Yeah, I was actually thinking about this very thing the other day. The Tribe's now 10 games back, which probably isn't close enough to catch the Tigers and White Sox, but definitely close enough to get the deficit into the mid-single digits (say, six games back) before the end of the season.

My conclusion was that a comeback like that may actually make Wedge's chances of keeping his job worse. In both last season and this season, if they had put up any kind of decent start they'd be right in the middle of the race. In three of the last five seasons they've stumbled - badly - out of the gate and put together a monster second-half run to make it respectable. Once is unfortunate, twice is worrisome, but I think three times is an indication that it's time to make a change. I think Wedge is toast. The only way he keeps his job is if they somehow make the playoffs, which is implausible but I guess not impossible.

As frustrating as it's been to see them dump salary and not be willing to spend to retain players when they hit free agency, the next manager's going to have definite pieces to work with. A rotation of Westbrook-Masterson-Laffey-Carmona-Carrasco/Rondon is light years better than what they had to start '09, the lineup still has Grady and Pronk, Asdrubal Cabrera looks like the real deal, and they've got impact MLB-ready bats like Santana and LaPorta in the minors. If the bullpen doesn't totally suck, and it almost can't possibly suck as badly in 2010 as it has in 2009, that looks like a contender to me.

There's a lot of ifs...if Jake Westbrook is back, if Fausto Carmona has kicked the yips, if Grady bounces back once he's 100% healthy, if the young bats come through. But the pieces are there. It's not a totally hopeless situation like San Diego or Washington, where you can't possibly imagine contention even in a best-case scenario.

Dan, concur almost 100%.

I think they should have kept Lee for this very reason, 2010 need not be a writeoff.

Anyone else imagine this conversation in the offseason?

Shapiro - "Get clear, Wedge. You can't do any more good back there."
Wedge - "Sorry."

This shows the value of a GM being loyal to a manager. It gives you one last piece to sacrifice even after your team has sucked for several years.

Yes, knowing when to burn your scapegoat is a very important skill for bad GMs.

I won't make an argument for or against firing Wedge, but firing based on dwindling performance after trading away several good players seems a poor one.

No, you'd be firing him because he can't get the team to play well in the first half of the season.

No, you'd be firing him because he can't get the team to play well in the first half of the season.

Exactly! Doesn't it speak to Wedge's inability to prepare his team to play, that they have this same pattern almost every year of his tenure. I'm not sure how many people here are football fans, but Jim Fassel used to suffer from this same syndrome. It's good that a manager is good at getting his guys to play well when there back is up against the wall, but the big question is why it takes that much to get your guys motivated to play throughout the season.