Ocker on the Indians
Focus lacking in recent moves
Future might be bright, but what about now?
By Sheldon Ocker
<!-- begin body-content -->By the time the Indians open training camp in 2008, the scintillating play of third baseman Andy Marte and backup catcher Kelly Shoppach will have the media buzzing.
General Manager Mark Shapiro not only will have been cited as major-league executive of the year the previous winter, he will have been inducted into the baseball wing of the MENSA Hall of Fame.
Excitement will be everywhere. Well, almost everywhere. Tribe ticket sellers and marketing operatives will have their fingers crossed that the precipitous drop-off in season-ticket sales will begin to level off.
The public relations staff will be anxious to see whether the relentless criticism of owners Larry and Paul Dolan finally will have run its course, and hope that Northeast Ohio's radio talk show hosts will have found a new whipping boy in another sport.
How do I know this will happen? I don't, but it could. The fallout from trading Coco Crisp and others for Marte, Shoppach, reliever Guillermo Mota and outfielder Jason Michaels very well could trigger a mass revolt by the customers.
The baseball logic behind the trades with the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies made (almost) perfect sense. Obtain one of the top-10 prospects in all of baseball plus a promising catcher for an admittedly productive outfielder in Crisp, while unloading three players -- David Riske, Arthur Rhodes, Josh Bard -- who had fallen out of favor.
Shapiro looked at it this way: Build for the future while maintaining a competitive team that can battle the Chicago White Sox for the Central Division title, or at least be good enough to contend for a wild-card spot.
The GM and his lieutenants had every reason to believe in the deal, even if they recognized that the fans would become restive. After all, a general manager can't let the fans dictate how he goes about his business.
I couldn't agree more. Ninety-nine percent of the time. However, these deals happen to fall into that teeny-weeny one percent. They are the exception that proves the rule.
It's not that Indians partisans think Shapiro is crazy for believing Marte has a chance to be a premier third baseman. Most of the folks in Tribe Nation trust Shapiro's judgment about the quality of the players he acquires.
But something else is at work here. Northeast Ohio baseball fans have deep-seated misgivings about the Dolan ownership. They doubt the Dolans will spend what it takes to maintain a competitive franchise.
The customers heard Larry Dolan promise to be forthcoming with an appropriately large budget when the team was ready to make a run for the playoffs. Last year, the Tribe won 93 games, normally more than enough to make the postseason. Unfortunately for Shapiro, Wedge and the Dolans, it didn't happen.
Even though a final-week collapse cost the club a berth in the playoffs, most fans were happy with the season and looked forward to 2006. But they were wary. The winter deal-making period would determine whether the Dolans were as good as their word.
The owners, with Shapiro as their instrument, tried. In making bids for free agents Brian Giles, Trevor Hoffman and Nomar Garciaparra, Indians' offers were equal to or exceeded those of the teams with which the players ultimately signed.
The fans' response: Why didn't the Dolans offer even more? Or Shapiro offered more, but he knew the players wouldn't accept, a cynical ploy designed only to silence fan complaints. This theory shows how little credibility the Dolans have with the public.
Though hardly a scientific sampling of opinion, my e-mails have run 98 percent against the recent deals. Other writers I've talked to say the same. The talk shows are filled with venom for the Dolans and the trades.
These transactions have served mostly to add fuel to the fire for a fan base that already was skeptical of the commitment of ownership. And never mind that the transactions were not consummated to save money, even though the team has come out about $8 million ahead.
When all is said and done, Shapiro probably will use the entire $56 million he was allotted ($14 million more than he had in 2005) for payroll, if he can find quality players to take the money.
Besides being portrayed as cheap, the Dolans are being accused of delaying the fans' gratification endlessly. Last year was obviously the Tribe's breakout season in terms of a return to competitiveness. In other words, the 2006 club should be even better.
But because the inevitable loss of Kevin Millwood was not entirely mitigated by the signing of Paul Byrd, and Shapiro was outbid for other players, fan anxiety was already rising.
Add to that the Crisp-for-Michaels exchange. Not even Shapiro argues that the Phillies' No. 4 outfielder is an equal match for Crisp. The fans are right to believe the departure of Crisp will force the Indians to take a step backward in a season they were expected to be one of the top four teams in the American League.
Fans understand the Millwood situation. They realize the potential folly of offering even an elite pitcher a five-year contract, considering the fragility of his right elbow.
But the Crisp giveaway was totally voluntary. Shapiro had a choice. He didn't have to make the trade, then seek to fill a gaping hole by acquiring Michaels, a player who doesn't hit for power, who can't run, who is suspect in the outfield and who never has been a regular.
Would I have made the deal? As much as I trust Shapiro's judgment about Marte and Shoppach, I would not. This is one time the Indians needed to focus on winning now, not two or three years down the road.
Right or wrong, the Tribe's fan base feels betrayed. And betrayal can lead to the kind of hostility that keeps customers away from Jacobs Field by the thousands.
If that happens, the public's perception of the Dolans will turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. For without an increase in gate receipts, where will the money come from to finance next winter's moves?