In Wednesday night's game with Toronto, the Indians' starting right fielder was Chris Gimenez, a 26-year-old non-prospect, whose best-case scenario for a career in the majors is as a bench player. Meanwhile, Matt LaPorta and Michael Brantley, two legitimate prospects to be everyday players in the big leagues, who are excelling at the Class AAA level, remain at Columbus.

The Indians' lost season is a perfect chance to bring up prospects such as LaPorta and Brantley to begin their transition to the major leagues. Unfortunately for LaPorta and Brantley, Manager Eric Wedge is basically managing for his job in the second half of the season. Wedge needs to win as many games as possible to save his job.

So, with his job on the line, it's no surprise that Wedge has a reluctance to go with younger players. But it's also difficult to understand what's to be gained in the big picture by giving non-prospects playing time at the major league level when there are players at Class AAA who figure to have a greater impact on the big league club's future, but remain stuck at Class AAA in a lost season such as this.