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Bottlegate, Browns, Cavs, Cleveland, Indians

The results are in for Cleveland’s hottest athlete. Here’s who our readers chose:

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At the beginning of December we ran a poll to have our readers vote on the best looking professional athletes in the city of Cleveland. The response we got was pretty awesome, our poll was spread all over Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit and we had tons of people visit the site to weigh in on some good looking dudes. I mean, who actually cares about their play on the field, right?

The staff here at Bottlegate (AKA all 2 of us) put together our own lists. You can view Austin’s here where he went above and beyond and wrote a thesis on each individual player. He even came up with a number system to calculate each player’s final score. Seriously, go check it out if you haven’t already, it’s really really good.

Before we reveal the Top 10 that you voted, I’ll give you my top 10 and a short explanation on why and how I picked them.

 

10. Johnny Manziel

Is he actually a good looking guy? Meh. He’s alright I guess. He makes the list because these are the girls he’s been linked to within the past year. The company he keeps vaults him into my top ten.

9. Spencer Lanning

Spencer was the last person thrown into the poll to round out the Browns selections. He actually performed very well. The only reason he makes my top 10 is because of this picture:

spencerlanning3

8. Michael Brantley

Frankly I don’t think he’s very good looking but during every Indians game my Twitter timeline is inundated with girls swooning over him.

7. Joe Harris

If the 2014 NBA Draft was based off looks alone, Joe Harris would have been the #1 pick.

6. Jason Kipnis

He just strikes me as a man’s man. Can probably fix the alternator on your car while chopping down a Redwood at the same time.

5. Corey Kluber

He’s in the Top 5 because of his beard and his beard alone. I strive to have that facial hair one day. Oh, and he’s pretty good at throwing that baseball thing too.

klub

4. LeBron James

“But Mike, LeBron isn’t hot. He looks like an old man” Blah blah blah. You know why LeBron cracks my top 5? Because this:

lebronnetworth2

lebronnetworth1

Related: Apparently I’m a gold digger. You learn something new about yourself everyday.

 

3. Miles Austin

Miles was famous in the non NFL circles because he dated some girl named Kim Kardashian while he was with the Cowboys. Never heard of her. Plus people tell me has nice eyes.

 

2. Kevin Love

Kevin Love fever has officially taken over the city of Cleveland. Kevin Love this, Kevin Love that. You’d think he was in the same league as Beckham the way these girls are drooling over him.

1. Jordan Cameron

It really isn’t even close to be honest.

1) He’s an acclaimed actor who made his on-screen debut on FX’s The League

2) He can dunk better than you

jordancamerondunk

3) His child is way cuter than your child

4) He’s better at rollerblading than you

http://instagram.com/p/qLJb9CICK4/?modal=true

 

5) He puts Buddy The Elf to shame

6) Oh hello 5 o’clock shadow nice to meet you

 

Here’s how you guys voted:

hottestbrown

How Jordan Cameron didn’t win unanimously is beyond me

 

hottestcavalier

Bloodbath City: Population Kevin Love & the Cavaliers

hottestindian

Zach Walters coming in second for Hottest Indian then not cracking the top 10 for overall hottest is the most confusing thing that I’ve read all year.

Cleveland’s Top 10 (with ties)

10. Mike Aviles

10. Yan Gomes

10. Michael Brantley

7. Spencer Lanning

5. Miles Austin (tie)

5. Joe Haden (tie)

4. Jason Kipnis

3. Joe Harris

2. Jordan Cameron

1. Kevin Love

 

And there you have it, Kevin Love is the undisputed best looking athlete in the Cleveland professional sports scene. It was a back and forth battle between Jordan Cameron and Kevin Love, with Kevin making a big push on the final day to claim the title. Thanks to everyone who voted. Stay tuned for more polls like these that we have up our sleeve.

overallhottest

Baseball, Indians

Tigers trading for Cespedes isn’t as scary as you think

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https://twitter.com/CJNitkowski/status/543051898186903552

From HardballTalk:

“UPDATE: Alex Speier of the Boston Globe says the Red Sox will send two additional players to the Tigers. Which makes this deal make more sense.

9:40 AM: The Tigers and Red Sox are pulling off a big trade according to Fox’s C.J. Nitkowski: starting pitcher Rick Porcello to Boston in exchange for outfielder Yoenis Cespedes.

Porcello is a perfect fit for Boston who, as you may have heard, is in the market for a starting pitcher. He’ll turn 26 at the end of the month but he already has six full seasons as a starter under his belt. In those seasons he’s 76-63 with a 4.30 ERA and 655 strikeouts and 263 walks in 1073.1 innings. Those numbers have a lot of learning curve built into them, however — he started extremely young — and a lot of TERRIBLE Tigers infield defense over the years, which has hurt the groundball-heavy Porcello a lot. In 2014 he was outstanding, going 15-13 with a 3.43 ERA and 129 strikeouts against 41 walks in 204.2 innings.

Cespedes certainly has pop, an arm built for a big outfield like the one in Detroit and the potential to uncork an excellent season, but his on-base percentage — .294 last season, .316 in his three seasons, heavily weighted by his first one — is a major problem. Also: Comerica Park is not going to be the best place in the world for his home run stroke.

Both Cespedes and Porcello have one year to go before free agency.”

Sit down. Take some deep breaths. Count backwards from 30. You with me? Good.

This trade isn’t nearly as scary as it seems. You could argue it actually helps the Tribe. Yeah, Yoenis Cespedes is a pretty big name. Even the casual baseball fan remembers him for the shows he put on in the past couple Home Run Derbys, and for throwing runners out with the Moonraker laser he has attached to his body. He’s a monster of an athlete and he hits bombs. I’m not denying that. But he’s posted an OBP of .301 and .294 the past two years, both seriously underwhelming. His 5.4 BB% last year was downright awful, and 6.4% the year before that isn’t much better. The guy has struggled to get on base, simple as that. His fly ball % has gone up each of the past three years (40, 46, 48), yet his home run/fly ball % (14.8, 14.4, 9.6) has gone down. This trend should continue with his new home park dimensions in Comerica. And I have zero stats or actual facts to back this up, but there were rumors swirling around Boston that he’s a big giant asshole. I just got giddy picturing him and Miggy getting in each other’s faces in the dugout. Sure, on the surface a lineup that has Kinsler, Miggy, both Martinez boys and Cespedes seems scary. But Kinsler has been on a decline and I just don’t think there’s any way either Martinez has the year they did last season.

Cespedes is certainly an above-average player. He’s just not the STUD a lot of people make him out to be. But the Tigers getting rid of Porcello is FANTASTIC news. He’s been pretty average, some might say below average during his 6 year big league career. But the guy is still only 26 years old and seemed to turn a corner last year, winning 15 games with a 3.43 ERA and three complete game shutouts. He’s always been a ground ball pitcher and the Tigers have (mostly) always had a below average infield defensively. The Tigers should have their defensive wizard Jose Iglesias back at short this year.  And he always seems to shove it up the Indians’ ass.

Not to mention the fact that, if the Tigers do lose Max Scherzer to free agency, they’re going to have to replace about 425 innings and 33 wins in their rotation. That, on top of their abysmal bullpen makes me pretty confident the Tribe can go toe-to-toe with them on any given night, something they haven’t been able to do in the past two years/ever.

But if they do resign Scherzer, or this Johnny Cueto to Detroit rumor materializes, disregard this entire blog, turn all the lights off and curl up in a corner. Jk. Kinda.

 

KEEP THE CHIEF

 

Indians

Indians finally snag Brandon Moss from Oakland

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https://twitter.com/WhoIsMattAston/status/542012652189675520

Happy Monday, Cleveland. The move that was supposed to go down last week is now official. 2B prospect Joey Wendle heads west with 2014 All-Star Brandon Moss coming to The Land.

For my money, this is a great trade for the Tribe. Wendle is a decent prospect who can swing the bat pretty well for a middle infielder, but he’s 24, hasn’t played above AA and missed a chunk of last year with a broken wrist. Moss is coming off a surgery of his own (hip), but has proven at the major league level that he can do one of the things the Indians lineup needs the most: leave the yard. He should be healthy by spring training. Sure, that’s a little bit scary, as is the fact that we’re adding yet another left-handed bat to a lineup that’s already dominated by them. It’s certainly a calculated risk by the front office. But with the MI depth we have with guys like Jose Ramirez, Francisco Lindor and Erik Gonzalez, it’s one that I’m all for.