Mark Shagrindo

"Nothing has changed".

That was the quote yesterday from Tribe GM Mark Shapiro. The red-head kingpin has decided to sink or swim with his man "The Grinder". Eric Wedge and his staff are safe for the remainder of 2009. Ridiculous. Here is my take:

Why would you come out and secure the jobs of an entire coaching staff on July 5? The team actually strings two wins together against a punch and judy A's club and all of the sudden this is the move? I am a supporter of the "Grind" and I like Shapiro, but, this is a huge risk and also a lousy message to the fan base. If you want to guarantee Wedge is safe, fine. But the entire staff? Carl Willis and Derek Shelton both deserve F's on their mid-season report cards for 2009 and newly hired bullpen coach Chuck Hernandez also has flunked his mid-term test. Where is the accountability? Why is Mark so married to Eric or at least to the "entire staff". If this team tanks and loses 100 games, then what?

Shapiro says he wants to eliminate the distractions by making this announcement now. He added that he wants "to make sure there is accountability". Accountability? What a joke. Everyone has failed outside of a few guys and nothing gets done about it Mark! Just because you DFA Luis Vizcaino and Matt Herges doesn't show the fan base that there is accountability. 75 percent of Cleveland fans had never heard of those two guys anyways. Ben Francisco and Ryan Garko and Kelly Shoppach all keep trotting out there, where is the accountability for them? Demoting Josh Barfield ten times a season to AAA isn't good enough for me. That message is not loud enough for me.

The fans, errr, WE want to see some sort of action! This is the second worst team in baseball with ONE all-star and he isn't performing the last three weeks either! Yet, everyone is safe until the end of the season? On a holiday weekend, with beautiful weather, the Wahoos drew 19,000 fans on Sunday. This cannot make the Dolans very happy. Yet, they are the ones who could have told Shapiro to pursue a "real" left fielder this winter, and they stayed quiet. Just like the stadium yesterday.