FanHouse Indians

Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2010.

The baseball season ended in a way that Cleveland Indians fans had been dreaming it would for a few years. There starting in a World Series game were CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee. The only problem was neither was wearing a Cleveland Indians uniform.

Needless to say the 2009 season was not kind to the Indians.

Last winter they hit the free-agent market to bring in guys like Mark DeRosa, Carl Pavano and Kerry Wood. By the time the season had ended, only Wood remained on the team, and he wasn't used very often since Cleveland didn't have much use for a closer.

Now they enter the winter with a brand new manager and some talented players, but if you're hoping for some kind of turnaround in Cleveland next season, then you should probably see a doctor because your dementia has taken a severe turn for the worse.

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NEW YORK -- People in Cleveland will tune in for Game 1 of the World Series, Brian Anderson said, as a sort of masochistic ritual.

Sort of like attending a Browns game.

"Cleveland fans," Anderson told FanHouse on Tuesday, "as much as it kills them to watch things, be part of things, get emotionally involved, they do it anyway. I bet a lot of people watch it for the ironic, do-you-believe-who's-facing-each-other kind of deal."

Who's facing each other is CC Sabathia of the Yankees and Cliff Lee of the Phillies. They were Cleveland Indians teammates just 16 months ago, each winning a Cy Young Award for the Tribe and getting traded the following July.

The Cleveland Indians announced Sunday afternoon that they've hired Manny Acta as their manager. They also interviewed Bobby Valentine, Torey Lovullo, and Ron Roenicke, while Acta also interviewed for and reportedly rejected the Houston Astros managerial position.

Acta was fired by the Washington Nationals just before this year's All-Star Game after a 26-61 start and a 158-252 record over 2 1/2 seasons in D.C. The interest shown by both the Astros and Indians seems to indicate pretty clearly that teams aren't holding his ugly record over that span against him, though, and he's quickly going to have a chance to rehabilitate his reputation now that he's got another job.

To me, the playoffs mean one thing: the wise decision-making skills of Cleveland Indians General Manager Mark Shapiro! After firing Jim Thome/snapping turtle hybrid Eric Wedge as the Tribe head coach, Shapiro has really gotten down in the dirt to find a new skipper, looking in the only place you're allowed: the big recycling bin of failed coaches who didn't do a good job somewhere else and were fired by someone else. Why they sound PERFECT!

Fun fact: That guy in the photo to the right was eating in Heritage Park and just throwing his trash on the ground. Thanks a lot for your contributions, Cy Young! Have an eighth of a hot dog!

Tonight's Dugout is after the jump.

The Indians' managerial search has apparently whittled its way down to just three names after a round of phone interviews last week. Paul Hoynes at the Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting that the Indians have called Bobby Valentine, Manny Acta, and Travis Fryman to Cleveland for a second round of interviews and that GM Mark Shapiro is likely to name a manager before the World Series ends.

Valentine's name is the big one that's obviously going to get people talking. He's got over 1,000 career wins and a National League pennant over his 15-year career with the Rangers and the Mets, plus a Japanese Series title in 2005 with the Chiba Lotte Marines. It's been rumored that he's made it clear there are teams he won't manage for in 2010, so presumably the Indians are a job he would want.

It's now ten days after the end of the 2009 baseball season and the only thing the Cleveland Indians know about their vacant managerial position is that it won't be filled by Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell. That's because Farrell, who was initially seen as a front-runner for the job, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer today that while he is interested in managing some day, he's not interested in the Indians job and he'd rather stay in his position in Boston.

As the former farm director in Cleveland under Mark Shapiro, Farrell seemed like maybe the most logical choice for the job, but this isn't the first time he's turned a managerial job down. He was believed to be the frontrunner in 2007 in Pittsburgh, where former Shapiro assistant Neal Huntington is GM, but he also asked for his name to be removed from consideration then, as well.

While we await the winner of the last Division Series to be settled, a few teams that have already finished their season are in the process of trying to find new managers who can get them to the postseason next year. Two of those teams, the Cleveland Indians and Houston Astros, have interest in a couple of coaches from the recently eliminated Boston Red Sox.

The Indians contacted the Red Sox to see if they could interview pitching coach John Farrell as it seems Farrell is Mark Shapiro's top candidate to replace Eric Wedge. Well, Theo Epstein said that Cleveland can talk all they want with Farrell, but odds are he's going to be staying in Boston.

The final six games of the 2009 season for the Cleveland Indians will be the final six games of manager Eric Wedge's tenure as manager as well. The team announced on Wednesday that they have relieved Wedge and his entire coaching staff of their duties, effective at the end of this season. A press conference has been scheduled for 1:30 at Progressive Field to make the announcement.

The news doesn't come as much of a surprise with the Indians currently battling to stay out of last place in the AL Central when the season began with expectations that they'd be contending for the division title.

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
One team has 100 defeats, two more could follow -- and there could even be a record-tying four 100-loss teams.

The Nationals on Thursday fell to 52-100 with their 7-6 loss to the Dodgers. And the Pirates are 56-95 after a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Reds.

Anyone want to bet Pittsburgh -- 3-23 since Aug. 28 -- goes better than 6-5 in its final three series against Los Angeles, Chicago and Cincinnati?

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The 1997 Cleveland Indians have finally been reassembled on the 2009 Los Angeles Dodgers, and it is up to venerable Dugout protagonists Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez to lead them through the playoffs and to the promised land, whether they've been there already or not.

If you have not been reading our end of the season special event and want anything you're about to read to make sense, please catch up by reading the first seven parts linked conveniently below. Part "The End" is after the jump.

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