I listened to an interview with Indians GM Mark Shapiro on tape – gimme a break, I was on a plane back from Atlanta as he was sitting in the dugout – and it struck me that the team really does not believe it has a lot of options to change things. I don't know why it would be surprising, really. Teams are built in the offseason, and the Indians don't have the financial wherewithal to add a big-salary player during the season. Not without subtracting some money, which I guess could happen given teams are lined up around the block to chery-pick the Indians roster.
Alas, we digress.
Among Shapiro's statements: "We're not going to turn the whole team over. It's just not going to happen."
And: "We just don't have those guys in AAA who are ready to help us (in the bullpen)."
And: "I think the Aaron Laffey move is indicative of the kind of thinking that we're going to have to display."
That in itself says a lot. Making a starting pitcher into a reliever, even temporarily, isn't reinventing the baseball. It's a move based on need, and it can succeed if the guy who takes the starter's place succeeds. So far, Jeremy Sowers has struggled.
The Indians continue to state that the team as built can succeed.
"Our players need to perform and execute closer to what they've done in their career," Shapiro said.
The bullpen remains the major problem, but Shapiro said he believes the team will score runs and the starting pitching will improve. Which means he believes if the bullpen gets straightened out the team can right itself.
Shapiro even said that he thinks the team as built still can contend in its division.
"In light of our division, yes," he said. "If we had to dig out and win 95 games, we may have dug ourselves a hole that was almost impossible to get out of. We're one good stretch of baseball from being back into it."
The problem is that good stretch of baseball remains an elusive reality, and if that good stretch comes later in the summer then it's too late and the season is just another exercise in "well we finished strong."
Which is getting a little bit hollow.
Oh … Shapiro sounded like firing Eric Wedge is not under consideration, saying: "Right now the answers I feel are here, with Eric (Wedge), with this coaching staff and with our players."
Other Shapiro statements that struck me:
The biggest blows were the struggles of Rafael Perez and the injury to Joe Smith: "That (bullpen) situation is what it is. We have to figure a way out of it. We can't just throw up our hands."
On Grady Sizemore: "He's a great player going through a tough time. … This guy's going to work hard, this guy's going to get out of it. We need him to be better, but I'm not worried about the guy at all."
On the team's perceived lack of leadership: "This isn't football. … Leadership is the way guys play the game, the way they prepare, they way they treat each other, the way they respect the game and play. When you win it looks like they're leaders. When you lose it looks like you're searching for who's going to step up. When you struggle all at once, you wonder if there's leadership in the room. We have character in the room."
On the slow starts: "What's troubling is that it seems to happen here in April every year. We think we do have some things we need to do differently in spring training. Obviously, we won't say what they are. They are things we need to address so we don't dig this hole every year."
On Wedge saying he's responsible for the slow start: "Accountability lies with me, solely. Responsibility is shared. Responsibility doesn't lie with one person."
much like savage/crennel these guys are determined to destroy the team before they get canned.
Who was the guy who interviewed Shapiro? Only a moron who is starved for answers would ask a dumb "leadership" question in relation to a baseball team. While the guy was at it, he might as well have asked Shapiro what he thinks of the color of the grass in left field, not to mention using the politically correct cursive 'I' as the Tribe logo while quietly phasing out good old Chief Wahoo.