Yesterday was a big day for the Indians, as they had four picks in the first on the first day of the draft . It was also a much-needed day off after Wednesday's 12 inning affair. I won't get into the draft too much, as LGT has some great coverage elsewhere (be sure to check out the draft mega-stream), but here's what going on around baseball otherwise:
Indians news & notes
Fitzgerald proposes "win" tax as mechanism for funding teams | Cleveland.com - Cuyahoga County Executive Ed Fitzgerald has put forward a proposal to award funding generated by the sin tax based in part on how the city's three teams perform. This is a first of its kind proposal which he calls a "win tax." I don't want to get too far into [deleted, politics], but this could have repercussions on future team spending, and several sides are already weighing in. Rich Exner has created a formula for doling out the win tax, which heavily favors the Indians. So far, all three of the city's teams have declined to comment.
Trevor Bauer, now featuring strikes | Fangraphs - From the gutter to the strike zone, Trevor Bauer looks to have finally found the last jewel needed to adorn his grail. Though the samples are extremely small, Bauer has thrown 65% of his pitches for strikes this year compared to 57% in 2012-2013. Fangraphs credits his retooled delivery, and breaks it down nicely with gifs and still images.
Late-innning magic is back in 2014 | Cleveland.com - Second only to the White Sox with five walkoff wins already this year, the Tribe has brought the walkoff magic back to Progressive Field. Chris Fedor recaps all five, with video.
Tribe v2014 even with Tribe v2013 after 60 games | Cleveland.com - At 30-30, we're exactly where we were last year after 60 games, only last year we were in the midst of an awful skid that would see us fall eventually to 30-33. I'd be interested in getting the pulse of LGT - how do we feel about the team now compared to last year at this time?
Anatomy of an 11-pitch at bat: House vs. Ortiz | Major League Bastian - A fascinating look at the 11-pitch battle between T.J. House and everyone's favorite DH, David Ortiz, on Tuesday. Quotes from House and Yan Gomes give some great color to the "inside baseball."
Streaking Tribe heads south (series preview) | MLB.com - Trevor Bauer takes on Rangers ace Yu Darvish in the first game of a weird Friday-Monday four-game series. That is weird, right? I feel like it's weird.
Tidbits from around MLB
Astros take Aiken with #1 pick | CBS Sports - Brady Aiken (no relation to all-star vocalist Clay, I hope) is a big left out of Cathedral Catholic High School in San Diego. He's the first high school pitcher chose #1 overall since Brien Taylor (?) in 1991.
High school pitchers and the #1 pick | Fangraphs - A look at the risks and potentially rewards of taking an arm straight out of high school.
Great names in the MLB draft | Fox Sports - Thank god we didn't draft Fenway Parks.
The best of the worst pitches of May | Fangraphs - Special guest appearance by LGFT Tony Sipp in the collection of terrible pitching gifs
Why the Singelton contract isn't so bad | Sports On Earth - The Astros signed young phenom Jon Singeton to a 5-year, $10 million contract which many have criticized as hyper team friendly. But there's a lot of risk in baseball, and Singleton knows there's no guarantee he'll get a big payday later in his career.