It was out with the old and in with the new this year for the Indians. First a new manager, then a new general manager. Just how soon manager Manny Acta and GM Chris Antonetti can produce a winner is a question that no one can answer.
Indians manager Manny Acta was praised by his players as a positive force throughout the long season.THREE UP, THREE DOWN
Here are three on-the-field moments that made you cheer and three that made you sigh from the Indians’ 2010 season:
Three up
• 1. Shin-Soo Choo went 4-for-5 with three homers and seven RBI against the Royals on Sept. 17.
• 2. Fausto Carmona threw a three-hitter against Washington on June 12, tying the low-hit game of his career.
• 3. Rookie Josh Tomlin allowed one run on three hits in seven innings to beat the Yankees on July 27 in his big-league debut.
Three down
• 1. Third baseman Andy Marte made three errors in the first inning against Boston on June 10.
• 2. In four games against the Yankees, Tony Sipp allowed nine runs on seven hits, including three homers, in 2 2/3 innings.
• 3. Rookie catcher Carlos Santana, after taking a throw from Shin-Soo Choo, tagged out Boston’s Ryan Kalish in the seven inning Aug. 2, but injured his left knee in the collision and was done for the season.
— Paul Hoynes
• Paul Hoynes ranks the 2010 Indians from 1 to 44
• The Indians' 2010 season, by the numbers
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Indians' 2010 season started with change and ended with change. In between, unfortunately, things stayed the same.
Under new manager Manny Acta, the Indians went 69-93, avoiding last place in the five-team American League Central on the second to last day of the season. The Indians ended the 2009 season at 65-97, the last of seven seasons under manager Eric Wedge, tied for last place (it could be called a fourth-place tie, if you're into semantics) with Kansas City.
The day after the 2010 season ended, Chris Antonetti officially replaced Mark Shapiro as general manager. Shapiro became the Indians president. The move had been announced before the start of the season.
How the Indians will change under Antonetti after nine years of Shapiro as GM is an unknown. There is a lot more evidence, 162 games and all of spring training, to determine the difference between Acta and Wedge.
First, Acta has the look. It's the look a veteran manager gives a reporter after he's asked a dumb question. It lasts for several seconds before Acta, satisfied that a message has been sent, politely answers the question.
It made its debut on opening day in Chicago on April 5. About an hour before the first game of the season, a reporter asked Acta if his team was ready for the regular season. The Indians just spent almost seven weeks in Arizona for spring training. They'd played over 30 exhibition games. If they weren't ready April 5, they'd never be ready.
Acta said all that with the look before answering the question. Maybe he learned it from one of his mentors, Frank Robinson, in Montreal. The last Indians manager with a look like that was John McNamara.
Wedge didn't have a look. He answered every question, rarely offering a hint of emotion. When asked if the 2005 Indians, who could have secured a playoff berth with one more win in the last week of the season, choked, Wedge gave his answer, his voice barely rising. Afterward he was not happy. He may have cussed and groused and complained.
But the media never saw it. Wedge rarely let anyone see what he didn't want them to see.
In the dugout, players say Acta is energetic and positive. He celebrates big runs, shows emotion, talks to players.
Wedge was the great stone face, watching, calculating, rarely taking his eyes off the field.
"But that wasn't the Wedgie we saw most of the time," said one player. "In the locker room, he was very motivational. He was always talking to us, getting us pumped up."
One more difference between the present and the past -- Acta doesn't like arguing with umpires. He doesn't think it accomplishes much. He was ejected twice this year and four times in 31/2 years as a big-league manager.
There was grumbling among some players this year because they didn't feel Acta was aggressive enough.
Wedge never challenged Bobby Cox, MLB's all-time ejection leader among managers, but didn't mind arguing with the men in blue. Wedge was ejected five times in 2009 alone.
Managerial personalities aside, it didn't make much difference to the team's won-loss record. The Indians have lost 190 of a possible 324 games over the last two years.
Antonetti has spent nine years as Shapiro's assistant general manager. He has played a big role in every decision Shapiro has made.
"There could not be a human being more prepared to do this job than Chris," said Shapiro.
Still, a GM is only as good as the resources available to him. Until Antonetti makes his first good deal, and his first bad one, under the criteria of the Dolan ownership, his performance will be hard to evaluate. He did give a telling answer last week when asked if he considered himself the new face of the franchise.
"I look at the players as being the face of the franchise," said Antonetti. "My job as general manager is to get to the point where all the attention of the franchise is on the players and what's going on the field."
The Indians used 48 players, 22 pitchers and 26 position players, this year. Jensen Lewis, bouncing between Cleveland and Class AAA Columbus five times, was the busiest.
When the season ended Oct. 3 in Chicago, the Indians were carrying 10 rookies and had the youngest 40-man roster in the big leagues. Some of these players will be a welcome sight when the 2011 seasons begins. Others will not.
It's up to Antonetti and Acta to turn the ones that do return into the face of a franchise that people actually want to come and watch play.
It will take some doing.