Sure Enough
I pen a glowing column about the Reds, and they promptly fall to Chicago. Ah well. They'll rebound. Edwin Encarnacion is on the DL, but that means Rich Aurilia will see time, as will Ryan Freel. No problem with that.
-The Indians keep finding ways to lose. Certainly, there will be those who will call for Eric Wedge's head. While Wedge doesn't exactly look like Gil Hodges these days, he's hardly to blame for the Indians slump.
Erik makes this point all the time, and he's right. The Indians are not the Yankees or Red Sox. When GM Mark Shapiro makes an error, he has to live with it; he can't just go out and trade with Kansas City for the one effective reliever it has.
Wedge irritates, to the extreme sometimes. But he wasn't the one who stranded 14 runners in last night's loss to the White Sox. Jhonny Peralta looks like a AAA hitter right now, and that's not Wedge's fault.
Jason Michaels has no idea how to bunt. Not Wedge's fault.
The bullpen blows leads with the frequency of a ham radio. Not Wedge's fault.
The bottom line is, the players are not producing, and the Tribe can't just fix it. With the budget the way it is, all Shapiro and Wedge and do is cross fingers and hope the team comes around.
Right now, the season is on the brink. But on the upside, the Browns start training camp eventually.