2 Dollar Tribe Report/2 Dollar Bill Josh Elmore

On Monday, June 25th, The Pittsburgh Pirates released catcher and infielder Jake Fox. His playing time had reduced drastically from the start of the season until now. When the season began he was starting and playing in every game. In the last month or so, he was being used more as a pinch hitter. When attempting to find out why the Pirates released Fox, I could not get a definitive answer but believe it had to do with differences between Fox and manager, Dean Treanor, over how Fox was being used and the amount of playing time he was receiving. I find it as a sad end to Jake Fox’s time here in Indianapolis playing with his home town Indianapolis Indians. As a reminder, Fox went to Cathedral High School here in Indianapolis before going on to play at the University of Michigan. He had big league time with the Athletics and the Cubs. This season he had a low batting average with 2 homeruns and 16 RBIs. At the age of 29, and after this last move, it’s hard to believe that Fox will ever make it back to the big leagues.

In other news, the Indians got shortstop Jordy Mercer back after he was sent down from the Pittsburgh Pirates to fill Fox’s spot on the roster. If you recall, Mercer, at one point in time, had an 8 game hitting streak to lead the team in average and made several key defensive plays at shortstop. It is a great sight to see Mercer back in the lineup for the Indians and hopefully he can use what he learned at the big league level to help the Indians continue to make a strong playoff push for the rest of the season.

Go Tribe!