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After last night's game, it's hard to come up with a pleasant into for the morning news & notes, so, uh, here's some stuff that's happening:
Yesterday's game: Royals 8, Indians 4
Corey Kluber returned from the DL, but Omar Infante (!) ruined his night. Seriously, Omar Infante. And so go the Indians' chances to get over .500 - and perhaps their playoff hopes. I mean, sure, there's still some hope, but a split in a crucial series at home is just not good enough.
- LGT recap (Jason Lukehart)
- Cleveland.com recap (Dennis Manoloff)
- Indians.com recap (Jordan Bastian and Jeffrey Flanagan)
Indians news & notes
Francona says Tribe brought up Lindor at the right time | News Herald - There was great debate amongst Tribe fans about whether or not Francisco Lindor was being held in AAA too long. Tito says they got the timing just right, and the tremendous numbers of the AL ROY candidate back him up.
Tribe keeping five-man rotation as Trevor Bauer moved to the bullpen | Cleveland.com - After a long, rough year for Trevor, he has now become the odd man out. With Corey Kluber's return, Bauer moves to the 'pen, but both he and Terry Francona alike hope that this is a temporary move.
Reviewing the replay rules | Burning River Baseball - Ever wonder how Tito stacks up amongst his peers when it comes to replay challenges? Joseph Coblitz digs into the numbers and shows that while Terry uses his replays pretty sparingly, he is about as consistent as anyone else in the league.
Inconsistency the biggest worry for Indians | Did The Tribe Win Last Night? - After the 2013 Indians ripped off ten in a row to make the Wild Card play-in, a lot of people were wondering if the team was really that good or if they just got hot at the right time. The next two seasons have done little to answer that question. The Indians seem to be teetering on the brink of being an elite team, but will they ever be able to put it all together at the same time?
Tidbits from around MLB
- Fangraphs attempts to quantify just how historically great Bryce Harper's 2015 season has been
- CBS' Matt Snyder wonders whether Harper could win the NL MVP while playing for a non-playoff team
- Will Leitch gives us ten reasons why the Rangers are worth rooting for in the playoff race (the Rangers, by the way, just completed a four-game sweep of the Astros)
- Ken Rosenthal wonders whether the current playoff system is unfair to teams like the Pirates
- The ever-eloquent (and uber loquacious) Joe Posnanski gives his take on the Cinderella story of Theo Epstein's Cubs (who, by the way, have just taken three of four from the aforementioned Pirates)