Wednesday's Indians related rant

There's a theory in baseball that the manager that is able to bring a young, inexperienced team to the brink of being a challenger to win the World Series is not the manager that will be able to turn that challenger into the World Series winner. At first glance this theory seems pretty difficult to conceptualize - a good manager is a good manager, right? But in is quite plausible - the skills required to develop a young team are usually related to teaching. The skills required to put a team over the edge are related to in game strategy and motivating. It's become pretty clear to me that, at this time, Eric Wedge is not the manager to bring the Indians over the edge.

Take the last 2 games, for instance. Never mind that we're 1-5 on the season against the fucking Royals (The ROYALS! I think even the most retardedly optimistic Royals fan this season said "maybe we can win 68 games if everything goes right.") So last night's game, the Indians take a 6-4 lead in the top of the 6th inning and Jason Johnson allows the first two runners to reach base. Naturally, Wedge goes for... Danny Graves. I'm not sure if it's Shapiro's idea or Wedge's idea for Graves to be on the team, but it's not working. He looks miserable, he can't strike anybody out and he does the following when facing John Buck with two on and no out in the 6th inning, up two. I will represent it graphically.

The first picture below is Buck's hot/cold chart against any pitch that a) wiggles or is b) thrown at a velocity greater than 85mph. The 2nd picture is his hot/cold chart against any non bendy pitch below 85mph. For point of reference: red = hot. notred = not.
























So Veteran Expert Danny Graves naturally throws an 83 mile per hour meatball right into the red area. I didn't think it was necessary for anyone to say to Danny before the atbat started "Look, Danny, that's John Fucking Buck. Let's make sure our pitches wiggle and maybe are near the corners, then we'll go from there." We then require 3 more relievers to complete the game, even putting Guthrie in down four for the bottom of the 8th when Jason Davis had only thrown an inning and a third and is used to going distance.

Today's game, the Indians finally tie it in the top of the 8th when Ambiorix Burgos balked home the tying run. Wedge sent Guillermo Mota, short reliever, out to start the bottom of the 8th, despite the fact that Mota had been brought into the game to put out a fire in the 6th inning. Apparently, having a tired Mota out there in a tight game for 2 innings is preferred to having a relatively fresh Davis out there in a blow out for 2 innings. Predictably, Mota gave up a homer or two and that was that.

Time will tell. Perhaps Wedge will figure things out, Graves will move on, Fernando Cabrera will rejoin the trusted ranks in the pen and Jason Davis will move up to those spots. I hope you'll forgive me for having my doubts.