"Manny Acta went down the check list. It was easy to tell that he wasn't doing it for the first time.

• Center fielder Grady Sizemore: "Grady has been throwing and hitting in Arizona. He's been doing baseball activities."

• Right fielder Shin-Soo Choo: "He's fine. He's 100 percent. He's completed his rehab."

• Left fielder Michael Brantley: "His hand is OK. He just started hitting."

• Right-hander Justin Masterson: "All the reports we've gotten on his left [non-throwing] shoulder are fine. ... No issues."

Acta is starting his third year as manager of the Indians. In the first two, he repeatedly made one point. His best players needed to stay healthy because the Indians didn't have similar talent behind them and the probability of going outside the organization to acquire such talent was remote.

Never were truer words spoken in regard to the 2011 season. The Indians used the disabled list 22 times. The Twins were the only American League team to use it more (25). Acta's top four hitters, Sizemore, Choo, Asdrubal Cabrera and Travis Hafner, were in the same lineup only 17 times.

On May 23, the Indians were 30-15 and in first place by seven games in the AL Central. They were the talk of baseball, but dark forces were already afoot. On May 16, Sizemore went on the disabled list with a bruised right knee. Sizemore, who opened the year on the DL following microfracture surgery on his left knee in 2010, was hitting .282 (22-for-78) with 10 doubles, six homers and 11 RBI in 18 games. He returned May 27, but never hit the same way and was back on the DL in July.

On May 18, Hafner strained his right oblique during batting practice in Chicago. He went on the DL May 20. Hafner was hitting .345 (39-for-113) with five homers and 22 RBI. He returned in June only to go back on the DL in August with a right foot injury, although he managed to finish the season healthy. "