Well perhaps I spoke too soon; strained my upper back while reading a book last night; level one strain of trapezius I believe. No baseball activities until I again become age 30.

That's what you get for reading a book. Don't sprain a finger turning the pages.

Carlos has a mild strain of "hip flexor". He is "day to day"

Carlos Carrasco is being listed as day-to-day with a mild right hip flexor strain.

That doesn't sound nearly as ominous as the initial word yesterday. Still, we'll have to wait and see how this one plays out over the next week or two.

First game is today. But Antonetti, Chernoff, Francona and most of the Indians’ coaching staff are in Texas today attending the funeral of Brad Mills’ 18-month-old grandson, Beau, who passed away on Monday night.

Terrible.

I joined a fantasy NL only league. Does anybody have a good recommendation for a site? It is a keeper league and you bid $$ for players.

Thanks for any advice

Rain in the valley today. Don't know if they'll play.

TFIR is the total expert on fantasy baseball. He’ll fill you in on whatever you need, Buck.

Today’s game is cancelled due to weather.that works out well, with the tragedy at home for Mills and all.

buck - if you mean a site for updated fantasy news this is a good one:

https://www.rotoworld.com/baseball/mlb/player-news

Jason Lloyd:

23. I’m not holding out a whole lot of hope the Indians and Francisco Lindor can find common ground on a contract extension, regardless of how much both sides continue to say the right things. Paul Dolan made it very clear last year in his sitdown with Zack Meisel that the Indians aren’t in a rush to start handing out $300 million contracts.

24. “Probably the day when we do a deal like that is when somebody else is doing $1 billion deals with somebody else,” Dolan said.

25. I did find it interesting, however, that former Mets GM Jim Duquette believes the Indians could afford to pay Lindor his market price and still keep the payroll around $130 million.

26. “I don’t think the Indians, to afford Lindor, would have to carry a $150 million payroll,” Duquette said Thursday on 92.3 The Fan while I was filling in as host on “Bull and Fox.” Duquette mentioned the Padres and Manny Machado as a similar scenario to what the Indians could have with Lindor. “(If) the Indians want to carry a $120-$130 million payroll, they could afford Frankie Lindor at $30 million-plus. And build around him. Some years you’ll carry $150 million payroll, others you bring it down to $110 (million) and work your payroll in that manner.”

27. The Indians were up around $150 million two years ago, but the payroll has been plunging ever since.

Franmil Reyes pummeled the scoreboard behind the fence in right-center field during batting practice on Monday, the team’s first day of full-squad workouts.

“You don’t see the natural power like that,” said Victor Rodriguez, the club’s assistant hitting coach. “He’s different. Look at the size of that guy. He’s big, big, big, big. He’s a beast.”

Rodriguez noted how Reyes can muscle a ball over the fence, even when he doesn’t quite hit it perfectly.

HB - getting talent like this at the trade deadline for Bauer (1 and 1/2 years left on contract) is the best argument for waiting until the deadline this year for Lindor. I know you've been pimping that!

I got to see a video of Reyes in the cage a few days ago. In 3 swings he hit 2 homers and the 3rd was a dart off the wall. I thought, that hitter is definitely ahead of pitchers right now.

Saw Lindor in the cage against Carrasco, before his hip problem, and Lindor took him deep. Then the next day I saw Bieber make Lindor look terrible on a swing and miss, and Lindor yelled, “damn Bieber!”. He sounded impressed.

Reyes was fine but nothing special after the trade but if he can become a consistent cleanup hitting slugger that can really solidify the top 2/3 of the lineup.
With Mercado and Lindor at the start; Santana, Reyes and Ramirez in the heart. Luplow hitting 6th against lefties is awfully tough too. Hernandez is solid enough. The bottom is not scary unless one or two of the other half dozen outfielders surprise. If it's Deshields as a regular he and Perez will be a pair of excellent glove subpar bats at the bottom but we can probably survive that.

Don't know if the pitching ST philosophy has changed since I watched pitchers in Florida. A coach told me they only worked on fastball location during the early part of ST.... up, down, in, out. They would limit the pitchers to mostly fastballs, even in games.

Could be the reason hitters seem like they're ahead of pitchers.