Morning Update: Jensen Lewis Sent Down

Aside from Kerry Wood, Jensen Lewis is the only relief pitcher that has been on the active roster since opening day.

Until now.

Lewis couldn't run any longer, as he was optioned to Triple-A Columbus to make room for Jose Veras, who was acquired from the Yankees earlier this week.

I'm sort of sad that AC pointed this out right in the start of the article. Considering I had two spend two minutes going through all the names and trying to think if this was true.

Only to actually read the first line and see that my two minutes spent thinking could have been eliminated.

Jensen really pisses me off.. I want to get behind him so much, because I love what he brings to the table. But the constant home runs and inconsistency is really making it difficult to do. Wedge had a few words of advice and praise for Lewis, who he publicly criticized earlier this season.

"He's gotten a lot of experience in a short time," Wedge said of Lewis. "He has the heartbeat and the guts. But he needs to be more consistent controlling the baseball. He needs to drive the ball down where he's trying to throw it more consistently."

So it looks like all Lil' Jeremy needed was a few runs to make him be aggressive.

WHY CAN'T YOU DO THAT ALL THE TIME JEREMY!

"Fortunately, we were able to score some runs," Sowers said. "That put me in a position to be more aggressive."

If you are at your best when you are aggressive, you need to be aggressive. It got you through more than five innings for once, and you even won. If you can go 6-7 innings every night and turn in a game like that, that's all you need. You might not win every game, but that's okay. It's a lot more productive than going five innings every single time out and killing this bullpen.

Aside from Sout Pitches' start, the big story was the fact that for the first time since April, Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez, and Grady Sizemore were all in the same starting lineup.

And while those three only knocked in three of the runs, the offense as a whole blew up in a big way.

That's the good thing though... A guy like Hafner doesn't have to go 2-4 with four RBIs to have an impact. He can go 0-4 with a run scored and still create some opportunities for other hitters.

Now...

The even bigger story that was floating around before game time was Mark Shapiro addressing the media about Eric Wedge.

I think AC was pretty funny about what he said yesterday in the opening of his daily rundown. What's said is, that's true.

However I don't hold those reasons when I say Wedge should be excused from managing the Cleveland Indians.

What I can take from what Shapiro said is two things.

1. He has no intention of firing Eric Wedge, but he's also putting a heavy load on his own shoulders.

2. He likes to use the word juncture a lot.

"The accountability and responsibility for what has been a bad year is broad-based and shared," Shapiro said. "The arrow should not be pointed at Eric. It should point toward a broad spectrum -- players, our staff, Eric, myself, the front office. There's shared responsibility, and I'm accountable for all those groups."

By saying he's accountable for all the groups, he's really putting himself on the line, which is pretty stand-up if you ask me. Indians.com Twitter page had this entry and it says a lot, which you might not understand unless you read the quote I just pasted above.

You might be saying, Why is Shapiro a total pro?

That quote is why he's a total pro. Other General Managers would have thrown their manager under the bus by now if you ask me. Not Mark. He's willing to put his job on the line in order to achieve success with this group of people, most specifically Eric Wedge.

Either that, or he believes he has an INSANE amount of job security to keep Wedge around as long as possible.

One thing that I think needs point out though is this.

"That's one area I'm not real sympathetic to," he said. "Championship players deal with distractions. They need to focus on their job. Good players and good teams filter distractions out."

Shapiro is referring to the distraction of Eric Wedge being fired leading the Indians playing so cruddy at times.

I say that isn't the case.. But is there a possibility that Wedge had a strange stranglehold on this team that is preventing them from playing consistently?

I don't really think that's the case, but maybe I don't know anything.

I thought Bob Melvin holding his team back was for real. It sounded legit as far as him losing the clubhouse.

I also thought Clint Hurdle being fired wouldn't cure anything in Colorado and that their struggles were just because they overall weren't that much better than their record indicated.

Guess what, I was wrong in both cases.

Even though I've been on the fire Eric Wedge bandwagon for a week or so now, I've never waivered from the fact that Wedge commands his players repsect and they play hard for him.

But... As I said with those two examples, I could be dead wrong. They do play hard for Wedge, they play hard in general. But is there pressure of him getting to them? Who knows.

Terry Pluto's latest is very interesting. He has a scout say that out of the four lefties, Laffey, Lewis, Sowers, and Huff... That Huff is probably the closest one in terms of having the most potential as far as effectiveness.

Pluto also did some research that proves he's a just about a God.

6. Meanwhile, the Indians are talking about Sowers eventually moving to the bullpen. I did some searching on the Web, and I could only find a breakdown of how hitters do against him in the first 60 pitches. In pitches 1-30, they bat .210. In pitches 31-60, it's .413. Yes, there is a message in those numbers. Or try this: First time around .209, second time .281 and third time .500. All of that was heading into Friday's start.

A three inning relief pitcher? It could work.. Let's piggy-back him with another starter and we've got ourselves one good pitched combined.

Brandon Backe was designated for assignment by the Astros. Too bad this didn't happen a few weeks ago when we needed starters. We still kind of do, but Aaron Laffey is almost ready and Scott Lewis might not be far behind. He's looking for a starting gig, but he's also relieved in the past. We've taken chances on a whole lot worse this year, why not Backe?

He had a injury to start his season, only really made on start for the Astros in the month he's played and has given up runs in each appearance. He's been a decent option in the past. Maybe given him a minor league deal, we are one team that anyone would love to hop on because you could get a shot at any point, as proved with Michael Gosling.

At this point, kind of stupid to even bother with Laffey coming back, but had this happened a few weeks ago, I bet we would have been on it.

Finally. It looks like Asdrubal Cabrera is going to need at least another game or two in Akron before they activate him. Some thought he'd be ready for today, but that isn't the case. Meanwhile, Aaron Laffey is expected to.. Or at least he is expecting to... Make one final rehab start on Sunday before being activated.