GOODYEAR, Ariz. (AP) -As manager Eric Wedge paced slowly in the center of Cleveland’s clubhouse, his players sat attentively in their chairs, almost frozen in fear. Every eye and every ear were trained on Wedge as he delivered his annual speech before the club’s first full-squad workout.
For the Indians, it is a rite of spring training.
And as usual, Wedge made all his points powerfully and then turned his team loose.
A Knute Rockne in cap and cleats.
“He needs to be a motivational speaker,” veteran reliever Vinnie Chulk, who spent last season with San Francisco, said after hearing Wedge’s fire-and-brimstone pep talk. “You don’t daydream. You plant your eyes on him. He demands it. It makes you want to go out there and throw and get ready.”
Under a nearly cloudless Arizona sky, the Indians took their first step Tuesday toward a possible championship.
ace CC Sabathia before the All-Star break. Still, after dropping 16 games out of first place, they regrouped and went an AL-best 44-28 after July 10 with a roster of youngsters and finished 81-81.
With the offseason additions of closer Kerry Wood, third baseman Mark DeRosa, reliever Joe Smith, along with the return of Cy Young winner Cliff Lee, All-Star center fielder Grady Sizemore, a maturing nucleus and a very winnable division, the Indians believe 2009 can be theirs.
“I just feel strong about where we are as a big-league club right now,” Wedge said. “The reason I do is because of everything we’ve gone through the last three or four years….You look at all the injuries we had last year. The fact that we had to trade part of our family and the way these kids ended up having the best record in the last half of the season by picking themselves up by the boot straps.
“I feel like we should be as competitive as anyone in baseball.”
The Indians began working in earnest at accomplishing their goal.
Once Wedge finished his speech, Cleveland’s pitchers headed toward the minor-league fields for some throwing while the Indians’ infielders and outfielders occupied the two major-league diamonds at the club’s new, $108 million complex, which is bordered to the east by an airplane “boneyard” where dozens of planes sit waiting to be repaired.
oups of players behind a portable screen at first base. Wedge instructed them on the importance of getting a big initial lead off the bag as well as a strong secondary lead. He wants the Indians to improve their baserunning, which hasn’t always been up to speed.
One of Wedge’s first objectives during the team’s initial workout was to get a visual progress report on Hafner, who played in just 57 games last season, unsuccessfully tried to strengthen his injured shoulder and then had surgery in October. Hafner only began swinging a bat last month and Wedge was pleased with how Hafner looked while taking cuts at pitches thrown by batting coach Derek Shelton.
“He looked good,” Wedge said, conceding that Hafner, who needs to get back to his 30-homer, 100-RBI form for the Indians to contend, might be “a little bit behind.”
With the possible exception of Hafner and the ever-present possibility of injuries, Wedge doesn’t have too much to worry about in his seventh camp as Cleveland’s manager.
The Indians have more overall depth than in years past, but the starting rotation is thinner than usual.
left-hander whose name is creating a lot of early chatter at camp.
The Indians are banking on a change of scenery to straighten out the enigmatic Pavano, who has undergone shoulder and elbow surgeries in recent years.
“By all indicators so far, I feel like he’s going to go out there and give us a chance to win ballgames,” Wedge said. “It was good for him to come back at the end of last year a little bit. He’s in good shape. I think he’s in a great frame of mind. He has fit in very well here in the early goings. He’s big and strong and knows how to pitch. He just needs to be healthy, and I think he’s healthy.”
Wedge rarely addresses questions angled at revealing any weakness in his team, but he did acknowledge that Cleveland’s rotation is a concern.
“I feel fairly strong about all areas of our ballclub, but if you pinned me down, the starting pitching is what we have to work through this spring with two spots open,” he said. “We need to make sure we make good decisions there. I think we can say without a doubt that we’re going to have depth in our bullpen and depth with our position players and in the outfield.
“But what we have to do is work to make good decisions with the players we break to go north with. We need to be solid in all areas of our club. We don’t need to be great anywhere. We just need to be a solid club, and if we do that, we’ll be OK.”
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