My demands were finally met, and Justin Masterson was moved to the bullpen for the remainder of the season to keep an eye on his innings.

Before you start whining to me about how he deserves to finish the season as a starter, how he’s shown flashes of brilliance lately, how he’s better than the Lefty Trokia from Hell (Aaron Laffey, David Huff and Jeremy Sowers) getting starts, I’d like to show you Masterson’s innings since 2008:

2008: 88.1
2009: 129.1
2010 (through Sunday): 173 (and counting)

Now, Masterson is only 25. He’s still a developing pitcher, and his arm needs to be protected. Placing him in the pen for the remainder of the season helps him stay sharp and get work in while keeping an eye on that climbing inning total.

So this plan is all nice an dandy, except for one thing: Mitch Talbot couldn’t stay on the mound on Sunday, and is day-to-day with right shoulder inflammation after he was pulled after 14 pitches.

Seeing as Talbot couldn’t get anyone out, and Manny Acta needed someone to eat up innings, he did probably the most sensible thing to do in this tough situation: He called in Masterson.

Masterson was hurt by a Luis Valbuena error, but all in all, he pitched 7 strong innings for the Indians. He also raised some questions about whether I might be wrong about him. I feel that Masterson will never be anything more than an inconsistent starter – glimpses of promise here and there with a whole lotta disappointment in between. However, I feel he can be a lock-down setup guy, and when you pair that with Chris (Pure Rage) Perez, that’s a pretty intimidating back end of the pen.

But more and more, Masterson has been answering my questions about him. His latest “starting reliever” role really impressed me, that he was ready to go and pitch without the preparation. I’m not entirely convinced he won’t eventually end up in the pen, but I’m starting to come around that maybe he does deserve the benefit of the doubt on a rotation spot next year. This is probably what the rotation will look like:

Carmona
Masterson
Carrasco
Gomez/Tomlin/FA signee
Talbot

Is that a playoff rotation? Hell no, unless Fausto is in 2007 mode and Carlos Carrasco is a legit front-end starter. But there are fewer questions in that rotation compared to 2010′s rotation, where we didn’t know what kind of pitcher Fausto Carmona would be, we didn’t know if Jake Westbrook could come back, we didn’t know who the hell Mitch Talbot was (and he IS a #5 starter, but still, the Tribe only gave up Kelly Shoppach for him) and we didn’t know if Justin Masterson could be a starter.

I’m a lot more comfortable with the idea of Masterson staying a starter in 2011 right now. I’d like to see him end this season in the pen for the sake of saving his arm, and then start next season in the rotation. Congratulations, Justin. You just bought yourself half a season from me, half a season free of my bitching. Make me proud.

And fine … Dan, maybe you were right about him.

Lyu is probably handcuffed by never used the DiamondView program and having to rely on secondhand info to describe it. I never felt like I really understood the system. Is it a program that runs on a computer or is it a completely different set of hardware? I found the DiamondView portion of the article to be difficult to read, although I got the point that DiamondView is highly efficient and very fast.

While Lyu touts the achievements of the Indians using DiamondView (namely, the 2007 AL Central crown and the heist of Grady Sizemore and Cliff Lee from Montreal) and how other clubs (he names the Chicago Cubs) are starting to try to emulate it, I’m left with a nagging doubt as I read it: maybe the system isn’t working.

And yes,while  it has had some successes, the Indians have missed badly on players, presumably using DiamondView: David Dellucci, Jason Michaels, Kerry Wood, Brandon Phillips, you could make a case for Travis Hafner, and most likely (unfortunately) Andy Marte, among others.

There is a human element to baseball, as at least two of the previously mentioned players (Phillips and Marte) were victims of former manager Eric Wedge’s ire, and rarely played. Wedge actually ran Phillips out of town. But still, DiamondView obviously doesn’t take things like “sudden nagging injuries.” The system seems to work best on trades with other organizations, but seems to fail (miserably, I might add) at evaluation of college players (Jeremy Sowers springs to mind).

But there’s no denying that DiamondView has worked a few times, as the home run Mark Shapiro hit for the Bartolo Colon trade has shown. Lyu’s use of the Jim Thome decision isn’t as strong, as Thome was still a productive player after he left Cleveland.  But there’s no denying Lyu’s argument that even if Thome was productive, his salary would be handicapping the team. Tribe fans are seeing this right now with Hafner.

So there’s definitely some merit to the DiamondView evaluation system. But given some of the recent decisions by the Indians management, I think it might need an upgrade.

The feel-good story of the day was rookie Carlos “Smooth” Santana having a solid game offensively, finishing a triple away from the cycle (as most would-be cyclists seem to do) before he failed to block Raffy Perez’s wild pitch in the bottom of the 7th, allowing the tying run to score.

Smooth has come as advertised (through nine games), with a .514 OBP (meaning he gets on base a little more than half of the times he’s come to the plate … think about that), 2 home runs and 5 doubles. He hasn’t been a liability behind the plate either, looking very, well, smooth.

I originally questioned manager Manny Acta’s decision to immediately put Santana in the third spot in the lineup, but so far, the rookie has rewarded his manager’s confidence. And let’s be honest, with Asdrubal Cabrera and Grady Sizemore hurt, who else is going to bat there?

But again, tempered enthusiasm. Nine games doesn’t mean anything, otherwise Michael Brantley and Matt LaPorta would be big leaguers right now. Hopefully Santana bucks the trend of regression by Tribe prospects (although it’s honestly unfair to Brantley, who’s only been in the big leagues for a little less than a couple months), and instead makes actual progress. If the Indians screw this guy up … then the Dolans may need to seriously re-evaluate the organization, from the ground up. It’d be that much of a waste, more than even Adam Miller was. It may sound extreme, but if the Indians miss badly on all these prospects they’ve been counting on, and this rebuilding turns into a Pittsburgh Pirates-type situation, then change needs to come. But Santana and company haven’t failed yet, so nobody’s head is on the chopping block yet.

Speaking of change, the Indians made a change today, demoting LHP David Huff to AAA Columbus. It’s expected that LHP Aaron Laffey will replace Huff in the rotation, although the Indians hadn’t made a move as of this morning. Huff had really struggled of late, with a 6.04 ERA and a 1.69 WHIP. Laffey Taffy started the season in the Tribe bullpen, before being demoted to stretch him back out to a starter. Huff looks like he’s Jeremy Sowers 2.0, another failed Indians’ early draft pick. This trend needs to stop, beginning with this year’s top pick, Drew Pomeranz.

Finally, I threw up a new poll to discuss something I never got to mention due to my computer problems. Call to the Pen, Fansided.com’s general baseball site, recently did a post about who should be each team’s All-Star representative. I chose Mitch Talbot for the Indians’ representative, before he threw up that stinker versus the Mets. Talbot needs a strong start or two to get him back into the All-Star picture, as right now it’s probably a two-man race between Shin-Soo Choo and Fausto Carmona. I put all three on the poll, along with OF Austin Kearns, and just for the hell of it, Santana (even though he has no real shot at it.) The poll is open until June 30th, so let’s see if we can top the whopping 8 votes I got for the last one!