Hello Tribe fans everywhere!

Spring training is underway and nobody's suffered a serious injury yet. Yeah, Jake Westbrook has a "dead arm," and the Indians plan to rest him until Sunday, but as Westbrook himself admits, he always gets a sore arm in spring training.

In truth, the Tribe isn't too concerned about Westbrook, who was injured for a good chunk of the '07 campaign, and didn't pitch a lot of innings. Cleveland's brass is concerned, however, about C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona, both of whom looked pooped in the league championship series against Boston.

Sabathia, in his Cy Young season, topped the American League with 241 innings pitched, and that total doesn't include the post-season games. Carmona hurled 215 innings in the regular season, although he had a lot of "quickie innings," when he would retire the side on a dozen or fewer pitches.

Because nobody logs innings the way Bob Feller, Ferguson Jenkins, Gaylord Perry, Jim Kaat, Wilbur Wood and dozens of other former pitchers did, today's clubs are always petrified that pitchers could be permanently damaged by too many innings. Anything over 200 frames, in fact, is considered pushing it. Feller and his crew, who regularly pitched into the high 300s, would scoff at such precautions, but I once heard Orel Hershiser say his big year with the Dodgers, when he started and relieved toward the end of the season, nearly ruined him.

You'll recall, too, how poorly the Chicago White Sox pitchers fared following their World Championship year in 2005.

That said, the Indians pitcher I'm most concerned about is Carmona. Prior to last season, the most innings he ever logged in a season was 173 innings in 2005 -- and that was when he split the year between Akron and Buffalo. Yes, Carmona works economically, but, being only 24, you never know how he's going to bounce back.

Part of my concern is that the Indians really need Carmona to continue his rapid rise to the top. He pitched so well in 2007 that any falloff could prove a major setback. Realistically, I don't think the Indians can count on him for another 19 wins, but 15 would not be out of the question. In fact, I think he needs to win at least 15 games for the Tribe to repeat at Central Division champs.

You can tell I'm a longtime Indians fan. Here it is, only the fourth game of the Grapefruit Season and I'm already worrying about the campaign ahead. But, hey, this is important stuff. This team has a chance to go all the way, but only with healthy hurlers. So, let's not hear anymore talk of dead arms and other depressing subjects.

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The answer to the last quickie quiz is: Andy Marte was born in Villa Tapia in the Dominican Republic.

Today's quiz: How old was Fausto Carmona when he started pitching in the Indians farm system?

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-- Kevin Cuneo