Now come the rumors.

Buster Olney and other media outlets reported that the Indians have sent scouts to the Brewers AA and A affiliates, the stocked Huntsville Stars and Brevard County Manatees.

Depending on who you believe, the Indians have focused their attention on four Brewers: 3B prospects Mat Gamel and Taylor Greene, SS prospect Alcides Escobar and outfield prospect Matt LaPorta, with LaPorta and Greene at the top of their list.

Then, Ken Rosenthal reported that the Brewers had made an official offer to the Indians that involved both LaPorta and Escobar. There was also mention that the Brewers would prefer to include current starting shortstop J.J. Hardy.

It didn’t take long for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt to refute the claim in his blog.

“I have serious doubts that the Brewers are offering both of those players for Sabathia, who can be a free agent after the season. In fact, I’ve been told by people connected to the organization that the Brewers wouldn’t want to trade either for a pitcher who would leave as a free agent at the end of the season…I respect Rosenthal but his sources might be off on those two names. I would think the Brewers would offer Green or Mat Gamel or any number of other top prospects before parting with LaPorta and Escobar. That would be a steep price.”

In a later blog, Haudricourt did offer these tidbits,

“I have it on good authority the Brewers would never send LaPorta AND shortstop Alcides Escobar to the Indians for Sabathia. The Brewers might be willing to overpay a bit in prospects — and I think Taylor Green is in there somewhere — to get the Indians to pull the trigger now and not entertain other offers.”

The Brewers do have a history of dealing prospects for rent-a-players. Last year, they dealt three prospects for Scott Linebrink last season, only to watch him leave for the Chicago White Sox this season. This is a deal that could be done sooner, rather than later.

It’s official, Joe Borowski has been designated for assignment. The Indians have 10 days to do something with JoeBo, which is fine, as long as he stays gone.

The only question left is whether or not there is a move we haven’t been appraised of yet. Surely anything is possible at this point, after the Indians front office and field coaches met in Minneapolis to discuss the Tribe future. The moves will be made official before the game today against Minnesota.

There were some hints about the moves coming out of Buffalo, and the transaction reports late Thursday night.

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Wedge has yet to commit to one reliever to replace Borowski, although Masa Kobayashi appears the clear favorite. I’m sure Rafael Perez will also be in the mix, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rafael Betancourt in the mix as well, even though this year has been a year in futility for the set-up man. In my opinion, a bullpen by committee would be a mistake at this point, although you could make a case that Kobayashi has been used too much already, having pitched 40 innings, when last season in Japan he only pitched 47. Still, I think it’s important that this bullpen establishes roles again, and putting Kobayashi in the closer role might be the best way to go.

The Indians next move will be to designate for assignment Rick Bauer. The hard-luck pitcher was sensational in Buffalo, but just didn’t find a role on the big league club after getting shelled in his six innings of work. The Indians will then call up one of three pitchers from the minors: Jensen Lewis, Brian Slocum or Jeff Stevens, although bum Juan Rincon is also being mentioned as a possibility.

Hopefully, Borowski will either be moved, or cut, so that we can see Lewis and Slocum make the move to the pen.

Check the Tribe report over the fourth of July weekend for up-to-date news regarding these moves, and anything in the future that was decided upon at these meetings. I’m sure by the time the fireworks start tomorrow night, the picture of the after-effects of this meeting will be much more clear.

It seems such a harmless sentence, but with the Cleveland Indians playing baseball far south of good, today’s off day might mean the beginning of a major shake-up for the Cleveland Indians team in general, and to, specifically, their bullpen. When Mark Shapiro was asked about his bullpen, and specifically, Joe Borowski, he replied,

“We’ve got an off day. We’re going to be meeting, we’re going to be talking, we’ve got a lot of things that we’ve got to work through right now. We’ll be working on the off day to try to solidify some things, make some decisions and go from there.”

I’m sure Borowski wasn’t exactly jumping up and down at that quote, when Shapiro has already been pretty clear about Borowski having the job since signing him before last season. It may be the quote that leads to an imminent departure for Borowski, and the beginning of the end for several other Indians.

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A.J. Pierzynski’s lead-off, tenth inning home run gave the Chicago White Sox a 6-5 win over the Cleveland Indians, it’s second straight extra-innings victory, and a sweep of the series at Chicago’s U.S. Cellular Field. Grady Sizemore deserved better.

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Joe Borowski blew his fourth save of the season, as the Cleveland Indians lost to the Chicago White Sox 3-2 in 10 innings in Chicago. The loss puts the Indians 11 1/2 behind the first-place White Sox, and may be the straw that breaks the camel’s backs on the Indians’ season.

What’s left to say about Joe Borowski? The Indians had taken the lead over the White Sox in the 10th inning, when Casey Blake hit a home run over the left field wall. It felt a bit like 2007 again, with late inning heroics winning an important game for the Indians. Enter Joe Borowski, who seems to prove nightly that when the game’s on the line, he’s not up to the task. He’s 6-10 in save situation, and there’s a sick part of me that wants him to end up at 50%. Maybe that will shut up the Borowski-backers that keep bringing up 45 saves from last year. Of course, I don’t think we’ll have that problem.

He started off by getting Joe Crede to ground out, and striking out last night’s hero, Nick Swisher. Then came the normalcy we’ve all grown to loath in our ‘closer.’ Borowski immediately got behind Alexei Ramirez, who ironically, the Indians were scouting last offseason. Ramirez took a 2-0 pitch, and deposited just over the wall in left field. Once that happened, Borowski was finished. He gave up a single to the next batter, Dewayne Wise, who promptly store second. Orlando Cabrera then singled up the middle, scoring Wise, and ending the game.

It may have ended more than that.

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The worst part about it for Indians’ fans is that this trade talk should have never happened.

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Lefthander Jeremy Sowers shelled early and often, and the Cleveland Indians fall short in their comeback attempt as the Chicago White Sox defeated the Cleveland Indians 9-7 at Chicago’s U.S. Cellular Field.

Sowers was all over the place in his three-inning outing against the White Sox, but mostly in the bleachers. Jim Thome started off the pain with a three-run homer in the first inning, as Sowers gave up a 1-0 lead provided to him by a Jhonny Peralta double. If a wheel fell off in the first inning, the whole car fell apart in the third inning. After an error by Shin-Soo Choo led to a Jermaine Dye RBI, Sowers loaded the bases, and gave up a grand slam to Nick Swisher. It was a league-leading 8th grand slam given up by Indians pitching so far this year. It’s July 1st. Wonderful.

The Indians would try and come back from that, led by a 5 for 5 night by shortstop Jhonny Peralta, but the seven-run lead in the third inning would be too much for this team to come back from. Peralta was a one-man wrecking crew. His double in the first scored a run. He also had a solo home run in the fourth, a double and a run scored in the sixth, and an RBI double in the ninth inning. He added a single in the eighth to account for his 5-5.

Cleveland was able to get the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but unfortunately, couldn’t score.

If you really are looking at this series as the ‘make-or-break’ series, it didn’t start off well. The Indians are now 10 1/2 games behind the White Sox. Hopefully, the Indians and Cliff Lee can make a difference tonight.

Aren’t the Indians supposed to be better than the Cincinnati Reds?

Aaron Laffey gave up a five-run fifth inning on Sunday afternoon, breaking open a scoreless game, as the Cincinnati Reds beat the Tribe 9-5, and took the season series 5 games to 1 in winning the Ohio Cup. Talk about embarrassing.

Laffey started off as solid as he’s been all season. He retired his first five batters before hitting Adam Dunn with a pitch in the second. Javier Valentin followed with a double, but a nice relay throw from Jhonny Peralta to Kelly Shoppach was in time to tag out Dunn at the plate.

After a 1-2-3 third inning, things started getting dicey for Laffey. Back-to-back, lead-off singles by Jeff Keppinger and Ken Griffey Jr. put runners on first and second. A double play ball seemed to get Laffey out of the jam, but a walk by Edwin Encarnacion and another Adam Dunn beaning loaded the bases. Javier Valentin’s fielder’s choice ended the inning, and it looked like the balls were bouncing right for Laffey…until the fifth inning.

Laffey gave up two one-out hits to lead off the fifth inning, only this time a single to Dan Ross and a double to Jerry Hairston Jr., putting two runners in scoring position with nobody out. Laffey, really struggling with control earlier in the game, threw a wild pitch, scoring Ross and advancing Hairston. Keppinger then doubled home Hairston Jr. Ken Griffey nearly broke the game open with a deep fly out to the track, but Brandon Phillips made sure the blood-letting wasn’t over with a run-scoring single. Edwin Encarnacion then hit a two-run homer, putting an exclamation point on the inning for the Reds.

Laffey’s day was over, and a three-run, Adam Dunn home run (say that three times fast) off of Tribe reliever Rick Bauer would essentially end the game in the seventh inning for the struggling Indians.

Will the next week ultimately decide if the Indians become a bargain shop?

The Cleveland Indians in general, and Ryan Garko in particular, wasted several scoring opportunities on Saturday night, as Cincinnati’s “little red machine” rode struggling Johnny Cueto to a 5-0 shutout victory and their solid bullpen over the Cleveland Indians, avenging their 6-0 loss the night before, at Cleveland’s Progressive Field.

It was a game Cleveland could have…should have won. Five different innings saw the Indians with runners in scoring position. Four of those innings saw Indians in scoring position with either one out or less. Three of those innings saw Indians at third base. Two of those innings saw runners on third with one out or less. In none of those innings did the Indians score. Sure, you could lay that on a lack of impact players on this team. Sure, you can blame that on Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez being injured. Or, you can look at the reality. The Indians failed to do what any baseball team, or decent baseball players in the bigs can do…plate a runner in scoring position with less than two outs.

Here’s a rundown of the futility:

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