Written by Paul Cousineau

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Paul Cousineau checks in with us this morning with a whirlwind look around the internet, as he's mined some of the more interesting columns of the last couple days regarding the Indians for us.  Also included in Paul's piece is an interesting analysis of Fausto Carmona's performance by inning, which yields some interesting results. A very quick Monday recap of some of the more interesting stories on the internet regarding the Indians as we head into the All Star Break ...

Paul Hoynes had a first-half recap in the front page of the PD.  It was below the fold, but front page nonetheless.

Hoynes also has a story from our old friend Brandon Phillips on what happened to the Reds this year. Quoth The Franchise, "it's all about certain players. Ken Griffey and his home-run chase, Josh Hamilton and his comeback season, everybody got caught up in that instead of winning. We're happy for Josh, but we want to win. And the next thing you know, Homer Bailey's up here. We're a team, and everybody's worried about three guys." Maybe it's my inherent distaste for Phillips, but if he was included in the list that everyone's talking about, would he be complaining?

As Andy Call points out, thing may be worse in Pittsburgh than they are in Cincinnati, as Pirates reliever Salomon Torres in considering filing a lawsuit against the team.

The Let's Go Tribe blog makes a mid-season shopping list.

Chuck Lofgren, who's tearing AA ball apart, played in yesterday's Futures Game.  Also on the team was be Max Ramirez, the player acquired from the Braves in the Bob Wickman deal.  The World's top prospects beat the USA's top prospects by a 7-2 count.

And, of course, Sheldon Ocker makes more friends.

Finally, a little something I looked up regarding our secondnd 10-game winner, El Diablo. After Carmona got run in the 6th inning of Saturday's game, I explored what his OPS against is each inning:

1st inning - .716
2nd inning - .737
3rd inning - .573
4th inning - .804
5th inning - .473
6th inning - .833
7th inning - .924
8th inning - .873
9th inning - 1.286

Sure enough it seems there is something to Carmona being effective the first two times through the order, than seeing a huge jump in OPS against from the 5th to the 6th and even higher in the 7th. It's not unusual for any pitcher to see this type of jump, but again, when stats back up what your eyes see, there's something there.

Heading into the All-Star break with a 52-36 record.

Revel in it for a few days.