Friday, March 27, 2009

Lewis, Reyes earn spots

Real quick, because I don't have much time and I want to say something about this ...

I'm not a bit surprised that Anthony Reyes got a spot in the Indians' rotation. (On an interesting side note, it seems every time I try to type the word "spot," my fingers want to type "sport." Well, it's interesting to me, anyway.) Reyes, 27, proved himself last year, and deserves the shot. (Not the short.)

Scott Lewis pitched very well in four starts at the end of the year — after being called up to replace Reyes — but you had to think going into spring training that Aaron Laffey or Jeremy Sowers would find a way to claim that slot. (I don't know what a slort is, but I just typed it. I've psyched myself out a bit, I think.) But Lewis leads the club in strikeouts this spring, and he's earned his chance too.

Cliff Lee and Fausto Carmona both started badly this spring, but each has pitched well in his last start. Carl Pavano ... well, let's just hope he keeps his ERA under 5. But this is a pretty good-looking rotation.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Congratulations, Cleveland State (and some other thoughts)

The Cleveland State Vikings last night clinched their first NCAA Tournament berth since that magical run in 1986, by beating heavily favored Butler, 57-54. For those too young to remember, those '86 Vikings were a 14 seed and upset Bob Knight's Indiana squad in the first round, then made the Sweet Sixteen before falling to a Navy team led by future Hall of Famer David Robinson.

At 25-10 against a Horizon League schedule, this Cleveland State team will also be a low seed, but they'll ultimately be in the same situation as 63 other teams. Win six games, and you're the champs. And every game starts at zero-zero.

* The Cavaliers nearly laid an egg last night against in L.A. against a bad Clippers team. They trailed by 19 early in the fourth quarter. But Mo Williams' three-pointer with 6.6 seconds left capped a furious comeback that also included LeBron's fifth triple-double of the season, and put the Cavs ahead to stay. I'm guessing I'm like most of you in that I didn't stay up for the end (the game started at 10:30 our time), but I did see our guys' early struggles. They're going to have to play better than that to win a championship. Give them credit, though. It's not easy to make up 19 points in one quarter in the NBA, even against a team that came in 15-48.

* I don't know how many of you are following the World Baseball Classic, but I've found it very entertaining so far. The U.S. team (featuring new Indian Mark DeRosa) won a tough game against Canada and then blew out Venezuela to move into the next round. They've got a rematch against the Hugo Chavez boys tonight to determine seeding.

* I didn't see either of the Dutch team's upsets of the Dominicans, but that's got to rank right up there with Chaminade over Virginia or the Miracle on Ice in terms of sheer magnitude of the upset. And they did it twice! Dominicana (as it says on their uniforms) outplayed the Netherlands in every phase of the game except defense — and, of course, that's why they're done. They made costly errors in both games, and the Dutch boys capitalized. And that's why they play the games, ladies and gentlemen.

* If you play fantasy baseball in a keeper league, you can sympathize with this: A league I'm in has five keepers per year, so you've got to make some tough, tough choices. My five keepers are David Wright, Josh Hamilton, Tim Lincecum, Brandon Webb and Joe Nathan. That's a fine group, to be sure, and I'm happy to have them all. But I had to leave off Prince Fielder, who had a bit of a disappointing year in '08, but still hit 32 home runs and knocked in 102 runs, and is only 25; former Indian Ryan Ludwick, the steal of last year's draft, who hit 37 dingers for the Cardinals; Cole Hamels, who had bad luck with wins and losses but struck out 196 hitters and posted a 3.09 ERA for the champion Phillies; and Alfonso Soriano, who hit 29 homers and stole 19 bases last year. Not to mention Kerry Wood, the supposed savior of the Tribe's bullpen. But the league commissioner wouldn't let me keep more than five. It hurts a little, but I'll get over it.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Clinched!

Our Cavaliers last night became the first team to clinch a playoff spot in the NBA this year, about half an hour before the Celtics joined them in Clinchville. At 48-12, our guys wrapped up their fourth straight playoff berth with more than a month left in the season, and if they can hold off Boston (48-14) and the Lakers (49-12) for the league's best record, I predict they'll win it all. I know L.A. is the only team that's beaten the Cavs at home, but if we've got home-court for four of seven, I think we can take them, especially if they can get everybody healthy for the playoffs. As Terry Pluto pointed out in his column on Sunday, the Cavaliers are 26-4 in games started by the regular group, which is LeBron, Mo, Z, Big Ben and Delonte.

I've said before that this is the best team in franchise history, and they will soon prove me right by winning more regular-season games than any Cavaliers team has before. Their best regular-season record in history is 57-25, which the Price-Daugherty-Nance Cavs did in 1988-89 and again in 1991-92. This bunch will have to go at least 10-12 the rest of the season to top that, which is about as close to a foregone conclusion as you can get at this point in the year. This team is playing extremely well right now.