Morning Update: Choooooooooooooooooooo

I'm pissed.

I was in a bad mood at the game last night too.

I sort of enjoyed the game, but it was hard to because of the foul mood I was in because my laptop is pretty much dead.

You see, I got a virus and I can't get rid of it and I can't even boot up in safe mode to try and remove it.

And I'm pissed.

I have stuff on my flash drive, but there is absolutely stuff on there that I cannot lose right now and I'm ready to jab someone with a pitchfork because of it all.

If you are out there and you make viruses or help spread them.. A big finger that is in the middle of your hand up to you and your nasty ways. I dislike you people and your no-life having ways.

Someone is going to pay for this, dearly.

Now that I've blown off some steam, but not enough, I guess we should talk about the magnificent Shin-Soo Choo.

I tweeted it and I told my dad the same thing. Choo's night was a direct product of Travis Hafner's presence.

Like he doesn't owe Hafner anything, but after Pronk blasted the first home run, Trevor Cahill and Santiago Casilla just avoided Hafner like the plague. They knew he was on base after Choo, so they gave up him good things to hit and Choo is someone who will take advantage of that.

And THAT is the product of Hafner being in the lineup and somewhat productive. People will look at his 1-3 and be like, oh-ho-hum he hit a home run and that was it. Hafner had just as good of a night as anyone did.

Grady Sizemore as well with his three walks. That too was pretty big.

I thought the other good night was turned in by Ben Francisco. He was on base four times and he scored all four times, and I do believe twice he scored from first base.

What can you say about David Huff though?

It wasn't pretty or spectacular. But he got the job done.

He had the early hiccups that made you think it was going to be a repeat performance of the game in Cincinnati.

Then he settled in, got some run-support and things were good.

There was a great part though that was really telling and Wedge put it best.

"I thought a great indicator for Huff tonight was the inning where we made a couple errors [top of the fifth]. He didn't give in, and that's a great sign for a young pitcher."

I thought that was going to be a disaster when Peralta gaffed that up and put Huffy in a bad spot. Then Cabrera drops the double play ball. Credit Huff to get the double play the next hitter though and strand the runner at third. That was huge and still when the game was in doubt.

The bullpen had a freakin' outrageous lead, but give them credit for not even looking horrible. Chris Perez pitched a scoreless frame and looked a lot more comfortable than last time. His stuff is very good. Rafael Perez disposed of the side in rather quick fashion, like the Rafael Perez we know.

Overall... Great game to be at and I might as well go more often since they are 2-0 when I go. I've seen all the fireworks I've needed to seen, but my Dad insisted we stay for last nights because of the Michael Jackson tribute and it was very well done.

Now onto the news.

More sense still needs to be made of the Winston Abreu trade, but I figured when Michael Gosling pitched the ninth, that it was Matt Herges getting dumped.

I didn't know because like I said, my computer had a virus and I didn't really hear of any news before the game. I figured it was him, Gosling, or Sipp getting called down. I would have dumped Gosling, but I guess it was Herges time.

The move will be made official today, but Herges was a stand-up professional about it. I love guys like Herges that come through this organization. They get it, they leave with nothing but positives and you can't stay a bad thing about them, even if they pitch bad.

"I got designated [for assignment]," Herges said. "I'm not here anymore. I don't really know what my options are at this point. I'm not sure if the Indians would even want me down there [the minors]."

"I have nothing but wonderful things to say about this place," he said. "I will never not say quality things about this organization. This is baseball. This is the business of baseball. I get it."

And it isn't like Herges pitched bad. He was breath of fresh air for this club at a time they needed it because he actually put some zeros on the board at times. He was running out of gas though and if this pen was a little better, there might be room for a Matt Herges on this team.

The final link is on the running game and the poor job both Victor Martinez and Kelly Shoppach have done this year in that aspect. Wedge's reasons.

"Vic still is maybe catching up a little bit from [the injury]," Wedge said.
Shoppach, as a Class AAA player in the Boston system in 2005, threw out an International League-best 34-of-78 (44 percent).

"Shoppy got a chance to play a great deal last year," Wedge said. "He was trying to maintain focus mentally along with running a game, and the throwing got away from him a bit."

Wedge didn't absolve anyone though. He said both those two and the pitching staff can do a better job and they can. Shoppach's footwork is getting sloppy and he's uncorked some rather wild throws. He has an arm, but lately, it doesn't seem like he can contain it.

That was never Vic's strong point, but he made large strides to improve in that aspect the past few years. This year he's been rather down though and I don't know why.