More notes from Cleveland's minor league side …• Cleveland lefty David Huff had a chance to win a rotation spot this spring -- and it was a good chance, with competition like Carl Pavano, Jeremy Sowers and Kirk Saarloos -- but struggled in four innings and was sent out. His velocity, reportedly sitting 89-92 mph and touching 94 last summer, is back down to the upper 80s, touching 90 a few times, and his secondary stuff wasn't crisp. His best pitch was a low-80s slider with late tilt, followed by a changeup with good arm speed and some run but not much action. His curve was soft with a 12/6 break. He hides the ball well behind his body and shows above-average command, but the soft fastball plus the lack of a definite out pitch (the slider could be one, but isn't quite there, and his changeup was nowhere near as good as in the past) adds up to a low ceiling.• I cannot believe, almost eight months later, that the Dodgers traded Carlos Santana for Casey Blake. Seeing Santana for the first time this spring has retriggered the existential crisis I underwent when first hearing the Dodgers had traded this great catching prospect for an old, not very good impending free agent. It can't possibly be real. Santana is a force at the plate -- sure, he has a funny setup with a toe-tap and a big stride, but he keeps his weight back, lets the ball travel and then goes medieval on it. He's getting his arms extended more this year and is strong enough to drive the ball to the gaps or out of the park anyway. I don't think he's that far off, but even if he was, you just can't give a guy like this away for two months of Casey Blake.• Lefty Tony Sipp is back to 100 percent after missing almost two years with an oblique strain and then Tommy John surgery, but he should make an impact on Cleveland's big league pen this year with the stuff he showed Wednesday. Sipp sat from 88-91 mph, touching 92 once on a fastball that straightened out too much, and threw a couple of plus sliders at 83-84 that had tilt but moved in to right-handed hitters very late like cutters. He also showed a fringe-average to average changeup in the low 80s but needs to keep the pitch down more consistently. It's a funky delivery with some deception that will make him tough on left-handed hitters, but he should be able to get righties out as well by backdooring the slider and mixing the fastball and change.• I had rated Michael Brantley as a probable fourth outfielder over the winter based on secondhand reports and the lack of power (his career ISO is just .061, and he threw out an unfathomably low .039 in low-A in 2006), but having seen him three times this spring I think that I was wrong. He's too good of a hitter to dismiss as a fourth outfielder, and I'd be surprised if he didn't eventually show enough doubles power to profile as at least an everyday player. He has great hand-eye coordination and keeps his weight back well; he concentrates so much on contact that he doesn't try to drive balls middle-in to right field, but I'm convinced now that it's not a lack of ability but a hit-first approach. He's a plus runner and plays a solid center field. If the grade I had on him before was a 45/50, he's really a 50/55.• Carlos Rivero left Wednesday's Double-A game after banging his knee while sliding, but the injury isn't serious.