On Corey Kluber

Anybody who thinks Corey Kluber isn't the pitcher he was last year should have watched tonight's game against the Twins. The dude pitched a complete-game one-hitter on just 98 pitches, striking out seven. The one hit was a home run, so no shutout, but yeesh, that dude is really something. I would even go so far as to say I think he's the best Indians pitcher I've had the pleasure to watch. And he didn't even make the All-Star Game this year. Tut, tut.

In case you're wondering, the best Indians hitter I've seen in my 44 years on this planet was, without question, Manny Ramirez. No, he wasn't the best all-around player, but he was the best pure hitter.

But speaking of offense, the Tribe entered tonight's game having scored 461 runs in 114 games. That includes their recent offensive explosion, upon which I'm about to expand, but in any case, that's an average of 4.04 runs per game on the season. They've routinely had runners on base and been unable to score any of them; every Tribe fan knows all about that. But here's the Indians' runs scored over the last seven games: 9, 17, 8, 5, 2, 6, 6. That's an average of 7.57 runs per game. Obviously that 17-run outburst against the Twins a few days ago is an extreme aberration and skews that number upwards; nonetheless, the Indians have scored at least six runs in five of their last seven games.

That'll play, folks. That'll play.

And one other thing. There's a good deal of rambling in this post, and I've decided that's probably my new style. I hope you "enjoy" it.

(Putting "enjoy" in quotes is a reference to George Harrison and Monty Python. Google it if you don't believe me.)

ADDENDUM: My cursory Googling indicates Google doesn't help with that particular episode. Sorry to have misled you. But I'm not going to tell you the backstory, because I don't remember enough details even to fake it.

Indians' dominance?

As long as I'm posting to this blog, I might as well share with you an email exchange I just had with my friend Jeff Brown. (I'm pretty sure Jeff won't mind.) I emailed him this morning under the heading "Indians are actually the best team in the AL Central."

Me: Check this out:

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/standings/

According to this page, the Indians have actually played like the best team in the American League Central this year. They've just been deeply unfortunate. According to what the nice folks at Baseball Prospectus call "3rd Order Winning Percentage," no team in the division has had better underlying statistics than our Tribe. Bad luck has shortchanged them out of 11 wins this season (rounding off).

It's apparently some sort of proprietary formula, but this is how BP defines the stat:

3rd Order Winning Percentage: A team's projected winning percentage, based on underlying statistics and adjusted for quality of opponents.

Of course, none of this helps them in the standings. But still, I thought it was interesting.


Jeff:  This is fascinating stuff!

It looks like the Indians get the second-highest adjusted win total (10.6 more wins) in MLB... second only to the Oakland Billy Beane's with 11.7.

Oakland would be 63-52 if third order winning percentage was the law, instead of their actual record of 51-64.

I guess it kind of makes sense for the Tribe, which has gotten numerous stellar pitching performances but lost the game because they couldn't hit the damned ball!

On the other side of the coin, it appears that the Minnesota Twins are actually much worse than their record of 57-56 shows.  Their third order winning percentage would place them at 48-65 with their league-leading 9.4 adjustment downward.

Of course, this is just one way of looking at things and although very interesting, it doesn't meet the eye test because it indicates that the Indians ought to be 64-48 and the Royals ought to be three games back at 61-51, and everyone in the Milky Way Galaxy knows that the Royals are a better team this year than the Tribe.

What do you think?

Me: Oh, come on. There are lots of folks on Rigel 7 who have no idea how good the Royals are.

But seriously, are the Royals truly better? Based on end results, it would appear so, and that's really all that matters. But the fact that it seems obvious that the Royals are better, doesn't make it so. It used to be obvious to everyone that swinging too hard was a bad strategy, that you might hit a few balls out of the park but that would be more than offset by the number of fly balls that would find their way into outfielders' gloves. Then Babe Ruth came along. ... It used to be obvious to everyone that a walk was purely the pitcher's fault, that the hitter basically just got lucky. Then Bill James came along. ... It used to be obvious to everyone that we were all better off if black and white people were kept separate from each other. Then Martin Luther King Jr. came along. ... So what I'm saying is, if you think the Royals are better than the Indians, you're a racist.

Just kidding. The Royals may truly be a better overall team than the Indians, but this chart throws that belief into question, at least for me.

* * *

Jeff hasn't replied to that yet, and I'm assuming that's because he sees my point and agrees with me.

Incidentally, I have since researched the star Rigel, which it turns out is part of the Orion constellation, and there is no evidence it has any planets, much less inhabited ones. But Rigel 7 (or Rigel VII) has often been the setting of much alien-related fiction, as you can discover more information about here.

OK, Fukudome ...

I've been mulling this over all day. Do I like the trade for Kosuke Fukudome? Initially, I didn't like it at all. Here's a 34-year-old outfielder who may only be needed for a couple of weeks, before Grady Sizemore and Shin-Soo Choo come back. Sure, he's a slight upgrade over the likes of Austin Kearns and Jason Buck, and it reduces the likelihood that we'll ever again see the disaster that was Luis Valbuena in left field, but was he worth the two prospects we gave up for him?

But the more I think about it, the more I think this was not such a bad idea. Fukudome is hitting .273 with not much power this year, but he does at least draw a lot of walks. And the first step to scoring runs is getting on base. The Indians are on the hook for less than $1 million of his contract, so it's not like this is going to make it hard to get another deal done. And let's face it, a contending team doesn't come easy in Cleveland these days. We've got one right now. The Indians are only 52-50, but that's good enough for second place. If a guy like Fukudome can help us hang in there until we get some more healthy bodies back, we should probably take that opportunity.

And the prospects we gave up, Carlton Smith and Abner Abreu, are really nothing special. Smith is 25 and has a 4.50 ERA out of the bullpen in Columbus this year. He'll probably reach the majors soon, but he's not going to become a Chris Perez or anything. Abreu is only 21 and has some tools, from what I've heard, but is hitting just .244 in A-ball this year. He might turn into a legitimate player, but I wouldn't put any money on it.

So yeah, I like this trade. It doesn't knock my socks off, but hey, there's still about 50 hours left before the trade deadline. Maybe Chris Antonelli can pull off something bigger yet.

Chisenhall gives reason for excitement

When a team is having a devil of a time scoring runs, as the Indians have lately (they just got swept by the Giants in a series in which their pitchers gave up less than three earned runs per game), and that team is in contention for a playoff spot, as the Indians are, it's time to start looking for other options. One of the chief offenders in the Tribe's lineup has been third baseman Jack Hannahan, who got off to a decent start at the plate but has been ice-cold since then. Hannahan's numbers: .214 batting, .304 on-base, .333 slugging. He's played strong defense all year, but you can't carry a bat like that in your lineup no matter what he's doing with the glove.

Enter Lonnie Chisenhall. There was talk of Chisenhall making the team out of spring training, but the front office decided to give him some more time in Columbus to develop. And his numbers with the Clippers have been decent, but nothing to sing about: .265/.352/.427. But even if you adjust those numbers for major-league-caliber pitching, it's going to be better than Hannahan. And he's been super-hot lately. In his last four games before being called up yesterday, Chisenhall went 7-for-17 with two home runs, a triple, and 13 RBIs. In Hannahan's last four games, he'd gone 1-for-14 with that one hit being a single. So why not give Chisenhall a try?

He's now played in exactly one major-league game, last night's 5-4 victory over Arizona, but the Indians probably would not have won that game without Chisenhall. He had two hits, an RBI single and a double. Maybe he'll provide an instant jolt to the offense. He's only 22 years old, so I think we can logically assume the best is yet to come. Whether he helps much this year or not, the kid's future looks pretty bright.

What's up with Fausto?

I've decided to try to make at least a quick post every day or two, rather than let the blog accumulate tumbleweeds for a couple of weeks. Today's topic is Fausto Carmona, who once finished in the top five in the Cy Young voting but has been just flat-out terrible this year.

Yesterday, Fausto appeared to have righted himself at least temporarily. He gave up a run on three hits in the first inning, then faced the minimum in the second and third innings, and got the first two hitters of the fourth. What happened to him then, I have no idea. By the time Manny Acta went out to get Fausto, he had allowed seven straight baserunners, and the Rockies had scored six runs, capped by Jason Giambi's three-run homer.

It was the fourth time Fausto has allowed at least seven runs in a start this year. Can you guess how many major league pitchers have done that four times in 2011? If you guessed one, you're right. Fausto is it.

Fausto now stands at 4-9, with his ERA at a positively hideous 6.17. He hasn't allowed fewer than four runs in any of his last eight starts, during which stretch his ERA is 8.87. I suspect there's something wrong with Fausto, and it's not a problem with his arm. I'm guessing he's lost his confidence. He'd better get it back if he wants to stay in the rotation. For all their recent struggles, the Indians are still contenders, and they can't afford to keep sending someone out there who can't do any better than that.

Indians struggling, but don't panic

The Indians won last night. That's the good news. Carlos Carrasco and three relievers (particularly Chris Perez) handcuffed a strong Yankees lineup, shutting them out. But of course, the Tribe is still just 5-14 since starting the season 30-15. And it was just their second victory in the last 11 games, and both of those were 1-0 games started by Carrasco. Obviously, Carrasco's recent performance is highly encouraging. The fact that the Indians suddenly can't seem to score any runs, on the other hand, is highly discouraging. They've scored just 22 runs in those 11 games, being shut out three times over that stretch.

But does this mean the Indians are a truly terrible team that somehow managed to get off to a hot start? That seems unlikely. They played like the best team in baseball for a month and a half. When a team plays like the best team in baseball for a week or two, it's often a fluke. But a month and a half?

As we all know, the Tigers have managed to virtually tie the Tribe for first place thanks to this cold snap. And that's who we're playing in a three-game series that starts tonight in Detroit. A mid-June series is never crucial, but this is about as important a series as there can be at this point in the season. If the Indians go in and win this series, it could turn their season around, at least temporarily. But if they leave Detroit in second place, they could continue sliding until they fall into third place or worse.

On the other hand, it's only three games. They could go get swept by the Tigers and then win 12 in a row. This is baseball. You just never know.

Still, it sure would be nice to win two or three games up there this week.

Quick thoughts

* The Indians had a bit of a rough stretch there, but they've won two in a row to regain the best record in the majors. A certain Of Fair Hooker reader who has been constantly beating the drum of negativity about the Indians (who goes by the name of Jeff Brown) emailed me the other day to opine that the Tribe will soon go the way of the Royals, who are now 5-13 since starting the season 20-17. First of all, the Indians' record is a lot better than 20-17, and second of all, they're pretty obviously better than the Royals. The Indians are now on pace to win 101 games. I don't think they'll actually win that many, but it probably won't take 90 to win the Central. I will be surprised if Detroit overtakes us, and shocked if Chicago does. Kansas City and Minnesota are all but eliminated right now.

* Jim Tressel has left the Ohio State football program in disgrace after committing the unpardonable sin of allowing his players to participate in capitalism. ... Don't get me wrong, Tressel should have known better, and signs are starting to point to the fact that this has been going on for years right under his nose, and he has been running a pretty corrupt program (at least in terms of the NCAA rules). But at least he won a national title. That's better than cheating and NOT winning a national title.

* Shaquille O'Neal, who spent the 2009-10 season in Cleveland, has announced his retirement. Shaq was at one time the NBA's most dominant player, and has to go down in history as one of the five best centers ever. And he's one heck of a character. Here's what he said about coming to Cleveland: "I came here with the perfect chemist's perception. The formula they had was perfect and any added ingredient could make it go bad or worse." ... Well, obviously the added ingredient that made it go bad wasn't Shaq, it was LeBron James losing his desire to win in Cleveland. Odd that he seems to have found it again in Miami. But that's a separate issue.

* I really don't want the Heat to win the championship. That's a given. If you're reading this, you probably don't either. But you know what? If Miami sweeps the Mavericks and hoists the trophy the evening of June 7, the sun will still rise on June 8. Not only that, the Cavaliers will still exist, and will still have the first and fourth picks in the upcoming NBA draft. They'll be one of 29 teams trying to knock off the champion. Whether that's the Mavericks or the Heat is not especially material.

Asdrubal turns in a wower

This is kind of a side story, especially because the Indians lost last night and Fausto Carmona can't seem to get any White Sox out to save his life, but did you see that freaking play Asdrubal Cabrera made last night? If you saw it, you know what play I'm talking about. Our old friend Omar Vizquel hit a line drive up the middle that Indians reliever Joe Smith managed to get a glove on, but only enough to deflect it a little. Cabrera, who was heading toward the middle from his shortstop position to try to make a play on the ball, had to change course and go back toward third. He got it with his bare hand, then looked toward Adam Everett covering second, and flipped it behind his back from about 15 feet away to start one of the most spectacular double plays I've ever seen.

It was the obvious choice for top play of the day on SportsCenter, right? Nope. They chose a Kevin Durant dunk, and put Cabrera's play No. 2. No disrespect to Durant; it was a fine dunk with a hand in his face. But come on.

If you want to watch Cabrera's play, click here. But you'll see it again. It might be the play of the year in the major leagues.

So how good are these Indians really?

The Indians have reached the season's quarter pole, and if you had them winning nearly two-thirds of their games in the first quarter of the season, you could have won a lot of money in Vegas. At 26-14, the Tribe has a five-game lead on Detroit in the AL Central, a 2 1/2-game lead on Tampa Bay for the American League's best record, and a one-game lead on Philadelphia for the best record in the bigs.

So what do the Internet experts think? There are three lists I check regularly. The most recent edition of ESPN's power rankings has the Tribe second, behind the Phillies. This despite Philadelphia's inferior record in the inferior league; this is presumably because of the Phillies' vaunted four-ace pitching rotation. Objectively, it's hard to think the Tribe can compete with a team that has Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels each starting every five days. But the results are what they are, and our boys have done better so far. ... I would also like to mention that the same poll had the Indians dead last in the first poll of the season. That's how surprising their fast start is.

There are two sites that use computer simulations to predict how the rest of the season will go. There's coolstandings, which predicts the Indians will finish 102-60, and gives them an 85.4% chance to make the playoffs, with a simulation that uses a fairly blunt instrument, team runs scored and team runs allowed so far. (The Indians excel in both categories, outscoring their opponents 207 to 145.) And then there's the Baseball Prospectus odds page, whose simulation is based on predictions about how individual players can be expected to perform the rest of the season. They've got the Indians finishing 83-79, with about a 32.5% chance of reaching the postseason. Amazing how two sophisticated computer simulations can have such wide differences.

Where does the truth lie? I suspect it's somewhere in between. I'd say a 90-win season is pretty realistic. That would only require the Indians to play slightly over .500 the rest of the way. At this point, I wouldn't be all that surprised to see them win about 95 games, which would almost certainly be good enough to keep them playing in October. I'm not going to lie, I'm excited.

A few random thoughts

* Sure, it was a little disappointing that the Indians lost the series at home against the Rays, after taking the first game. But the Rays are the hottest team in baseball right now, and the Tribe still has the best record in the American League. And Justin Masterson wasn't going to go undefeated all year.

* The Tribesmen were 20-8 after winning in Oakland on May 3. Since then, they're 3-5. Is this a temporary cold stretch, or what we can expect from this team the rest of the way? Only time will tell, but I'm optimistic they can turn it around.

* The just-as-surprising-as-the-Indians Kansas City Royals are in second place, at 20-17, after having just taken two of three from the Yankees in the Bronx. Partially fueling that series win was brand-new uber-prospect call-up Eric Hosmer, who homered in each of the two games the Royals won. By calling up Hosmer when they did, the Royals were signalling that they think they can contend this year, because they started the clock on his free agency. The Tigers are only half a game behind the Royals, and if the White Sox and Twins ever right themselves, this could be a very interesting race.

* In less interesting news, either Carlos Boozer or LeBron James will be playing in the NBA Finals this year. Had they both so chosen, they could have been leading the Cavaliers to a title right now. Instead, Boozer's Bulls and James' Heat will play for the Eastern Conference championship. Sigh.

* Jim Tressel just hired a lawyer to represent him before the NCAA Infractions Committee, and it's one heck of a lawyer for this situation: Gene Marsh is the former chairman of that very same committee. Before Tressel had hired him, Marsh said Tressel had a chance to get off relatively lightly because of his positive track record and the fact that the infraction wasn't as serious as some. I hope he's right, because that Tressel is one heck of a coach, and I'd hate to lose him.

Isn't baseball a funny game?

When Rays manager Joe Maddon summoned Kyle Farnsworth from the bullpen in the bottom of the ninth inning of a tie game last night with nobody out and the bases loaded, he probably figured it wasn't likely that Farnsworth would get out of the jam, but at least he would make the Indians earn it by getting the bat on the ball. After all, Farnsworth had yet to walk a batter all year. Surely he could put it in the strike zone with the game on the line.

Farnsworth got Orlando Cabrera to ground into a fielder's choice, putting him within a double play of sending the game to extras. And then he got ahead of Michael Brantley 0-2. Rays fans must have felt like things were going their way. But then he missed the zone four times, Brantley went to first, and Carlos Santana pranced down the third base line to end the game.

The old walk-off walk. You see it about 10 or 15 times a season around the majors. You'd think any major league pitcher worth his salt would be able to avoid walking a guy with the bases loaded to end the game, but apparently even a guy like Farnsworth who almost never walks anybody can lose the strike zone sometimes. On the same evening, in Miami, the Phillies' Roy Halladay -- arguably the best pitcher in the game -- lost in part because he walked Marlins pitcher Josh Johnson. It was the first time in Halladay's career that he'd walked a pitcher. Johnson would come around to score the first run of a 2-1 Florida victory. I guess no matter how good a pitcher's control usually is, he's bound to lose it once in a while. Throwing a baseball in that small area, while making it hard to hit, is not an easy task.

The win was the Indians' 14th in a row at Progressive Field, giving them their best home start in the team's 111-year history. At 23-11, the Tribe has baseball's best record. And I'm starting to think they really are this good.

Falling in love with these 2011 Cleveland Indians

In the afterglow of the Indians' second straight walk-off win and 12th straight win at Progressive Field, I find myself starting to wonder if this team is really this good. And you know what? I think that maybe, just maybe, they really are.

How can this be? A team that started the season expected to finish fourth in a fairly weak American League Central Division has set a team record for wins in the month of April, with 18 against just eight losses. Many of us thought when they lost three straight last week that they had started their downward slide into mediocrity, but they've followed that up with five straight wins.

How have they done it? In a word: Defense. These Indians played a phenomenal defensive game tonight. Jack Hannahan, Austin Kearns, Michael Brantley and Orlando Cabrera are among the Indians who made particularly fine plays tonight. Lou Marson threw out a runner at second base. Carlos Santana started a fine double play from first base. Even Shin-Soo Choo almost threw somebody out at second, from right field. (I know, horseshoes and hand grenades, but still.) I think this is the best defensive team I can remember the Indians ever having.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fine performance turned in by Alex White, who went six innings in his major league debut, giving up just the two runs, both on solo homers. And let's not forget the Tribe bullpen, which shut the Tigers out for seven innings to give the offense a chance to win it.

For the second straight series, the Indians have turned back the team that started the series in second place in the division. The Royals have bounced back with two straight wins against the Twins, and have returned to second place, 4 1/2 games behind our Tribe. That's a pretty good-sized lead heading into May, though of course there's still a long way to go. But if we keep seeing this kind of defense, anything can happen.

I'm starting to love these 2011 Cleveland Indians. I don't know yet if they really are this good. But they're sure fun to watch right now.

Is this actually happening?

OK, the season is only a tenth of the way through. Still, the Indians have played as many games as the Browns play in a full season, and you'd be thrilled like crazy if the Browns finished 12-4 this year.

I don't get much time to watch Tribe games these days, but I did watch the last few innings of last night's game. What I saw was a team that plays smart and provides strong defense.

Michael Brantley made a great catch out in left field that saved a one-out double or better off the bat of Alcides Escobar in the bottom of the ninth, with the score tied at 3. On a potential double-play ball to first, Matt LaPorta made a bad throw that Asdrubal Cabrera fielded on a hop and failed to keep his foot on the base before throwing to first, but the runner, Billy Butler, assumed he was out, and Cabrera alertly and quietly called for the ball back in time to tag Butler out. I can't say I've ever seen that before.

And when the Royals' defense gave the Indians a break in the top of the tenth, our boys took full advantage of it. The Indians' first run came unaided by the defense (Shelley Duncan smoked a double to left to knock in Carlos Santana, who had drawn a leadoff walk), but after that, it was thanks to a gift by Escobar on a bad throw that would have ended the inning with a double play that opened the door for more scoring. Adam Everett scored on that play, and then Jack Hannahan and Grady Sizemore followed that up with back-to-back RBI hits. And what would have been a razor-thin one-run lead going into the bottom of the tenth became a nice four-run cushion.

And by the way, how awesome is it to have Grady back? He homered in his first game back on Sunday, and went three-for-five in last night's win. When healthy, he's been one of baseball's best center fielders, and he appears to have immediately returned to that form.

Have I suddenly reached the conclusion that these Indians are contenders? No, don't be silly. They're probably just on a hot streak. There are still 146 games to play.

But I'll tell you what, they've sure been fun to watch so far.

What to make of Tribe's hot start?

OK, so the Indians aren't going to go 160-2 or 159-3. Dan Haren blanked them on one hit Tuesday night, and the Angels managed a victory in the rubber match of the series last night on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 12th that would not have scored the run if it had been hit about 10 feet shallower.

Still, the Indians are off to a pretty darn good start. The obvious question is, is this really how good this team is? Or are they just on a hot streak? I received this email from Jeff Brown three days ago, when the Tribe was 7-2:

As I have reported previously, the Tribe has had many fast starts over the past 25 seasons which have been a "flash in the pan" -- they ended up being a big loser by the end of the season.

That's what's happening again this season -- an impressive 7-2 start will, before, long, fade into the woodwork and they will become big losers once again.

Mark my words, Steve -- the 2011 Tribe will finish 15-20 games under .500!

Well, I don't know about all that. Do I think these Indians are a playoff team? Probably not. But if you think they were fundamentally a 15-under-.500 team at the start of the season, then you must revise your expectations based solely on the fact that they're four games over .500 right now.

This morning, I had this from Jeff:

Once again, as in the past, the Tribe zoomed out to a fast start at 8-2, however their precipitous decline has already begun.

They've lost two in a row to fall to 8-4, and just watch, Steve -- they are on a race to the bottom, and it's only a matter of time until they are in last place again.

They stink Steve, and no smoke and mirrors are going to cover up that fact over 162 games.

I anticipate they'll be in last place in their division no later than May 29, and as I have stated, they'll finish the year 15-20 games under .500.

Are you with me on this one?

Well, no. Jeez, talk about reading too much into two games. We're talking about two losses by a total of three runs. And to predict they'll finish last is to predict not only that they'll finish behind the Twins and White Sox (which is pretty likely), and the Tigers (which is about 50-50), but the Royals. Come on, Jeff! You think the Kansas City Royals are going to finish ahead of us this year? Have you looked at their "talent"?

In any case, to fully examine whether the Indians are for real, you have to take a look at the reasons for their hot start. The starting rotation has been really, really good. Fausto Carmona laid an egg on Opening Day, but he's gotten his ERA down from over 10 to 6.11 since then, with two strong outings. He's the only starter without a win now. Carlos Carrasco has been serviceable, and the other three starters -- Justin Masterson, Mitch Talbot and Josh Tomlin -- all have ERAs under 3, after two starts each. Can they keep this up? ... Well, probably not. These are all young pitchers who have not tasted this type of success in the bigs before, and they will get banged around from time to time. But I don't think it's unrealistic to expect any or all of them to finish with ERAs around 4, and 12-15 wins. Fausto has been a 19-game winner before, and could do it again. I would expect that Carrasco will finish with an ERA around 5 (it's currently 5.03). If all that happens, this will be one of the AL's better rotations.

They're helped by a solid defense behind them, strengthened by the off-season additions of Orlando Cabrera and Jack Hannahan. Asdrubal Cabrera -- who unexpectedly leads the team with four home runs and 10 RBIs -- is a solid glove man at short too. And this team is going to have to win with pitching and defense, because they're not going to keep up the offensive numbers they've posted. Asdrubal is no power hitter. I've heard talk about how he's changed his approach at the plate, and bravo for him, but he's currently on pace to hit 54 home runs. You're not going to convince me that the guy who hit three dingers all last season is suddenly a primo power guy unless he proves it to me. And I don't see that happening.

Anyway, the Tribe's fast start is encouraging. When the season started, I felt I'd have been happy with about a 76-86 record. I felt that was a realistic goal. Now? I think .500 is a possibility. It's going to require people to stay healthy and play well all year, but it could happen. Sorry, Jeff. I think you're wrong.

Mixed day in Buckeye-land

As the Ohio State hoopsters prepare to start their expected deep NCAA Tournament run this afternoon, the football team suffers another setback as the five-game suspensions of the five players involved in Tattoogate are upheld by the NCAA, and Jim Tressel volunteers to sit out the same five games as punishment for knowing about their transgressions and not reporting them.

I've already expressed in this space what I think about the rule that ensnared the players, which is basically that they didn't hurt anybody, so what's the big deal. But the rules are in place, and Jim Tressel, who is supposed to be this great integrity guy, knows what they are, or at the very least SHOULD know what they are. On the one hand, I find it hard to fault him for not wanting his players to be punished for not hurting anyone; on the other hand, he knows darn well he and they are all subject to NCAA rules.

Of course, his volunteering to sit out five games doesn't mean he'll serve a five-game suspension and then show up for the Nebraska game in week six. The NCAA is still investigating, and could make his punishment more severe. All this over a few tattoos and trinkets. Crazy.

In other doings:

* The basketball Buckeyes haven't broken any NCAA rules lately, so long as anyone's aware, and are about three hours from starting play as the top overall seed in the Big Dance, against 16-seed Texas-San Antonio. They will of course cruise through this first-round matchup; the next 16 seed that beats a 1 will be the first ever, and these Buckeyes aren't going to lose to some pipsqueak upstart in their home state. That said, there are some potholes waiting for them in the later rounds. Likely opponents within the East Regional include Kentucky, Syracuse and North Carolina, all of which have won national titles in the last 15 years (albeit with different players than they currently have).

* Akron, the college I'm currently attending, is almost certainly about to be eliminated by Notre Dame, but it's nice to see a Northeast Ohio school in the tourney. It looked earlier in the season like Cleveland State might be the real deal, but they foundered right around the time I transferred from Cleveland State to Akron. Hmmm ... (By the way, don't ask me to name any players on either team. I don't want to embarrass you.)

* The Cavaliers won Wednesday night in Sacramento. That's the good news. Hey, there's been precious little of that for this team this year, so we might as well savor it. ... But the bad news is, they followed that up with a never-competitive, absolutely shameful 41-point loss in Portland. They were losing at various points by scores of 24-2, 35-6, 56-18, 74-33 ... you get the idea. It was only because the last three-eighths of the game were considered garbage time that the Blazers didn't double our score for the game. Had they kept their proverbial foot on our throat, it would have been even uglier. This is one of the worst teams in Cavaliers history, and that's not a small feat.

* The Indians' regular season starts in exactly two weeks, and while there's little reason to think they will contend this season, there are reasons to watch. I'm particularly excited about young catcher Carlos Santana, who was just mentioned on ESPN's SweetSpot blog as a potential breakout player for 2011. Some things I didn't know before I read that: Santana walked more than he struck out last year, between Columbus and Cleveland; and his combined AAA-MLB on-base percentage was .529. That's right, .529! Do you have any idea how good that is? Well, I'll tell you. The only players ever to post better OBPs over a full major-league season are named Babe Ruth, Ted Williams and Barry Bonds. Obviously Santana's feat is not in the same league as theirs (both literally and figuratively), but still, this is a special player. And he's not a corner outfielder, as all three of those men were. He's a catcher! A catcher who can get on base with great regularity is a rare find indeed. Joe Mauer's about the only one I can think of, among current major leaguers, and even Mauer doesn't walk that much.

If only the Cavs could play the Knicks 82 times

I don't have time to blog much these days(1), obviously(2), but I'm home alone on a Saturday night(3), and my fingers still work(4), so here goes:

* The Cavaliers have now broken two 26-game losing streaks in the past month: A 26-game overall losing streak, and now a 26-game road losing streak. And somehow, the over-.500 New York Knicks cannot beat the NBA's worst team, even in their own building. How is this possible? As a Cleveland sports blogger, I should probably try to come up with an answer, but I don't have one. The Knicks have no obvious weaknesses that the Cavs seem particularly suited to exploiting. I'm inclined to think it's just a coincidence that the Fighting Byrons have played three of their best games of the year against the Knicks. But if our boys beat them again on April 3 ... well, it'll probably be another coincidence.

* In a somewhat related note, the Cavs are now 1-0 with Baron Davis on the floor. My friend Jeff Brown(5) had his doubts about the Baron's dedication when we acquired him, as evidenced by this e-mail from March 2:

So here are a series of questions relative to our beloved Cleveland Cavaliers, in reverse order of relevance:

Q: Will Baron Davis thrive with the Cavs, sign an extension, show leadership, play hard, and be a model citizen and role model for the other players?

Q: Will Baron Davis play out his remaining 2 1/2 years of contract with the Cavs?

Q: Will Baron Davis play at all the rest of this season?

Q: Will Baron Davis ever wear a Cavaliers uniform?

Q: Does Baron Davis really have an injury that's preventing him from playing right now?

Q: Has Baron Davis even arrived in Cleveland yet?

Q: Does Baron Davis have any intention whatsoever of playing for the Cavs?

Q: Has Baron Davis earned enough money in his career to simply tell the Cavs to shove it?

Q: Did Baron Davis get the shaft by being traded from glitzy Los Angeles, where he was having fun throwing alley oops to phenom Blake Griffin, and sent to the basketball purgatory of Cleveland, Ohio, the "mistake on the lake?"

Q: Was Baron Davis the most unhappy person in the universe on the day he found out he was traded to the team that set an all-time NBA record for most consecutive losses? (and recently found out their best player, Jamison, is out for the remainder of the season)

Do you have answers to any of my questions, Steve?

Then, today, he sent me this:

OK, Steve, maybe Baron Davis is going to a positive influence on the Cadavers after all.

(he hit a big 3 pointer to put the Cavs up)

The Cavs own the Knicks, Steve!

I have nothing to add to that.

* The Buckeyes clinched the Big Ten regular-season title today, despite not having played. Iowa somehow beat Purdue today. What does this mean in the grand scheme of things? Very little. The Buckeyes are the top seed in the Big Ten tournament. Big whoop. We all know OSU is going to get a #1 seed in the Big(6) Dance, unless they lose two or three more games, and does anyone really care what happens until then?

* Jason Donald got hit by a pitch today. That was the lead on the Associated Press' story about their 8-3 spring training win over the White Sox(7). That should give you some idea how much spring training games matter. Still, I'm pretty excited about the season starting. Yeah, the Indians are probably going to be lucky to finish about 75-87, but still, it's baseball. And no matter how badly the real-life Indians suck, I can always watch Major League(8) again.

Footnotes(n):

1. I've mentioned several times in this space how busy I am, but for any strangers who may have wandered onto this site, I am currently enrolled in a civil engineering curriculum at the University of Akron, in addition to working part-time at my dad's construction company and being married with four kids at home. I am quite pleased with this situation, regardless of the resulting posting frequency.

2. I haven't posted since February 24. That's a total of nine days. Please see footnote 1 if you think I should post more often.

3. My wife has taken our three 12-and-under kids to her cousin's in Pennsylvania for the weekend. I had to stay home to practice evaluating integrals so I can pass a calculus exam on Tuesday. The oldest "child" (at 17) has gone to a friend's house for the night. So out of six residents of our house, I'm the only one here. I should throw myself a one-person party.

4. I guess this one doesn't really need a footnote. I haven't broken my fingers or gotten terrible arthritis or anything, but that probably is taken as a given unless I say otherwise. Kind of silly to have even mentioned it in the first place.

5. Jeff has become fascinated with the Cavaliers' overwhelming crappiness this year, and has emailed me after almost every Cavs game since the Great Losing Steak of '10-11 was in its middle stages. I haven't had time to respond to him(1), but I do appreciate them all.

6. That's my fourth capitalized use of the word "big" in one paragraph, but I think they're all appropriate, and I'm not changing any of them.

7. They didn't put it in those words. It was somewhat prosaic, actually. I should probably provide a link to it. ... Nah. You can find it if you want.

8. I'll bet you want me to say something about Charlie Sheen, since I mentioned one of his movies and he's been in the news. I'm going to leave you wanting on that. Sorry.

n(o). Apparently blogger.com doesn't provide a way to make superscript. It does, however, provide small text, so I improvised. These footnote references have to be done in small type on the same line as the regular text. So I've put them in parentheses to help set them off. It looks crappy, I know. Take it up with blogger.com.

o(p). I have labeled this footnote "n" for the time being, because I don't know yet, as I'm writing this particular footnote, how many footnotes there will actually be, and "n" is the first letter in the word "number." And I probably won't feel like going back to change it, so I'm explaining it now instead.

p. I have labeled this footnote "o" since it's the next letter after "n." I probably don't have to explain why the footnote explaining the previous footnote is "p," based on the established pattern established by footnote "o."

Don't look now ...

... but the Indians' pitchers and catchers report to spring training in just five days. With the Browns going through the process of rebuilding their coaching staff, the Cavaliers not having won a game since the Browns were actually still playing, and the weather outside making me wish I was part penguin, baseball season is extremely welcome.

Obviously, the 2011 Indians are not going to be contenders. But there are plenty of reasons to watch them this season. First of all, Carlos Santana, one of the hottest catching prospects in baseball, is back with a clean bill of health. Grady Sizemore is healthy too. Shin-Soo Choo is one of the best in the business, and while we may not be able to keep him very much longer, we've got him now. Guys like Matt LaPorta, Jason Donald, Luis Valbuena and Asdrubal Cabrera could do big things this year.

There are pitchers to be excited about too. Fausto Carmona has obviously done huge things before, and the rest of the projected rotation (Justin Masterson, Carlos Carrasco, Mitch Talbot and Josh Tomlin) has plenty of upside. And Chris Perez is at least a second-tier closer, and could turn out to be one of the best.

Baseball season is almost here. I can hardly wait.

Happy 2011

As it's been more than a week since my last post, I'll try to put together everything I've been thinking about that's sports-related. ... Nah, that's impossible. OK, here are a few thoughts:

* Eric Mangini is done in this town, win or lose against Pittsburgh on Sunday. He will have compiled a 10-22 or 11-21 record in two seasons, and that's just not going to do it. Mike Holmgren expected improvement this year. This team has improved some, but not where it counts -- wins and losses. Mangini is scheduled to meet with Holmgren on Monday, and Holmgren will fire him then. I don't know this for sure, of course, but I can't see it going any other way.

* As I said, the Browns did improve this year. They had chances to win almost every game. And I believe they would have won a few of those games that they lost if they'd just been able to punch the ball into the end zone, rather than settle for field goals. That was a key failure of the Browns' offense this year, and much of that ultimately goes back to Mangini. I haven't counted, but I know there were multiple times when the Browns had a fourth-and-goal inside the 5 and settled for three instead of going for six. Three is more than zero, but six is more than three.

* Peyton Hillis has missed practice all week and is questionable for the Steelers game. There's no reason to rush him back if he isn't ready, but he is currently 10th in the NFL in rushing yards. It would be nice to see him stay in the top 10.

* Moving on to the Buckeyes, Jim Tressel says the players who got suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season have been told they must commit to playing next year before the school will allow them to play in Tuesday's Sugar Bowl. It wouldn't be fair to the NCAA to allow them to get away without some sort of penalty, he said. But how Ohio State University can stop a Terrelle Pryor from leaving at the end of this school year, I have no idea.

* The Cavaliers are just plain awful. I can hardly believe how bad they are. On Saturday, Nov. 27, they beat Memphis to raise their record to 7-9. Since then, they've lost 15 out of 16, and at 8-24, have the NBA's second-worst record. A few of those losses have been tight, but most have been blowouts. They've become a very difficult team to watch. The best we can hope for right now is that the Cavs get a very high pick in the 2011 draft, so someone like Perry Jones, Terrence Jones or Jared Sullinger can give them a spark. Sullinger's from Ohio, so he'd definitely want to stay in Cleveland when free agency comes up. (cough)

* The Baseball Hall of Fame vote is coming up, and there are a few former Indians who have a good shot at getting elected this year. Roberto Alomar came up eight votes short last year, in his first year of eligibility, possibly because he spat on an umpire during his Baltimore years. The umpire forgave him; not sure why Hall of Fame voters can't. Anyway, I'll be shocked if he doesn't get in this time. Bert Blyleven, who pitched for the Tribe from 1981-85, missed it by five votes last year, in his 13th year of eligibility. If he doesn't get in this year, he'll have one more shot before his candidacy is turned over to the fickle Veterans Committee. I'll also be shocked if this isn't Blyleven's year. The third former Indian with a decent shot is Jack Morris, who only pitched one season in Cleveland (1994). I would not vote for Morris, if I had a vote. He was a fine pitcher for a long time, but just not up to Hall standards. And I'll never forget how he asked Mike Hargrove to change the order of the starting rotation so he could go to his farm in Montana a little earlier, with the Indians in the middle of a pennant race.

* Have a save and happy New Year, and see you in 2011!

One man's tribute to the greatest Cleveland Indian of them all

There probably isn't a whole lot I can say about Bob Feller that you haven't read or heard. He was with little question the greatest Cleveland Indian of them all -- and unlike Cleveland's greatest football and basketball players, Jim Brown and LeBron James, he was worthy of unqualified respect.

I know I'm not the first person to point to Feller's military career, but reportedly, when he was asked what his greatest victory was, he didn't name his Opening Day no-hitter in 1940, or the 1948 World Series -- he said World War II, and clearly meant it. And when you consider what he gave up to help stop Hitler and Mussolini, it means that much more. Feller was 23 years old when he enlisted, and had already won 107 major league games. (Incidentally, that's still the all-time record for major league wins through age 22.)

He served for three full years, and most of a fourth, then came back and was again the best pitcher in the majors. He won 25 games in 1941, served in World War II, won five games in 1945 at age 26, then won 26 in 1946. Feller finished his career with 266 wins; if you interpolate what he might have done in the years he was serving our country, it might have been somewhere around 380, which would put him third on the all-time list. We'll never know. Of course, he might have hurt his arm if he'd pitched all those years, but I doubt it. Feller averaged more than 300 innings a season from 1938 to 1941, at ages 19 to 22. If his arm was going to give out, it would have done so by then.

When I was a young lad in love with baseball myself, playing as well as watching the grand old game, I had immersed myself in baseball history. I had already read probably a couple of dozen books on the subject. So even though Bob Feller was out of baseball for nearly 20 years by the time I was born, I knew exactly who he was what he meant to Indians baseball by the time I was about 8 or 10. My dad, an ex-Amishman with a strong work ethic, had installed a wood-burning stove in our house as a means to save on heating bills. Of course, a wood stove requires wood, which has to be chopped and stacked. My dad, my two brothers and I did that work -- my dad, voluntarily; the three of us, compulsorily. We boys would whine and belly-ache about how hard it was. But my dad got me motivated, at least temporarily, by telling me that he heard Bob Feller talk about working on his dad's farm as a boy, and how the ceaseless labor made his arm strong and made him the pitcher he was. When I heard that, I wanted to work harder. Until I realized I was never going to be Bob Feller anyway. There was only one of those.

I could go on and on about Feller, about his encyclopedic memory of his playing career; his high school graduation being nationally broadcast on the radio; his blunt opinions about things ranging from steroids to politics; his tireless autograph signings (which of course were rarely for free). But there are no doubt literally hundreds of writers pounding out tales like that today, many of whom are getting paid for their words, and I will leave that to them.

Rest in peace, Robert William Andrew Feller. You were the greatest Cleveland Indian there ever was, and likely ever will be. Cleveland will never be quite the same without you.

McCoy opens this roundup-type post

* The Browns appear ready to start Colt McCoy at quarterback Sunday against the Steelers, and I applaud that decision. The original plan was for McCoy to spend all of 2010 understudying Jake Delhomme and/or Seneca Wallace, but now that they're both out of commission, the only other options are McCoy and Brett Ratliff. Ratliff, who spent all of last season riding the pine for the Browns, is never going to be a regular starter in the NFL. So it's time to throw McCoy in there and see what he can do. His first assignment against a tough Steelers defense is going to be really, really tough, but the kid was great at Texas, and he'll be a fine NFL quarterback in time. Might as well start now.

* What the *#&@ happened to Jerome Harrison? The dude ran for 286 yards in one game last year and was a key to the Browns' season-ending four-game winning streak, but had just 91 on 31 carries this year before he was traded to Philadelphia this week. Of those 91 yards, 39 came on one carry in the opener against Tampa Bay. If you subtract that one run, he went for 52 yards on 30 carries. That's less than two yards per. That's pathetic. No wonder Peyton Hillis has been getting the ball all the time. In return, the Browns got Mike Bell, who has 28 yards on 16 carries. Um ... OK, I'm not sure why we made this trade. Especially with Hillis hurting, I'd have liked to see if Harrison could repeat his 2009 performance if given a real shot. Maybe I just contradicted myself. I can live with that.

* The Buckeyes, who just moved up to No. 1 in the poll, are facing their second real test of the season Saturday when they travel to meet No. 16 Wisconsin at Camp Randall Stadium. Wisconsin's only loss was to undefeated Michigan State, and they're always tough at home. Ohio State will have to slow down the Badgers' dual-threat running backs, John Clay and James White. And Terrelle Pryor will have to play mistake-free. Both of those things can happen, but they're not sure things. Should be interesting.

* As my good friend Jeff Brown recently pointed out in an e-mail, the Cavaliers are going into their first post-LeBron season with a serious size issue. Anderson Varejao is the only guy on the roster who's played much center in the NBA, and he's only 6'10" and is really more of a power forward type. They've got 7'0" Ryan Hollins, who will never make anybody forget Shaquille O'Neal -- not even the aging Shaq we saw here last year. These Cavs definitely have some talent around the perimeter -- Mo Williams, Antawn Jamison, etc. -- but they face a real risk of getting beaten up badly inside.

* As an Indians fan, it's tough to see guys like CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee carry their teams through the playoffs. Both those guys were key to their teams' success in last year's playoffs, and even though Lee has switched teams again (and again) since then, he's the number-one reason why the Rangers are into the ALCS against CC and the Yankees. It's a terrible shame the Indians couldn't afford to keep those guys. But baseball's economic structure is what it is. The Indians will have to find a way to be competitive with the money they've got. And it can be done -- look at Tampa Bay and Minnesota. They got eliminated in the first round by Sabathia, Lee and company, but they both made the playoffs with very slender payrolls. And Shapiro's Indians have done it too, back in '07. But it's hard to look at these current Indians and see the seeds of a playoff team anytime in the near future.