Manny Acta

After being drafted in the first round (15th overall) by the Cleveland Indians in the 2009 June Amateur Draft, pitcher Alex White is set to make his debut on Saturday against the Detroit Tigers.

This move was prompted by the injury to Carlos Carrasco, who will spend some time on the DL. Starter Mitch Talbot was also placed on the DL, prompting the organization to promote Jeanmar Gomez to the parent club last week.

If you watch Cleveland Indians baseball or "you are in the Tribe," then you know the Indians are on a hot start in 2011.

After winning eight straight, including sweeps of the Red Sox and Mariners, the Indians are looking like they want to take charge of an AL Central that is up for grabs.

“The development was done last year... It’s time to play to win every day. That’s our mentality, and our expectations are that: building on the way we played in the second half of the season. We’re expecting to win.”

That quote from Indians manager Manny Acta, while a bit old (quoted in the New York Times on March 3), stands in stark contrast to the outlook of most Indians fans. Most of us are a jaded, bitter bunch expecting another flirtation with 100 losses.

There's something strangely fitting that former Tribe starter Bartolo Colon is rumored to be a potential free-agent target for the Indians during the 2010-2011 hot stove season. 

No, I'm not talking about Colon now "fitting" into his old Tribe jersey now that he's allegedly lost 50 pounds, I'm talking about how he could fit on this team as a relevant starter.  Seriously, I know you all are chuckling.

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 talk rain delays, Shin Soo Choo's 20/20 season, what statistical benchmarks a team needs to hit to be a playoff contender, and whether the 2010 Indians are better, worse or equal to the 2009 team. 

It's been a bad year for Cleveland Indians fans.

Most of us Tribe faithful had low expectations when the season began. This was supposed to be a transition year, as the fruits of one of the deepest farm systems in the game got their first taste of the big leagues.

But even if they weren't supposed to be serious contenders, it's hard to see the Indians flailing behind even the Kansas City Royals in the basement of the AL Central without wondering how things went this wrong.

After toiling away in anonymity his first two seasons in professional baseball, Chun-Hsiu Chen, 21, has posted numbers guaranteed to vault his status among the game’s top catching prospects. 

The Indians signed the Taiwanese backstop in September 2007 for $300,000 after he  grabbed headlines the previous season during the World Junior Championships. 

Chen, a dominant force in the batter’s box and on the mound, hit .417, slugged .500, and his fastball clocked as high as 92 mph. 

by Brett Lay

The Washington Nationals announced in a conference call this morning that phenom rookie pitcher Stephen Strasburg’s mutant right arm has lost its powers due to recent sunspot activity.

Nationals GM Mike Rizzo said Strasburg realized there was a problem when he could no longer summon the powers of a Norse god of thunder to fling baseballs at his normal average speed of several hundred miles an hour in a recent practice.

Some take the hard-hand, run-suicides-until-you-puke approach. Some give the motivational “Go get ‘em” speech. Some throw you in the fire and force you to fight. 

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.