Indians Confidential

1. Injuries: Jake Westbrook (elbow surgery) out for a year, catcher Victor Martinez (elbow surgery), Josh Barfield (finger surgery) out for a few months, Travis Hafner (shoulder) out for who knows how long, Adam Miller (finger surgery), Fausto Carmona (hip) having another “setback,” his return time is now the middle of July.

2. Bullpen: Currently ranks second worst in the American League in Earned Run Average. Once was a stable entity in the past. They are also last in the A.L. in saves.

3. Hitting: Indians currently sit last in the American League in hits and 11th out of 14 teams in the A.L. in on-base percentage. The injuries have taken there toll on the offense!

4. Void fillers: Guys like Peralta, Blake, and Garko have continued to struggle in the absences of Hafner and Martinez. In the past these players have stepped up when others were slumping, which has not been the case this year. None of these three players are currently hitting over .270.

5. Can’t win the Close ones: The Indians are currently 6-8 in games decided by one run. To be a contender these are the games you must win. (See Bullpen above)

6. Slow Start: With the high expectations for this team going into the year the Indians needed to jump out early. With the team being fairly young in age it was imperative for them to have some success in the early months of the season. March-May their record was 25-30.

7. Streaks: The Indians have gone on 2 runs this year in April they won 5 straight, however in May they lost 7 straight.

8. Struggling Ace: C.C. Sabathia has since turned his season around, but he began the season 1-5. His earned run average was 7.51 at that time and this did not bode well for the Tribe, nor the reigning Cy young Award Winner. His E.R.A. is currently 4.06.

9. Can’t Capitalize: The Indians are in the second worst division in all of baseball, yet they can’t seem to make ground on the other teams in the Central. The Detroit Tigers also came into the season with high hopes and they got off to an even worst start than the Tribe, but they now sit a game and half ahead of Indians in the standings.

10. Consistency: This team has not found any one thing that they are good at and consistent at. This has made Eric Wedge’s job more difficult and even more impressive.. If the team is good at one aspect of the game, then he could rely on that one thing and dwell on the many others. When it is all said and done, this could be Wedge’s best year in terms of managing because of the way that he has dealt with all of this teams obstacles.

For those that think Adam Miller is going to be a bit part of the Indians rotation at the MLB level at some point, there is one major issue - he can’t seem to stay healthy.  Miller is back on the DL at Buffalo, this time with an open callus on the middle finger of his right pitching hand.

Miller was supposed to start against Columbus on the road Sunday.  “I haven’t gotten the full report on it,” manager Eric Wedge said. “I feel bad for him. You have to be tough and ride it out.”  It was a blister on that same finger that kept MiIler from pitching in any Spring Training games for the Indians this year.  The latest injury is a new one according to the story on Indians.com.

The Tribe just sent out a presser about their first cuts of spring training.  Here are the five that have been moved:

CLEVELAND, OH — The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has reduced their spring training roster by five (5) players. 

This morning the Indians optioned RHP ADAM MILLER & LHP REID SANTOS to AAA Buffalo and optioned INF MICHAEL AUBREY & LHP SCOTT LEWIS to AA Akron.  The club also reassigned LHP CHUCK LOFGREN to minor league camp.

Currently there are 56 players in Major League camp in Winter Haven, FL.  The Indians take on the Tampa Bay Rays today in St. Pete at 1:05 PM ET with RHP PAUL BYRD on the hill.