Morning Update: Welcome to the Show, Mr. Huff

The moment you've sort of been waiting for.

David Huff is making his major league debut today and hopefully it is the start of something special. Eric Wedge just hopes that the timing is right for the young lefty.

"Obviously, with the competition, we had to make a decision to decide who to give the innings to," Wedge said. "It was a good thing for him to go down and pitch and come up here with a little momentum. Hopefully that's what he's doing."

"Hopefully we're bringing him up here at a good time," Wedge said.

To prepare you for Mr. Huff and his Major League Debut, it would be cool to have a scouting report of sorts.. Oh yes..

David could ease a lot of pain if he can go out there and actually be a productive starter. It would let the Indians keep Aaron Laffey in the bullpen and not have to take one of the guys actually getting outs away from it.

He also needs a nickname, still searching for LaPorta's as well. Even though Huff is a short name already.

Anyway, David Huff requires a 40-man roster spot, and to clear a spot, the Indians have made the move we all hope they would make.

Masa Kobayashi is gone.

For now.

Now, I love Masa, he's a great guy and all, but time to move on from the failed Japanese import experiment.

AC did the math and the Indians were paying him $95,663.75 per out.

"Throughout all of making player-personnel decisions," Shapiro said, "there are signings that work out well, there are signings that work out for a period of time and don't work out for the length of the contract and there are signings that don't work out at all, whether it be a $10 million outfielder or a bullpen guy that doesn't work out. I'd never characterize one sign as a disappointment. There are some that don't work out and some that do."

Now this may or may not be the end of Kobayashi with this team. He could still accept an assignment to Columbus. But he has yet to decide that, obviously.

"We're hoping he'll accept the assignment to Columbus and keep working to get himself going," Wedge said. "We need him to be more effective in more meaningful situations."

"I'll talk to my agent to see what the best option is," he said through an interpreter. "Everything is up in the air right now."

One thing is for sure, he probably won't be returning to Japan.

On to the game. Carl Pavano knew the double-steal would come back to bite him.

"The double steal killed me," said Pavano, who saw his personal three-game winning streak come to an end. "You can't stop them from running. All you can do is do the things we've been taught -- mixing up looks, holding the ball longer. Hopefully, you give your catcher enough time to throw."

He also knew the walks, something he's avoided these past few games, would end up hurting him. Wedge said both Pavano and Laffey kept the team in the game. The offense didn't get it going though.

"Offensively, we just missed opportunities," manager Eric Wedge said. "[Garza] really battled, but we stuck our nose in there and just didn't take advantage of opportunities."

They also say that speed thrills. But in this case, speed killed.

"They have the tools and they use them," said Martinez, who played first base Saturday.

Said manager Eric Wedge, "They have so many good athletes. They've got tons of speed. We're doing everything we can to try and hold them down."

Oh well.

We've got a few straggling links here.

I don't know why this Cliff Lee trade talk won't die.

Thankfully Ken Rosenthal puts the kabosh on any ideas right now, and even says that it would be more beneficial to trade him in the offseason, when there will be a desperate need for starting pitcher, and no free agents available to supply that demand.

Terry Pluto addresses this Lee topic as well.

Every time the Indians struggle this season, it seems a national report surfaces about trading Cliff Lee. The assumption is the Tribe dumped C.C. Sabathia last season, so they'll do the same with Lee. They forget that Sabathia was a free agent after 2008, while Lee is under contract with a team option through 2010. Given the Tribe's lack of starting pitching, I'd be stunned if they traded him this season.

Finally, I want to bring up something about Travis Hafner.

He didn't play because Columbus had their game rained out on Saturday, so it will be at least till Monday before we see if they push him to two games in a row.

But here is some food for thought. The Indians end the road trip they are on in Cincinnati this weekend. We have no DH for that series because it's in the NL park. Do the Indians activate Hafner before then if he's ready, or just wait till after the series since they can only use him as a pinch-hitter for those three games?

Some food for thought. His rehab assignment started on Friday, a Friday from now is only seven days and three days after that is 10, so he'd fall within the max number of days for a rehab assignment.

Just think about it if it's the middle of next week and Hafner isn't activated.