Cleveland Sports Forum

Struggling Santana seeks help

By Jim Ingraham

While Boston was taking batting practice prior to the game Tuesday between the Indians and the Red Sox, there was a long, intense conversation between one player from each team.

Indians catcher Carlos Santana and Red Sox slugger David Ortiz were both down on one knee on the grass behind the batting cage.

They talked for nearly 30 minutes. It's not difficult to figure out the topic of the conversation. Santana isn't hitting. At all. He hasn't hit all season. Clearly, Santana, a native of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, sought out Ortiz, who is also from Santo Domingo, for some advice.

Ortiz is 35, Santana is 25. They talked hitting — Ortiz in very animated fashion, frequently tapping Santana on the knee, and occasionally getting into a batting stance and taking imaginary swings.

Santana obviously needs some help.

Wednesday, there was officially — some would say "finally" — some concern shown on the part of the Indians about Santana's season-long slump.

Santana was not in the starting lineup Wednesday. It was the second time in three days he hasn't started.

He is hitless in his last 19 at-bats. He is hitting .203 overall. You can find no category in which he is hitting. He is hitting .167 in day games, .223 in night games, .192 at home, .213 away, .204 batting left-handed, .200 batting right-handed, and .200 with runners in scoring position.

After hitting .198 in the month of April, Santana is hitting .210 in May.

Anyway you slice it, this is a hitter in a major slump.

It's apparent now that after Santana's initial burst onto the major-league scene last year as a rookie, pitchers have now made some adjustments on how to pitch to him. It's obviously working, and until Santana makes some adjustments of his own, he will probably continue to struggle.

As a rookie last year, Santana hit .345 in his first month in the big leagues. But from July 1 of last season through this season so far, Santana's batting average is .202.

So this year's slump is a continuation of last year's slump. All of which begs the question: Is it time to send Santana down to Columbus to regroup?

Apparently not. Indians manager Manny Acta continues to stand by his struggling catcher, although not playing Santana in two of the last three games is the first sign this year that Acta is perhaps starting to worry about the situation.

"We've got to get him going," said Acta. "We'll pick our spots on when to give him days off, but he's going to continue to play. He's in a little bit of a slump now. But he's working with (hitting coach) Jon Nunnally."

Half of Acta's lineup is either hurt (Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner) or in season-long slumps (Santana and Shin-Soo Choo).

"With no Grady or Travis in our lineup, we need to do a lot of manufacturing of runs," said Acta. "And with that, we need to get Carlos going."

No reason Masterson can't turn into an ace, following a similar path to Adam Wainwright.

I'm not saying he will, but he has the stuff and mental makeup necessary.

If I'm Tribe GM, I would be listening to offers for Carmona as the trade deadline comes around. Not actively be trying to move him, but be ready to ship him out in the right deal. He doesn't seem reliable over the long haul, ala Matt Garza who the Rays wisely dumped.

Acta predicted Indians’ success in the spring


By Jeff Passan, Yahoo! Sports May 25, 3:02 pm EDT


This is real, Manny Acta says, and he knows when he says it that people are shaking their heads. He wonders when that’s going to stop. It’s nearly the end of May. His Cleveland Indians are still the best team in baseball, like they were at the end of April. They’ve outscored their opponents by a larger margin than anyone. They’ve weathered a rash of injuries. They’re 30-17.

One more time: 30-17.

“What do we have to do?” Acta says. “Sweep every series? Win the rest of our games? I understand people didn’t think we were going to contend. That’s fine. We are contending now.”


This is no revelation to the 42-year-old Acta. He believed at the beginning of spring training, and when he sat his team down for its first meeting, he came armed with statistics. He understands ballplayers became ballplayers so they didn’t have to slave away in a cubicle crunching numbers, but he needed them to understand a simple tenet: “There is no redshirting this year.”

For the entirety of his managerial career, Acta had babysat. He somehow spun a vomitous 2007 Washington Nationals squad into a respectable 73-89 team, which spurred management to pursue a playoff spot by bringing in problem child after problem child: Elijah Dukes(notes), Felipe Lopez(notes), Odalis Perez. While Acta won’t disparage Washington, those there with him paint a stark picture: He spent more time placating malcontents than managing.

Which is why this year has been such a blessing. It’s not just the winning, though that helps. It’s the support from Indians president Mark Shapiro and general manager Chris Antonetti. It’s the gradual return of fans to Progressive Field. It’s the positive feedback on Acta’s Twitter feed, a team-mandated endeavor that he worried would turn ugly if losses mounted.

More than anything, it’s the team’s resilience. He likes this group. Legitimately enjoys managing them. While rebuilding efforts always entail toil, the Indians’ last season became futile when a few of the players – Trevor Crowe(notes), Luis Valbuena(notes), Jason Donald(notes) – proved unfit for everyday duty. It left the team scrambling, particularly with Grady Sizemore(notes) and Carlos Santana(notes) out with season-ending knee injuries.

It’s what made that first meeting this spring imperative. Last season, Acta’s first with Cleveland, half the roster had less than three years experience. Often the Indians started six rookies. And still, after the All-Star break they played near .500. Acta imbued this, “showed them every way possible how well they played. We didn’t have a PowerPoint, but I don’t know how many of them knew we finished the second half with the fourth-best pitching staff in the American League, with the second-best bullpen. In September, we were second behind the Giants, who had the most historic month of pitching ever.”

Acta believed in his pitching then and even more so now, even if it’s due a massive regression. Josh Tomlin(notes), the right-hander with a middling strikeout rate, a minuscule batting average on balls in play and an exorbitant percentage of runners left on base – the Bermuda Triangle of bad omens – is nonetheless 6-1 with a 2.41 ERA. Justin Masterson(notes), who throws his turbosinker four of every five pitches and entered the year incapable of getting out left-handed hitters, is 5-2 with a 2.50 ERA. And the bullpen, from Tony Sipp(notes) to Joe Smith(notes) to Vinnie Pestano(notes) to Rafael Perez(notes) to closer Chris Perez(notes), has been implacable.

“Great pitchers do not fall out of the sky,” Acta says. “They develop, they come on, they put themselves up there. We have a staff with guys who are doing that this year. It’s the right age, the right time to take a step forward. We were optimistic that they weren’t going to regress.”

Players love that about Acta – the attitude, the swagger. He balances bruising honesty with nurturing sensibilities. He doesn’t panic after losses like the 14-2 whitewashing by Boston on Wednesday. He stood by Masterson amid concern that his stuff would play better as a right-handed relief specialist, “and I appreciate that,” Masterson says. “I’d say it’s worked out pretty good for everyone.” Acta pulls struggling players into his office and gives them straight-up assessments because he trusts them and they trust him.

“He called me into the office in Philadelphia [with the Nationals],” says outfielder Austin Kearns(notes), the lone holdover from the D.C. days. “We were talking about hitting. I was scuffling pretty bad. He said: ‘Look, you’ve got to make an adjustment. You’re terrible right now.’ He puts it right out there. He’s a great person, but that doesn’t make him soft as a manager.”

It just makes him sensitive. Acta hates hearing chatter that this is some mirage, that the Indians are going to tank any day. Asdrubal Cabrera’s(notes) breakout is real. Shin-Soo Choo(notes) is finally hitting. Sizemore could be back from the DL on Friday, and if Travis Hafner(notes) returns from a strained oblique before the All-Star break, that can only help. Perhaps the ligament in rookie Alex White’s(notes) injured middle finger will heal in time for the stretch run.

If the Indians are still in it by then, it will only vindicate Acta. He wanted his players to know one more thing in that meeting, a maxim that goes not only for his team but others in Cleveland’s situation: “Just because you have a low payroll and you’re young doesn’t mean you’re rebuilding. It just means you don’t have the resources and that you’re young.”

He’s got an addendum today.

“It doesn’t make your success any less real.”

The gifts that keep on giving for Indians

Asdrubal Cabrera and Shin-Soo Choo, acquired from Mariners in '06, leading the way

By Jerry Crasnick

The Cleveland Indians lack the financial wherewithal to compete for big-name free agents and their recent draft history is nondescript, to put it kindly. But the Tribe sure does hold its own on the trade market.

Think Einar Diaz and Ryan Drese to Texas in exchange for Travis Hafner. Or wrap your mind around the great prospect heist of 2002, when former Cleveland general manager Mark Shapiro sent Bartolo Colon to Montreal for Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips and Cliff Lee.

If the Colon trade serves as the gold standard for parlaying a short-term asset into long-term gains, the Indians also have a flair for stockpiling young talent in installments. Exhibits A and B came during a 26-day span in the summer of 2006, when Shapiro fleeced the Seattle Mariners in stereo.

Scan the roster for the Indians, the surprise American League Central leaders, and you'll find quite a bounty by way of the Pacific Northwest. Asdrubal Cabrera, who leads AL shortstops with 10 homers, 58 hits and an .900 OPS, arrived from Seattle five years ago in a late June deal for Eduardo Perez. Less than a month later, the Indians acquired outfield prospect Shin-Soo Choo and pitcher Shawn Nottingham from the Mariners for Ben Broussard.

As astounding as it seems to be that the Indians could acquire two cornerstone, All-Star caliber players in separate deals for a platoon designated hitter tandem, Shapiro admits that a certain element of luck was involved. A committee made up of Pat Gillick, John Schuerholz and Branch Rickey wouldn't have been smart enough to map things out this seamlessly.

"Your goal in doing trades is to have them be a win-win,'' said Shapiro, now Cleveland's club president. "Even when we traded Chuck Finley [to St. Louis] for Coco Crisp or Mark DeRosa [to the Cardinals] for Chris Perez, you want the player that you send to the other team to provide them with what they want. You're not looking to steal players and win trades. You like trades to be a foundation for a future trade.

"And no one was smart enough to think we were getting what we got. I guarantee if you went back and read our reports on Choo, we identified him as a potential big leaguer, but not as one of the best all-around players in the big leagues. Not one scout and no objective analysis said that.''

Different agendas

In 2006, Baseball America ranked Cabrera and Choo as Seattle's sixth and seventh best prospects -- right behind Jeff Clement, Adam Jones, Kenji Johjima, Chris Snelling and Matt Tuiasosopo -- but neither player was regarded as a can't-miss, lights-out, sure-thing bet to succeed in the majors.

The Indians, who won 93 games in 2005 and came one victory short of a World Series appearance in 2007, were muddling their way through a disappointing 78-win season in 2006 when Shapiro and assistant GM Chris Antonetti began looking for ways to keep the payroll under control and spin some veteran talent into long-range help.

Seattle, conversely, was willing to dig into its prospect inventory for short-term upgrades even though the team was not at the point of contending. The Mariners finished 15 games out of first place in the AL West in 2006 at 78-84 -- an identical record to Cleveland's. But former GM Bill Bavasi said the M's were trying to send a message to the fan base and the players that the club was serious about winning.

"We were trying to get better fast,'' Bavasi said in an email. "Believe me, in Seattle there was no taste for a five-year plan, and no matter how things turned out, I respect that attitude. The 2006 club was sort of starting to get it together and we believed it was important for the players to see we were serious about … maybe not winning … but at least getting better now.''


The teams' divergent approaches provided the basis for a trade a month before the July 31 non-waiver deadline. The Mariners had a promising young double-play combination in shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt and second baseman Jose Lopez and another middle infield prospect on the way in Luis Valbuena, and they were willing to move Cabrera, who was suffering some growing pains on his way up the chain. The Mariners pushed Cabrera aggressively through the system, having him skip Double-A ball, and Cabrera hit .236 in 60 games with Triple-A Tacoma in 2006.

"Cabrera won't be an offensive force, but he's a switch-hitter with bat control and a whole-field approach,'' Baseball America wrote that year. "His speed is just average, and he doesn't have standout ability in terms of power, base stealing or on-base ability. Defense is Cabrera's forte.''

Seattle was looking for a bat to replace DH Carl Everett and settled on Perez, a positive clubhouse presence and established role player who slugged .501 against left-handed pitching over the course of his career. But the Mariners didn't see many lefties down the stretch, and Perez receded into the background. He hit .195 in 43 games, and moved on to a new career shortly thereafter as an analyst for ESPN's "Baseball Tonight.''

One deal down, one to go. The amazing thing is that Cleveland was able to go back to the well and find common ground with Seattle again less than four weeks later.

Enter Phase II

Broussard showed decent power in five seasons with the Indians, averaging a home run every 26.4 plate appearances. But he made $2.4 million in 2006 and was about to get more expensive in salary arbitration, and manager Eric Wedge was not a fan of his glove work at first base. When the Indians began putting out trade feelers, multiple suitors emerged. One deal under discussion would have sent Broussard to the Los Angeles Angels for first baseman Casey Kotchman, who was injured and had lost much of his luster as a former hotshot prospect.

Dave Malpass, the same scout who had pushed so strenuously for the Indians to acquire Sizemore from Montreal, was a strong advocate for Choo. But some talent evaluators questioned whether Choo would ever hit left-handers consistently or provide the desired power for a corner outfielder. With Ichiro Suzuki entrenched in right field in Seattle, Choo was never going to play the position for the Mariners.

Broussard gave Seattle a short-term power boost. But as his production waned, his attention began to drift away from baseball to his other passion, music. He retired in 2008 and channeled his talents as a singer/songwriter and guitar player into a second CD a year later.

Bavasi, who was fired by the Mariners in 2008 and now works as a special assistant to Cincinnati GM Walt Jocketty, spent a lot more time second-guessing the Cabrera trade than the Choo-for-Broussard deal.

"Safeco Field being what it is, we really felt a left-handed hitter with some power now would help us a ton,'' Bavasi said of Broussard. "That's one of those deals that I look back at and think, 'Made sense at the time.' Nobody went nuts losing Choo. The deal stunk, but you win some, you lose some.''

The Cabrera deal, in contrast, continues to sting. In hindsight, Bavasi concedes he made a "bad mistake'' in not consulting Bob Engle, who was running the Mariners' international scouting operation and had signed Cabrera as a 16-year-old free agent out of Venezuela.

"Bob was really upset as the year went on and Eduardo sat,'' Bavasi said. "As opposed to the Choo deal, I thought, 'The GM of this Seattle club is a f---ing idiot.'''

If this comes as any consolation to angry Seattle fans, Bavasi punishes himself over the Cabrera deal almost as much as they do.

The Indians, conversely, are thrilled with their end of the trades. Over the past two seasons, Choo posted an OPS of .884, third highest among major league right fielders behind Nelson Cruz and Jayson Werth. After a slow start this year, he's picked up the pace lately to raise his batting average to .244.

"To me, he's one of most complete players in the game,'' Shapiro said. "He has the ability at any given time to throw out a runner, steal a key base, hit a home run, work a walk or make a diving catch. He can beat you in any facet of the game, and he's driven to be better.''

As for Cabrera, he has debunked the early perception that he's more glove than bat. He's selective enough to work counts and strong enough to drive the ball into the gap and beyond, and he relishes stepping to the plate in big situations. Shapiro uses the word "fearless'' to describe Cabrera's competitive mindset. As an added bonus, Cabrera is perpetuating a Cleveland tradition in the middle infield.

Let's wrap up this baseball history lesson with a flashback to 1993, when Indians general manager John Hart sent Felix Fermin, Reggie Jefferson and cash to Seattle for a defensive upgrade at shortstop. Omar Vizquel went on to win eight of his 11 Gold Gloves in an Indians uniform and become a valuable contributor on some dominant Cleveland teams in the '90s.

Almost two decades later, the Mariners are doing their part to spark another baseball resurgence in Cleveland. They're the Indians' gift that keeps on giving.

May 26, 2:26 PM EDT

Indians' Acta is the main Man(ny)

By TOM WITHERS
AP Sports Writer

CLEVELAND (AP) -- As the wins have piled up, one thing has become clear about the Cleveland Indians: Manny Acta was right.

The club's second-year manager spent all spring telling anyone who would listen that he expected the Indians, who lost 93 games last season, to contend in 2011. With Acta making smart, timely moves - and a little luck - they have baseball's best record.

The 42-year-old Acta, who spent two losing, learning seasons in Washington, has won over his players with a steady, demanding approach. He's also endeared himself to Cleveland fans, who have embraced his swagger and unwavering belief that the Indians can win.

Acta begins every day by connecting with his followers on his Twitter page, often with a positive message.

"Our front office kind of got lambasted the last couple of years by trading away all those guys and really not having anything right away to show the fan base," Chris Perez said, "but sometimes in baseball you have to take two steps back to take a couple steps forward."

Amen.

I love baseball guys who can paraphrase Vladimir Lenin.

Cleveland Indians: Could first place and MLB's best record be a 47-game tease?

Published: Friday, May 27, 2011, 5:25 AM Updated: Friday, May 27, 2011, 8:49 AM
By Paul Hoynes, The Plain Dealer
http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ss ... first.html

Cleveland Indians activate Grady Sizemore, drop Carlos Santana to 7th in lineup

Published: Friday, May 27, 2011, 2:58 PM Updated: Friday, May 27, 2011, 4:44 PM

By Paul Hoynes, The Plain Dealer

PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The Indians, as expected, activated outfielder Grady Sizemore on Friday from the disabled list. He's batting sixth and DHing in manager Manny Acta's reshuffled lineup for tonight's game against the Rays at Tropicana Field.
The rest of the lineup featured big changes with slumping catcher Carlos Santana batting seventh. It's the first time Santana, in an 0-for-19 skid, has been out of the cleanup spot this year.
The lineup looked like this: CF Michael Brantley, 2B Orlando Cabrera, SS Asdrubal Cabrera, LF Shelley Duncan, 1B Matt LaPorta, DH Sizemore, C Santana, RF Austin Kearns, 3B Jack Hannahan and right-hander Josh Tomlin.
Shin-Soo Choo, who appeared in all of the Indians first 47 games, was not in the starting lineup. Choo's night off came against Tampa Bay left-hander and that was no accident.
Sizemore opened the season on the disabled list following microfracture surgery on his left knee. He was activated on April 17, but returned to the disabled list on May 10 after bruising his right knee sliding into second base in a game against the Rays at Progressive Field.
Outfielder Ezequiel Carrera was optioned to Class AAA Columbus on Thursday in anticipation of Sizemore being activated Friday.
Sizemore has played 18 games with the Indians this year. He's hitting .282 (22-for-78) with 15 runs, 10 doubles, six homers and 11 RBI.
The Indians still have four players on the disabled list -- Trevor Crowe, Jared Goedert, Alex White and Travis Hafner.
In another move the Indians promoted right-hander Adam Miller from Class A Kinston to Class AA Akron. Miller at one time was the top prospect in the Indians organization until being sidelined by multiple surgeries on the middle finger of his right hand.

The fact that Shelley Duncan is hitting cleanup is a clear indication that the team needs to start kicking the tires for another bat.

fkreutz wrote:Masterson and Tomlin have been outstanding. Carmona is a #3, Carassco a #4 and let's get White back and dump Talbot or move him to the pen. Pomeranz will replace a traded Carmona next year at some point. Hit on this 8th pick in the draft and we've really got something on the pitching side fellas. Still need to find a really good young RH bat for a corner OF spot because Choo and Sizemore aren't long for cleveland.

Like I told you guys a couple of years ago, shapiro was doing all the right things to get us back in contention so enjoy the process. He delivered a year ahead of time......

Now that Frank has given up on Talbott gives me real hope for the kid.

Talk of trading Carmona at this point is silly as we control him through 2014 and the entire idea of too much starting pitching is a contradiction in terms.

Sizemore's future is cloudier than most realize. When he hits free agency (either after this season or next) his injury problems will make a lot of teams shy away from him which could him quite signable. On the other hand, do we want to resign him even if he is willing?

TG - I think Duncan is a legit middle of the order guy....vs. lefties only of course.

That said, I certainly do not disagree with the premise to pick up another hitter.

Projected stats:

http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ss ... es_on.html

Will Cleveland Indians be buyers or sellers come the trade deadline?

Published: Friday, May 27, 2011, 5:20 AM Updated: Friday, May 27, 2011, 8:50 AM

By Paul Hoynes, The Plain Dealer

Indians General Manager Chris Antonetti might be facing some decisions he didn't expect when the trade deadline arrives in July.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The people in baseball front offices, no matter what the record of the team they put together, prepare for all eventualities. If they didn't, the owner might start wondering why he's paying them.

The eventuality staring GM Chris Antonetti in the face is this: Should the Indians continue to play at a .638 winning percentage, or somewhere near it, will he add to the roster for the stretch run and, perhaps, the postseason?

Antonetti is in his first year as general manager, but 13th with the organization. He knows how to buy and
sell, with an emphasis on selling. In case you missed it the Indians have unloaded players faster than cargo from a hijacked tractor-trailer over the past three years.

On the backs of those trades, many of them unpopular, much of the current Indians team with the best record in baseball has been built.

But when is the decision made that the team needs help?

"You take the first couple months of the season to evaluate your team," Antonetti said. "The next step is identifying the area of need and whether you address it internally or externally.

"If the answer is externally then you have to evaluate the cost of the acquisition in dollars and players. It's a process you work through all the time. It's part of the job to be prepared."

Indians President Mark Shapiro, who spent the past nine years doing Antonetti's job, said his successor will have the ability to make a move if the Indians are still in contention when the trading deadlines of July 31 and Aug. 31 approach.

"There's been a demonstrated willingness to spend above projected revenues when we felt we had an opportunity to win," Shapiro told The Plain Dealer's Bill Lubinger, "and there will be an ability and a willingness to acquire a player in July if we're in position to do it."

What the Indians will not do is dig too deeply into their minor-league system to make a trade work.

In 2007 the Indians acquired Kenny Lofton from Texas on July 27 for minor-league catcher Max Ramirez. It was a good deal. Lofton helped the Indians win the AL Central and reach the ALCS. Ramirez eventually played in 45 big-league games for the Rangers, but it was not a great loss to the Tribe.

Renting a player for the last two months of the season can be risky.

The Indians sent power-hitting Richie Sexson and infielder Marco Scutaro to Milwaukee for Bob Wickman, Jason Bere and Steve Woodard on May 28, 2000. Sexson went on to make a lot of money hitting home runs for other teams, while Scutaro turned into a solid big-leaguer. Wickman served the Indians well at closer, but that was about it. Plus the Indians fell short of the postseason.

Deadline deals don't guarantee Magic Bullets.

For every Kevin Seitzer or Bip Roberts, at least until he bowed out of Game 7 of the 1997 World Series with flulike symptoms, there is a Joey Cora or Jeff Juden. In 1996 the Indians acquired Jeff Kent from the Mets in a deadline deal. But the man who would hit more homers than any second baseman in history, didn't play much for the Tribe and was gone after the season.

In July 1995 -- the season in which the Indians reached their first World Series in 41 years -- they acquired right-hander Ken Hill from St. Louis for David Bell and two others. Hill went 4-1 down the stretch, 1-0 in the ALDS and 1-0 in the ALCS before losing in the World Series. Those are the deadline deals that put teams over the top, but more often than not, they appear to be just educated guesses.

Cleveland Indians' popularity, revenue growing with each win

Published: Friday, May 27, 2011, 5:10 AM Updated: Friday, May 27, 2011, 8:51 AM
By Bill Lubinger, The Plain Dealer Fans have been slow to warm to the Indians this season ... partly because of poor weather, and also because of suspicions about this year's team ... but they're beginning to believe.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — "What if?" was supposed to represent generations linked by special moments in Indians history, as in, what if League Park was never built and 1948 was just another year?

But the Indians preseason ad slogan has become a rallying cry inside the team's corporate headquarters, as in, what if anything's possible? Just last weekend, "What if?" signs went up on the elevator doors.
Compiling baseball's best record at the season's quarter mark, defying most reasonable predictions, will do that.

Winning also spins turnstiles, makes merchandise fly off shelves and keeps fans at home glued to their televisions.

"Most nights," said Jim Liberatore, president of the Indians' affiliated cable network SportsTime Ohio,
"we're the highest rated program [locally] in prime time Alex Villa, 8, of Cleveland, was on the Tribe bandwagon on April 15.


The Indians are even exceeding their own expectations.

The franchise entered 2011 having lost a combined 190 games over the past two seasons, with baseball's lowest attendance and fourth-lowest payroll ($49 million).

After drawing just under 1.4 million fans last season, the club estimated 100,000 to 200,000 fewer this year.

On April 3, the Indians set a record for the lowest turnout since the ballpark opened in 1994. But by May 21, while piling up dramatic late-inning comebacks and consistently winning at home, they had drawn their first non-Opening Day sellout in three seasons.

Dampened by a cold, wet spring and show-me skepticism, Progressive Field has averaged just over 18,000 fans per game, 27th of the 30 major-league teams.

But fans have begun buying into "what if?"

The Indians reached one million tickets sold three weeks ahead of 2010. Single-game ticket sales are up 84 percent over last year, and, in May alone, fans bought 142,000 tickets, compared to 63,000 for the month last season.

Since Opening Day, the number of season tickets has jumped to 8,100 from 7,000 -- although still much lower than the club would like. Advance sales help teams budget, plan and weather, well, bad weather.

TV ratings, the highest since 2007, are up 136 percent in May from a year ago, enabling STO to raise ad rates 50 to 100 percent. STO, which is privately held by the Dolan family, pays a rights fee to the Indians to broadcast their games, but cable revenue does not go to the team. The Indians and STO declined to disclose rights fees and cable revenue.

Ballpark concessions sales are up 18 percent, and merchandise sales at the six Indians team shops are running about 60 percent higher than last year, with huge surges the past two weeks. With what seems like a different hero coming through each night, the club has scrambled to keep up with demand.

Third baseman Jack Hannahan, for instance, was supposed to be a three-month stopgap. But a fast start and clutch hitting has developed almost a cult following, according to Kurt Schloss, who runs the Indians' merchandising department.

And as young players like outfielder Michael Brantley and pitcher Justin Masterson have emerged, so, too, have requests for their T-shirts and jerseys. None of the stores even carried Masterson, Brantley or Hannahan shirts when the season began. They've rushed 360 Hannahan T-shirts and 170 of Masterson's into stock, and Brantley shirts are on order.

"So you're out calling vendors saying, 'Listen, I need more, I need more, I need more,' " Schloss said.

So how have the team's financial expectations changed, and how might that impact the roster?

Indians President Mark Shapiro said in an interview this week the team hasn't recalculated projections based on the wave of fan interest. But the club would be able to add pieces if necessary.

"There's been a demonstrated willingness to spend above projected revenues when we felt we had an opportunity to win," he said, "and there will be an ability and a willingness to acquire a player in July if we're in position to do it."

The issue, Shapiro said, isn't whether the Indians can afford a player -- aside from one with, say, a $20 million price tag. It's whether the team is willing to part with promising minor-leaguers on which futures are built for a rent-a-player postseason run.

"The question's not going to be financial," he said. "The question's going to be, will [General Manager] Chris [Antonetti] and his staff be able to tolerate and afford giving up the young talent."

Unexpected "walk-up" crowds have caught the Indians by surprise, resulting in long waits at the ticket window. This season, they've already had two of the four biggest walk-up sales since the ballpark opened.

After consulting with clubs that have experienced similar bursts in popularity -- San Diego, Tampa Bay, Kansas City -- they added some new strategies to handle the rush, such as extra ticket kiosks and separate tents for will-call tickets, bleacher seats and cash-only purchases.

"I will tell you this," Shapiro said. "All those things still don't allow you to get 8,000 people through the gates efficiently in 45 minutes."

Fans might want to keep in mind that tickets bought in advance are cheaper than on game day. They can also buy tickets at any Indians team shop at no extra charge. Tickets can also be bought and printed online, but with processing fees.