--RHP Adam Miller could be facing career-threatening finger reconstructive surgery. Miller has been unable to pitch in games because of continued pain in the middle finger of his right hand.

According to trainer Lonnie Soloff, the problem is that the ligament has become detached from the bone of Miller's finger. It's the same finger on which he had season-ending surgery last summer.

Soloff said a decision will be made by March 26 on whether Miller will have the surgery, in which a tendon would be taken out of Miller's wrist and used to re-attach the ligament to the bone in his middle finger. Soloff called the surgery "career threatening."

"This is an injury that is hard to prevent and hard to overcome," Soloff said. "There's no history for this kind of injury. I can tell you the outcome and success rates of ACL knee surgeries or elbow surgeries. But there is no precedent for this."

Soloff said the injury is common to rock climbers. He knows of no baseball player who has had the same injury.

--DH Travis Hafner had not yet hit a home run in spring training with less than two weeks left. Hafner is coming off offseason surgery to clean out his right shoulder joint. That condition limited him to 198 at-bats and only five home runs last year.

Manager Eric Wedge said he isn't overly concerned by Hafner's lack of power this spring. "He's working his way into it," Wedge said. "His batting practice is (getting better). I think there are still some timing issues, but I'm seeing a cleaner swing, a cleaner path to the ball, with more strength on contact. We're seeing a lot of things from him we haven't seen in awhile."

--LHP Scott Lewis seemed to move ahead of the other candidates for the fifth spot in the starting rotation by throwing five scoreless innings against Oakland on March 20. Lewis is competing with LHP Jeremy Sowers, LHP Aaron Laffey, LHP Zach Jackson and RHP Kirk Saarloos for the fifth spot in the rotation.

"We're seeing somebody who has picked up where he left off last year," manager Eric Wedge said. "What I like is he's under control, but he's still aggressive. He's working hard to be one of our five starters when we break camp."

In four September starts for the Indians last season, Lewis was 4-0 with a 2.63 earned run average.

--LHP David Huff, who had been one of the candidates for the No. 5 spot in the rotation, was included in a round of cuts with two weeks left in camp.

Huff was the Indians' Minor League Pitcher of the Year last season when he was a combined 11-5 with a 2.52 ERA in 27 appearances at Class AA Akron and Class AAA Buffalo. But he was hampered recently by what manager Eric Wedge said is some minor soreness in his bicep.

"We felt the competition (for the fifth spot in the rotation) will be with other guys," Wedge said. "And as soon as we felt Huff wasn't an option for us we wanted to get him down there (in the minor league camp) and get him ready for the season."

BY THE NUMBERS: 4 -- Number of hits DH Travis Hafner had in his first 25 at-bats in spring training games. Three of the four hits were singles. He didn't have a home run.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "I've left camp some years with stuff that isn't as good as it is right now." -- RHP Carl Pavano, after giving up six runs on seven hits in four innings against Oakland, hiking his spring ERA to 9.82.