Cleveland Indians Fire Manager Eric Wedge

According to ESPN.com, the Cleveland Indians have fired Manager Eric Wedge with just six games left in the 2009 regular season. Wedge will finish out the season with the Indians, but Wedge and his staff will not be retained after the season.

Wedge was 560-568 with one playoff appearance (2007) in seven seasons with the Indians.

I have the same question for Indians management as I did for the Houston Astros when they fired Cecil Cooper—why now? I really don’t get the point of firing a manager with just six games left in the regular season. Why was it so important to fire him today rather than six days from now?

It just doesn’t make sense to me.

While I will admit I haven’t sat down and watched the majority of Indians games this year, so I can’t tell you what kind of X’s and O’s manager Wedge is. But here is what I do know—teams that have a managerial opening would be foolish not to look at Wedge in 2010.

Wedge won 90 games twice with the Indians. In 2007 he was one game away from the World Series and won the AL Manager of the Year award as well. I am pretty confident in saying Wedge had the respect of the players he managed and can manage at the big league level.

The Indians’ rebuilding plan came to a head in 2007; that was their year. When a small market team has their plan come to a head and they don’t win it all, they have to start over again.

Starting over again usually means losing. That is not the manager's fault.

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