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| Like the commercial says, "What if...it never happened?" Too bad this 0-9 road trip did happen... Photo from brianpenzone of Flickr |
What can you say about a team that got outscored 74-28 in those nine games?
What can you say when a team leaves home 3 1/2 games out of first in the AL Central and comes back 9 1/2 games out?
What can you say about a closer that continually runs his mouth, and then goes out and blows a three-run save in a game his team desperately needed him to win?
Surely, it can't get any worse than this.
Can it?
A week ago, I wrote that the Indians should consider trading Shin-Soo Choo. Anyone could see that the Indians had been struggling since the All-Star break and thus had turned from a contender to a team in baseball purgatory. Since then, we had no deadline deals either way, heard the same old, "The players here must play to their potential," garbage from GM Chris Antonetti, and we've seen this team just fall flat on its face.
You know what? I don't even know that "falling flat on its face" is harsh enough for this nine game losing streak.
Remember when they beat Verlander before the road trip started? Yeah, me neither.
Again, the Indians were outscored 74-28. That's an average of 8.2 runs a game versus 3.1 runs a game. That means the team wasn't pitching or hitting. And when you've got that combination...yikes.
A couple of nights ago, the Indians play-by-play voice Tom Hamilton said that you just don't see these kinds of losing streaks in the majors without seeing changes made in personnel. You can say that firing someone now would just be a scapegoat, and that might be true. But the fact still remains, when you have a losing streak like this, something has to change.
And that can't just be designating certain veterans for assignment. Derek Lowe and Johnny Damon are both gone—as they should have been at the very least a week or two ago—as is Jeremy Accardo, and there should be more changes to the roster. I understand that Ezequiel Carrera was hitting over .400 since the All-Star break, but does anyone think of him as more than a fourth outfielder? And how little faith does the front office have in Russ Canzler and Matt LaPorta that they still aren't up at the major league level?
I had a spirited debate with a colleague a couple of weeks ago that firing Manny Acta would be a bad idea. I now have to say that it probably isn't. I get that Acta is a cool, calm, collected guy, and he can only play the players he's been given, but something has got to give here.
The problem is, when you replace Acta with Sandy Alomar Jr, the results are going to be the same because Alomar will have the same crap team.
That's why I'm saying the front office needs to be cleaned out. President Mark Shapiro and Antonetti should both fear for their jobs at this point—and so should anybody else that is in their corner.
Have they made a living out of fleecing other teams out of their prospects for marginal players? Absolutely yes. That's how they acquired Asdrubal Cabrera (Eduardo Perez), Shin-Soo Choo (Ben Broussard), Carlos Santana (Casey Blake), Zach McAllister (Austin Kearns)—the list goes on.
But who do we have from the CC Sabathia, Victor Martinez, and Cliff Lee trades? Michael Brantley and Justin Masterson. Don't talk to me about any of those other players, because none of them have an impact.
If you look at the haul Kansas City received for Zack Grienke—Alcides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain, Jake Odorizzi, and Jeremy Jeffers—two of those players have made an impact at the major league level, and the rest have at the very least been effective at AAA. That trade rebuilt the upper levels of the Royals farm system, which is one of the main reasons why that team really has a positive outlook for 2013.
What do the Indians have in their upper levels?
Nothing. Not one impact player whatsoever. Why do you think we're calling up 31 year old Vinny Rottino and 28 year old Chris Seddon?
The cupbord is bare and that must fall on the front office. And this is all before we even get into the fact of signing Grady Sizemore for $5 million, but passing on Josh Willingham because of a third year and concerns about his back.
It can't get much worse than this for the Indians and as Hamilton said, changes must be made. These players are trying. To use an Eric Wedge word, they're grinding out there. But they must be put in a position to succeed. Who does that fall on?
Mark Shapiro. Chris Antonetti. To some extent Manny Acta.
Get rid of 'em all. And Dolans, you can sell the team while you're at it.
What if?
~MAS
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