Written by Brian McPeek

---

We’re in the middle of a fun little stretch of the sports schedule about now. The Browns have been beefing up the roster through free agency, the Indians continue to build toward Opening Day out in the desert, the Kyrie-less Cavs slog toward the end of their road and March Madness begins in earnest this week.

Oh yeah, we’re no longer affiliated with STO given Fox bought them and will import their tired, old, middle-aged slugs..err..professional writers. You’ll recognize them in that they will look almost exactly like the Plain Dealer’s tired, old, middle-aged slugs…err..writers. What it really means is I don’t have to worry about an f-bomb or two coming back to bite me on Monday morning when the STO folks read this.

So without further adieu…The Weekend Wrap.

No Complaints

I haven’t had the opportunity to say this a lot in the past few years, but….I really like how the Browns have handled their business in the last week or so.

Right or wrong, they identified the guys they wanted to fill a few of the holes many of us said they had and they went out and grabbed them. I’m not personally a huge Paul Kruger guy or of the opinion that he’s worth even the $8million per year the Browns are paying him, but they needed pass rush help and Kruger gives them that. Quentin Groves is another pass rushing LB that the Browns signed (who played for Ray Horton in Arizona last season) and Desmond Bryant may have been the best DL on the market before signing with the Browns. TE Gary Barnidge will play the role of departed TE Alex Smith in 2013 and the Browns needed to fill that role anyway.

Yes, they still desperately need to upgrade their DB situation but there’s good news on that front: there are plenty of available DBs AND all of them would be an improvement over what the Browns currently have on the roster. Hell, you might argue the Browns DBs are already better right now with Sheldon Brown having left the building.

There are also still needs at TE and at G but the Browns have entertained both Washington TE Fred Davis and ATL CB Brent Grimes, so at the very least this regime is actively looking to improve areas that everyone understands needs to be improved.

More than that though, I like the fact the Browns jumped on Kruger early and then let the rest of the market develop. They may have overpaid for Kruger in terms of his past history being worth the dollars spent, but that was the going rate for a pass rushing LB. But they got Bryant at a good price and paid Groves and Barnidge what they’re likely worth.

Sadly, such a common sense approach wasn’t guaranteed based on the first few months of Jimmy Haslam and Joe Banner’s reign.

What’s next? Well, signing a couple guys like Grimes and Davis would be a great way to wrap up the free agency spending. Both will likely come far more cheaply than they would have had each not blown out an Achilles last season and missed significant time, but both are still highly sought after. Both are also still worth taking a chance on because of their upside and Grimes would be even more effective if you pair him with Joe Haden. Haden is going to cover opposing #1 WRs and Grimes on most #2 WRs is a huge advantage for Grimes. If the Browns could somehow sign Grimes and another CB like Captain Munnerlyn (Carolina) who is a slot specialist, well, that would really position this team well in terms of improving the secondary.

Davis would be a more talented, productive (and potentially more flammable) TE than Jordan Cameron. Before getting hurt last season Davis was a favorite target of RG3 and was on his way to a career year. Keep in mind he’s also kind of a knucklehead and is reportedly just one failed drug test away from a one year vacation, but his potential is high.

There’s still work to do for the Browns, and a team with as many holes as they have isn’t going to fill all of them in one season (regardless of how much cap room they may have), but at least the circus music that I swore I heard a couple months back has quieted down.

Getting There

I used to be so impatient for baseball to get here that I’d wrap myself in the warmth of spring training games and actually pay attention to the details of camp.

Not any more.

I still love the start of spring training because of what it signifies but I don’t read box scores, game accounts or op-ed pieces by anyone in regard to how it looks like Ryan Raburn and Scott Kazmir appear to have finally gotten either healthy or productive or healthy and productive just in time for the Tribe to benefit from both.

I’m too old and not quite dumb enough to buy into that crap.

The Indians are going to live and die with how their established players perform. If the Tribe gets anything at all from guys like Raburn and Kazmir that would be a nice bonus. But big springs are forgotten quickly once the regular season and bench players and 5^th starters tend to be victimized by lack of everyday work and infrequent appearances.

Spring Training is far more important in terms of seeing guys like Zack McAllister and Brett Myers knock the rust off and get ready and also seeing the everyday lineup get dialed in against live pitching. I’ll also be interested to see if Indians participating in the World Baseball Classic are any further ahead than the rest of the guys not participating. The WBC is much higher intensity than Cactus League games and you’d hope that Carlos Santana, Mike Aviles and Vinnie Pestano should be ready right out of the gate.

We’re now closer to the Indians breaking camp then we are to when camp started and I’m actually cautiously optimistic in regard to the Indians’ fortunes. I think the natural progression and development of Jason Kipnis and Lonnie Chisenhall will be a good measuring stick for how this team performs and I’m also intrigued by the effect Terry Francona may have. Manages rarely make a huge difference in a season but there can be a bounce from a changing of voices on the coaching staff and it’s not being unreasonable or overly optimistic to believe Francona and his staff might be able to reach Ubaldo Jimenez and Justin Masterson.

The Indians, regardless of how the lineup performs, will go only as far as Masterson and Jimenez take them. So if you’re going to try and base the regular season on anything during Spring Training, pay attention when those two pitchers take the hill.

Familiar Territory

When last we talked, I was lamenting the fact that Kyrie Irving spends more time in the gym than in the weight room and suggesting that he fix that imbalance. Well, Kyrie is down for the count again and is likely to miss the rest of the season with a shoulder injury.

After two full seasons in the league Irving will probably have missed about 35-40% of his team’s games. He’s a dynamic, game changing star when he’s on the floor, but that’s far too infrequently for my tastes.

Making matters worse is Anderson Varejao, over the past three years, has played in only about 30% of the Cavaliers games.

The situation for Varejao and Kyrie is similar in that both are reckless with their bodies during games and neither is physically suited for the pounding they take.

Not coincidentally, the Cavs are struggling without those guys and those struggles are likely to continue as the team plays out the remaining schedule. Only the Magic, Bobcats and Suns are currently worse than the Cavs in terms of winning percentage so the Cavs will likely have another high lottery pick to show for their struggles.  

The other good news (for now) is that the Lakers pick, if the season ended today, would belong to the Cavs too, by virtue of LA currently qualifying as the 8^th seed in the Western Conference. The Cavaliers also have their own 2^nd round pick as well as the 2^nd round selection of Orlando. If the Lakers hold on and make the playoffs the Cavs could end up with four picks in the top 35 selections or so.

That scenario could make for an interesting June draft for this franchise and it gives them the chance to add a talented player at the top of the lottery as well as giving them some versatility to make a move or two with the other picks.

As Irving gets closer to controlling his destiny in terms of free agency it’s critical the Cavs come away from the 2013 draft in a position to make the jump as a team. They’ll need to seriously consider resigning Mo Speights and they’ll need to continue to find and develop depth outside of a fragile starting five as they did when they acquired Speights, Wayne Ellington and Shaun Livingston from Memphis 6 weeks ago.

As odd as it may also sound, the Cavs need to consider retaining Luke Walton as well. Walton has been a glue guy for this team in recent weeks and his value has become apparent. He simply knows how to play the game and he does things on the court that lead to ball movement and buckets.

For a guy who was a running joke for months with Cavs fans it seems crazy that he could be a guy you’d hate lose. Boobie Gibson, on the other hand….

Tournament Time

So what if NCAA College Basketball has seen a drastic watering down of its talent pool? So what if the “One and Done” era has stripped the college hoops down to bare bones? There’s still nearly nothing as enjoyable in sports as the first two days of the NCAA Tournament, maybe even more so now that the tournament is wide open with legitimately 12-15 teams who could walk away with a title.

And the Buckeyes are one of those teams.

Three weeks ago Ohio State looked lost, scared and ill-equipped to advance beyond the tournament’s first few days. And while they could still get beaten by about anyone they also have grown up and grown tougher in the past three weeks.

If OSU plays the way they have played in the last few weeks it’s not at all out of the question that they could get back to the Final Four in a few weeks.

In a watered down field the Buckeyes have a legit scoring threat in DeShaun Thomas and Aaron Craft, despite having next to no outside shot, has increasingly found his way to the rim. The Buckeyes have cobbled together enough scoring in addition to Thomas and Craft with Lenzelle Smith, Jr., LaQuinton Ross, Shannon Scott and Sam Thompson, to put up enough points against teams with various styles that one can safely say they’re a tough out for anyone.

More than the scoring though, the Buckeyes play a full shot clock’s worth of defense on nearly every possession and that begins (and often ends) with Craft.

Ask Michigan’s Trey Burke, one of the most dynamic scorers in the game, how much more difficult it is to get off with Craft on the floor.

The Buckeyes have shown throughout the year that they can play with the Big Ten’s best. That prepares them well for the NCAA Tournament. Buckle in and get ready for what’s likely to be a wild ride and a wide open three weeks of college hoops.