge is very comfortable with that idea (obviously). As spring wound down, Wedge talked with the Indians beat writers about his thought process in picking a lineup — and some of the questions dealt with suggestions by people (like me) that Hafner might be better off hitting lower in the lineup at the start of the season, and the Indians might be better off as well.
Said Wedge: "You work off obviously the opposing pitcher. You look at left-rights. You look at the individual matchups. You look at one guy in there, one guy not being in there and how it affects your lineup. Your defense. And the way the lineup works together, which is very underrated in the game of baseball. How you put a lineup together and how one guy works off another guy and how that plays out. That's very important.
"You can't look at it independently. You say this guy does this, he should hit in the three hole. Or this guy does this, he should hit leadoff. I don't give a damn what anybody says about that, because it's the way those nine work together, it's not just this guy or this guy. They all work off of each other. It has to work."
Wedge was not reacting to published suggestions about Hafner, because Wedge doesn't read the papers. He said he's batting Hafner fourth because it is the best thing for his team in the short and the long term.
"I like having a couple right-handers — obviously one is a switch-hitter — between Grady (Sizemore) and Haf," Wedge said. "I like Jhonny (Peralta) in the middle.
"You move Haf down then you're going to end up having Haf and (Shin-Soo) Choo together, that makes it really easy (for opposing managers to make bullpen decisions). You're moving Peralta down or up.
"Again this is where people are just thinking about one person. You have to think about how the whole lineup works together and the difficulty it can make or how much easier you're making it for the other guy across the field.
"And I trust Travis. I'm not just there for these guys when they're knocking the ball all over the place. He's been through some tough times. I trust the work that he's done. He looks great. He's worked hard. He's moving in the right direction. I think it's important that he knows that I trust him.
"I really work my you-know-what off to try to take everything into consideration and make the best decision. I don't isolate it. It's very rare that we try to isolate.
"I utilize the staff. I utilize numbers. I think about all the conversations we've had. And sometimes I'll think about things that we (media) talk about, because it spurs a thought.
"Because I don't read that stuff, so something like that will spur a thought. You have to take every bit of information you have and try to make the best decision. And you have to discipline yourself not to think about April 6. You got to think about six months. What's going to be the best?
Wedge had some other comments on the team as the season approaches:
On the necessity to get off to a good start, something Indians teams have struggled with at times in his tenure: "Everybody wants to get off to a good start. I don't think you have to stress it. It's more important to play well early. Because you know that's going to stand the test of time and that's going to allow you to win more games over 162. One thing I'm going to focus on is how we're playing. There was one time I really got caught up in everybody else instead of focusing on what we need to focus on. I lived and learned on that one."
On the pitching in Arizona, which did struggle but which partly was attributed to the different environment. Team ERAs were higher across the board in Arizona compared to Florida: "I trust everybody else that's been out there for years and what they say, other managers and pitching coaches. What we saw out there has been the norm for most teams. That's why you really have to trust what you see in regard to the ball coming out of pitchers' hands, the action you got at home plate, their bullpens."
it's stories like this that fuel my intense dislike of eric wedge as indians manager. he is as stubborn and confused as they come.