An off day with Matt LaPorta's big league dreams

A lot has happened in the past two days since last I posted, and I'm not talking about the Swine Flu pandemic that is sweeping the nation.

Tops on my Tribe list is one Matt LaPorta, who should find himself in the Tribe line-up come Friday.  With Travis Hafner going on the DL, and the Indians calling up Rich Rundles as a temporary fix, who's going to take Hafner's place in the line-up?  Personally, I'm ready to see LaPorta make his debut.  Unfortunately, and don't throw up yet, David Dellucci is the likely candidate to make the big club.  Let's put it this way.  If Shapiro is going to be the same precautious GM that we've grown to abho...er...love, than Dellucci will get the call.  If he's going to start taking chances with these prospects he's gotten for his big name trades, we'll find out later today, or early tomorrow.  Okay...go ahead an throw up, I think we know where this is going.  Here's the rest of the Tribe's off-day news, including some information on Hafner.

• The Indians won one of the ugliest baseball games ever played, 9-8, appropriately on a walk-off error by the Red Sox.  Tony Sipp may have been the only player in the game unscathed by the bad pitching and defense that was paramount in this game.  He pitched to five batters in 1 1/3, striking out three.  Thusfar in 2009, Sipp has gone three innings, giving up no-hits, one walk while striking out six.  Here's a great piece on Tony Sipp from Anthony Castrovince.  Eventually hitters will start figuring him out, then we'll see how HE adjusts.



• The Indians lost a game that they should have won to the Red Sox, 6-5.  Fausto Carmona looked like his old self until the seventh inning reared its ugly head.  Still, Carmona was about as unhittable as he's been since 2007, at one point retiring 12 hitters in a row.  He would ultimately give up two runs with two outs in the seventh, and get bounced from the game, but he continues to improve.  If he stays healthy, I have to believe Carmona is back.  Mark DeRosa bobbled an easy double-play ball that would have ended the eighth inning, and Boston ended up tying the game, then winning it in the tenth.  You win some, you lose a lot more.



• Travis Hafner went on the DL with a sore shoulder after playing in only 17 of their first 22 games.  There were some moments there when Hafner looked like his old self, but you have to belief this is chronic.  Of course, this could be part of the recovery.  Play four or five days a week, rest, sore shoulder, DL, so on and so forth.  More likely however, the days of Hafner even having a glimmer of his old self may be gone.  We already knew that though, didn't we.



• Adam Miller had surgery on his finger Tuesday.  It's the first of two surgerys.  The first was the flexor pulley system, followed in three months with the tendon.  When it's all said and done, his finger should bend normally.  Of course, at any point, he may need a third surgery to remove scar tissue.  If this happens, his career could be over.  Let's hope he's on the road back.



• The Indians are finding a multitude of ways to lose.  Paul Cousineau of The Diatribe rolls out the carpet with a bit of homage to Clint Eastwood...



• I'm also working on an alliance with Tony Lastoria, in which I will take a much, much smaller part in a partnership that will have me reporting on several Kinston Indians games this year.  I once had the dream of throwing up minor league reports up here, but realized early on that there wasn't anything I could put up that would be remotely close to what Tony does a Indians Prospects Insider.  There aren't many major league sites as good as his.