Travis Hafner talked to the media for the first time since he went on the disabled list in May, and he said his right shoulder is at 50 percent strength. That doesn’t sound too promising, but Hafner actually said his shoulder has improved a good amount the past couple weeks.

“It’s been getting stronger every week,” he said. “Ten or 20 percent every week in the strength tests. Right now we’re pretty hopeful that we can start swinging the bat in a couple weeks.”

It would have been nice to hear Hafner say the shoulder injury went back to last year’s playoffs because it might have explained his struggles, but he said it started first in spring training. Things became intolerable in May. At that point, he could not use his right arm for anything. He called it “helpless.”

The injury itself sounds pretty weird, a word even Hafner used. He said there is no structural problem, but that weakness and instability in the shoulder caused his rotator cuff and scapula muscle to just shut down. It would seem like a nerve problem led to this difficulty, but Hafner said determining the cause would be speculation. He said he hopes to return this year – for some part of the season.

Manager Eric Wedge, meanwhile, addressed the media pretty directly about the pregame meeting he held with his team. My translation of Wedge’s words: Grow up, forget what’s happened, play like a professional. He might have been kinder, of course, but the 10-game winning streak the Indians brought home obviously indicated the team had a bit of a hangdog approach.

Here are some of Wedge’s comments:

On the team: “They’re the ones that have to go out and play. They’re the ones that have to go out and execute. They’re the ones that have to come here with the attitude and the approach that we’re accustomed to, and that’s a winning attitude. That’s a winning edge.”

On being down about the trade of C.C. Sabathia: “I understand it. I do. But that’s done. Now we move on and play baseball.”

On the losing streak: “It weighs on you. You wear it. You’re supposed to. You wear it individually and you wear it as a ballclub. But you can’t let it get you down. You can’t.”

On the team, again: “I don’t assume anything, but I don’t worry about the effort of this ballclub because I know they’re going to show up and get after it. I know they give a damn. I know they care about each other. I know they respect the game. Because those are things we just wouldn’t put up with. And they know that. So I don’t worry about that. But, I don’t want their heads down, I don’t want them thinking about things they shouldn’t think about.”

It almost seems like the Indians should wipe the slate clean, tell the team to mentally approach the games like the record is 0-0. It’s lame, but it’s what the Indians have at the moment. A team has to hang its hat on something, right?

And … if Wedge wanted to see a different approach and attitude, Thursday’s big win over Tampa was a good start.

As for Yellowstone, here are some random shots .. including an elk staring at the silly humans, a couple scenes taken by my 12-year-old daughter and a pronghorn adult and child.