Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Today's roundup involves Jeopardy!

• The Indians dropped their third in a row yesterday, as the New York Stinking Yankees came from behind to beat them 3-2, behind a two-run homer by Curtis Granderson off probable soon-to-be-former Indian Jake Westbrook in the eighth. Westbrook pitched pretty well, giving up three runs in eight innings on four hits and two walks against five strikeouts, while pitching to a very powerful Yankee lineup. But he gave up two home runs, and that was his undoing.

• Shin-Soo Choo again showed why he's the best player on the Tribe. Not only did he hit an RBI double that temporarily put the Indians ahead 2-1, he threw out Granderson trying to stretch a single into a double. Replays showed Granderson should have been called safe, but still, it was a heck of a play by Choo, who fielded it off the wall and gunned it to second in one motion.

• The game drew 27,224 fans, which is the Indians' third-highest home attendance of the season. (The top two were the home opener and Nationals rookie Stephen Strasburg's second major league start.) That's due to two factors: One, the Yankees always draw well in Cleveland; and two, Alex Rodriguez is one home run away from his 600th. With Mr. Rod failing to go deep last night, we can expect another large crowd tonight. Too bad for the Indians' bottom line the Yankees are only in town for four games; the Tribe remains 30th out of 30 teams in home attendance.

• Westbrook's contract is up at the end of the season, and while he probably won't be all that expensive next year, given his injury history, it makes sense for the Tribe to flip him for prospects because they're not playing for anything this year. The trade deadline is this Saturday, so this might well have been his last start as an Indian. On the other hand, Westbrook seems like the kind of guy who might help a contender for the rest of the year and then come back to Cleveland. Who knows.

• Jhonny Peralta is also in the last year of his contract, and I don't see any reason not to get prospects for him too. No doubt Mark Shapiro will see what he can get for a lot of players, but off the top of my head, those two guys are the ones who seem most likely to go. Peralta's been kind of a disappointment the last couple of years, both with the bat and the glove, but he could help a contender who's got a hole in the infield, such as Colorado.

• The Cavaliers made a trade yesterday, sending Delonte West and Sebastian Telfair to the Timberwolves for guard Ramon Sessions, center Ryan Hollins and a second-round draft pick. West has been a starter before, and has done some nice things on the court, but he was highly inconsistent this past year — possibly due to his legal troubles — and I'm not very sorry to see him go. Telfair is just a throw-in; he never contributed to the Cavs in any meaningful way. The 24-year-old Sessions only averaged 8.2 points and 2.1 assists last year for the Wolves, but that's in just 21.1 minutes a game, and he had 20 points and 24 assists in one game. He's got an upside. Hollins, 25, will probably never be more than a backup center, which is fine. We'll need one. Anderson Varejao will probably be the starter, with Z and Shaq both gone.

• OK, a game show is not a sport, but this too cool not to mention: The "Jeopardy!" Clue Crew spent some time at the Cleveland Clinic at November, filming an entire category's worth of clues for the show. The Cleveland Clinic category will come up Friday. I DVR "Jeopardy!" and look forward to getting all the questions correct.

2 comments:

Jeff Brown said...

Mullett, the Cavs are in a tough spot for next season.

First of all, they didn't even have a draft pick in this year's draft, after trading them all away in other deals that, in the end, didn't amount to much.

Furthermore, they lost the King and several other players are peeling off as well, including Z and probably Shaq (not that I promote keeping him), Delonte West, and maybe a couple of others by the time the 2010-11 season rolls around.

To make matters worse, they can't seem to attract even mid-level free agents, most recently being spurned by Matt Barnes.

I'm lowering my over/under on wins next season to 22 (from 26 a couple of weeks ago).

Their big guys are Varajeo and Ryan Hollins? While I like Varajeo and he has his attributes, that frontcourt is going to be eaten alive!

And who is going to score for this team? The only proven scorers are Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison, and he's 34 years old and past his prime.

That's not enough, Steve, so hunker down for a few lean seasons as a Cavaliers fan.

lisa said...

HA!! I was right it is a four game series.

Mr. Choo will be gone in a couple of years...as soon as his contract is up...yet another all star player who was trained on the Indian farm team.

Steve, you know that guy on AM 1100who has a talk show that airs on my way home from work?...He is trying to organize a walk out from the fans on the days that the Miami Heat comes to town to play...I think that would be pretty cool if he could pull that off.

I agree with Jeff, that it will take a coule of years before the CAVS are a top contending team, but i would bet, out of all the professional sport teams in Cleveland, they will be the first to win any kind of title.