Two things need to change for the Tribe:
1) Their bullpen. We had it down in '05 and then we blow it up in just one winter. The '04, '05, and '06 teams weren't that different. But the '05 team was really the only one that had a bullpen worth a damn.
And if people think that Dolan doesn't spend...we offered Trevor Hoffman a big contract last winter. He took LESS MONEY to go back to San Diego, where he had been his whole career and where he was a local icon, over coming to Cleveland. How is that Dolan's fault? He lost Howry, but he was aggressive in letting Shapiro go after one of the best closers in history. It's not his fault that SD is a better city than Cleveland (which, trust me, it is. No need to chime in here, LePip
).
2) A new manager. Managers DO make a difference. Look at Leyland, Ozzie Guillen, and Terry Francona. If Detroit goes all the way this year, then all those guys will have won the WS in just their first or second year of managing.
To be honest, the '05 White Sox and '06 Tigers are not more talented than we are. We have the arms (Sabathia, Westbrook, and Lee are on par with any other top three in baseball) and the offense (Hafner, Sizemore, VMart can all be All-Stars every year). This team was one of the worst, if not THE worst, defensive teams in the league. We never had timely hitting. We'd lost two out of three in a series where we beat somebody 19-2 in the middle game yet score a total of three runs in the other two combined. A veteran manager would have these young guys thinking about the big picture and have them stay together on the same page.
As for Wedge...the best he could do was barely miss the playoffs. Yet Shapiro still wants him around. Leave it to the Indians for loving a guy who is almost good, but not good enough. Hasn't that always been the story with this franchise?
1) Their bullpen. We had it down in '05 and then we blow it up in just one winter. The '04, '05, and '06 teams weren't that different. But the '05 team was really the only one that had a bullpen worth a damn.
And if people think that Dolan doesn't spend...we offered Trevor Hoffman a big contract last winter. He took LESS MONEY to go back to San Diego, where he had been his whole career and where he was a local icon, over coming to Cleveland. How is that Dolan's fault? He lost Howry, but he was aggressive in letting Shapiro go after one of the best closers in history. It's not his fault that SD is a better city than Cleveland (which, trust me, it is. No need to chime in here, LePip
).2) A new manager. Managers DO make a difference. Look at Leyland, Ozzie Guillen, and Terry Francona. If Detroit goes all the way this year, then all those guys will have won the WS in just their first or second year of managing.
To be honest, the '05 White Sox and '06 Tigers are not more talented than we are. We have the arms (Sabathia, Westbrook, and Lee are on par with any other top three in baseball) and the offense (Hafner, Sizemore, VMart can all be All-Stars every year). This team was one of the worst, if not THE worst, defensive teams in the league. We never had timely hitting. We'd lost two out of three in a series where we beat somebody 19-2 in the middle game yet score a total of three runs in the other two combined. A veteran manager would have these young guys thinking about the big picture and have them stay together on the same page.
As for Wedge...the best he could do was barely miss the playoffs. Yet Shapiro still wants him around. Leave it to the Indians for loving a guy who is almost good, but not good enough. Hasn't that always been the story with this franchise?
