HAPPY NEW YEAR

Ditto!

This is certain to be our year to win it all.

Why not!

Jason Kipnis - 2B - Indians

Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the Indians plan to move Jason Kipnis back to second base for the 2018 season.

Kipnis has been a man without a position, and the club had even considered him in left field as a contingency option in case Michael Brantley wasn't ready for the start of the season. That means that Jose Ramirez will now shift back to third base, where he began the 2017 campaign before shifting to second.

IF they can't deal Kipnis, what other stance can they take really if Brantley is staying in LF?

They can always bring in Urshela for defense and move Jose to 2B??

TFIR wrote:Jason Kipnis - 2B - Indians

Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the Indians plan to move Jason Kipnis back to second base for the 2018 season.

Kipnis has been a man without a position, and the club had even considered him in left field as a contingency option in case Michael Brantley wasn't ready for the start of the season. That means that Jose Ramirez will now shift back to third base, where he began the 2017 campaign before shifting to second.

Meanwhile, they're still trying like hell to trade him. Maybe, to another team, a second baseman with better than average numbers looks better than a left fielder with average numbers.

Agree, the perfect solution is to find a taker for Kipnis who has something they need. Problem is, they also want to dump the salary and that makes him much tougher to trade.

Teams are so much smarter now regarding payroll. Even teams like the Yankees and Dodgers are all over getting under the $197 million cap...errr....threshold.

Smarter team management is the single biggest reason this offseason market is crawling. Teams are now operating like the Tribe has. Avoiding long term commitments - especially to guys in their 30s.

Meanwhile agents are not accepting this trend. So we have the mass free agent staredown that exists this winter.

Guys, our old forum pal, Darkstar, just pointed out to me on Facebook that our long time friend J.R. has passed away. Yesterday. I guess he passed of pneumonia and passed peacefully.

I’m shocked and saddened. He was a nice guy. He was actually the first person I ever chatted with online when I first got on the World Wide Web.

I hope the Tribe wins it all this year and he can see it.

I too am very sorry to hear. I have never met any of you personally but you're all part of my Indians Family. Condolences to J.R.'s family

I had the pleasure of meeting JR at an Indians game. I will remember JR. It's our forum's loss.

Holy Cow! I was at the last regular season game with JR, and was unaware of any issues. I realize that things can change in 3 months, but heck, that is just not fair.

JR was one of the good guys.

I will miss his puns on FB!

Wow That comes as a real shock. J.R. and I just exchanged Christmas cards a few weeks ago. He said he was doing well.

We were planning on going to the mid west ball parks. We had already gone to Cellular, Wrigley, and Miller parks. We were talking about going to Minnesota and then St. Louis and Kansas City. Nothing was written in stone but I guess that won't be happening now.

RIP JR!

Sorry to hear of JR's passing.

The passing of J.R. was quite a shock.

Many forum members spent time in Winter Haven with him.

I remember sitting with him at a game and asked him if he was going to get something to eat. He pulls out a peanut butter sandwich and starts chowing down. I kind of chuckled...no ballpark food for J.R.

If anybody can post a link to his obit, I think forum members would appreciate it.

R.I.P J.R.