Inside Pitch

Herd roster takes a hit already?

CLEVELAND -- Two innings into the Indians' first game of the season, it's possible the Bisons' roster has already taken a hit. There's plenty of concern about Victor Martinez's hamstring as the word around Progressive Field is that he's having an MRI to check out the possible damage.

If Martinez goes on the DL, that leaves Kelly Shoppach as Cleveland's No. 1 catcher. But neither catcher expected to be in Buffalo, Wyatt Toregas or Yamid Haad, is considered major-league ready to back up Shoppach. Toregas, who has never played in Triple-A, is on the Tribe's 40-man roster and would be an easy callup. Haad, however, played for the Herd last year. If Cleveland decides it needs him, it would need to make room on the 40-man and designate someone for assingment. That would be an interesting decision.

It could mean Herd OF Brad Snyder, trying to come back from a thumb surgery, could go on waivers to start the year. The thinking would be no one would claim him this early because a team wouldn't have needs. It would be a risk. The Bisons better hope Martinez is OK. Possibly losing two players before the season opener isn't the best way to start.

---Mike Harrington

Lots of rain

CLEVELAND -- I sat through the snow last year so I'd say I deserve the sunshine I'm seeing as ceremonies begin at Progressive Field. Jim Thome of the White Sox just got lustily booed as he headed to the first-base line during introductions. The Indians came out wearing their new retro uniforms. Hall of Famer Bob Feller is in a suite about 20 feet to my left.

Other teams haven't been so lucky with the weather. The final home opener at Yankee Stadium has been rained out and the Yankees and Blue Jays will try again Tuesday night at 7. There's also delays running for the ceremonial NL opener in Cincinnati between the Reds and Diamondbacks and the Brewers-Cubs game at Wrigley.

Whenever the Yankees play, they won't have "Voice of God'' Bob Sheppard introducing them on the PA. Sheppard, who is in his upper 90s, has been having health issues and may not be behind the mic this year until June. But Derek Jeter is insisting his at-bats be introduced by Sheppard so a recorded into will be played when Jeter bats. Pretty cool.

---Mike Harrington

Welcome to Opening Day

CLEVELAND -- We've made it to Jac, er, Progressive Field for today's season opener between the Indians and White Sox. It's partly sunny and about 55 degrees, a far cry from last year's snowbowl against Seattle that was canceled in the fifth inning thanks to some human delay tactics from then-Mariners manager Mike Hargrove. Just about every radio station within an hour of here was playing John Fogarty's

The Cleveland Plain Dealer, clearly anticipating some bad weather, published a neat little video game over the weekend that's pretty addictive. It's called "Snowball" and you can play it here. It simulates the grounds crew tarping the field to prevent the snow from canceling the game. Too funny.

Cy Young winner C.C. Sabathia will start for Cleveland today against Chicago's Mark Buehrle. The Indians' lineup today features seven ex-Bisons and looks like this: Grady Sizemore-cf; Jason Michaels-lf; Travis Hafner-dh; Victor Martinez-c; Jhonny Peralta-ss; Ryan Garko-1b; Asdrubal Cabrera-2b; Franklin Gutierrez-rf; Casey Blake-3b.

The first of 162 on the Indians' road to what they hope will be their first World Series title since 1948.

---Mike Harrington

Barton makes Cards' roster

The Indians lost outfielder Brian Barton over the winter to the Cardinals in the Rule V draft after he struggled in a 25-game stint with the Bisons last season. Barton had a bum knee that required surgery after the season. If he was healthy, maybe the Tribe finds a way to keep him on its 40-man roster.

But what a break for Barton that Cleveland let him go. He has made the Cardinals' Opening Day roster and Tony La Russa said he will certainly get some playing time.

---Mike Harrington

Farewell, Winter Haven

I've talked to many of you over the years who have made the trek to sleepy Winter Haven, Fla., to see the Indians and Bisons for spring training. I've been down there myself eight times so a part of me is sad because Thursday is the Indians' last game there. The Tribe is moving to a complex with all the bells and whistles next year in Goodyear, Ariz.

Chain of Lakes Park in Winter Haven is a spartan throwback to a time when spring training was simpler -- no suites, no full houses, no packs of autograph hounds. The minor-league fields that have bred so many Bisons stars the last 13 years are right next door and have featured games attended by no more than family and friends. I've seen bugs infest the minor-league office building, alligators on the players' jogging path by Lake Lulu and some horrific thunderstorms.

Last year, there was even a snake in the press box at the big-league park! Good times. But it's really time to go. MLB.com did its retrospective on the park here and there was another terrific one in in Thursday's Lakeland Ledger. The paper also put together a neat video that's worth a look. You get a glimpse of Bob Feller's daily autograph session and a look at the quaint ballpark.

---Mike Harrington

Jays talked about Barry?

Scott Rolen and B.J Ryan are hurt and staying behind in Florida. Outfielder Reed Johnson, a favorite in the clubhouse, was released in favor of retread Shannon Stewart. And to add to a brutal end to spring training for the Blue Jays comes this: The team considered signing No. 25 ex-of the Giants (and not mentioned by name here).

Said team president Paul Godfrey: "We didn't want a media circus wherever we went as a team."

No kidding. The MLBPA can scream collusion all it wants. Nobody -- and I mean nobody -- is going to touch this guy. He's a bad guy. He's a problem in the clubhouse. And you think the baseball media will be all over him for perjury charges? That will be nothing. He'll have CNN, 60 Minutes and every other network stalking him too.

Go home, 25. Go home.

---Mike Harrington

Tuesday is Opening Day, sort of

While everyone else is still going through their paces in Florida and Arizona, don't forget that the Red Sox and A's actually open the season in Tokyo and it comes bright and early at 6 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday. The games will be live on ESPN2 and then replayed at 2 p.m.

MLB is trying to give the Sox and A's a chance to recover from the trip so that they're ready to play more real games in April but the Sox are still going to be on an unbelievable road marathon.

First, they fly back to play exhibition games in Los Angeles Friday-Saturday-Sunday (with Saturday's game in the jerry-rigged LA Coliseum expected to draw an all-time record of 110,000). Then the Sox go to Oakland for games April 1-2 that continue their regular season and have a three-game series in Toronto on April 4-5-6 before finally getting home to Fenway against the Tigers on April 8.

The A's have it much easier. They simply return home to the Bay Area for three exhibitions with the Giants (two in AT&T Park and one in McAfee Coliseum), then settle in for Boston's visit.

---Mike Harrington

Sox get their wish, trip back on

The Red Sox will be going to Japan after all. Today's exhibition game with the Blue Jays started an hour late while the players and MLB hashed out their differences. Sounds like the coaches will be getting paid their stipend and the Sox will be jetting to Tokyo this evening.

Seriously now, did MLB really think it would get away with this? Most players are fiercely loyal to their coaches and training staff and Terry Francona, in particular, really fosters an environment where everyone in that clubhouse is important. I'm not surprised this group of players took this position. Good for them.

---Mike Harrington

Sox may boycott Japan trip

Check this out: The Red Sox were supposed to leave for Japan following today's exhibition game against the Blue Jays. But that flight -- and the entire trip, including the season-opening games against Oakland -- is in jeopardy because Boston players are threatening a boycott.

And this isn't about spoiled millionaires. Sounds like the Sox have a good reason: Manager Terry Francona and the players just found out that MLB is not paying the team's coaches and support staff the $40,000 stipend for the trip that the players are getting.

Here's a Boston Herald story with a lot of angry comments from Francona.

Stay tuned.

---Mike Harrington

Who might help the Tribe this year?

The Bisons had plenty to do with the Indians' run that stretched one win shy of the World Series last year. After all, where would Cleveland have been down the stretch without the likes of Asdrubal Cabrera, Jensen Lewis, Aaron Laffey, Rafael Perez and Franklin Gutierrez?

You can't expect something similar to happen this year because most of those guys will be back in Cleveland. But if you want an inkling as to some of the up-and-comers in Buffalo the Tribe thinks could help in '08, check out this Cleveland Plain Dealer story.

My vote goes to pitcher Jeff Stevens as a guy who could come out of nowhere. The Tribe would love to get some quick contributions from him. The reason? He's the guy they got from the Reds for Brandon Phillips.

---Mike Harrington

Quite a gesture by the Yankees

The Yankees are taking time out from spring training to fly north for a day and play an exhibition game today against Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. (It's on YES and 3 p.m. is replayed at 11:30 p.m, and is available free on MLB.com). That's quite a gesture spurred by George Steinbrenner, as the franchise donated $1 million to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund and agreed to the charity game.

Here's some links from this morning about the game:

New York Daily News

Newsday

Roanoke Times (Tech shortstop Tony Balisteri spent the first 16 years of his life in Buffalo and says he hopes he gets "beaned by a Yankee")

---Mike Harrington

Spring brawlgame

What in the world is going on with the Yankees and don't-call-us-Devil Rays? The weekend's war of words about Saturday's collision at home plate that knocked out a Yankee minor-league catcher nearly turned into a big brawl Wednesday when Shelley Duncan slid hard into second base. "It's War!" screamed the New York Post.

Tampa manager Joe Maddon called it "borderline criminal." Jeez. Those 18 Yanks-Rays meetings in the regular season suddenly have some spice.

The Rays have long had an ugly rivalry with the Red Sox. Why not throw the Yankees into that mix as well. Here's some stories on the dustup:

NY Daily News column

NY Daily News game story

Tampa Tribune column

---Mike Harrington

This is a crystal-clear joke

Yes, it's only spring training. But the Yankees charge $17-$30 for tickets to games at Legends Field. And if I was paying that kind of money, it wouldn't want to see Billy Crystal turn a real spring training game into his personal fantasy camp.

That's what is going to happen Thursday, when Crystal gets to play for the Yankees in their game against the Pirates. He's going to be 60 years old, people. 60! Hasn't he been around the Yankees enough anyways as the human mascot of the Joe Torre era?

Terrible.

---Mike Harrington

March Madness on the diamond

The Dodgers, Padres, Red Sox and A's are all heading across the Pacific Ocean this month and you can read about their plans in Sunday's Inside Baseball column. It's going to be interesting to see how all this travel affects the teams, particularly Boston and Oakland because their two games are later in March and count as regular-season games.

Is this really a good thing for baseball or is it just too much pain for not enough gain? Gotta believe these players and coaches would just as soon stay put in Florida or Arizona rather than do all this at the start of the season.

---Mike Harrington

Un-friendly name in Chicago

I hate this. Just hate it. Looks like there's no stopping the Cubs from selling the naming rights to Wrigley Field as team chairman Crane Kenney told the team's beat writers Friday in Mesa, Ariz.

There are so many different ways to raise revenues and the Cubs are doing some of them in making renovations to the Friendly Confines. They just should resist the temptation to do this one. The Red Sox aren't selling Fenway. Even the Yankees aren't selling the new Yankee Stadium (OK, so the Mets are making a bounty on Citi Field but does Shea really have that kind of mystical hold on you? Didn't think so.).

Everytime I'm in Chi-town, I snap a picture of that magical marquee and the back of the scoreboard atop the bleachers. What's it going to say the next time I'm there? I shudder to think.

---Mike Harrington

Laker comes clean on steroids

When I reviewed The Mitchell Report, one ex-Bison named that jumped out at me was former Buffalo catcher Tim Laker. He was the jokester of the team at the start of this decade, the one who strode to the plate for every at-bat to the tune of "Stayin' Alive". He's even the subject of a chapter in Chris Coste's book dubbled "The Laker Chronicles".

But Laker was never really healthy here. He suffered from colitis and pancreas issues and nearly died in the winter of 2001. We did several stories on his situation. I wonder how much that was related to the steroid usage from the '90s he admitted in the report. The report says Laker stopped using steroids before he got to Buffalo in 2001.

Laker said his health issues here have been an ongoing problem in his life and were not related to steroids but you've got to wonder. Now a manager for Cleveland's Class A Mahoning Valley team in the New York-Penn League, Laker met the Indians media earlier this week in Winter Haven, Fla., to discuss his past.

For even more, within that article is a link to the 20-minute audio of his press conference. Can't link to it directly here but you'll see it.

---Mike Harrington

Inglett trying to hook on with Jays

I am SICK OF SHOVELING SNOW (can I be any more clear?) and have to write about baseball for a minute to save my sanity. On that note, my apologies for the lack of action in this blog in recent weeks. Your understanding is appreciated as is your enthusiasm for our work on the Sabres Edge blog. We're restarting Inside Baseball this Sunday (although it may not be every Sunday in March) and I'll be doing my best between Lindy Ruff press conferences to get some items up here as spring training goes along!

I will have more to say about steroids (unfortunately) later in the week. But here's an update from Florida on one of the good guys we've seen in Buffalo the last few years: Utility man Joe Inglett, who finished last as the franchise's modern-era career leader in triples.

All this guy does is bat .300 every year and get his uniform dirty while playing about five positions. But the Indians signed Jamey Carroll in the offseason so Inglett is now in the Blue Jays' camp trying to make it as a utility man.

And he's battling with two other ex-Bisons in John McDonald and Marcos Scutaro for time in the Jays' infield. Here's the update on Inglett from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

---Mike Harrington