Indians Confidential

As if playing shorthanded is not bad enough, the news went from bad to worse for the Indians this afternoon, as not only has catcher Victor Martinez been placed on the DL, the team also announced today that he will be arthroscopic surgery tomorrow to remove loose bodies from his right elbow joint.

Word is that Victor will be out 6 to 8 weeks, and that now the duties of the catcher role will be for Kelly Shoppach (.225 3 homers 7 RBI) and Yamid Haad, who was called up from Buffalo. Martinez has had a tough 2008, first he hurt his hamstring on opening day vs the White Sox and missed a few games, and now the elbow injury. So for now, here is the list of those hurt for the Indians:

C Victor Martinez
2B Josh Barfield
DH Travis Hafner
P Fausto Carmona
P Jake Westbrook (done for the year)

Hate to say it, but the winds of despair are blowing more than ever at Progressive Field, and morale has got to be on life support at this point after the news today.

In a move that you could see coming a mile away, the Indians have put “Pronk” on the DL. Travis was supposed to take BP today and see about the shoulder, and evidently the shoulder did not respond well. Here is the presser from the Indians:

CLEVELAND, OH — The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has placed DH TRAVIS HAFNER on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to Monday, May 26th with a right shoulder strain. To replace Hafner’s spot on the Major League roster the Indians activated OF SHIN-SOO CHOO from the 15-day disabled list.

Choo has been on the 15-day disabled list while recovering from ulnar collateral ligament surgery (“Tommy John) on his left elbow which he underwent September 25, 2007. He was sent to AAA Buffalo on a rehab assignment May 15th and was batting .262 (11-42) with a run scored, a home run and 3 RBI in 12 games for the Bisons. Choo was 4 for his last 11 (.364) with a double and a RBI over his last 3 games. He wears #17.

DH Travis Hafner spoke to the media early this morning about his lingering shoulder injury and when he may be able to play again.  You can hear the entire media session below, but here are the highlights:

* He expects to play Friday in KC
* He had a cortisone shot in the shoulder yesterday
* There is no structure damage as determined by an MRI
* The shoulder feels sore and weak
* There has been no lengthy discussion about going on the DL
* The shoulder in his words is no excuse for the lack of production
* The injury has been on and off since Spring Training

 

 Standard Podcast [7:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (14)

Travis Hafner will speak to the media at 10:45am tomorrow before the 12pm start as the Indians and White Sox wrap up their three-game set.  There is much speculation as to what is wrong with Hafner, but today there was no indication that the problem is anything more than shoulder soreness that flares up and causes Hafner to miss games because of it.  Hafner is again not in the lineup tonight, but it seems like from the way Eric Wedge talked today, he could pinch-hit if need be.  Hafner is batting .217 with four homers and 22 RBI.

Travis Hafner did not play last night against the White Sox as he continues to be bothered by a sore right shoulder.  The injury, which began back in spring training, has kept Hafner out of the starting lineup four times over the past ten games.  Hafner has struggled this season as he batting just .217 with four homers and 22 runs batted in.  Hafner is currently mired in a 3-for-21 slump.  The Indians have Hafner listed as day-to-day.

The Indians found a new way to lose on Friday night at Progressive Field, as they were able to put up 9 runs, the problem was they allowed 13 in losing their 7th straight, falling to the Texas Rangers 13-9. The night started bad (four runs in the first), and never really got better in the 4 hour 9 minute affair, the second longest game in the ballparks history.

Fausto Carmona was battered early before leaving the game with a hip strain. He allowed the Rangers the four runs in the first inning before many of the 39,947 were even sitting down. The Indians offense actually showed signs of life, getting two runs back in the bottom of the first on RBI from Ben Francisco and Travis Hafner to make it 4-2.

It looked as if the Indians were going to get back in the game for good in the 2nd, as they again got a run, this time off a Hafner sac fly to deep center to make it 4-3. That’s when the bottom dropped out. In the third, the Rangers sent 11 batters to the plate, the highlight of the inning coming when light hitting catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia took a Jorge Julio pitch 380 feet with the bases loaded for his first career grand slam to make it 9-3.

Carmona had left the game two batter before Saltalamacchia with what was told to us was a hip strain. He is day-to-day. The line on Carmona was awful - two innings, five hits, six runs, three walks and one K. He suffered the loss to put him at 4-2 on the season. Even worse though was Julio, who at this point simply has to be the next to go off this roster.

The journeyman reliever came in and allowed six Rangers to either get hits or walks before finally retiring a batter. He lasted 1.2 innings, allowing five runs on six hits, three walks, one K and the grand slam. The night for him was mercifully over, but not before he cemented the fact that he should be the next to be shown the door.

Down 11-3 the Indians made it somewhat interesting, scoring three in the bottom of the third when Grady Sizemore homered to make it 11-6. No more runs were scored till the teams traded runs in the 6th to make it 12-7, and then in the bottom of the 7th Jamey Carroll doubled in two more to make it 12-9. The Rangers made sure they wouldn’t lose this one, as they scored a run in the 8th off of Rafael Perez to end the scoring at 13-9.

The now 7-game losing streak is the longest the Indians have had since they lost 9 in August of 2004. The team will once again try to rebound on Saturday as Cliff Lee will go for the Indians vs Scott Feldman at 7:05pm.

You could spend hours lamenting the fact that the Indians offense continues to do next to nothing, which at some point in the coming weeks is going to force GM Mark Shaprio and the organization to come to the conclusion that hard decisions are going to have to be made. Looking up and down the lineup, the team simply is not doing what it needs to do at the plate, and manager Eric Wedge can talk all he wants about what is happening “behind the scenes” and how hard the players are working, but the bottom line is that the team is not close to being a contender with the offense in the tailspin it is in now.

Here are some numbers to chew on from the offensive side as the team gets ready to wrap up their series in Chicago tonight:

* The team has scored three runs of less in 25 of it’s 46 games

* During their five-game losing streak - the team has scored a total of 12 runs (2.4)

* Going into last night Asdrubal Cabrera is hittin .087 (2-for-23) in his last seven games

* Victor Martinez continues to be in a power slump, no homers yet in 2008 and just 8 doubles in 42 hits despite hitting .304. He hit 25 homers last season with 40 doubles.

* The team is hitting an awful .234, averaging 4.0 runs per game

* Travis Hafner has hit a total of 28 homers in his last 194 games, this after hitting 42 in 129 games in 2006.