Written by Brian McPeek

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Ahhh….Labor Day weekend. That can only mean the Air Show is in town, the Indians are about 65 games out of first place, there are guys who spent all season in the minor leagues who will hit fourth and fifth in the Tribe’s batting order and the town turns its sporting attention to the Browns, who will gladly accept the baton and run with it to the tune of a 4-12 record.

It’s The Weekend Wrap!!!!

The Browns

There were no major surprises this week out of Berea as the Browns cut down to their 53-man roster. Seneca Wallace being released was probably the biggest news, followed closely by the news that Evan Moore was joining him on the waiver wire.

The happiest people to hear that Wallace and Moore were released were probably the fine folks at U-Haul who will have to have a few of their biggest trucks head over to Wallace’s residence to accommodate the massive ego and bad attitude that Wallace apparently carries around with him wherever he goes. Likewise, you’re not going to fit Moore’s inability to stay healthy in one of those small, tow-behind trailers. You might be okay trying to stuff Moore’s work ethic in one of those little Thule Roof Boxes though.

What the Browns did do, to their credit and hopefully with long term improvement in mind, is get younger and faster. The linebackers behind D’Qwell Jackson, Scott Fujita and Kaluka Maiava are all young guys who are either rookies or have a year’s worth of experience. James-Michael Johnson, L.J. Fort and Craig Robertson are inexperienced and raw but they are fast and athletic, something the defense is in dire need of putting on the field.

Trevin Wade and Johnson Bademosi, a couple of PAC-12 rookies, bring some of that speed and athleticism to the defensive secondary and special teams and rookies Billy Winn and John Hughes bring youth to the defensive line.

Moore will be replaced by Jordan Cameron behind incumbent TE Ben Watson and Trent Richardson and Mitchell Schwartz are young, high picks that were selected to infuse the offense with some youth and skill as well.

For the long term that all bodes well…if these guys prove to be healthy and to be players. But for this season, especially early on, expect growing pains. The biggest reason for that pain is likely to come from the fact that the Browns selected Brandon Weeden with the 22^nd pick and Weeden is a classic, big-armed pocket passer. That’s fine and Weeden may prove worthy of the pick, but selecting a big-armed pocket passer like Weeden, whose not blessed with a great deal of foot speed and escapability, and putting him behind an offensive line that, to be kind, is a work in progress, could equate to some ugly moments where Weeden is under steady duress and pressure.

The biggest concern will be keeping Weeden upright and healthy while Schwartz, Jason Pinkston and Shawn Lauvao settle in get comfortable with each other and the speed of the game. You also have to hope that those interior linemen also stay healthy because there’s not a great deal of quality depth behind them (unless you’re a big fan of Oneil Cousins, Ryan Miller and John Greco).

Ideally, the line stays healthy and comes together, providing Weeden time and providing Richardson (who has yet to hit the field since undergoing his second surgical procedure since February) some space to operate and run. If all goes well the young offense survives the early part of its schedule and grows into a cohesive, productive unit. If all doesn’t go well? Well, there will be plenty of time to talk about that down the road but it’s not a leap to see Weeden battered and bruised and buried under a lot of opposing big bodies. And for a rookie who will turn 29 in a month you want to see Weeden get as many snaps as possible this season so his learning curve is accelerated and this team can move forward next season instead of getting Weeden reps next season that he could have in 2012.

The likelihood is that the development lands somewhere in between. It’s just hard to see this offensive line suddenly coming together as an efficient, effective group without some early pain, most likely to be felt by Weeden and all of us watching the offense. Nor do I have a great deal of faith that the Pat Shurmur-led coaching staff will make the necessary adjustments to prevent some of what’s about to come. There’s just no history that would indicate that Shurmur is up to the task.

What it all means is another long season in terms of wins and losses. It would be no great shock to see the Browns end up with another four win season given the issues they face. That’s the bad news. The good news is that there is more talent in Berea than there has been in years past, there will be even more a year from today and in all likelihood there will be new leadership in place in the front office and on the sidelines next season to develop it.

The Tribe

Russ Canzler and Thomas Neal played the first five months of the 2012 season in Columbus for the Clippers. On Sunday they were hitting fourth and fifth respectively for the Indians against the Texas Rangers.

Yeah…it’s come to that.

Even more amusing is that after Canzler and Neal in the order came Brett Lillibridge, Matt LaPorta, Lou Marson and Ezequiel Carrera. I mean, are you trying to win or are you trying to embarrass yourself?

Did I mention that Jason Donald was the leadoff hitter?

It’d be tolerable if you were running your Triple-A prospects or Double-A phenoms out there to give them a taste of the big leagues and prepare them for better days to come. But with the exception of Carrera and Neal none of the call-ups or lineup fillers are ‘young’ players. Neal and Carrera are 25 years old. They’re not upper level prospects. They’re organizational type players who will likely spend their careers bouncing between Triple-A and the Big Leagues and maybe having an occasional year or two that lands them a full year as a 4^th or 5^th outfielder some place.

But they’re not a strong hope for the future of Indians baseball. And the real problem is there isn’t truly a strong hope or group of prospects who will lift the Indians beyond where they are now. The best and brightest prospect in the organization is currently 18-years old and playing in Eastlake. That’s a long, difficult trip from there to Cleveland and there are no guarantees that Francisco Lindor will ever be ‘special’, much less a decent Major League player.

If you’re an Indians fan this season has crushed your spirit. And to look down through the organization and it see it devoid of any impact talent means a lot more disappointment before things change.  You can justify to yourself lineups like the one the Indians ran out there on Sunday if they speak to promises of better things to come. But that wasn’t the case. The fact you have to watch Matt LaPorta wave at baseballs thrown to the outer half of the plate and look clueless on any off-speed pitch is not a glimpse into the future of a player who will grow and be a core member of a winning team.

But LaPorta, Carrera, Donald and Lillibridge are the true personification of what the Indians are now and what the Tribe and their fans have to look forward to for the next few years.

The Buckeyes

 The best part about the Buckeyes thrashing of Miami of Ohio on Saturday is that I imagine Urban Meyer was less than thrilled with the 56-10 win.

Yes, the Buckeyes put up over half a hundred against the RedHawks and they were dominant athletically all afternoon. But Meyer walked out of the Horseshoe yesterday with the best of both worlds: a blowout win in his Ohio State debut and plenty of coachable moments from the game itself.

What might Meyer preach this week? Well, the Buckeyes actually trailed Miami 3-0 at the end of the first quarter. They also played at a pace that was far more reminiscent of a Jim Tressel-inspired offense than the state-of-the-art offense Meyer lorded over at Florida. And while Meyer is getting in the ears of his players he might also want to look in the mirror or at his coaches and wonder why the hell the last play of the first half was a Carlos Hyde dive from the 3-yard line that yielded nothing for the Buckeyes, instead of a play call that would get Braxton Miller on the edge with a pass/run option.

Miller is gifted. He’s gifted running the ball and he’s capable of making throws (though his motion and spin is still completely goofed up right now). Running Hyde inside there as opposed to getting Miller wide was puzzling, to say the least.

The biggest issue from above is the pace of play, though. It’s going to take some time before the offense and the athletes are just playing as opposed to thinking their way through games. It was great to see some of the sets and motion and concepts employed by Meyer on Saturday but these Buckeyes are still in their infancy in terms of understanding the offense and their places in it.

What was encouraging was seeing Miller still walking his way through the complexities of the offense but running for 160+ yards and throwing for 200+ and a couple TDs, one being a one handed grab by Devin Smith that was ridiculous. Also encouraging was that Philly Brown looked like a football player Saturday. Brown had 7 catches for nearly 100 yards and he also grabbed a TD from Miller. He also looks to be Miller’s “Go To” guy in the offense.

Next Saturday the Buckeyes get a stiffer test against UCF. That Florida school has some athletes and will push OSU more than Miami could reasonably expect to push them. It will be interesting to see where Meyer’s squad stands in terms of speed and athleticism against the Knights. Ideally you’d like to see the Buckeyes continue to look more comfortable in their new clothes every week leading up to that meeting with Michigan.

I imagine Meyer will tirelessly push the Buckeyes to that point. And it certainly makes it easier to do when you can point to 56 points on the board, a win in the book and a lot of room for improvement.

 

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