Tony%20Lastoria Archive

The Cleveland Indians today have claimed right-handed pitcher Robert Whitenack off of waivers from the Chicago Cubs and optioned him to Double-A Akron. To make room on the 40-man roster the Indians have moved right-handed pitcher Frank Herrmann from the 15-day disabled list to the 60-day disabled list.

Here it is, the annual IBI Roundtable. We pooled together 14 writers on the site to get their quick thoughts on the Indians outlook this season and make their predictions on the playoffs and the winners of all the postseason hardware. Optimism abounds this season for the Indians, but what do the various contributors on the site predict happens with the Indians this season? Who wins the World Series? Cy Young and MVP award? Jump inside and find out....

Opening Day is here Tribe fans. Expectations are through the roof after the Indians had one of the most exciting and interesting offseasons in the their history. But while Tony is excited for this season and feels the Indians will be much improved, he also wants everyone to be make sure that they manage their expectations and don't expect too much too soon. Problems still exist and they were unable to fix all of them on one offseason. Tony explains that and more in a special edition of Tribe Happenings!

On Sunday the Cleveland Indians announced their opening day roster. In order to get to the final 25-man roster and make room on the 40-man roster, the Indians announced several transactions, including lefty David Huff being designated for assignment.

And that's a wrap! As you are reading this all of the Indians' minor league players are now in the air spending their Easter Sunday traveling to their new destination in Columbus, Akron, Zebulon, or Eastlake, while some others have departed Arizona for home before returning to the Goodyear complex in the next few days to begin extended spring training. There were quite a few impressive offensive performances on Saturday, and Tony lists them all...

Spring training wrapped up for the Indians on Saturday. Not only has the big league team broken camp and are on their way to Toronto for their opening day series which gets started on Tuesday, but about 100 minor leaguers are also in transit to Columbus, Akron, Zebulon and Eastlake to begin their minor league seasons which kick off on Thursday next week. Here are the rosters!

Friday represented the final day of inter-organization exhibition games for the Indians' farmhands. Players will practice and play a camp game on Saturday, and then by the time they leave the complex they will know where they have been assigned. Tony has all the stats from the five games played on Friday and provides some insight on where some players are going this season and more.

It was another busy day at camp for the minor leaguers on Wednesday as releases were announced first thing in the morning, and then the rest of the players went out for morning workouts and then games in the afternoon. With camp winding down the rosters for the four full season teams are really starting to come into focus, and Tony discusses how those are shaping up and also some of arms set to open in the Carolina and Lake County rotation, plus much more.

The Indians today announced that have released five players from their minor league contracts: shortstop Jairo Kelly, outfielder Chia-Ching Lin, outfielder Andrew Campbell, catcher Dwight Childs, and infielder Davis Stoneburner.

Tuesday was a camp day for the Indians' minor leaguers, which means more roster decisions could be coming. With more releases on the horizon and full season rosters set to be announced by the end of the week, Tony reviews all the stats from the games on Tuesday and provides some insight into which players may be on the roster and release bubble, and where some players may be assigned to start the season.

Spring training is less than a week away from concluding, and Tony's trip to the desert will wrap up with his final trip to camp today. Tony shares several news items with things he learned over the past few days in camp including a talk with a front office about several players in camp from the Pacific Rim, the likely setup of the starting rotations at Columbus and Akron, updates on the health of Elvis Araujo, Alex Monsalve, and Anthony Santander, and much more.

The Indians minor league complex was very busy on Friday as it was not just a camp day, but a potential cut day as well. The Indians not only had all four affiliates in action, but they had two extra B-games on the back fields so that everyone could play so that the Indians could get a "last look" at players before making some roster decisions. All the outcomes from these games are included in today's recap...

Things got a little crazy on Thursday at minor league camp as the Diasuke Matsuzaka circus came to town. He threw four innings for Akron and Zach McAllister threw six innings for Columbus. Tony provides the details on how they did, and he also gets into the good showings from Aaron Siliga, Jairo Kelly and several more players.

It was another busy day at the complex on Wednesday as Tony bounced back and forth between the Reds and Indians' complex to see all four Indians' affiliates in action and see a ton of players. In today's update he has some comments from the front office on the likes of Joe Sever, Tyler Booth, Tony Wolters and others, and also provides some insight into things he saw and heard about Mitch Brown, Francisco Mejia, Manuel Boscan and others, and also shares several recorded fastball velocities for pitchers that threw on Wednesday.

The Indians minor league teams once again faced off with the Reds on Wednesday, and there were several noteworthy performances up and down the system. Chun Chen flashed some serious power, Jordan Smith had a perfect day at the plate, Dylan Baker continued his blazing hot camp, and Tyler Booth showed some positive strides with his patience. Tony recaps all of the performances from the day...

It was a camp day at the Indians minor league complex on Tuesday which made for a short day, but Tony shares lots of things with updates on the health of players like Austin Adams, C.C. Lee, and LeVon Washington, the strides being made by players like Nelson Rodriguez, Dylan Baker, D.J. Brown, and Martin Cervenka, and more updates in his daily briefing with the Indians player development staff.