On The Clowney Addition & Other Stuff On The Browns

With two weeks to go before the NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns made probably their last splash in the free agent market, signing perhaps the best remaining player available in DE Jadeveon Clowney, who was with Tennessee last season.

Clowney is a former first overall pick in the draft and a three time Pro Bowl selection, but really, at this point in his career, he’s best suited to being a second banana in the pass rushing game, which he will be in Cleveland because of the presence of Myles Garrett.

And he’s coming off an injury, playing only eight games a year ago.

The real interest will come in how GM Andrew Berry creates cap space for this signing, because according to reports, the team now has just a little under $4 million remaining, which won’t cover the amount needed to sign the players they will draft in two weeks.

There have been rumors that DT Sheldon Richardson could be released or at least have his contract restructured to make room for Clowney. Richardson is a solid player, but he is 30 years old, and that seems to be a magic number to the front office.

Berry has targeted Clowney since he became the Browns’ GM before last season, so it is no surprise he finally got his man. If you trust his talent evaluations, and there is no reason to doubt it so far, then you have to feel good about the signing.

Kevin Stefanski described him as a “disruptive force” on the defensive line, and if he is, then the Browns should be improved up front.

They also added Takk McKinley and Malik Jackson since the end of last season. Being able to restructure Richardson and keep him would be icing on the cake. And don’t forget Andrew Billings, signed last year, but opted out of the season due to COVID-19.

Other stuff on the Browns–

***One thing about picking 26th in the first round, no one has any idea who will be available when your choice will be made. However, if one of the top cornerbacks start to drop in the first round, it wouldn’t be a shock to us if Berry traded up to get one.

Remember, the Browns have nine picks, and to us, it would be tough for all nine to make the final roster. So why not package some extra choices to get someone who can make an impact on the 2021 Browns?

In today’s NFL, you can never have enough corners, especially with the injury histories of Denzel Ward and Greedy Williams.

We also wouldn’t be surprised if Berry targeted a wide receiver early in the draft, either first or second round. There is a lot of cap space tied up in that position.

***There are still some fans with reservations about Baker Mayfield, but we recently heard one of the football talking heads (sorry, don’t remember which one) who said when you think about it, the 2019 season with Freddie Kitchens as head coach is the outlier in Mayfield’s career.

He was outstanding in his last two years at Oklahoma, did very well as a rookie and led the Browns to the playoffs in 2020. That’s four out of five years of high achievement, albeit just two of those in the NFL.

We are a big believer in disposing of the odd occurrence, which that season very well might be.

***We stated earlier it would not be a shock to us if the Browns took a wide receiver early later this month. Part of that is our reservation that Odell Beckham Jr. is still a game changer, even before he had major knee surgery last season.

When the 2021 season begins, we will be five years removed since Beckham was a top flite receiver in the NFL, grabbing 101 passes for 1367 yards and ten touchdowns.

He’s missed time in three of the last four years, and barely exceeded 1000 yards in receiving in two of those four seasons.

While Mayfield probably needs an explosive target to stretch the defense, can Beckham be that guy once again? And does the front office think the same thing?

Tough Three Week Stretch For The Tribe.

No one can or should complain about a 5-3 start for the Cleveland Indians. As former major leaguer and broadcaster Mike Hegan used to say, if you win three out of every five, you end the season at 96 wins, and that gets you in the playoffs more often than not.

After losing last night, if the Tribe wins tonight, they will have accomplished that at least for the first ten games of the season.

But the next three weeks should give us an idea of how good the 2021 Cleveland Indians are.

Through May 2nd, the Tribe takes on a quartet of teams who are projected to be serious contenders to be playing baseball in October: The White Sox (8 more games), The Reds (3), the Yankees (4), and the Twins (3).

Chicago and Minnesota rank 3rd and 4th in the American League in runs scored per game (Cleveland is 7th) while the Reds led the NL in scoring. To be fair, they haven’t faced the Cleveland staff, which is tied for the league lead in ERA with the Twins.

While the Tigers’ offense ranks 14th in runs, perhaps because they have played six games vs. the Indians’ staff, let’s look at the Royals. KC has scored 37 runs in seven games, ranking sixth in the AL at 5.29 per game.

However, in the two games against the Indians’ pitching staff, they scored five runs in two games. So, when they aren’t facing Cleveland, they are averaging 6.4 runs per contest, which would be second in the Junior Circuit.

It will be interesting to see how the Pale Hose, Reds, and Twins fair against the Tribe staff, which hasn’t allowed more than five runs in a contest to date.

And while the Cleveland hitters knocked around the Detroit pitching staff, the series in the Windy City will see Indians’ hitters facing some accomplished hurlers like Lucas Giolito, Dallas Keuchel, and Lance Lynn, while they will also probably see the Reds’ Luis Castillo in the last game in the Queen City.

We have already noted the Twins’ pitching ranks tied for first with the Tribe in ERA, and the Yankees are currently third. Will the Tribe be able to score runs against real good pitchers, which honestly, the Indians have not faced yet.

And will the contact Cleveland hitters have been making, they have still struck out the least amount of times in the league, suit them well and can it continue against top flight pitching?

Look, we aren’t downgrading the Tribe’s success to date. We have always said when folks have complained about beating bad teams, would they rather they lose to them? Of course not, there is something to be said for beating teams you are supposed to have success against.

Unfortunately, the schedule makers have only allowed Cleveland 38 opportunities to play the Royals and Tigers, meaning there are 124 other contests on the slate.

There is an old baseball adage that says you split with the contenders and beat up on the poor teams on the schedule, so we aren’t looking for Terry Francona’s team to dominate over the next three weeks, although that would be nice.

They just need to hold their own against them. And as we said, we are anxious to see how the lineup cobbles together runs against the likes of pitchers like Giolito, who has pitched well vs. the Tribe in the past two seasons, and Lynn.

That might give us a truer picture of how the 2021 edition of the Indians will fare this season.

Biggest Consistency For Cavs? Inconsistency

In the 2018-19 NBA season, the Cleveland Cavaliers won 19 games. For the entire 82 game season. Last year, due to the coronavirus, the league’s schedule was shortened to 65 games, at least for the wine and gold, and they repeated their win total from the year before.

This season, the Cavs accomplished the 19 wins in 51 contests, showing that progress has been made by the organization whether or not anyone wants to admit it.

Part of it is the maturation of talent. Collin Sexton is now in his third season, and Darius Garland is now in his sophomore year in the league, and they have taken natural progression to their games.

And since the deal for Andre Drummond last year at the trade deadline, the organization has once again made size a priority. They traded for JaVale McGee in the off-season, and also picked up soon to be 23-year-old big man Jarrett Allen earlier this year.

When they moved McGee at this year’s deadline, they replaced him with another young big man in Isaiah Hartenstein, who since his arrival, and benefitting from Allen being out, has scored 10 points, grabbed 9.6 rebounds, and dished out 3.4 assists per contest.

The team needs to add one more thing however, before it can be considered a playoff contender, and it might be the toughest thing for a young team to get…consistency.

Since Kevin Love started being able to play more after a calf injury which has plagued his year, and Matthew Dellavedova came back from issues due to a concussion and appendicitis, the Cavaliers have started to pick up the pace even more with resounding wins on the road against San Antonio and Oklahoma City.

They followed up those two impressive wins with an embarrassing home loss to Toronto, who were playing without their three best players: Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, and Fred VanVleet.

Coach J.B. Bickerstaff came into the season talking about playing with grit and intensity, but the young Cavs forget that too often, and the result is allowing 87 first half points to a team that came into the game a half game better than Cleveland in the standings.

If you want to be a playoff team, you can’t lose games like that, particularly at home. And this is where we feel organizational culture comes in. If you brand yourself as a gritty defensive minded team, it is difficult to forget to play that way on a given night.

Every team has a clunker, but the wine and gold have lost 13 games by 20 points or more this season, by our count. Some of those have come against the elite teams in the NBA, but they’ve been blown out by these teams as well: Orlando, the Knicks, Boston, and tonight’s opponent, New Orleans.

Those are games where you have to take the mindset of “we should win tonight”. And perhaps they do, leading to thinking maximum effort isn’t needed.

The good teams in the league can do that, young teams trying to develop an identity cannot.

And to be fair, Cleveland has had their share of injuries too, which affects consistency. Allen and Larry Nance both have missed the last several games.

We are sure the “draft lottery maniacs” out there, love to see the Cavs lose games like last night, but that is a loser’s lament. Bickerstaff and the organization should be stressing wins, because winning can be a habit, and it’s the kind of habit you want to have.

Kevin Love, Matthew Dellavedova and Nance have developed that habit, the younger guys like Sexton and Garland have not.

Last night’s pathetic performance will serve as a wake up call that the young Cavs cannot afford to take anyone lightly. This is the NBA after all.

It will be interesting to see what kind of attitude the Cavs come out with tonight

It’s Early, But Tribe Bats Haven’t Quelled Any Fears

First of all, let us start that it is way too early to make any conclusions about any major league baseball teams after five games.

However, if you thought coming into the 2021 season that the offense would be a problem for the Cleveland Indians, they have done nothing to make you feel differently.

Remember, the Indians ranked tied for 13th in the American League in runs scored last year and dealt one of their best hitters in the off-season. So, it’s not like there isn’t a reason for concern.

In the season’s first five games, the Tribe scored two runs or less in three of them, and let us remind you that even with Cleveland’s usually excellent pitching, winning when the team scores two runs is very, very difficult.

The average American League team scored 4.58 runs per game on average last season, and the Indians were best in the Junior Circuit in run prevention, allowing 3.48 runs per contest. So, scoring two runs usually means adding one to the “L” column.

Thank goodness for Jose Ramirez. The AL MVP runner up belted a pair of two run homers yesterday, accounting for the only runs in the Tribe’s second victory of the season.

There are some good things to take note of thus far, although you can look at them in different ways.

Cleveland is last in the AL in striking out, and even in today’s game where hitters fan a lot, that’s a good thing. The counter to that is they haven’t faced any of the game’s big strikeout pitchers. Detroit and Kansas City ranked in the lower half of the league in that category last season. In fact, the Tigers pitching staff was last.

And they’ve been drawing four walks per game, which has to be a staple of their offense. They probably won’t see a premier pitcher until they visit Chicago next week to take on the White Sox.

They have also hit some home runs. Ramirez’ two yesterday give the team seven on the season, and partially because of that, they rank 8th in slugging percentage.

However, some of the things we were concerned about have reinforced those feelings.

Terry Francona has for some reason decided the bat the centerfielder in the leadoff spot, and while Jordan Luplow has had tremendous success against lefties in his career, so it makes sense with him, hitting Ben Gamel first raises some eyebrows.

The veteran has a .331 on base percentage for his career (his best mark was .358 with Seattle in 2018), so it’s tough to find a reason for him to bat first. Luplow’s has a lifetime .379 OBP vs. southpaws as a contrast.

To be fair, we know Cesar Hernandez is a better hitter than he has shown so far (2 for 18 with four walks). But the offense can’t be solely dependent on Hernandez, Ramirez, Eddie Rosario and Franmil Reyes either.

Another problem for the attack has been the inability to get runners on base early in innings. Too often, the Tribe gets a couple of hits with two outs, making it tough to score. And they’ve also banged into five double plays, third in the league to date, so they aren’t putting a lot of pressure on opposing pitchers.

They’ve also scored only two runs before the sixth inning. So, starting pitchers haven’t been able to protect any leads thus far.

Again, it’s early, so it is way too early for concern. But the Indians could have eased the minds of many supporters with a good start at the plate.

If they can score, then they can surprise in the AL Central.

The Sexton Dilemma

When discussion regarding the Cleveland Cavaliers’ future comes up, a talk about Collin Sexton is sure to follow. He is a polarizing figure to be sure.

Sexton was the 8th overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, taken with the choice secured from Boston, originally that of the Brooklyn Nets, in the Kyrie Irving. There is a lot to like about the former Alabama standout, who just turned 22 years old earlier this season.

He is a gym rat to be sure. He is a tireless worker. There are stories during his rookie season that he had to be thrown out of the Cavs’ practice facility because he was consumed by basketball.

He can score the ball too. He is averaging a career high 24.0 points per game this season, a step up from 20.8 a year ago.

But the question for many, including ourselves, is this: Can he be the best player on a contending team?

Our answer is no, but could he be a contributor on a good team? We think so.

Watching him play, he doesn’t seem to have good basketball instincts. And what we mean by that is he doesn’t have a good feel in getting the ball to his teammates where they can succeed. However, again, he can flat out put the ball in the basket.

When the Cavs are struggling offensively, he can keep them in a game. We think about the recent contest against the Lakers where Cleveland led at the half because Darius Garland and Larry Nance Jr. were playing great. Sexton was out with an injury.

In the second half, the Lakers’ defense determined someone other than Garland and Nance were going to have to score. No one else could. That’s exactly the kind of game where Sexton could have been a huge factor. That’s when you need to have the “scorer’s mentality”.

The other thing is can a backcourt of Garland and Sexton be successful defensively. Perhaps, but that’s where Jarrett Allen and another big (Isaiah Hartenstein?) are needed.

Toronto won a title with small guards, but they had Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, elite defenders behind them. And Utah has the best record in the league this season, and have shot blocker extraordinaire Rudy Gobert protecting the rim.

Can Sexton be a part of Cleveland’s success going forward? Yes, he can, but to do so, it might have to involved taking a step back. Getting his teammates involved more, and then scoring when needed or just let Garland run the offense and be the finisher.

And take the open shots when they are there. We have seen Sexton have a good look, and dribble his way into the defense, thus causing a more difficult shot.

Maybe more direction is needed from the bench too. Being a young team, sometimes you have to tell the players where they want the shot to come from and who they would they want shooting.

Perhaps some of that comes from having veterans Kevin Love and Matthew Dellavedova back on the floor.

Many NBA players, including Michael Jordan, have had to learn to do this. So, Sexton can definitely learn this skill. Our question is anyone in the organization telling him this? For the Cavs to start playing consistent winning basketball, we think that’s what is needed.

Go Away, Hue. No One Wants To Hear From 3 Win You.

Fans of the Cleveland Browns have had a fun ride over the last 12 months. After wandering around in the desert that is losing, new head coach Kevin Stefanski came aboard and took the team to the playoffs for the first time since 2002.

The team finished 11-5, the most victories for the franchise since 1994, when Bill Belichick was guiding the brown and orange.

With the NFL Draft coming to the city later this month, and the prospects of another winning season dancing in their collective heads, all is good if you are a pro football fan in northeastern Ohio. Heck, the Browns are even mentioned as, wait for it, Super Bowl contenders.

So, with all of those things being positive, something had to poop on the good feelings.

Hue Jackson reared his ugly head.

Why? We guess to remind everyone what a terrible dysfunctional organization the Browns, still owned by Jimmy Haslam used to be, even as recently as four years ago.

Jackson came aboard when Sashi Brown was put in charge of the organization, and his strategy was to stop putting bandages on things and strip the roster down to an expansion team level. Basically starting over.

Brown traded a lot of veterans and accumulated draft picks. We have to imagine Jackson was told what was going to happen when he took the gig, so he shouldn’t have been surprised.

Other teams have followed the same strategy in recent years, notably the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins. WIth Todd Bowles leading the Jets, they still won four games in their worst season (we aren’t counting the 2020 season, when they supposed had their quarterback), and Miami went 5-11 in Brian Flores’ first season at the helm, after the team gutted their roster.

Jackson went 1-31 over a two year span. We bring up those other teams to show it is difficult to be that bad in the NFL. Usually, the worst teams win at least three games.

Not the Browns though. They won one stinking game over a two year period.

What’s worse is Jackson used his position, reporting directly to ownership (part of the dysfunction) to complain about Brown and the plan he appears to have signed up for. That led to Brown being fired and John Dorsey coming to Cleveland as the GM.

Dorsey famously brought in Baker Mayfield, Denzel Ward, and Nick Chubb in the draft and of course, traded for Odell Beckham Jr. The rest of the draft picks both in 2018 and 2019 have not really been franchise changers, the best of the lot might be LB Sione Takitaki.

Anyway, the complaining about Brown which brought forth Dorsey, basically cost Jackson his job, because the new GM didn’t like the coaching the next year (2018) and fired Jackson after a 33-18 loss to the Steelers. Remember, Dorsey also traded Carlos Hyde during the year because Jackson was playing him instead of Chubb, who went on to gain 996 yards this season.

That’s how we see Jackson’s legacy as a head coach in Cleveland. Among coaches who have coaches at least a full season with the Browns, including men who coached just one season here, Jackson has the least victories with three.

Rob Chudzinski won four. Gregg Williams, the interim coach who took over for Jackson, won five. Even the much maligned Freddie Kitchens won six.

Go away Hue. Things are looking up for the franchise and its fans as the 2021 draft approaches. You have your place in the history of the Cleveland Browns, and it’s not good.

Asking Questions That Tribe Hasn’t Answered Yet

Spring training lasts six weeks because of the starting pitchers. They have to get enough time to get stretched out enough to throw around 100 pitches in a game once the regular season starts.

Because it lasts so long, there is plenty of time resolve most questions, but here are some we would like to have answers for, and maybe we will once the calendar changes from April to May.

What about centerfield? Our guess was the Tribe front office was hoping that Oscar Mercado would regain his 2019 form and seize the job, but the 26-year-old still has problems distinguishing a ball from a strike, so he will not be in Detroit today.

Bradley Zimmer has the same issue and was also sent down. So, Terry Francona’s options to start the season are veteran Ben Gamel, converted shortstop (and recently converted at that) Amed Rosario, and Jordan Luplow.

It’s not like Gamel hit his way on the roster either, he kind of walked his way on, drawing seven walks. He batted .171 (7 for 41). Luplow has been more of a corner outfielder since coming to Cleveland, although he is good enough defensively to play in the middle of the outfield.

The question to us, is why wasn’t Daniel Johnson given a look out there during exhibition play? He was 7 for 19 against fairly experienced pitching in Arizona.

You have to wonder how quick he will be back with the big club?

Outfield defense or lack of it? Compounding the lack of an experienced true major league centerfielder is that the two men who will play the majority of time in the corner positions are Eddie Rosario and Josh Naylor, neither of whom are known for their glove work.

The infield defense should be solid. Cesar Hernandez won a Gold Glove last year, and new shortstop Andres Gimenez won the job partly because of his glove. Jose Ramirez is very good at the hot corner.

However, perhaps the front office is counting on a lot of strikeouts because a team based on pitching like the Indians should back that strength with good defense.

Our guess is a lot of late game substitutions for defense in the outfield in games where Cleveland is ahead. That’s why the Zimmer decision was a bit curious. Although we never have been a fan because of his lack of hitting, he can go get it in the field.

Who’s Still Here in August? If the Indians get off to a slow start, expect the trade winds to start swirling, mostly involving Ramirez. The front office learned from trading Francisco Lindor was that they probably moved him too late, just one year before he was a free agent.

With Ramirez under club options through the 2023 season, it would seem the club could get maximum value dealing a superstar player with two full season left on a reasonable contract.

And if Ramirez is moved, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Hernandez and/or Eddie Rosario also on the block.

If the Tribe is in contention, Ramirez is probably off the table, at least until the end of the season, but Hernandez could still be moved if one of the Tribe’s infield prospects shows they are ready to come up.

And if they are in contention, Eddie Rosario is probably having a big season.

The Cleveland management have put a lot of pressure on their young pitching staff for the 2021 season. Can they answer the challenge? If so, these questions won’t be discussed much, but if Terry Francona’s squad can’t muster up enough runs or the outfield defense is porous, you will hear a lot about all three.

Evaluating The Cavs Rebuild.

Our thoughts on the Cleveland Cavaliers seem to vary on a weekly basis. That’s probably because they are so inconsistent.

They are a very young team, the third youngest team in the NBA, behind only Minnesota and Oklahoma City, so the ups and downs are understandable. And the biggest thing the team needs is probably stability, so the organization has to grow together, the front office, coaching staff, and the players.

Recently, it has come to light that owner Dan Gilbert’s son, Grant, is taking more of a role in the organization. Grant Gilbert is just 23 years old, and hopefully, he will realize what the smartest people can do, realize what he doesn’t know.

If the younger Gilbert takes over the operations of the team, what does that mean for Altman? And if the latter is let go, does the new man in charge hire someone with a long history in the NBA.

Again, the rumor mill has Brock Aller, the vice president of basketball operations and strategy with the New York Knicks, and former Cavalier front office employee (in general terms, he was the “capologist”) returning to head up basketball operations in Cleveland.

Aller is well respected within the league, but he’s an analytics guy. And that might work as long as it comes along with someone who knows the game, who understands how players work together and fit with each other.

The game isn’t all about statistics.

If we were asked who the best player currently on the Cavs is, the answer would probably surprise you. We are sure most fans would say it’s Collin Sexton, averaging 24 points and a little over four assists per game.

We would certainly say Sexton is the best scorer, but the best basketball player, in our opinion, is Larry Nance Jr., averaging just 10 points per night, but adding in seven rebounds and three assists during a usual night’s work.

Certainly, by the amount of supposed interest in Nance at the trade deadline, a lot of NBA teams also see the value in the skill set of the one time Revere High School standout.

This isn’t to denigrate Sexton. If you watched the Cavs’ loss to the Lakers Friday night, you could see they needed someone who can put the ball in the basket, which Sexton can do. Our question has always been, can the two small backcourt players (Sexton and Darius Garland) work long term in the NBA, even today’s version of it.

As for Altman, he should certainly get big kudos for the trade which netted Jarrett Allen, who at 22 years of age, has all kinds of upside. He should be a huge building block for the franchise going forward. We don’t mark him down for the Andre Drummond situation. The Cavaliers gave up nothing to get the big man, and it just didn’t work out.

But what is his second best move? Drafting Sexton? You can make an argument, an analytical argument, that Sexton is the third worst player (using VORP–value over replacement player) in the draft.

And Garland is the worst player using that category in the 2019 draft.

By the way, our eyes don’t agree with those ratings.

And in the most recent draft, Altman drafted a defensive player with a limited offensive game in Isaac Okoro with the fifth overall choice. He’s been a mainstay in the lineup all year, but at 6’5″, he’s too small to play small forward, which is where he spends most of his minutes.

To us, the biggest problem is this is year three in the second post-LeBron James era, and we still really don’t know what the direction of the franchise is. Is it too soon to think that should be the case?

However, if Grant Gilbert takes over the team, he may start asking what is going on with the franchise. And if he doesn’t like the answers, there could be another change at the top for the Cavaliers.

Previewing the ’21 Tribe

This week is the week baseball fans have been looking forward to all winter. Opening Day of the 2021 season starts on Thursday, April 1st.

The Cleveland Indians have made the post-season in five of the last six seasons, and in 2019, when they didn’t, they still won 93 games.

Can they do it again in 2021?

Why they can make the playoffs. Zach Plesac joins Shane Bieber as a second ace of the starting rotation and the rest of the young pitchers keep the Indians in every game, much like last season. Logan Allen’s strong spring training translates into a solid regular season.

The back end of the bullpen, led by James Karinchak, Emmanuel Clase, and Nick Wittgren, make Terry Francona’s team unbeatable if they have a lead after six innings.

Offensively, Jose Ramirez has another incredible season at the plate, comparable to the recent seasons where he finished in the top three of the MVP voting. Josh Naylor fulfills the expectations everyone seems to have for him and becomes a guy who can put up an 800 OPS.

Andres Gimenez does a solid job at the plate, and shows why he was the correct choice to take over at shortstop because of his glove.

Eddie Rosario hits like he always has at Progressive Field, putting up 30 HR and knocking in 100 runs, and Franmil Reyes shows more consistency than ever, belting 35-40 homers.

Why they won’t make the playoffs. The inexperienced young starters don’t hold up over the entire 162 game schedule. Aaron Civale continues the struggles he had in the latter half of the 2020 campaign, and Triston McKenzie can only give the big club about 50 innings.

The offense simply can’t score enough runs to win games, and Jose Ramirez gets pitched around in any situation where the opposing team can avoid him.

The pitching isn’t help by poor outfield defense. Naylor shows he’s the best option at first base, as the other candidates for the position, first Jake Bauers, then Bobby Bradley struggle to contribute at the plate.

Reyes continues to be streaky at the plate, with periods where he is red hot, followed by several periods of 0 for 20 and 2 for 44 mixed in.

The bullpen is spotty, Karinchak struggles with his control enough that Terry Francona can’t trust him in tight games, which because of the hitting, the Indians are involved in a lot of.

And Gimenez struggles enough at the plate that Amed Rosario moves back there vs. lefties, making the defense struggle at another spot.

The Indians won’t be a bad team this season, in fact, we don’t think they will be below the .500 mark. However, an awful lot of things will need to go right for them to make the playoffs. The inexperienced rotation (remember, no one besides Bieber has pitched more than 250 innings in the big leagues) has to be very, very good.

That means two other members in the starting rotation (Plesac, Civale, or based on spring training, Logan Allen) have to be of all star caliber. And the bullpen has to be excellent as well, with Karinchak and Clase overpowering hitters.

We believe you need seven solid bats to have a good lineup, and right now, the Tribe has Ramirez, Eddie Rosario, Cesar Hernandez, and Franmil Reyes. We think Naylor can be another, but can two others step up?

It will be an interesting season for sure, as we watch Gimenez and Naylor develop, and also look at the progress of the players at the AAA and AA levels, once minor league action starts.

We figure somewhere in the neighborhood of 83-85 wins. They will be a competitive team, but won’t have enough to make the post-season in 2021

No Big Moves For Cavs, But A Change That Can Still Be Made.

There is one thing that is certain with the Cleveland Cavaliers. And that one thing is change. You can be pretty certain every season that the roster that opens the season will have major changes by the end of that year.

We understand why. The Cavs are far from a finished product, in year three of the second post-LeBron rebuild, and GM Koby Altman should be looking for assets to keep the franchise moving forward.

Cleveland already took part in the biggest trade of the season, the one sending James Harden to Brooklyn, which netted the wine and gold center Jarrett Allen, a major building block for the rebuild, and forward Taurean Prince. The only roster player Altman surrendered in the transaction was guard Dante Exum.

This year was relatively quiet at the deadline, with the Cavs dealing veteran big man JaVale McGee to Denver for a pair of second round draft picks and a young big man, Isaiah Hartenstein.

Hartenstein is a seven footer, a second round pick of the Houston Rockets in 2017. He’s played in the league for three years, appearing in 81 games, averaging 3.3 points and 2.7 rebounds per game.

He’s a project and can also play some power forward, something McGee really couldn’t do. And since he’s averaged just nine minutes per game in his time with the Rockets and Nuggets, he figures to get more time in Cleveland.

As for McGee, the franchise did right by the veteran. We will skeptical what kind of attitude he would come to town with, considering the Cavs’ rank in the league, and that he has played most of the latter part of his career with championship teams (Warriors and Lakers), but he took the veteran leadership role to heart and was a solid guy, by all reports, in the locker room.

The Nuggets have aspirations of getting to The Finals this year (they traded for Aaron Gordon from Orlando today as well), and getting a big man with McGee’s experience should help in that regard.

So, what do the Cavs do going forward? We would like to see playing time start to be based on merit rather than draft status.

It’s time for the organization to start bringing some mental toughness for the players. Yes, they are a very young squad, made even more so with today’s trade. The oldest guy who gets significant playing time is Larry Nance (28). The second oldest is Prince (26), who is currently injured, followed by Cedi Osman at 25.

There needs to start being accountability for the players. We understand fans want the team to lose and gain a higher pick in the NBA Draft, and maybe Altman feels the same way. And while the team might wind up getting a very talented player, you can’t have the other young players thinking losing is acceptable.

If a Lamar Stevens or a Brodric Thomas are giving Bickerstaff more than say, former first round pick, Dylan Windler, then play the former. This isn’t youth sports where everyone should get an equal chance. If you produce, you earn more playing time.

Ask Dean Wade. He took advantage of his opportunity even though some people, including us, thought he looked unplayable.

It’s called culture, and the Cavaliers franchise has been in a malaise since James departed for Los Angeles. The rest of this season should serve as the beginning of a change.