FanHouse DavidDellucci

Update 5/1/09: According to the Akron Beacon Journal, Indians manager Eric Wedge announced that No. 1 prospect Matt LaPorta will be called up Saturday along with infielders Luis Valbuena and Josh Barfield.

For all of you fantasy baseball speculators out there, a flurry of transactions by the Cleveland Indians over the past 24 hours may be a precursor to the promotion of one of baseball's top prospects.

Indians designated hitter Travis Hafner went on the disabled list Wednesday and the team called up an extra arm to help out with the pitching staff. This left the team with only two hitters as bench players and a 14-man pitching staff. If the team decides to make a change there and bring up another hitter, the first player called up might be top prospect Matt LaPorta.

So now that the Cleveland Indians have shipped C.C. Sabathia off to Milwaukee, we can officially say that the Indians are done trying to win in 2008. The focus has now been moved to preparing this team for the 2009 season and trying to figure out which pieces fit into that picture, and which ones don't.

While none of us can see the future, there is something about this Indians team that most of us have known for quite a while, and that is the fact that Grady Sizemore will not be a lead-off hitter his entire career. When Grady first came up with the Indians, everybody knew he was destined to be a middle of the order type guy, but with the Indians monster lineup the last few seasons, there was no need to do it.

Well, it's time now. Grady has grown up and he's ready to be the guy the Indians build their lineup around. Travis Hafner's power and ability to make contact with the ball have magically* disappeared and there's no guarantee they'll ever come back, so there is an opening.

Eric Wedge is currently batting Ben Francisco third, and Jhonny Peralta in the clean-up spot (where Jhonny's been raking). Meanwhile, Sizemore has an OPS of .914 and leads the American League with 22 home runs, yet he only has 50 RBI. How can that be? Well, since Grady hits lead-off, 16 of his 22 taters have come with nobody on base.

For a pitcher with 37 innings under his belt, Joba Chamberlain's generated a lot of controversy. There were the "Joba Rules," the way he dealt with the bugs in Cleveland and the feud between his team's owner and general manager. Those all seem temporal, though there's one talking point that won't seem to leave him alone.

Chamberlain struck out David Dellucci to end the eighth inning at Yankee Stadium yesterday and then unlelashed his now-familiar fist pump and yell. That Dellucci beat Chamberlain and the Yankees on Tuesday night with a three-run homer in the same spot couldn't have been far from his mind, not that he needs much goading. Chamberlain caught flak for doing the same thing against Frank Thomas in April though the Big Hurt wasn't the one giving it to him. This time around Dellucci wasn't so kind.

"If he wants to yell and scream after a strikeout and dance around the mound, that's what gets him going. My home run was in a much bigger situation, a much more key part of the game, but I didn't dance around and scream."

I'm all for emotion in sports. A pump of the fist, a yell, a little excitement about what you've done is cool by me. It's nothing that gets noticed in any sport but baseball, hell even golfers get away with it, and that doesn't make much sense.

Remember a few weeks ago when I wrote that want ad for the Cleveland Indians, who were looking to fill a position out in left field? Well, stop sending in your applications because apparently the Indians found someone to take the job. As a result, Jason Michaels is about to be designated for assignment.

Indians General Manager Mark Shapiro held a conference call on the team's day off Monday to announce officially what had been rumored for a few days: The team will designate veteran outfielder Jason Michaels for assignment and recall rookie Ben Francisco from Triple-A Buffalo today.

''(Francisco) is an outfielder that we felt potentially could give our club a spark. (He's) obviously got more power and has the ability to not necessarily be a platoon guy,'' Shapiro said. ''He has been a guy who has hit left- and right-handed pitching, so he gives [Indians manager] Eric [Wedge] the ability to both keep [left fielder] David Dellucci strong and healthy and also protect [right fielder] Franklin Gutierrez some as well.''

This move is one that had to be made, because while Dellucci has been giving the Tribe some production, Michaels has been terrible. In 21 games he's hit .207/.258/.276, which just doesn't cut it unless you're some kind of defensive superhero, which Michaels isn't.

Ben Francisco hasn't really done much better down in Buffalo, hitting .228/.308/.315, but he did go 2-for-6 in a brief four-game stint with the Indians a few weeks ago.

Things just keep going splendidly for the Indians this season. They can't hit, they can't get anybody out, and now they're having trouble keeping the guys that have performed well so far healthy. The latest blow hits the starting rotation, as the Indians announced today that they've placed Jake Westbrook on the disabled list with a strained left intercostal muscle.

If you're not a doctor on the side like I am(and by doctor, I mean blogger with access to Wikipedia), and don't know what the left intercostal muscle is, it's one of the muscles around your rib cage that help you do the little things like breathe.

So even though the muscle strain is on Westbrook's non-throwing side, it can't be the most pleasant injury to have, and wouldn't get any better if he tried to pitch through it. Westbrook has pitched well so far this season, though his 1-2 mark after four starts is more an indication of the lackluster Cleveland offense rather than his 2.73 ERA.

This cloud does have a silver lining for the Tribe though, as moving Westbrook to the disabled list opens up a roster spot for Ben Francisco. Francisco could be just the guy the Indians are looking for to fill that job opening they posted here on FanHouse yesterday. Francisco hit .362 for the Indians in spring training this year before being assigned to Buffalo, and though he's been struggling there so far (.208/.288/.551), he can't be much worse of an option than Jason Michaels and David Dellucci at this point.