Morning lede: What's he doing here?

I’m with you on batting Clete 3rd. Maybe Leyland knows something we don’t.

I’m sure by, oh, the All Star Break he’ll be back to his old, .240-hittin’ self.

In the meantime, I can see the headlines now:

“Knee discomfort still causes timing trouble at the plate, Inge says”

“Inge doesn’t like role as part-time DH” (“I know they want to rest my knees, but I don’t hit as well when I can’t play the field.”)

“Back at third everyday, Inge says his timing is ‘almost there’” (“I got out of sync when I was DHing, Lloyd and I are working on getting my stance back to where it was before the surgery.”)

“Changes to stance yield little improvement as Inge goes 2-17 vs. Twins” (“It was pretty hard to get adjusted to this new park, I’m sure it will be better next time.”)

“Inge unhappy as Leyland drops him to 9th in the order” (“I realize I’m not hitting well right now, but I can’t concentrate on getting better and helping the team when I’m moving around the order.”)

“Cabrera dropped to 5th, Inge now hitting cleanup in surprising move” (“By golly Brandon’s just a competitor, he wants to win, and he told me that he has to hit cleanup to do that. I have great respect for Brandon and think the world of him. I certainly hope that he and I never find ourselves at odds and that he never sees fit to release those pictures he has of me and Dave in that Thai catho… Oh… Oh my… did… did I just say that out loud?”

I don’t really care what goes on the Big Ten tourney. No one talks about who wins that. They talk about how many times Sparty has gone to the Final Four!