Did you know that Victor Martinez -- just sent to the DL -- hasn't hit a single home run this season? Yesterday Martinez finally hit the disabled list. Where he'll have plenty of company:
The Indians have lost their No. 3 hitter (Hafner) and No. 4 hitter (Martinez). Last year they combined for 49 homers and 214 RBI. This year, they have four homers and 43 RBI. Martinez is homerless in 198 at-bats this year.They have played with hidden injuries this year -- Hafner leaving spring training with a sore right shoulder and Martinez playing the past four to six weeks with a sore elbow. Closer Joe Borowski did the same thing. He opened the year with a strained right triceps, went on the disabled list April 15 and wasn't activated until May 23. "Whether you shut him down early or shut him down late," said Wedge, "if the guy is still able to go out there and be better than the alternative ... It's hard to push a guy to shut it down when he wants to play. "I want him to go out there and play. If he's willing to do it, and he can do it, we need him to do it for the club." --snip-- At what point does a manager step in and say enough? After a good April, Martinez was hitting .216 ( 25-for-116). "He wasn't hurting every single day, every single at-bat, every single throw," said Wedge. "It was here and there. ... Until it becomes a daily thing, and the guy is strong enough to go out and play, you want him to go out and play. And he wants to do that. "He knows we're better as a ballclub with him at 80 percent, especially when you have other injuries to other key players."
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Really? The Indians were better as a ballclub with a .216-hitting catcher with zero power? Speaking of which, Hafner's batting .217/.326/.350 in 46 games. No, he wasn't much good last season, but his numbers this season are simply beyond the pale. Here's a question I'd like to see someone answer: How many games does the average team throw away in a season on guys who aren't healthy enough to play, but do anyway? I'll bet it's more than three.
Anyway, presumably the Indians are finished, for the time being at least, running injured players out there every day and losing. Since, you know, they're all on the DL now. But the organization finds itself in an awkward position. Apparently there's talk around baseball that the Indians may trade C.C. Sabathia at some point this summer. He's only 4-8 with a 4.34 ERA, but since his first four (terrible) starts he's posted a 2.09 ERA, with his usual outstanding K/W ratio. If you had to pick an American League pitcher to win one game, he probably would be in your top five.
Hafner and Martinez are out. One second baseman (Barfield) is on the DL and another (Asdrubal Cabrera) is back in Triple-A, remembering how to hit. Jake Westbrook is gone for a year. It's time to start thinking about 2009, right?
Probably. But if you're running the Tribe, there are counterarguments. Despite all their problems, the Indians are only 6.5 games out of first place. The first-place White Sox didn't figure to play well before the season, and might be figured to regress as the season progresses. The Indians have a 31-36 record, but have the run differential (301-282) of a 35-32 team. Fausto Carmona's coming off the DL before July. So is Hafner, probably. Among the current regulars, Ryan Garko and Jhonny Peralta should start hitting better than they have, and nobody in particular is likely to hit worse.
So I say it's too early to punt. If I'm running the Indians, I give it another month. And if on July 15 we're still within five or six games of first place, we keep trying to win.
Rob Neyer
