Whether the Indians admit it or not, the reason we did not have the extra September magic on our bench consisting of at least TWO SPEED DEMONS AND the BEST BUNTER from the minors was because that part of the budget had already been spent on Juan Gone, and his one at bat, back in May.

Chicago swept the final three games of the season against us, and it was their talented minor league scrubs that they put in key situations for their speed and defense that made the difference for Chicago during our 3 game series.

How can you not have speed sitting on the bench when you need it during the month of September? Gutierrez WAS NOT ENOUGH.

Perfect example, Friday night in the 13th inning and Chicago has a runner on second. He sends up Paul Konerko to bat! Since First base is open, of course we are going to walk Konerko, but that is what Guillen expected. Guillen replaces Konerko with a speedy baserunner even though there is a runner already ahead of Konerko at second base!

The baserunner who replaced Konerko was a call up from the minors for the final month of the season. This baserunner was able to score from first on a double even though the ball was quickly handled in the outfield and thrown back in. Konerko would have never made it to home.

That second run proved the difference after Ronnie Belliard hit a home run in the bottom of the 13th inning to make the final score 3-2. Having the depth on the bench enabled Guillen to micromanage in a positive way.

Earlier in the same game in the ninth inning, the Indians had put Guiterrez at third as a pinch runner for Travis Hafner, but WERE FORCED to leave Vic at second base because there was no one else on the bench who was fast!

Vic didn't score from second even when Ben Broussard was caught in a rundown that took 8 seconds to complete! I guarantee you a speedy runner would have been sent home and would have scored the game winning run on Friday night.

Inning after inning in the final 3 games of the season the White Sox kept doing the little things to prevent the Indians from scoring.

A perfect example in the final game of the season was Casey Blake's hit to the gap in right centerfield to start the 7th inning. It wasn't a classic gapper, but the swift throw back to the infield prevented Casey from getting a double. Who was in the outfield for Chicago? A MINOR LEAGUE player brought up for the September stretch drive. A player playing his heart out and at full throttle, otherwise known as a minor league specialist not quite good enough to be a regular in the majors at this point in his career.

With Casey now at first instead of second, Grady hit a double play ball to the right side of the diamond on the first pitch he saw. If Blake is on second, Grady's grounder gets Blake to third with one out. But Chicago's ability to have plentiful replacements who specialized in either speed or defense, or both, proved beneficial throughout the three game series.

The Indians also obliged Chicago by not being able to bunt nor even hit an occasional chopper to move a runner over.

Are choppers hard to hit, I dunno, are they any harder than pop-ups, which we had plenty of? In another inning, after Vic had doubled, Belliard hit a shallow fly to right field. Belliard was trying to hit to the right side, but could not bunt or hit a grounder and instead flied out.

Instead of a runner on third and one out, we have a runner on second and one out. Broussard was up next, and his grounder WOULD have scored Vic, if the previous batter had been able to successfully move Vic over to third, insteasd Vic now was able to make it to third, but now there were two outs.

This pretty much happened all game long, we got the lead runner on base something like 6 times in the first 8 innings, and we only score one run?

And the run we did score was because of back to back doubles, yeeesh!

I really don't believe we just missed the playoffs, I believe everytime playoff ball came up this year against a worthy opponent, we crumbled.

However, this is a darn good team that if nothing more than the bottom three positions in the line-up were replaced, would achieve an instant 10 game improvement.

Yet, I blame Wedge for not instilling in the "bottom of the order guys" how to bunt or how to hit the ball into the ground on occasion, the ideal way to move a runner over when all you are looking for is one run.

The Indians went through two cycles in August in September that led to their demise the final week of the season. In August, the Indians seem to avoid the double play by getting a lot of base hits. In September, the base hits turned into homers that won lots of close, but lower scoring games.

But a good manager has to understand that moving a runner over is still critical to a teams success even when they are winning 3 out of 4 games for a month and a half. Homer ball eventually peters out, and avoiding double plays won't go on forever, either, it's statistically impossible.

Frankly, I'm relieved we missed the playoffs by two games rather than one as that would have been much more difficult to take.

I hope next year, if we are in a pennant chase going into September that we don't scrimp on the minor league call ups, and instead of bringing up players we don't intend on using, we bring up ballplayers who can help us win close games with their special skills related to speed, defense, or bunting.

There is no shame in using a minor leaguer's specfic but limited skills to win a close game, no shame at all, just ask the Chicago White Sox.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ October 02, 2005 09:06 PM: Message edited by: Alex ]</font>