As I mentioned in the recaps this morning, Eric Wedge's job is safe:

Cleveland general manager Mark Shapiro says Indians manager Eric Wedge's job is safe for the rest of the season. The Indians, expected to contend in the AL Central Division, are 33-49, the worst record in the league. Shapiro says this season's disappointments are the fault of players, the manager, coaches and the front office.

Four things listed there. Let's break them down:

Players: roster assembled by GM
Coaches: hired by the GM
Front Office: run by the GM
Manager: Wedge.

Maybe GM Mark Shapiro is right not to fire Wedge. After all, he's only 1/4 of the problem . . .

In all seriousness, however, this has to be pretty demoralizing for Indians' fans who are very, very tired of team Shapiro-Wedge at this point. The CW is to point to injuries, but every team suffers injuries. The job of the GM and the manager is to work through them, and Shapiro and Wedge have been utterly unable to do that. Shapiro set up a roster dependent upon too many guys with injury histories staying healthy and on too many pitchers who would have to have or at least repeat career years in order to be useful. Meanwhile one can only assume that Wedge is the one who has insisted on the Tribe carrying a thirteen man pitching staff while scraping to cover for Sizemore's absence in center and while Matt LaPorta rots down in Columbus (not that there's anything wrong with C-Bus). In light of all of that, how are Shapiro and Wedge still employed?

A fellow who comments at my other blog believes that the real problem is simple dollars and cents: "Wedge, and more than likely Shapiro, would have been fired a while back if Larry Dolan had the money to pay their salaries and the guys who would replace them." There may be some truth to that. Shapiro is under contract through 2012, and likely makes something more than Eric Wedge -- who is under contract through next year -- does, at just north of a million a year. Figure, then, that canning those guys will cause Dolan to have to pay at least another $5 million to fill their jobs.

None of which makes this any less depressing for Indians' fans.