Gatorade Bath for Jamey Carroll in Indians Series Win

Looks like Paul Byrd is trying to start a little bit of a rallying cry. He dumped some Gatorade on Jamey Carroll after his 4-4 performance tonight. He didn’t do it on camera, and it doesn’t exactly have a “rally pie” effect or anything, but credit to him for actually trying.

Lose 2 Starters, Score 12 Runs: Why not?

Maybe it was the wakeup call this club needed. Your two best hitters are now on the DL, it’s time to step up.

Jamey Carroll stepped up in fact. Just in time with the interleague play starting tomorrow.

Carroll was 8-9 in the series, and 4-4 tonight with a HBP, a run and a run batted in.

In fact, I think “Sparkplug” would be a good nickname. That’s all he was tonight.

Ben Francisco handled his new role pretty well. He’ll probably see most of the time in the 3 hole, and he did a good job. He too had 4 hits, knocking in 3 runs and scoring once.

Everyone had a hit tonight, minus Garko, who is granted a little bit of a break after he carried our offense. He better get it back up there though. No more of this inconsistent stuff.

Grady was 2-5 with the home run, and of course the big jack came off the bat of Shin-Soo Choo. He was 2-4 with the 3 runs scored, the 3 runs batted in and the walk.

Most satisfying performance comes from Kelly Shoppach. We are gonna need that type of production from him(okay not quite, but every once and awhile it wouldn’t hurt) with Vic out. He went 2-4 as well with two runs knocked in.

Best offensive performance of the year, considering it was our park, not that silly field in Texas, and our highest hit total of the year. Plus the production came from EVERYONE. Garko, Dellucci and Blake were the only starters without RBIs.

Aaaaaron: I love this kid.. We need to start seeing him more. He has young and some spunk, he has some fire and he likes to yap.

I prefer him over the negative sounding Jeremy Sowers who looks like someone just stole his brownie.

Anyway, another solid outing. Six innings, five hits, one walk, one run and the four punchouts. His ERA is down to 2.83 and he is now 4-3.

Speaking of Sowers.. He pitches tomorrow as we restart interleague play. First on deck is one of my favorite National League teams, the San Diego Padres. I started a poll on the right side, and it involves a few former Indians and current Padres.

Brian Giles, Jody Gerut and Kevin Kouzmanoff all roll into town this weekend with the Padres. Which former Tribe player are you looking forward to seeing? Also throw in Jeff Kent and Omar Vizquel.

I’m sure Vizquel will win the vote. But, my vote goes to Jody Gerut due to my ever lasting man crush on him. I’m excited to see him doing well, and unfortunately our lefty stacked rotation might mean we won’t see much of him, but I’m glad we get to play him.

Anyway, Josh Banks and Sowers tomorrow..

[BOXSCORE]

Indians Acquire Damaso Espino from Royals

The Indians completed a trade today.

Nothing special for you though.

The Tribe received Catcher Damaso Espino from the Royals today in exchange for cash considerations.

Armando Camacarro was promoted to Buffalo to backup Wyatt Toregas. So Espino takes his spot at Akron as the backup catcher.

All the boards have been totally updated… cool man!

Hey, Choo just went deep and it’s 6-0.. Looks like the guys are stepping it up!

Update on Martinez, Perez Designated, Westbrook to 60 Day DL

As expected, Jake Westbrook was one 40 man roster move that was made.

The other was the release of Oneli Perez, one of the possibilities I mentioned. It probably is the move I would have made too.

Bad bad news on the Martinez front though.

“Martinez will have arthroscopic surgery to remove loose bodies in his elbow tomorrow at the Cleveland Clinic. He won’t be back for at least six to eight weeks. More info will be up on the team site in a little bit.” (CastroTurf)

Not good.. Not good at all.

This hurts, real bad. I don’t know what to say.

Martinez and Barfield To The DL

About 15 minutes ago, word came out on Josh Barfield and Victor Martinez.

Boosh… Just what I thought.

Both are going on the disabled list..

That leaves the Tribe without

Their starting DH, Pronk
Their starting Catcher
Their 2nd and 3rd pitchers in the rotation
Their second baseman.

Great.

Jorge Velandia is being called up, he is primarily a shortstop but he can play second base. He will get any start at SS if Jhonny sits. Carroll will get most of the second base starts. The Indians don’t want to call Cabrera up at this point, because he was just optioned. They want to fix his offense. The move was just as much about Cabrera straightening out his bat than it was about Barfield. I’d expect them to hold onto Velandia until Barfield returns.

Maybe Andy Marte will get more playing time as a result. It’s been discussed in the past that Casey Blake can play a little second. I doubt they would try it out now, but some how Wedge can fit Marte into the lineup. Maybe this week at first with Garko DHing?

Instead of Wyatt Toregas, the Indians are opting to purchase the contract of Yamid Haad.

This puts the 40 man roster in a bind. They need to free up some spots, so some corresponding 40 man roster moves could follow. Not sure what those moves could be at this time. One spot will probably come from moving Jake Westbrook to the 60 Day DL. The 60 Day DL allows the Indians to not have to count Westbrook as apart of the 40 man.

Possibilities to lose their spot: Oneli Perez, Rick Bauer, Andy Marte

Shapiro Prepares For the Best and the Worst

The other day I posted about Mark Shapiro’s non verbal deadline.

Yesterday he talked to the media and discussed the two avenues he will have to choose as time progresses in this 2008 season.

“I still enter every night believing we’re entering that point where this team’s going to go on a sustained run,” Shapiro told reporters Wednesday. “There are other points in the day when I question how that’s possible, when I look at some of the things that have happened to us. What you do is prepare both ways. You prepare for adding players and trading players, as well.” (Indians.com)

He also talked about how he is preparing for trading for players or trading away players.

“Right now, we’re looking at this team climbing into the race any way we can,” he said. “Our jobs are to prepare for any potential outcome. Right now, our hope and our focus are on this team getting back in it.”

“Once the objective side of you, the subjective side of you and the emotional side of you line up, you have to be prepared to act quickly,” he said. “I can’t tell you what moment or day that is. But I can tell you that when that happens, we’ll already know the right value is out there to either add players or to consider trading players.”

So, Shapiro talking about both options. Of course, it is out of his hands at this point. It’s up to the players to decide which way he is going to go. He talked about the players turning it around and playing more consistently of course.

I think a month though is a rather fair amount of time.. If this team is still 8 or so games back by the time the All-Star break, and playing like they are now. It might be time to pull the plug. Now, of course with all these injuries going on,and they are playing better and still around 6-7 games back, I wouldn’t be folding it up.

Speaking of injuries, Victor Martinez will have an MRI on his elbow today. I’ll be watching like a hawk for updates because he could visit the DL if things don’t go well. Wedge revealed that this elbow issue has actually been bothering him for awhile.

Just another injury the Indians have sort of covered up.

Also, I will be on the lookout for a Josh Barfield report. If he takes batting practice today he should avoid the DL. If not, we could see two guys go on the DL today. I’d expect Wyatt Toregas and maybe Jorge Velandia to be called up. I don’t know if the Indians would call Cabrera back up yet.