Notes and Quotes: Branyan to Akron, Huff Amazing

As mentioned, I will be at the Aeros game tonight. I get to watch Russell Branyan in his first rehab start with the Aeros. More on that in a second.

I'm at work as this is posting and I'm writing this up the night before, so excuse me if this is brief.

[HUFF IS GOOD, LIKE GOOD]

Huff's twitter account is blowing up yo! Before today, David Huff had roughly under 100 followers. As I type this he has 435. Jensen Lewis pretty much can be thanked for getting the word out about Huff's twitter account, which he set up recently as his first tweet came on Sunday.

And in a way, Huff predicted his start yesterday with this tweet.

Going to bed. Got my game plan ready for the Rangers hitters. Pitching tomorrow at 12:05pm ET. GO TRIBE!
Fantastic.. With a faster routine at the advice of Tim Belcher, David Huff has been great in his first two games. So what was working for him and what was that game plan against the Rangers?


"Just attacking these guys," said Huff, who has worked with veteran catcher Mike Redmond. "Pitching in to them. Not letting them get extended. A lot of these guys have long swings and like to get the ball over the plate. So if I can keep it in there, I can be pretty successful."
He's talked a lot about "game plans" in his first two outings. He was attacking the Detroit weaknesses in his last start as well. This guy is very much a cerebral type of a pitcher. He finds out a weakness and zones in. He does his homework. He's starting to figure it out. Pitchers like him can go a long way in this game and he's starting to show just how good he can actually be.

Acta said it was Huff's game and that is why he stuck with him in the ninth. I think that was plain as day it was his game, it was a great choice no matter what the outcome may have been.


[BRANYAN TO AKRON]


His last hurdle is to play in two straight games at first base and he'll look to do that for Akron. With Columbus hitting the road, Russell Branyan will be sent to Akron starting on Friday to finish off this rehab assignment, hopefully. He needs to prove he can play two straight games at first base, all nine innings.


Branyan will do this sometime next week. He should be in the lineup Friday though.


Also in injury news, Kerry Wood will face hitters sometime next week, considerable progress towards his return. He may not need a rehab assignment because he is only pitching one inning no matter what and he won't need to be "stretched out" or conditioned.


[RANDOM RUNDOWN]


Jhonny Peralta didn't play yesterday, but he is taking his lumps at third. He isn't making excuses and has even gone as far as saying the two errors he's made has cost the team the games.


Ron Washington said Shin-Soo Choo was a thorn in the Rangers' side all series. Choo said he wasn't trying to hit a home run, but rather just trying to hit something hard. In his head, he was saying "Go! Go! Go!" It went Choo, it went.


Yesterday's game lasted just 2 hours and 3 minutes... Man I love those types of games.


Wednesday's game set a record for lowest attendance ever at Progressive Field. That's pretty sad.


Finally, who was great to see the rally pie back? Jensen Lewis smeared a nice big helping of shaving cream right into Huff's face. Fantastic.