Tickets Punched

1. Travis Hafner to the 15-day DL with an oblique strain.

2. Luis Valbuena optioned back to AAA after 1 day.

3. Ezequiel Carrera and Frank Herrmann recalled.

4. Nick Hagadone from Akron to Columbus.

5. Eric Berger demoted.  Not released?

Columbus continues to play one man down.

"Footprints In the Sand... How Retarded"

God Reschedules Rapture from Antonio Sabato Jr

Kiss your loved ones folks, the whole shithouse is goin' up in flames.

A Quest Called Tribe

By now I'm sure that you have heard the breakdown of Fausto Carmona's season versus the White Sox as opposed to the rest of the league, but I'm going to tell you anyway.

Earned Runs: Vs. White Sox (18 in 8 IP) - Vs. Everyone Else (16 in 56.1 IP)

ERA: ChiW (20.25) - [Bos, LAA, Bal, Min, KC, Oak] (2.56)

W/L: ChiSox (0-2) - Not ChiSox (3-2)

OBA: Pale Hose (.405) - Other Hues (.207)

WHIP: Guillen (2.63) - Sane Managers (1.03)

Suffice to say that Fausto (4.76 ERA) had better get it together because he might have to face Chicago a few more times.  It was so bad tonight that Chad Durbin was up and throwing in the 2nd inning.

Wait, why was it Chad Durbin throwing in the 2nd?

And why am I so relatively calm about an 8-2 loss and a two-game "sweep" at the hands of the StankSox?

Oh I dunno, maybe it has something to do with the fact that Justin Germano got his @$$ DFA'ed today.  I all but screamed out in ecstasy.  No self respecting contender can have a Germano in the pen.  His departure makes all of this Fausto inflicted insanity a bit easier to swallow.

The corresponding recall is a bit odd - Luis Valbuena.  Luis made it known yesterday that he was headed North, but the move is more about replacing non-DL'ed position players than adding Valbuena's talents to the major league roster.  With Travis Buck a scratch with turf toe, Orlando Cabrera off in South Carolina finalizing his US citizenship and the walking bruise we call Travis Hafner still nursing an oblique strain (that kind of thing can last weeks, I smell the DL coming), the Tribe bench was seriously undermanned.  My guess is that Luis makes a quick return to AAA and Mitch Talbot is activated to be used as the long man.  I certainly hope that Acta does not take a page from Ozzie Guillen's playbook an try to use a six man rotation.

The game wasn't a gaping black hole.  Matt LaPorta (.275) did crank out his first bomb of May.  And there was this...



Oh, and the California Faith Ministry might be right, Austin Kearns (.185) had two hits, including a double.  A surer sign of the apocalypse I have never seen.

That's all I got, kids.

Cheers.

P.s.  Word on the street is that Ezequiel Carrera is ready to jump to the bigs should Buck or Hafner take to the disabled list, although if it's Pronk, Chad Huffman might make more sense.

Pretty Girl 05.20.11 - Emily Browning

Any girl who looks hot as a blonde, redhead AND brunette is all good in my book.

Clip Joint Is Dripping Wet

Literally!

It took three hours and the Clippers only got in three and a half innings.  Still, what we did get was fun to watch.  Mitch Talbot looked sharp in the four innings of work that became his second rehab start.  Mitch only got to throw 54 pitches, but he did so effectively.  Outside of a first inning solo dinger by Josh Reddick (it was monster), Talbot was only in trouble once, using a strike out and a ground ball to strand runners on the corners.  He allowed four hits and a walk while striking out five.  He induced four more outs on ground balls, including a double play, and kept the PawSox off balance by consistently changing speeds in spite of the nasty weather. 

The game was suspended halfway through the fourth inning with Columbus ahead 2-1.  Those runs came courtesy of back-to-back long balls from Jason Kipnis and Cord Phelps to lead off the contest.  Phelps' was his 7th of the season, one short of his career high set last season.

The game resumes at 5:05p tomorrow and will be played to full nine-inning completion.  The regularly scheduled game will follow, but will last just seven frames as in a MiLB double header.  Only in the International League folks.

Other Minor Points of Interest --

Joe Gardner delivered an excellent start (6 IP, 4 H, R/ER, BB, 5 K) in the first game of an Akron twin bill to earn his first win in more than a month and raise his record to 3-2.  Gardner (2.70 ERA), a third round pick in 2009, has stymied opponents to the tune of a .227 OBA.

Beau Mills, the #13 overall pick in 2007, made his season debut today after spending the first six weeks of the season recovering from a left Achilles injury.  Mills, who is beginning his third season at AA, singled and laid down a sacrifice bunt in five official trips.  Once a top five organizational prospect, Mills is now considered marginal at best following OPS seasons of .724 and .689 at Akron.

Cheers.