Cleveland Indians Woes: Eric Wedge Gaining Gray Hairs by the Swing

"I hate talking like this, but we've got to do better."

I've never heard Eric Wedge call out his players quite like he has these past two days.

He's blatantly said that Jhonny Peralta needs to be better at the plate, and has gone as far as calling Travis Hafner, "Mr. Hafner".

Mr. Hafner?! When is the last time the man named Pronk has been addressed as a mister? Grade school?

If you've listened to the multiple interviews, or post-game and pre-game quotes from Eric Wedge, you can tell he is quite fed up with talking about the Indians anemic offense.

Wedge has done everything but put himself in the lineup, and trust me, his career average says that would be a disaster of an idea.

Then again, he might just put together a quality at-bat, which is all Wedge asks of his players.

He doesn't care if they succeed or fail, he just wants the effort. He isn't seeing that effort though, and he feels as if most of the lineup is giving away their at-bats.

Perhaps Saturday's night game was a bit of a step in the right direction. Jhonny Peralta went 2-4, but hit the ball hard in all four chances, including the tower shot to the left field bleachers.

They also displayed that type of situational hitting that needed to be done, all be it ruled a double error. Michael Aubrey smacked one through the infield to knock home Ben Francisco in the second inning after a lead-off double.

Wait, Michael Aubrey? Batting fifth?

Just goes to show you how fed up Eric Wedge has become. If that doesn't light a fire under guys like Ryan Garko, what will?

Michael Aubrey is batting fifth. One week ago he was in Buffalo, and a few more weeks ago, he was in Akron.

Andre Knott doing post-game on the radio last night made an excellent point.

You don't even see the Kansas City Royals doing that.

You just don't, no matter how bad it might have gotten in the past few years. The Royals never brought up young kids and put them in such a prominent spot in the lineup.

Eric Wedge may be tired of talking about. But, I'm tired of listening to it. So, if I'm tired of hearing about it, what do the players feel? I sure hope they are tired of it, because it's about time we see some effort.

I look at it this way. It's not how many runs you score; it's how you score them. I know we all want to win, but realistically, you can't win every game. It's how you play in those losses that count. Last year even when they went through bad stretches, the Indians wouldn't look quite as bad as they do now.

The effort was there, the way they scored the runs was there. Right now, they aren't scoring the ways you need to score in baseball. It's been garbage runs. Ben Francisco, or just a random player like Hafner, knocking in a run and then disappearing forever.

Give Eric Wedge the effort. That's all you need to make him happy. If you put the effort in, the results will eventually be positive.