Its Been Too Long....

Why hello everybody! I am apologize for not writing for so long. When laziness and busyness intersect, you have a combination of not writing blogs. But I am back, and I hope to keep this train running! Instead of writing on one subject, I am going to touch on a few subjects today. Here we go!

The Indians have gotten better
With the struggling economy upon us, we probably expected our cheap owner (Larry Dolan) to spend his money on a utility infielder, or a backup outfielder. Instead, he went out and signed Chicago Cubs closer Kerry Wood. At $10 million a year, I was somewhat surprised he overspent to get a closer. We might sit and complain that we overpaid for a guy who is very injury-prone, but look at the market for closers, Colorado wanted too much for Brian Fuentes, and K-Rod got almost $40 million over 3 years. Closers are at a premium, and the Indians really needed a consistent one. We can't go into the season dependent on Jensen Lewis, we need someone who is proven. Also, the Indians came away with reliever Joe Smith, and middle infield prospect Luis Valbuena. Not bad, considering last year we signed just Jamey Carroll. Adding Kerry Wood strengthens our bullpen greatly. He had 34 saves, and a 3.26 ERA, and he blew just 6 saves. Joe Smith is also a very solid reliever and he posted a 3.55 ERA in 82 games. The Indians need one more infield bat with some pop, and I really think they can begin to seriously contend in the AL again. It is very important for us to do this because our team has very good starting pitching, and by adding one more solid hitter, we can really do some damage. The Yankees have gotten much stronger, Boston is still a very good team, Tampa Bay is a young and hungry team, Chicago and Minnesota will come in strong next year as well. Brian Roberts, JJ Hardy, and Garrett Atkins are all names I would love to see in an Indians uniform, and Terry Pluto of the Plain Dealer has said that the Indians have made calls about Roberts, but Baltimore seems reluctant to give him up. By adding one of these guys, it would help solidify our lineup with another consistent hitter besides Victor and Grady. We can no longer rely on Travis Hafner because of his health issues.
Overall, the Indians added two solid relievers to a struggling bullpen, and a young infielder who can actually hit! (In AAA last year he hit .302 with 10 SB in 58 games). In the years that the Indians did well, (2007 and 2005) we had great bullpens both those years. Our starting rotation will continue to be solid, and I expect Carmona to bounce back well. Victor should come back strong from his injury, and we all have to pray Hafner and Garko can return to their previous forms. All in all, a good start, but we still have some work to do.....

My o my how the mighty have fallen
The Browns have really been bad this year. It seemed that we had a whole bunch of little problems, that lead to this teams demise. First, Joe Jurevicous was lost for the year with a knee injury. He was clutch in 3rd down situations last year, and he was really missed this year. Add in the fact that Derek Anderson, Brady Quinn, Braylon Edwards, Josh Cribbs, Ryan Tucker, Kellen Winslow, and Donte Stallworth all missed time with injuries. Edwards forgot how to catch the ball, Jamal Lewis began to slow down, Kellen Winslow demanded a trade, Brady Quinn got punched in the face, and Derek Anderson continued his inconsistent play. The defense cannot generate any pass rush, we cannot make tackles, our linebackers can't cover, and our corners get burned. The only positive from this defense is that we lead the NFL in takeaways, but when your Defense spends so much time on the field, I guess its somewhat believable. It is kind of sad when your nose tackle Shaun Rogers has 4.5 sacks, and he LEADS your team in sacks. For those of you who don't know, in a 3-4 defense, you have 3 defensive lineman and 4 linebackers. The defensive lineman are supposed to eat up blockers so the linebackers can roam free to make tackles and pressure the QB. Rogers constantly has 2 guys blocking him, and he still leads the team in sacks! If we add the sack totals of our four starting linebackers (McGinest, Wimbley, Davis, and Jackson) they have a whopping 7 sacks. I think that speaks for itself......
In terms of coaching, Romeo is as good as gone. He is a nice guy, and the guys play for him, but he is not enough of a disciplinarian, and motivator. He can't manage the game, and he often times under utilizes his players (Jerome Harrison, Josh Cribbs, Beau Bell, Martin Rucker?) He shows no expression on the sideline, and he puts up with mediocrity too often. People have mentioned Bill Cowher and Marty Shottenheimer as possible replacements. I would like to have Cowher for a couple reasons. One, he is a great motivator and developer of talent. In Cowher's last seven years, here are the players he drafted and developed: Santonio Holmes, Willie Colon, Heath Miller, Chris Kemoeatu, Ben Roethlisberger, Troy Polamalu, Kendall Simmons, Antwaan Randel El, Plaxico Burress, Larry Foote, Chris Hope, Casey Hampton, James Harrison, Joey Porter, Clark Haggans, and Marvel Smith. Now list me the players the Browns have drafted in the past seven years that have had the impact these guys have had. Cowher had a lot of good Steeler teams in his tenure, and he was able to motivate his players to go out and smash opponents. Another reason I like him is that he will give us an identity as a team. Under Romeo, can you tell me what our identity has been? I sure can't. When he was in Pittsburgh, he continued the style of smash mouth football, and hard nosed defense. Those traits are still evident in Pittsburgh today. The one drawback I see from him, is that he is not that good of a coach in terms of implementing a game plan and adjusting to his opponents. Numerous times I saw Bill Belichick, and Tony Dungy make this man look stupid in the playoffs, and he sometimes does not come up with the best game plans. Marty Shottenheimer is a good coach, but in terms of playoffs (5-13 record) and finding the right players, he is not that good. Id rather have Cowher.....

The Cavaliers are for real
The Cavaliers have probably been the most positive thing this year in this city. LeBron James is playing less, and scoring almost as much as he did last year, Delonte West his playing his natural position of shooting guard and doing well, Ben Wallace seems very happy here and he is playing is role well, Z is shooting well and playing a great game downlow, and Mo Williams has been a great addition to this team. We have to give credit to Mike Brown for making John Kuester the "offensive coordinator" and giving him freedom to operate the offense. Very seldom do you see LeBron carrying the ball up the court, holding it, and waiting for a pick. Now we have Mo Williams handling the ball, facilitating, slashing, or shooting. This allows LeBron much freedom on offense as he can come off screens, and post up. Delonte West is a great spot up shooter, and he is beginning to slash to the hoop with ease. Wally seems to be more comfortable in his role as the floor spacer and shooter, Anderson Varaejo realized he is not Dr. J anymore, and he has began to get hustle points, provide energy off the bench, rebound, play defense, and annoy the hell out of everyone. No longer do you see him shooting 17 foot jumpers, or cutting to the hoop, only to lose the ball before he gets to the rim. I call him "controlled chaos". Sasha Pavlovic for some reason is playing good, but I still think he sucks. Everytime he gets the ball he stops, fakes a shot, looks at the defender, then realizes that he sucks, and he passes the ball. Other times, he gets the ball and just shoots, and he misses most of the time. Daniel Gibson was slowed by an injury, but he has come back well, and he is playing his role of ball handler, and 3 point specialist. He added the facet of slashing to the hoop to his game, which makes him very dangerous. JJ Hickson has look very raw as a rookie, but he has had some very promising games (@ Oklahoma City and @ Minnesota), and he shows great promise. Darnell Jackson looks like a solid rebounder, and defender. He will have a valuable spot on this team.
Now that we have looked at this roster, I feel that we are still one post player away from contending for a title. Z and Ben Wallace are injury prone, and if they suffer an injury at any point, we will be very thin in our frontcourt. Hickson is still very young, and Jackson is a bench option. We cannot rely on two rookies to help us throughout the playoffs. The Cavaliers need to acquire one swingman/bigman to compete against Boston and the LA Lakers. Why would you say that Raz? The team is 24-4 and they have great team chemistry! Well when it comes to the playoffs, the Celtics have a frontcourt of Kevin Garnett, Leon Powe, Kendrick Perkins, and Glen Davis. The Lakers have a frontcourt of Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol, Trevor Ariza, and Lamar Odom. Perkins and Davis have improved this year, as has Ariza. The Cavaliers need one more forward/big man to help solidify the front court, in order take scoring pressure off Z downlow, and continue our tough rebounding. Some names that have been thrown around are: John Salmons, Gerald Wallace, Chris Kaman, and Marcus Camby. I would like any of these guys, as they are all solid on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. Camby is a great defender and rebounder, Kaman can score and rebound, Wallace plays great defense and is an amazing athlete, and Salmons can do a little bit of everything. I don't really know what the odds are of us landing any of these guys, but as I wrote earlier, we have draft picks, 2 players on cheap short term rookie contracts (Hickson, Jackson), Wally's expiring contract, and two young players (Sasha and AV). We have the ammunition to make a move, but I have heard from Brian Windhorst and other sources that if we make a trade, its going to be for a great player. We aren't going to make a move to make a move. Also, we aren't going to trade half our roster either. Windhorst reported that if Wally is traded, he probably will ask for a buyout and comeback to Cleveland, a-la Antonio McDyess to Detroit. So if we don't trade away half our roster, and if Wally does indeed come back, our chemistry really won't be disrupted too much. The 2010 clock is ticking louder every day, and the Cavaliers have a great team right now, but I still believe that they are one player away from a championship banner.

CSU Basketball?
Now this is a subject most Cleveland fans are blind to, Cleveland State Vikings Basketball. We have a great basketball team in our backyard, and I am sure 75% of Cleveland sports fans can't name 2 players on this team. This team is 9-4, and have a good chance to make the NCAA Tournament this year. I went and saw this team play Kent State last night at the Wolstein Center, and boy did they look good. They destroyed them by a score of 67-41. Forwards George Tandy and J'Nathan Bullock, and guard Cedric Jackson all played great. All three of these players are seniors this year, and they played like it. Tandy blocked shots and grabbed 13 rebounds. Bullock shot well, provided great leadership, and had an amazing one handed dunk to go with his 24 point 10 rebound effort. Jackson cut throughout the Golden Flashes defense and dished out 6 assists. Center Chris Moore provided size and rebounding down low. Norris Cole and D'Aundrey Brown are going to be two great players. Both of these guys are sophomore guards, and they are great athletes, great defenders, and can score. Cole can shoot, slash, and play great perimeter defense. Brown can rebound well for a guard, defend, and score. Both of these guys have been great contributors to this team this year. Jeremy Montgomery is a very promising young guard. He runs the PG position when Cedric is on the bench, and he does a great job of taking care of the ball and initiating the offense. This CSU team is deep, and are lead by great coaches. Their head coach Gary Waters is a great guy, and his assistants Jason Gee, Gary DeSempliere, and Jermaine Kimbrough are also great guys. Three years ago, I attended a CSU basketball camp with one of my friends, and we got to talk to coach Waters, and he was truly a nice guy. He told us great stories, and gave us great advice. He stressed the importance of family, and he has shown it throughout his tenure at CSU. There have not been any player problems on the court, his team has improved greatly since his arrival (In three years he has a 40-38 record, he went to the Horizon League Championship last year, and he upset #11 Butler last year, and #13 Syracuse this year), the team looks very unified, and they have great chemistry. Coach Kimbrough was also a very great guy. When the camp ended we spoke to him, and he asked us where we were going to college. He told us if we ever wanted to be student assistants on our schools basketball teams, he would make phone calls to help us out. People should wake up and realize that we have more than 3 or 4 solid Division I basketball teams in Ohio, and probably one of the best ones is a team that they didn't even know about......

Well folks, that was a lot, but I have to make up for lost time. I hope you enjoyed it, and feel free to write any comments. Have a Happy Holiday, and I will probably write soon! Thank you, and Go Cleveland!

-Raz