But we’re hopeful that we’ll get the opportunity to play him and give him a chance.

I would think that Casey Blake has provided that opportunity by hitting .202/.286/.340.

what the hell mark. you are the GM. you are wedge’s boss. make the freaking call if wedge won’t play him. i don’t care if that shows up the manager. you are RUNNING THE TEAM.

i’m just not in a good mood

i just listened to that audio – man i love shapiro. he is direct, honest, and doesnt have inane sport-vocab.

Oh and speaking of Marte, has this guy ever written anything useful about the Tribe? Between preseason and now this, he’s really starting to grind my gears.

Is it beneficial to let Marte sit on the bench before trying to sneak him through waivers? Does minimizing his plate appearances / time in the field make him less appealing to some other team?

I would say there’s a chance that is true, but it only takes one team claiming him to ruin that plan…..methinks our front office is smarter than that.

I agree with Mario re: dancing around the issue. I understand the need for it, but you could take his statements however you want to take them. Some examples:

... I do think he’s expressed some openness to playing some different guys and trying to see if someone can pick up our offense that’s in-house here as well.

A. Eric and I had a talk about this, and while I’m not going to tell you that I ordered him to play Marte, I did make him admit that he’d been fairly stubborn and irrational about using Marte, and he said he’d work on it.

B. Hey, he’s been using Jamey Carroll more than the bare minimum, and he’s going to work in Francisco as more than just a platoon guy, so obviously he’s open to this kind of thing in general. If he doesn’t want to use Marte, he obviously has reasons for it that don’t apply to those other guys.

Yeah, I mean I think at such time as we feel that we’ve got a better use for the roster spot, that becomes something for us to discuss …

A. At some point, I’ll have to step in and ask Wedge why he’s failed to make use of this roster spot.

B. We’re prepared to jettison this guy anytime we really need to free up a roster spot.

... but, you know it’s still an area where we still need to, you know, to watch him play a little more. We’ve seen some positive things, we have a long-term need at that position as well.

A. We need to watch him play a little more, ergo, he needs to play more. What we’ve seen so far has been positive, and bottom line, we need him in 2009, so it would benefit us to get him going in 2008.

B. We haven’t seen enough of him at this level to change our mediocre impression of the player, and we may not get that chance. Not everything we’ve seen has been positive, and in his overall performance and attitude, Marte has put us in a box not just for 2008, but for 2009 and possibly beyond.

But, I think what we’re waiting for is for him to get the opportunity this year, a chance to play, or, you know, our hands to be forced at some point.

A. I’m waiting for Wedge to play the guy, because why would we give up on him without giving him a chance—over Casey Blake? With any luck, Blake will get injured, and then Wedge will have to play him.

B. He hasn’t had an opportunity because our priority is trying to put his best team on the field and get them going, which in Eric’s judgment so far has meant giving Blake as much work as possible to get in a groove, but that probably won’t last forever. At some point, we may have to dump him to create a roster spot, and we’re prepared to do that even without giving him a longer look.

But we’re hopeful that we’ll get the opportunity to play him and give him a chance.

A. We really want to give him a chance.

B. Getting an opportunity to play him and give him a chance is pretty damned low on our list of strategic priorities; we ‘re just “hoping” for it because we’re not going to make it happen of our own volition.

i thought for sure this was satire by jay and was laughing along till i got down to the link. then i was sad.

Understand that Shapiro would need to choose his words carefully so as to avoid undermining Wedge or any of the players. Sometimes the questioner doesn’t understand that the interviewee has nothing to gain and everything to lose by answering a question frankly. The one feeling that comes across strongly is that Shapiro is willing to communicate to the world that he would not impose himself on Eric’s day to day management of the team. And it’s good to have a GM that understands his role and the division of labor in any healthy org. So, it seems to be a sophisiticated way of telling the questioner to pose the question to the man who has the authority in these matters, Wedge.

Casey Blake. I can’t hate the guy and he has been a valuable contributor, but the loyalty to him is a major problem. Not only does Marte only have 11 at-bats, but he has been asked to show bunt in I feel like over half of them. You are never going to hit when you are wasting strikes on bunt attempts.

Marte has the potential for something this team sorely lacks right now, power. We have good OBP guys but with Hafner down, the slugging is really lacking on this team.

Marte won’t see any regular playing time until he’s learned most of the Victor handshaking celebrations. Wedge has repeatedly asked Vic to simplify and just use a knuckle bump, but Vic won’t budge on this. The younger players such as Marte have struggled to perform during practice sessions.

But, I think what we’re waiting for is for him to get the opportunity this year, a chance to play, or, you know, our hands to be forced at some point. But we’re hopeful that we’ll get the opportunity to play him and give him a chance.

What the no-profanity-except-in-game-threads is that supposed to mean? Has Marte been given a double-secret 50-game suspension by the league? Has he been transported into another dimension, leaving just a hologram behind on the bench? Has he chewed his own foot off and they’re waiting for it to grow back? The plain fact is that Marte has an “opportunity to play” every mother-scratching night and there is absolutely nothing preventing Wedge from writing his name on the lineup card. When the organization’s chief operating officer suggests that they need to wait for an “opportunity” to present itself, this is blame-shifting-with the blame falling on fate, or God, or nobody-of the worst, most odious sort.

[end of rant]

I think the “no profanity rule” should be lifted for anything referencing Marte. As a matter of fact, maybe we need just the opposite, where every post regarding Marte must also have some profanity.

I am picturing the conclusion of this story right now. Marte finally gets a fair chance to play, fails miserably and we all feel like idiots.

Obviously not the point of all this clamoring. It’s the opportunity, Wedgie, that’s all.

Reality is, this is all about some internal “culture” issue, which, in general, Shapiro must agree with. But I think his statements indicate that, while he won’t publicly admit to even a slight difference of opinion, Shapiro understands that this is a need for the organization both in the long and short term. And I think we should believe that behind closed doors Shapiro has let Wedge know that Marte should get more time—like now. “What he’s doing with existing guys on the team,” very subtly reinforces the notion that, while he may not insist on Wedge making lineup changes, that roster moves are likewise ultimately Shapiro’s domain. In this light, cutting Michaels, not Marte, at this point surely says something, especially when there’s just no denying how badly Blake has played at third. I am hoping it’s somewhat of a warning shot, perhaps not just directed at the players, but at Wedge as well. And yet all within their institutional/cultural defined roles.

I expect someone to get on the following photoshop project ASAP: