On Lee, Windy, and Local Media

Some things that are going through my mind, as the weather gets cooler—

Here’s the bad luck that Cleveland sports fans suffer. Here are Cliff Lee’s victory totals per season since 2004: 14, 18, 14, 5, 22, 14, and 12. Note the number right in the middle of those totals, the number 5. That, of course, came in 2007, the year the Tribe won the AL Central Division title.

Imagine, if you will, an Indians rotation that fall featuring C.C. Sabathia, Fausto Carmona, and the Lee who pitched any of the other six years since he became a full time starter in the big leagues. If Lee hadn’t been slow to recover from an abdominal injury that season and had a normal season, the Indians may have a World Series trophy from that season.

That’s bad luck.

The venom of Cleveland sports fans is somehow centered on former Plain Dealer basketball writer Brian Windhorst for some reason. Windhorst is leaving to work for ESPN.com, mostly covering (or as the worldwide leader is known to do, over-cover) the Miami Heat.

Look, Windhorst is an excellent writer and has earned the right to pursue a better gig. Beat writers are not making million dollar salaries. We will miss his outstanding work covering the Cavaliers and the NBA.

That’s the reason that people are mad about this. Not only have we lost one of the best basketball players around, we’ve also lost one of the sports’ best writers.

Windhorst should take the anger directed his way as a compliment. You can’t remember this type of reaction for a member of the media leaving the market. It just goes to show how good Brian Windhorst is as a writer.

Dwayne Wade strained a hamstring in the Heat’s first exhibition game. Why did that bring a smile to the face of everyone in northeast Ohio?

And now a beef regarding television sports. Saturday, with the two National League playoff spots were up for grabs, FOX showed the Cleveland market the Yankees-Red Sox game, which basically meant nothing, except whether the Yanks would be the division titlists or a wild card team.

The real drama was with the Giants-Padres game, which we didn’t get to see.

On the same day, ABC affiliate WEWS showed the Notre Dame-Boston College football game instead of a battle of two top ten teams in Oregon and Stanford which was played at the same time and was also aired on ABC.

Can we get to see the best games and not the contests the local stations thinks we want to see?

A couple of commercial airing in Cleveland got me wondering. First is the commercial for Gallucci’s Italian Foods where the owner talks about having to work in the family business while his friends were out playing ball. The ad is supposed to show how dedicated he is, but instead, he comes off as bitter that he had to do this.

The other is the commercial for Lady Jane’s, which airs on WKNR where the owner reminds KNR personality Aaron Goldhammer that he doesn’t pay for his haircuts at the establishment. Look, we get that celebrities get free stuff, but do they really need to flaunt it? Why not just say that Goldhammer gets his hair cut at the place and leave it at that.

Tribe Needs To Win Back Fans

Another baseball season has ended, at least for the Cleveland Indians it has. The Tribe finished this season with four more wins than they achieved in 2009, finishing at 69-93 for the season, their second consecutive 90-loss season.

By the way, the last time the Indians had back to back 90-loss seasons was 1977-78, over thirty years ago.

And of course, the team announced the promotions of several front office people, including Mark Shapiro to team president and Chris Antonetti to general manager.

So, the team has the worst two years in a row in over 30 years, and people get promotions. Who doesn’t want to work for the Dolan family?

Actually, the only people who need to be replaced are the ones signing the checks. Until the ownership decides it needs to spend money to make money, the Cleveland Indians are doomed to be a franchise that will contend every once in a while, but won’t be able to sustain it.

There are other blogs that continue to spout the company line regarding this baseball team, and they can point out how attendance in 2007, a division winning season, did not compare to the Central Division dynasty years of 1995-2001. But the perception of the fans is that as long as the Dolan’s are running the ship, there is no confidence in the franchise.

And that is why the people here are reluctant to come out and watch the team play.

Another blog showed the Indians in comparison to teams like the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals, pointing out how many years it has been for those teams to be competitive (1997 for the former, the 1980’s for the latter), thus showing the Tribe in a good light.

However, the Indians’ fans have seen a lot of great players leave the organization in the last five or six years. Two Cy Young Award winners (C.C. Sabathia and Cliff Lee) and Victor Martinez were all traded in the last three years. This is following the departures of future Hall of Famers Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, Roberto Alomar and Omar Vizquel since the turn of the century.

Who have the Orioles lost? Mike Mussina left as a free agent after the 2000 season, and the team traded Miguel Tejada, who won an MVP for Oakland, after 2007. That’s not quite the same now, is it?

As for the Royals, they had star players like Carlos Beltran, Johnny Damon, Raul Ibanez, and Mike Sweeney in 2000, but all but Sweeney were gone by 2005. And although they are all good players, none carry the resume that Sabathia and Lee have, that is, major award winners.

That’s part of the reason for the malaise of the fans. They don’t understand why the organization can’t keep at least one of the great players they’ve enjoyed watching over the years. And that’s why these people point to Minnesota, who was able to keep Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau, while trading Johan Santana and allowing Torii Hunter to leave as a free agent.

Put all these things together, the unwillingness of the ownership to spend money, and therefore having to deal very good players before they hit free agency, and you have what is ailing this franchise.

Until these things change, the Tribe brass is going to have problems creating excitement about their franchise.

It’s not a mystery, but it needs to turnaround. 2011 is a good place to start.

Victory At Last

The Cleveland Browns continued their struggles in the fourth quarter, but this time they built up enough of a lead to hold on for a 23-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals thus getting their first win of the 2010 season.

The brown and orange converted a last second field goal at the end of the first half to take a 13-10 advantage, and then took the second half kickoff and drove right down the field on a Peyton Hillis touchdown to extend the lead to 20-10, and then converted a fumble by Bengal QB Carson Palmer to raise the lead to 23-10.

That gave them enough cushion to withstand an aerial blitz by Palmer from that point on. He hit on 25 of 36 passes for 371 yards and two touchdowns, finding WR Terrell Owens repeatedly. Cleveland had no answers for Owens, who caught 10 passes for 222 yards, including a 78 yard catch in the first half.

In total, Cincy outgained the Browns 413 to 295, as the Cleveland defense allowed the most yards they’ve given up all season, but made enough big plays to win. The Browns caused two turnovers, both fumbles recovered by DE Kenyon Coleman, and had four sacks, including a key one by LB Matt Roth with the Bengals driving late in the fourth quarter with a chance to tie or perhaps take the lead. It was the second sack by Roth on the day (Scott Fujita and Coleman had the others).

Cleveland held the Bengals to just 67 yards rushing, but Cincinnati didn’t really try to run, attempting just 18 for the game, choosing instead to take their chances against a secondary that Anquan Boldin exposed last week for three TD receptions.

Outside of Owens, the other Bengal receivers weren’t a huge factor, as the other Cincy diva wide out, Chad Ochocinco had only three catches for 59 yards.

Perhaps the highlight play for the defense was an unnecessary roughness penalty on rookie S T.J. Ward on a devastating hit on Bengal rookie wideout Jordan Shipley after Eric Wright knocked the pass away. Ward served notice to future Cleveland opponents that they should know where he is on crossing patterns.

Offensively, the Browns used Hillis as a battering ram once again, and he turned in his second straight 100-yard game, gaining 102 on 27 carries, including a huge 24 yard run with two minutes to go, giving Cleveland a first down and allowing them to run out the clock.

Mohammad Massaquoi wasn’t a factor, which is a concern, but Chansi Stuckey came through catching five balls for 56 yards, and the tight ends had their usual productive day, with Benjamin Watson making six grabs for 60 yards, and Evan Moore making a 24-yard touchdown reception from Seneca Wallace for the Browns’ first touchdown.

Josh Cribbs continues to make strides as a wide receiver as well, making two catches for 24 yards, as well as getting three carries for nine yards out of the wildcat formation.

Wallace played a solid game, hitting on 18 of 30 passes for 184 yards with the TD pass to Moore and one interception.

Now, coach Eric Mangini has a problem. If Jake Delhomme is healthy for next week’s game against Atlanta, does he go with him, or does he stay with Wallace after he led the team to their first victory. It says here that Wallace should get the nod based on his performance in his three starts. He’s put the Browns in a position to win in each contest.

The guess here is that Mangini will go with Delhomme.

The Browns are making progress. It sounds strange, but with some luck, they could be 4-0. If the NFL shortened games to 45 minutes, they would be one of the league’s surprise teams. Unfortunately, they still play 60 minutes, and the Browns need to learn to do the same. Sunday’s game was a nice first step.

Tribe Can’t Get Fooled By These Guys

The Cleveland Indians have completed the home portion of their schedule, and have just three games remaining in the 2010 season, one that will conclude with more victories than last season’s awful 65-97 mark.

The team will be going over the roster in the next few weeks, making evaluations as to who gets added to the 40-man roster, and who will be departing the organization. Let’s hope good decisions will be made and fans will finally be able to see a competitive ball club in 2011.

That said, here’s hoping the front office is not fooled by these players—

Jayson Nix. The organization seems enamored by Nix’ power bat, but despite the attempts to make him a third baseman, he really is a second baseman/outfielder. And his hitting statistics can fool you as well.

Nix hit a bunch of home run after being picked up on waivers from the White Sox, but several of those were in Texas, a hitting haven. Since the All-Star break, Nix has hit .234 with a 669 OPS.

He has an unusually lower RBI total (28) for his 13 dingers with the Tribe as well, probably a result of striking out 74 times in 268 at bats on the season. That means he has knocked in runners other than himself just 15 times.

In comparable numbers of at bats, Lou Marson (19) and Luis Valbuena (22) have both driven home more runners other than themselves than Nix. Most people would say than those two have had horrible years at the dish.

At best, Nix should be fighting for a spot on the Opening Day roster next year. Being released to create room on the 40-man roster can be an option as well.

Aaron Laffey. Laffey has two things in his favor. First, he’s left-handed. Second, he’s only 25 years old, and sometimes southpaws put it together later in their careers. Therefore, it’s unlikely he will be released or traded this off-season.

However, Laffey needs to throw strikes, something that has eluded him over much of his big league tenure. He’s not a hard thrower so he needs to stay away from walks. Unfortunately, in 319 innings, he’s walked 128 batters, an average of 3.6 per nine innings.

Since he’s only struck out 155 hitters, an average of 4.4 per nine innings, that walk total is way too high. And this year, it’s gotten worse as he’s walked as many as he has fanned.

Laffey deserves a chance to show he can throw strikes consistently, but there’s no way the Indians can count on him to have a significant role on the team next season.

There are other guys the team seems to trust more than most people do. For example, Mitch Talbot, who has battled injuries the entire second half of the season.

Talbot has gone 2-5 with a 5.29 ERA after the All-Star game and hitters are batting .300 against him with an 812 OPS. Plus, the right-hander has walked 68 while striking out just 88, which isn’t a wide enough margin, particularly for a guy who doesn’t throw hard. And those numbers are after last night’s seven shutout innings against the Tigers.

Talbot should be an option for next year’s rotation, not a lock.

The front office also seems to have soured on a few other players who were with the team this season. It’s a little surprising that David Huff was not given a September call up, particularly after he started the AAA Championship game. Huff was terrible here with a 2-11 record and an ERA of over six, but he did win 11 games last season with the Tribe, and is the same age as Laffey.

Manny Acta was not a fan of Huff’s, but he certainly merits another look.

Also, Jess Todd didn’t come back either after Columbus ended their season. That’s a little surprising because he’s been very good at the AAA level and is still just 24 years old. He struck out nine in his six innings of work with the Indians this summer, and has averaged over a strikeout an inning in his minor league career.

Scott is Reason For Optimism

The Cleveland Cavaliers start training camp this week. It is the first time the entire team will be together after a tumultuous summer, which featured an upset loss in the playoffs to the Boston Celtics and the departure of the team’s best player.

If anyone is feeling bad about the upcoming season, please listen to new coach Byron Scott as he visits the television and print interview circuit. Scott will change your mind from the gloom and doom forecast for this season’s wine and gold, and have you feeling optimistic about the franchise.

Scott has overseen rebuilding projects before, taking the New Jersey Nets to two appearances in the NBA Finals, and putting the New Orleans Hornets into the second round of the post season while coaching at both locations.

Keep in mind the Cavs have made one appearance in the Finals in history.

Mike Brown did a good job in his five years at the helm, guiding the team to its only appearance in the championship round, and also setting a club record for wins in the regular season with 66 in the 2008-09 campaign.

However, Brown’s offensive philosophy was stale with little or no motion. Perhaps this was due to the reluctance of his best player to do anything else, or maybe he felt running the team around a single player, like Orlando does with Dwight Howard is the way to go.

Brown was a first time head coach, and sometimes, those guys let their ego get in the way, thinking their way is the only way to go.

Scott has been a head coach in the NBA for several years, and sometimes coaches who have been around for awhile realize that if Plan A doesn’t work, then perhaps Plan B will. They understand the most important thing is winning games. It doesn’t matter how it gets done.

The new coach is going to try to maximize the talents of the roster, which should be the goal of all coaches. One of the problems with last year’s offense was it made three point jump shooters out of players who offered more on that end of the floor.

Scott has already indicated he wants Mo Williams to go to the basket more often and also get more to the mid-range jumper. He’s also put out there that he’s going to use Antawn Jamison better, getting him back to the player who averaged in the high teens rather than the 15 points he scored after the deal.

He wants to use Daniel Gibson’s shooting ability. He wants to have more than one ball handler on the floor. He wants to develop J.J. Hickson’s talents. Jamario Moon will do more offensively than just stand in the corner.

In short, more than one guy will touch the ball on most possessions. That’s a major difference from the attack used last year.

For all the talk about offense, Scott doesn’t ignore the defensive end of the floor. He wants his team to play great defense because that will fuel the fast break game that he favors. That foundation is already set from Brown’s emphasis from the moment he became the coach of the Cavaliers.

The new coach’s enthusiasm is catching. He’s not an excuse maker. He expects to win with this franchise and makes no bones about saying it. He has said he inherited more talent here than he had when he took over the Nets.

If you listen to what the man says, you have to like him. With Byron Scott at the helm, the Cleveland Cavaliers are in good hands, indeed.

Maybe Mangini's Right

At his press conference last week following a loss at home to Kansas City, Browns’ coach Eric Mangini said his team needed to play perfectly to win. Most thought he was exaggerating a bit, but maybe he wasn’t.

The Browns played very well against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, but a couple of key mistakes turned the good effort into another loss, this one by a 24-17 score. They now sit at 0-3 on the season.

Cleveland didn’t have the lead going into the fourth quarter of this game, but they had it one play into the final quarter. However, the defense couldn’t hold it, and some questionable play calling on the team’s final drive led to the third straight loss to start the season.

Going into the game, it would have been a surprise here if the brown and orange could have any success running the football, but they ran for 173 yards, with Peyton Hillis having a huge game, gaining 144 yards on 22 carries.

On a critical third down and 2 late in the fourth quarter though, the play call was a long sideline pass to Josh Cribbs which QB Seneca Wallace sailed out of bounds. Getting the ball to Cribbs was a good thought, but running a play out of the wildcat formation or a short pass would have been a better option. Especially since Mangini should have given serious thought to going for it on fourth down had the play failed.

His choice didn’t work, he chose to punt the ball away, and the Browns never got it back.

The other crucial mistake for the offense occurred after Baltimore took the lead 21-17 on Anquan Boldin’s third TD catch of the game from QB Joe Flacco. Cleveland’s first play was a missed timed pitch to Hillis which Wallace fell on inside the Browns’ five yard line. Stuck with poor field position, the Browns punted and the Ravens turned this error into a field goal to stretch their lead to 10 points.

The defense was not to be out done in the last quarter. Matt Roth lined up the neutral zone on a 3rd and 4 play, giving the Ravens the first down they needed to run out the clock. It killed one of the few opportunities Cleveland had to stop Baltimore in the fourth quarter.

The other shot they had was a 3rd and 5 from the Cleveland 27 with nine minutes to go and the Browns holding a 17-14 lead. Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan dialed up a blitz that failed to reach Flacco, and the result was single coverage on Boldin and a 27-yard touchdown pass, beating CB Eric Wright for the umpteethed time during the game.

After a horrible game against Cincinnati last week, Flacco riddled the the Browns, hitting 23 of 32 passes for 262 yards, more than half of them to Boldin. He had all the time in the world to throw, and he made the secondary pay.

The question here is how was the big wide receiver open all day? He’s their best receiver, and it seemed like the Browns didn’t bother to account for him. Wright simply had a horrific day.

There is no question the Browns have improved from last season. They were getting blown out more often than not at this stage of the season in 2009. This year, they’ve had an opportunity to win each game, but critical errors continue to plague the squad. They did get back to their running roots today, but still made critical mistakes to cost themselves yet another game.

Mangini may just have been telling the truth about his team needing to be perfect to win. If he is, then this team is further from a winning season than we all thought.

Culture of Losing at Progressive Field

There are only ten games left for the Cleveland Indians. Just ten more games in this painful season. Ten more chances to finally improve the play of this team before they take off for the winter.

Tribe skipper Manny Acta said after Tuesday’s game in which his team blew a three run lead and lost 6-4 to the AL Central Division champion Minnesota Twins that the Tribe is a young team still learning how to play. The question here is this: Isn’t this game 149?

The point is most of these players have played at least half the season at the big league level, yet they continue to make fundamental errors. Why?

The AAA National Championship Game was a stark contrast, because at least in this game, the Indians’ highest minor league team played a fine game doing the little things you need to do to win at the big league level. Why can’t the major league team do these things?

It’s because a losing atmosphere is permeating this organization. Losing is accepted. The front office makes excuses for losing. Poor performance is written off as a learning experience.

Fans accepted it last year, but have started to tune out this baseball team. They will not tolerate another 90-loss season in 2011. That is if they care at all anymore.

It was refreshing to see the Columbus Clippers win the AAA title because for the most part, they did it without a bunch of ex-major leaguers, trying to play their way back to the big leagues. These were mostly guys on the way up. These are players who should get a chance in Cleveland next season. Many of them won an Eastern League title in Akron last season. They are used to winning.

Naturally, it appears that only a couple of the heroes of this title team will be called up before the year, catcher Luke Carlin and closer Vinnie Pestano. The only reason one can think of is the cost of bringing up more players is prohibitive.

Once again, money is getting in the way of progress for Cleveland Indians.

Seriously, look at the lineup the team is putting out on the field right now. Are Mark Shapiro and Manny Acta telling us we need to see more of Luis Valbuena instead of giving Cord Phelps a shot? Jose Constanza get take some of Trevor Crowe’s playing time? And let’s not forget Jared Goedert at third base in place of the immortal Jayson Nix.

The Tribe will tell you they don’t have space on the 40-man roster, but they could easily make some moves. They will probably put Nick Weglarz and Hector Ambriz on the 60 day disabled list to make room for Carlin and Pestano, and they could easily designate guys like Chris Gimenez and Andy Marte for assignment to make room for more players.

That seems cruel to those players, but check out the transaction page of your local newspaper, other teams are doing it.

And it shouldn’t be about being nice it should be about winning.

In spring training, once again, the roster will be virtually predetermined and only selected young players will have an opportunity to break camp with the major league team. And you wonder why the Tribe gets off to poor starts?

If Jason Kipnis and Lonnie Chisenhall hit .450 in Arizona, let them open the season with the Indians. Stop worrying about what might happen if they fail, that part of the defeatist attitude that exists at Progressive Field.

Let’s start a new tradition of playing the best players. That would help the fans be serious about the franchise.

Handling Talented Players

Under Eric Mangini, the Cleveland Browns have seemed to have a philosophy of having hard working players who were all on the same page, and tried to scheme their way to victory.

It’s kind of the same idea Bill Belichick had when he first took over the Browns in the early 1990’s. It was Belichick’s first head coaching job and he learned over the years that you need talent as well as good coaching to win games in the NFL.

Mangini needs to learn the same lesson, and quickly for the sake of this football team.

Professional sports are talent based. More often than not, the team with the better talent wins the game. The Browns have some players who can play, just not enough of them.

One thing Mangini has demonstrated during his tenure here is that he has had trouble with some talented players.

Some of those guys were jerks, like WR Braylon Edwards, who recently was miffed with Joe Namath after the latter mentioned his problems holding on to the ball. It’s pretty clear that Edwards was a me-first type of player. However, what about Kellen Winslow?

At some point in time, you need to add talented players to the roster, and the coach needs to be able to handle them.

Former Browns’ coach Sam Rutigliano likes to tell the story about how he told then defensive coordinator Marty Schottenheimer that anyone can coach Clay Matthews, but he got paid to coach Chip Banks.

Rutigliano’s message is clear. Being able to handle the talented, somewhat difficult player is part of the challenge of coaching. No coach gets the opportunity that all the players he has are self-motivated hard working talented guys. Sometimes, you have to coax the performance out of these guys.

Right now, it appears that Mangini is unwilling to put the time in to do exactly that.

Former Indians’ manager Eric Wedge was the same way. He had problems with a guy like Brandon Phillips, who is a very talented player, but didn’t fit the mold Wedge was looking for in a player. He preferred the Casey Blake type of player, a grinder who played the game the “right” way.

Blake was a solid player, but Phillips is an all-star. And ultimately, games are won and lost by talent, not grit and determination. It always helped Wedge that his best player, Grady Sizemore, worked very hard.

This is not to say that Phillips doesn’t try, in fact, if he didn’t he wouldn’t be an all-star, but he had a different personality, and his manager couldn’t handle it.

Mangini seems to have the same type of attitude toward his players.

Josh Cribbs is the Sizemore type of player for the Browns. He is the team’s best player and has a tremendous work ethic. In addition to being an All Pro kick returner, he’s the best coverage guy on special teams.

Eventually, Mike Holmgren and GM Tom Heckert are going to bring in talented, playmaking players on both offense and defense because they understand that’s what wins in the NFL. If the head coach can’t demonstrate an ability to get along with these types of players, that will be a contributing factor in whether or not he remains coach of the Browns.

Coaches need to be flexible in handling players. Belichick learned that from his experience in Cleveland. Hopefully, Eric Mangini can figure it out quickly.

A Bad Tendency for Browns

They say once is an occurance, twice is a tendency, and three times is a trend.

A bad tendency is rearing its ugly head for the Cleveland Browns, who have started out the regular season by losing two winnable games in the same manner.

A bad mistake by their starting quarterback in the first half, and being totally dominated in the second half.

With the Browns moving the ball well and with a 7-3 lead today, Seneca Wallace threw a pick six to give the Chiefs the lead. It was very similar to the mistake made by Jake Delhomme in the opening game on the schedule, and both cost the team a touchdown. Both games were ultimately lost by less than that margin.

More disturbing is the lack of adjustments being made at halftime by the coaching staff. In both games, the offense has not been able to move the ball, and the defense has been unable to stop what the opponents have been doing, but in their defense they are on the field quite a bit because the offense can’t do a thing.

Kansas City held the Browns to less than 60 yards total offense in the second half, and once again, Cleveland went away from the running game, attempting just 26 rushes for the game for 73 yards. The Browns also didn’t use Josh Cribbs in the running game, as he carried just once for one yard.

To be fair, Cribbs did provide a highlight, catching a 65 yard pass from Wallace for the Browns’ second touchdown. However, the wide receivers as a whole still continue to have subpar performances as Mohammad Massaquoi and Brian Robiske combined to catch two passes for 21 yards. That’s not an acceptable job.

Defensively, there was no pressure on Chief QB Matt Cassel as the Browns managed just one sack, by Marvin Benard, who now has two on the season. And they are still having problem covering the tight end as Tony Moeaki caught five balls, many in key situations.

However, whatever game plan the Browns have coming into the game works in the first half. If it weren’t for the picks thrown by the starting quaterbacks, the Browns would have had an 11 point lead at the half in both games. However, something is happening at halftime, and it is nothing good. Either the coaching staff is thinking the opponent isn’t going to change anything to combat what Cleveland is doing, or they don’t have a good plan to stop the adjustments made by the other team.

It’s either arrogance or bad scheming, and both are on the coaching staff.

The defense was thought to be the questionable unit going into the regular season, but they have been just the opposite, allowing really only 10 points against Tampa Bay and just nine points against KC. Despite some criticisms they are holding up their end of the bargain. If you hold teams under 20 points per game in the NFL, you need to come up with victories. Look at the early games today, teams that held their opponents to 20 points or fewer won 8 of 12 games.

There were other games like the Browns-Chiefs where both teams scored under 20 points.

It also has to be noted there was some strange officiating from the NFL as is usual. Jerome Harrison’s fumble could have been overturned, and a terrible roughing the passer penalty in the fourth quarter didn’t help the Cleveland cause. And the spot on the Chiefs’ final first down was questionable as well. It was a bad gamble by KC coach Todd Haley that worked out.

Why have replay if you are going to ignore it. And one more comment about the rules, if you have a rule that seems to be idiotic by virtually everyone (i.e. the rule nullifying Calvin Johnson’s catch in Week 1), then get rid of it immediately.

Now the Browns enter the meat grinder part of the schedule meaning if they continue to make mistakes, the opposition will be a little less forgiving. The Ravens are next on the slate, and Cleveland needs to start competing in the AFC North if they are ever going to turn things around. Everyone thought that Eric Mangini was developing an identity for the football team, and he may be.

However, instead of a tough physical football team, the identity might be one that can’t adjust in the second half.

The Last Days for Some Indians?

The baseball season is wrapping up soon with just a little over two weeks remaining on the schedule for those teams who will not be making the post-season, like the Cleveland Indians.

It’s also time to begin speculation on who is indeed playing their last games in a Cleveland uniform. Here is a look at a few guys who it would be surprising to see wearing a Chief Wahoo on their hat when 2011 rolls around.

This list doesn’t take into account possible baseball trades, that is to say deals that aren’t made with the concept of dumping salary, although outside of Travis Hafner, there is no one on the roster whose paycheck is a burden to the organization.

Here is one person’s list of who will be jettisoned this winter—

Andy Marte. Although Marte’s pitching performance against the Yankees was a highlight to this dismal season, he will be gone following the season. He hasn’t always been treated well by the organization (former skipper Eric Wedge never gave him a legitimate shot), he now has over 800 big league at bats and has an OPS of 629.

His lifetime batting average is just .215 with 20 homers lifetime. And when given an opportunity to play more after the trade of Jhonny Peralta, his defense wasn’t up to his usual standard.

Marte will turn 27 following the season, and that would be the only reason to give him another chance, but more likely he will hook on with some other club on a minor league deal before spring training.

Trevor Crowe. Many people speculate that Crowe could be a good fourth outfielder, but usually those guys have one overwhelming skill, such as the crush left-handed pitching. Crowe doesn’t have any statistics like that, nor is he a great defensive outfielder.

He hits better against righties, but still has an OPS under 700. He looks like he might be a top of the order hitter, but his on base percentage hovers around the .300 mark. He also hasn’t been a guy who has destroyed minor league pitching on his way up, as his lifetime minor league OPS is under 800.

He’s another guy who will turn 27 this winter, but it says here the Tribe would be better off letting him go to see if he can hook on with another organization.

Shelley Duncan. The guess here is Duncan will be let go to make room on the 40-man roster, but this may not be the right move. Duncan has the great skill needed from a bench player; he crushes southpaws to the tune of an 847 OPS lifetime, with 9 home runs in 157 career at bats.

He’s not a good defender, but he plays hard. He could provide rest for Travis Hafner against tough lefties, and can also play 1B or LF. If he is designated for assignment after the season, here’s hoping the Indians quickly ink him to a minor league contract and invite him to spring training.

Chris Gimenez. Not really much of a reach, but with Carlos Santana returning next season and Lou Marson on the team, there is no need for a guy like Gimenez. It’s a testament to his hard work that he got to the big leagues, but if he’s back on the roster next season, the Indians are not a good ballclub.

He’s hit .163 in 160 career at bats with an OPS of under 600. He also strikes out a ton, in fact 35% of his at bats result in a whiff. Nor is he a particularly good defensive catcher. He’ll wind up in AAA with another organization because he works hard and can play multiple positions, but his big league days are likely at an end.