Tribe Takes a Good Risk in Choo Trade

When the rumors of Shin-Soo Choo being traded to Cincinnati for OF Drew Stubbs and minor league SS Didi Gregorius started yesterday, our immediate reaction was a sickening feeling.

Trading one of the team’s best hitters, even though he would be a free agent at the end of the year, for a minor leaguer (when your farm system is loaded with prospects at that position) and another strikeout machine with a low batting average, isn’t very attractive.

However, dealing Choo for a potential big time starting pitcher is a good move.

Getting Trevor Bauer, Arizona’s top pitching prospect, a guy who is among the top ten prospects in all of baseball, for a player who wasn’t going to be with the Indians after 2013 has to be considered a win for GM Chris Antonetti.

In order to get back to the top of the AL Central, the Tribe needs to improve their starting pitching, and getting one of the best prospects in the game has to be viewed favorably.

And it was done without trading SS Asdrubal Cabrera, which had been rumored over the last month.

Bauer will be 22 next season and last year went 12-2 between AA and AAA with a 2.42 ERA and 157 strikeouts in 130 innings. He did make four big league starts, going 1-2 with a 6.06 ERA.

That’s what you call a small sample though.

Antonetti also received a couple of hard throwing bullpen guys in Mitch Albers and Bryan Shaw to increase depth in the relief corps. Perhaps one of those two or a guy like Joe Smith can be used in another trade.

The other players the Tribe gave up were superfluous. Jason Donald never looked to be more than a platoon player and his best defensive position was 2B. He was stuck behind newcomer Mike Aviles anyway.

Tony Sipp was a key part of the Indians bullpen the past few years, but with Nick Hagadone and Scott Barnes on the roster, he was a candidate to be moved.

And Lars Anderson was a throw in.

Do the Indians still have work to do? Of course. The loss of Choo leaves a huge void in an offense that already struggled to score runs last season. Stubbs and his low batting average (he hit .214 last year) and ton of strikeouts, doesn’t come near to replacing him.

They also still could use a proven starting pitcher to go along with Justin Masterson. That would put Carlos Carrasco, Ubaldo Jimenez and Bauer in the mix to be the fourth and fifth guys in the rotation to start the year.

Meaning Jimenez could be expendable.

As for Cabrera, the trade rumors that swirled around him at the winter meetings may have been the Indians sending him a message.

The past two seasons, he has either came to spring training heavy or gained weight during the season. The organization may have been telling him to get his act together, and Terry Francona may be saying it is time to realize his talent.

It is doubtful the Tribe will deal him now, because that would mean having to find two good offensive players to replace him and Choo.

Forget about Stubbs, if can figure out how to make contact, he will be an asset. He is an excellent defensive outfielder and can steal a base if he can get to first.

His lack of contact, as well as that of Mark Reynolds, who figures to be the Indians’ first baseman will not help the offense. Although the Tribe did need a guy who can score a run with one swing of the bat.

If Reynolds can hit 30 HRs, he will help. But make no mistake, he’s an all or nothing hitter. If he’s hitting in the 7-8-9 spot, that’s okay.

The reason to be excited about this deal is getting a potential ace like Bauer. The Indians haven’t been able to draft a top of the rotation pitcher since C.C. Sabathia.

They may have got one yesterday for a player who was going to leave after next season.

Cavs Tough to Evaluate

The Cleveland Cavaliers have hit the quarter mark of the NBA season, and to be sure, everyone in the organization thought they would be better than 4-17 at this point.

Still, it is difficult to see exactly where the wine and gold are in their second rebuilding season following the departure of LeBron James.

It is only their second year because the franchise had no back up plan for James’ departure, which if you want to criticize the organization for that, it is understandable.

But the injuries to two key players, Rookie of the Year Kyrie Irving and this year’s first round pick, Dion Waiters, make it difficult to judge whether or not any progress has been made.

They were supposed to be the centerpieces, along with Anderson Varejao, to any success and growth the Cavs would experience in 2012-13.

However, Irving has missed 11 games thus far and Waiters has missed the last four. Without two of their top scorers, it has been tough for Byron Scott’s team to score enough points to win.

In the off-season, we commented that the Cavalier roster was made up of a lot of good bench players, but unfortunately, for Cleveland these players have to start.

Players like Alonzo Gee and Tristan Thompson will carve out a long career in the NBA because they can be contributors, but they are miscast as starters, although it may be too early to say that about the latter.

With Irving and Waiters out, that means Scott is forced to start four players who should be playing 15-18 minutes per night off the bench.

That usually doesn’t translate into victories.

With both Irving and Waiters perhaps playing tomorrow night, the time to really start the evaluation process will start. If the Cavs hit the halfway point at the season at 8-33, then the questions about the direction of the team can start.

The injuries aren’t an excuse or reason for some evaluation though.

The biggest bright spot for the wine and gold has been the unbelievable play of Varejao, who leads the league in rebounding and is scoring almost 15 points per night.

It is time to stop saying the Brazilian big man is simply a hustle player and give him his due as a true basketball talent.

It’s not hustle that puts him in position for rebounds and easy lay ups off of the guard’s penetration, Varejao understands the game and has an instinct for it as well.

He’s a great player and deserves an all-star berth this year.

The disappointments have to be Thompson and his lack of progress and free agent swingman C. J. Miles.

Thompson will be haunted for a long time because he was the fourth selection in the 2011 draft, and he did average 8.2 points and 6.5 rebounds per night. However, he hasn’t taken a quantum leap forward in his second year, improving to just 8.9 points and 7.5 boards thus far.

GM Chris Grant hasn’t said it, but he has to be disappointed that whatever work the second year big from Texas put in this off-season hasn’t translated to more production.

Miles has done a little better as of late, but still missed six games due to Scott’s decision. He’s shooting just 34% from the floor and has taken just 11 free throws, least of any player who has logged 100 or more minutes with Cleveland this season. He was thought to be able to provide some points, but so far hasn’t been able to fill that need.

So, after the first quarter of the season, you would have to grade the Cavaliers with an incomplete. The injuries to its starting backcourt has made it tough to judge progress, and given them a built-in excuse after 20 games.

Browns Play Inferior Foe and Dominate

Bet everyone was nervous after the first play of today’s Browns game?

In a game the Browns were supposed to win, their fans and players received a cold slap in the face when Kansas City RB Jamaal Charles ran 80 yards for a touchdown on the game’s first snap.

Whatever momentum the Chiefs had ended on their second possession when Ryan Succop hit the upright on a 26-yard field goal attempt.

From there on, it was a Cleveland rout as the Browns won their third straight, beating Kansas City 30-7 at Cleveland Browns’ Stadium. It was a game against an inferior opponent, and Pat Shurmur’s team did what they were supposed to do. They won.

After the Charles’ run, Dick Jauron’s defense allowed just 230 total yards, 100 of them rushing, sacked Brady Quinn five times and held Kansas City scoreless in what turned into a blowout victory.

It gave Shurmur the rare opportunity to take QB Brandon Weeden and RB Trent Richardson off the field in the team’s last series.

After the missed field goal, the Browns moved the football down the field until they got to the Chiefs’ 20, when they went into conservative mode once again and settled for the Phil Dawson field goal, the 300th of his illustrious career.

After another defensive stop, Cleveland took the lead for good when they shifted punt returns from Josh Cribbs to Travis Benjamin taking the latter off the KC gunner. The resulting confusion resulted in a club record 93 yard return by Benjamin, which undoubtedly will start debate as to who should return punts from now on.

Such is life as a Browns’ fan. Even in victory, there will be second guessing.

Of course, we are no exception.

It was curious that Shurmur and his coaching staff used so many gimmick plays against the Chiefs, arguably one of the NFL’s worst teams. Perhaps he was giving the last three opponents something to think about.

Besides the punt return, the Browns dusted off the “wildcat” portion of their playbook, running Josh Cribbs twice for 15 yards, using a double reverse to Benjamin for 15 more yards, and running WR Greg Little out of the backfield for 17 yards.

Isn’t the purpose of these plays to trick your opponents? And if so, why the need to fool a poor football team.

Why didn’t Shurmur use these types of plays against the Ravens, Cowboys, or Giants? Wouldn’t they have served more of the purpose in those games?

Anyway, enough nit-picking.

Here are some other thoughts from a victory that gave Cleveland more wins than they had all of last season.

RB Montario Hardesty led the Browns in rushing with 52 yards in 10 attempts. However, he showed fans why he is best used as a change of pace back, as we dropped another wide open pass (after a nice run), and fumbled near the goal line.

Those are the problems, besides injuries, that have plagued Hardesty throughout his time with the Browns.

Josh Gordon continues to look more and more like a legitimate #1 receiver with eight catches for 86 yards. Gordon and Little, who continues to impress, were unstoppable on slants all day long. The Browns looked for a lot of deep routes in the first half for some reason, because the slant at anytime.

And Weeden is developing a chemistry with both. He completed 17 passes on the day, but to only five different receivers. You can tell that the quarterback wants to get the ball to Gordon whenever possible.

Another positive about this football team is its growing depth, particularly on defense. The five sacks on the day were by six different players. Rookie free agent S Tashaun Gipson had his first interception.

This is big because in the past, the Browns season ended as soon as injuries took a toll on the roster. Granted, Cleveland is relatively healthy, but they also have some talent in reserve.

Next week is the last home game of the season with Robert Griffin III and the Redskins coming in (although Griffin left today’s game with an injured knee). A win would give the Browns a 5-3 home record, four wins in a row, a 6-3 mark after losing their first five contests, and two victories more than in 2011.

At last, it is progress that shows in the win column.

No Moves Mean No Tickets Sold

The Cleveland Indians’ front office has been so inert in recent years; they are starting to get credit for doing anything.

So, the fact they are talking about trades and/or signing free agents at the winter meeting is making some fans happy.

That’s setting the bar very, very low.

First of all, they should be making moves to help the team win, that is their job. However, that’s not good enough either. They should be making good moves to improve the ballclub. Making the wrong move is worse than no move at all.

You hear this from some fans and even some in the media about the Ubaldo Jimenez trade. They say you have to give the front office credit for taking a risk.

We didn’t like the trade at the time because GM Chris Antonetti gave up his top two pitching prospects (and three in the top ten organizationally) and didn’t get a true ace in return. You have to get a #1 starter if you are doing that, and to this point, Jimenez has been a bust.

Here’s hoping new pitching coach Mickey Calloway can straighten him out because he doesn’t have sound mechanics.

We read similar comments about the Indians’ offer to free agent OF Shane Victorino, which was reportedly four years totaling $44 million.

This would have been a bad contract, so why give the front office credit? Victorino is 32 years old coming off a poor season, and over the past two years has been a poor hitter against right-handed pitchers.

Unless of course, the front office was saving face because they knew there was no way the outfielder was going to take their offer.

Since the Indians claim they can’t spend a lot on payroll, a contract like the one they offered to Victorino would come back to bite them.

There was excitement regarding a possible megadeal involved Cleveland, Arizona, Texas and one other team in which the Indians would be dealing SS Asdrubal Cabrera and received three or four (depending on the report) major league ready prospects.

That deal or a form of it may occur down the line, but at this point Cabrera is still an Indians.

Cleveland is also believed to be in on free agent OF Nick Swisher, but so are other teams.

So basically, the Indians haven’t done anything thus far to improve their team. And then they wonder why they have a problem selling tickets and generating interest.

Any buzz created around a professional franchise has to be created in the off-season, and right now, less than three weeks before Christmas; the Indians have done nothing except hiring Terry Francona as manager to make anyone think anything has changed.

And managers do not sell tickets.

Again, this is not to say that Antonetti should make a move just to say he did something. That’s not enough. But he hasn’t done a darn thing to show fans, which buy the tickets, that this is a team to come down and watch.

Is it too much to ask the Indians’ management to make moves that will help the franchise in 2013 and not hamstring it for the future?

No. That’s their job. They are supposed to be experts in evaluating talent and deciding what fair market value is.

Now there is still time to make some moves to improve the 2013 edition of the Cleveland Indians. It’s just a little disappointing that nothing has happened as of yet. If the team wants some ticket buying momentum in the gift giving season, they need to do something sooner rather than later.

Dreaming of Stanton in Tribe Uniform

As baseball enters their annual winter meetings this week, the Cleveland Indians are said to be shopping most of their best players.

Shin-Soo Choo is on the market because he will be a free agent at the end of the 2013 season and his agent is Scott Boras, who almost always takes his clients to the free market.

Chris Perez is on the block because he’s due a big raise in arbitration, and is arguably the team’s biggest trading chip. If there is any strength in the organization it is in the relief pitching department, and the front office may just feel they can fill a few holes by dealing Perez, and they have options to replace him.

And Asdrubal Cabrera is said to be likely to be moved because he plays a premium position and there is a shortage of shortstop available. GM Chris Antonetti may want to maximize Cabrera’s value right now.

All of these players have one thing in common, they are due to make a lot of cash.

Even though the Dolan family is reportedly set to sell SportsTime Ohio to Fox for a reported $200 million, it doesn’t look like any of that money is going into the baseball operation.

If the Indians want to add payroll, they certainly have plenty of options. The free agent market has spiraled out of control once again with players like B. J. Upton getting $15 million per year and .211 hitting Russell Martin getting $8.5 million a season.

So the smart play would be to take on some cash in a trade or wait for the initial wave of free agency to pass and see what kind of value is out there.

If they want to make a big splash, there is one player out there that the Indians should make a bona-fide offer on, and that is Marlins’ OF Giancarlo Stanton.

At last year’s trading deadline, there was some discussion in the media about dealing the Tribe’s top prospect SS Francisco Lindor. We were against this because if you are going to deal a talent like him, you have to get a player who is still on the way up and has plenty of time under Cleveland’s control.

Stanton is that guy. For one, he just turned 23 years old last month, meaning he will play the entire ’13 campaign at that age.

He also will not be a free agent until after the 2017 season, meaning the Indians would control him for five more seasons. Add to both of those bits of information the fact that he is an out-and-out stud, with already 93 big league home runs.

He led the National League in slugging percentage last season at .608. He’s not a product of his ball park either. His home and road splits are virtually the same.

As good as Lindor can be, if he has to be the centerpiece of a deal to get Giancarlo Stanton, then so be it.

Following the 2007 season, the Marlins were shopping a young right-handed hitter named Miguel Cabrera. We thought he was the closest thing to Manny Ramirez that would come around in a long time, and said the Tribe should go out and get him. They didn’t and look how it has worked out for the Tigers.

He has won two home run titles, two RBI crowns, and two batting titles since going to the Motor City. And Detroit has been to the playoffs two straight years.

Because it’s the Indians, it is likely a dream, but if the front office wanted to get people excited about baseball in this city once again, they would start a conversation with Miami. It may be a long time until another hitter like Giancarlo Stanton could be available.

Winning Streak, but Offense Still Leaves Points On Field

The dates were September 26-29 of this year. That’s more than two months ago.

What is significant about those dates? It was the last time a Cleveland major league sports team won consecutive games, and it was the Indians.

However, right now, the Cleveland Browns have a two game winning streak, as they defeated the Oakland Raiders 20-17 on the road to raise their record to 4-8 for the season.

That doesn’t mean there weren’t any anxious moments along the way.

After taking a 13-3 lead with 9:51 remaining in the third quarter, and dominating the game, things took a turn when Phil Dawson had his attempt at a 30th straight made field goal blocked. Instead of taking a 16-3 advantage, the Browns had just a field goal lead after Carson Palmer hit Rod Streater for 64 yards a little over a minute later.

When the next Cleveland drive stalled, the Raiders were on the attack. Going without a huddle, Palmer started peppering the Browns’ secondary moving the ball down the field with ease.

Then the game turned back toward Pat Shurmur’s team when CB Sheldon Brown picked off a deep throw. It was the veteran second straight game with a pick.

Given new life, the offense moved in for the kill. QB Brandon Weeden hit his tight end often in moving the Browns 94 yards in 14 plays, chewing up over six minutes, climaxing with a Trent Richardson three yard run to put the game away.

Weeden hit Benjamin Watson with passes of 22 and 7 yards, and hit Jordan Cameron for 23 more yards on the drive.

And the Browns came home with their first road win since September of last season against the Peyton Manning-less Indianapolis Colts.

Until that last drive though, it looked like the offense was going to have another week where their seeming affection for the field goal was going to do them in. And once again, even in victory, the Browns did not score 21 points.

This was the 60th game that Shurmur has been the offensive coordinator or head coach and his teams have scored over 2o points just seven times. His offense doesn’t score enough in today’s NFL.

The offense gained 475 yards and punted the ball away only twice. The Raiders came into the game giving up points by the bushel full, but Cleveland only scored 20 today.

The Browns averaged 9.5 yards per pass play and a little over four yards per run. They could have scored almost 30 points the way they moved the football, but they didn’t.

To be fair, if Dawson hadn’t had his field goal partially blocked, Cleveland would have scored 23 points today. And Weeden threw two interceptions, both deep in Oakland territory, which stopped drive which should have resulted in points.

Still, how many times have you seen the attack go ultra conservative when they get close. Even on the last touchdown, the last four plays were all runs.

Weeden did throw for 364 yards, his third game of the season over the 300 yard mark, and had a touchdown throw of 44 yards to fellow rookie Josh Gordon, who caught six tosses for 116 yards. He’s looking more and more like a #1 receiver.

Watson also had a productive day, catching six throws for 80 yards, and Greg Little had four receptions for 48 yards and had a crushing block on a 54 yard catch and run by Mohammad Massaquoi.

Richardson (20 carries for 72 yards) and Montario Hardesty (5 rushes for 39 yards) ran the ball well.

It was mistakes by the quarterback and the conservative nature of the coaching staff that allowed this game to be close at all.

Take the second drive by the Browns which resulted in a Dawson field goal. Cleveland had a third and four from the OAK 21, and called a flat pass to Richardson, on which he was tackled for a loss.

It’s no problem getting the ball to Richardson, but why not throw a five yard pattern to get the first down. It’s clear Shurmur doesn’t have confidence in Weeden’s ball security, especially after he throws an interception.

Now the Browns come home to take on the 2-10 Chiefs, who won an emotional game against Carolina today after the tragedy of yesterday. It will be another game where Cleveland will be favored.

It’s a chance to win three in a row, and also to surpass last year’s victory total. For once, progress could be shown in the win column.

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.