Upton Signing Shows Why Tribe Not Active in Free Agency

The Cleveland Indians have a reputation of being a tad frugal in terms of payroll.

The Tribe was in the lower third of all major league teams in terms of spending on the ballclub, which infuriates its fan base to no end. When they do spend money, they usually don’t spend wisely.

Take, for example, the $5 million given to Grady Sizemore, and another reported $3 million to Casey Kotchman, named in an article on Baseball Prospectus at the least valuable player in baseball.

Going back a few years, the front office made a colossal mistake when faced with the specter of having three front line players, C.C. Sabathia, Travis Hafner, and Jake Westbrook coming up on free agency, they decided to sign the lesser two players and traded Sabathia away.

We still believe if they would have offered the current Yankees’ ace less than what they paid the other two combined per year (an estimated $22 million), perhaps C.C. would still be wearing a Cleveland uniform.

You see, the best investment in baseball is signing your star young players to big cash, and staying away from older star free agents, and other free agents in general.

Do you think the Yankees would love to get rid of Alex Rodriguez’ bloated contract now, based on his production over the past couple of years? The bet here is that the Angels will regret the Albert Pujols deal as he heads into his late 30’s.

Yesterday, the Braves decided to give OF B. J. Upton $15 million per year for five years. Atlanta may regret this one before the last two years on the contract.

Why? Because Upton is nothing more than an average player. If an 800 OPS makes you a very good offensive player, then Upton certainly is lacking. He’s reached that figure just once in his career, and that was in 2007. His lifetime mark of 758 is just slightly higher than the American League average in 2012 (731).

If the going rate for a player like Upton is $15 mil a year, then by all means the Indians should wait for the bargains in free agency if they participate at all. If Upton is worth that amount, then what is Nick Swisher worth?

Not that the latter is a great player, but he has a OPS of 828. He’s a much more productive hitter than B.J. Upton.

It is ridiculous what the going rate is for average players on the open market. As they say, it only takes one crazy team.

That’s why the ability to draft well and develop your own talent is so important. It gives you the chance to have good talent at an affordable price.

Shin-Soo Choo is a better player than Upton, and Michael Brantley’s OPS is roughly the same (750). Both players combined will make far less than the new Braves’ outfielder.

So, do the Indians have a chance to get better right away?

Sure.

They can make trades for players who have abilities from teams trying to shed some payroll and have maybe a year or two left on their contracts. That strategy buys you time until some young players develop.

You can also wait out the market a little bit and get good players for less money than Upton received. You just have to sign the right players.

For example, both Josh Willingham and Cody Ross were signed for relatively little money, but both had very productive seasons.

That’s the right way to play the free agency game.

Signing a player like Upton would hamstring the Indians for several years, just like Hafner’s hefty deal.

That’s the way the money game in baseball is played today.

The Case for Keeping Heckert

There are many rumors about an upheaval in the Browns organization after the season ends, mostly because of the new ownership.

Jimmy Haslam brought in Joe Banner as the team’s CEO, and much speculation has abounded that the latter will want to bring in his own people to run the football operations.

Here’s hoping that Banner doesn’t make judgments on any people involved based on anything besides their current performance on their job.

Mostly, this concerns the future of GM Tom Heckert.

Whether or not Heckert and Banner were friendly when both were in Philadelphia should have nothing to do with the former keeping his job.

If Banner has made up his mind about jettisoning the current GM, then it is likely a decision made out of spite. Meaning he simply doesn’t get along with Heckert.

Although many people were glad to see Mike Holmgren leave the organization, you can’t argue that the Cleveland Browns are in better shape now than they were when The Big Show arrived.

And one of the reasons for that was the hiring of Heckert as general manager.

There are many people around football, both coaches and media members, who believe the Browns are finally putting together a pretty solid football team.

There is no doubt that Tom Heckert is a huge reason this is happening.

Has he hit on every single draft pick he has made over the last three years? No, but name a general manager who does.

The misses are magnified here because that’s how it is, but other teams miss on choices as well.

That said, look at the Heckert draft choices that are making significant contributions to this football team. Lower round choices like DT Billy Winn, CB Buster Skrine, and CB Trevon Wade are all getting regular playing time.

And before people complain about Skrine, he does a fine job covering slot receivers as the nickel back.

Think about free agents such as LB Craig Robertson, CB Johnson Bademosi, and S Tashaun Gipson, who are all very important players for this team, especially Robertson who has made several big plays this season.

And while critics bring up the Montario Hardesty pick in round two, and some are questioning the pick of Brandon Weeden, look at the guys Heckert selected in the first few rounds of the draft.

Joe Haden is the Browns’ best defensive player and the Browns are 3-3 with him playing and 0-5 without him on the field. That reflects the impact he has on this defense.

DT Phil Taylor has missed some time with a torn pectoral muscle, but he is back now and together with Ahytba Rubin and two other Heckert picks, John Hughes and Winn to make up a defensive tackle rotation that is quite formidable.

And Trent Richardson and Weeden were starters from the first game this season, and both have shown promise.

These players were all picked in the first round.

The second round picks under this regime were S T.J. Ward in 2010, DE Jabaal Sheard and WR Greg Little in 2011, and T Mitchell Schwartz this year.

Critics will point out Little’s inconsistency, but the other three players are at the least solid starters. Others will point out the lack of free agents signed, but successful organizations build through the draft, and the free agents Heckert did sign last off-season, Frostee Rucker and Juqua Parker have been productive.

From here, it looks like Heckert has done a damn good job procuring talent and building the depth this franchises hasn’t seen since 1999.

Banner may have already made his decision, but keep this in mind. If he sends Heckert packing, he has to find somebody better to replace him. That won’t be easy based on the success he’s had in adding talent to the Browns.

Browns Win Over Steelers Seems Hollow.

Only this year’s Cleveland Browns can make a win over the hated rival Pittsburgh Steelers seem unfulfilling.

Perhaps it’s because the Steelers were without QB Ben Roethlisberger and had to play third stringer Charlie Batch.

Maybe it’s because the visitors from western Pennsylvania turned the ball over eight times, and still Pat Shurmur’s crew managed only 20 points.

Or it could be because after Ohio State’s win yesterday, it seemed anti-climatic.

Whatever the reason, it seems like a hollow victory this evening, even though wins over Pittsburgh have been few and far between since the Browns returned to the NFL in 1999.

With Batch in for the Steelers, Dick Jauron’s defense could afford to put more emphasis on the run defense, and the visitors could manage just 49 yards on the ground for the game. Of course it helped the running backs wearing the black and gold kept fumbling the ball. Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin couldn’t be blamed for going away from the run.

Still it was the Browns and their lack of aggressiveness that kept the Steelers in the game.

Let’s look at the plays following the Pittsburgh turnovers in the first half–

After recovering a fumble on the PIT 44 yard line, the Browns ran the ball four straight plays, then after two passes, one incomplete deep throw, Phil Dawson kicked a field goal to make the score 7-3, Steelers.

The second Pittsburgh fumble occurred on their own 10. Two more running plays happened before Brandon Weeden threw a 5-yard TD pass to TE Jordan Cameron.

The third turnover was another fumble recovered on PIT 34 yard line. Weeden was sacked on the first play after getting the ball (they did try to throw), but a running play and a short pass left the Browns outside Dawson’s range. Cleveland got no points.

In contrast to Shurmur’s conservatism, when the Steelers had a free play at the end of the first half because of a pass interference penalty on CB Sheldon Brown, Tomlin eschewed the sure field goal, and ran the ball in to take the lead at 14-13.

In the second half, still trailing, the Browns didn’t play close to the vest after Brown picked off Batch on the PIT 31. Two passes, one for 17 yards to Mohammed Massaquoi, set up Trent Richardson’s 15 yard burst to give Cleveland the lead.

After getting the lead, it was back to safe mode.

Batch’s next pick (by Billy Winn) was followed by a series of runs with penalties and a sack mixed in.

Another interception, this one by Joe Haden, was followed up by three running plays.

The last Steelers mistake, another fumble, was with less than three minutes remaining, so the coaching staff ran Richardson three times to try to run out the clock.

It reminded us of the Jacksonville game in 2010, when the Jaguars kept turning the ball over and then coach Eric Mangini refused to put the game out of reach. The Browns eventually lost that game. Pat Shurmur was more fortunate today.

Of course, Shurmur was probably spooked by Weeden first quarter interception that Lawrence Timmons returned 53 yards for the first Pittsburgh touchdown.

The Browns’ coach likes to throw, but will change his mind quickly at the sight of one interception. You have to have more confidence in your quarterback than that. He did the same thing last year with Colt McCoy.

By the way, Cleveland’s longest play from scrimmage was their first play, a 26 yard pass to Josh Gordon. After that, it was back to the dink and dunk attack we’ve seen for 27 games now. Why have a passer who can throw the deep ball if you don’t ever throw deep.

Anyway, the Browns have a chance to win back to back games once again when they take on the struggling Raiders next week in Oakland. Any win is good when you have a record like Cleveland, but it would be better if fans don’t feel disappointed by a win.

Irving’s Injury Might Help in a Weird Way

The Cleveland Cavaliers received word that they lost their best player, 2011-12 Rookie of the Year Kyrie Irving on Monday evening. Then they went out and broke a losing streak by defeating the Philadelphia 76ers.

The leading scorer in that game was Irving’s replacement, little known back up point guard Jeremy Pargo, who scored 28 points and dished out four assists.

While it is never good to lose a player of Irving caliber for a month, there could be some positives to come as a result of the point guard’s broken index finger.

Over the past few games he played, all but one being on the road, the former Duke Blue Devil was getting away from his playmaking duties.

In his first six games of the season, Irving averaged 6.5 assists per night. In the next four contests, he dished out just 4.3 dimes and in the lone home game during that stretch, vs. Dallas, he had none.

This is not to criticize the second year player, as he was doing what he could to try to win basketball games, but it does suggest perhaps his teammates had started to defer too much to Irving and also Anderson Varejao.

Now with Irving out, likely until around Christmas time, it is time for some other people to step it up.

For one, it should make Dion Waiters a better player. He’s one guy who will need to pick up the scoring load without Irving’s almost 23 points per night, and he will have the ball in his hands quite a bit.

He scored 16 points in the win on Wednesday (he did take 22 shots) and had six assists. With Irving out, it would be nice to see Waiters start attacking the basket more. He hasn’t been to the free throw line in the last two contests and only has one game thus far with more than four free throws.

If he starts going to the hole on a regular basis, he should be getting six to eight charity tosses per night. The Cavs’ offense will need that, and it will make Waiters a better player when Kyrie comes back.

Another player who needs to step up is C. J. Miles, who responded with his best game of the season Wednesday, scoring 13 points on five of nine shooting.

Up to that contest, Miles was dreadful to start the season. The game against Philly raised his shooting percentage to 26.7% on the year. Remember, this is a guy who averaged almost 13 points per night just two years ago. He’s a better player than he’s showed the fans of the wine and gold thus far, and with Irving out, he’s another player who will need to pick his game up.

Irving’s absence should also help decide who the back up point guard will be when he returns. And Pargo gave himself a leg up with his performance in his first start. Coach Byron Scott gave the job initially to Donald Sloan, but when he wasn’t passing or scoring well, the coach started easing in Pargo.

No one expects the latter to keep scoring 28 points a game, but if he can show he progress, it gives Scott a chance to give his best player rest in order to keep him fresh for the end of games.

Sometimes basketball teams need to learn they don’t have to be totally reliant on an all-star player, and it would be better for the team if everyone pulled their weight instead of waiting for the star to do it.

If the Cavaliers learn that collectively over the next few weeks, then Irving’s finger will help in the long run.

AL MVP Voters Got it Right

The two most discussed issues so far in baseball’s off-season have been the dismantling of the Miami Marlins roster after just one year in their new ballpark, and who should be the American League MVP.

The old school thought was triple crown winner Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers, while the Sabermetric viewpoint was that the Angels’ Mike Trout should receive the award.

As a matter of full disclosure, we read all of Bill James’ Baseball Abstracts when they came out, and learned a different way of thinking about the game from James.

In the mid 80’s, when his book first game out, he was the first guy talking about the importance of slugging percentage and on-base percentage, and having a player who gets on base in the leadoff spot is much better than having someone with speed that can’t get on base.

We use OPS (on base percentage plus slugging percentage) a lot in talking about baseball.

James changed the way fans thought about the game.

But Miguel Cabrera still deserved the AL MVP.

He led the league in batting average, a statistic devalued by the stat people, but it wasn’t like the Tiger third baseman didn’t have a good on base percentage or slugging percentage. He most certainly did.

The stat based people say Cabrera didn’t have a good enough WAR.

WAR is wins over replacement player, and is an interesting number to look at. However, it is a calculated number.

Yes, yes, batting average is too, but it is determined by dividing hits by times at bat. Those numbers come right out of your nightly boxscore.

WAR and its cousin VORP (value over replacement player) are not. Here is the definition of WAR from Fangraphs.com:

Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is an attempt by the sabermetric baseball community to summarize a player’s total contributions to their team in one statistic.

The key word there is “attempt”.

Who knows? You could look at a few different numbers and determine that Jack Hannahan should be the MVP.

Not really, but you get my point. WAR and VORP are nice numbers to look at, but they don’t have the same validity as someone’s slugging percentage.

That isn’t to say they aren’t useful at times, in fact, we used VORP to show how terrible Casey Kotchman was for the Indians this year. He had a negative value, which meant you could call up someone from the minors and they would be better.

But the factors used to calculate the numbers are arbitrary. They were arrived at with a great deal of research and matched up with historically great players so they make sense, but they are still arbitrary.

Mike Trout had a tremendous season, and barring injury will have a tremendous career. That said, Miguel Cabrera was the rightful winner of the MVP.

The other problem is the attitude of the some of the statistic supporters. They act like people in a political debate. They are right, “traditional” baseball people are wrong.

That’s it. There is no room for discussion, and why can’t people see that batting average is overrated.

The stat people rave about guys like Adam Dunn because they hit home runs and walk a lot. However, he also strikes out a unbelieveable amount of times and batted .208.

Think about how White Sox fans feel when Dunn whiffs with a man on third and less than two outs.

Dunn has value, no question about that, but he’s not a great hitter. Even if batting average doesn’t mean much, .208 still isn’t very good.

Some of the information generated by the stat people today are useful. However, the game is still won by whoever scores more runs.

Not by which lineup has a better WAR.

Browns Dominated 1st Half Except for Scoreboard.

Another game, another loss today for the Cleveland Browns who fell to 2-8 with a 23-20 loss in overtime to the Dallas Cowboys in Jerry Jones’ football palace.

Yes, the Browns played well once again. Heck, they dominated the first half leading 13-0 going into the intermission.

Actually, that’s where the game was lost, because Cleveland should have led 21-0 at that point in the game, but they missed opportunities once again.

Defensively, the Cowboys offensive line couldn’t handle the Browns front seven, and they forced Tony Romo into bad throw after bad throw.

In the second half, the Dallas QB got into a rhythm, and the Cleveland secondary, minus starting cornerback Joe Haden couldn’t stop the Cowboy passing attack.

Still, after a Josh Cribbs punt return and a resulting horse collar tackle penalty, the Browns took the lead 20-17 with a little over a minute to play on Benjamin Watson’s second TD of the day, a 17 yard strike from Brandon Weeden.

But Romo drove the Cowboys right down the field, aided by two big penalties, an unsportsmanlike conduct call on S T.J. Ward and a pass interference call on CB Sheldon Brown for 35 yards.

One change the NFL needs to make is making pass interference a 15 yard maximum call. There shouldn’t be any penalty, especially a judgment call that results in that much yardage.

Dallas had the ball inside the Browns’ 10, but had to settle for a game tying field goal by Dan Bailey.

In overtime, Dallas ran 14 plays with just three runs, as they obviously decided they couldn’t run the ball against Dick Jauron’s defense. The Browns ran three play too…total.

That was kind of the story of the game, especially in the second half.

After the Browns first drive after halftime in which they ran 11 plays, moving 41 yards, their next two drives were three and outs, the one following that lasted just four snaps after a Weeden fumble. Dallas had the football pretty much all the time from 10 minutes left in the third quarter until five minutes remaining in the game.

The offense didn’t do its part to give the defense some valuable rest.

In the first half, Weeden, who would up 20 for 35 and 210 yards was erratic with his accuracy. He missed a wide open Josh Cooper on the drive that led to Phil Dawson’s first field goal, and was high and wide

A Watson dropped pass led to another field goal instead of a touchdown in the first half.

Trent Richardson didn’t break any long gains, but he and Montario Hardesty did total 118 yards on the ground, and Richardson added 49 more catching the ball.

Josh Gordon was productive again with five catches for 53 yards and Greg Little did well too, making three grabs.

Despite some predictions of Weeden having difficulty with the Cowboys pressure, he had plenty of time to throw for the most part, getting sacked just twice.

On the other side, Cleveland got to Romo seven times, with eight different players accounting for the plays. However, the absence of Haden once again hurt the Browns as WRs Dez Bryant and Miles Austin combined for 18 receptions and several pass interference or holding penalties.

It seems trite to say the Browns are the best 2-8 team in the NFL, mostly because there aren’t many teams with just two wins.

Still, it is disappointing that Pat Shurmur can’t put more games in the win column, especially because other teams with similar records last year and won more games.

For whatever reason, the play calling for the Browns gets very conservative when they get near the red zone. Why? That’s a question for the coaching staff.

Unfortunately, that lack of aggressiveness will likely cost the staff their jobs at the end of the season.

This season will likely be dubbed, “Close, but no wins”.

Cavs Defense Improvement Linked to Kyrie

Cavaliers’ coach Byron Scott is perplexed by his team’s defense. He talks about it to the media after every game, and you have to assume he addresses it in practice to his young team.

What has been a constant for the Cavs since Scott took over, is their lack of defending the three-point shot.

As more and more teams make this shot a part of their daily arsenal, the weakness in this area gets more and more glaring.

Last year, the wine and gold ranked 7th from the bottom in the NBA in stopping the long-range shot.

To be fair, a number of playoff teams ranked in the bottom ten, including the champion Heat. However, those teams had great success in defending the two point attempts.

The only teams with worse three-point defense than Cleveland and worse overall field goal percentage against were the Nets and the Bobcats, the league’s worst team.

The year before, Scott’s first year at the helm, his team was the worst in stopping the three pointer, allowing a whopping 41.1% of those shot to go in.

Granted, the Cavs were in transition after LeBron James left for Miami, but clearly the way Cleveland approached the long-range shot defensively wasn’t very effective.

This year, after eight games, the Cavaliers have improved their defense against the three-point shot, but it appears to be at the expense of defending any other field goal attempt.

Opponents are shooting over 50% for the season against the wine and gold, a shocking figure in today’s NBA.

Clearly, something is amiss and it needs to be fixed right away, starting with Saturday night’s game against the Mavericks.

The key to the defense rests with the team’s best player, Kyrie Irving. He simply has to stay in front of opposing point guards.

On the road, Irving played well offensively, but he struggled defending Russell Westbrook and Deron Williams. Allowing penetration breaks down any defensive concept Scott wants to put in place.

The other problem has been the lack of a shot blocker. Tristan Thompson simply has to do better in protecting the rim, that’s his responsibility.

Anderson Varejao is a good defensive player, but he’s not a shot blocker. Perhaps when Tyler Zeller gets back, he can be the big body this team needs to play interior defense.

Without that shot blocker behind you, it is incumbent on the smaller guys to contain their man, making sure they keep a body between the opponent and the basket. And that means everyone!

If one player breaks down and allows his man to get by, it breaks down the entire defensive philosophy.

That’s the problem Scott and his staff have right now.

And until it changes and everyone picks up the gauntlet and plays solid defense, the Cavs are going to have problems winning basketball games.

We understand that this is a young team, and they are still trying to learn to play acceptable defense.

That’s why the team’s best player, Irving, has to set the tone. If he can stop his man, the Cavs’ defense will get better immediately.

Tribe Doesn’t Need Rebuild.

The 2012 baseball season ended just two weeks ago, and already the Cleveland Indians are worrying us in terms of next year’s season.

Why? Because there are many indications that GM Chris Antonetti is prepared to do another total rebuild. The Indians will point to the success the Oakland A’s had this year in using that tactic, but really, how often does dealing for a bunch of prospect have an impact the very next season?

If it happened all the time, then everyone would do it.

This thought comes from the rumors that the Tribe is taking offers on SS Asdrubal Cabrera, OF Shin-Soo Choo, SP Justin Masterson, and closer Chris Perez.

Sounds again like the front office is giving up on 2013, much the same as they gave up on the 2010 season when they dealt Victor Martinez and Cliff Lee at the trading deadline.

Enough is enough.

While certainly the Indians should look at dealing a couple of those guys, most notably Perez, to try to fill some holes, trading all of them makes long time fans think of the 1970’s and 1980’s when the Indians routinely traded their best players.

That list is as long as your arm.

If Antonetti is going to go down that path, he has to get major league ready players, not guys who won’t be contributors in Cleveland until 2014 or 2015.

Also, Oakland’s rebuild was helped significantly by going out and signing Cuban free agent Yoenis Cespedes to a big contract. In a normal year, by that meaning no Mike Trout, Cespedes would have been the AL Rookie of the Year.

How many people think the Dolans will make a big financial commitment to anyone?

So far this winter, the Indians had a chance to get either Ervin Santana or Dan Haren from the Angels for basically a one-year contract. It would have been a lot of cash, but for one year, why not?

At the end of the season, most people agreed that the Indians had some solid young players, like Cabrera, Michael Brantley, Carlos Santana, and Jason Kipnis. Why not add to those guys and try to win now?

The desire to trade Choo is understandable. He will probably be looking for a four or five-year deal, and since the outfielder is 30 years old, that might be pushing it. A three-year deal would work for the Indians, but his agent Scott Boras is sure to want more.

Masterson has shown to be no better than a #3 starter, too inconsistent to be a staff ace. If you can fill one of your holes at LF or 1B by dealing him, it may be worth it.

And we’ve discussed the organizational depth in the bullpen as a reason for dealing Perez.

But trading all of them and include Cabrera as well seems like a total rebuild.

The Indians would then need a first baseman, shortstop, left fielder, right fielder, designated hitter, and three starting pitchers.

Would you buy tickets to watch that?

Instead, why not get 1B/3B/DH Kevin Youkilis for a two-year deal, sign Joe Blanton as a starting pitcher, and trade one of four rumored to be dealt for more pitching and/or a LF?

That way, you have a chance to win next year without being on the hook for a bunch of crazy contracts.

It’s not as though the Cleveland Indians have a lot of age on the roster. So why not build on the talent already there.

Cavs Thoughts: Waiters, Andy, and Lack of Bench

Before the NBA season started, we wondered about who would pick up the scoring load for the Cleveland Cavaliers. At least through the first six games, it looks like it will be rookie Dion Waiters.

And at this point, GM Chris Grant can tell all his critics “I told you so”.

As of today, Waiters is averaging 16.7 points in 29 minutes of action, shooting almost 49% from the floor and a crazy 53% from the three-point line.

Now, the shooting percentages will probably not last, but so far so good on the selection of the rook out of Syracuse. He’s been arguably the second best first year man in the league, after first overall pick Anthony Davis of New Orleans.

We understand though, that many rookies come into the league and set it on fire initially, only for the rest of the league to get a “book” on him and start taking away what the player likes to do. So, before fans send Waiters to Springfield, a little patience is needed.

We also expected last year’s rookie of the year, Kyrie Irving to improve a great deal in his second year, and so far he is doing just that. He’s elevated his scoring average to 23.3, a figure that if it continues will put him in the top ten in the NBA at the end of the season. He’s still passing out 6.5 assists per night while grabbing four rebounds.

We also have to mention the great play of Anderson Varejao, who is averaging 14 points and 14 rebounds per game.

When experts around the league talk about the Cavaliers void in talent when #6 of the Heat was playing here, they neglect to realize how good the Brazilian big man is.

Everyone talks about his all out style of play and his ability to take charges defensively, but the truth is Varejao is an excellent basketball player.

Not a jaw dropping player with out of this world athleticism who is going to wow people with flashy dunks and above the rim play, but as someone who knows how to play the game.

For proof, watch the game between the US Olympic team and Brazil this summer. You can make a very good case that Varejao was the second best player on the court that night, behind only LeBron James. He makes an impact on virtually game he plays. That’s why it is so important that he stays healthy.

Coach Byron Scott and Grant both understand how important the big man is to this franchise.

One problem that needs to be rectified is the play of the bench, which after six games has been horrible. If Scott can’t come up with at least decent production from the subs, the starters will not be able to stay fresh as the season goes on.

The best players from this group has been Daniel Gibson, who can play when healthy, but isn’t that often. He averaging 8.7 per night with his normal good shooting. Rookie Tyler Zeller has also done a good job with 7.5 points and 4.5 boards a game, but he’s missed the last two contests with a concussion.

C.J. Miles was supposed to the leader of the second unit, but he has struggled, shooting just 23% while scoring 4.5 points a game. Perhaps switching him with Alonzo Gee, a player who has been very effective as a sub would help.

That’s no slight to Gee, who is a very good defender and is scoring 10.7 ppg, and certainly his minutes (31 per contest) should be cut, but Scott needs to get Miles going.

All of these thoughts are based on just six games, so it isn’t time to panic, that is unless you are the Lakers and you put together a roster of players who don’t match with each other so you fire the coach.

There is still plenty of season to go. Even at 2-4, this is a team that should be better after the calendar turns a page to 2013 than it is right now.

Why Can’t Browns Win?

This week, The Sporting News took a poll of NFL players which revealed that the Cleveland Browns are looked upon as the worst organization in pro football.

Having only two winning seasons since 1999 and going through coaches and general managers like some people go through underwear will get you that ranking.

It also doesn’t help that the franchise seems to be spinning its wheels currently either.

What frustrates Browns fans is the lack of progress in the win/loss record.

Most people would agree that from a talent standpoint, the Browns are better than they were a couple of years ago. But why hasn’t it translated into more wins?

The Indianapolis Colts finished 2-14 a year ago and allowed several veterans to leave via free agency. They did have the first pick in the draft and selected their franchise quarterback, Andrew Luck.

Right now, the Colts are 5-3. The Browns are 2-7.

The Rams had the second pick in last year’s draft with a 2-14 record. They are now 3-5.

Minnesota was 3-13 in 2011. They currently sit at 5-4.

Tampa Bay had the same record as the Browns at 4-12. They are 4-4 halfway through this season.

The question is then why can’t the Browns show the same improvement record wise?

The organization will tell you about how they have so many players with less than one year or one year experience, and that the schedule they play is difficult, with six divisional games against the Steelers, Ravens, and Bengals.

It is true that Cleveland is the third youngest team in the NFL. However, the Rams are the youngest. The Vikings are 4th and the Buccaneers are 6th.

So, it appears the age of the team doesn’t deter victories.

The Browns also can’t use the rookie quarterback excuse either, because of the Colts’ progress with Luck.

As for the scheduling issue, Indy has a win over the Green Bay Packers (6-2) and the Vikings. The Rams have beaten Seattle and handed the then unbeaten Cardinals their first loss.

Minnesota has a win over San Francisco (6-2) and also defeated a 2011 playoff team in Detroit. Tampa’s only quality win was against the Vikings, but they have won three of their last four.

So why don’t the Browns win more football games? It could be because those other teams show more aggressiveness, and that stems from the head coach.

Pat Shurmur may be a fine teacher and a great assistant coach, but he doesn’t appear to have what is takes to be a head coach in the NFL.

Here are a couple of things to ponder…

He spooked his own quarterback against the Ravens, talking about how he was afraid of Ed Reed. That made Weeden a dink and dunk passer for basically the whole game.

He had been very accurate on deep passes as of late, and his coach took that away from him.

Why not say that Reed is a future Hall of Famer, but you have to use good judgment in going after him?

And another thing, the Browns drafted Weeden because he had more arm strength than Colt McCoy. Why is the rookie’s average yards per attempt just slightly higher than McCoy’s was last year (6.2 vs. 5.9)?

You have to think the offensive scheme is the problem. Shurmur is making Weeden turn into McCoy.

You can understand the frustration of the fans with their football team. Teams make big turnarounds every season. This year, it’s the Colts, last year it was the 49ers.

Why can’t it be the Browns?

There is talent on this football team, so they can’t use that excuse anymore.

If Pat Shurmur can’t win games, then it’s time to bring in someone who can.