Well it certainly is the only way.

Really MLB is littered with guys who bombed their first time up. Austin Riley of the Braves comes to mind but there are tons.

You know what on this trade market....teams are offering prospects much better than other teams had anticipated.

So lots of deals as a result.

Yeah, there are many stories about guys that bombed on their first opportunity and then got a lot better. But you don't hear too much about guys that bombed and couldn't handle it and eventually played their way out of baseball. Those stories don't make news unless they were big-bonus babies and teams gave them chance, after chance, after chance because of the money they had invested.

Terry Francona will step away for the remainder of the season to focus on health issues.

While Francona is away, Demarlo Hale will act as manager for Cleveland. Those health issues haven't been made public as of yet, but don't really matter in the grand scheme of things. The best to Francona as he focuses on much bigger things than baseball right now.

In Demario we trust?

In Tito’s cell phone service I trust.

Pillington rates no 24 white sox prospect About the rsnge of lefties Scott Moss and Logan Allen when we got them maybe a little lower Projection ceiling is 4th or 5th starter Fastball a few mph faster this year about 93-94 Best pitch is changeup Better control less velocity than Moss or Allen Sounds more like a left handed Eli Morgan

Wrap your head around this:


Jon Morosi
@jonmorosi
·
14m
As Terry Francona steps aside from managing from health reasons, some perspective on what he's achieved in Cleveland: The Indians are 723-568 since he took over the team in 2013.

Only theDodgers have a higher winning percentage among all MLB teams in that span.

@MLBNetwork

So little old Cleveland has the second best record in MLB since 2013 - that ain't yesterday!

I guess the manager and the front office do a lot of damn things right. Not perfect, duh, but that record speaks far louder than any critic.

Astros, Indians Swap Myles Straw For Phil Maton
By Mark Polishuk | July 30, 2021 at 2:48pm CDT

The Astros and Indians have made a trade that will see Cleveland acquire outfielder Myles Straw, while Houston will land right-handed reliever Phil Maton, FOX 26’s Mark Berman reports.

That is an excellent trade. The search for CF is over.

Rays acquired RHP DJ Johnson and OF Jordan Luplow from the Indians for RHP Peyton Battenfield.

The 31-year-old right-hander has made just one appearance for the Indians this season, allowing one run on two hits while striking out three over 1 2/3 innings. He boasts a 3.32 ERA and troublesome 1.62 WHIP over 21 2/3 innings at Triple-A Columbus. He'll add minor league bullpen depth for the Rays.

Regarding Myles Straw:

It's pretty bizarre to the see the Astros trading their starting center fielder without picking up a replacement, but it they're apparently thinking their Triple-A center fielder, Jake Meyers, will be an upgrade.

Straw had the job this year mostly because the Astros were up against the luxury tax and didn't want to spend anything on a replacement for George Springer, but he was fine, hitting .262/.339/.326 with 17 steals and playing above average defense.

The Indians figure to keep him playing regularly and hit him higher in the order than the Astros did. He might do even more basestealing than he did in Houston.

I've seen Straw play quite a bit in CF for the Astros.

Still very young and for awhile he was kind of a Billy Hamilton profile. Speedy, steals a lot of bases, plays good defense but didn't much.

However he is still much younger than Hamilton and this season he's started to hit. And 17 stolen bases.

Right handed hitter but I hope he gets a chance to win the job full time.

Cleveland Indians
Grade: B-

Trades: Traded 2B César Hernández to White Sox for LHP Konnor Pilkington. Traded LF Eddie Rosario and cash considerations to Braves for INF Pablo Sandoval. Acquired OF Myles Straw from Astros for RHP Phil Maton and C Yainer Diaz. Traded OF Jordan Luplow and RHP DJ Johnson to Rays for RHP Peyton Battenfield.

The Indians accepted that they weren’t headed back to the playoffs in 2021, dealing Hernández to the first-place White Sox, who led Cleveland by 8 1/2 games at the time of the trade. In return, Cleveland received lefty starter Pilkington, a third-round pick in the 2018 draft.

Pilkington, 23, was 4-4 with a 3.48 ERA at Double-A Birmingham this season (71 strikeouts, 36 hits, 21 walks in 62 innings). He profiles as a back-of-the-rotation starter. The Indians also reduced their payroll by dealing Rosario to the Braves for Sandoval. They released Sandoval right after the trade.

Their best deal was landing Straw, one of the fastest players in baseball, from the Astros. It’s unclear how much he’s going to hit, but adding Straw’s speed and range in center field should pay dividends defensively, and if the bat continues to develop, he might be a leadoff hitter in a few years.

Jim Bowden