Peter Gammons has an article on the fall of the Indians and A’s. There are some interesting things in the article:

The Indians, meanwhile, have let it be known they will entertain inquiries on a number of their veterans — Bartolo Colon, Jim Thome, Ricardo Rincon, Travis Fryman — as they attempt to restock their franchise with young corner players and hope that they are ready to restore themselves to the top of the AL Central by 2004.

A few paragraphs later:

What it demonstrates should be obvious. In both cases, unless one is in the revenue upper class, it is practically impossible to compete for a prolonged time period (and while the Braves are in the top six or seven in payrolls, it is still remarkable they have maintained their excellence for 12 straight seasons). Oakland is trying to make do with the second smallest payroll in the league, less than one-third that of the Yankees, 37 percent of that of Boston. Cleveland is coping with the evolutionary reality that ballpark revenues alone do not make a rich franchise, and as the Indians — remember, they haven’t won a postseason series since 1998 and with the exception of the 2000 White Sox had been playing in the league’s weakest division since they rose to power — got old, had to be reobstructed and had to downsize and the luster came off The Jake.

Last year, while hosting BBTN Online, I speculated that the Indians should trade Jim Thome for a high quality pitcher. The Indians had plenty of offense, but were thin in the starting corps. I thought a trade with Anaheim would be perfect. The Angels had good starters, but with Vaughn out and Salmon in a slump, they needed an offensive boost. It was a perfect synergy. The Indians hadn’t won a World Series since 1948, and with the age of the team, I thought it was incumbent on management to go full out for it. They didn’t, and now it looks like they won’t win a World Series for a while.