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Yesterday's Game: Indians 15, Athletics 5
Indians vs. Athletics Wrapup | 03/04/17 (Box score)
Indians' Brandon Guyer homers in spring debut | MLB.com
The Indians scored five of those runs off Oakland starter Sean Manaea. As the headline said, Brandon Guyer made his 2017 debut in style, and as you might expect from the final score, he wasn't the only offensive standout. Erik Gonzalez homered as part of a 2-for-3 afternoon, and Lonnie Chisenhall also had a fine day (2-for-4 HR, 2B). With Kipnis sidelined for at least another week (see below), and with Francisco Lindor departing for the WBC, Gonzalez should get plenty of playing time the rest of the month.
On the pitching side, Mike Clevinger gave up a run in two innings of work, while Shawn Armstrong had another scoreless outing.
Tribe News
I'm not worried yet. Yet. In more happier news, Corey Kluber is scheduled make his first appearance of the spring on Monday.
One of my favorite parts of Pluto's column was the news that Victor Martinez bought a cattle ranch in Florida, but that's mainly because I'm a Victor fan and not because the rest of his column was uninteresting.
Around the League
Statcast introduces hit probability for 2017 | MLB.com - Based on the data (launch angle, exit velocity) they are collecting, BAM is calculating the probability that a batted ball will be a hit.
As Part Of MLB Pace Of Play, Manfred Willing To Look At Shorter TV Commercial Breaks - I'll believe this when I see it, but lopping 30 seconds from each half-inning break would be orders of magnitude better for pace of play than anything they've implemented to this point.
‘MLB The Show 17’ Brings New MLB Network Presentation, Two New Announcers Join - Harold Reynolds and Dan Plesac are replacing Steve Lyons and Eric Karros as color commentators on the latest PS4 game. I think(?) this is a good thing.
What the WBC Has Been and Could Be – The Hardball Times - I think it has served its purpose: growing the game internationally. Playing the WBC during Spring Training isn't optimal, but I don't see any way you'd get more participation during the season, when teams would be even more skittish about its star players participating.