Don't Need Damon

I was about to be on the fence about the possible signing of Johnny Damon (was still on the "NO!" side but considering being ok with it) but then today's first inning happened and I found myself having dug under the fence and riding a motorbike towards Sweden.

The problem with acquiring Damon is that he can either DH or play left. Well, our DH Travis Hafner is doing just fine. And so is our left fielder, Shelley Duncan. The only thing that made sense was to move the not-so-limber Duncan over to center  to replace the not-so-hitting Michael Brantley, or bench Duncan and make him a permanent pinch hitter.

The former is just silly. Shelley's not a center fielder and while Brantley is no Grady he's miles ahead of an absent Grady. The latter - benching Duncan - may have seemed like a decent proposal in March when he was hitting .170 but so far he has proven he can be an every day guy for real. He's not hitting any worse than any of the other guys (.300) and in fact is second on the team. And you know what? He can field so far, too.

But according to everyone, Damon is an Indian (pending physical). Having an ex-Red Sox/Yankee/Tiger rubs me the wrong way. Especially since he's going to be taking time away from our DUNC TANK.

It sucks, I know.

All of this movement is FUTILE!! Why? Well did you SEE the first inning today?! I am putting on my Blinders of Positivity and saying that it was AWESOME and all of our hitting woes are over and we'll go on to win many more games and get many more hits!

NO DAMON NEEDED THANKS!

Not convinced? Well whatever. It was still fun as hell! We almost got to post a "Everybody Hits" star on the blog and everything!

Here's a nice video re-cap of the first inning, in which we got 7 runs off 8 hits and sent 11 guys to the plate.

Michael Brantley was clearly stoked to be hitting. He broke an 0/15 skid. His average was down to .059...it was tragic. Because he was a real solid hitter for us last year in the first half of the season. Him and Asdrubal were the one-two punch. then he got hurt and then he wasn't so good and he ended the season with a mediocre .266. He did decent this spring (.286) and even had a hit in the opener. So I'm not sure what was holding him back but he was lovin' life today and more than doubled that average (.136) so let's hope this is the start of an upward trend!

OMG ASDRUBAL had his second homer of the year today! As well as his second double! More RBI! MORE ASDRUBAL! I've always asserted that when Brantley is hitting he is hitting, so Brantley's upcoming streak (calling it!) is surely going to drive Asdrubal's ongoing streak!

Also getting two hits today was our man Choo. He's hit fairly regularly so far this season but this was his first multi-hit game and also his first 2 RBI of the season. He also successfully stole a base!

Also stealing a base was Kipnis who'd reached on an error in the 8th. But before that, in the fan-freaking-tastic first, he scored himself 2 RBI on a TRIPLE!

Kipnis and Kotchman share the A-team's lowest average right now, but Kotchman got his hit today and they collaborated on a few double plays so it's all good.

Everyone else, save for Hafner, got hits today - Santana, Duncan and Hannahan.

How do you like this? Derek Lowe got his second W today. No one else has any W's but him. And he even gave up 3 runs - which in any other game we played this year would have been a death knell. This shit always happens to Justin Masterson doesn't it? He coulda been the guy on the mound today when the offense decided to explode. But he wasn't. D'oh! Nice job by Lowe tho, keepin' it real. He went 6 2/3 and had (only) 8 ground outs. Let them boys do the heavy lifting.

Sipp came in for just a wee third of an inning and didn't let anything go, thus chipping down his ERA from 21.6 to 18. Atta boy!

Smith and Pestano came in for the last two and shut that shit down, as they are wont to do. VinneP with the two strikeouts, yeah buddy!

Really fun game today. So fun I listened twice! Tomorrow I have a lot of work to do so I can be able to plop myself down by 7:10 to get my WKYC on (huh, why is a Central Time game at 7:10?) There had better not be a rain out, that's all I'm sayin!

Speaking of rain-outs, mark your calendars for May 7 when we double up with the White Sox to play that "snowed out" game. What a month May will be - 21 games in the first 20 days! That is going to make us or break us I think...

But we can't look that far ahead. First we must replicate today on tomorrow's score card. See you there!

Radio Chatter:
"This is a New Year's Eve celebration in Kansas City, but it's 10 o'clock at night, there are no more party favors, and the champagne is gone!"
- Tom Hamilton on the Tribe demolishing the Royals in the first inning of their home opener

"It has to be perfectly timed with that combo running, and the Indians got it done."
- Jim Rosenhaus on getting Escobar and Dyson out on a double play

"This ought to be a good matchup. A guy who throws over 100 miles per hour and a guy who loves to hit fastballs."
- Tom Hamilton on Herrera versus Santana