Remember Those Tribe teams of the Mid To Late 90's. Odds are that the first thing you thought about was the big bats of Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez , Jim Thome, David Justice, Matt Williams, and the list goes on and on. What many do remember is the bullpen. The bullpen was the key to a lot of those wins. Eric Plunk, Mike Jackson, Paul Assenmacher, and Jose Mesa were the key to a lot of those wins. So, after years of anguish the Indians finally found a winning formula. It seemed that the formula was coming back into the fold with Bob Wickman, Bob Howry, and Arthur Rhodes last season. Rhodes was traded for a ham sandwich because he went AWOL . But Bob Howry could have and should have been signed . The biggest mistake the Tribe made was giving a boatload of money to a journeyman right hander named Jason Johnson when they could of spent it on Howry. It is a lot easier to win a game when you make it a 7 inning game instead of 9. They could have made Jeremy Sowers a man and let him sink or swim in the majors. You don't need a solid 5th starter until late May. They could of tried their luck with Sowers and if he wasn't the answer pay for a 5th starter.
So that leaves us to Wedge. He was left with a mess. The offense looks great on paper. They are hitting .286 with a ton of Runs Scored. The defense is a mess . Victor Martinez couldn't throw out a runner to save his life making walks and singles into doubles so long as the runner at first feels he wants to steal a base. Why wasn't that addressed in the off season? Any fool could of seen that. They could of traded Brousard after his hot start to a team like the Cubs who lost their power hitting first baseman in early April. Instead were left with a team with 3 first baseman in Hafner, Brousard, and Martinez. Jhonny Peralta is going through part softmore slump part I am rich and you can't stop paying me. Jason Michaels is on track to be a career long journeyman that is doing his best job he can being an everyday player.
What it comes back to is the bullpen though. When you have a Bullpen that has its best ERA of well over 4.00 there is a major problem. When you sign a washed up pitcher like Danny Graves the sirens should be sounding that there isn't much there. And that's the reason the Tribe is in deep trouble . The Indians have a good enough offense to win despite the Pen but not to the tune of the 90 plus games that's needed to be a playoff contender. I think the second half will have a lot of exciting 10-8 games but Wedge will be let go because this team needs a wake up call fast.
