It's just a speculative article, but suggests that at least one team might be interested in Marte. Interesting since there is a possibility that Barfield is making a case for keeping him instead. Here is the link (I don't know how to do embedded links on this site):
http://www.metstoday.com/spring-training-08/2008/a-rh-hitter-to-consider/

There are numerous reports that Curt Schilling has a serious shoulder problem and may even be lost for the season.  Full story here.  If true, it is just another reminder of the importance of having pitching depth. Of course, the Red Sox do.

Boston Globe is reporting that Schilling is unlikely to reach a deal with the Red Sox. Apparently he has a blog on which he has listed 12 teams that he is interested in (because they have off-the-field things he & his family are interested in and they could win). The first team listed in the Globe article is the Tribe. Sorry, I don't have the links to the Globe article or the blog as I am just looking at the hard copy over a bowl of Wheat Chex. Maybe someone could add them in the comments - I have to get to work!!

Trying to find out the following - assuming the Indians have the homefield advantage in the upcoming divisional series, which of the five games will be their home games? The rest of this is filler! I was fortunate enough to be selected in the 2nd phase of the lottery and bought tix for the second home game. So now I'm trying to figure out what date that might be under each of the two scenarios (with and without homfield advantage). Then I need to make travel arrangements from Boston. Thanks.

My first diary post. In thinking about Hafner's slump, I had a dim recollection that VMart went through something similar in 2005. So I checked the data. Here it is [month, average, doubles, HRs):

April  .207 4 2
May    .213 3 2
June   .295 6 5
July   .323 6 4
Aug    .402 5 5
Sept   .352 9 2

So, a 2 month outage from a very good hitter (followed by a strong rebound) is not that unusual.

One thing I have been wondering about (and I think it reflects nicely on the team's depth/flexibility): There has been significant discussion that Shoppach might do well enough to allow Victor to get some rest and play a little first base. But suppose Shoppach does really well and the Indians start thinking about giving Victor significant playing time at 1B. What might happen with Garko in this scenario?? And a related question - is there any indication that Shoppach can play 1B?

A lot has been written about this potential trade (in all its various forms). Even if I buy the arguments that have been put forward in favor of the trade, it still doesn't gel in my mind for two reasons:

1. Michaels arrest - this is not the type of personality that Shapiro gets excited about
2. When Shapiro trades an established player for a prospect, it is usually 2 or more legitimate prospects coming our way - and that makes more sense because of the probability that any prospect actually makes it

That being said, I have a hypothesis about what has been going on here. I think the original deal that started all this was (essentially):
Crisp to BOS
Marte to CIN
Kearns to CLE

Then CIN got cold feet (see #2 above) and so BOS says to Shap: "We'll give you Marte and a relief pitcher so you can go get Michaels from PHI."

Shap says, "I don't want Michaels, I want Kearns. You are going to have to sweeten your offer to CIN."

BOS says "NO" & keeps pushing the Michaels option. Shap says,"I'm always willing to listen, put together something that I can get excited about." And that's actually where we stand right now. I don't think there is any deal at this point.