Asdrubal's O is up a notch, but is it enough?

The Tribe sent infielder Asdrubal Cabrera back to Buffalo in early July to get him refocused at the plate.

At the time he went down his stats were dismal. In 158 ABs, Cabrera was hitting .183; .247 (SLG); .285 (OBP); .532 (OPS). He had scored 16 runs and had 13 RBIs.

He's been back in the bigs since July 18. For the most part the commentary I've heard and read is that Cabrera's glove is to die for, but his hitting may not justify full-time employment next season.

That is an easy impression to get, looking each night at Asdrubal's stats - still weighed down by his awful first half.

But it seemed to me his bat has gotten better-enough (if you will) to earn his keep. Here's what I found.

Since he's been back with the Tribe, Cabrera has had 52 ABs, or roughly 1/3 as many as he had before being sent out. He's got 9 runs scored and 4 RBIs since his July 18 return to the lineup, so his runs-scored pace is a little better, and ribbie level about the same.

But Cabrera is getting on base with more regularity and with a little more pop - not a lot, but some.

Cabrera is hitting .269, up from .183; .383 (SLG) vs. .247 and .372 (OBP), up from .285 prior to his demotion. That raises Cabrera's OPS to .755 after his recall from Buffalo from a dismal .532 before being farmed out.

With his homer tonight, he's had two since coming back, compared with one before being sent down - much too small a number to make any judgment on, but I bring it up because it's there.

I am biased in favor of defense and I say when you have a potential wizard with the glove you play him - if his numbers justify it at all. In Cabrera's case I think the numbers - since his return at least - are encouraging. But we've still got two more months (almost) to get a better feel.

By the way, to illustrate my point about defense being as important (or more so) at keeping runs off the board as offense is in putting them on, tonight's two runs for the Rays scored due to Jhonny Peralta's lack of range.Peralta's bat has convinced me we need to keep him, but we need to see what he's all about at 3B - especially since Andy Marte has disappeared again and - to me - has pretty much shown he has nothing.

Reyes on the way?

MLB.com's Anthony Castrovince reports we may be getting our first look at one of the guys who recently joined the Tribe during all of the trade-deadline activity.

Anthony Reyes, picked up from St. Louis, is 2-0 at Buffalo and Castrovince reports there are strong hints coming from the big-league club that we may see Reyes the next time the Tribe needs a starter on Aug. 12.

Oh ya! The man Cleveland fans love to hate - David Dellucci - had another 2-run dinger tonight. The game winner in fact.

Does that mean I want to see more of him? Of course it doesn't.