Ramblings from the Nation - Cleveland Indians

The Boston Red Sox open a 3 game series against the Cleveland Indians Tuesday and they will not face C.C. Sabathia. Sabathia, injured on opening day when pitching against the Chicago White Sox, is currently on a rehab assignment and will not return to the lineup until the first week of May. He threw 67 pitches in a simulated game in KC Saturday and reports are that everything went fine…..Coco Crisp returns to Cleveland after his off-season trade to the Red Sox (for Andy Marte and Guillermo Mota). Unfortunately, he is still on the DL for the next few weeks…..Indian manager, and former Sox catcher, Eric Wedge, missed a game April 17th to be with his wife during the birth of their first child, a son…..General Manger Mark Shapiro has done a fantastic job in his three years on the job, taking over a crumbling empire from former GM John Hart and building a contender, all with a payroll of 57 million bucks…..The Indians thought they upgraded their shaky middle relief, but that hasn’t been the case thus far…..Reliever Steve Karsay has been demoted to Triple A Buffalo…..Seemingly not missing a beat from last season, the Indian’s offense ranks near the top in the AL…..Despite several promotions, fans are not swarming to Jacob’s Field, even though Cleveland fields a top team…..The Tribe had six sellouts all of last season, one being on the Coco Crisp bobble head giveaway…..The Indian’s are coming off a ten game swing, going 4-6, including losing the last two games to a Royal’s team that had lost ten straight…..