Confessions Of A Very Angry Tribe Fan

(Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

The picture to this article pretty much sums up what the 2009 Cleveland Indians' season has been like from both the player's and the fan's stand point. Frustration!

How in the world did this team ever get to this point? This was a team that some experts, for the second year in a row, picked to go to the World Series. In a sense who could have blamed someone for thinking that they could at least contend?

This year was very promising to start with. The bullpen problem from last year seemed to be fixed with a little bit of tinkering that they did, but the big solution was supposed to be the arrivals of former Mets reliever Joe Smith and the fact they finally added a closer with Kerry Wood.

The Tribe was going to start the season with Cliff Lee who looked like he may have finally turned the corner after a Cy Young Award winning season and the promise of a healthy Fausto Carmona.

There was even promise in the young starters like Jeremy Sowers, Scott Lewis, and Aaron Laffey being able to solidify that starting rotation until Jake Westbrook could make it back from his Tommy John surgery.

Mark DeRosa was brought in to take Casey Blake's role on the team. Having DeRosa meant Eric Wedge could finally move Jhonny Perhalta over to third base where many felt he belonged anyway. Peralta had been at shortstop since he came to the big leagues and showed a real lack of range.

Finally some stability came with DeRosa. The team could move Asdrubal Cabrera to shortstop, DeRosa at second, and then have Ryan Garko and occasionally Victor Martinez playing first and you would have a much better infield.

All that plus this was supposed to be Shin Su Choo's and even Ben Fransisco's year; and they had all the makings of a team ready to make some noise. So manager Eric Wedge, GM Mark Sahpiro, and owner Larry Dolan all thought.

What they thought they had, turned out to be a nightmare that won't end anytime soon, or at least probably not this season. This nightmare may not have a good ending. Nor should it.

There is no reason in the world for this team to have a record of 30-42. It is unacceptable.

It would be one thing if it was full of kids and was part of a rebuilding process, but Mark Shapiro and Eric Wedge would tell you that the rebuilding ended long ago.

So what is this then? It is the direct result of a team that is poorly built and poorly managed. A team that maybe has an owner that should start to think about selling it or start putting money into his investment.

This team has the young talent and veteran leadership to be a fundamentally sound and competitive team, and they are looking like a bunch of little leaguers. It is embarrassing and if the manager cannot solve the problem then perhaps he should not be here.

While I was not a big fan of Mike Hargrove, the big difference with his six or seven years here was that not only had he won, but he also had the complete control and respect of his teams and they had players who where considered hard to handle.

He had to deal with players like Kenny Lofton, Albert Belle, and even Bartolo Colon who seemed to have their own agenda's, but he turned them into winners. Hardgrove took his teams to the World Series twice, won two American League pennants, and five American League Central Division titles.

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