He wasn't traded to Boston. They picked him up for nothing then released him. If Tampa wanted him enough to give a little something for him hopefully they won't turn around and cut him.

Fingers crossed.

Austin Jackson starting his minor league rehab assignment with Clippers today.

Tweets from Hoynsie:

Corey Kluber will throw a 35-pitch sim game at Progressive Field on Sat. He'll face hitters from Class A Lake County.

Francona met with entire team and starting rotation before Fri's game. "Sometimes, reminders are OK. Just reminded guys of who we are."

How long was the meeting with the Tribe's rotation? When Francona came out to talk to reporters, Callaway was still talking to pitchers.

Carlos Carrasco threw bullpen on Friday. He's on track for Tuesday's start vs. Reds.

Clevinger has earned a spot in the rotation after Corey returns. There are 3 other pitchers left to fill two spots, who do you want in the bullpen: Bauer, Tomlin or Salazar?

I like this new catcher we've added, reminds me of Yan Gomes the silver slugger of 2014. OPS now 815. For May 1.159: he's gone 15 for 39, 6 doubles, 2 homers, 5 walks and 6 strikeouts.
One significant difference from 2014: that guy walked 24 times and fanned 120. This guy has 10 walks and 18 K

I also like our CF, looks like he roams the OF real well.

defense up the middle with Gomes, Kipnis and Lindor, Zimmer is solid. Corner OFs are good. 3b and 1b are fine.

The decline in basestealing from 2016 is disappointing, but Zimmer could help remedy that. Obviously Rajai is gone, but it sure seems that other guys are behind their 2016 paces, I can easily enough look that up to see if I'm right on this one.

I see that Rajai has only 5 SBs for Oakland so far this season.

So we're just past 1/4 of the season and here's 2016 steals compared to 2017 steals:

Ramirez was 22 is 2 converts to 8 for a full season
Lindor was 19 is 2 converts to 8
Kipnis was 15 is 2 converts to 8, but he missed several weeks
Almonte was 8 in 1/2 a year, is 1, converts to 4
Chisenhall was 6 is 1 converts to 4
Santana was 5 is 2 converts to 8
Brantley was 1 is 4 converts to 16
[Napoli stole, Encarnacion somehow has stolen 1, not much difference there]
[Naquin stole 6, none in his six games this year. Zimmer is the new Naquin, he's got one.]

Team total was 134 [without Davis, 91], is 16, converts to 64. Conclusion: we're not stealing as much this year, especially the infielders.

Have we stolen more in recent games? Seems like we've been more aggressive on the bases lately. I remember last year how I noticed we had more guys going from 1st to 3rd, esp. Rajai. Don't know if you can track that stat, though.

Don't know if you can track that stat, though.

They track everything so it's probably out there somewhere.

The minimum success rate is 70% to make it worthwhile to attempt a stolen base. Conservative teams probably use a higher percentage.

I'm sure the numbers geeks have info on pitchers and catchers that predict success rates.

Inning, score, who is on base, who is at bat, and who is on deck go into the decision attempt a steal.

Stolen bases are down?

So what?

Speaking of Yan Gomes, every long drive he's had recently have been on pitches down and in. I'm shocked that teams don't have that book on him yet. We've known that was his happy zone for years. You pitch him there and he'll make you cry. I've been telling them.

Then again maybe pitchers do know that and are just missing pitches. Trying to show him in and leaving it over the inner part of plate.

He's thrown out 10 of 19 would be base stealers too. Tops in League.

A few games back it was reported Gomes hit a HR on a ball at his shoe tops.