You’ll have to forgive me if this week’s edition of Lazy Sunday is both short and a little discombobulated. I started writing it earlier in the week, and then got a bit sidetracked when I was forced to spend all day Friday and most of Saturday in the hospital. Long story short, I woke up at 3am with horrible stomach pain and finally went to the ER at around 7am Friday morning. A quick ultrasound later, I come to find out that I have gall stones and my gall bladder has to come out, immediately. Immediately is a relative term in a hospital of course, but I suppose that it’s a miracle of modern medicine that about 12 hrs after arriving at the hospital, I was lying in a recovery bed sans gall bladder. So much of this week’s article will be written under the influence of perchocet as I lie in bed on the road to recovery. Please forgive both the brevity of the piece as well as any misspellings, but with the trade deadline fast-approaching, I wanted to get some thoughts out there for you all. So with that said, let’s kick off the first ever Lazy Sunday under the influence of drugs…

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With Wednesday’s trade deadline rapidly approaching, the Indians have not been brought up a whole lot in the media coverage. There are clearly needs on the ballclub that can be filled without using a Francisco Lindor or Danny Salazar to do it. Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff have done an excellent job keeping their cards close to the vest since the media certainly dig as hard as they can to find any rumor to get hits, which is commendable, and partially frustrating. Without a doubt, they have explored every possible way to improve the ballclub, but as Wednesday’s trade deadline moves closer and closer, we aren’t exactly sure what the Indians are going to do, if they do anything at all.

Not only does the trade deadline serve as a way to improve the talent level on the team, but it can also serve as a real morale boost. Teams caught in between buying and selling can get a vote of confidence from their GM or acquiring a premium player can really give a team a spark. Unfortunately for the Indians, who are clearly buyers sitting just three games back in the AL Central race, there will not be a premium player coming to provide a major impact. Those players just don’t exist on the market right now. A lot of what’s available is supplementary, specialized, and not going to dramatically change the face of any team.

But, that may be exactly what the Indians need. They are a team that has fought to achieve some level of consistency this season, both from the pitching staff and the offense. I don’t believe they need some sort of overhaul or high-priced trade acquisition. They need to plug holes in a boat that’s otherwise sufficient. Every time the Indians have taken on water, they have bounced back and sailed into calmer waters.

Fans and media can point to several places where the Indians could use upgrades. My list would include designated hitter, right field, and the bullpen as a whole. Others would include third base and the starting rotation. Ultimately, every GM has to work with what is available on the market and what makes sense for their situation. The Indians will not be trading Francisco Lindor to get an impact starting pitcher or a big bat for the middle of the lineup. Financially, that makes no sense, to give up a budding superstar controlled until around 2020 for a two-month or 14-month rental. Logically, it makes no sense because Lindor is a top ten prospect at a position of need.

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Breaking the rules is a funny thing.  Speaking in terms of baseball, there's cheating and there's stretching the boundaries of the guidelines as far as you can.  Punishment is issued accordingly, or so we'd like to believe.  If you run out of the baseline or interfere with a fielder's right to make a play, the punitive action is that you are out.  In turn, pitchers and fielders, if caught, risk surrendering extra bases to the offense for certain infractions.  The umpires play the role of judge, jury, and exectuioner; what they say, goes.  Sometimes, the umpires just don't get it all right, be it a subjective or objective call.  What happened to George Brett, thirty years ago this Wednesday in the Bronx, wasn't left to interpretation, it was just wrong.

It isn't often that the players run off the field and the broadcast ends with a result that doesn't stick.  To reset the situation, Goose Gossage came on in relief for Billy Martin's Yankees, trying to shut the door on a 4-3 win, after Dale Murray retired the first two Royals in the top of the ninth inning on July 24, 1983, but allowed a single to UL Washington, which extended the game, and brought Brett to the plate.  Brett smacked a home run into the right field seats at Yankees Stadium to give the Royals a 5-4 lead in a nationally televised game.

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Out in the wilderness for the weekend and no while I could scrounge for a signal to get my Indians fix, I decided that when service wouldn't push through, I'd be in for a surprise Sunday evening upon my return.

Would it be a good one? A bad one? It wasn't on my mind much. For a bit, I even forgot who was invading Progressive Field. Then I fired up the good old internet to see a stunning headline. Ubaldo...dazzles? DAZZLES?

Then the word. Sweep. SWEEP!? 

I'll let you guess what kind of surprise I thought it was.

I had an excellent weekend being incommunicado, sleeping in a tent, flying through the air attached to a wire, and spending my nights by a campfire. But as good as the fresh air smells in the morning, you know what smells the best? October baseball. Not only does it smell good, it smells like it may be closing in.

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