Browns Will Be Improved, But No Playoffs Yet

By all accounts, last year’s Cleveland Browns were a mess.

The team was sold pretty much right as training camp opened, which probably made the front office and coaching staff feel like lame ducks, which it turned out was entirely correct.

While GM Tom Heckert and coach Pat Shurmur continued to work hard at their jobs, in the back of their minds, they surely felt they would be looking for work after the season.

This year, new owner Jimmy Haslam and team president Joe Banner have their own people in place, making for more stability and confidence for both the personnel people and the coaching staff.

Since professional football is probably the sport where coaching makes the most difference, the new experienced coordinators will make first time head coach Rob Chudzinski seem more experienced. That will be critical this season.

Chudzinski and his staff have inherited a lot of talented, young players which should also make the growing pains less severe. In fact, we see a lot of improvement for the Browns both in terms of the players and the team’s record.

There is no reason we can see that this football can’t finish around the .500 mark, going anywhere from 7-9 to 9-7.

Why won’t this team lose 10 games for the sixth consecutive year?

Because the new offensive staff will put the players in position where they will succeed instead of making them adapt to a system to which they were ill-suited.

That is to say, Norv Turner will let Brandon Weeden throw the ball downfield and run more plays out of the shotgun formation, two of the things that made him a first round pick out of Oklahoma State.

He will stop running Trent Richardson between the tackles exclusively. Richardson ran an off tackle play against the Lions in the second preseason game and we almost fell out of a chair. Let linebackers and defensive backs try to bring down the former Alabama runner.

Chudzinski and Turner will also reap the benefit of several young players coming into their own as NFL players. WR Greg Little, TE Jordan Cameron, T Mitchell Schwartz should all be nearing the peak of their abilities.

Defensively, Banner and GM Mike Lombardi made getting after the opposing quarterback a priority, and defensive coordinator Ray Horton is just the man to implement the plan.

The Browns have quality and quantity on the defensive line, and mostly with young players too. Players like former first round pick Phil Taylor, Ahtyba Rubin, Billy Winn, John Hughes and outside linebackers Jabaal Sheard and Barkevious Mingo have the ability to make the other team’s passers very uncomfortable.

Gone are the days of the bend, but don’t break schemes the Browns have used for most of the past fifty seasons. Horton’s group may give up some big plays, but they will make more than they allow.

Some of the improvement will come from the coaching staff, but much more will come from just having the talented players drafted in the last few years come into their own. Of course, the coaches will take advantage of this.

You hate to make a judgment like this, but by the end of the year, we may be talking about how Shurmur may have been one of the worst head coaches in the NFL in recent years.

This year’s team should play an exciting brand of football, and one that will pay off in a few more victories too.

The first step to a playoff spot comes this season.

Browns’ Roster Shake Up No Big Deal

After the Cleveland Browns pared their roster to 53 players on Saturday night, coach Rob Chudzinski said it would be a “fluid situation”. Everyone figured there would be changes, especially because they had no place kicker on the team.

No one could see a major overhaul coming the following day, but Michael Lombardi and his staff claimed six free agents and let six of the so-called final 53 go.

There were howls from many Browns fans, several of them commenting that it was proof of the lack of talent on the squad, supporting their woe is me mentality (taken from former GM Phil Savage), and preparing themselves for another horrible season.

To us, it was no big deal.

This is not to say the Browns are going to go 11-5 and win the AFC North in 2013, but we do feel this team will be improved as the young talent accumulated in the past few years will continue to improve and a more experienced coaching staff will put the players in positions where they can succeed.

As for the roster shake up, it is not like any of the six players signed yesterday are coming in to start for Chudzinski’s team, but they were acquired to provide depth, something the Browns don’t have yet in several positions.

For instance, at running back, the injuries to Montario Hardesty and Dion Lewis caused Cleveland to have only Brandon Jackson, unimpressive in the preseason, to back up Trent Richardson.

So they went out and signed two backs who were similar to Lewis, a change of pace speed back, in Bobby Rainey (from Ravens) and Dennis Jackson (from Texans). They are on the roster to be third down backs and return kickoffs, both jobs that Lewis looked to be in position to handle.

They also swapped out tight ends, letting Kellen Davis and Brad Smelley go, and replacing them with MarQueis Gray (49ers) and Keavon Milton (Saints). The top two tight ends on the depth chart, Jordan Cameron and Gary Barnidge remain unchanged.

It shouldn’t be a huge deal to change the third and fourth tight ends on your roster.

They also exchanged LB L.J. Fort, who made the team as an undrafted free agent a year ago for rookie Brandon Magee, who was cut by the Cowboys, and signed C Patrick Lewis (Packers) and released two other offensive linemen who were undrafted free agents in Jerrod Shaw and Caylin Hauptmann.

While letting Fort go was a bit of a surprise, Lombardi just picked up Eric Martin from New Orleans as well, and the Browns felt Tank Carder was ahead of Fort.

Most of these changes were probably done with special teams implications in mind, as the coaching staff felt those units needed an upgrade. There is nothing wrong with that.

Neither is there anything wrong with trying to incrementally improving the football team. If you see a young player out there who is better than the young player you currently have, why not add them to the roster.

Again, it is not like the front office released a high draft choice to sign someone who was cut on Saturday.

And more changes are coming because the Browns still need to find someone to handle the kicking duties this Sunday against the Dolphins.

If Joe Banner, Michael Lombardi, and Chudzinski feel they can make the team better, even slightly, by picking up players cut by other teams, then why shouldn’t they.

After all, that’s their job.

Random Thoughts on Tribe

As the 2013 season seems to be going down the drain, here are some things we think about the Cleveland Indians.

While we aren’t ready to put a ribbon on this year because the Tribe still sits just 4-1/2 games out of the second wild card spot, despite a forgettable trip (at least so far) to Atlanta and Detroit, some things have happened in the last month that make us want to comment.

Even though he hasn’t won his last two starts because of the lack of hitting, Ubaldo Jimenez is making us change our minds about bringing him back to Cleveland. The two sides have a mutual option for ’14, and while most of the season it appeared it would be the Indians that wouldn’t want to pick it up, it may now be Jimenez that declines.

The right-hander made some mechanical adjustments recently and seems to have regained some life on his fastball. In his starts vs. the Twins and Braves, he routinely was hitting 94-96 MPH on the gun, a jump of 2-3 MPH.

Not coincidentally, he struck out 10 hitters in both games.

He’s having his best season since his 19-8 record in 2010 with Colorado, and with the price of pitching these days, if the Indians might be well served to pick up the option and add a year or two.

We wouldn’t go longer than three years because of the inconsistency that Jimenez has shown in his time in Cleveland, and that may not get it done. Still, if he finishes the year pitching like this, you have to try to bring him back.

Other interested find amongst this offensive slump is that Terry Francona may have found another relief pitcher in Carlos Carrasco.

As a starter, Carrasco seemed to over analyze things which caused him to think too much, and he looked like a victim of the “million dollar arm, ten-cent brain” syndrome.

On August 9th, Francona put him into a game against the Angels to save the bullpen and Carrasco threw five scoreless innings. He started against Minnesota five days later and was hit hard.

Since then, he’s been used strictly in relief and in three games has thrown 5-1/3 scoreless innings, even earning a win in the 14 inning victory vs. the Angels. Without the four days off in between starts and perhaps worrying about the results, Carrasco has thrived when he doesn’t know when he’s going to pitch.

He wouldn’t be the first successful relief pitcher to wash out as a starter.

With the hitters not coming through, the everyday players are getting a lot of criticism and the two free agents signed in the off-season, Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn are taking some heat.

Let us say this…giving a player big money doesn’t make them a better player.

We’ve discussed Swisher before. He is having an off-season, but in a normal year, he’s a .270 hitter who walks a lot, and hits 25 HR and knocks in 80-90 runs. Paying him a lot of cash isn’t going to make him a 35 HR, 120 RBI player.

The same is true with Bourn. He came here a great defensive centerfielder, but not a prototypical leadoff hitter in that his lifetime on base percentage was .336. He is down to .320 in 2013 because his walks are down (70 in ’12 and only 31 so far in ’13), but he’s not a Kenny Lofton type of leadoff man, getting on base close to 40% of the time.

Maybe he should change his approach a little because he strikes out a lot (a career high 155 times last year), and make more contact to take advantage of his speed, but he’s having a pretty typical Michael Bourn season.

You can’t be all over him for that.

All in all, it isn’t over yet for this year’s edition of the Indians, but it is starting to get late quickly.

Should Be Room for Browns, Tribe on Sports Talk

It is becoming a daily debate among Cleveland sports fans: Indians vs. Browns. It’s really stupid when you think about it, because it would be great if both teams, along with the Cavaliers were all good at the same time, something that hasn’t happened since 2007.

As a fan of all three teams, the Browns talk can be a little overwhelming. All the sports talk stations in town have to do to generate calls is mention any topic relating to the football team and the switchboard is lit up with calls to discuss the issue.

Just in the past week, there was discussion about whether or not fans should be allowed to bring bags/purses into FIrst Energy Stadium for Browns’ games, and the driving habits of two young wide receivers on the Browns.

And we aren’t talking about one segment for a show, these discussions lasted at least an hour.

All the while, the Indians were sitting in contention for a playoff spot, entering the weekend just 2-1/2 games out of a wild card spot.

We get it. Cleveland is a football town. However, it is hysterical to think of how anything football related is viewed through rose-colored glasses at this time of year.

Because the Browns started preseason with a 2-0 record, fans are talking about playoffs, even though the team hasn’t won more than five games in a season since 2007.

We get the optimism. Rob Chudzinski’s crew has some good young talent and a veteran coaching staff and looked to be poised for their best season in six years. Last night’s egg laid against the Indianapolis Colts should temper some of this enthusiasm.

We’ve had the same view for both the wins and the losses. They don’t count, so there is no need to be overly optimistic or pessimistic about the games.

After last night, we still have the same feeling about the 2013 Cleveland Browns. They will be improved, and a record somewhere between 7-9 and 9-7 is very obtainable.

On the other hand, the Indians have played almost 5/6th of their schedule and right now, every game they play has meaning. They have a legitimate shot at the post-season, depending on what web site you look at, they have around 25% chance of making it at this point in the season.

After today, they have perhaps the most critical nine game stretch since the ’07 playoffs with contests against Atlanta, Detroit, and Baltimore, one of their main rivals for the wild card.

If they come through those games still within three or four games of the playoffs, they will have as good a chance as any.

The problem is the over analysis of training camp and exhibition play by both Browns fans and sports talk show hosts as opposed to talking about what the Indians need to do in the regular season to make the post-season.

Browns’ fans get upset at the notion that their team would be upstaged by the Tribe. This is understandable, but really the Indians are held to a higher standard in this city.

Can you imagine the outrage if the Indians lost more than 100 games five years in a row? There would be calls for the Dolan’s to sell the team, get a new general manager and make wholesale changes to the roster.

The Browns have done just that, and although there has been some criticism, their fans talk about patience and the process of building a winning football team.

The next week and a half should be about the Tribe. Their chance to make the playoffs (imagine a Cleveland team playing in them!) probably rests with those nine games.

The Browns won’t start playing games that count until after that stretch is over.

Let’s put the debate on how the Browns’ punter will be and give the Indians their due during this stretch of games.

Tribe Bats Need to Pick It Up

The Cleveland Indians are entering a key part of their schedule starting tonight when the Twins come in for a three game series at Progressive Field.

Those are the only home games the Tribe will play until Labor Day, when the Orioles come in, and in between, the Indians visit Atlanta and Detroit for three game series, the teams with the best record in the National League and second best mark in the AL, respectively.

When the Orioles depart Cleveland on September 4^th, we should have a pretty good idea whether or not all 162 games on the schedule will be meaningful for Terry Francona’s squad.

To get through these dozen games, the Tribe will need to start scoring runs.

While the Wahoo’s have a 10-10 record for the month, they have done so scoring just 71 runs in that span, an average of 3.5 per night.

Teams that score that way on an everyday basis just don’t have a lot of success.

The White Sox are last in the American League in scoring, crossing the plate an average of 3.74 times per contest. They have the second worst record in the junior circuit at 52-74, and over the last 20 games, Cleveland isn’t even scoring at that level.

At some point, the bats have to wake up and starting tonight would be very nice.

Since the Tribe still ranks fourth in the league in runs scored at 4.60 per night, the law of averages says there should be a bushel of runs coming soon.

It would be very odd to score almost five times a game for the first 117 games and then only get 3.5 for the balance of the season.

Odd, but not impossible.

There are some encouraging signs, like Nick Swisher’s sudden power burst, hitting four bombs this month, his second best calendar month of 2013. He hit five in May.

Still, during August only three players are hitting over .250: Yan Gomes, Mike Aviles, and Ryan Raburn.

While Gomes has been getting more playing time as of late because he is hitting, you would have to say that none of this trio are regulars, meaning the guys who are playing on a day in, day out basis simply have to pick it up.

Some of the numbers are straight out ugly—

Lonnie Chisenhall: 6 for 44 (.136), 1 HR, 3 RBI
Asdrubal Cabrera: 12 for 66 (.182), 1 HR, 6 RBI and he had a decent trip
Carlos Santana: 14 for 71 (.197), 3 HR, 6 RBI
Michael Bourn: 18 for 82 (.220), 1 HR, 5 RBI, 5 SB with a whopping 25 strikeouts

And they aren’t taking walks like they did earlier in the season, either. Outside of Jason Kipnis (10), Swisher (9), and Santana (9), no one else on the roster has walked more than five times this month.

Even the usually reliable Michael Brantley is in a bit of a funk, hitting just .230 in August. He is easily the most consistent of the Tribe bats and he is struggling.

The Indians’ starting pitching has exceeded expectations for the most part, and although they have had some hiccups, it has been solid.

And even if that continues, the offense has to start producing more runs if the Tribe wants to stay in the race through Game 162.

It’s time for the bats to pick up their share of the load.