In case any of you tribe fans haven’t noticed yet, the starters for game 1 of the World Series will be CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee, both former Cleveland Indians. It’s a shame that the lack of a salary cap or a punishing luxury tax allows teams that develop fine young talent see it lost to teams with the biggest bank accounts. The Indians offered CC $20 million/year, but that fell $5 million short of the Yankees offer, who blew every other offer out of the water by at least $15 million over the length of the contract. That’s just not competitive. It’s like negotiating with a pocket knife when the other guy has a bazooka.

While the Yankees and Phillies enjoy their Indians purchases, we get to ponder the Indian big free agent signee of this offseason: Manager Manny Acta, formerly of the last place Washington Nationals. I guess if he wasn’t good enough for the worst team in baseball, he’s somehow good enough for the Indians.

Tribe Tags: baseball, cc sabathia, cliff lee, indians, manny acta, world series

The Indians are looking for a manager, and Tony Pena should be a front runner for the position. Here are some reasons why:
- Pena was once an Indian, and he had a heroic home run when the returned to the playoffs for the first time in 40 years in 1995. That makes him popular among diehard Indians fans.
- Pena has managing experiencing with a franchise with tighter pockets than the Indians. He managed the Royals for over 3 seasons and even won manager of the year with them. He knows the right way to develop an organization.
- Pena is a former catcher. Catchers make good managers, it’s as simple as that. He’ll work well with our young pitching staff.
- Pena is already coaching in the American League.
- Pena is coaching for the Yankees, where he has very little chance of getting moved up to manager, especially if Joe Girardi gets them a ring this season. Even if Girardi ever left or was fired, you know Yankees fans would prefer their hero Don Mattingly over Tony Pena, a former Red Sox. It may be irrational to hire a first baseman as manager over a catcher, but most Yankees fans I know would rather have Mattingly as manager right now over Joe Girardi, a former manager of the year as well as being a former Yankee catcher. They’re just irrational beings.

If Tony Pena wants the Indians managing gig, I think he should get it. The only person I’d favor over Pena right now is Lou Brown, and he’s busy talking to a guy on the other line about a set of whitewalls.

Tribe Tags: cleveland indians, lou brown, major league, manager, tony pena