Written by Brian McPeek

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Man! I know one guy who is looking forward to this fall on the lake front! Not necessarily because I know a damn thing about the players the Browns selected on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but because it sure seems clear to me that the Browns have the smartest guys in the league doing their evaluating and drafting for them. Oh yeah, the Indians are still playing occasionally between rain outs and losing most of the days they play. And the Cavs? Yep, Roker is back in the fold!!

City of Champions!

It’s The Weekend Wrap!

Kill me, please!

I have no Effing Clue…

What the Browns are doing.

Don’t take that as an indictment of Barkevious Mingo or Leon McFadden because I think we learned less about them than the guys running the show (for now) in Berea.  I just fail to understand the process and I’m not a guy that likes process at all. I’m all, “Show me the baby, don’t tell me about the labor”, but I cannot for the life of me understand why the Browns literally ran their Mingo selection to the podium on Thursday night.

The Browns had 7 minutes remaining when Mingo was announced as the pick. He was on their card and they had no risk of losing him if they really wanted him. So why not take the allotted time and see if anyone was going to be calling about trading for pick #6?

You want Mingo, fine. I can argue all day that no one in Pittsburgh is upset about getting Jarvis Jones and not Mingo because a lot of people think Jones is the better football player (and he sure as hell was on the field in the SEC last year). But why not at least take your allotted time and see what happens. In all likelihood, in this draft, nothing happens, your phone doesn’t ring and you end up with Mingo. That’s the worst that can happen there. The very worst thing at all.  You get the guy you really apparently want, just 7 minutes later than you took him.

But why not give yourself that extra time? It makes no sense at all. Maybe someone gets stupid and you get a deal. Maybe someone makes you the offer that Buffalo got and you pick up a couple picks and still likely have your chance at Mingo or Jones or someone else you like in the middle of the round.

It bothers me because there’s arrogance on display, if not a basic lack of comprehension for how you play the draft game.

I also hate, Hate, HATE the fact the Browns traded a 4^th round pick to the goddamn Steelers in exchange for a 3^rd round pick next year.

You DO NOT do deals with the Steelers. First of all, they’re way smarter than you are. And second of all, you don’t do deals with the Steelers because of that first thing! And with so many holes and areas of need on the Browns roster, I’m not sure I understand why you don’t make a selection with that 111^th pick rather than dealing it to your hated, division rival. Maybe there’s a safety on the board there? Maybe one that isn’t coming off an Achilles tendon tear last season like the one you took in the 7^th round?

You want to cut the Steelers a deal? Sign them up for a Pilot/Flying J rebate card. Do not give them extra picks. I’m not even going to bother finding the name of the player Pittsburgh took with that pick. I’ll probably hear it again in 15 years when someone mentions it as part of an amusing anecdote during that player’s Hall of Fame speech.

Being considered a smart organization probably takes a lot of time. But I’m pretty sure the first step is to not be considered stupid.

I’m looking forward to the Browns one day taking that first step.

Let it Rain

I think a lot of people have the wrong idea about the Indians offense this season. I think there is the assumption that this team will score a lot of runs. I think that part is true. They think the Tribe may average 5 runs a game. Let’s assume that’s even true. But what will not happen with this team is them going out every day and scoring five runs each game in order to get to that average.

Nope.

The Indians have a lot of feast or famine guys. We told you that when they signed Mark Reynolds and Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn and we told you that when they traded for Drew Stubbs and Mike Aviles and others on the roster.

They could score three runs over the course of four games and then hang 15 or 20 on some poor pitching staff. That’s one way to average five runs per game. It’s also a pretty good way to lose three out of four games.

That’s the issue the Indians are facing right now. The pitching is mediocre and not likely to get significantly better and the offense has also struggled on the majority of nights. The hope was always that this team would win its share of 7-6 or 10-7 games and that the offense would overcome the shaky pitching. That may ultimately be what happens more regularly than it has so far.

But the Indians pitching and offense has earned their spot in the basement of the AL Central thus far. They’re going to need to get a few occasions when the pitchers and hitters have productive games on the same night.

Otherwise they’ll have to get used to where they are in the standings. It’s still early and the rain hasn’t helped anyone get in a rhythm. But it’s something we need to see from this club pretty soon.

He’s Baaaack!

Most billionaires I know hate being wrong and hate admitting they were wrong even more. I imagine Dan Gilbert is no different. And this past Monday Gilbert came as close as billionaires come to saying, “Man, I really screwed that up” when he introduced Mike Brown as the new Cavaliers Head Coach.

If the name is familiar it’s because he’s the winningest coach in Cavs history and Gilbert fired him three years ago. The winning part of that probably had more to do with LeBron James than any great shakes from Brown, but Mike Brown is a solid head coach and is truly a guy that knows defensive basketball.

Firing Brown was a last gasp effort to try and retain James during ‘The Decision’. It was Gilbert clutching at the hope that maybe James would see the Cavs doing everything they could by dancing with Tom Izzo and all the others during that time. But the truth was James had left long before he embarrassed himself with his one hour televised special. He was gone during Game 5 of the Celtics series and he left Brown and all of his teammates looking stupid. I don’t think that version of James cared who his coach was; he had no respect for any of them. Not for Brown, not for Paul Silas before him and not for Erik Spoelstra during James’ first year with the Heat. LeBron was a douche bag. To his credit he seems to have grown up since then and realized that he has to at least show respect for the guy coaching his club. He may even grudgingly admit that they are actually important.

Anyway, Brown was one of many caught between the two massive egos of James and Gilbert. He’s a decent coach and a good man and it’s a credit to his ability to keep his own ego in check that he’s back here for another tour with the Cavaliers.

Hopefully he gets Kyrie Irving’s attention. Because Irving took a wrong turn down D-Bag Drive sometime around the All Star game and he needs to be brought back home. Hopefully Brown can appeal to Irving’s rapidly growing ego and show him how much better he can be offensively and in the eye of the fans by playing defense and turning that defense into offense for himself and others.

If Brown can do that then he’ll be here a while. If he can’t there’s a pretty good chance that he won’t see the end of this contract with the Cavs either.

 

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