Saw after game interview with Masterson, he said Davy Crockett, King of the wild frontier, got his first victory.

Terry Pluto:


I once asked Hall of Fame Sportswriter Hal Lebovitz who was the best defense SS that he ever saw...He talked about everyone from Marty Marion to Lou Boudreau to Luis Aparicio to Ozzie Smith.

But he picked Omar Vizquel.

So glad Omar is being honored this weekend.

PS: Hal dated back to League Park, where he sold hot dogs -- and once sold one to Babe Ruth before a game!

Looks like my trivia skills got better.

Carlos Martinez was the answer.

Walk off grand slam in 12th inning against the Mariners back in '92.

Indians do recall My Cousin Vinnie Pestano. Option Zach Mac to make room.

I hope he can return to his form from a couple years ago, when he was dominant.

Almost halfway through the season, and with the exception of a few teams, MLB seems to have achieved parity.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/standings

Total luck and abnormality, I assure you, J.R.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/salaries

Yankees have a payroll of over 150 million more than the Indians. Good luck staying within a couple games of them in wild card race all year every year.

The competitive balance draft picks is an interesting idea, but I don't think it is an end all. Needs a little tweeking. Maybe all the 12 lowest payrolls should get a pick between the 1st and 2nd instead of the ping pong ball method, which gives 6 teams a pick after 1st round, and the other 6 a pick after the 2nd. Those late 2nd round picks are of little help the vast majority of the time. I dunno something. Maybe a salary cap? There's a crazy idea.

BTW, the Cavaliers weren't the only team to have luck with the ping pong balls this year. The Indians selected Mike Papi with their competitive balance pick after the 1st round due to lucking out and getting in top 6 of 12 ping pong balls.

Yankees big dollars are spent on a whole lot of far over the hill guys. They need to get rid of lots of overpriced contracts before they can be serious competitors again

The TEAM is 3-63 over the last 3 games. Two "Starters" batting .200. 2 frickin hundred. 3 More, less than .250. That's half the lineup performing well below expectations.

The guys down at AAA and AA must be wondering WTF.

You know guys are following the club and seeing guys like Swisher and Cabrerra and Santana, thinking "How much better do I have to be?"

The best hitting at AAA is by:
ace defender Roberto Perez, a catcher, but we have Gomes.
And ace defender Giovanny Urshela, third baseman, but we have Chisenhall.
and 2b/SS Jose Ramirez. He is a better defender at short than the guy we have there now.
Aguillar has slowed dramatically from a very hot April, although getting a little heated up recently.
RF Carlos Moncrief, LH hitter, is another good defender, whose offense has been improving steadily.

Promotions from AA are exceedingly rare and Lindor and Naquin and Wendle, the best hitters there, are all now on the DL, the latter two out for 6 weeks or so.

Civ

When you put it that way....things look pretty bleak.

There seems to be some improvement in the middle levels of the minors in the pitching corps, but probably none who are going to be breakthrough top of the rotation guys. Lindor projects as an all star. Perez could be a good backup catcher. I'd like to see Urshela get a chance to show what he can do in the majors which could move Chisenhall over to 1st if it works out. Moncrief could become our RF when Murphy contract ends.

Clint Frazier from 2013 draft and this year's deep class could mean help is on the way, in about 4 years!

So 2020's could be a good decade for the Tribe.

Off day today, so Carrasco can get some well earned rest to his beleaguered pitching arm. [Worked two shutout innings on June 24, so only has had 9 days off.] Maybe Carlos is just ineffective at the turn of each month; he also has a long break from May 26 to his next appearance June 4 and before that April 30 to May 8.

I hope we live long enough to see it. I don't think so. We still suck when it comes time to attract major league talent but we have made significant strides forward at the minor league level. Ownership finally loosens up the pocket books the past couple of seasons and we failed to spend it wisely. I was hoping that we would have been more active on the Cuban and Asian fronts these past few seasons. We past on some immediate help at the major league level. I guess that's the way it is and will be.

Sorry I can't change the background on this forum (and annoy some people in the process)