Watching the VMart retirement award yesterday brought back memories of seeing him play for the Aeros at Canal Park with the forum group way back when, and having Joez talking about how he hit V's, alley shots and predicted a good future for VMart. How right you were Joe!

Good thoughts to Uncle Dennis, Rusty, and any other Forumites in Florence's way.

Francisco Mejia played the role of hero on Sunday, clobbering a walk-off grand slam to propel the Padres to a 7-3 victory over the Rangers.

The Padres entered the ninth inning trailing 3-2, but an RBI double by Freddy Galvis knotted things up. A couple of walks later, Mejia obliterated the first pitch that he saw from Jeffrey Springs for the game-winning blast.

The rookie backstop finished the day 1-for-4 plus a walk and is now slashing .241/.353/.586 with three homers and eight RBI in his first 34 plate appearances with the Padres.

Mejia should be an anchor of the Ex-Indian team for years to come. With Aguiar hitting cleanup they have some dangerous bats on the Ex-Tribe. Joey Wendle adds some more offense. Infield depth is thinning with Asdrubal and Peralta nearing their career ends but perhaps Willi Castro will fill that gap in the near future. Pitching is a little thin though with Sabathia and Colon nearing the end of their careers too. Thomas Pannone is looking quite nice as a starter this month but you never know how softish throwing lefties will turn out.

Sheffield may head up that ex Tribe staff in the future.

Indians president Chris Antonetti said on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM on Monday that Trevor Bauer (leg) pitching out of the bullpen in the postseason is "something we’ve thought about."

Seems pretty obvious at this point. No way he can get even remotely stretched out to be a starter now.

First time pitching to live batters tomorrow.

I bet he could really dial it up for an inning or two! Could be quite the weapon.

Yes Sheffield could assume CC role for the long term. And there's Chris Archer from the farm system.
Some decent guys in the bullpen: Joe Smith, Bryan Shaw, Hector Rondon. Next year the ex-pen could pick up Miller and/or Allen.
And we can only hope that Tomlin joins the ex-Indians.

A friend said we should fire Tomlin! Did he do something really atrocious on Sun? I would like to lose Kipnis but not happening right now, just wondered about that comment.

I assume it's the general lack of a fastball and the proneness to give up homers. He's a free agent after the season and they don't need to "fire" him, just don't include him on the playoff roster and not re-sign him for next year. Good guy, apparently, and he's achieved more in his career than his mere talent would have predicted.

Bauer has been activated and will start Friday!

(Just a couple innings)

What happened to Jose Ramirez? Talk about a tale of two halfs. Is he injured? Tired? MVP season just got trashed.

He's still drawing plenty of walks and stealing bases. He's now 2nd in steals and 3rd in homeruns. His final stats will still be very impressive but sure would be handy for him to get his stroke back for the postseason.

Another ofer dropped JRam into the 270s yesterday. Over his last 30 games he's hitting under 200 but his OPS over that period is still over 700.

My theory is that they got burned out last season with that crazy 22 game streak.

This year they are laying in the weeds - had it clinched in May.