In the 1990’s, our success was based upon many young guys who hit the snot out of the ball. Most of these guys stumbled upon great teams and built up wonderful career’s that still go on today. We are the “centerpiece” as I said. We have the power. We can make or break the history of our program and the history of baseball, well maybe not that but you know what I mean right?

So why do we not sign the best player’s in the league and why do we trade our best players for the “rebuilding” process year after year? I don’t know. Possibly because we know these guys have blistering potential that could swirl up into one bad counter act destroying the team? Example: Manny Ramirez. Just Manny being Manny in his own world.

Or could it be that we don’t have enough money to pay their contracts? I don’t think this is the answer to go with because we have a pretty even, and fair budget. It’s not like we are the Pirates, but at the same time we aren’t as “loaded” as the Yankees are. They can go out and spend countless amounts of money on anyone they want whenever they want. We simply just can’t.

Over the years, we have groomed such players as Jim Thome, Richie Sexson, and Manny Ramirez, who are/were household names. Thome has joined the 500 HR club recently and Manny has continued his inglorious career with the Los Angeles Dodgers who are feeding him money at his feet.

Remember, we had them. We went there. That was us for a point in time. We were the “centerpiece” and held the destiny to our own franchise. Yet we stopped spending on them to “rebuild”? Or we didn’t offer them a “good enough” contract? Doesn’t cut it for me. We should have kept them until they chose to go, not because we wanted them to leave cuz we couldn’t pay their contract.

Just think how the future could have changed, maybe we could still have Jim Thome. We could have gone with offering another contract to him, instead of showing him the back of our grubby little hands. Instead of building the franchise around him and using the “centerpiece” to continue our destiny, we threw it away. We did it to ourselves Cleveland. We held our own destiny and threw it away. It sucks, I know, but it has to be dealt with.

That is why Victor Martinez didn’t wanna go from Cleveland, because we were so good to him. He loved us and we loved him back, but not like a man love or anything that’s just weird. Victor cried when he heard he was being “traded” because he didn’t wanna leave the beautiful city and its glorious fans. He wanted to stay here and continue onward into his outstanding career.

But we did it again. Traded away another good one. All for the sake that we were “rebuilding” and wanted fresh meat on the market. Raincheck, Victor is fresh meat, it seems as though we brought him up yesterday. Its not like he is “too old” for the rebuilding process, why keep him? The younger guys you are quote “building around” don’t have big salaries at all, so why not keep Victor?

Instead we get Justin Masterson who is a reliever “gone starter” and doesn’t have the stuff yet that we were looking for. And in trading Victor we didn’t get really anything “huge” for the rebuilding process. So what’s the matter with keeping him? And “if” your going to trade him, make sure you hold out for Buchholz. He is an actual pitcher who we could get something out of.

The front office scares me at the little knowledge that they possess. Its almost like if we don’t have a “winning” season, you can say “bye bye” to our top players. And as Aaron in Cleveland Baseball said, “Grady could be the next one to go?” I totally agree with this possessive front office occurring right now for the Tribe. Its scary to think of Grady in another uniform, yet not playing on our side.

Why are we always “rebuilding” and “reloading” as Shapiro calls it. What do we ever get out of it? We got the 2007 season and that is about it. Instead we throw away two seasons and wait for the third to “possibly” be a contending year. Not gonna cut it. For one Wedge is gonzo after this season, as he is horrible in the first half of the season, and second off, Shapiro will get the back of the hand too.

The “centerpiece” for all things in Cleveland has truly run out as of late. As we have supplied many teams with “power, and speed, and pitching” yet what have we gotten? One good year of “contending”? The Padres and The Friar Faithful are digging “Kouz” who the Indians mentored throughout the minors, and the Dodgers are digging Manny. Who are we digging? Who have we “gotten” from someone else that we have “loved”?

I can’t really answer that one right now, as it teeters in my mind. We are the “suppliers” and in return recieve the young blood. We are the “Wal Mart” of major league baseball, supplying all of “your needs” and nothing else. So maybe we aren’t a rotten team after all, maybe we are just many people persons, combined into a huge collaboration that we call the “Cleveland Indians”?

You can’t keep on telling us we are “reloading” for next season to just keep on failing and keep shutting out the fan base. That isn’t going to be selling many seats. You can’t keep on telling us that “we will contend in 2011 no matter what the circumstances are!” Because in truth, you don’t know one way or another which way we are going to fall. For all you know, we could lose 100 games.