The Indians begin what should be one of the more blasé second halfs in recent memory. Last season they could point out that they finished strong and be optimistic. I’m not thinking fans will buy that view this season. I’m going to write about the Indians and Eric Wedge for Sunday’s paper, but suffice it to say that I think it would be extremely difficult – perhaps next to impossible – to bring Wedge back for 2010. The situation is not his fault, but fans have to believe in the team’s direction and leadership to buy tickets, and that’s a big problem because right now the fan support is waning.
Here’s a sampling of opinions and thoughts on the Indians as they play out the string:
Waitingfornextyear.com asks: “But what if Shapiro does decide to keep Wedge around? Could you imagine? Shapiro has been the darling of the national media throughout the decade, but the bloom is off the rose. It’s time for him to step out of the partnership with Wedge and be his own man. Its the only way he can save face with an eroding fan base in his adopted city of Cleveland.”
Its position analysis is here and here. Its starting pitching analysis here, and its bullpen analysis here.
Cleveland Sports Perspectives takes a look by the numbers, including some interesting stuff on Travis Hafner’s slugging percentage.
Anthony Castrovince, who does such a good job for Indians.com, keeps trying to make a less and less compelling story compelling.
And letsgotribe.com has an offbeat view of things, which might be what everyone needs at this point in time.
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Patrick: I'm a contributor for Cleveland Sports Perspective. Thanks for the mention.
Mark
Big thanks for the mention of WFNY as always. Keep up the good work, sir.
It just shows how out-of-touch the Tribe fanbase is when someone posts a comment like this on Castrovince's article above: "The owner is the only problem this team has." Wow. That's just so unbelievably absurd, it's hard to formulate words.
Castrovince himself, however, seems to be pretty out-of-touch, falling into the trap of thinking Cleveland has one of the best run-scoring offenses in baseball. Come ON. As long as this mythical fallacy is believed by the media and front office, we will never take steps to improve it. How hard is it to see that our 22-run outbursts are strict abberrations vs. horrible pitching? Day in and day out, are we hitting enough to score 5 runs per game? Absolutely NOT. And we'll never win this division until we assemble a lineup with some power that will help us score 5 runs per game.
Don't think homeruns matter? Check the stats of when we hit one, versus when we don't. The won-loss record is like night and day.
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