Life Without Asdrubal

The Indians suffered a double kick to the balls last night, losing 4-3 in 11 innings, and much more importantly, losing SS Asdrubal Cabrera to a broken left forearm he suffered in the first inning after colliding with third baseman Jhonny Peralta. Cabrera  is on the DL, will likely need surgery and there is currently no timetable for his return.

(This is just me, but if I’m Manny Acta, there’s no way I’m not glaring at Peralta every time I see him. No, I’m not insinuating that this was at all intentional, because it definitely wasn’t. But this is incredibly frustrating coupled with Peralta’s poor play.)

The Tribe called up INF Jason Donald to take Cabrera’s spot. He’s had a good debut so far, as I write this he’s gone 2-2 with the now tying run in the fifth. But the guy who has to be breathing a lot easier is Luis Valbuena, as his job is secure again, at least until Andy Marte returns, when the Indians will have to make a roster decision (although in all likelyhood OF Trevor Crowe will be sent down). Valbuena has been terrible, with a .304 OBP and some spotty defense.

So the Indians will try to move on without Cabrera for the foreseeable future,  but they have to hope some combination of Donald/Valbuena/Peralta/Gruzalaniahfjakick (Sorry, just had to vent my frustation with actually having to spell “Grudzielanek”) works at shortstop. There isn’t any cavalry that will arrive from the minors either; beyond Donald (who really projects as a 2B), there’s really nothing of substance at the shortstop position in the Indians’ organization. This could be a terribly damaging blow to the Tribe, because not only was Cabrera a catalyst on offense, he was the anchor of the infield on defense. Before this injury, I thought there was a slight chance the Indians could climb to .500 in the near future. No more. This is really one of the worst injuries the Indians could have suffered, with an injury to Shin-Soo Choo probably being worse.

Speaking of organizational depth, Keith Law rates Indians catching prospect Carlos “Smooth” Santana as the number two prospect in baseball, right behind Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg. I’m giddy at the thought of seeing this guy play soon. Please don’t disappoint.

Finally, check out Fansided’s Call to the Pen site. Today there is a collaborative post by all of the AL writers for the Fansided network (NL to come later today or tomorrow). Here’s the question I was asked:

"With respect to the team you cover/write about, which player’s talent or ability is being wasted by your organization and why?"

I’ll give you one guess as to who I wrote about.

Wait for it.

You give up?

Yeah, I wrote about Andy Marte again.

That’s not to say I think he’s the only guy the Indians are wasting (why do the Indians continue to pretend Jordan Brown doesn’t exist?) but he’s the guy I’ve been backing since day one, so I figured I had to stick by him. Unfortunately, the day after I wrote my answer, Marte was placed on the DL (the rumor is he had an infection from an ingrown hair on his stomach… way to be a trooper, Andy). Wally (the lead writer for Call to the Pen) was kind enough to let me tack on a little bit about the “injury. It’s a really interesting read, so check it out.