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What’s the Damage?

No funny headline this week. No one-liners, no exciting clips from the past week and no optimism. Just pure, unadulterated sadness. I wrote last week that three of the next four series were pretty win-able and would determine what we would do at the trading deadline. After dropping one of two in Milwaukee, getting swept at home by the worst team in the division and losing the first two to Kansas City, David Murphy is basking in the LA sun and the Indians are 16 games out of first place. We’re currently riding an 8 game home losing streak. The last time we lost that many games in Cleveland in a row, gas was 57 cents a gallon.

Things are bad, folks. I like to think I’m pretty optimistic most of the time when it comes to this team but there’s no getting around it. We stink. Our All-Star is calling people out, we’ve got our starting pitcher putting the hurt on haters on Twitter, 

Really, at this point, there’s nothing left to do but wallow in self-pity and wait till next year. I doubt we see anything major before the deadline, but you never know. And as I write this, Urshela, Lindor and Brantley all leave the yard in a 6 run 6th inning against Jeremy Guthrie and the Royals. I take it back. Now we roll!!!!

Those damn Kansas Citians sure are going for it though. Second best record in baseball, a 9 game lead on the second place team in the division and they just traded for Johnny Cueto and Ben Zobrist. They did give up two of their top three prospects according to Baseball America to get them but you gotta admire the gall of Dayton Moore. I hate them and wish for nothing less than their complete and utter demise, but it’s a fun ass time to be a Royals fan.

Live look in at the Minnesota Twins:

They’ve won just three games since the All-Star Break. In their seven losses, they’ve give up 3, 14, 7, 5, 8, 7 and 8 runs. It’s been reported they’re looking for bullpen help at the deadline, as closer Glen Perkins has given up 6 runs in 4 appearances since returning home from Cincinnati. Byron Buxton could be out an additional month.

Leave it to your Wahoos to catapult a team from last place to third in the span of a week. Tom Brady got his four game suspension upheld for maybe knowing about some deflated footballs but none of the White Sox starting pitchers have been reprimanded for assaulting opposing hitters every night for the past two weeks. They may very well hold on to touted trade target Jeff Samardzija following this recent surge. You know things are going your way when you’re hitting home runs like this:

Every cloud has a silver lining. If the Indians are gonna be 16 games out of first place in the central, I’m glad as hell it’s the Royals and not the Tigers on top. David Price and Yoenis Cespedes are both names that have been uttered in trade whispers. Miggy Cabrera remains out until at least mid-August with a calf injury, and one wonders if they might consider shutting him down for the year if they do end up selling by Friday.

In Other News

• Shortstop Eric Stamets will be assigned to AA Akron when he arrives after being sent our way for David Murphy on Tuesday night. A plus defender but not great with the bat. He’s a native of Dublin though, so that’s cool. Here’s his scouting report from MLB.com:

“A very polished infielder, Stamets combines tremendous defensive tools with good instincts and game awareness. He has well above-average speed, which helps to give him good range. Offensively, he isn’t as accomplished and will need to improve at the plate to become an everyday shortstop in the big leagues. He makes a lot of contact, but it’s rarely hard contact and he has minimal power.

Stamets’ glove is good enough to get him to the Major Leagues. His bat will dictate if he can start or if he ends up as a utilityman in the future.”

• There were rumors that the Indians asked the Miami Marlins about center fielder Marcell Ozuna. After a 3.7 WAR year in 2013, he struggled so badly to begin this year that he was demoted to AAA. Still only 24 though, he’d command a decent package to entice the Marlins enough to move him. Keep an eye on this…maybe not by the Friday deadline but the teams could rekindle during the Winter Meetings.
• Nick Swisher totally gets laid all the time, bro.
• Tyler Holt was called up to take Murphy’s spot and started in left on Wednesday. Excited to watch him again. He hustles, is good on the bases and plays solid defense. We should see him out there in the green grass on most nights while he’s up.

KEEP THE CHIEF