![](\"http:\/\/a323.yahoofs.com\/ymg\/ept_sports_fantasy_experts__28\/ept_sports_fantasy_experts-737194391-1274326688.jpg?ymgKkKDDTp7sOF5i\")
You’ve got to feel for the Cleveland sports fan these days. The Cavaliers punched the city in the gut, LeBron James Paranoia is going to last into the summer, and now it’s the Indians putting bad news on the doorstep: the franchise player is hurt, the shortstop is injured as well, and there’s the ninth inning to worry about. If you’re from Northeast Ohio and want to skip this entire blog post, feel free.<\/p>\n
Indians reliever Kerry Wood<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> entered 2010 as a closer on the brink and that theme has stayed with him every step of the way. A back injury from spring training cost him six weeks; his hefty contract makes him a constant trade candidate; and his performance on the field hasn’t been a treat either.<\/p>\n Wednesday night Wood blew a save in bombastic fashion, allowing four hits and five runs to the Royals of all teams. There was nothing cheap about the rally – Kansas City collected two doubles and a triple, and most of the balls were hit sharply. Wood was still getting decent velocity on his fastball – routinely in the 95-to-97 range – but the pitches were straight and the Royals were connecting. <\/p>\n Wood saved his best throw for last – as he was removed from the game, he chucked his glove into the stands<\/a>, where it was caught by an Indians fan. Perfect mechanics, perfect location – it was just seven batters too late. <\/p>\n Maybe this rocky outing was just a blip on the Wood radar, but given his history of physical problems we have to at least put him under the microscope. If you’re hedging the Indians bullpen behind Wood, consider that lefty Tony Sipp<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> hasn’t allowed a run over his last 13 appearances and Chris Perez<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> hasn’t given up an earned run over his last 12 games. They did their jobs Wednesday – Perez worked a scoreless seventh, while Sipp posted a bagel in the eighth – and they’re both widely available in mixed leagues. Your speculation needs will vary; the save chase is different for all of us.<\/a><\/p>\n The Cleveland faithful will get over this Wood collapse, but the Grady Sizemore<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> injury is enough to send the entire city into a depression. Sizemore has a left knee bone bruise and hit the disabled list Wednesday<\/a>; it’s possible he might need surgery to fix the knee. It’s going to be a while before we know what the timetable is here. Post-hype outfielder Trevor Crowe<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> is getting time in Sizemore’s absence and deserves consideration from the AL-only and deep mixed-league players; he’s off to a 7-for-20 start with a couple of steals, and he’s getting a look in the leadoff spot. <\/p>\n Shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> had surgery on his broken left arm Wednesday and will be out 8-10 weeks. Jason Donald<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> joined the team Tuesday and is 2-for-7 through two games, batting in the bottom third of the order. Donald was hitting .277 with two homers and 10 steals when he was promoted from Triple-A<\/a>.<\/p>\n There’s your lead (or lede) item from Wednesday, amigos. Check back in a little bit and I’ll add 800-900 words to the fray. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You’ve got to feel for the Cleveland sports fan these days. The Cavaliers punched the city in the gut, LeBron James Paranoia is going to last into the summer, and now it’s the Indians putting bad news on the doorstep: the franchise player is hurt, the shortstop is injured as well, and there’s the ninth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4321,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-571360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4321"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571360\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}