No details beyond that, and it's just Twitter. But, it's something.

[Editor's note (Ryan): Abreu is in the last year of his contract, and is due $9M in 2012, but Heyman speculates that the Angels would eat most of that money in order to trade him]

[UPDATE: Jon Morosi says that the Indians would send...Trevor Crowe to the Angels in the deal.]

[UPDATE, 12:15 AM: Ken Rosenthal and Jon Morosi now are describing the chances of Abreu going to the Indians as "50-50", with how much of Abreu's 2012 salary the Angels would eat as the major sticking point]

[UPDATE 11:55 AM: Jon Heyman is now saying that the deal is off. ]

I keep hearing about how bad Detroit's infield defense is going to be. But this year, with no Victor in the lineup, how is Miguel ever going to have to play 3B? (He committed an error on his first groundball this spring).

Per Hoynes's Twitter feed. The end of an era. Kind of. I guess. Who's Adam Miller?

Per Bastian, Valbuena already in Chicago.

Wow. That was unexpected. As a bonus, Austin Kearns DFA.

Not sure how anyone feels about Grantland.com, and this very much is not their finest piece, but it is about the Indians and isn't the worst thing you'll read today.

Does Chisenhall count as an everyday starter yet?

Ugh.

Talks about the run differential. Mentions we have the best. Then says AL isn't that good. Then says our strength of schedule isn't good. Usually. Then mentions it's early. Then points out it's a quarter of the way through the season.

Overall, it's very informative.

LGFT Cliff Lee has a very outside shot at breaking Kerry Wood's strikeout in a game record; he's got 15 through 6.2 innings. But he's losing 3-0 and has thrown a ton of pitches. Still an absurd amount of strikeouts.

Not that I'm trying to jinx the big jackass or anything. Just saying, is all.

Sorry if this is a bit of an annoying Fan Shot. Thinking of getting the MLB.tv package, as I'll likely be moving mid-summer and don't want to pay for the cable package and then lose it once I move. But $100 or $120 seems like a lot to spend on on-line streaming; who has it? Any complaints about the service? How was the quality of the video? I have a pretty good internet connection, for the most part.

I'm thinking that if it's worth $100, then it's probably worth the extra $20 to get Tribe announcers for all games (in honesty, I'd probably pay that just to ensure that I don't have to listen to Hawk 9 times a year or whatever. Anyways, basically just looking for comments on it before I shell out the cash, see if there's any major complaints that might make me think twice.

Not a bad write up; nothing in depth or new to most here, but not the typical drivel, either. We probably all know that anything much above 81 wins this year is going to be a pleasant surprise, but some optimism from a non-Cleveland source is nice.

"The Indians have explored the idea of trading right-hander Fausto Carmona to clear money for free-agent second baseman Orlando Hudson, but the possibility is unlikely to come to fruition, according to major-league sources.

"Carmona, 26, is guaranteed $4.9 million this season and $6.1 million next season, and the Indians hold club options on him for 2012 and ’13. His trade value, however, is down — he was 5-12 with a 6.32 ERA last season and spent nearly two months at Class AAA.

"The cash-strapped Indians cannot sign Hudson unless they clear a salary such as Carmona’s. Hudson, 32, would be more of a sure thing than the Indians’ current second baseman, Luis Valbuena, who hit 10 home runs in 368 at-bats as a rookie last season, but had only a .298 on-base percentage."

Just me or does this not at all sound like something we'd actually do?

I got an email from MSP a few minutes ago, as I imagine all of you who ordered last year's LGT-authored MSP Indians Annual, and the Tribe wasn't mentioned as an upcoming issue.

Realizing last year's issue probably was an enormous endeavor with little reward, I was curious if there's going to be a second issue this year, and if there is, if the LGT authors are involved again.

Sort of long, as Posnaski tends to run. But worth it, even after reading dozens of these (and writing a few of them, depending on who is reading this).

"That team that spent $50 million more than any other team, that team with three sure Hall of Famers and as many as four others, that team that bought Milwaukee’s best pitcher and Anaheim’s best hitter and Toronto’s No. 2 starter and Boston’s favorite Idiot and the most expensive player in the history of baseball and so on, that team will win the World Series, and spray champagne on each other, and they will tell you that they won because they came together as a group and kept pulling themselves off the ground and didn’t listen to the doubters.

And then, if you are a not a Yankees fan, you will want to throw up. If you are not a Yankees fan, you are left hoping that next year the randomness of a short playoff series will get the Yankees and allow some other team to win so we can celebrate the hope of Opening Day. And that’s baseball."

Seems like as good a place as any to break the no-swearing rule. I'll restrain, but know that I'm thinking a lot of awful words.

Pretty cool "quiz" from the guys at Mistake by the Lake. Try to name the opening day lineups and starting pitcher for each team since '94.

I'm embarrassed at my performance, and am going to blame the fact that I've been working 14 hours a day for about 5 straight days. I got 108 out of 160 correct, and missed some pretty obvious ones, though I won't say who here yet. And there are some names on there about whom I had literally completely forgotten about. Worth your 8 minutes.

According to John Heyman, everyone's favorite and most trusted rumor source, when the Yankees called about Cliff Lee, Shapiro said the package started with Phil Hughes or Justin Chamberlain. Obviously will not happen, but sort of funny to think of what exactly the reaction around here would be.

Mildly entertaining, since last night's game wasn't.

Probably not a surprise given how Shapiro runs this team and how much respect he apparently has for Wedge. Another, fuller story to follow on Indians.com, apparently.

[Edit:] Not much more, but here's the full story by Castrovince on Indians.com.

I know there was a lot of bad talk and hard feelings when Jacobs sold the team at the beginning of the decade, but he certainly played an important role in the resurgence of the Indians and the success we saw in the '90s. Thoughts are with his family.

Courtesy of this week's Lazy Sunday over at The Diatribe, a little calendar that compares how far along in the season we are. The most discouraging analogy is to last year's Tribe; at this point last year, they were 19-19. And that was one of the most frustrating Tribe teams I can remember.

But the one that sticks out for me, probably because I'm a runner, is the marathon comparison. We're less than 6.2 miles into a 26.2 mile race. That's NOTHING. If you blaze out to a fast opening 6, it doesn't mean anything. If you start out slowly, you still have 20 miles to make a great race.

Where it starts to fall apart, though, is if you start too slowly, you just can't pace up enough. If you run 6 10:00 miles, then you've got to run 6:26s the rest of the way to qualify for Boston. It'd be a lot easier just to run 7:15s the whole way, but it can be done.

Apparently, just ordinary soreness from the surgery.

Not sure I buy it, but better than some of the alternatives.

Bartolo Colon threw 6 shutout innings.
For the White Sox.
Against Minnesota.

This cannot continue. Can it?

A couple years old now, probably been posted here before. Happy Opening Day!

Talks about a few different teams around the league.

"In Cleveland, in an economically depressed area whose state has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs in this century, the Indians have averaged 87 wins a year the past four seasons, tying Boston for the league lead in wins in 2007.

We have to focus on our young players," said Indians GM Mark Shapiro. "We know what our budget restrictions are. We have to scout and develop and make good decisions."

Thus, the Indians have their self-developed players like Jhonny Peralta, Victor Martinez, Fausto Carmona, et al. They have made extraordinary trades for talent out of other organizations, like Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee, Shin-Soo Choo, Kelly Shoppach and Asdrubal Cabrera. With all their young players and a relatively lower payroll, they were able to add two modest but significant additions in the offseason: Kerry Wood and Mark DeRosa.

Perhaps no teams showcased more young talent this spring than the Indians and Marlins. By the end of this season, it's conceivable that the Indians can bring in catcher Carlos Santana, outfielders Michael Brantley, Matt LaPorta and Trevor Crowe and third baseman Wes Hodges as contributors.

Great article from Paul; nothing groundbreaking, I suppose, but well laid out and explained. There should be a comprehension test based largely on these ideas for anyone from cleveland.com that wants to post here.

Just batting practice, just spring training, but still glad it was Grady.

Note -- He'll also hit the first homerun in the New Yankee Stadium.

Typical Plain Dealer stuff. The head-exploding material comes after the list of statistics from last year. I quote,

"While all those numbers are fermenting in your brain -- by the way, who says Wedge doesn't bunt? -- "

Is there anyone, anywhere, who thinks Wedge doesn't bunt enough?

Favorite quote ever: "I love Ken Griffey Jr., and I like Frank Thomas a great deal."