And:


Victor Martinez Will Win the American League Comeback Player of the Year Award


Last year, designated hitter Victor Martinez was forced to sit and watch as his Detroit Tigers captured the American League pennant.

Out of action all year because of a torn ACL suffered while working out last January, Martinez is now back and ready to do damage.

Martinez has the luxury of hitting behind Torii Hunter, Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder in the Tigers batting order. He'll have ample opportunity to produce.

He'll produce more than enough to capture the AL Comeback Player of the Year award.

The Cleveland Indians made some major strides this offseason.

Among several other players, the Indians brought in Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher who can certainly help the team compete in 2013.

The Indians also made moves to shore up their pitching staff, including a trade for highly touted prospect Trevor Bauer.

Even with these moves, the Indians are far from perfect.

But what exactly are their biggest weaknesses?



Plate Discipline

The Indians have re-tooled their offense this offseason by adding Bourn, Swisher, Drew Stubbs, and Mark Reynolds.

There's plenty of talent at the big league level, but the team lacks plate discipline.

Last season, the nine players slated to start every game struck out a combined 1,013 times in 4,458 at-bats.

The combined strikeout rate for Indians' position players was 20 percent.

The Indians have a lot of offensive talent and with the new lineup they've created, they're going to score, however, the strikeouts are going to be a cause for concern moving forward.

The most glaring source of strikeouts comes in the form of Reynolds and Stubbs. Last season, the two combined for 325 strikeouts.

Toss in Michael Bourn and you have 480 strikeouts in 1,785 plate appearances. That makes for a 27 percent strikeout rate.

The Indians will need their team, and in particular Stubbs, Reynolds and Bourn, to cut down on their strikeouts if they're going to produce at a satisfactory rate.



Starting Pitching

The Indians pitching staff is far from a strong point.

The Indians recently selected the contract of left-hander Scott Kazmir, making him the team's fifth starter.

The Indians rotation now features Justin Masterson, Ubaldo Jimenez, Brett Myers, Zach McAllister and Kazmir (per Baseballprospectus.com).

That rotation will do little to instill a sense of confidence in fans, and for good reason.

Here's what the starting rotation has done over the past two seasons.
Player Name GS IP W-L ERA ERA+ WHIP K/9 BB/9 K/BB H/9
Masterson 67 422.1 23-25 4.05 97 1.36 6.8 3.3 2.07 9.0
Jimenez 63 365.0 19-30 5.03 82 1.50 8.0 4.3 1.87 9.3
Myers 33 281.1 10-22 4.19 93 1.29 6.4 2.3 2.79 9.3
McAllister 26 143.0 6-9 4.47 87 1.43 7.8 2.8 2.76 10.0
Kazmir (2010-11) 29 151.2 9-15 6.17 65 1.61 5.5 4.8 1.15 9.7
Totals 218 1363.1 67-101 4.62 N/A 1.42 9.32[sic] 3.46 2.02 9.32



The Indians lack a true number one, and a two. Masterson has the ability to pitch like a third starter and McAllister is still just 25 years old with room to grow.

With no front-end starters to speak of, the Indians pitching staff is a crap shoot in nearly every game.

The Indians have some solid pitching prospects, but Bauer is the closest thing to major league ready, and even he posted a 6.06 ERA and a 1.65 WHIP over 16.1 innings.



Viable Bench Bats

The Indians starting lineup has plenty of potential, however, the depth on the bench leaves a lot to be desired.

According to Baseball Prospectus, the Indians will bring Ryan Raburn (2B/OF), Mike Aviles (IF/OF) and Lou Marson (C) off the bench in 2013.

Aviles managed a rather successful 2012 season with the Boston Red Sox, but averages just 95 games played per season over the course of his five-year-career.

Raburn was a productive part of the Detroit Tigers lineup for three straight years between 2009 and 2011. Unfortunately, Raburn struggled mightily in 2012 and found himself without a job by November 20th (per ESPN.com).

Marson, a 26-year-old catcher, is a career backup with no big league success to speak of.

Providing Aviles can continue with his recent success, then the Indians have one player capable of stepping in and making contributions both offensively and defensively.

However, Raburn and Marson are unlikely to make any sort of significant impact on this year's Cleveland Indians team.

If the Indians can work through these shortcomings, they could sneak up on a lot of baseball fans in 2013.

GMs say Super Two didn't impact prospect decisions

Minor League assignments of top young players based on performance, readiness

By Jonathan Mayo | Archive

4/2/2013 10:00 A.M. ET

Aaron Hicks was in center field, batting leadoff for the Minnesota Twins on Opening Day. Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. was in the starting lineup against the Yankees. Jose Fernandez was a late addition to the Marlins' Opening Day roster and the Mariners' Brandon Maurer broke camp as the club's No. 4 starter.

The flip side of the coin has Rays outfielder Wil Myers, ranked No. 4 on MLB.com's Top 100 Prospects rankings, the Mets' Travis d'Arnaud (No. 6) and the Pirates' Gerrit Cole (No. 9) all waiting for the Triple-A season to get under way on Thursday.

Were these roster decisions based on Major League readiness? If spots were there for the taking, were the decisions to keep or send down these top prospects based only how they performed during Spring Training? Or did finances -- namely, getting these prospects past Super Two arbitration status -- come into play?

First, an explanation of the salary arbitration rule is in order:

Players who have at least three years but fewer than six years of Major League service time are eligible to file for salary arbitration. In addition, there are the so-called Super Two players. These are the top 17 percent of players, based on service time, with at least two but fewer than three years of service. The rule states that a player must have at least 86 days of service in the immediately preceding season to qualify for this status. Typically, the cutoff for the top 17 percent has been around two years, 130 days of total service, though the number of days fluctuates from year to year.

Though it's not an insignificant amount, it's not just about the money that can end up being spent on players who become eligible for arbitration earlier. It's also about service time and contractual control of a player. A prospect who isn't called up this season until after that Super Two cutoff will be under the team's control for nearly an additional year -- 6 3/4 years, compared to six for those who are up on Opening Day.

But what of the above prospects? Were those sent to Triple-A held back because of money and control? The answer from one general manager was an emphatic no.

"Everybody is going to speculate why he is being sent out -- and they're wrong," Pirates GM Neal Huntington said when Cole was assigned to Minor League camp. "He's being sent out because in our minds, he's not ready to compete, to be successful at the Major League level, to be one of those top-of-the-rotation starters, [which is] our goal for him."

Before any doubts about the rationale are raised, scouts contacted by MLB.com couldn't find fault with the Pirates' decision. And their siding with Pittsburgh had nothing to do with monetary concerns, but rather came from the fact that Cole has just one pro season, and one Triple-A start, under his belt.

A similar response came from the Rays regarding Myers. Some wondered about him not being called up by the Royals last September and the fact that the talented outfielder was not on the 40-man roster, and there undoubtedly were those who thought he'd be in Tampa Bay's outfield to start the year. But Andrew Friedman, executive vice president of baseball operations, said all personnel decisions are based on the Rays competing in the uber-tough American League East.

"With any potential move there are a lot of factors to consider -- the fit on our roster, what it means for our depth, and so on," Friedman said. "We also have to be really mindful that our goal is to compete year in and year out in the toughest division in baseball with almost no margin for error.

"The AL East will expose very quickly any weaknesses that you have. So when we bring someone here, we need to feel that he's ready to step in and help us win right away. As [manager Joe Maddon] has touched on already this spring, if we add someone who's not ready, not only will it hurt the team, but it can really set the player back as well."

The teams who had prospects make the Opening Day roster would tend to agree with those assessments. Bradley simply played his way into a roster spot. In Minnesota and Seattle, it was 100 percent about the competition in Spring Training. And for both Hicks and Maurer, their teams believe they took the best man for the job.

"The guy has earned it," Twins GM Terry Ryan said last week. "I find it almost humorous that guys are talking service time and starting the clock. The guy has earned it."

"We've always gone into Spring Training, philosophically, if a guy deserves to be on the club, I don't see how you can look a player in the eye and tell him he can't be," Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik said. "We stay true to that.

"We went in with our eyes wide open and it was hard to deny Maurer. He had such a great spring, it was the right thing to do. We never discussed anything else other than if he deserved to be on the club."

Both teams have had instances in the past when they had to make roster decisions to start the year with prospects. The Twins, typically, have given jobs to prospects when they were deemed ready. Denard Span didn't make the Opening Day roster in 2008, but Minnesota didn't wait until he was past Super Two status, calling him up in the first week of the season.

"I don't know in the last 20 years or however long Bill [Smith] and I have been in the general manager's job that we have put a guy back because of service time," Ryan said. "Who have we done that to? I don't recall it.

"Can you imagine if we sent somebody out who did what [Hicks] did? And I had to look at [Josh] Willingham, [Justin] Morneau, [Glen] Perkins, [Joe] Mauer and those guys who are trying to win, and I'm going to stop that guy? I just don't believe in that."

Neither does Zduriencik. Michael Pineda won a job out of Spring Training in 2011. Dustin Ackley was held back that same year, getting called up in June. But that had more to do with his transitioning to second base than anything else.

"Every club has their own reasons why they make their decisions," Zduriencik said. "I can't speak for anybody else. [With Ackley], we didn't think he was ready to play second [base] every day in the big leagues. He did very well in Triple-A. At the right time, we brought him up."

The people that say service time isn't a factor are lying through their teeth.

Terry Pluto's Cleveland Indians Blog: A good start shows what the Tribe can do this season

By Terry Pluto, The Plain Dealer The Plain Dealer

on April 03, 2013 at 7:36 AM, updated April 03, 2013 at 7:49 AM

There are 161 games, six months and at least 500 hours of baseball left in the Tribe season.

So I know that one game is just one game, it's a grain of sand on the beach, the first step of a marathon.

But the Tribe's 4-1 victory in the opener at Toronto Tuesday night shows what this team can do with some starting pitching.

The defense, the speed, the bullpen...all of those different parts of the game should hold steady for the season.

[Yes Sir! My kind of Baseball !!]

The Tribe made four Gold Glove caliber plays.

Nick Swisher made a back-handed snare of a what looked like a double down the first base line. Into his big glove it went, Swisher smiling as he ran to touch the base to record the out.

Second baseman Jason Kipnis delivered a belly-slam of a stop on a grounder, popped up and threw the runner out at first base.

Shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera speared a fierce one-hop rocket that spun him around, knocked him down -- and then he flipped it to Kipnis, to start a double play pivot.

Right fielder Drew Stubbs bolted for the line, skidding on his behind as he caught a short fly ball and crashed feet-first into the stands.

It's an old baseball cliche, but I loved it when Sportstime Ohio's Rick Manning watched those plays and talked about the lads "slapping some leather out there."

All of those plays helped Justin Masterson, but the fact that the Tribe's right-hander pulled himself together after a shaky start and threw enough strikes to allow his defense to work was the key to the game.

When it comes to the Tribe, good starting pitching will equal a contending team this season.

It wasn't always pretty at the plate, but they scored four runs off R.A. Dickey. The exceptional knuckleballer was the National League Cy Young Award winner. His stuff was dancing with such delight, his catcher couldn't handle it as there were three passed balls and a wild pitch.

So you know it was tough to hit.

But Stubbs laced a high knuckleball to left field for a run-scoring single.

Cabrera whacked another over the right field wall for a two-run homer. Don't be surprised if he has a big year with 20-some homers. I wrote a few Sunday's ago that he was in his best shape in years because you could see it in spring training.

Lonnie Chisenhall put enough bat on a knuckler to drive in a run from third base.

After six innings, the Tribe was in front...4-1.

And it was 1-2-3.

Joe Smith in the seventh.

Vinnie Pestano in the eighth.

Chris Perez in the ninth.

Three relievers, three scoreless innings, only one Toronto baserunner.

The Tribe has enough arms in the bullpen -- and some more in Class AAA with Nick Hagadone and Matt Capps -- that the starters should know that six solid innings is all that will be required to win most games.

Everything can change tonight if Ubaldo Jimenez looks lost and confused in his start.

But this opening game showed what the Tribe can do when the starting pitching gives the rest of the team a chance to do its job.

[Let's hope the starting pitching can get us to the 6th and 7th innings consistently !!]

Indians claim right-hander Whitenack off waivers

By Jordan Bastian / MLB.com | 04/03/2013 3:25 PM ET

TORONTO --

The Indians added an arm to their farm system on Wednesday, claiming right-hander Robert Whitenack off waivers from the Cubs. Cleveland optioned the starter to Double-A Akron.

In order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster, the Indians transferred right-hander Frank Herrmann to the 60-day disabled list from the 15-day DL. Herrmann will miss all of this season while recovering from Tommy John ligament-replacement surgery on his throwing elbow.

Whitenack -- designated for assignment by Chicago on Monday -- went 19-18 with a 4.13 ERA in 69 career games in the Cubs' Minor League system. The 24-year-old was selected by the Cubs in the eighth round of the 2009 First-Year Player Draft.

Last season, Whitenack went 1-6 wth a 5.96 ERA in 15 outings for high Class A Daytona in his return from Tommy John surgery.

Whitenack went 7-0 with a 1.93 ERA in 11 starts between Daytona and Double-A Tennessee in 2011, putting himself in position to potentially reach the big leagues. That was before the elbow injury that led to season-ending surgery in June that summer.

Prior to the injury, Whitenack went 18-12 with a 3.77 ERA over 54 Minor League appearances.

April 3, 2013

Head Games

By Jorge Arangure Jr.

Baseball players, despite their usual bravado, their inflated egos, their sometimes seeming lack of self-awareness, are far more fragile than anyone imagines. Their ability to succeed depends on their ability to believe they are better than everyone else. Even the middling reliever needs to believe that in some way, on the particular day that he pitches, he is as good as Mariano Rivera.

It isn't true, of course. Most relievers won't ever be as good as Rivera no matter how much they make themselves believe it is so. But that's mostly beside the point. They need to think that way.

"So many athletes I deal with, very few are your traditional leaders, tough guys who are able to cope with adversity," said sports psychologist Dr. Dana Sinclair, who works with several major league teams. "Those types of people are hard to find. Those types are hard to find in real life. People are more on the passive side. They're not the tough people we think they are just because they are athletes."

If a pitcher goes to the mound and doesn't believe that he can best the batter in the box who is paid millions of dollars to hit against him, he won't have much of a chance to get that batter out. It's all part of a larger mind game, an act. An at-bat is simply theater where the two protagonists, the man on the mound and the batter in the box, are role playing.

When that belief of invincibility disappears, a baseball player's world usually crumbles.

For the past two seasons, 29-year-old Cleveland Indians starter Ubaldo Jimenez, a former Cy Young candidate, previously one of the most highly regarded young right-handed pitchers in the game, had forgotten how to pitch. It's not as if he didn't know what particular pitch to throw in a certain situation -- he actually had forgotten how to throw. From 2011-12, Jimenez put up a lowly 5.03 ERA and won only 9 games, after having finished 3rd in the NL Cy Young voting in 2010 with the Colorado Rockies.

"It was like I had the ball in my hand but I didn't know what to do with it," Jimenez said. "It was like I had never put a ball in my hand."

Jimenez's problem wasn't so drastic that he threw pitches to the backstop. But he couldn't remember how to throw strikes. Each pitch felt foreign. His problem had grown so severe that he didn't enjoy going on the mound. Pitching became a chore. Each time he stepped on the field he thought about his mechanics, he thought about whether he could throw strikes, he thought about what everyone at home would be thinking if he failed.

His world had fallen apart. His inability to throw the ball created an identity crisis. If he couldn't do the things that he had always done, then who exactly was he?

Jimenez would spend hours watching video of his most successful years and comparing it to video of how he currently pitched. The differences were striking. Who was this guy? The new Ubaldo stopped using his left shoulder to balance himself, which in turn sapped him of all the torque that he used to create to throw the ball at high speeds. The new Ubaldo could hardly muster a ball over 90 mph. His delivery had become slow, deliberate and calculated. It was if he had been trying to deconstruct every movement.

Most disheartening for him was how easily his life had become unraveled. In the spring of 2011, as a member of the Rockies, Jimenez developed an infection on the thumb of his throwing hand. Jimenez grips a ball differently than most everyone. Regardless of what pitch he throws, Jimenez will always put his thumb on the ball's seam to help guide the ball. At times this creates a blister. Sometimes that blister pops. In 2011, the blister became infected.

Jimenez began compensating for his blister by unknowingly changing his mechanics. And that's all it took. His pitches lost speed. He could no longer control the strike zone. Batters feasted. A high-profile trade to the Indians midseason in 2011 only added more pressure.

Jimenez's career was in a tailspin, and it had all been because of a blister. Two of the most prized seasons in the prime years of his career lost because of a tiny injury. It was maddening, really.

When Jimenez was a young pitcher, he remembered how Dominican veterans would advise him not to shake people's hand with his throwing hand in case someone squeezed too tightly and caused an injury. Jimenez thought then that it was silly advice. He doesn't think it's so silly anymore. Even a little injury could have profound consequences.

This offseason, Jimenez was determined to return to form. He had gotten a call during the winter from Moises Alou about being part of the Dominican Republic's World Baseball Classic rotation, but he declined the invitation. He wanted to focus on fixing his mechanics.

"If I was feeling 100 percent, mentally and physically, you know that I would be there for my country," Jimenez told Alou. "But really there's no point for me to be there. I don't want to embarrass myself trying to find myself in the middle of this tournament instead of being at spring training. It's better to give someone else a chance."

It was a painful decision. Jimenez had been part of the failed 2009 Dominican team, which lost twice to the Netherlands and didn't even make it past the first round. This was a chance at redemption. But Jimenez had no faith he could actually perform well. For as much as he had worked in the offseason, Jimenez had no idea whether all that effort would translate into positive results. And he knew working in Arizona backfields would be less pressured than pitching in an international tournament.

The last few days before leaving the Dominican were nerve-wracking. What if he never figured it out again? Jimenez arrived at Indians spring training pondering a rather existential dilemma: Can I ever be myself again?

* * *

Jimenez never wanted to become a pitcher. He hated pitching. As a boy growing up in Nagua, Dominican Republic, Jimenez played the outfield, and his most cherished moments on the ball field were when he stepped into the batter's box. He was determined to be a slugger. Jimenez wanted to be Manny Ramirez or Sammy Sosa.

The problem was, he wasn't very good at being a position player. He couldn't run. He couldn't hit. He couldn't field. He was tall and lanky and ran the bases awkwardly. His movements lacked fluidity.

But he could throw. If a ball was hit to him, runners rarely tested his arm.

Coaches would order Jimenez to take the mound. At times he refused.

"If you don't pitch, you won't play," his coach would tell him.

"Fine, I'll go home," the young Jimenez responded.

He'd pout all the way home. Of course he'd return soon after. He couldn't stay away too long from the game he loved.

When Jimenez was 15 years old, he grudgingly realized that he might not have much of a choice but to pitch if he wanted to pursue a career in baseball.

"You want to get to the big leagues?" his youth coach Alexis Ramirez asked. "Do you want to sign? Let's make you a pitcher. Because you don't hit well. You don't run well either. But you have a great arm. That's the best and quickest way for you to get there."

Jimenez was upset to hear such a frank evaluation of his skills, but the coach was right. There was no longer a point in wasting time playing the outfield.

At that time, Jimenez had no idea how to pitch. When he took the mound, his coach simply told him to lift his leg and throw. That was all the instruction he needed. Jimenez threw to home plate like he had thrown from the outfield to the infield. There was nothing to think about. Just pick the ball up and throw. Very simple.

When Jimenez was a boy, his father had taught him to throw a curve ball, so that was part of his arsenal too.

"When I started to pitch seriously, that curve turned out to be really good," Jimenez said. "I couldn't even believe it myself. The hitters would bail out of the box because they thought I was going to hit them. But it would go right in the strike zone."

Those were the crude beginnings of Jimenez's mechanics. That was the beginning of him developing a pitching identity.

At age 17, Jimenez signed with the Rockies. Jimenez's style was still good enough to dominate at Colorado's academy in the Dominican, but when he traveled to play in the United States in 2002, he realized that throwing hard and having a curve ball was not going to be enough. He had to refine his delivery and add another pitch.

Jimenez's biggest problem at that age was that he rushed through his mechanics.

"I wanted to imitate Pedro Martinez in the way his delivery moves quickly," Jimenez said. "I'd try to tangle my body just like him. I mean all the young Dominican kids during that time wanted to copy Pedro. When I was at that age, it was difficult for me to copy his delivery. Pedro was a veteran and he knew how to manage his mechanics. But in trying to imitate Pedro you'd do so many wrong things. My arm would stay back, my release point would make the ball rise."

When he reached Class A Ashville in 2003, the team's pitching coach made a wager with Jimenez. The coach bet Jimenez that if he slowed his delivery, he would throw just as hard as when he rushed his mechanics. Jimenez was skeptical. He thought moving fast was the only way to throw fast. But he agreed to try. Sure enough, the coach was right. It took a few years to master, but Jimenez learned to slow down. And when he did, the results were fantastic.

In 2010, Jimenez became one of the best pitchers in the National League, posting a 2.88 ERA while pitching half of his games at Coors Field. Most importantly, when he took the mound, he never thought about his delivery. He never thought about mechanics. He threw the ball without fear.

"From the first game of the season to the last, I was ready to go," Jimenez said of that 2010 season. "I didn't think about anything. I only saw the hitters and I knew I was going to get them out."

He hasn't felt that way since.

* * *

The Dominican Republic is a country rabid about baseball. At most every corner shop you'll find a group of men sitting and debating the game. At night, when games are shown on television, and the men huddle around a tiny set at the shop, these debates are often fueled by beer.

When Jimenez was home during the offseason and needed to pick something up at the local store, he'd often be confronted by these drunken men, who had ideas about what he needed to do to be successful again.

"They think they're like scouts," Jimenez said.

Jimenez found no shortage of people willing to give advice. Even when he only wanted to escape his problems, Jimenez was confronted by suggestions.

"People always think they know more than you," Jimenez said. "Sometimes you wish you could stop being polite and tell people, 'I'm the one who is the professional pitcher.' But I'd just nod and say thank you. Friends, family all think they know more than you."

The situation had become so dire that sometimes Jimenez even considered taking the advice, regardless of from where it came. He was desperate.

Cleveland's hiring of Terry Francona as manager became a blessing. New pitching coach Mickey Callaway made a it a priority to fix Jimenez. Shortly after being hired, Francona and Callaway took a trip to the Dominican and met with Jimenez.

"It was just to get to know him in the offseason and to really establish a relationship and to get to know the person," Callaway said. "When I watch his film, he does a lot of great things. We're not trying to change him."

In his two years of struggles, Jimenez had tried every drill imaginable. He had watched hours and hours of video. He had used a towel in place of a ball to replicate his old delivery. He would do drills in front of a mirror.

"Everything you can think of, I've done it," Jimenez said.

But Callaway knew that Jimenez's problems were more mental than physical. He would have to reshape his pitcher's way of thinking. He had to make Jimenez believe that he was as good as he once was. He had to make sure that every time Jimenez stepped on the mound, he believed he was capable of getting the man out who stood in the batter's box.

Jimenez's aura of invincibility had been shattered. He needed to regain it.

The goal would be to make Jimenez stop thinking too much when he was on the mound. It sounded like a cliché, but it was true.

Callaway asked Jimenez to remember everything about that 2010 season: the meals he ate, the routines he had, the games when he dominated. Jimenez recalled that during that year he would throw two bullpen sessions in between starts. During the bullpen immediately following his start, Jimenez would throw for a long time. During the bullpen just prior to his start, Jimenez would only throw for a short time. It was a balance that kept his arm and his mechanics in good shape.

Jimenez has started throwing two bullpens again this spring.

Callaway also advised Jimenez to speed up his delivery. Quicker movements meant less time to think. Jimenez would end up trying to throw like his idol Pedro Martinez, after all.

During spring training Jimenez also found kinship with Scott Kazmir, the former prized Mets and Rays prospect who similarly had lost his way, and who had been trying to make the Indians as a minor league invitee to spring training after a being out of baseball. The two often talked about the difficulties of trying to cope with such a mental breakdown.

"You just have to find yourself again, find stuff that feels natural," said Kazmir, who was named Cleveland's fifth starter at the end of spring training. "Stuff you never thought about before. You didn't think about it. You were just doing it. It breaks you down when you're not able to do the stuff you've been doing your whole life."

Kazmir suggested that Jimenez find something about his delivery that felt comfortable and familiar. Jimenez wouldn't be able to fix everything all at once. It would happen in several steps, one after the other. The confidence would only return once Jimenez found a routine.

That's the funny thing about confidence. You can't fake it. You have to truly believe you can succeed.

Jimenez very badly wants to succeed. He just doesn't know quite yet whether he will. But he believes he's getting close.

"These last couple of years have been heartbreaking for me," Jimenez said. "A lot of disillusionment. They brought me to this team with the hope that I could help them reach the playoffs. In the past two years, I haven't shown them anything. God willing, this will be the year. The results are starting to be there. I can throw strikes. I'm attacking the zone. No matter what count, I have confidence that I can throw strikes."

Jimenez's moments on the mound are enjoyable again. He's happy to be playing baseball. But spring training was only the first step. Will Jimenez find comfort again when the season starts and the pressure mounts? When he steps on that mound for the first time on Wednesday, which Jimenez will he be?

Kazmir scratched from Saturday start

Injury to side could land left-hander on the disabled list

By Jordan Bastian / MLB.com | 4/3/2013 7:19 P.M. ET

TORONTO --

Scott Kazmir's comeback attempt is being put on hold.

On Wednesday, the Indians announced that Kazmir would not make his scheduled start against the Rays on Saturday as initially planned after injuring his right side while playing catch during Monday's workout at Rogers Centre. The team's fifth starter could be facing a trip to the 15-day disabled list.

"We're going to kind of go the cautious course," Indians manager Terry Francona said.

The Indians will announce a replacement starter on Thursday. Candidates from Triple-A Columbus include Corey Kluber and Trevor Bauer -- both of whom are on the 40-man roster -- and Daisuke Matsuzaka, who is not. Righty Carlos Carrasco is not an option because he is currently serving a six-game suspension.

My money is on Bauer.

It's an old baseball cliche, but I loved it when Sportstime Ohio's Rick Manning watched those plays and talked about the lads "slapping some leather out there."

Looking for and reading between the lines, it sounds like The Cleveland Plain Dealer did not fund a road trip for their Baseball Writer?

Or maybe Terry Pluto just had some extra relish on his replay of the game?

Hey, Plain Dealer......baseball writers need to be in the locker room smelling the sweat. and on the field smelling the hot dogs and leather, to really capture Baseball moments for their readers.

joez wrote:My money is on Bauer.

I've got a long shot bet on Mark Shapiro to put himself on the active roster to toss some balls. Heck, I can't figure out any other reason Dolan continues to keep Mark on the payroll with fandom $$ that could go for a few rookie signing bonuses each year.

TFIR. I think we all get it. Veterans can have a clubhouse presence where young players are concerned, but where do you draw the line?

joez - thoughtful reply. I agree, it is all where you draw the line.

I'll start with Tito. For all your questions about him, and your concerns for where the Indians usually end up, Tito won 2 championships. I think we can learn to live with his mistakes if he ends up where he has been.

As to whether this is a mistake, if it is then it is a tiny one. We are talking borderline, 25th roster spot things here.

Back to where you draw the line. Since I am not in the clubhouse, I don't know HOW MUCH (and that's how you "draw the line") the players are "moved" by Giambi's presence. Since I am not there to make that judgement, then I have to take a manager's word for it. A manager who has won 2 championships and knows his stuff.

Is he infallible? Of course not. But neither am I - and he is in a far better position to know where to draw the line in such a subtle situation than I am.

TORONTO -- The Indians have decided to take the cautious route as it pertains to Scott Kazmir's injured right side.

On Thursday, Cleveland announced that Kazmir will be placed on the 15-day disabled list with what is being described as a right rib cage strain. He suffered the injury while playing catch earlier this week. Indians manager Terry Francona said that pitching prospect Trevor Bauer will be promoted from Triple-A Columbus to start in place of Kazmir against the Rays on Saturday.

"Bauer is expected to start," Francona said. "We're obviously working through a lot of things, but that's the plan."

Kazmir, who underwent an MRI exam in Cleveland on Thursday, is expected to miss two or three starts with the minor injury. His stint on the DL is retroactive to Tuesday, meaning he will be eligible to be activated as early as April 17.

Bauer is in the plans for one start at the very least, but Francona was not ready to commit to anything more. Cleveland might consider sliding right-hander Carlos Carrasco into the starting rotation after his six-game suspension is served. Carrasco will be eligible to pitch for the Indians on Monday at the earliest, but the Tribe would not necessarily need its fifth starter to appear again until April 11.

"We're trying to get Carrasco on track," Francona said. "We had a plan set up for him and we didn't want to upset that. The length of Kazmir [on the disabled list], we don't think this is going to be very long. There's other things that could potentially probably weigh into it as we go."

The fifth spot of the rotation came down to Kazmir or Carrasco at the end of Spring Training.

Kazmir alerted the Tribe's medical staff to some discomfort in his right side after playing catch on flat ground at a distance of 90 feet on Monday. Prior to Wednesday's game against the Blue Jays, the 29-year-old lefty worked through a 30-pitch bullpen session without any issues, but the club chose not to risk having him pitch against Tampa Bay.

"We just wanted to be as conservative as possible," Indians head athletic trainer Lonnie Soloff said. "He's come a long way professionally. In our minds, this was the prudent thing to do."

Kazmir, who has not pitched a full season in the Majors since 2010, earned the fifth spot in the rotation as a non-roster invitee, allowing nine runs (eight earned) on 29 hits with 23 strikeouts and only three walks in 21 innings, which covered four Cactus League appearances and a pair of Minor League outings.

Bauer -- acquired from the D-backs in December as part of a blockbuster nine-player trade that also involved the Reds -- posted a 4.50 ERA in 14 Cactus League innings this spring. Last season, the righty went 12-2 with a 2.42 ERA in 22 starts between Double-A Mobile and Triple-A Reno, and posted a 6.06 ERA in a four-start stint with Arizona.

Sure hope Bauer does well and makes it difficult to decide our next move. Announcers said yesterday Kazmir will probably miss 3 starts.

joez wrote:My money is on Bauer.

We have a winner!
What happened to the "arbitration clock?"