With the demotion of 3B Lonnie Chisenhall to AAA, the Indians have opened up more ABs for 32-year old righty swinging Mike Aviles, 32-year old righty swinging Ryan Raburn and 42-year old lefty swinging DH Jason Giambi.  Mark Reynolds will also likely play more at 3B than he has so far this year for the Indians.  When Reynolds is at 3B, Giambi will likely get to DH.  Giambi has played in 12 games for the Indians so far this year and he is 9 for 40 (.225 avg, .754 OPS) with 8 runs scored, 2 homers and 11 RBIs.  When Reynolds DHs, Aviles or Raburn will likely play 3B.  Aviles has played in 22 games for the Indians so far this year and he is 16 for 56 (.286 avg, .735 OPS) with 9 runs scored, 2 homers, 13 RBIs and 1 stolen base.  Raburn has played in 23 games for the Indians so far this year and he is 24 of 75 (.320 avg, .938 OPS) with 11 runs scored, 4 homers and 11 RBIs.  With the demotion of Chisenhall, the Indians have amped up the offense even more…..as Giambi, Aviles and Raburn are all hitting the ball well so far this year.

27-year old switch-hitting C/1B Carlos Santana is stepping up this season with the bat.  He has played in 27 games for the Indians so far this year and he is 34 for 95 (.358 avg, 1.129 OPS) with 20 runs scored, 7 homers, 15 RBIs and 1 stolen base.  Santana could be set up to have a career year with the bat now that the Indians have put a lot of good hitters around him in the lineup.  Santana has now played in 371 games in his first four years with the Indians and he is 333 of 1,304 (.255 avg, .829 OPS) with 199 runs scored, 58 homers, 192 RBIs and 12 stolen bases.

29-year old righty swinging DH/1B/3B Mark Reynolds has been ripping the ball so far this year for the Tribe.  Reynolds has played in 24 games so far this year for the Tribe and he is 26 of 88 (.295 avg, .985 OPS) with 18 runs scored, 8 homers, 22 RBIs and 1 stolen base.  Reynolds has walked 10 times so far this year and he has whiffed 23 times.  With his strikeouts down a bit, Reynolds has seen his average hover around .300…..but I don’t think he can keep that up.  The power is real though as he is more than capable of hitting 40 or more homers if he can just stay healthy in 2013.

27-year old switch-hitting catcher Carlos Santana is on fire with the bat so far this year for the Tribe.  He has played in 6 games for the Indians so far this year and he is 12 for 24 (.500 avg, 1.455 OPS) with 5 runs scored, 2 homers and 5 RBIs.  Santana has walked 2 times and he has only whiffed 1 time, as he is locked in at the plate.  In yesterday’s 13-0 win over the Rays in Tampa, Santana was 5 for 5 with 3 runs scored, 2 doubles, a homer and 3 RBIs.  Santana is going to play some 1B and DH when he’s not catching as the Indians can’t afford to keep his bat out of the lineup.  But, in the future, I would suggest that the Indians play Santana more at 1B than at DH, just in case Lou Marson gets injured during the game like he did this weekend.  The Indians can’t really afford to be without a DH if Santana needs to replace Marson behind the plate during a game.

3B has been a black hole for the Tribe this year, so they are likely going to give 23-year old lefty swinging Lonnie Chisenhall a long look there in September.  Chisenhall has played in 25 games for the Indians so far this year and he is 21 of 75 (.280 avg, .801 OPS) with 11 runs scored, 4 homers, 10 RBIs and 2 stolen bases.  He has now played in 91 games over his first two years with the Indians and he is 75 of 287 (.261 avg, .726 OPS) with 38 runs scored, 11 homers, 32 RBIs and 3 stolen bases.  The Indians hope Chisenhall is their 3B of the future….starting now.