In order to fit Lopez back onto the 40-man roster, the organization DFA'ed Nick Weglarz. Wegz is not producing at AA Akron (.202) and is sinking closer and closer to the dreaded "former prospect status." The big Canuck was ranked as the #5 prospect in the system coming into 2011, but a rash of injuries left that campaign in shambles and Nick has simply never recovered.
Yeah, there's more. After skating through 32 games without a significant injury (Grady Sizemore is, literally, always hurt and Raffy Perez's tweak was the blessing that brought us Nick Hagadone), Josh Tomlin has been placed on the 15-day DL with right wrist soreness. Zach McAllister was recalled and made yesterday's start against Boston, but we'll get to that in a bit. The Indians' training staff speculated that Tomlin injured the wrist during Monday's deluge by gripping the ball "too hard," after a couple of pitches had slipped out of his hand. All due respect to the umpires, the tarp should have been pulled on that game much sooner than it was and now the Tribe will suffer for it.
On to Fenway, where the Indians mustered just one run on three hits (three measly hits!) against Felix Doubront and a trio of relievers. In fact, the only run scored after .095 hitter Lou Marson doubled and Jason Kipnis beat out an infield single to bring him. Yup, that's it.
Although it was Lou Lou in the 9 hole yesterday and Michael Brantley back at the top (he responded with a solid 0-for-4), one has to assume that the Tribe will return to Johnny Damon as the lead-off guy today. That creates the bizarre situation of the first guy in the lineup batting .171 and the 9th man (Jack Hannahan) clipping at .296. Weird, right? What does woManny have to say about it? "I've always tried to put the best hitters first in my lineup. If you're hitting ninth in my lineup, you're probably the ninth hitter." So that means Cap'n Jack is due to move up in the lineup, right? "I'm not talking about a week-to-week basis. A lot of people in the ninth spot have success and people say, 'Why isn't he hitting higher?' I'm not going to be changing my lineup every week because one guy is having a good week and another guy is having a bad week." Jack's batting average by week in 2012: .313, .250, .400, .176, .286, .333. Oddly, that .400 week led to Hannhan's elevation in to sixth in the lineup for 7 games in late April and the .176 to his demotion back to 9th. That is confirmed lie #4 of the young season for woManny, but he's not done yet. "Should I flip flop [Hannahan] with Travis Hafner? Based on the configuration of our lineup, that's where he belongs. Based on track record and the guys in front of him." While Pronk is an extreme example, woManny's point is well taken. He has given official credibility to my position that the Indians make decisions based on everything but recent on-field performance. In this case, woManny strongly believes that Casey Kotchman's .300 average in 2011, Shin-Soo Choo's .946 OPS in 2008 and Hafner's 42 home runs in 2006 are all much stronger indicators of future performance than anything that they have done in 2012.
Not much to say about McAllister. He pitched like a kid making his 6th Major League start, making it in the cathedral of baseball and making it without any run support from his teammates. Obviously, Zach will get at least 2 more starts to impress to "brain trust" and, who knows, maybe they've forgotten how good Jeanmar Gomez was in April.
The Indians have lost 4 of 5, but so have the Tigers. Hey, did you know that the Greek gods were putting together an office softball team and they asked a bunch of Tigers to come be ringers? Cuz, you know, the Tigers are greater than godlike. They are also under .500. The Tribe maintains its 2 game lead in the Central.
Roll Tribe.
Cheers.
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