Should Wedge Get Tossed?

That is the question in Cleveland baseball circles these days. Should Eric Wedge, last year’s AL Manager of the Year, who led the Indians to a league-high 96 wins and to the brink of the AL Pennant, be shown the door following a 41-53 first half and a season going nowhere?

My answer: No.

That’s just one opinion, but I’m trying to stay sane when it comes to the hoards of Cleveland fans and media that want to see a coach/manager shunned from the town the second they do something wrong. How many times do Cleveland teams need to go through a coaching change before they realize that most of the changes are counter-productive?

So, why keep him? I think the better argument to make is: why blame him?

Can you blame Eric Wedge for not making a move in the offseason; standing pat and expecting the players that produced last year to come back at or above that level?

Can you blame Eric Wedge for injuries to top sluggers Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez; AND the fact that they played through those injuries by making the choice to tough it out and ultimately hurt the team? Not to mention the injuries to Jake Westbrook, Joe Borowski and Josh Barfield.

Can you blame Eric Wedge for the implosion of Rafael Betancourt, and relative ineffectiveness of guys who showed they could get it done in the back end last year (Joe Borowski-released-and Rafael Perez-inconsistent)?

Finally, can you blame Eric Wedge for the complete disappearance of offensive output from Ryan Garko, Franklin Gutierrez, Asdrubal Cabrera and others?

If you answered yes to any of these four questions, you may be qualified for a free mental health examination courtesy of our friends at the Cleveland Clinic. Or, you might just be the typical, pessimistic, scapegoat-hunting, fire-everybody-in-favor-of-instant-gratification Cleveland sports fan.

Eric Wedge isn’t exempt from blame, but he is certainly among the least of the Cleveland Indians problems in 2008.

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