Tag Archives: featured

At least we’re not Milwaukee: Tribe Notes 4/28

18 games into the 2015 season and your Cleveland Indians have six wins. 97% of the 30 Major League Baseball teams have more than that (the Brewers are the only team with less). Take those six instances where we accidentally had more runs than the other team at the end of the game, add one, and that’s how many games we are out of first place in the AL Central. Our .232 team batting average puts us at 21st in the majors. In terms of offensive WAR, the good guys have posted a 0.7 for the entire team. So if we dumped our entire squad and replaced them with league average players, we’d pretty much have the exact same record. Our ace gave up 6 earned runs and struck out 25 batters in his first three starts. He got zero, six (bullpen gave up 7) and two runs of support. Since then he’s given up ten earned runs in two starts. The good news is, our defense has improved. After being last in the league in every measurable statistic in 2014, the Tribe defense has absolutely blown the doors off the place with a -1.7 UZR this season. 0 is considered average.

In all seriousness though, one of the most encouraging parts to this dismal start has been Trevor Bauer. He’s currently 2-0 with a 0.95 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 26 strikeouts in 19 innings. And not only have his starts been one of the few things to look forward to when watching the Tribe, he’s hijacking your TV sets on his off days with some Grade A Royals trolling:

bauer

 

Get it? Cause the Royals got in a brawl with the White Sox last week? Oh Trevor, you slay me.

A couple more thoughts heading into tonight’s 6:10er:

  • Tell you what, I’ve been sort of trolling the #FreeLindor movement for quite some time now, but I’m beginning to question whether or not I should be. As it stands today, April 28, I’m still not on the Lindor bandwagon. But I might start checking ticket prices online. Jose Ramirez isn’t hitting a lick, and he already has as many errors (4) in 16 games this season than he had in 56 games in 2014. I’m certainly not ready to give up on him, and I know Tito isn’t either. I’ve always thought the best move when they bring him up would be to shift Jose to 2B and Kipnis, a former NCAA All-American outfielder, to RF. This would free Brandon Moss to DH, and I’m sorry Jerry Sands, I was there for your two double show, it was magical, but teams are going to throw as many lefties as they can against this club and you really shouldn’t be getting regular major league ABs. Lindor is finally starting to hit the ball in Columbus (.284/.360/.403) and we all already know his glove is ready. I’m not saying the next time I tweet #FreeLindor I’ll be 100% serious. But I’m getting pretty close.
  • Two other semi-bright spots so far have been mini-renaissances of Mike Aviles and Ryan Raburn. Handsome Mike has a couple bombs, a 6/3 BB/K and an OBP of .366 while doing some time in the 2 hole. Raburn has been able to get back to hitting lefties, posting a .385 clip with a bomb and 8 RBI against them. You were counting on comeback years from Kip and Swish, but so far it’s been Aviles and Raburn.
  • The Miami Marlins designated catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia for assignment yesterday, just over a year into the 3-year, $21 million deal he inked with the club in 2014. They have ten days to find a suitable trade partner, which apparently they’re already well into the process of doing, or the backstop will become a free agent. He’s been absolutely brutal this season (2-33 at the dish) and last year was a disappointment as well (.220, 11 HR, 44 RBI), but the guy hit 55 bombs from 2011-13 in Boston and hits from both sides of the plate (although I waited until right now in the blog to look at his splits and he is about one thousand times better hitting left handed). Salty played for Tito in 2011, so there’s some history there. The Marlins will have to eat quite a bit of his contract for anyone to take a risk on him. If they’re willing to eat enough, I wouldn’t hate to see the Tribe make a run at him. Granted, I would like to see if Roberto Perez can blossom a bit playing every day, but at the very least this would give them a backup catcher (Perez or Salty on any given day) that could actually play a little bit and a veteran with a World Series ring to handle this pitching staff. We’ll see.

That’s all for now. Come out to section 181 in the bleachers tonight and chat/cry/buy me a beer.

CI_040615-090.CR2

KEEP THE CHIEF

 

Cavs sweep Celtics Monday Game Tape; It was a damn street fight

The Cavs completed the sweep of the overmatched Celtics like everyone said they would but it wasn’t without two huge losses. Kevin Love got his arm ripped off and JR Smith slipped and accidentally hit Jae Crowder in the face. Both probably won’t be available at the beginning of the series against the Bulls and that SUCKS. As for this game… meh. The Cavs did what they needed to do and got out of Boston with the W. We saw firsthand what happens when a team is as overmatched by talent and class like the Celtics were in this series.

We’ve got the Bulls next and it’s no time to feel sorry for ourselves.

There was a certain other team from Ohio recently who faced an immense amount of adversity in the playoffs:

Let’s look at the game tape

clebos4

In a totally not dirty or intentional play, noted mouth breather Kelly Olynyk dislocated Kevin Love’s shoulder while they battled for a rebound

No really though. There wasn’t any intent at all as you can clearly see from this picture. Totally clean. Just your normal everyday basketball play that happens every trip down the court.

Kyrie gave poor Tyler Zeller the okey doke and made him look like a damn fool

Perk set a screen for LeBron and somehow got whistled for the foul. Seemed clean to me.

LeBron went choo choo and barreled his way down the lane for 2 before the half. When ‘Bron is in “Fuck You” mode there’s no stopping him. We’ll need that vs. the Bulls.

JR Smith was getting shoved by Jae Crowder and he put his arm out and accidentally hit Crowder in the face.

Tristan went after a loose ball and laid the wood on some Celtics fans and their seats in the process

In the end the Cavs won 101-93.

Couple thoughts:

– Hey Kelly Olynyk,

FUCK YOU DUDE

All these national writers and analysts on TV saying it wasn’t “intentional” and wasn’t “dirty” can kiss my ass. Now was Kelly’s intent to dislocate Love’s shoulder and jeopardize the rest of his playoffs? Probably not. But the “intent” was clearly there. He wanted to make his presence known. He knew what he was doing. We’ve all been in that moment while we’re playing hoops. Sometimes it’s a shove before you box out, sometimes it’s a hard foul disguised as you trying to block a shot. This was worse. This was equivalent to being at the bottom of a pile during a football game and grabbing another player’s nuts and twisting. The Celtics knew they couldn’t go talent on talent vs. the Cavs so they had to resort to this bullshit and it could end up costing the Cavs dearly in the long run. It’s like getting hurt in the 4th NFL preseason game, just completely unnecessary.

We speak in hyperbole on here A LOT but I don’t think I’m that crazy when I say Kelly Olynyk may go down in Cleveland sports lore as being as big of a villain as John Elway or Art Modell. What he did was unforgivable. Depending on how this season shakes out we may be looking at another head to add to the “Cleveland hates you Mount Rushmore.” And that sucks. Because a hippy looking bench player for an under .500 team doesn’t deserve to be there.

– If JR Smith gets suspended for a substantial amount of time the NBA has gone completely soft. There’s no one to blame but Adam Silver for this. The refs were officiating this way the entire series and something like this was bound to happen. If you “let ’em play” this is what you get. And let’s not try to anoint Jae Crowder as some sympathy figure either. The dude got what was coming to him (the punch, not the sprained knee, never like to see guys get injured)… maybe next time JR shouldn’t use a closed fist but whatevs

– So many people across the Internet saying the Cavs have no chance vs. the Bulls is HILARIOUS. We have the two best players in the series. Noah and Mirotic both have bum knees and Derrick Rose is a complete wildcard every night…  This Bulls-Bucks series could easily be 2-2 right now.

– The Cavs may have just become the Bad Boys of the NBA right under our nose. Perk, JR, Moz, etc. are all ready to throw down at the drop of a hat. Even Kyrie was sticking his nose in there. Let’s just not get suspended, K? We’ll need everyone for the Bulls. NWO 4 LIFE

lebronNWO

Related: We may have to make wine and gold Cavs NWO shirts. Stay tuned

– Man you’ve gotta feel for Kevin Love. Never been to the playoffs in his career; comes to the Cavs and is unfairly scrutinized the entire season; makes the playoffs for the first time; KILLS IT in his first 3 postseason games and looks like he’s finally starting to find his groove; gets his shoulder dislocated on a dirty play at the beginning of his 4th career playoff game. Damn, man. Damn.

– This is why you have Perk on your team. Guys want to act tough? Send him in. We need to work on on how blatant he is though. I’m already foaming at the mouth thinking about Perk setting on a hard screen on Joakim Noah.

– How ’bout your boy Shump? What’d he have, about 100 combined rebounds and steals? It’ll be interesting to see if he guards Derrick Rose or Jimmy Butler next series. Shump on Rose, LeBron on Jimmy Butler is how I’d play it but I think either one sounds good to me.

– After watching these first 4 games of the Bucks-Bulls series, it’s clear that D-Rose is a liability on defense for the Bulls. He’s getting beat like he stole something on the Bucks’ pick and rolls. We’re gonna need Kyrie and LeBron to expose this with a lot of pick and rolls/pops sprinkled in there.

– How about that no-call at the end of the game when LeBron was inbounding the ball and Isaiah Thomas bumped him while he was passing the ball? Looked totally legal.

– Speaking of Isaiah Thomas, these were his postgame comments:

isaiahthomasquote

 Seems like it was a direct shot at Love, no? Enjoy your offseason, lil guy!

– Perk’s foul on Jae Crowder wasn’t a message to the Celtics. It was a message to the rest of the East- “You fuck with one of ours, you’ll get your ass laid out. Expect it.”

– Even with the impending loss of JR and Love for the foreseeable future I still don’t think the Bulls can hang with us. Gonna need Shump, Marion, Miller and TT to step up big.

Cavs in 4.

(VIDEO) LeBron nonchalantly makes an overhand full court shot. Boston is so screwed.

“C’mon gimme my money”

If you’re Brad Stevens and the Boston Celtics and you see this, do you even bother coming out for game 4? If I were them I’d save myself the embarrassment, forfeit, and stay home to watch Netflix and start the offseason early.

It looks like LeBron, JR Smith and James Jones are playing HORSE because JR and JJ don’t seem to be impressed after LeBron canned that 94 footer.

Cue all the original “He should play quarterback for the Browns” comments.

#PrayForTheCeltics

Heres another angle where you can see just how crazy this shot was

Steph Curry who?