Now that I’ve had a few days to mull over the firing of Twitchy and the Gang (that’d be Wedge & Co.), I find myself indifferent to the whole thing. I never really disliked Wedge, even though I completely disagreed with most of his decisions this year. Although I will not miss his cliché filled post-game interviews that tell you nothing of what is going on, or his annoying habit of arbitrarily and inconsistently benching players (a la Garko-gate), I do think, from a player standpoint, he seemed to be a decent manager. That was apparent with the love fest that ensued after news of his firing broke. Everyone had such nice things to say about Wedgie and his time as manager. It was so warm and fuzzy it was like a media Snuggie.

 

I just have to ask, why didn’t these same people speak up before he got canned? All the players were saying how great it is to work for Wedge and media guys were praising him for being such a great guy. Mark Shapiro was very emotional about the situation, almost to the point of making it a very awkward press conference.

 

Wedge on the other hand, handled it with class. He broke away from his standard, Eric Wedge press conference mode where he only speaks in generalities and stale clichés, and was actually likable (for a second I almost wished that guy could be the manager).He accepted responsibility for this pathetic team and remained adamant that he would try to finish this season strong. Why? Well, I guess that’s just the kind of guy ol’ Wedgie is— strong, determined, full of resolve. Can you imagine if you got fired, then have to talk publically about your having just been fired?  That is a unique situation to be in.

 

Here is his farewell speech…..

 

Well, it was something like that. [In case you were wondering, Wedge is a John Wayne fan (or so it says in the media guide).] 

 

Seven years is a decent amount of time to spend at a job in any profession, and an eternity in baseball years. Considering this and the fact that you can’t fire an entire team for being losers, this parting of ways was the natural conclusion to the disaster season of 2009.  Here is the season in review, in case you missed it:

 

 

 

 

Looking to next season does not make me any more hopeful. Right now this team is missing :

A manager

pitching coach

hitting coach

base coaches

bench coach

quality starting rotation

reliable bullpen

1^st baseman (unless you want to keep Marte and  before you ask, LaPorta looks better in left)

2^nd baseman (Valbuena? I’m not convinced Double-Or-Nothing is good enough yet)

starting catcher

an everyday DH

veteran presence

farm system depth (I challenge you to name one player on the team now, other than Peralta, that has come from the Cleveland farm system….)

 

 

 

Yeah, you’re reading that right! Shapiro, you’ve got some work to do before April….. and don’t fall for any of those 3 for 1 tricks again….. and please don’t sign some washed-up veteran for big money on the promise that he can guide this team….. oh and make sure the new hitting coach has actually played at least one day in the Big Leagues (or AAA for that matter)…. and remeber Carl Willis did coach back-to-back Cy Young award winners….. and see what Cal Ripken is up to these days (maybe the Iron Man would want to be a Major League Manager)… and one last thing, you do know that potential doesn’t necessarily mean that young players will be any good at the Major League level, right? Just checking.