You're a Profesional Athlete—Act Like One

Does Chris Perez really understand what it means to be a
professional athlete? Probably. But does he act like it?
Not at all.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

By now, I'm sure you've all heard about Chris Perez's latest string of Tweets from Sunday night, in which he berated people for Tweeting him more when the Indians lose than when they win.

While Chris Perez has the right to do whatever he wants with his Twitter—including criticizing fans—I don't have to like it. I'm a huge fan of Chris Perez the baseball player. But Chris Perez the person? I'm not so sure.

Allow me to explain—and stay with me on this, I promise you'll see my logic.

A few years ago, I went from attending a Sports Camp to being a junior counselor at the same place in consecutive summers (again, stay with me, I promise it'll pay off). This may or may not have been the best thing in the world for me, but it did mean I knew all of the people I would be working with quite well.

Anyway, one of the Senior Counselors I worked with always had these sayings—like "Safety first, last, and always." Or when someone we didn't know would come on the camp grounds he'd say, "Challenge them!"

But the one saying he'd always bark that stuck with me came whenever I'd make a mistake. He'd say, "You're an All-American, now act like one!"

Now I've never been an All-American at anything in my life before, and I don't anticipate it happening anytime in the near future, but the principle of the mater has always resonated with me.

If you're a high-profile person—a role model, or someone who ought to command respect—then you better act like it. You can't just do whatever the hell you want and act like a jackass. There are standards  and practices you must uphold if you want to have the respect that comes with your high profile.

And when I think about those standards and practices, there's one person that comes to mind as the poster boy for proper conduct as a professional athlete.

Colt McCoy.

I was at Browns Training Camp the other day, and after the end of the morning practice McCoy came over to the fans to sign autographs. McCoy obviously had a roller coaster of an offseason, highlighted by Draft Night when he tweeted congratulations to Trent Richardson for being selected by the Browns, and then went silent after the 22nd pick. Wonder why.

But I digress. McCoy came over to the fans, where some were yelling words of encouragement, and others...well, let's just say they weren't so encouraging. I'm not saying that they were being pure unadulterated evil to the guy, but everybody and their grandmother knows McCoy's not going to be the starting quarterback and some fans were making that quite clear.

And yet, McCoy didn't bat an eye. He signed autograph after autograph for a good five to 10 minutes, and while he didn't address the haters, every time McCoy finished signing and fans would give him words of encouragement he'd give a simple, "Thank you, I appreciate your support."

He wasn't brash. He wasn't annoyed with anyone. He simply signed his autograph, expressed his appreciation, and went on his way.

And that is exactly how a professional athlete is supposed to act in my book.

Look, Chris Perez is obviously not the same kind of person as Colt McCoy. If you think Perez wouldn't complain until the cows came home if Vinnie Pestano replaced him as closer of the Indians, you're delusional. McCoy has been nothing but a paragon of class, despite the fact that his father and his brother have done things that really didn't sit so well with the Browns organization.

Oh yeah, and the Browns took a 28 year old to replace him at quarterback, and McCoy still hasn't said boo about it.

This is not to say that I want all professional athletes to just be silent, and only give the canned answers the PR reps train them to give. That's not it at all. I just don't think Perez understands what it means to be a professional athlete.

He doesn't seem to understand that it's just not a good idea to complain about fans when you just got swept by a last place team. He doesn't seme to get that saying "it's baseball" isn't an excuse for being swept when you're supposed to be a contending team. And most of all, he doesn't seem to understand that he's a professional athlete—he's making $4.5 million dollars. Why does it bother him so damn much that people are ticked off after a loss, and don't always praise him after a win?

Hey Don Draper, isn't there something that might make up for the lack of tweets?

Well how about that. I guess that $4.5 million is supposed to count for something.

So, again, Chris Perez the baseball player? Great. Chris Perez the person? I'm not sure I like him so much.

Cause hey, all those things I said he "doesn't understand?" It's way more likely that he understands them just fine and is a jackass about them anyway. And because of that, I don't know that he'll ever really be one of the professional athletes I look up to and admire.

~MAS

Choo-Choo gone?

Could Choo be on his way out of Cleveland?
I think that might be the Indians best option.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons 

If the right deal comes along, the Indians should trade Shin-Soo Choo.

I honestly didn't think this would even be on the table back in March or April, but the time has come and I'll tell you why.

After defeating Justin Verlander on Thursday, the Indians fell flat on their faces, getting swept in their three game series in Minnesota.

And that's putting it politely.

The Twins outscored the Indians 28-6. For those of you who don't like subtraction, that's a "diff" of -22. Numbers like that in a three game series are nothing short of pathetic.

Of course, that means the starters' ERA for this series was an abhorrent 11.81. Josh Tomlin has been downright awful in his last eight outings with a 2-5 record and a 7.02 ERA, and he was dismal in game one giving up eight runs (all earned) on 10 hits in 4.0 innings. Ouch.

Derek Lowe didn't pitch in this series, but he's been just as bad over his last 12 starts, going 2-8 with a 7.59 ERA. Justin Masterson came on and crapped out in game two, and Ubaldo Jimenez had a forgettable performance in game three.

And then the offense... The Indians scored three meaningful runs all weekend—one in each game. Sure, they scored five runs in Saturday's contest, but four of those were scored in the eighth and ninth innings when the game had long been decided—what I like to call Garbage Time.

And manager Manny Acta also had a terrible series, leaving his players out to dry by refusing to argue at least three blown calls. What frustrated me the most about Acta, though, is that he had the nerve to say that the calls were blown after the game on Saturday (not to mention the bad call on Sunday with Asdrubal Cabrera tagging out a would-be base stealer that wasn't called out).

Look, if the calls were blown, the manager should at least go out there and have a conversation with the umpire. I don't need a guy to kick dirt, or make a spectacle out of the whole thing, but if you think the umps blew the call, go tell them. Immediately! Don't wait till the half-inning, or when you're talking to the press to air your grievances.

But I digress. The real question with all this is how in the wide, wide world of sports did the Indians play so poorly after such a nice solid against Detroit?

Well, the answer lies in the numbers. At the end of the game today, STO presented these stats in a graphic and I hope you all don't mind if I hit you with them now.

The Indians since the All-Star break...
Games: 17
Record: 6-11
Runs Per Game: 3.0
Games of 3 runs or less: 13
Batting Average: .229
Starters ERA: 6.33
Runs Scored: 51 (Worst in AL)

Had enough yet?

I know I've been as loud as anyone about the team scoring three runs or less, but the problem is that this is not just a second half trend. The Indians overall record is 50-52. They're just 27-25 at home, 23-27 on the road. Their run differential is -66—an alarming stat for any team trying to contend. And now they've fallen to six games out of the AL Central, and 5.5 games out of the second Wild Card spot.

Not to mention that in 49 of their 102 games overall, they've scored three runs or less.

Think about that, in nearly half of their games, the Indians have not scored more than three runs! And this is supposed to be an AL team! I've been an Chris Antonetti/Mark Shapiro apologist for years, but the way they put this team together with shoe strings and gum is absurd.

And that is why at this point in the season, with the team playing as poorly as it is, it's time to sell. Obviously, veterans like Lowe and Johnny Damon should go. Casey Kotchman is expendable as well—same with Jose Lopez and Shelly Duncan. But here's where we come back to the beginning of this here post with the idea of trading Shin-Soo Choo.

I'm a big Choo fan, and I honestly think the Indians should do their damnedest to re-sign him after the 2013 season. But, based on the team's track record, I have absolute no faith that they'll even try. Thus, it's time for the Indians to do what they do best and fleece other teams out of their quality prospects.

The rumor circulated today that the Pirates are interested in Choo, but would have to deal Starling Marte to make the deal work. If the Pirates call up the Indians willing to make that deal, the Indians have got to seriously consider it.

Marte is 23, bats right handed,  and is a pretty electric player in the outfield. He was called up on Thursday and immediately made an impact, drilling the first pitch he saw in Houston out of the park. If the Indians can get this guy, they'd be foolish not to explore the possibility.

But because Choo wouldn't just be a rental, I don't think it would be unreasonable for the Indians to want a pitcher out of the deal as well. And it can't just be some far away prospect, I'm talking about a good AAA pitcher. Yes, 2011 No. 1 overall pick Garret Cole is also in the Pirates system, but I don't think Choo is worth all that much. I'd be plenty happy with Jeff Locke, and I could settle for Justin Williams. Both of those guys are 24, and have continued to show progress throughout their minor league careers. One of them must be included in any deal with the Pirates for Choo, and I'd expect Antonetti to stipulate that.

I keep saying this team was put together with shoe strings and gum, and I really do believe it. The inconsistency has turned into Garbage Baseball, and after getting swept by the Twins, it seems the season is all but over. As unfortunate as it is, it's time to sing a little Goodnight Irene and get a good deal for a very good player.

~MAS

This One's Big—Really, Really Big

It's time to play that game again...
What If...the Indians win this series with the Tigers?
Photo from brianpenzone of Flickr

So the Indians managed to salvage one of four games from Baltimore with their ace on the mound to start and the best 1-2 bullpen punch in the league to close it out.

I don't think it can be understated how big of a win that was for the Wahoos. It broke a four-game losing streak, it prevented a four-game sweep, it brought the team back to .500, and it gave the team a little wave of momentum to ride into a huge three-game series with the Detroit Tigers.

While we've been patiently waiting for GM Chris Antonetti to give us a Christmas present in July, the Fat Cats went out and made themselves just a bit fatter by acquiring second baseman Omar Infante and starting pitcher Anibal Sanchez from the Miami Marlins. They gave up their top pitching prospect in Jacob Turner, but this is the right type of move for a hot team that would like to stay hot.

Infante stabilizes a second base position for the Tigs that has been a situation analogous to the Indians' left field in terms of offensive production, and it also gives them an above-average pitcher that can help the rotation. It really reminds me a lot of the move the Tigers made last year in trading for Doug Fister a bit before the deadline.

Fister was thought of as an above-average pitcher at the time of the trade, but it proved to be a very shrewd move by Detroit GM Dave Dombrowski. Fister ended up going 8-1 with a 1.79 ERA in 10 starts (11 overall appearances) for the 2011 Tigers, and undoubtedly helped that team run away with the AL Central crown.

Now that's not to say that Sanchez is all of a sudden going to pitch like Cy Young, but anytime you can acquire an above-average starter and second baseman when you're in position to contend for a World Series, it's a pretty good move. Well, at least on paper.

So here's the deal—and don't stop me when you realize you've heard this one before—the Indians will play these Tiggies for three games in late July starting tonight at 7:05. The Tribe comes into the game four games behind Detroit in the Central, and 3.5 games back of the second Wild Card spot (but since Manny Acta said "how dare anyone" talk about the Wild Card when we're only four games out in the Central with 60+ games left, I guess we shouldn't talk about it).

I'll be blunt—I don't think the Indians will make the playoffs, whether they acquire a player (or two...or five) from a trade or not.

Here's a stat for you—in 9 of the 11 games since the All-Star break, the Indians have scored three runs or less. That's right, only twice in eleven games have they scored more than three runs.

There's no other word I can come up with for that than pathetic.

Want to know how many times the Tigers have scored three runs or less in their 10 games since the break?

Once.

Yes just one time, and it came in a clunker of a 12-0 shutout loss to the Angels. You can go back even further and the numbers don't get any worse for Detroit. In July, that shutout is the only time that team hasn't scored at least four runs. In fact, you have to go all the way back to June 29, when the Tigers lost 4-2 to the Rays, to find another game where they scored less than three runs.

With an Indians pitching staff that ranks second last in the American League—not to mention 27th overall—and an anemic (at best) offense, we as Indians fans have reason to be worried coming into these three games. This is not the same Tigers team the Indians swept May by scores of 5-3, 4-2, and 2-1.

Yes, this Indians team has looked bad since the All-Star break with a paltry record of 4-7, and the Tigers have looked great going 8-2 in the same span, but that's why they have to go out and play the games, right?

I hate to call it a make or break series for the Indians, but let's face it—they need a big series win or the team's postseason chances will quickly start to slip away.

~MAS

Allow me to Reintroduce Myself, My Name is Rob! R to the O-B!

Same guy, same number, different name.
Roberto Hernandez—What if?
Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

When Roberto Hernandez was arrested in January for identity fraud, I made the joke that his two names represented the internal battle he always seemed to face—the good Fausto vs the bad Fausto. And I thought, wow, maybe when he was pitching well he was having a good day and felt he was able to conceal his identity well, and in a bad day—or bad year, like in 2009, or even 2011—the whole fraudulent identity thing may have been weighing on him.

But now that the cat's out of the bag, who knows what in the wide of sports the Indians are going to get out of Hernandez once he joins the club after his three week suspension.

First of all, how long is it going to take to get him ready to face major league hitters? Every report has said that Hernandez has been throwing 75-pitch simulated games in his native Dominican Republic. That's all well and good, but those simulated games aren't even against batters from Lake County. Also, 75 pitches really isn't that many for a starting pitcher. He'll need to be stretched out to a least 100 over the next three weeks in order to actually be ready to start for the big-league club.

But even with all that, I have a very bad feeling the Indians are going to see him as their mid-season acquisition of a starting pitcher, and then focus all their efforts on getting a bat. Is that the absolute worst thing that could happen? Well no, not exactly—especially if Hernandez pitches like "Carmona" did in 2007, or even 2010. I know Antonetti said in his press conference today that Hernandez's return doesn't really affect what the team is trying to do in the trade market, and Ken Rosenthal said today that the Indians are focusing their trading efforts on a starting pitcher, but based on this front office's track record, I just don't believe the Indians are going to acquire another starter. 

And the worst part is that it yet again comes down to "What if?" What if Hernandez can come back and be a quality starting pitcher for the last six weeks of the season?

What kind of garbage is that?

This is why every time the stupid "What if?" commercials come on the radio or television, I want to change the station. How much of this "What if?" crap are we as fans supposed to take? It's like this team is being put together on shoe strings and gum—not track records and actual efforts to tangibly improve the team.

I'm sorry, but right now this team is a game over .500, and anyone who thinks someone who hasn't pitched in a major league game in nearly a year is going to all of a sudden become a dominant starting pitcher in MLB—let alone the American League—probably needs their head examined.

You can't even tell me that Hernandez pitched well down the stretch last season, because he didn't. Sure he had a good July and August, but then went 1-3 with a 7.26 ERA in six starts in September and October. So really, this could be subtraction by addition. Is he really what this team needs at a point where it's 2.5 games out of the second Wild Card spot and 3.0 games out of the Central? And who knows where we'll be in three weeks when he's eligible to pitch for the team.

That sort of sounds like I'm saying the Indians may have been better off with Hernandez staying in the Dominican Republic, but it's honestly not. I actually think the Tribe should put him in the bullpen and go from there.

If you recall "Carmona's" rookie year of 2006, he enjoyed a stretch of about two and a half months as the Indians' setup man, and was pretty darn effective as a reliever. Then the Indians traded Bob Wickman and tried to make "Carmona" the closer, an experiment that turned out to be an unmitigated disaster.

But the point is, as a middle-reliever and setup man, Carmona was great. And since everyone in the bullpen not named Rogers, Smith, Pestano, or Perez has been completely unreliable, I think it would be wise to put Hernandez back there. Let's let those who have been starting all season long do that job if we need a rotation replacement—those like Jenmar Gomez or Corey Kluber in AAA, or someone acquired from a trade.

To me, "What if Roberto Hernandez pitches well in the starting rotation for six weeks?" just isn't the type of question an organization serious about winning a division or wild card spot should ask its fans.

~MAS

Time to Fix the Left Field Albatross

Johnny Damon is just the latest in a long line of poor
left fielders.
Photo courtesy of WIkimedia Commons

Do you remember the last time the Indians had a decent left fielder?

A casual fan might guess it was 2007 when the Indians finished the season just one win away from making it to the World Series, and he'd be wrong.

Who was the left fielder that near-championship season? Well, the Indians used Jason Michaels and David Dellucci as a platoon in left for the first half of the season, but then traded for Kenny Lofton on July 27 who spent the rest of the season manning the position.

But in my mind, you've got to go all the way back to 2005 to find a Tribe left fielder that was actually worth his salt. In the offseason leading up to Spring Training, the Indians had signed Juan Gonzalez to come back and play the outfield, but he blew out his hamstring which opened up the door for Grady Sizemore to blossom as an everyday player. (If you remember, Gonzalez came back in June for one at-bat in Minnesota where he re-injured his hammy while running out a ground ball to first base.)

Either way, then-manager Eric Wedge had three fairly productive outfielders that season in Crisp, Sizemore and Casey Blake. And ever since? Well, it's safe to say the trade that sent Crisp to Boston and landed us Kelly Schoppach and Andy Marte was one of the worst of Mark Shapiro's tenure as General Manager. And the front office has been trying to solve the left field situation ever since.

If you're an Indians fan, you probably realize just how bad left field has been for now seven seasons, but just to give you some names...

We've got the aforementioned Michaels, Dellucci, and Lofton, but also Ben Francisco, Matt LaPorta, Austin Kearns, Shelly Duncan, Michael Brantley, Johnny Damon and a brief—but disastrous—stint by Luis Valbuena.

Excluding Brantley, who now of course starts in center, none of those names are anything to write home about. And that is exactly why each and every one of them has been replaced. (Well, besides Damon, but everyone knows he's not a long-term solution.)

Part of this rests on the fact that the Indians couldn't draft players to save their lives for the better part of the last decade. The fact that Trevor Crowe was the organization's 2005 first round pick is truly embarrassing, as is the fact that Jason Kipnis is the only position player currently on the 25-man roster the Indians drafted or picked up as an amateur free agent.

So what are the Indians to do about this? Well, it still burns me up that they spent $5 million on Grady Sizemore instead of sweetening the pot for Josh Willingham to take a two year deal here. But either way, there's no way Minnesota is going to deal Willingham in the first season of his three year deal.

That pretty much leaves Carlos Quentin and Alfonso Soriano as viable left field options potentially on the trade market (we can wish with one hand and you-know-what with the other about Shane Victorino, but every indication is that the Phillies asking price will be much too high).

Unfortunately, acquiring either one of those players could have the same effect of placing a band-aid over a gaping flesh wound, but at least those guys have shown they can be effective at the plate this season.

So between Quentin and Soriano, who would you rather have take over the left field vortex?

If the Indians were to trade for Quentin, it would have to be a priority for them to sign him to a long term deal. I mean two or three years—the same kind of contract they should've offered Willingham. This, in theory, should be easier for 2013 and beyond since Sizemore and Travis Hafner's contracts will be off the books next year—that's a combined $18 million saved.

But the more intriguing deal might be for Soriano. The Cubs left fielder has been quite durable the last few years, as he's played at least 130 games the last two seasons and he's well on his way to a similar number in 2012. He's also been good for at least 20 home runs a season since joining the Cubs in 2007, and should easily reach that total this year as he has 17 already. Even more interesting is that he's signed under contract through 2014—meaning that even if he stinks as a left fielder, the Indians could use him to replace Hafner at DH.

Now, the Cubs would have to eat a whole lot of his salary for this to work—Soriano's owed a whopping $19 million for 2013 and 2014—but the more I think about it, the more I'd like to see him in an Indians uniform sometime in the next couple of weeks. And who knows, maybe the Indians can find a one-stop shop on the north side of Chicago and take Ryan Dempster off the Cubs hands as well.


Soriano and Dempster may not carry the Indians to a World Series Championship, but boy would those two sure improve what is right now a very mediocre team.


We'll see if the front office can pull it off.

~MAS

Indians Mid-Season Report Card

You are what your record says you are, right? If that's true, the Indians are a team three games over .500 with a record of 44-41.

You can spin it as positively as you like—saying things like the Indians spent a good portion of the first half of the season in first place and now they're just three games behind Chicago in the AL Central. Or you could say the Indians are just a game out of the second Wild Card spot. All of those things are absolutely true.

But the fact remains that his team is undeniably flawed. You can't tell me a team with a run differential of -29 is all kinds of successful. And the fact that the team has the second highest ERA in the American League at 4.50 certainly doesn't bode well for their playoff chances.

And yet, here they are with 77 games left to go in the season with a real chance to contend. And everyone knows that in baseball, once you make the postseason anything can happen. It's one of the beautiful things about the sport.

But we're not here to conjecture about the second half—that'll come in a later post. Right now, I'll give the Indians some grades, and talk about some of the players who are doing it right, and others who need some work.

Offense: B-


The Indians offense has been...well, I'd say just a sliver above average. They rank seventh in runs scored in the AL, and 11th overall with 385 runs. They have very little power with only 78 HRs (the Yankees lead the league with 134), but they're fifth in doubles in the AL with 155. They rank eighth in the AL in batting average, slugging and OPS, but—and here's where they become that sliver above average—they're third in on-base percentage because of their league-leading 309 walks.

But when you look at the individual stats, you can see that the lineup is being carried by four players—Shin-Soo Choo, Asdrubal Cabrera, Jason Kipnis, and Michael Brantley. If the Indians are going to make a run, they'll need better consistency from a whole bunch of people in that lineup.

Doing it right: Shin-Soo Choo

Placing Choo in the leadoff spot was no question Manny Acta's best move of the first half, and it could be argued that it was his best move in his tenure as manager of the Indians. Choo has repeatedly said that he was heating up before he made it to the leadoff spot, but since he's been there he's hit .330 with 9 HRs, 22 RBI, 19 doubles, 44 runs scored. When he leads off an inning, he's hit .367. Everybody likes to talk about Kipnis or Cabrera as the first half offensive MVPs, but without Choo in the leadoff spot, there's no way this team is just three games out of first.

Needs work: Carlos Santana

Santana, however, has pretty much been an unmitigated disaster at the plate. The Indians were counting on him building upon a pretty good 2011 where he hit 27 HRs, 79 RBI, and 35 doubles. Instead, he went out and laid a gigantic egg in the first half with just 5 HRs, 30 RBI, and 13 doubles. For those scoring at home, that projects to 10 HRs, 60 RBIs and 26 doubles. That's not what you want out of your "cleanup" hitter.

In fact, as cleanup hitter this year Santana has hit—wait for it—an astonishing .180 with 4 HRs and 19 RBIs. I know batting average isn't everything, but .180 is entirely unacceptable from the cleanup hitter. On the plus side, when he's hitting 5th, Santana has hit .289. Look for him to be there behind Travis Hafner for the 2nd half.

The Indians aren't going anywhere without Hafner and Santana producing at the very least like average four and five hitters.

Pitching: D


I considered giving this portion of the team an "F," but I guess the pitching hasn't been a total failure. It has been, however, pretty darn inconsistent. And you can thank Joe Smith, Vinnie Pestano and Chris Perez for saving that grade.

I'll be blunt—a 4.50 ERA is not going to land this team in the playoffs. And although Justin Masterson had been pitching very well, that clunker against the Rays last Friday didn't do him any favors in my book. It seems like Ubaldo Jimenez has righted himself, and I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt until he he maks me believe otherwise.

But honestly, who in the rotation do you have full confidence in every five days?

Doing it right: Chris Perez & Vinnie Pestano

I put these two together because when these two guys come in the game is pretty much over. Okay, so Perez blew the last game before the break, but the Indians are 26-3 when Perez and Pestano pitch in the same game. That's about as good as you can get from that kind of twosome. I was one of the fools clamoring for Perez to be traded after his Opening Day debacle, and I am very happy to eat some crow now. Perez is undoubtedly one of the most valuable players on this roster. And even though Pestano seems to have the makings of a closer, I'd like to see those two guys keep the 8th and 9th locked down for the next few years together.

Needs work: Everyone else

Okay, so maybe not everyone—Joe Smith and Esmil Rogers (who has a 2.02 ERA since coming to the Tribe) can be exempt—but seriously, there is room for improvement in pretty much every single pitcher. The bullpen's ERA is 4.31 overall, and the rotation's is 4.59. Those are not the kind of numbers that are going to get a team into the playoffs.

And don't read that as me being negative, it's just me being realistic.

Josh Tomlin, Derek Lowe, and Zach McAllister all need to shape up and give the team some kind of consisten play. Not every start will be a quality start, but just keep the team in the game. And McAllister especially needs to learn how to pick his defense up after an error—we've now seen him unravel after one occurs in a couple of starts in a row. That happens with a young pitcher, but it can't continue at the rate it has if the Indians are going to go places.

Overall: C+


As they stand right now, the Indians are a .500 baseball team—not that great, not that bad either, just...average. Anthony Castrovince wrote this in a blog post a few weeks ago, and it still stands the same now. Can they pull it together and win the Central? Absolutely yes, it's entirely possible. But without external improvements, I just don't see this team being in contention for a playoff spot in September.

My educated guess? The Indians will do their best to make a bold move, but they don't really have multiple top-tier prospects to deal for a front line kind of player. I think they should have traded for Carlos Quentin yesterday, but it does take two to tango and the Padres seem to want a pretty penny for him.

So what will happen in the second half? I have no idea. I did pick the Indians to go 79-83, and they still could prove me right, but I really hope they don't.

Let's just enjoy the ride, Tribe fans.

~MAS