AL Central

It’s been about eight months and 114 games now.

Raise your hand if you’re over Curtis Granderson.

To those with arms unraised: what on earth are you waiting for?

Curtis Granderson, the smiling cherub now with the evil New York Yankees, isn’t coming back. So stop the pining.

In the winter before the 2005 season, Carl Pavano met with at least a half-dozen teams as he shopped his services in a Pavano Derby of sorts. As we all know, the Yankees were the unfortunate winners of that derby and the fans proceeded to suffer through four years of his “services.”

Welcome to Tribe Talk, where Bleacher Report's Cleveland Indians fans weigh in on the ups and downs of the club each week throughout the season.

This week, we evaluate Manny Acta's performance in his first season as Indians manager, assess the team's rebuilding efforts by examining the cases of a few specific players, and predict what the future has in store for the Tribe at third base.

After shellacking the Chicago White Sox 12-6 on Tuesday night, the Minnesota Twins have moved into first place in the AL Central by one game.

Both teams are hot, with the Twins winning 12 and the White Sox winning 10 of the teams' last 15 games. White Sox have gone 39-16 since June 8th, overcoming a horrendous start to get to this point, while the Twins have gone 19-10 since the All-Star break without one of, if not their best, hitters.

Something magical happened at Progressive Field on Saturday night.

In a beautiful, star-studded pregame ceremony, longtime Cleveland Indians leadoff hitter and center fielder Kenny Lofton was inducted into the Indians Hall of Fame.

For anyone who is too young to remember the 90’s, Lofton was the archetypal dynamic leadoff hitter—a latter-day Rickey Henderson. From 1992-1996, he hit .316 with an .820 OPS, averaging 78 steals and 129 runs per 162 games.

As April and May flew by, the White Sox were sitting at nearly 10 games back and well under .500 in the American League Central Division.

Countless fans did not seem to notice the depressing White Sox team, with the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1992. 

Mark Teahen is set to come back in about a week from his minor league stint in Triple-A Charlotte after recovering from a fractured middle finger in May—not that anyone in the organization has noticed his absence with the White Sox on a tear without him. 

A question, which I'm certain manager Ozzie Guillen and GM Kenny Williams will answer incorrectly, looms.

Who do the White Sox send down for Mark Teahen?

It’s harsh to beat up on a player just after he gets hurt, but after watching the video of the big collision in today’s Indians-Red Sox game, I just don’t feel as much sympathy for Santana as perhaps I should.

Santana is a great young player, and I hope the injury isn’t too serious and he recovers quickly.  That said, the injury is entirely his own fault.

Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen has created another tempest in a teapot by stating that Asian players get “privileges” that Latino players don’t receive—particularly with respect to teams providing translators for Asian players, but not providing translators for Spanish-speaking players.

It's been a whirlwind week for Indians fans.

After finally trading longtime fan frustration Jhonny Peralta on Wednesday, the Indians traded Austin Kearns to the Yankees Friday night, flipped ten-year Tribe veteran Jake Westbrook to the Cardinals Saturday afternoon, then pawned off Kerry Wood's contract.