"Travis Buck is the hot name in camp right now. The Indians' deep thinkers obviously believe he can play, though they probably will not hand him a spot on the roster unless he earns it. That means to be safe, he has to perform at least as well as Chad Huffman and Shelley Duncan, his fiercest rivals for a job as an extra outfielder. So far, Buck is batting .471 (8-for-17) with one double, one home run and three RBI. He has walked only once, but he has yet to strike out. Spring-training numbers aren't the most reliable method of evaluating a player, but Buck also has a track record. He has more than 1,000 big-league at- bats and a .250 batting average with the Oakland Athletics in four seasons, but injuries and possibly disinterest by the A's held him back. That's what Buck thinks, anyway. ''It was tough,'' he said of his time with the A's. ''The only time I played consistently was as a rookie in 2007. I played in 2008, but I struggled with an 0-for-20 before ending the season with good numbers.'' ''I've had some nagging injuries. Maybe that's why they didn't want me to play. Then I could last longer. I didn't know how to handle it. I was a 23- or 24-year-old guy who wasn't playing and wasn't really told why. But I came to the park ready to play every day.'' Buck, 27, has accumulated an impressive list of injuries the past three seasons. ''I got a concussion when I ran into a wall at full speed in '08,'' he said. ''I had vertigo and was out six or eight weeks. Some of the symptoms carried over into the next year, kind of smaller dose of vertigo." Read more: http://www.ohio.com/sports/indians/117567258.html
