https://twitter.com/ThaRealPchopz/status/622876621977059328

https://twitter.com/TylerLette/status/622877026333118464

https://twitter.com/zbrosky15/status/622876180765511680

https://twitter.com/_stbest/status/622871447694876672

What’s the Damage?

Well I think it’s safe to say it’s that time of year again. The Royals are running away with the best record in the American League and the Twins, despite having the second worst road record in the league (which happens to be identical to the Indians record in Cleveland), are 7-3 in their last 10 games and have a 3.5 game lead on the final playoff spot. God knows we’re not making up 11 games on Kansas City, so…….

It’s funny too, because the Indians are going to have to do something even crazier than Charlie Kelly jumping out the back of a moving van if they want to make the playoffs: start winning games at home. Of the 45 games played at Progressive Field this season, the home nine have won just 19. Nineteen. 2-9 in April, 8-7 in May, 5-8 in June and 4-3 in July. The last place Chicago White Sox have five more home wins than we do. In fact, there’s only one team in the entire league that has less wins on their home turf.

I got into the home struggles a bit a few weeks ago, but lately it’s been pretty obvious the blame lies on our anemic offense. We’ve scored more than three runs in a 9-inning game five times in 15 games since July 1st. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, on what field, at what time of day or on what planet you’re on, you can’t win if you can’t score. And right now our carriages are turning to pumpkins with runners in scoring position.

The good news is we have 35 games on the road in the second half. The bad news is we have 36 at home. The brass is in a tough spot right now. We’re obviously not good enough to be considered bona fide contender, but we don’t suck quite enough to justify throwing in the towel. The week and a half leading up to the trading deadline sure will be interesting.

I don’t think anyone from any division is going to catch up to the Baby Blue Bullies any time soon. They’ve gone 6-3 since losing Alex Gordon for 8 weeks, and are now rumored to be in on acquiring Reds outfielder Jay Bruce. Jeff Samardzija and Johnny Cueto are two other names that have been “tossed around” as possible trade targets. Must be nice.

Byron Buxton may have been the bigger name but Miguel Sano has been the bigger impacts in terms of diaper dandies out in Minnesota. The rookie is slashing .326/.434/.558 with two moonballs and nine ribs since his call up at the beginning of July. Buxton, meanwhile, still hasn’t been cleared to swing a bat after hitting the DL with a sprained thumb over three weeks ago. Brian Dozier is still a stud.

Aw, poor Kitties. They’re 46-46 and now this is apparently happening:

Sell them. Sell them all, Dave Dombrowski. Ian Kinsler doesn’t want you to, but I do. While you’re at it, sign Andy Dirks again and then sell him too. I want nothing more than to see this franchise crash and burn to the ground. Maybe then we can dream about splitting a season series with them.

Chicago: Robin Ventura still has a job. Chris Sale still rocks. DFA’d their Opening Day starting third baseman Connor Gillaspie for Matt “Fat” Albers. Hawk Harrelson has gifted the world with a Twitter account.

In Other News

• Jason Kipnis All-Star fun:

https://twitter.com/BBTN/status/621029583090024448

https://twitter.com/BBTN/status/620739671887335424

https://twitter.com/BBTN/status/621092169496010752

Jason Kipnis All-Star not fun:

• With the series win in Cincinnati this past weekend, the Tribe took the Ohio Cup from the Reds for the second time in the past five years (two ties). Kipnis was named the Ohio Cup MVP, which is apparently a thing.
• Indians schedule until the end of the month: two games in Milwaukee, four at home against the White Sox, three at home against Kansas City, two in Oakland. Three very winnable series that will ultimately determine whether we’ll be selling or buying come July 31st.
• Frankie Lindor is 6-20 since the break. Yan Gomes has a double, homer and four ribs. Michael Bourn has four hits in his last two games, just as many as he had in his previous 12. Brantley and Kipnis have 9 hits and 3 XBH’s. Brandon Moss has only struck out twice.

Hey, I’m trying here people.

 

KEEP THE CHIEF

https://twitter.com/ahmadyehya23/status/617955445139877889

https://twitter.com/Travis_Hoffman1/status/618323772580458496

What’s the Damage?

Things they don’t teach you in school:

1) How to grocery shop

2) That everything in life connects back to Call of Duty

You’ll play that game for hours and hours and hours and get absolutely manhandled. Shot in the kisser immediately after spawning, lit up from behind, things like that. This is, after all, the most accurate graph ever created:

But then you’ll have that one round, the 24-3 round, and you instantly forget about the hours of getting slaughtered. That seven minutes keeps your sanity in check and causes you to go right back to the well the next day. The same thing happens with a good round of golf, a good episode of a TV show, a good week in fantasy sports.

And the same thing happens with the Cleveland Indians. Their 25 kill round came down in St. Pete against the then-first-place Rays, where they took all four games thanks to gunships called in by Cody Anderson, Danny Salazar and Corey Kluber. Carlos Carrasco, as we all know, was one out away from a nuke. I don’t know what’s more Cleveland: Carrasco giving up a no-no with two outs and an 0-2 count in the bottom of the 9th inning, or Indians twitter complaining when their starting pitcher just went 8.2 innings, struck out 13 and the team won their fourth game in a row.

The Tribe went and took the first of three in Pittsburgh against the smoking hot Pirates on Friday. Then Jeff Locke threw his best game of the year, Gerrit Cole was Gerrit Cole and the Astros came into last night’s opener like their bats were going to expire. Another one step forward, two steps back. And we’re running out of real estate behind us.

The Royals remain a whopping 13 games over .500 and sport the second best record in the AL. They were two games over .500 at the end of the first half last year when they made it to the World Series. All-Star outfielder Lorenzo Cain tweaked a hammy on Sunday and won’t play in their doubleheader scheduled for today. It’d surprise me if he didn’t just rest through the break. Yordano Ventura returns from the DL on Thursday to face the Rays.

Thanks to the good folks out in Missouri, Twins second baseman Brian Dozier has to rely on the final fan vote if he’s going to make the trip to Cincinnati next week, despite using his bat to make solid contact with baseballs on multiple occasions this year.

The Twinkies are still treading above water though, and will close out the first half with four games at home against the team in the next paragraph.

Miggy Miggy Miggy’s, calf you see. Tigers first baseman and known Indian beater Miguel Cabrera is set to miss around 6 weeks with a grade 3 strain in his left calf. That puts him out until mid-August-ish. Naturally, the Tribe has seven games in the second half against the Kitties, and all of them come in the month of September. The good news is there’s a chance that J.D. Martinez has cooled off by then. Dude’s hit 11 dingers in the past 16 days.

Chris Sale’s streak of 8 straight games with double digit strikeouts ended last night in Toronto, where he whiffed a mere six. In nine innings. And it was his first win in 5 starts. What a time to not be a Cubs fan in Chicago.

https://twitter.com/BBTN/status/618241305135742976

In Other News

• In the least shocking news of this week, your league leader in WAR Jason Kipnis was not elected as the starting second baseman for All-Star game. He took to Twitter to emoji off a little steam, and had some pretty candid comments both before and after the announcement (he was obviously selected as a reserve).

Kip’s always been a pretty straight shooter so I have zero problem with him opening up a little bit about what’s clearly a sore subject. The people who are knocking him about showing his disappointment when baseball is a team sport have definitely not won any sort of award in their entire lives. You can say all the cookie cutter, politically correct answers until you’re blue in the face but at the end of the day it’s gonna sting when your fans don’t vote for you to represent their city. There’s absolutely no denying he’s been the best second basemen in the American League in 2015. It’s as black and white as it gets. He hits the nail on the head with “If I don’t win it this year, I’m not going to win it.” And that’s a GD shame. At least his peers recognize real.

https://twitter.com/BBTN/status/618204577758904320

• Speaking of snubs, here’s Corey Kluber’s ranks among AL pitchers this season:
  • Strikeouts: T-2nd
  • K%: 3rd
  • FIP: 2nd
  • WAR: 2nd
• And since the start of 2014:

That’ssssssss pretty crazy. Goes to show that baseball still hasn’t completely adopted sabermetrics.

• I personally had a pretty interesting night in the bleachers on Monday….

I gotta stop actually sitting in my seats. I think the last time my butt hit that metal was when Section 180 ruined our season and my life:

 

 

KEEP THE CHIEF

 

What’s the Damage?

Three games, three losses in Baltimore. Zero runs in 18 innings of baseball on Sunday. Seven L’s in their last ten games. Players questioning the team’s heart. I was ready to write the 2015 Cleveland Indians obituary this week.

https://twitter.com/NeastWS/status/615513546802233344

Then Tito calls a team meeting Monday before our four gamer at the Trop (which I imagine ended like this)

…and BAM we’re back baby. Rubbing heads, making plays and having fun.

Cody Anderson continued his Major League domination, staying perfect through six and a third in game one. Danny Salazar’s no-no through five and two thirds last night? Yes-yes! And our young boys….mmm. They did some things.

(numbers 8 and 3)

G’s three run tank

Never mind the fact that we’re 10 games out in the division and five and a half out of the Wild Card. The past two nights have been FUN. Kip and Smooth must have taken the pep talk from Tito to heart: 8 for 19 with two doubles, a bomb, 3 ribbis and a swipe so far since Tito threw down the gauntlet. Yan Gomes is 3-9 with a double and a Yahtzee ball. Can you imagine if we were getting anything at all from first base and center or right field? In the month of June:

Santana – .189 AVG, .294 OBP
Moss – .211 AVG, 28.3% K%
Bourn – .177 AVG, 28.6% K%, .239 OBP

A third of your every day lineup did that for 30 days. That’s, like, real bad Clark.

And it wouldn’t be a weekly recap without commenting on our record at Progressive Field. We’ve won as many games at home as the team with the best home record in our division (the Twins) has lost (15).

So we’ll never be Royyyalssss. ::cringes:: 6-4 in their last 10, swept the A’s in Oakland over the weekend. They have lost the first two out of three in Houston to open this week, however. Tough schedule leading up to the All-Star break, too: one more in first place Houston, four against the Twins, four against the first place Rays and three versus the red-hot Blue Jays. They’re rumored to be interested in Jeff Samardzija from the White Sox, Johnny Cueto from Cincinnati and/or Cole Hamels in Philly, which would really suck.

The Minnyions find themselves 4.5 games out now after losing two of three to the second-worst team in baseball in Milwaukee over the weekend. Rookie Byron Buxton is probably going to miss a month with a sprained thumb but they do get starter Ervin Santana back on Sunday after an 80 game suspension for PEDs.

I don’t even feel like talking about the Tigers. Down 4-0 with just two hits heading into the 8th inning on Sunday, the idiots came back and got a walk-off dong from their backup catcher James McCann. When are we going to start acknowledging the “At least we’re not Detroit!” curse from the hastily made Cleveland tourism video? They’re currently two games over .500 and six games behind the Royals but we all know who we’re going to be talking about as a playoff team in two months.

That McCann walk-off happened to be against the White Sox. Robin Ventura brought Samardzija back out for the 8th at 100 pitches and even Jeff was like, “Really?” I’m not entirely sure how Ventura still has a job but that’s neither here nor there. Chris Sale continues to do Chris Sale things.

In Other News

• Grady Sizemore broke up Cody Anderson’s perfect game on Monday with a bomb. Asdrubal Cabrera broke up Danny Salazar’s perfect game on Tuesday with a walk. You can’t make this stuff up, folks.
• Tribe signed second pick Triston McKenzie:

https://twitter.com/IndiansAccounts/status/615595958080942080

With that deal, all picks from the first 10 rounds have been signed.

• Is this lobbed toss to the backstop proof that robots are in @MLB? http://t.co/GbiLPjRVKT pic.twitter.com/EKA7yBB10B

  — Cut4 (@Cut4) June 30, 2015

• The absolute WORST picture of all time:

 

 

 

KEEP THE CHIEF