Seven-foot Jews in
the NBA slam-dunking—
my alarm clock rings.

It sure is!

I support my grandchildren’s high school and traveling teams. It doesn’t cost me over $100 fior 2 people to see a game on a warn summer evening.

I have friends that coach traveling teams of high school kids, and those kids pay better fundamentals then the Indians do. Shapiro and Antonetti have their statistics, but neither one of them has a clue as to how baseball is meant to be played.

The Indians under Shapiro are no different then they were in the 60′s. 70′s and 80′s.

Please keep in mind that the Rays have been competitive in the AL East for the past 4 years – a much better division then the AL Central – with a payroll 20% lower then the Indians. Shapiro and Antonetti are being taken to school by other front offices. Yes, they have returned the Indians to periods where the organization developed players for other major league teams.

From ’73 to ’85, the Phil Seghi Indians never finished above 4th, and we finished last or second to last in 8 straight seasons.

When has Shapiro ever treated the fans like they don’t know anything? He’s as upfront as should reasonably be expected. The Indians always have a guy out in front of the media explaining what they did and why.

Just a couple months ago, Shapiro did an interview where he answered questions on the poor drafting, admitted it was not as good as he hoped, and how they adjusted moving forward (Brad Grant, who’s done a pretty good job in the last couple years).

Shapiro is a very humble guy. He knows that he’s made some mistakes, and he’s always talking about working on getting better. The problem lies with the people who don’t want to bother to understand what the plan is, and just want to bitch and moan because Sabathia and Lee test the FA market, and the Indians can’t outbid the Yankees or Phillies.

Shapiro’s team has lost over 90 games in 3 of the last 4 seasons.

The guy is totally transparent.

But really, as a fan I don’t expect the Indians to win all their games. Heck, I don’t even expect them to finish above .500. But I do expect to see a front office that’s attempting to build a winner. With Dolan/Antonetti/Shapiro, it doesn’t even look like they’re trying. They seem totally content with being terrible, and that’s what bothers me.

Can I quote you elsewhere? I’ll be sure to use the proper citation.

In the ensuing 4-1/2 years the Indians have not been a serious contender for a AL Central crown – possibly the worst division in MLB. They have no prospects in AA or AAA that resemble blue chip prospects. On most “Top 100 Prospect Lists” the Indians place one guy at most – Linder in Class A, he blistered the ball at a .260 clip this past year. The team currently has 7-8 true major league players, not one of them that has the makings of a star player. In 4-1/2 years this is what Mr. Shapiro and his boy wonder Chris Antonetti have built. And you can factor in that they not only traded CC, they traded Cliff Lee (a 2nd Cy Young Award winner) and Victor Martinez, a perennial .300 hitter to get some of those 7-8 players.

Cleveland fans would like to see a team that has a chance to win. Cleveland fans have had the worst team in the NFL since it returned in 1999, a pathetic Cav team since Lebron James left, and the Indians fit right in. Local sports fans spend 365 days a year of following professional teams that are among the worst in their leagues year after year. Worse yet, most of the time the teams are totally unwatchable.

The Indians can’t win partially because the Dolan family will not spend money. But mostly it’s because the Dolan’s insist on employing Mark Shapiro (who is still involved in baseball decisions) and Chris Antonetti. They lucked out in 2007 when the Indians stayed relatively healthy as all other AL Central teams had major injuries. The overall record shows that the team has finished over .500 two times in the 12 years Shapiro has been running it. Of course he’s going to say you shouldn’t expect wins.

I’ve been following MLB for over 55 years. I’ve never seen a front office in MLB that was any worse then the one Shapiro has been running for 12 years. This guy is glib and kisses the national media’s butts. If they had any integrity they would look over his record and see what he’s done since taking over a team that was a perennial contender the 8 or so years before he took it over.

Speaking from experience of watching a team that loses a lot, or at least they did between 2002 and 2011, the A’s front office almost never says anything like what Shapiro said.

They leave the fan insults to the owners.

Sounds just like Omar Minaya and boy I’m glad he’s gone