Indians Confidential

In the end, the Indians are at least going to get something for outfielder Jason Michaels.  Today the team announced that they have traded Michaels to the Pittsburgh Pirates for a player to be named.  Michaels was designated for assignment by the team back on May 6th when it was decided they would bring up Ben Francisco.  Michaels started the season in a platoon situation with David Dellucci in left field, and after Dellucci started to catch on at the plate, Michaels playing time went down the tubes.  He was batting .207 with three runs scored, 4 doubles and 9 RBI in 21 games.  The team also sent some cash to the Pirates to take Michaels off their hands.

Talked about this the other day and earlier today here on the site, and it was not much of a shock when it hit the wire that the Tribe cut Jason Michaels earlier today.  He was simply not living up to his part of the left field platoon that began the season between he and David Dellucci.  Maybe if the team was playing better, or if others on the team were hitting, having Michaels in a slump would not be as big as it was.  But, with the team barley hitting 31 games into the season, some moves have to be made.

“This one transaction is not going to solve all our offensive woes,” Mark Shapiro said Monday. “Jason Michaels was certainly not the primary cause. We just feel it’s time for us, where we can, to start to make some small moves that might help. But the answers to our offensive issues lie within. When you have five to seven guys up and down your lineup struggling, you are not able to make one move or two moves to solve those problems.”

Michaels is hitting .207.  Ben Francisco should be able to help the offense at least a little bit.  He was hitting pretty well in Buffalo, and last season hit .318, winning the International League batting title.  Bottom line is if he can hit .250 or better, he’ll be a welcome addition to the lineup.

Eric Wedge Sunday said the team will do whatever it takes to get out of its offensive slump, and one move that is going to happen will take place tomorrow, when outfielder Ben Francisco joins the team for its trip to the Brox to play the Yankees. Francisco told a reporter in AAA Buffalo that he is being recalled by the Indians for the second time this season.

He was called up for four days back on April 22nd when the team put Jake Westbrook on the DL. More proof of the callup is the fact he was pulled from the second game of a doubleheader Sunday for the Bisons. Last season in 25 games with the Indians he hit .274.

The question will be what roster move is made to make room for Francisco? The obvious choice would be to dump Jason Michaels, and put him on waivers. Michaels is hitting just .207, and has struck out 13 times in 58 at-bats. The move would open up the left field spot for Francisco and David Dellucci, who is hitting .264 with three homers.

Needing a spark in the worst of ways, the Indians finally got it on Thursday night in the finale of their seven-game homestand with that ends with a much needed 11-1 win over the rival Tigers. The spark came from starting pitcher Fausto Carmona, who picked up last night’s poor outing from C.C. Sabathia with a solid 6.2 innings of one run, 7-hit ball. He walked just one batter after issuing eight walks in his previous outing, and struck out two to move to 2-1 on the season.

The offense also came to life against Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander. Both Ryan Garko and Travis Hafner hit bombs off of Verlander, and every starter in the lineup had at least one hit. Franklin Gutierrez, Jason Michaels and Jamey Carroll all each had two hits. The Tribe put up three runs in the second, with Michaels, Casey Blake and Carroll getting RBI’s in the frame.

Garko’s two-run homer in the fifth made it 5-0 and gave Fausto some breathing room. After the Tigers made it 5-1 in the 6th, the Indians put the game away with a five-run bottom of the sixth that included a Carroll triple that scored a run, a Hafner homer that scored two, and and Michaels single that scored Jhonny Peralta and Garko to make it 10-1. The Indians pushed across another run in the 7th when Victor Martinez hit a double that scored Carroll to make it 11-1.

The bullpen did its job as well, as they got Jensen Lewis got one out, Masa Kobayashi pitched an inning, and then Rafel Betancourt pitched a perfect night to wrap up a night that the team sorely needed.

The team now heads on the road as they continue to try and work their way to .500 with games over the weekend vs the Twins, then they get their first look at the Royals for a three-game set starting next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Friday night at the dome in Minneapolis it’s Cliff Lee at 2-0 vs Francisco Liriano (0-1, 7.71) for the Twins.

The Indians may only be seven games into the season, but already there has to be some concern about the rotation that the team wanted to use in left field this season between Jason Michaels and David Dellucci, who both have gotten off to awful starts.

Through seven games, Michales is hitting just .056, this after going 0-for-5 last night in Los Angeles with a strike out and five left on base. As for Dellucci, he has yet to get a hit this season, and in six games is 0-for-7 with two strike outs, three walks and two runs scored.

While Eric Wedge is not going to pull the plug on either player, this was a position of concern this past offseason, and it was no secret that the team was looking for a power-hitting corner outfielder to go with Grady Sizemore in center and Franklin Gutierrez, who also is not doing great through seven games, hitting just .182.

The offense is off to a slow start, which is not uncommon for this team, but the duo of Michaels and Dellucci had better start hitting at least somewhat, or this team is going to be in big trouble near the bottom of the lineup.

Pretty good AP story today in the papers on outfielder Shin-Soo Choo, and his comeback from reconstructive elbow surgery in September.  The story goes that Choo is getting closer to making it back on the field, and that so far he’s been rather impressive in his short stints with the Indians, hitting .295 with three homers two years ago, and .294 in six games with the team last season.

Choo is a guy that once he can get back on the field, can be in the mix as far as the outfield rotation is concerned.  While that spot in the outfield of Jason Michaels and David Dellucci has me still uneasy, adding a healthy Choo to the mix can be a great addition, and one that can mean a lot to this Indians team should he counted on a lot in 2008.  Below is a link to the story about Choo and his comeback.  

Indians’ Choo gaining strength, eager to start playing