Not soon enough!

Pirates ended up scoring 4 in that inning, and took a great catch by Cabrera at wall to get out of inning.

4-0 - bad guys btm of 3rd

Tarp back on the field. And Brandon Koehnke, head grounds crew guy, took a spill. Injured, helped off the field. Just one of those days so far.

Well, it's not an official game yet...

I turned away when tarp came back on. I just checked back in. It is now 7-0 and the rain is coming down still.

We gotta talk about Kipnis. His defense has definitely slipped, and he seems to be trying to redefine the Mendoza line. We have a $500k guy sitting on the bench, right handed hitter, better defensive range, who needs playing time to see if he could make it (EG). I would mind it less if a $500 guy booted a sure thing double play ball than a $12 million guy does it. Sure, it is a loss either way but EG would shrug it off, Kip gets driven deeper into depression

Hillbilly wrote:Yandy is in lineup for EE again tonight, and batting clean up.

Remember the other day when I mentioned how EE played the field and kept having to run everywhere on bases and joked he may need a day off. I guess he needed 2!

Hope nothing is wrong. Anybody here anything?

Seems when he got hit on the hand, it is lingering.

Uncle Dennis wrote:We gotta talk about Kipnis. His defense has definitely slipped, and he seems to be trying to redefine the Mendoza line. We have a $500k guy sitting on the bench, right handed hitter, better defensive range, who needs playing time to see if he could make it (EG). I would mind it less if a $500 guy booted a sure thing double play ball than a $12 million guy does it. Sure, it is a loss either way but EG would shrug it off, Kip gets driven deeper into depression

UD - Kipnis is hitting .271 with an .879 OPS over the past 30 days. It's .270 with an .840 OPS over the last 60 (yes, 60!) days. So he is hitting the past 2 months back to his career norms, if not better.

So there is no argument for him not hitting - that is from April and May and not relevant now.

Now the fielding thing....there is an issue there. If it were me I would move Yandy to 3B more often with Josey over to 2B. Last season our best ball was played with Ramirez at 2B and we know they tried to shop Kipnis to keep it that way.

I'm sure that they would be happy to find a way to include Kip in an end of July deal. But I assume our minor league IF will bring much more attention from sellers.

No one wants the Kipnis contract unless the Tribe kicks in a large portion of it.

Overall this team is very careful about committing large money long term (right Pronk?) and this again is why.

It won’t happen but I would like to see front office get creative and try an NBA type trade. But we can’t trade a future draft pick, so ... Find a team willing to take Kipnis if we kick in an extra prospect in the deal. We are very deep in the middle infield, for example. Find a team that needs a 2nd baseman, who also likes a SS like Chang. Trade them Kip and Chang for cash considerations. They can send us a dollar later. Use TFIR to sell them on why they should take a chance on Kip. A team like the Yankees who need a 2nd baseman (Walker is a disaster for them, worse than Kip) and don’t care about money might just take it.

Saw an article on FB that linked all our towns sports woes to the number 22.

HB - the Yankees have Gleyber Torres, young stud, so they wouldn't be interested. He is just starting a rehab so he'll be back soon and is having a very good season.

You do have a great thought there in sending a prospect with him.

I actually think Kip would be a very nice fit for a number of teams out there.

The thing is, the Cleveland Indians are not one of them. Jose Ramirez would arguably be instantly the best 2B in the big leagues - including fielding - if he were moved to 2B. And middle infield defense is sooo important.

Oh, yes, forgot about Torres. But yeah, you get the gist of it. Might be able to find a taker if we include a prospect we don't need in return for almost nothing.

EE is back in lineup tonight.

Today's Tribe 9:
Lindor SS
Brantley LF
Ramirez 3B
Encarnacion DH
Alonso 1B
Cabrera RF
Kipnis 2B
Gomes C
Naquin CF

Bieber SP