Morning Update: Injury Roundup, Penguin Roundup

I'm watching the Penguins of Madagascar. I tend to watch Spongebob on Saturday and Sunday mornings to appease my childhood.. And because I can't watch Sportscenter more than twice in a row.

But Spongebob isn't on right now. I loved Madagascar the Movie.. But this leaves something to be desired, even though the best character is in it. King Julian is the man, or whatever it is he is.

Anyway that was really unrelated to whatever it is I'm going to say now. I just had to get that out there.

Check that, he's a Lemur.

And Maurice just told King Julian where babies come from.

This has gone far enough.

Ahhhh where do I start... I guess the game, get the gack out of the way.

This 35 runs in the 8th inning is going to be a stat you hear repeated for awhile in the next few days or until things change. Yesterday it was more of the same. 24 Innings, 35 runs.. That is not good.

"The eighth inning has really been our Achilles' heel," Wedge said. "But it's really the seventh and eighth inning, for me, because that's where you bridge the gap to get to Kerry [Wood]."

Yeah pretty much.

This was all after Aaron Laffey had his first bad game of the year though. He's been pretty good, so he deserves a few bad games here and there.. It's his first of what every other pitcher has had multiple of.

"It's tough to get out of that a second time," Laffey said. "I was too worried about walking guys instead of throwing a pitch and letting it move on its own. I wasn't getting ahead and getting first-pitch strikes."

But it wasn't even Laffey's fault that we lost the game. The offense, thanks to a break from Rayburn slipping and then dropping the ball after catching up to it, battled back. Vinnie Chulk kept things grounded and the Indians even took the lead.

But Wedge still pinned the loss on more than the eighth inning bullpen performance. There was a defensive issue with Garko at first and also Ben Francisco hitting into that double play.

Great point I heard on postgame WTAM 1100 though.. Win today.. Win the series... Which is still the goal at this point.

May we see the reformed roster come into play today? Or will it be in Toronto when we start facing the lefties on Monday? Who knows, but Wedge insists the moves aren't about sending messages.

"We're not trying to send a message," Wedge said. "But our players are smart. They know what's going on. We're not afraid to make changes. We feel we've got the players to be a pretty good ballclub. But if we can get help from Triple-A, we're going to do that, too."

I say lefties because that figures to be the pitchers that Matt LaPorta faces at first. But it isn't out of the question he plays today. I would have even put him in yesterday, but even the fact that he, Barfield, and Valbuena got in a little late because of a cancelled flight, didn't alter Wedge's lineup.

"When the first flight was canceled, we were like, 'Come on!'" LaPorta said with a smile. "But they worked it out."

In fact, LaPorta's family even beat the trio to Detroit. Hopefully they get to see him today make his debut and don't have to travel to Toronto.

LaPorta's first baseman glove is still in Columbus, he hasn't played it in awhile (last year at the futures game) so excuse him for not having it when he played on Friday.

Oh and Josh Barfield said it's great to be back.

I don't know if he'll be saying that when a week goes by and he hasn't played a game.

Some opinions from Terry Pluto, who says Jensen Lewis and Ben Francisco have been the most disappointing coming out of Spring. I'd have to agree with Lewis.. I thought it was just some string of bad luck, and maybe it is, but he just keeps giving up these home runs at the wrong times.

Injury Updates All Around.

Scott Lewis - A few weeks away, throwing bullpen sessions right now in Goodyear.

Joe Smith - The main point of the move was getting Smith on some rehab assignments. It sounds like he is having issues with the fact that he didn't get a full spring. He'll be in Cleveland today.

Jake Westbrook - Live, yes live, game action on May 11th if all things go well from here on out. However it will just be one inning at a time.

Jamey Carroll - If you've noticed, he's been on the trip and he'll take BP with the team in Toronto. Rehab assignment late next week if things go well.

Travis Hafner - Dr. James Andrews tomorrow.

Hey Hoynsie... Don't feel like reading.