Indians’ Comedy of Errors Continues; Nix Claimed

Some quick thoughts on the Tribe:

Carlos “Smooth” Santana wasn’t too smooth in the second inning yesterday, when he missed the catch of an apparent forceout at home plate. Two runs scored, and I’m sure there’s a blogger out there calling for Lou Marson. I’m not one of those bloggers. Everyone knew Santana was a work in progress defensively, or else he would have been brought up a lot sooner. While the Indians’ defensive struggles as a team is downright embarrassing, Santana gets a rookie “Get Out of Jail Free” card for what he’s done with his bat in the week or so he’s been called up to the big leagues.

So the Indians finally got rid of Luis Valbuena, sending him to AAA Columbus while claiming Jayson Nix from the Chicago White Sox. Shane Lindsay from AA Akron was designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man. I wonder what finally got to the Tribe on Valbuena: the terrible offense (.269 OBP/.514 OPS) or the atrocious defense he was playing? Granted the injury to Asdrubal Cabrera bought Valbuena around a month of extra playing time to redeem himself, and he didn’t.  I think Valbuena is still in the Tribe’s plans, but the revolving door at second is wide open again, as Nix and Anderson Hernandez will share time, leading to this hilarious quote by manager Manny Acta:

"“We’ll work some sort of rotation or platoon [at second],” Acta said, “and see which one of those guys takes the bull by the horns.”"

Yeah, Jayson Nix or Anderson Hernandez is going to suddenly set the world on fire. Hilarious.

Jensen Lewis was sent down to Columbus to make room for Aaron Laffey, who will start tonight in place of David Huff, who was sent down Monday. Lewis had a poor outing vs. the Phillies, but he hasn’t been atrocious this season. The Indians are mostly just taking advantage of his final option year. Laffey Taffy makes his first big league start of the year after spending the beginning of the season in the bullpen.

Finally, this bit of cheery news, that three Indians minor leaguers had charges filed against them recently. The players were Beau Mills, Jerad Head and Josh Tomlin. Mills was a first round pick in 2007 and was fairly highly regarded for a little while before his progress stalled. Pretty stupid behavior. Mark Shapiro said the Indians will not be commenting on the arrests. Doesn’t bode well for the players.