It is easy to see the problems with the Indians' offense.

1. Too many strikeouts.
2. Not enough speed.

Those are the type of problems that coaching can't completely fix. Sure, you can preach patience and teach smarter base running, but in the end, these are woes that manager Eric Wedge can't fix with a wave of a wand.

No, these are problems sitting on GM Mark Shapiro's desk.

So what do we know:
1. Grady Sizemore, Victor Martinez, Jhonny Peralta, Ryan Garko are not going anywhere. But they are really the only hitters who can net a quick fix in return.
2. Travis Hafner is nearly untradeable, unless you take prospects back. His contract and ridiculous batting average are an anchor on this franchise.
3. Casey Blake, David Dellucci, Jason Michaels can be traded, but they will not bring back the tools to fix the team.
4. Asdrubal Cabrera might have just had a hot September and is what he is. A decent hitting middle infielder.
5. No one seems to be waiting in the wings in the high minors to fix the offense, unlike last season.

What about the pitching:
1. C.C. Sabathia could net a return to fix the offense, but would his loss put too much pressure on a young pitching staff? I think this only happens if the Indians are out of it by the end of July, and the Tribe won't be out of it by then because the division looks to be weaker than most thought entering the season.
2. The young guys, Aaron Laffey, Jeremy Sowers and Adam Miller, are very tradeable and could net a good return. But Shapiro does trade these type of players.

Where does this leave Shapiro?

Can he make a trade that helps the Indians in the short term? So far in his career, he has avoided these type of trades.

Trading Sabathia in May or June, seems to me to be the only trade that can work in the short term and long term. Anything else is a long-term deal, unless you add a chunk of cash to the payroll. Again something Shapiro has not done.

Standing pat nearly worked last season, can it work again? I doubt it.

– The Cavs and Wizards continue their war of words; good thing for the Cavs, the Wizards have shown little bite on the court.

– The Browns received passing grades from most sites around the sporting world for their draft.

– Kyle Busch nearly wrecked like he usually has at Talladega, but he kept his car clean enough to end his day in Victory Lane. If continues his hot runs, folks at Joe Gibbs Racing will be asking, "Tony, who?"

– The Indians seem to be rounding into shape, thanks to slow starts throughout the division. C.C. definitely is rounding into form, too bad he ran into the Yankees ace Sunday.

– We are continuing are move into the Internet waters more each day. We are attempting to add more standings items to the teams pages and video from our reporters. The first one of note is Marla Ridenour's take on the NFL Draft. You can find that here.

– Patrick McManamon's blog is back, offering a lot of insight into the area pro teams. He has been with the Cavs since the playoffs began; take a look here.

The Tribe continues to scuffle with their bats. A 3-0 loss to another rookie Saturday.

Some folks, think that the Travis Hafner contract is out of whack (Me included) and his lack of production is killer. Others point to Casey Blake's poor production in the clutch.

Those are valid points, but the real problem is the amount of strikeouts.

There is no base-runner movement on a strikeout; it is not a productive out. And with little speed on this team, it is not built to manufacture runs.

I will always point to the White Sox in this case. The year they won the World Series, many folks hammered them for trading Carlos Lee for Scott Podsednik. Yes, they traded away a power bat for not much of a pedigree in Podsednik. But the leadoff hitting outfielder got on base and made things happen. In the end, GM Kenny Williams had won a World Series.

By the way, since they have let Podsednik go, they haven't won.

Now Grady Sizemore gets on base a lot, but it is different. He strikes out too much, too.

In fact, the Tribe would be better with him lower in the lineup, if and this is a big IF, they find a leadoff guy who can get on base.

With the way this team is set up, it will need to be a second baseman or corner outfielder in that role. Maybe Asdrubal Cabrera can pull it off, otherwise I don't see one on this version of the Tribe.

C.C. Sabathia is showing no signs of the pitcher who won the Cy Young last season.

And now with latest loss, the Indians have fallen into a tie with the Tigers at the bottom of the AL Central. That might be the saving grace of this April, that the Tigers have been just as bad as the Tribe. Unless, of course, the Chicago White Sox run away and hide from the rest of the division.

Back to C.C. Unlike Joe Borowski, Sabathia seems to have his velocity; it is his command that is way off. Patrick McManamon points out in his column today that since the playoffs, Sabathia is 1-5 with an 11.34 ERA (42 runs, 33 innings) in his past seven starts.

Can the Indians win the division without a great Sabathia and a solid bullpen, no way.

Now it seems that Joe Borowski was hurt, and from what I get from the articles, the Indians knew it.

What is up with that?

Now he is hurt bad enough that he will be out for about a month. Ridiculous.

Most would think that baseball players, especially pitchers, are babied too much. But here is a case where the team needs to be made more important than the individual.

Remember these games and management decisions come September.

By the way, the best way to screw up a bullpen is to have a bunch of poor starts from the rotation. The next way is to put the relievers in roles they aren't used to. For next month or more, that will be the case for the Indians.

What a display last night from Joe Borowski?

The Indians closer blew up again with that 83 mph so-called fastball.

Sheldon Ocker's story had two points worth highlighting. One, the fastball was so slow to Manny Ramirez last night Manny wasn't sure if it was a fastball or change-up. Two, Borowski said he is healthy but that he is going to undergo some sort of tests. If he is hurt and hasn't told anyone, that is not a good situation. But if he isn't hurt, what happened to about 7 mph on his fastball?

Bullpens are a funny thing in baseball. One year great; the next the same guys are awful.

This has to be fixed fast, or no postseason baseball will this year's change-up.

– The TV talk this weekend will center around Tiger Woods and The Masters. This usually signals the beginning of golf season in NE Ohio. With temperatures in the 40s this weekend, maybe the Browns minicamp in May would be a better starting point.

– Is C.C. Sabathia struggling with expectations? Many thought that he turned the corner last season. But the playoffs. The contract talks. The slow start this season. Maybe it is all starting to add up.

– The NHL has to pleased with Alexander Ovechkin being in the playoffs. We get to take a look tonight on Versus and Sunday on NBC.

– I have seen a couple of folks saying Brady Quinn would be the No. 1 pick in this draft. Then how does he not beat out a player who was cut from his first NFL team and another player who becomes the backup with the Seahawks. I think Quinn still needs a lot of work, and obviously the Browns agree.

– Red Sox and Tigers coming to town early next week. We'll get an early indication of what to expect this year in the American League.

– Coming on Ohio.com on Saturday and Sunday, is Patrick McManamon writing about Fausto Carmona, free throw shooting and other random thoughts. Also we'll have coverage of the Masters, the Cavs finish of the season, the Tribe-A's series and a wrapup of the Zips spring football camp.

Does the Tribe's move in signing Fausto Carmona end any chance of bringing C.C. Sabathia back?

Now it can and has been argued — I believe I have written this before — that Sabathia is done here. The Tribe is in no position to sign Sabathia to $160 million for seven seasons. And I beleive that. Just like the Travis Hafner deal was ludicrous. That type of deal for Sabathia should not be on the Tribe's radar. It makes no sense long or short term.

That being said GM Mark Shapiro has said talks with C.C. aren't dead. And later today, he probably will say that again.

But don't believe it. It really doesn't fit into the Tribe's way of thinking to pay a pitcher for that long when he will be in his mid-30s when the deal is complete.

I believe any chance of Sabathia staying with the Indians died today.

Agree?

The Indians were one of the first teams to sign their youngsters to long-term deals in the late 90s, and that obviously worked well.

They aren't first with signing players after good rookie years to big deals — the Colorado Rockies with Troy Tulowitzki and the Arizona Diamondbacks with Chris Young started the trend — but, in this instance, not being first is OK.

Fausto Carmona is worth risking a seven-year contract on. He has shown to be a tough pitcher and more important he has shown mental toughness.

His disaster as closer two years ago showed that Carmona can bounce back from tough times.

GM Mark Shapiro deserves credit for rolling the dice in this situation.

Quick name the top five on the Indians payroll.

Did you forget Casey Blake or Paul Byrd?

The answer: C.C. Sabathia at $11 million, Jake Westbrook at $10M (with $21M more to come in the next two years), Travis Hafner at $8.05M (with $51.75M more to come over the next four seasons … he better not hit .250 ever again), Byrd at $7.5M and Blake $6.1M.

The total, according to numbers published in USA Today, is $78,970,066. Not bad for a team that could win the World Series.

The biggest bargain is a toss-up between Jensen Lewis ($393,000) and Asdrubal Cabrera ($393,300).

It also was reported that the Indians have committed more than $124M in future deals through 2013. The bulk of that being Hafner's crazy contract.

The rest of the AL Central:
Tigers at $137.7M
White Sox at $121.1M
Royals at $58.2M
Twins at $56.9M