Grady Sizemore, Sports Hernia Surgery.

In a surprising move, it was announced that Sizemore had surgery on a sports hernia and not on his knee. Sizemore let on that his hernia had been bothering him since a slide in May, and this is his second time undergoing sports hernia surgery in the last three years. In 2009, he suffered a sports hernia in spring training, but he labored through the season until undergoing surgery in September. Sports hernias simply aren’t something that most people can play with for long before the pain becomes too intense and needs to become addressed. Most players that have hernia surgery will miss around 50 games; this suggests that performance suffers during the period before the move to the disabled list and improves after the problem has been addressed. Sizemore's hernia will keep him out for the next six to eight weeks, which will give both his abdomen and knee a chance to heal.

Grady and club trainer Lonnie Soloff. Both reasonably dejected.

Jason Kipnis is being called up to Cleveland for Friday's game against the White Sox.

 Via twitter: @TheJK_Kid Jason Kipnis: "I'm Coming Cleveland!!"

It is unknown as of yet who will be removed from the roster to make room for Kipnis or whether he will be playing primarily second base or outfield when he is on the team. There is a good chance he will be taking over starting second base duties from Orlando Cabrera for the time being. Be excited people! If this works out, Kipnis, Cabrera, Chisenhall will be the starting infield for the next five years. Check back later for updates on exactly how Kipnis will fit on this team.

UPDATE: (7:00 EST) The Indians have just made the official announcement: Jason Kipnis will join the team tomorrow wearing number 22. Both Manny Acta and Chris Antonetti were unavailable to give statements on the move because of the off day, so it is still uncertain whether Kipnis will be making his debut at second base or in the outfield. In order to make room for him on the big league team, utility man Luis Valbuena has been optioned to Triple-A Columbus. Because Kipnis was not part of the 40-man roster, the Indians had to designate Jared Goedert for assignment. The Indians will have 10 days to either trade or release Goedert. After 10 days, Goedert will have to clear waivers if the Indians want to keep him.

Unless you think like Joe who believes that trading Jason Donald will bring back a difference maker, the Indians simply are not going to trade for a 2-3 win player at the trade deadline unless they part with one, two or three of what I call the "prized group" of prospects: Jason Kipnis, Drew Pomeranz, Lonnie Chisenhall, Alex White and Trey Haley.

A player for the Tribe to consider is Michael Morse, who plays some first base and outfield for the Washington Nationals. Morse, 29, played little for Seattle and was traded to Washington in 2009. It was only last season that he hit .289 (.871 OPS) with 15 homers and 41 RBI in 266 at-bats. This season, he's at .306 (.886 OPS) with 15 homers and 49 RBI. Morse is attractive because he makes only $1 million and won't be a free agent until 2014. The price could be high for Morse in terms of prospects, but I'd be willing to talk about most guys in the system -- but not the "prized group." Morse is a right-handed hitter who makes more sense than 33-year-old Ryan Ludwick, who could leave at the end of the season. He's not a prime defender at any position, but he can play the corner outfield spots, first and third base.

Morse was traded to Seattle in 2009 in exchange for Ryan Langerhans, and spent a month slugging in the International League before getting a brief look as Dunn’s defensive replacement at first. The polar opposite of fellow utilitarian Wee Willie Harris in size, handedness, speed, and plate approach, at first glance Morse’s four-corner skill set seemed to mesh well with Harris's to complete some sort of Utility Player 3-D Cube Puzzle back in 2010, but according to most scouts, Morse's missing piece was power. He never consistently produced the sort of thunder you’d hope for from an infield corner, even in a reserve role, which presages a short shelf-life, even with the talent-starved Nationals.

However, the past two seasons saw Morse hit double-digit homeruns while playing in that reserved role.

If the Indians look to upgrade the offense, Morse might be the best fit when considering low-revenue contraints.

As expected the Indians brought up Jeanmar Gomez for today's start and dropped one of their 6 bench players. The interesting part is who they decided to drop (it was Shelley Duncan). Moves like this are what prompt me to say that the Indians do not have winning as their number one goal. Shelley Duncan is unquestionably better than Austin Kearns in every facet of the game. He is better defensively as both have no speed or range, but at least Duncan has a better arm. He's also available at first base if absolutely necessary. Offensively, there is no comparison. Duncan his batting more than 20 points higher and is slugging 100 points more (Kearns .300, Duncan .400). In 6 less games and 20 less at bats he has 15 more RBI and 2 more home runs. He has also only struck out 28 times while Austin has struck out 40. There is no issue of roster versatility as Travis Buck is an almost identical player to Kearns (although slightly better, Buck has an OPS of .642 while Kearns is at .604). The only reason the Indians made this move is so they don't have to pay Austin Kearns not to play, which they will have to do if they release him, while Shelley Duncan, Travis Buck and others still have minor league options left. You don't win championships making moves to save money, you win championships making moves to win baseball games. The prolonged stay in AAA of Lonnie Chisenhall was also based on financial motives as the point was to keep him around for one more season before he is arbitration eligible. As soon as upper management and team ownership figures out that increased attendance follows closely with increased winning percentage, maybe they will stop making stupid baseball moves and start trying to win.

It's time for the All-Star break and the 2011 have been an overall success. While some claim that the Indians have already done enough, by coming within 22 wins of last seasons total at the half way mark, I don't buy that. Last year is firmly in the past and anything can happen in the future. Past seasons performance should never keep a team from competing at its absolute best with the ultimate goal in mind. 89 games into the 2011 season, the Indians find themselves in 2nd place in the AL Central, only a half game behind the favored Detroit Tigers. This is not a mistake. The Indians didn't get any free wins and haven't played better than their record either. This isn't the 2001 Mariners who overachieved in every aspect of the game with almost an entire lineup filled with players who had career years. The team batting average is .250 and they are right in the middle of the pack as far as runs scored and allowed. This can be seen multiple ways.

First, it means the Indians are not playing beyond their abilities, meaning they will probably not have a huge let down. It also means that you probably can't expect a whole lot more out of these guys. One benefit the Indians do have going into the second half is that they were not always playing at full strength during the first half. Travis Hafner, Grady Sizemore, Carlos Carrasco, Mitch Talbot, Fausto Carmona and Matt LaPorta all missed a significant amount of time and will hopefully be able to finish out the season in full health. The worst injury still looms ahead for the Tribe with Shin-Soo Choo out until basically the end of the regular season. Another injured player that will be coming back to the team soon is Trevor Crowe. He has missed the entire season to this point with a broken wing, but should be back soon. While it is unknown how well he will be able to perform coming off an injury, he has quietly put together a couple good seasons for the Indians and would be a better replacement in right field for Choo than either Travis Buck or Austin Kearns can be. Crowe has 26 steals and 70 runs scored along with 154 hits in what amounts to just over a regular seasons worth of at bats (625).

Everyone who has watched the Indians play this season can tell you they have won as many games as they have because of their pitching. While the starting pitching has been above average and has kept the Indians in almost every game, the bullpen has been magnificent on a possibly historical level. The Indians best pitchers in terms of ERA (Justin Masterson, Rafael Perez, Tony Sipp, Chris Perez, Vinnie Pestano, Joe Smith and Josh Judy are all under 3.00) have combined for an ERA of 2.38 in 299 innings pitching. Josh Tomlin, Alex White and Frank Herrmann all have ERAs under 4.00 as well. Smith deserves as special notation as he has only allowed 3 runs this season in 31.2 innings for an ERA of 0.85. Masterson has by far been the best starter, holding an ERA of 2.64 and leads the all starters in home runs allowed (4) and strikeouts (87). Home runs have been a slight problem for the starting staff in general with every other pitcher giving up at least 10 so far this season.

The Indians have had so many injuries during the early part of the season that projecting stats for the rest of the season difficult. I did a straight extrapolation of each starter's stats who I think will finish the rest of the season as a starter. To figure out the projected games played for each player I assumed that all injuries are 100% healed and no player will be injured for the rest of the season. While this is wishful thinking, there is no way to predict injuries. I then took the percent of games played when each player was able and used that for the rest of 2011. Adding those projected end of season stats with the ones that already happened looks a little something like this:

While none of these players are bordering on records, their numbers will be respectable if they can keep up the pace and get near these numbers. 2011 has been a year of the pitcher all around the Majors so, unless your name is Jose Bautista, you can't expect a whole lot. Major League pitching has been so amazing this season that Justin Masterson and his 2.64 ERA (7th in the AL) did not even make the All-Star team even though 6 pitchers dropped out of the game due to injury or because they started on Sunday. Asdrubal Cabrera has done the best so far of all the Indians hitters, which earned him his All-Star Game start, and his numbers are very good for a short stop, but even they are no where near great. Cabrera is the one veteran who is having a career year and has already crushed most of his career highs and will certainly beat the rest by the end of the year. 

As far as the rest of the season goes, no one can really tell. The Indians have placed themselves in strong contention for the Central Division crown and will be able to control their own destiny for the rest of the season. The Tribe has 16 series against other Central Division teams out of the 23 left in the season. The Twins and Royals seem to have removed themselves from contention, but will still remain hard teams to beat for the rest of the season. Right now the Indians 4.29 runs allowed per game is the best since 2005 (3.96 RA/G) and better than every team in the 90's except for 1995 (4.22). If they can keep up this amazing pitching combined with the return of Alex White and can increase the level of the offense now that everybody is healthy (except Choo) there is no reason the Indians won't be able to clinch this thing by September 1st.

The Indians have done a lot of roster shuffling in the past weeks, so Burning River Baseball will try to sort it all out for you. Most of this began less than a month ago, on June 17th, when Travis Hafner came off the disabled list. To make room for Hafner, Travis Buck sent down to AAA. The next day Matt LaPorta was injurred, marking the return of Buck. Buck's stay was short lived as 6 games later he was again sent down to AAA for Shelley Duncan. This was also a one day trip as Shin-Soo Choo was added to the disabled list the next day after he was hit by a pitch. Two days later Lonnie Chisenhall made his Major League debut and the corresponding roster move lead to the release of veteran infielder Adam Everett. Two days after that Chris Perez was placed on the bereavement list and Josh Judy was promoted from AAA for the second time this season. After two days on bereavement, Perez returned to take the place of Fausto Carmona who hurt himself running the bases and was added to the 15 day DL. A few days after that Matt LaPorta returned from his base running injury and took Josh Judy's spot on the roster as he was returned to the Clippers. Yesterday, Zach McAllister was brought up to make a spot start for Carmona, so Cord Phelps was sent back to Columbus. This move left the Indians without any infield depth so as soon as McAllister's night was over, he was returned to AAA to make room for super utility player Luis Valbuena. 
I guess the only point of all this is that Adam Everett is gone and Luis Valbuena is here. But now you know.

This will be Valbuena's second stint on the Indians this season, although he did not get into a game during his last time up. As stated the last time he was brought up, Luis had a fantastic Spring and has been a star on an amazing Clippers team. Valbuena is hitting .313/.379/.511 with 12 home runs and 56 RBI. While he has still not figured out base running (3 times caught stealing in 6 attempts) his real asset is the ability to play almost every position. The Indians can confidently place him at 2B, SS, 3B or any outfield spot and not have to worry about using a below average player there. Truthfully, Jason Kipnis is having a slightly better season in almost every offensive category, but the Indians must want Valbuena's veteran, known ability rather than risk bringing another rookie up right now. I would really like to see Valbuena get a real chance to proove himself this time, as he has shown glimpses of possible 20/20 talent over his 3 years with the Indians. I would hate to see the Indians give up on him and have him turn into a star, or even a good utility player on some other team.  

Chris Perez and Asdrubal Cabrera were each announced as American League All-Stars this morning. There is no question that both of these players are extremely deserving of the honor, however, that is not necessarily true of the rest of the team.

Asdrubal Cabrera currently leads all American League short stops in at bats (337), hits (98), runs (53), doubles (21), home runs (14 tied), RBI (49). He is second in triples (3 tied), batting average (.291) and slugging percent (.496), third in OBP (.341) and fourth in steals (12). In fact there is only one other short stop even playing in the same league as Asdrubal and that is Jhonny Peralta. The former Indians SS/3B is leading in almost every catergory that Asdrubal is not. The only other shortstop on the American League team is starter Derek Jeter who was voted in by the fans. By my account he is at best the 8th best shortstop in the American League this season, but when you ask the fans to vote, the team with the most fans will get the most players in. Jeter is just one of the four Yankee starters, most of whom do not even belong in the game at all. Including bench players, the Yankees have 6 total players on the team and yet the number one snub named by the TBS team that announced the rosters was C.C. Sabathia. Hopefully AL manager Ron Washington will realize this mistake and play Asdrubal for most of the game.

Chris Perez is currently third in saves with 19 and only has one blown save, which is two less than the two closers ahead of him. His ERA of 2.37 is third among regular closers, behind only Mariano Rivera and Kyle Farnsworth. His 8 runs allowed are less than all other closers except Rivera and his 2 wins are more than any other closer outside of Farnsworth and Joakim Soria. All four closers with 19 or more saves made the All-Star team this year, including Perez, Rivera, Brandon League and Jose Valverde. The bullpen as a whole is very strong and well picked. While Tony Sipp and Vinnie Pestano deserved consideration, you can't go wrong Aaron Crow and the closers already mentioned. Crow is the only Royal on the team so he needed to go.

The only player on the Indians that could possibly be considered snubbed is Justin Masterson, who has a 2.85 ERA and 80 strikeouts in 113.2 innings pitched. Masterson was hurt by the large amount of great starters this season and the fact that he was unable to amass a large win total due to poor run support. Overall, Indians fans should be very happy with two players in the All-Star game as it has been two years since they have had that many. The next step is getting a starter voted in for the first time since Juan Gonzalez in 2001, but if the Indians keep playing well and making a name for themselves, this will eventually happen. 

Finally, Lonnie Chisenhall will make his Major League debut for the Cleveland Indians at third base. The most highly touted Indians prospect since Victor Martinez, was called up today and will be in the starting line up against the Arizona Diamondbacks. We here at Burning River Baseball are so excited that we flew our top photographer out to Phoenix to catch his Major League debut in person. Chisenhall was the top hitter in AAA over the last week and hopefully he will remain hot in the pros. Since his recent return from a concussion, Lonnie has hit .429 with two home runs, a triple and 14 RBI. Chisenhall will most likely immediately become the starting third base man for the Tribe, moving Jack Hannahan to a back-up role at both third and first. To make the move, the Indians designated Adam Everett for assignment. This improves the overall team a lot more than it would have to remove Travis Buck or Shelley Duncan, as Everett was almost useless at the plate, only bringing his exceptional defense to the team. With Hannahan now available as a bench player, the Indians are three players deep at every infield position and no longer need a player whose only specialty is defense. Come back tonight to check out a detailed report of Chisenhall's first game on the Tribe.

For the second time in less than a week, Travis Buck spent just one day in AAA due to an injury. This time it was Shin-Soo Choo breaking his left thumb on a pitch thrown by Jonathan Sanchez. This couldn't have come at a much worse time as Choo had been hitting much better of late with a .370 batting average over his last eight games. This will decimate the batting order again, removing the number four or five hitter and making everyone else move up. Since Matt LaPorta is still on the DL with his injury it makes it even worse as the bottom of the lineup will now have at least two backup players in it every day. This will also cripple the outfield defense as there is no right fielder with the range or arm of Choo. Choo has saved at least 10 runs this year either by actually throwing them out on the bases or by scaring them into not scoring. There is no one else on the entire team that has that kind of arm strength. There is no estimate on his return time at this moment, but I would expect him to miss at least a month. 

Travis Buck was demoted to AAA Columbus earlier this afternoon to make room for the return of Shelley Duncan. This move is most certainly being made to allow Carlos Santana to move back behind the plate and to keep Orlando Cabrera from having to play third. The only surprise here is that this didn't happen a few days ago when Matt LaPorta was sent to the disabled list with his injured "right lower leg." This will also add an extra pinch hitter since currently the Indians are only carrying three extra batters (Lou Marson, Adam Everett and Orlando Cabrera) and will be playing the next 10 games in National League parks. Shelley Duncan has been the Indians best pinch-hitter over the past two seasons and will most likely be used as the second option behind Travis Hafner during the road trip. The news is sad for Buck who recently broke an 0-23 spell with an RBI single and has played well in his last two games. So goes the life of a man with minor league options.