The hump day to beat all hump days, folks. Our lord and savior Michael Brantley will hit the on-ramp and merge onto the road back to major league baseball tomorrow afternoon. I’m still tempering my expectations, because Cleveland, but this is better than great news. The sooner we have our PhD back in the three hole and roaming the green grass in front of our brand new scoreboard, the better.

Thankfully, it hasn’t necessarily been all crabgrass in the outfield in his absence. In his pursuit of being our center fielder come April 4th, Tyler Naquin has slashed a manly .417/.440/.667 and is second on the team with 10 hits so far this spring (2 doubles, 2 triples.) Jose Ramirez, who made his debut in center a few days ago, is the only player on the Indians who has more hits than Naquin (11.)  The others (Grossman, Cowgill, Butler, Robinson, Davis) have been rather yawnish, although Davis did have a three hit game yesterday. And Lonnie’s not not 1 for 21. So, yeah, the sooner the better for Smooth.

I’m still not expecting The Return until late April, but at the rate he’s been going, he’ll be available to pinch hit later this afternoon.

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