Chris Antonetti / (Photo by Matt Loede)
Reporting Matt Loede
CLEVELAND (92.3 The Fan) – It’s a quote that should make you realize just where the 2012 Indians are at – and more importantly where they are going.
“We’re not going to make nine trades, and we’re not calling up nine guys from [Triple-A] Columbus. That’s not the way it works.”
Those were the words of Indians GM Chris Antonetti on Tuesday in New York before the Indians latest lackluster setback to the New York Yankees 6-4. Don’t let the score fool you, the game was over well before the third out in the 9th inning.
Forget for a minute about the Indians fourth loss in five games that puts them at 1.5 back in the weak AL Central. The team is floundering, as pointed out by the fact they have scored nine runs in the first five games of the 10-game road trip, four of them in the 9th inning Tuesday night.
There’s been call-ups and send downs, both on the hitting and pitching side, yet as the fourth of July closes in, the team still does not have a true identity of where they are headed.
Antonetti did the right thing in that quote above. There is no magic potion, and there’s not one specific player out there that will suddenly make the Indians from a .500 team to a serious World Series contender. Right-handed or otherwise.
“I continue to believe in the guys that are here,” the GM said.
Everyone in the front office all along has said that 2012 was the real to contend. You can say all you want that 1.5 games out is contending, but unless Antonetti and the front office burns the midnight oil trying to give Manny Acta the players he needs for the last 60 or so days of the year, it’s going to be another collapse for the Indians.
I still think this roster is going to have a shake up. Antonetti does have some pieces and parts at the MLB level and the minor league level to move if there’s a player or two out there.
I think though it needs to be the right move, and this time around if it’s a rental for two months to try and make that push, they may just have to do it.
There’s been so much made about the right-handed stick the Tribe needs, and while that’s all fine and good to think that will be all that’s needed for the Indians to be a contender – don’t kid yourself – there’s a long way to go before that’s all that needed for a World Series run.
The pressure is on Antonetti, and his comments Tuesday simply state the obvious. The players on the current roster need to play better – and any move that is made might not be a big enough band-aid to save 2012.
