Morning Update: Injury Set Backs Galore; Antonetti Staying Put

There has been much desire around baseball for a team to get their hands on young Indians’ mind Chris Antonetti.

Antonetti is one of our favorites here. Not just because he is Italian, but he can crunch the numbers.

Anyway, Chris turned down the General Manager post with the Cardinals last off-season to stick around here. So obviously, there is no way he would take the Seattle job, would he?

He won’t, and he made that very clear.

“I hope I’ve been very clear how happy I am in Cleveland. I’m looking forward to contribute to build a winning team here.” (Plain Dealer)

Perhaps the reason he won’t leave is because once Shapiro moves up to team president, the job is Antonetti’s. Who would go to that disaster in Seattle when you can inherit a loaded team with a stocked farm system?

Speaking of Antonetti, he is just a busy man with the press. He downloaded the trade talk with the Tribe, contrary to the “Scouts” assessments.

I don’t get it.. I’m pretty sure Chris is closer to the club than these scouts are.

Oh shucks, they are counting us out again.

Eric Wedge got a little chippy by the way, and cunning if I might add.

“Ninety percent of those [rumors] are nothing,” Wedge said. “We could start a rumor right here and right now if we want to. It’s like an in-season Hot Stove.” (Indians.com)

Nice job Blinky… That will shut em down.

Jamey Carroll received his NL Championship ring last night in a pre-game ceremony.

“I understand it’s not a World Series ring, but it’s something you play for — to get a chance to get something that’s a symbol of going through a lot of emotional good times and bad times,” Carroll said before the ceremony. “Knowing that they’ve had them for a while, to finally get it is exciting. I’ve been looking forward to it. (Indians.com)

Congrats to Jamey, and I understand that he receieved a very warm welcome in his return. Didn’t expect anything less from the Rockie Fans.

Now for the bad news..

A setback has happened for Travis Hafner, and while it isn’t a setback for Fausto Carmona, the Indians are proceeding with caution. They were expected to be sent out on rehab assignments this week at some point, but both will now be resting a little bit longer.

First, Carmona.. His session didn’t go as expected. While he had soreness after his 50 pitch session, the Indians are not sure if it’s common or not. He was sent back to Cleveland(was in Mahoning Valley) for an evaluation. If all goes well he could be still on track to go on a rehab assignment soon, but only time will tell.

Now, Pronk is scheduled to visit Dr. James Andrews today for a second opinion.

If you remember earlier, I referred to Andrews and Dr. Yocum(The surgeon who performed Tommy John surgery on Jake Westbrook), as the Drs. of Death.

Thankfully, his shoulder won’t need surgery, but the Indians are not pleased with the fact that he is still having strength issues with his shoulder. The visit is mainly to find out what they Indians can do for Hafner in his road to recovery and how to treat him as he tries to get back into the lineup.

I’ll try and have as many updates as I can when news comes available on both visits for Carmona and Hafner. CastroTurf is usually pretty good about getting something in, and once Anthony Castrovince talks to Lonnie Soloff closer to gametime(9 PM around these parts), he usually updates the world on his blog.