The Indians lost last night 9-8 after they were leading 7-0 in the eighth and then 8-4 in the ninth inning. If you watched the ninth inning last night you could see the panic in Wedge's eyes.

For the first time in a very long time I saw both fire and fear in Wedge's eyes as Mr. Wedge saw the season and his job passing in front of his eyes in the ninth inning of the Indians subsequent loss to the Reds.

As Mr. Wickman frittered away the game I saw Wedge pacing, fretting, panicking, conversing with his pitching coach Carl Willis, pacing some more, and finally Mr. Wedge WENT OUT TO THE MOUND TO TALK TO WICKMAN; has Wedge ever been so openly demostrative in a game he was about to lose?

I think for the first time in a long time Wedge broke out of the Mike Hargrove philosophical school of "loyalty to the one" outweighs "breaking the spirit of all the others", and it was about time. For once Wedge realized winning the game was more important than not embarrassing Wickman by taking him out of the game. But just like searching for Weapons of Mass Destruction that are not readily visible, Mr. Wedge didn't create a real solution to the problem he was facing.

The problem was Wedge had used his most reliable relievers already, and I really think he didn't want to see Mo-ta give up a walk-off game winning bomb. Wedge didn't have anyone else warming up besides Mo-ta, and that was the real problem. The gutcheck Mr. Wedge was feeling inside himslef did not translate into the real world in a functional fashion.

If it were me, and I saw the game, the spirit of my team, the season, and my job beginning to go up in smoke, I would do more than fret, and I would certainly do more than only having Mr. Mo-ta warming up by himself.

I would have had my remaining three relievers warming up in the pen. Three relievers, unheard of you say, that's exactly the point. For once, even if Mr. Wickman gets out of the jam and the Indians win, no one can go "wink wink, nudge nudge, that was close", because Mr. Wickman's sloppy outing caused three pitchers to have to warm up whether or not they were to going to be used.

Just as importantly, if Mr. Wedge had had three relievers warming up, Wedge MOST DEFINITELY does not wait to take Mr. Wickman out of the game as long as he did wait.

I would have taken Mr. Wickman out as soon as he allowed the tying run to come to the plate. If for some reason I had delayed that decision, I most definitely would have taken Mr. Wickman out once he let the game winning run come to the plate, and that is the gut check Mr. Wedge was feeling but could not act upon because he was too afraid to have more than one reliever warming up in the pen.

Mr. Wedge, please watch Ozzie Guillen just a bit more closely in the way he handles his pen. I've seen Ozzie sub three straight relievers in the same inning after each reliever had only faced one batter.

Yet Mr. Wedge couldn't bring it upon himself to have three relievers ready to go. In the end, Mr. Wedge did not obey his own gut feeling, and by only having Mr. Mo-ta warming up, Wedge delayed the right decision of removing Mr. Wickman after the tying run and then the winning run had come to the plate because Mr. Wedge didn't have the confidence in Mr. Mo-ta, yet he had no one else warming up either.

While we may think Ozzie Guillen acts crazy, Guillen would most definitely think it crazy to only have one back up plan in place at such a critical moment in the game when that back up plan is one Eric Wedge has such little faith in.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ July 01, 2006 08:23 AM: Message edited by: Alex ]</font>