The time to trade him was a year ago. Someone would’ve been dumb enough to trade a true prospect for him. We knew he wasn’t the long term guy. That’s Santana. We already had an all star back there part time in Martinez. It was suicide by stupidity not to realize that 2008 was Kelly’s career year. Any guy who fans that much, walks that little, is not going to sustain. It just doesn’t happen. They dumped Russell Branyan in a minute and he’s twice the hitter Shoppach will ever be.

Bad management. Not from the dugout. From the front office.

As we head for January, which teams are dominating the off-season headlines? The first-tier group. Which teams were in the post-season and will continue to be in post-season play for years to come? The first-tier group. What are the Tribe’s chances for joining this group anytime soon? Zero. Shutout. Rainout.

Somehow, through the guidance of Mark Shapiro and staff, the Indians, up until now, have been able to stave off mediocrity — but now, I am afraid, we are heading back to the Indians of my childhood and beyond, 1959-1992. This return to mediocrity was revealed to me when I went to the Metrodome in September to see my Tribe. I felt so disengaged throughout the game, and later I identified the cause of why. I had come to see the Indians play the Twins, but I did not recognize my team at all — all of the Indian starters, with the exceptions of Jhonny Peralta and Shin Soo Choo, were just names to me, players filling a roster and debuting for next season. No one besides La Porta had been heralded as the next possible future Hall of Famer. And the Twins chances for post-season play were, at the time, very slim at best. It struck me during a late Gomez at bat that it was Tori Hunter’s flight to free agency that made Gomez’s opportunity possible, and I missed Tori Hunter and his zeal for the game. Last night’s game for me was like attending a class reunion and you spend all of the time in a phone booth calling all of the people who you truly miss and didn’t bother to show up.

It was a mid-September game, and I was overwhelmed by a sense of futility over the activity on the field, too. Sure, there were enough “major league” put outs and at bats to feel glad and almost privledged that you came. But the futility struck me hard. Mourneau out, and even the AAA replacement can’t make it out of batting practice without an injury. It was as though the war had stopped, treaties had been signed, yet unconsequential squirmishes were taking place like the one in the Metrodome because no one bothered to tell the combatants that everything had been settled without them. As a fan, there was nothing worth getting slightly obnoxious about. The usual impulses to scream something rousing were squelched by their failing to pass the so, what? test. Twin fans last night could not possibly be on edge about a pennant race. No thunderous moans were heard when the scoreboard reported the Tigers come-from-behind victory. And I have been in the Metrodome in late September when the AL Central crown was within reach and the atmosphere was electric.

Both teams are condemned to mediocrity by the way MLB is set up. MLB has lost a fan (me), a long-time fan who bawled like a twelve year old when the Indians traded Lee and Martinez at the end of July. All we want is a legitimate basis to dream of post season play within a two to three year period. MLB has made this impossible.