Front Office Change
by scott longert on 08/31/15
Team President Marc Shapiro has officially left the Indians to take the CEO job with Toronto. Shapiro spent twenty-five years in the Cleveland front office. He was here for the good years in the late 1990's and for all the bad of the last fifteen.
The comments I am reading on-line are mostly negative. It is hard to argue about the Indians lack of success going back as many years as you want. The bottom line is the current ownership does not spend the money needed to compete. It is not a secret that the money for free agents is not here. I was shocked and excited when the Tribe signed Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher. At the time I believed the team would be greatly improved with two big name players. As we all know it did not work out. Now it is fairly obvious the ownership is not going to go that route anytime soon.
Shapiro rarely had the money to spend to improve the ball club. Most of the time he acquired players coming off bad years or serious injuries. Case in point was Scott Kasmir. The irony was when Kasmir made his comeback the Indians were not willing to spend the money to keep him. That sums up the front office pretty well.
We will see over the next couple of years what Shapiro is capable of doing. He has money to spend and an excellent team to work with. There are no excuses anymore.
In the middle of all this The Indians are on a roll, sweeping the Angels and still having a chance for the second wild card. They are benefiting from the poor play of most of the teams in the American League. Other than the Blue Jays, Royals, Astros and Yankees the rest of the league is mediocre or worse. If the Tribe was in the National League they would have no chance.
If the Indians can take two of three from the Blue Jays they will get my complete attention. I am eager to see if the Indians pitching staff can hold down the big three - Donaldson, Bautista and Encarnacion. If they accomplish that I might be a believer.
