TGFO. Thank God For Oakland. The Athletics make our Indians look like the '27 Yankees meet the '95 Braves. Where to begin... You all know that I am a bit biased toward Captain Jack Hannahan. So, we are going to take a look at this.
Jack is now clipping at .447 since August 15th, including the above moon shot and 10 RBI. I heard Manning say what a great swing Carlos Santana put on his home run. What we all know is that Big Smooth swings from his heels every time that he bats left-handed and just happened to contact a Trevor Cahill mistake. Still, Santana is hitting .293 with 6 HR and 20 RBI since July 30th and has joined Asdrubal Cabrera, Travis Hafner and Jason Kipnis as the only Indians with an .800+ OPS.
Guess who sports an OPS of .694? I will give you a hint: he now plays for the Columbus Clippers. That is correct, sir! Everyone's favorite failed prospect, Matt LaPorta, was optioned down to AAA to make room for Jeanmar Gomez. Manny Acta was very careful to explain that Matty was not demoted because of his poor production, but, rather, because he played the only position that the Indians are healthy at. Hmmmm, they do seem to have two third basemen, one of whom has the exact same batting average (.238) as LaPorta. The brass tacks are that the Tribe preferred to keep Lonnie Chisenhall and his left-handed bat amidst the sea of sinister hitters rather than stick with Matt's right-handed stick. Allow me to translate: Matt LaPorta was sent down because he was not helping the team. Sure, he will be back in 2-10 days (no one can confirm for me if the ten day rule still applies in September), yet one would imagine that this is highly indicative of the organization's valuation of a player who was projected as a superstar.
Nice. Now that I have exhaled, I shall give Jeanmar Gomes the proper respect for a start that I really did not think that he had in him. The key tonight for Gomez was that he recognized the poor quality of Oakland's lineup and pitched accordingly. Jeanmar did not mess around, did not nibble. Rather, he dared the A's to hit and they did not. Nice coincidence that this spot start (will there be a 2nd?) came against a team that has very little ability to produce runs. Hopefully, today's outing will give Gomez the confidence and momentum to win a few for the club in September.
Oh, by the way, Grady Sizemore will DH tomorrow for Akron, then play 7 innings in the field on Thursday. Grady will be re-evaluated on Friday and, if all goes well, will join the Tribe no later than Monday. Awesome.
And for those who might have missed it, Zeke Carrera is pretty fudgin' fast. It is a good thing that Jim Thome was not on base ahead of him or Ezequiel likely would have passed him on Kosuke Fukudome's 2 run double.
Here's to beating up on those weaker than us. ;-j
Cheers.
