Tag Archives: Cleveland Indians

Indians

Indians call up lauded prospect from Columbus that plays on the left side of the infield

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o btw it’s not lindor hahahahahaha

After another failed bid to get back to .500 yesterday, the Tribe optioned third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall and shortstop Jose Ramirez to AAA Columbus. Third baseman Giovanny Urshela and utilityman Zach Walters were brought up to replace them.

Urshela is ranked as the Indians #4 prospect by MLB.com and #8 by Baseball Prospectus, but doesn’t appear on Baseball America’s list. He’s 23 years old, 6’2″ and 215 pounds. He bats and throws right handed.

In 21 games with the Clippers this season, he hit .275 with 3 bombs and 9 RBI. His season got off to a late start due to some back problems that resurfaced last month. 2014 was his breakout year (at least offensively), when he posted a .276/.331/.473 slash line with 13 Yahtzee balls and 65 ribbis in 104 AAA games. The success continued into the Venezuelan Winter League, where he was leading all players with a .398 batting average before a knee injury ended his winter.

So what’s the immediate impact, you ask?

  • Mike Aviles will be the primary shortstop until he-who-must-not-be-named finally receives the call.
  • Zach Walters will probably fill the super utility role now that Aviles will be playing every day.
  • We don’t know if Urshela will get the majority of playing time at third or if he’ll split with Walters, but they’re surely not calling him up to ride the pine. Whenever he’s in the lineup, our infield defense improves tremendously. His glove has always been seen as his ticket to the big show. Whether he’ll hit enough to win the job going forward remains to be seen but he’ll be sniffing Web Gems on the reg.
  • Lonnie and Jose get a chance to take some pressure off themselves, go back down to the farm and try to figure some things out. Antonetti said today on a conference call that Ramirez would play a little short (I think they have another guy down there) but also some other positions. This fits in with my preseason hope of seeing an infield of Urshela-Lindor-Ramirez-Santana with Kip in the outfield. A guy can dream.

Bonus nugget of Urshela robbing Jesus Aguilar of a hit in the Venezuelan league

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Cleveland, Indians

Nothing says “baseball” like hot dogs, cracker jacks and a glass of wine

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tribewine

From Cleveland.com:

“CLEVELAND, Ohio – A line of California wines – from Cabernet Sauvignon to assorted blends – is being released for Major League Baseball teams. The Cleveland Indians have a red blend in their name.

Wine by Design, a Napa, California company, has a licensing deal with the league, and has wines for most of the 30 teams. Most are red wines. The Indians’ wine is a 2013 blend of Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Sirah.

The company’s founder and CEO, Diane Karle, came up with the idea to mesh sports and wine.

“People want to think sports fans are beer drinkers and not wine drinkers, but that’s not the case,” said Karle, whose first client was the New York Jets in 2010.”

You know when you have an idea but immediately after having that idea you think to yourself “this is a really fucking dumb idea”? Turns out sometimes those ideas can get you a licensing deal with Major League Baseball!

Right off the bat it says that Diane’s first client was the New York Jets. Now I’m obviously not a Jets fan nor do I have any friends who are, but I would have to think that, based on their recent (lack of) success, they would be pretttttttty high on the list of teams that back up the “sports fans are beer drinkers” stereotype.

jets

In terms of matches made in heaven, this most certainly is not one. Beer is baseball. Baseball is beer. You don’t trade off grabbing rounds of Pinot Grigio in between innings. There’s not a “Cabernet Sauvignon guy!” walking around and serving you in the bleachers. Even when you’re not at the game, you don’t sit on your deck and listen to the sweet sweet song of Tom Hamilton while enjoying a couple chilled White Zinfandels with your buddy. That’s just not how baseball works.

Here’s the description of the Indians wine from their website:

“In 1901, when the Indians™ franchise began in Cleveland, it set the tone for a team that embodies the hardworking, down-to-earth spirit of the city. Over a century later, with two World Series™ titles and five AL™ pennants, the Indians are proud to release this California Red Blend with bold aromas of dark berry fruit, blueberry pie, cardamom and baking spice. The finish is long with notes of chocolate, roasted coffee bean and vanilla spice.”

First of all, cardamom definitely is not a thing. Secondly, the Indians aren’t releasing shit, right? They stress pretty hard in that article that it has nothing to do with the team and won’t be served at The Prog, it’s just a deal with the MLB. Lastly, the finish FTW. Fucking love all three of those things.

I can’t imagine this being a very successful business venture for Diane and Wine by Design, but what do I know. If it does (it will) eventually flop, they have an open invitation to come to Cleveland, take in America’s pastime and enjoy some tall Bud Lights with me.

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PS Never change, TribeFan82. Never change.

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Baseball, Indians

The Indians broke Lloyd McClendon

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So the Tribe invaded Seattle this past weekend and took three of four from the M’s. The whole squad had a rough weekend, including manager Lloyd McClendon.

Then, on Tuesday, Alex Rodriguez checked his swing.

You’ll have to click the link cause I’m on my lunch break and can’t figure out how to embed it:

http://m.mlb.com/video/v142346583

Here are some highlights:

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lloyd2

lloyd3

lloyd4

Best parts about this historical tirade:

  1. Obviously the kicking of the hat. Clean contact, great distance. One of those drives in golf that you hit perfectly, a line drive off a baseball bat that you don’t even feel because you squared it up so nice. Big players make big plays at big moments, and your boy Lloyd absolutely crushed the hat punt.
  2. Making sure every umpire got a piece of his mind. There’s no way 90% of what was coming out of his mouth was making any sense or had any relevance to the situation at hand, but it’s all about making a show. Check, check and check.
  3. The hustle in the jog out to the third base ump. That part made me LOL. “I’m gonna throw a temper tantrum, but god damnit I’ll make it as convenient for you as possible.”

This ain’t Lloyd’s first rodeo, either. The man literally stole first base when he was managing the Pirates back in the day.

Still, for my money, the best ejection of all time is quite safely in the hands of Wally Backman.

“Let’s go have a beer, Doc.”