It’s hard to imagine a bigger nightmare scenario for Mark Shapiro and the Cleveland Indians. The collapse of the Indians as a contender led Shapiro to trade back-to-back Cy Young Award winners, and now they will be facing each other in game one of the World Series.

Mark Shapiro has done some very good things as the GM of the Indians. He got Cliff Lee in an incredible trade years ago when he traded Bartolo Colon in a salary dump and got back Lee, Grady Sizemore and Brandon Phillips (Shapiro and Eric Wedge managed to let Phillips go for nothing).

However, seeing these two pitchers facing each other in the World Series represents an epic fail for Shapiro and the Indians organization. Having Charlie Manuel managing the Phillies for a chance at his second-straight World Series makes it even worse.

I feel bad for Victor, though I’m thrilled to see the Red Sox eliminated from the playoffs. Watching loudmouth Jonathan Papelbon blow it in the 9th inning is just icing on the cake.

C.C. Sabathia is a good guy, so I’m sure many Tribe fans will wish him well as he enters the postseason for the Yankees, despite the fact that Sabathia took the money after saying he really wanted to stay in Cleveland. Of course, most Tribe fans won’t be rooting for Sabathia and the Yankees tonight. Frankly, I’d love to see the Twins pull off the upset.

Indians fans know all too well how Sabathia has come up short in the playoffs. In 2007 the Indians would have gone to the World Series had Sabathia not been out-pitched by Josh Beckett with the Indians holding a 3-1 series lead against Boston. The Tribe would have faced an inferior Colorado Rockies team that was swept by the champion Red Sox.

Can Sabathia rise to the occasion? He’s not the only Yankee that has something to prove. A-Rod the cheater has also been a choke artist in the playoffs (drugs can’t fix everything), so we’ll see how the heavily-favored Yankees do with this new cast of expensive characters.

This news was expected, though I’m surprised that they announced it before the end of the season.

There was no way that the Indians could go into next season with Eric Wedge as the manager. The fans are already in open revolt, and the Tribe needs something to get fans excited.

I have no idea who they should hire, but one factor ought to be charisma. The Indians need a voice that projects some level of optimism and enthusiasm. Let’s see what happens.

One name that will certainly get consideration would be Mike Hargrove. Hargrove isn’t a perfect manager, but he knows how to put together a successful team and pitching staff. Let’s see if he even gets an interview.

John Farrell will get plenty of attention, but he has a clause in his contract with the Red Sox that prohibits him from taking a manager job until 2011. Of course, the Tribe could provide compensation if they want him.

Go figure. This team only wins when they play the kids and have nothing to play for. I guess Wedge can’t get them all tight and nervous when it’s obvious the season is over.

They won 5-0 tonight behind Aaron Laffey who’s putting together a nice season.

After dumping Cliff Lee, it made sense for the Tribe to trade Victor Martinez. If you’re going to blow up the team and give up on 2010, this was the only logical move.

That said, it still sucks to watch them trade a player like Victor. He reportedly cried when told the news. It also sucks to see him go to Boston. It’s hard enough watching Cliff Lee pitch a complete game in his first outing for the Phillies, but at least he’s in the NL and not playing for a team Tribe fans hate.

The whole thing sucks. The Dolans should just give up and sell the team.

Of course, the Indians now have a ton of young players, mostly pitchers, added to their farm system. Given Mark Shapiro’s track record, these guys have a shot to contribute over the next several years. But does it really matter? Won’t the Dolans eventually give up on the players who do pan out?

Well, we now have some confirmation of what everyone suspected – that Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, aka Big Papi, tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003.

Can we now conclude that both Red Sox World Series titles were tainted? Their two best players now appear to be busted.

If you cheat and you win, did you really win anything?

I don’t want the Indians to trade Victor because I didn’t want them to trade Cliff Lee (at least not for a group of prospects).

That said, if you’re going to blow up this team, then go all the way! If they don’t have the stones (or the money) to try to compete in 2010, then load up the team and the farm system with young players and start over.

If you’re going to piss off the entire fan base, then at least start the process of competing in 2010. In that sense, trading Ryan Garko made sense, because now you can take another look at Andy Marte who is only 24 and has shocked everyone by playing well at AAA.

Victor is just taking up space now. There’s no way the Dolans are going to spend the money to extend him beyond 2010, and they’ve already given up on 2010, so they better be planning to trade him as well. I don’t care who they get. Have Mark Shapiro do waht he does best – go out and get good prospects from other organizations. WE know that Shapiro has done a terrible job at drafting and developing our own talent, so this is the best way to restock the talent pipeline.

If the Indians get lucky, some of these kids will develop quickly and they’ll have a respectable team next year. But that doesn’t matter now. The only thing that matters is getting good prospects who can help them in the future, as they’ve flushed 2010 down the toilet.

The trading of Cliff Lee is an embarrassment for the Dolan family and the Cleveland Indians, because they are giving up on 2010 along with this season for purely financial reasons. That’s the only explanation for this trade, and it feeds the long-standing criticisms of the Dolan family – that they don’t have the financial means to be playing in the big leagues.

The Dolans will counter that they have stepped up in the past and that the current payroll was substantial. In that respect they have a point, and Mark Shapiro and Eric Wedge need to answer for the team’s performance. But that criticism will be left for another day. The point here is that they are not willing to spend money when the inevitable adversity faces a franchise. Even good front office people make mistakes, and teams need to adjust a retool. In that respect the Sabathia trade last season was much more defensible. The season was lost, and there wwas no way they were going to be able to sign C.C., who despite his bullshit expressions of love for Cleveland and Milwaukee ended up taking the highest offer on the market from the Yankees.

That deal makes sense, but this deal makes no sense. The Indians do have a solid core group of players, and they could contend if they had Cliff Lee at the front of their rotation if they made some key moves on the pitching staff and got rid of Wedge. But now we’ll never know because the Dolans cried “uncle.”

Trading Cliff Lee, a Cy Young Award winner, for a bunch of prospects when you have another FULL SEASON left on his contract is a disgrace. No amount of spinning from Shapiro can save this one. Sure, Shapiro might strike gold again with this deal, he does fairly well evaluating other teams’ prospects, but that doesn’t really matter. The Indians are giving up for now.

I’ve shared a season-ticket package with friends for 15 years. I will not be joining the group next season.

The Indians are a mess, but they’re still only 5.5 games back after today’s loss against the Blue Jays. Peralta needs to wake up, and they need to figure out the bullpen. That said, the starters are beginning to settle down, so it’s a little early to panic.