It would be nice to see some K’s or GB’s, if we want to be picky about it.

Would it kill this organization to take a chance on Rondon as a viable option going into spring training? I’ve seen lesser pitchers (Porcello,,,, yeah I know the GB%) advance to the big leagues by skipping a level(s).

If I’m not missing anything, which is far from a guarantee, my back-of-the-envelope calculations say that this is the payroll situation for next year:

Those 9 players: $69M
Arbitration: Shoppach (made about $2M this year)
League Minimum: 15 other players * ~0.5M = $7.5M

That’s a total of around $78-79M… so assuming the budget stays constant from this year (also not necessarily safe — it could go down), that leaves a maximum of $4M to spend on new signings. If they don’t pick up Betancourt’s option, which is the most likely among the three players with 2010 club options not to be picked up, and it is replaced by a league minimum contract, that frees up about $5M (though of course one needs to take into account the decrease in food and beverage sales that would result from games being a few hundred cap and jersey tugs shorter). So optimistically, there could be around $9M to spend on pitching, between starters and bullpen help. I’m not sure how far that’s going to go either. Probably not a “decent 2/3 starter” in the FA market, even if the whole bundle were spent on one player.

Agreed.

To me the should we fire Wedge discussion boils down to this:

1. Eric Wedge has made mistakes but its not his fault the Indians are performing poorly.

2. The manager is rarely the primary cause behind a team’s performance

3. You don’t fire a manger because you blame him, for a fresh perspective, to bring change, to light a fire under your teams behinds, etc

4. After seven years the Indians need all of the above

5. Fire Wedge

Ironically, I think the Indians best shot at still contending this season, before the brewers cubs fiasco, was to fire Wedge and see if that lit a fire under our players.

All I ask, is that if we fire Wedge can we please please please get a new pitching and bullpen coach. I don’t know enough about Wills to say he’s done a bad job, but I certainly think we need a fresh perspective there more than anywhere.

Because I can be pretty sure that Datz, Skinner or Luvello are all going to coach in a similar fashion. All are going to have the same kind of approach and mindset that Wedge has.

That’s the one thing I respect about some of the “Fire Wedge” brigade. They also say that Shapiro should go too, because they realize that Wedge is just the antithesis of what Shapiro wants a coach to be. They go hand in hand. Just because you remove him, doesn’t mean there is going to be this magical “fresh perspective” that is going to embolden the players to play better.

So, if you want Wedge gone because it is one step closer to getting rid of Shapiro, fine. But if you think the systemic problems of this team are merely because of Wedge’s presence on a daily basis, I think you are wrong.

And, my two cents, I think it would be very understably tough to move from shortstop to third base in the middle of the season when you’re one of the longest tenured players on the team. I’m actually very sympathetic to what Jhonny has had to go through under Wedge.

That being said, it’s still very frustrating how inconsistent he can be and has been since he entered the league. Certainly all of this upheaval can’t be helping.

Oh, you’re right. I’m just really frustrated with him.