6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog

It was an odd game, as these things go; first, the Angels stood up in the second and bludgeoned the former Fausto Carmona, now Roberto Hernandez in his first game since serving a three-week suspension for falsifying his name. The results were pretty for the Angels so far as the score went, but not so much for what they said about the team's offense in reality. What transpired was a real comedy of errors, with Vernon Wells reaching on an error and scoring on another one, both by Brent Lillibridge. In all, they put up a five spot, but really, had Lillibridge not sucked, the score would have been 2-0, as Iannetta's sac fly would have been the inning's third out, and Wells would have hit into a double play.

The good also included Ervin Santana's first decent outing in quite a long time, completing seven innings with only one run surrendered. Jason Isringhausen sucked — again — giving up a three-run jack to Shin Soo Choo, but that was it for the Tribe, who went down in order against an oddly resurgent Kevin Jepsen. In a year that has been so miserable for the Angels — I wrote nothing about the weekend series with Seattle because it was so damn dispiriting — it's good if you can beat the (other) bad teams.

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Labels: angels, indians, recaps

Via @dodgerthoughts, former Dodger Casey Blake has announced his retirement in the Des Moines Register. He did pretty well for guy who didn't really get his first shot until age 29, spending most of his career in Cleveland.

Labels: dodgers, ex-dodgers, indians, retirements

Some random observations:

• Albert Pujols has about two more games (nine 0-fer at-bats) before he hits the Mendoza line. He has been held hitless in six of the last ten games, for a batting average of .153 over that span.
• Scioscia, on Pujols: "He and Mickey (Hatcher) have shared a lot of information." As Mike DiGiovanna put it, "Add punch line here, Halo fans."
• Because of the team's 6-14 start after Friday, a number of people were comparing this team to the 2002 team which also had the same record in as many games. Big difference: the only thing the Angels have in the minors is Mike Trout, and oops. (0-for-3 at the top of the lineup, with a walk.)

The rest of my comments probably aren't fit for print.

Nice win yesterday, but one win per week will get you 100+ losses.

ESPN Box

Labels: angels, indians, recaps

It's not the infuriating loss — the Angels haven't won this week. Weaver didn't pitch that well, leaving after only six, having a hard time with the strike zone and throwing a ton of pitches frequently. Once the bullpen entered the game early, that was pretty much the ballgame, Takahashi giving up the tying runs in the seventh, and David Carpenter merely being the guy who took the loss because frankly the Angels had run out of other scapegoats.

The top of the lineup was full of zeros on the H and BB column, as seems to be the case generally, and so the news that the team had released Bobby Abreu and called up Mike Trout amounted to something of a shock. For all the world, I was quite certain that the team would send down Peter Bourjos (who has defensive value, but like pretty much everyone, is horrible offensively), optioning him while he still has them for Trout, if that happened at all. Abreu seems to have no offensive or defensive value, so the team managed to make the right call in that dimension. Yet, I can't help but think it's way too much to hope that Trout can help spark a broken offense, far too much to place on the shoulders of a man not even yet of legal drinking age. And the team's main problem — the bullpen — remains beyond his capacity to aid.

This is as early as I have ever called it, but I think the season is over. The Angels have cratered, and while they may recover some of this deficit (presently nine games out), it is unlikely they will get all of it. I have not done a proper study of teams this far out in the division race, but I would wager that the vast, vast majority of them so bludgeoned this early do not make it back.

ESPN Box • Angels recap

Labels: angels, indians, recaps, transactions

CBS Sports' Jon Heyman reports that the Angels are near a deal to send Bobby Abreu to Cleveland, in which they will eat virtually all of his $9M salary for 2012.

Update 3/29: ESPN's Jim Bowden says there is no deal at present.

Labels: angels, indians, trades, transactions

• The Rockies shipped Ubaldo Jimenez to Cleveland for a package of four minor leaguers, right-handed pitchers Alex White and Joe Gardner, and 1B Matt McBride. LHP Drew Pomerantz is also expected to be traded once his signing anniversary of August 16 is past (players can't be traded within the first year of signing).
• As announced Friday, Rafael Furcal's Dodger career came to an end with a trade to St. Louis. Vinny waxed poetic during Saturday's broadcast, something I have never heard him do previously. It was a sweet moment for a player who really had a very mixed bag of success and injury with the Dodgers.
• The M's shipped Eric Bedard to Boston in a three-team deal involving the Dodgers that ended up with Trayvon Robinson going to Seattle. Robinson hit 26 homers in his first pass at AAA this year as a 23-year-old, so this is at best a head-scratcher; MSTI called it a swap for "organizational depth", and it strikes me that this should be a deal that calls directly and unequivocally Ned Colletti's competence.
• A lot has gone on in my late vacation from blogging; Ervin Santana pitched a no-hitter against Cleveland (as my friend Kelly observed, the one thing the Tribe needs is a bat, so they go out and get... a dodgy starter?). Texas hasn't stumbled, the Angels have done well but not overly so, and so two games out will have to tell the difference. That's competitive, anyway, which is better than I thought they'd do.

Labels: dodgers, indians, mariners, red sox, rockies, trades, transactions

Sully Baseball has some advice for Cleveland sports fans. Concur.

Jay Jaffe at BPro says the Tribe is a serious contender. Surprisingly enough, the Angels aren't made of tissue paper, either.

Labels: angels, funny, indians, predictions

One of the sad things about owning season tickets is the inevitability of being unable to attend games that you really want to. We couldn't be at yesterday's loss with Jered Weaver on the mound because we had an engagement to see the terrific Thrilling Adventure Hour in Hollywood, so the loss, while unfortunate, didn't carry quite the meaning it might have. (It also helped that the Angels' two-game lead on Friday gave the team a little cushion when the Rangers beat the Yankees 7-5.)

I could bore you with the details of this game; the Angels mounted not one but two thrilling comebacks, the first in the sixth after having been blanked by Tribe starter Fausto Carmona. The whole damned thing, in fact, started with two out, as did both Angels rallies. A double by Alberto Callaspo, an infield single by Howie Kendrick, and a single up the middle by Hank Conger got the Angels their first lead of the day.

That wasn't enough to guarantee a win, as Fernando Rodney erased Dan Haren's potential win by surrendering a couple runs in the eighth — he'll never be reliable, and keeps reminding me of Antonio Alfonseca, or maybe more relevant to recent Angels history, Esteban Yan: a one-trick fireballer with a tendency to fall apart with repeated exposure.

Well, no matter: the Halos came back and got 'er done, albeit once again with two outs, this time in the eighth. Peter Bourjos (infield single) and Erick Aybar (booming double to left center) were the heroes of the afternoon, and though Jordan Walden wasn't brilliant — surrendering a run to Asdrubal Cabrera's RBI double — he managed to finish out the game without further damage. Thanks to a 12-5 Yankees rout of Texas, the Angels are back to a two-game lead in the division. Well, hip, hip, hoooray, especially as it was Mike Scioscia's 1,000th's career win as a manager.

ESPN Box • Angels Recap

Labels: angels, indians, recaps

Whew! The Angels' 8th extra-inning game this year, and the earliest they've ever played as many. The surprising thing was that Halos starter Tyler Chatwood actually outdueled Indians staff ace Justin Masterson (at least, as measured by hits — both ended up with no decisions), giving up a no-hitter as late as the fourth inning, though he was sloppy and generous with walks, ultimately recording five, one intentional. But he got as many strikeouts, so however it worked, the eight innings he posted against the league's second-best offense count as not only a personal triumph but a considerable feather in his cap. Of course, Chatwood doesn't look nearly as impressive if he doesn't get the brilliant help of the pint-sized Alexei Amarista to end the eighth. Amarista, dragooned into playing left, hadn't played an inning in the outfield since single-A, but made a highlight reel play in left to end the eighth.

Cleveland took a 1-0 lead in the fourth on Pronk's scoring groundout to first in the fourth inning. The Angels battled back to tie the game in the sixth, and could have taken the lead but for a brilliant play by Shin Shoo Choo in right, who converted a Torii Hunter fly ball out into a double play at third, erasing Maicer Izturis and effectively ending the Angels' threat. Eventually, things went into extras, and despite the appearance of Fernando Rodney, no catastrophes occurred (for the Angels). The Angels eventually won the affair on four straight singles, including Torii Hunter's first hit of the game.

Two games over Texas — and, shock! Oakland — now. Can we believe, a little?

Mild postscript: the Friday fireworks show was dogged by synchronization problems with the music (Katy Perry, though I doubt that was significant). People left in the middle of the show for the first time in memory, and even booed. Wow.

ESPN box • Angels recap

Labels: angels, indians, recaps

Dodger Fans, Including A Pregnant Woman, Assaulted At Angels Stadium

I'm going to start off this post with an indignant diatribe against fan violence no matter where it occurs. I generally find the atmosphere at Angels Stadium much more conducive to having a good time — more "family friendly" as they say — than Dodger Stadium, and not least because it seems there are more thugs at Dodger Stadium. But the latter has no monopoly on teh stupid, as this LA Weekly report indicates:

A poster at thedirty.com says the woman, 7-months pregnant, jumped in after her brother, in a Dodgers shirt, was jumped by a group of four Angels fans walking behind them and taunting them.

The woman was kicked and pummeled while she was down, according to the blog. Her companion, said to be her husband, jumped in too and helped to break it up.

No, really. Knock it off, now.

Dan Haren Day: Angels 2, Indians 0

Dan Haren (we may now surmise, a good trade) pitched a one-hit shutout for the Angels, their only offense being solo homers by Mark Trumbo and Peter Bourjos. Slumping Vernon Wells (a bad, and possibly career-ending trade for Tony Reagins) missed the start. It seems awfully sad that the Angels must work their starters so hard so early; I expect they will be forced to take it out in change at the end of the season, being all tuckered out. For now, I'm enjoying the ride, complete with a deep-space-vacuum of run suppression that Haren ended the game with: 0.73 ERA.

ESPN Box • Recap

Snatching Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory: Giants 5, Dodgers 4

Chad Billingsley gave up four of the runs the Giants needed to win this one, and only lasted five innings. He's having a slow start to his season, ending the game with a 7.71 ERA, but barring injury, he's still one of the league's better pitchers.

ESPN Box • Recap

Even More Roster Moves

• Josh Hamilton was placed on the disabled list after incurring a non-displaced fracture of the humerus sliding into home plate on Monday night. He could miss as much as two months. The Rangers recalled Chris Davis from AAA Round Rock to replace him on the 25-man roster.
• Former Mets first baseman Carlos Delgado has retired.

Mike Trout Has A Very Good Day

Two homers, one of them a grand slam, an infield single, a walk, and five RBIs overall.

Vernon Wells, I suppose you should be worried about playing time, though not at this exact moment.

Labels: angels, dodgers, giants, indians, mets, rangers, recaps, retirements, transactions

John Lackey lasted five innings in today's season opener at Fenway Park while giving up six runs, all earned. That fact prompted Jon Weisman to take a look in the rear view at the 2009/2010 offseason in which some Dodger fans were thinking the team should have made a run at him.

In retrospect, that would have been a terrible move. Lackey's 2010 splits show some amazing numbers; he blew up against Cleveland (10.13 ERA), Colorado (6.75 ERA), Detroit (6.43 ERA), and Toronto (8.61 ERA), among his other bad outings. The point being, his overall 4.40 ERA was not due exclusively to facing the Yankees three times.

Labels: blue jays, ex-angels, indians, red sox, rockies, tigers, yankees

Keith Law reminds us of Ned Colletti's folly:

Carlos Santana, C, Cleveland
Missed by: 10 at-bats
Would have ranked: No. 1 or 2

If Santana wrecks his knee a week sooner, he remains on the list and is either first or second on the Top 100 list depending on whether Strasburg is still eligible. If Santana doesn't hurt his knee, he grabs another 150 or so at-bats and probably ends up on most AL Rookie of the Year ballots. The injury was apparently less severe than an MCL or ACL tear, with a recovery time of 4-6 months rather than 8-12, so he should be ready to go for spring training, although I wouldn't be shocked to see Cleveland give him more days off this year than a starting catcher might ordinarily receive. Santana is a well-rounded offensive player with great plate discipline and an explosive bat; if he stays behind the plate long-term, he'll be one of the best players in the American League.

Labels: dodgers, indians, stupid ideas

At The Biz Of Baseball, Bud Selig praised the Tigers for their handling of the situation (which was as graceful as could be asked of any men), while "[applauding] the courage of umpire Jim Joyce to address this unfortunate situation honestly and directly." He also said, "I will examine our umpiring system, the expanded use of instant replay and all other related features."

My boss made an eminently sensible suggestion: have five-man umpiring crews, with the fifth man in the press box, watching the game on video. Most of the time he won't be needed, but when he is, the other umpires can call on him at any time by radio for a call on a close play. (Presumably, postseason umpiring crews would consist of seven men.) This would have two positive effects from the umpires' perspective:

1. It would provide more employment opportunities for umpires, a carrot for the use of video.
2. The video umpire would give immediate relief to the home plate umpire, or any other umpire, disabled by a foul or other hard-hit ball, play, etc. so that play could continue with a full traditional four-man crew.

Getting the call right is important. But finally, I would like to say something to those people who say that we should simply ask the commissioner's office to overturn the game result. We are far better off with a system whose rules, limitations, and failures are knowable in advance than one where outcomes can be decided after the fact. Ultimately, such a system would be a disaster for everyone, players, umpires, owners, and fans, because no win can then ever be final.

Labels: indians, rules, tigers

Radio silence since Sunday, ayup, in which span —

• The Angels completed a series win against Seattle, their second of the month, and pretty effectively buried them at seven games back, where they remain today. The Angels surprised the hell out of me by bouncing back from the horrific news about Kendry Morales' multi-month injury by pounding Seattle pitching, a fusillade that included a three-run, walkoff jack by Howie Kendrick, who needed one in the worst possible way. The broadcast team has been nattering on about how well he's done since being demoted to the bottom of the order, and it's true.
• The Dodgers beat the Rockies 4-3 to complete that series win to give Clayton Kershaw a win on a short start (5 innings). Outside of the pitiful Snakes, the NL West is fairly tightly bunched. And speaking of Arizona ...
• ... the Blue beat Arizona at home by scores of 5-4, 1-0 (in 10), and 1-0 (again, this time in 14), on, respectively, a walkoff balk (Casey Blake scored the winning run), a walkoff homer (by Matt Kemp), and a walkoff RBI single from Garret Anderson, who probably deserved the tenth-inning boos he got when he struck out with none out. As MSTI observed, it's probably saved him from a DFA, but his average is still only .157. (And yes, yay, for Travis Schlichting and his four scoreless innings. And, slightly ironic, the Dodgers couldn't beat ex-Dodger Edwin Jackson.)
• The Angels beat typically lowly Kansas City, with Ervin Santana and Scott Kazmir getting the wins (7-1 and 7-2 respectively, with Torii Hunter blowing one way out of their yard), and Joel Pineiro taking the abuse on Wednesday (6-3).
• You may have heard about first base umpire Jim Joyce robbing Tigers starter Armando Gallaraga of a perfect game with a blown call eight and two-thirds innings into the game. So 28 outs is what it takes for a perfecto these days. There are calls all over to expand the use of instant replay (and as Jay Jaffe tweeted, "BRING ON THE F*CKING ROBOT UMPS YESTERDAY".
• Ken Griffey, Jr. finally, finally, finally retired.
• In news around the division, it's time to end the Casey Kotchman experiment in Seattle.

Labels: angels, diamondbacks, dodgers, ex-dodgers, indians, recaps, rockies, royals, tigers

Torii Hunter damn near won this one all by himself, save for the dramatic ninth. Kendry Morales came to the plate with men on first and second, and very nearly killed the whole thing himself by hitting into a 6-4-3 double play. Yet that sent Torii to third, and after suddenly developing trouble finding the plate in Juan Rivera's at-bat (that ended in an intentional walk), Howie Kendrick returned Cleveland reliever Chris Perez's first pitch for a bunt single to send home Torii and win the game. It's been a while since we've seen a finale like that one.

Probably would have been more noteworthy except for the win: Mike Scioscia's ejection on a disputed check swing call in Hideki Matsui's second inning at-bat.

Matsui nearly fell down trying to get out of the way of the pitch, and replays appeared to show his bat crossing the plate. Home plate umpire Joe West asked for help from third-base counterpart Rob Drake, who ruled that Matsui had swung at the pitch.

"He's jumping out of the way of it trying to get his balance and that was somehow construed as a swing," Scioscia said. " … That call was mind-boggling."

Scioscia had a brief exchange with Drake, who mimicked a swing with his arm and ejected the manager while he was on the top step of the dugout.

Update: I had to include this here but didn't get to it yesterday, since I captured this on my work desktop:

No wonder the Angels won — they got an extra out in the ninth! j/k

ESPN Box • Angels recap

Labels: angels, indians, recaps

Joe Saunders has had five starts this season, and only one of them — the Angels' 6-3 win in Toronto — was a quality start. Think about that for a moment as you also ponder his frighteningly low 3.4 K/9 or unity K/BB ratio, not to mention a career-high 1.575 WHIP. If he's hiding an injury, I wouldn't be a bit surprised.

The bad news last night began early; though Saunders got through two scoreless frames, the difference between his throwing and ex-Ray Mitch Talbot couldn't have been starker. It took Hokie Joe 21 pitches to get out of the first; it took Talbot six. The Angels' offense wasn't able to so much as get a man on base until the third, while Joe leaked base runners the whole night, including leadoff doubles in the second and third.

The Tribe scored first, picking up a couple runs in the third on Asdrubal Cabrera's leadoff double, Shin-Soo Choo's RBI single, and Austin Kerns' double. For a time, it looked as though Bobby Abreu's miscued throw to the plate on a return of Choo's single — so high that it almost looked like an error — looked like it might have been a critical failing in the game. Wouldn't the better idea have been to throw in to second? Indeed, Choo eventually did come around to score, but it's not clear whether the speedy Choo wouldn't have touched home anyway on the ensuing Kerns double.

The balance of the night was that way, Cleveland spanking Angels pitchers about every other inning to steadily put the game out of sight, culminating with a four-run eighth that demonstrated the exhausted state of the Angels' bullpen. Matt Palmer gave up five runs, and of course Scot Shields wasn't able to do much to stem the tide, either, allowing all his inherited baserunners to score. Shields owns the second-lowest swing-and-miss figures of his career (only 7% of his pitches are swung on and missed), but the really scary number is that 100% of his inherited baserunners have scored this year. That sounds high because my recollection is that he's had more inherited baserunners than one; but I suppose Austin Kerns was it last night.

The Angels had some offensive opportunities, and stating the obvious, the game might have been closer had Torii Hunter done something other than popping out to Mark Grudzielanek (he's still in the majors?) to end the third inning's two-out rally. Indicative of the night, Juan Rivera hit a laser to left with the bases loaded in the sixth; Kerns returned it so fast to second that Hideki Matsui nearly got doubled up.

Mostly, this was a get-well present to Cleveland offense; hell, reserve catcher Lou Marston got on base three times, two hits and a walk. Brandon Wood's solo homer in the ninth was the only other offense the team had, and for once (well, actually, for thrice in as many games) you couldn't attach too much blame to his normally blameful bat. Even Mike Napoli is starting to stink, and you begin to wonder — in combination with his even-more-atrocious-than-normal throws to second — whether he's hiding a shoulder injury. There's an awful lot that looks suspect about this team, and it seems to emerge just about every game, win or lose.

ESPN Box • Angels recap

Labels: angels, indians, recaps

Top 2nd: The Angels hammered David Huff for three runs in the first; surprisingly, Kendry Morales had nothing to do with it, but the leadoff homer by Erick Aybar was the keynote that got things started.

Weaver gave up a double and an RBI single to Jhonny Peralta, but that was it. 3-1 Angels.

Bottom 3rd: After Huff's rough first inning, he settled in and started making consistent outs. This time he only surrendered a two-out double to Juan Rivera, but Howie Kendrick's hard smash ended up in Russell Branyan's glove to end the inning on an unassisted 3 groundout. Still 3-1 Angels.

Bottom 4th: Bobby Abreu gets rung up on a called strike three that the pitch tracker on screen shows as off the plate. Abreu shakes his head as he heads back to the dugout, and home plate umpire Paul Schreiber jaws at him some on the way back, but no ejection. It didn't matter, as the men on first and second didn't go anywhere thanks to Torii Hunter grounding out into a 6-4 fielder's choice to end the frame. K-Mo walked, bringing Juan Rivera to the dish.

Top 5th: Jered Weaver allowed a two-out single to Shin-Soo Choo, right over the head of Howie Kendrick, but he got Pronk to fly out to center on a pretty close play that had Torii galloping in from mid-center to take over for the infielders, with some wide eyes on Kendrick providing a underscore to the end of the inning.

Bottom 5th: Matsui knocked one down the right field line for his 1,000th major league hit, with 2,390 professional hits between the North American majors and the Japanese leagues. It comes to nothing, but yay, Gojira!

Bottom 6th: Brandon Wood worked something of a miracle: his second hit in the game, a leadoff single.

And then Abreu went yard on an elevated pitch high over the plate to make it 5-1 Angels, yanking it deep into the right field bleachers.

Torii Hunter nailed one off reliever Rafael Perez down the left field line. Hunter skidded into second; Austin Kerns throw actually beat Torii to the bag by about a week, but second baseman Luis Valbuena dropped the ball. He recovered and tagged Hunter, but second base umpire Joe West wasn't in a forgiving mood and declared Hunter safe despite the facts. That put a man on second with only one out; Matsui flied out to right, pushing Hunter to third, but now with two down and Morales at the plate. Morales walked to the crowd's delight, but Juan Rivera whiffed to end the thread.

Top 7th: Weaver's out of it, and Jason Bulger's in. He started badly, throwing four straight out of the zone to walk catcher Mike Redmond, and every Angels fan got a queasy feeling in their stomach. Bulger went 3-1 on Asdrubal Cabrera, and that got Butcher on the horn to the bullpen — and then Bulger walked Cabrera to load the bases.

That was it; hullo, Kevin Jepsen. Jepsen's first pitch to Pronk was a strike practically at his eyes, and Schreiber calls it as Pronk snarls contempt; the third pitch, a tight slider, blows past him for the swinging strikeout. Russell Branyan, now back in a Tribe uniform, gets to a 1-1 count on a breaking pitch in the dirt he spat on as it bounced to Mike Napoli. He tapped out to Erick Aybar on the first base side of second to end the frame, and it's still 5-1 Angels.

Bottom 7th: Brandon Wood shocked all of us by whacking one up the left side for his third hit of the game, putting men on first and second with one out. That's a knockout blow for Rafael Perez, and the Tribe calls in Tony Sipp — who promptly got Aybar to bounce into a 5-4-3 double play to end the inning.

Top 8th: Brian Stokes came in and promptly surrendered a leadoff homer to Austin Kerns, Kerns' first of the year, making it 5-2 Angels. Bobby Abreu made a beautiful running catch to nail down the final out of the inning with two men on, giving everyone — including reliever Fernando Rodney — a big sigh of relief.

Top 9th: Fuentes survives a shaky 9th (B. Wood throwing error and a walkd) by punching out punching out Peralta to finish things with a 5-2 win. Woo!

ESPN Box • Angels recap

Labels: angels, indians, live blogging, recaps

Really? Apparently Chris Antonetti will become the new GM, and current GM Mark Shapiro will be the new team President. Utterly missed me.

Three years ago or thereabouts, Antonetti was the subject of one of those quixotic fan draft attempts by U.S.S. Mariner to get him to replace Bill Bavasi. Bavasi's gone, and now the M's look to have a sharp GM in the persona of Jack Zduriencik.

Labels: front office, indians, mariners

Per MLB.com; Mattingly has had a phone interview with the Tribe, and has been approached for the vacant Nationals job as well through the Dodgers' front office.

Labels: dodgers, indians, managers, nationals

So why announce it now? The coaching staff has also been summarily canned; Baseball Prospectus' series on the eliminated takes a peek:

Our projections forecast the Indians to win the AL Central, albeit with a meager 86 wins and a 38 percent chance of making the postseason—the lowest of any division favorite. Despite injuries to Sizemore and Hafner and the departures of Mark DeRosa, Ryan Garko, and Martinez via mid-season trades, the offense has essentially lived up to expectations; projected to rank fourth in the AL in scoring, they actually rank fifth, with an EqA which is fourth in the AL. It's the pitching that has been a brutal disappointment: projected to rank seventh in the league in runs allowed, they're instead second-to-last, with both the rotation and bullpen ranking dead last in their respective win expectancy-based categories, SNLVAR and WXRL. The bullpen's wretched early-season showing drove the team 10 games under .500 by mid-May, a hole the Tribe never escaped. — Jay Jaffe, Baseball Prospectus

...

The Indians have approached the last several seasons with an eye on contending. In three of those four years, though, they've stumbled out of the gate, dooming their chances of playing meaningful games after June. In the process, they've had to make deals, including shipping away the past two AL Cy Young winners. They've brought back some quality prospects, but it's clear that they're in no position to contend in 2010, mainly because they haven't had much success with their high draft picks in recent years. Given their penchant for underachieving on skipper Eric Wedge's watch, they're almost certainly better off with a new manager, too. — Jay Jaffe, Baseball Prospectus

Labels: firings, indians, managers