An off-season trip to Las Vegas may end up costing Cleveland Browns cornerback Joe Haden four games.

According to Pro Football Talk,a "league source" says Haden tested positive for Adderall after taking the medication as a "pick-me-up" during an offseason visit to Las Vegas. A positive test would result in a four-game suspension of the Browns best defensive player.

Great.

PFT also says that, because the clock hasn't started ticking on the appeal process, Haden may be able to avoid a possible suspension until well into the 2012 season (or maybe not until next year). The NFL appeals process takes months to process.

If Haden does end up serving a suspension, he will join a growing list of young players who have been nailed for using Adderall, according to Gatorsports.com. New Orleans placekicker Garrett Hartley and former Cardinals tight end Ben Patrick were each suspended in 2009.

Brandon Spikes, a teammate of Haden's at Florida, was suspended for the final four regular season games of  2010. Spikes reportedly dose suffer from ADHD and had a prescription for the medicine. He reportedly did not challenge his suspension because he did not want to miss a playoff game.

Two New York Giants players, rookie safety Tyler Sash and fourth-year running back Andre Brown, were suspended this year even though both have prescriptions. Sash's suspension has been upheld while Brown's was overturned after notifying the NFL of his Adderall prescription.

Gatorsports.com points out that a  "2011 survey of students at 119 colleges in America done by the publication Addiction reported that 25 percent of students at 'very competitive' campuses take Adderall for academic purposes."

It will be interesting to see how the NFL handles all this.

Roberto Hernandez is coming back to Cleveland.

Hernandez, who has missed the entire season after being arrested on Jan. 19 outside the United States consulate in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic,for pitching under the name of Fausto Carmona, will join the rotation and start Wednesday's game against the Angels.

"We liked what we saw," Indians manager Manny Acta said, according to the team's website. "He's ready to go. It makes no sense for us to activate him now, It buys us a couple more days so we can make a decision with the rest of the guys, especially our bullpen. We'll probably need a day or so to get it completely in order and rested."

The charges against Hernandez were dropped in exchange for community service, and he returned to this country with a new visa in late July. Hernandez served a three-week suspension and  then made four minor league starts, posting an ERA of 4.07 in 24.1 innings of work. His last minor league game was Friday with AAA Columbus.

"They liked the way he threw the ball down there," Acta said. "He attacked hitters. It was obviously better competition than being in Lake County, and he was able to go seven strong innings."

During parts of six seasons with the Indians, Hernandez has a record of 53-66 with a 4.59 ERA in 181 games.

So there you go.

Trent Richardson is having surgery.

After reports came out yesterday that Cleveland’s first-round pick might miss the Detroit game due to knee soreness, Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Mary Kay Cabot confirmed that Richardson is having arthroscopic knee surgery to remove a very small piece of cartilage -- the source of his soreness.

No one is sure how long Richardson will be sidelined, but most believe it shouldn’t be more than a few weeks due to the minimal severity of the operation. The rookie running back might make it back for Cleveland’s last preseason game, but it’d be a shock if he didn’t take the field against Philadelphia in the season opener.

Richardson will have well-known orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrew perform the operation. More details to follow.

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According to any source for Indians information that you follow on Twitter, the Indians have placed Travis Hafner on the 15-day disabled list and have recalled IF/OF Jason Donald from Triple-A Columbus. Hafner just recently returned from the paternity list, played one game, and sat out with a back issue up until a MRI that was completed yesterday.

The results of the MRI are still pending, but the Indians are labeling it "lower back inflammation" as of now. An update from Lonnie Soloff will likely come in the near future.

As for Jason Donald, he was batting .277/.365/.441/.807 in Columbus over 65 games played. Donald should see some playing time against lefties as he hit .317 in 60 at bats against them this season on the farm and has a Major League split of .301/.372/.438/.810 against southpaws. Donald played in 18 games with the Indians back at the start of the season, due in large part to the fact that he was hitting .188. He's just 5-for-21 in August, but also had a 5-for-5 game back on July 31.

Hafner has played just 60 games this season, batting .239. He had a nice game on August 5 against Detroit, driving in three runs and hitting a home run, but the back must have flared up after that point. Registering just 201 at bats to this point this season is not beneficial to Hafner as the Indians have a $13M club option for him next season that looks like it will not get picked up.

The Indians clearly lost something when Tim Belcher stepped down from his role as the team's pitching coach to tend to other issues. Scott Radinsky, who had been serving as the bullpen coach, stepped in and took Belcher's place for the 2012 season. Just four months into his first season as pitching coach, Radinsky was "dismissed" by the Indians per the team's official Twitter. Ruben Niebla will assume interim duties.

This season, the Indians have clearly had issues on the pitching side of things. Their 4.74 ERA is the third-worst in baseball and just .03 runs away from being the worst in the American League. They have also issued the second-most walks. The timing of this move has a lot to do with the fact that the Indians have posted a 5.55 team ERA since the All-Star break and have given out 106 walks in just 26 games.

Niebla takes the short drive up I-71 from Columbus, where he was the pitching coach for the Columbus Clippers of the International League, to Cleveland to take over for at least the remainder of the season. Niebla also served as the Double-A Akron Aeros pitching coach in 2009. The Clippers had a team ERA of 3.91 this season under Niebla's guidance. Unlike the Indians, however, the Clippers were last in the league in walks with just 330 in 119 games.

Stay with TheClevelandFan.com for any other breaking developments as it appears the Indians are in a bit of a transitional phase with the players and personnel.

Cleveland Browns cornerback Joe Haden is reportedly facing a four-game suspension for allegedly failing a drug test.

According to ESPN Cleveland, "multiple sources" (all unnamed) claim the NFL is reviewing the result of the test, with one source (also unnamed) saying that  Haden "tested positive for the prescription drug Adderall during a routine, off-season test" that the league adminsters as part of its policy to detect the use of anabolic steroids and related substances.

Adderall is a stimulant that is commonly prescribed to treat ADHD. It is also on the NFL's list of banned substances.

If Haden did test positive, the league mandates a second test from the original sample. If that shows up positive as well, Haden would be suspended for the first four games of the regular season. Haden can appeal the suspension if one is handed down.

If this is true and Haden is suspended, the Browns will open the season without four starters on defense, with Haden joining suspended linebacker Scott Fujita, and injured defensive tackle Phil Taylor and injured linebacker Chris Gocong.

Cleveland Browns running back Trent Richardson - the third overall pick in April's NFL Draft, missed practice on Tuesday with what is being reported as a sore knee and his availability for Friday night's preseason opener aginst Detroit is in question.

According to media reports, Richardson was wearing a rubber sleeve on his left knee and spent Tuesday's practice on an exercise bike. Richardson had arthroscopic surgery on that same knee in February to repair a torn meniscus.

“We’re gonna evaluate him further here, and there’s a chance he won’t play Friday,” coach Pat Shurmur told The Beacon Journal. “I’m always concerned about injuries, but I think at this point we’ll just find out what it is. He’s been practicing well, and he’s just a little bit sore right now, so we’ll just see where he is.”

Richardson will undergo an MRI on the knee, according to The Plain Dealer.

If Richardson is unable to go Friday night, Montario Hardesty and Brandon Jackson will have a chance to showcase their talents.

Serenity now, Browns fans, serenity now.

Just one day after officially designating Derek Lowe for assignment, the Indians cut the cord with another veteran player, designating Johnny Damon for assignment. Ezequiel Carrera was recalled to take Damon's 25-man roster spot.

The Indians signed Damon in April after realizing that their left field situation was not as good as they thought. Damon was signed to a one-year, $1.25M deal and was rushed through the minor leagues to get to Cleveland as rapidly as possible. Damon never performed, however, batting just .222 in 64 games and was one of the worst left fielders in the American League. The Damon experiment ends as the Indians are trying to look at younger players and see if they have anything valuable to carry on the roster next season.

Damon will catch on with somebody who thinks he still has something left in the tank. The Indians will have 10 days to trade Damon or release him to free agency. It's possible that a deal is already in place and that Damon will be moved shortly.

As for Carrera, who spent time with the Indians last season, batting .243 in 66 games, was hitting .295 for Triple-A Columbus and stole 26 bases. Carrera had actually shown a little bit of surprising power, hitting six home runs in 97 games. He'll likely play a lot of left field against right handed pitchers for the rest of the season.

Matt Ginter.

Tomo Ohka.

Chris Seddon.

They are names that teams sign in the offseason to minor league deals and hope that they'll never end up pitching a game for the major league team at any point. If anything, they are there for minor league depth, to eat innings, fill various roles so young arms don't get hurt.

But on Sunday, all three of those names will have one thing in common.

They'll have started a game for the Cleveland Indians. It's been a few years since the Indians have had to resort to names of this ilk, but they will on Sunday in their need to replace Derek Lowe in the rotation.

While it may be just temporary, Chris Seddon will get the call on Sunday and join the ranks of the Ginter's and Ohka's that team would have rather not used, but had to. With Roberto Hernandez steadily getting his games in and his suspension evaporating by the days that pass, he'll actually be in line to take that rotation spot Seddon is filling when his suspension does expire.

It was in 2009 that the Indians had to call upon the services of Tomo Ohka, the last time the Japanese right-hander saw a major league mound. In six starts Ohka had a 7.44 ERA for the club, going 0-5. He was then moved to the bullpen where he had a little more success but ultimately was just a rather small footnote in the Indians struggles that 2009 season.

It was history that repeated self actually because the year prior to, the Indians were forced to call upon veteran Matt Ginter to fill a similar void. Ginter's first start was actually good in that he gave the Indians five shutout frames and earned a win, his first in the majors since 2004. Ginter's remaining three games were not bad either despite losing all three, he went six innings in two and at least filled some sort of the void the Indians had for a few weeks.

You can go to any club on a yearly basis and find names like these that resurface for a start or two. Teams that are out of contention and perhaps injured to the point of having no other options usually turn to them in order to eat up innings and not have to throw a young player to a pack of major league hitting wolves before they are ready. The Indians are simply at a point where they just need some zeros so they're turning to someone having a pretty decent season in Triple-A. Seddon has only pitched in seven major league games, back in 2007 for the then Florida Marlins. 

He had an ugly 8.83 ERA in 17.1 innings of work. Now he makes his first start in the American League for the Indians and looks to maybe actually have a greater impression than the one he left in Florida. He's also the first left-handed pitcher that will start for the Indians this year. Seddon is 11-4 with a 3.44 ERA overall this season in 20 starts for the Clippers.

God speed Chris Seddon, for if you don't do well, you forever mark yourself in Matt Ginter and Tomo Ohka lore.

Cleveland Browns linebacker Chris Gocong suffered a torn Achilles tendon in his right leg during Saturday morning's practice in Berea and is done for the season.

“I’m disappointed he got hurt,” Browns coach Pat Shurmur said. “He was out there practicing and Achilles injuries sometimes pop up on you. They really don’t look all that bad. He stepped wrong and it happened. “I talked to Chris and he’s fine. We’re moving on and he understands that. My hope now is he gets back healthy quickly.”

Gocong was defending a pass to tight end Jordan Cameron and fell to the ground after planting his leg.

Gocong was entering his third season with the Browns after coming over from Philadelphia. He has started every game the past two seasons, posting 145 tackles and 5.5 sacks. He also moved to fill in at Scott Fujita's position last year when Fujita was injured.

The Browns will be without two of their starting linebackers for the first three games as Fujita is suspended for the first three games of the season.

You never want to see anyone injured - especially a starter - but if it has to happen, better now than during the season. The Browns now have the rest of training camp and all of the preseason to work on finding Gocong's replacement - most likely either fourth-year player Kaluka Maiava or rookie James Michael-Johnson.

“It’s a great opportunity for some other guys behind him to get in there and play and get more reps,” Shurmur said. “I want to make sure the guys that fill in for him get plenty of reps and I think we’ve got plenty of time to do that. We’ve got four preseason games and plenty of practices here. Whoever ends up filling his role will have plenty of opportunities to improve.”

Welcome to Cleveland James Haslam. You didn't happen to bring any outside linebackers with you, did you?