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.

I just read an interesting post on Rob Neyer's SweetSpot Blog by guest blogger Steve Buffum of the B-List Indians Blog. Buffum opines that the trades the Indians have made this year are less about getting players back, and more about getting some playing time for the young prospects who have been relegated to the bench or the minors because some expensive veteran is blocking their way. He starts with the example of Matt LaPorta, who's played very well since Russell Branyan was traded a few weeks ago. And he's got a point.

The vast majority of trades a non-contender makes serves [sic] one of two objectives: saving money or acquiring younger, cheaper talent. But it’s worth keeping in mind that sometimes, a less-obvious benefit is providing the opportunity for a player already in the organization to get the regular playing time he needs to develop. And every now and then, it’s almost like getting another prospect in the deal: one who was very close indeed to reaching the majors as an everyday player.

Meanwhile, the youngsters the Tribe is putting out there these days are actually winning. Yesterday's 6-5 win over the Red Sox was marred somewhat by the injury to phenom catcher Carlos Santana, who hurt his left knee in a collision with Ryan Kalish at home plate in the seventh inning. The trainers don't think he's badly hurt, but we'll have to wait for his MRI results to find out for sure. ... And if you ask me, this is evidence that baseball has to do something about collisions at home plate. There's something wrong when a runner has carte blanche to run over another player at full speed while that other player is almost totally defenseless because he's trying to field a throw. I don't blame Kalish, who was doing his job, but MLB should make it illegal for the catcher to block the runner's path if he doesn't have the ball yet. That's actually in the rules, but I've never seen it enforced.

Anyway, back to the winning Indians. After having lost six of seven, mostly against the powerhouse Rays and Yankees, they've won three one-run games in a row against the Blue Jays and Red Sox. Yesterday's winner was the comeback kid, Fausto Carmona, who's now 11-8. The previous two Tribe starters were each making their second major league start — Josh Tomlin in Saturday's 2-1 win in Toronto, on three days' rest, no less; and Jeanmar Gomez, who got the win in Sunday's 5-4 triumph over the Blue Jays. And Chris Perez, who is now the full-time closer after the Kerry Wood trade, saved all three of them.

Obviously, this Indians team won't contend for anything this year; almost as obviously, they won't contend for anything next year either. But maybe, just maybe, these kids can all come together in a couple of years. As fans, all we can do is hope.

Tribe ends skid, but still sucks

If you're a Tribe fan, you've got to love Shin-Soo Choo. After his two home runs yesterday, Choo is back in the team lead with 12, and his four RBIs were key to the Indians' 5-3 defeat of Cincinnati, ending the club's seven-game losing streak. Choo also leads the team in RBIs, hits, total bases, and the three major average stats (among those with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title).

Carlos Santana also went deep, for his fourth home run in just 15 games. True, 15 games isn't much of a sample size, but he's shown he's definitely a major league-caliber player, and could play in an All-Star Game as soon as 2011. Heck, he might have gotten there this year if he'd started the season in Cleveland. And speaking of young talent, rookie Mitch Talbot won his eighth game of the year, which leads the team; and his 3.88 ERA is none too shabby.

All of that is encouraging, unless you look at the standings. The Indians are now 27-47, which puts them on a pace to go 59-103. That would qualify as the second-worst record in team history, behind the 1991 team's 57-105. Though, it should be noted that the '91 team included a lot of players who would go on to be stars during the Tribe's coming glory days — players like Albert Belle, Carlos Baerga, Jim Thome, Sandy Alomar and Charles Nagy.

And the Indians are not, as a certain commenter recently claimed on a previous post, the worst team in the American League. That would be the Baltimore Orioles, who are an eye-popping-bad 23-52, which puts them on a pace to go 49-113. They could threaten the mark for single-season losses, set by the expansion 1962 Mets, who went 40-120. As bad as this Indians team is, we can at least take some comfort in the fact that the club that takes the field every day in Baltimore is worse. Not much comfort, but some.

News flash: Losing on a walk-off homer sucks

A quick roundup on what's going on in the world of sports:

• The Indians lost a tough one last night in Philadelphia. They scratched out a run in the top of the ninth to go up 6-5, though they should have scored more. But then Kerry Wood gave up a two-run walk-off homer to Jimmy Rollins in the bottom half, and the Tribe now has a four-game losing streak and the second-worst record in the American League.

• Obscured in the difficult loss were Shin-Soo Choo's pair of two-run home runs, bringing his season total to 10 and tying him with Russell Branyan for the team lead. Also, Carlos Santana had two RBIs, both coming without hits (though he did have a hit in the game, and drew a walk). Santana's major league career is off to a roaring start, as he's hitting .353/.477/.706. He's only been up for two weeks, but if he were to keep up that pace long enough to qualify, he'd currently be leading the AL in both on-base percentage and slugging percentage. It's doubtful he could keep hitting like that over a full season, at least this early in his career, but he's shown Manny Acta enough that he's going to stay batting in that number-three hole for quite a while.

• The United States will play Ghana, who finished second in Group D, in the next round of the World Cup. Ghana finished 1-1-1 in group play, and is ranked 32nd in the world by FIFA. (The U.S. is ranked 14th.) I think we have an excellent chance of moving on, as long as we don't get another America-hating referee. Fingers crossed.

• The Cavaliers don't have a pick in tonight's NBA draft. There are rumors that they'll try to get one via trade, but I find it hard to care about the draft when there's a much, much bigger off-season consideration going on with this team. Off the top of my head, I can't remember what it is ... Oh, yeah. LeBron.

• I have never heard of a tennis match lasting 10 hours, but that's what's going on right now at Wimbledon. (And you've never heard of it either; it's never happened before.) American John Isner is locked in an epic struggle with Frenchman Nicolas Mahut that was suspended 10 hours into play. Can you imagine playing tennis for 10 hours? These guys are some of the best athletes in the world, but their bodies must be killing them right now. And they have to take it up again today, probably both fighting off soreness like they've never felt in their lives. From the Associated Press story:

Never before in the history of Wimbledon, which was first contested in 1877, had any match -- singles or doubles, men or women -- lasted more than 112 games, a mark set in 1969. Isner and Mahut have played more games than that in their fifth set, without a victor, although the American came close: He had four match points but Mahut saved each one.

"He's serving fantastic. I'm serving fantastic. That's really all there is to it," Isner said. "I'd like to see the stats and see what the ace count looks like for both of us."

Well, here they are: Isner has 98 aces, Mahut 95 -- both eclipsing the previous high in a match at any tournament, 78. All the numbers are truly astounding: There have been 881 points, 612 in the fifth set. Isner has compiled 218 winners, Mahut 217. Isner has only 44 unforced errors, Mahut 37.

And this cannot be emphasized enough: They are not finished.

No one won yet.

After the two men split the first four sets, they are tied 59-59 in the fifth set. They will start up again at 10:30 a.m. our time. One of them could win it right away, or it could last another few hours. Should be interesting.

Santana off to a supernatural start

If Carlos Santana gets to the majors and lasts long enough, someday I'll probably stop punning on the other, slightly more famous Carlos Santana, the one who plays the guitar. But that day hasn't come yet.

Anyway, the catcher Carlos Santana is one of the key reasons the Indians were willing to trade both Victor Martinez and Kelly Shoppach last year. He just turned 24 on Thursday, and celebrated by going 4-for-5 with two home runs and a double in Columbus' 17-4 opening-day win over Indianapolis. It was Santana's AAA debut. He followed that with a two-run jack and a double in last night's 14-12 loss. Santana hit .290 with 23 home runs last year in Akron, and is considered one of the top catching prospects in baseball. He was expected to open this season on the disabled list because he broke his hand playing winter ball, but healed fast, and appears to be nearly ready for the bigs.

The Indians' current big-league catcher, Lou Marson, acquired in the Martinez trade, is only three months older than Santana, and is a decent prospect in his own right. But Santana is the Tribe's catcher of the future. At some point, probably this year, Marson will either be traded to make room for Santana or become his backup. I would wrap this up with my own super-insightful conclusion, but ESPN's Rob Neyer beat me to it, and I can't really improve on his:

So, yeah: Marson's a perfectly fine place-holder, but it would be lovely for the Indians if he played so well over the next month or two or three -- however long it takes Santana to force his way into the majors -- they could flip him for a catcher-hungry team and get another prospect (or two). Because the Indians are essentially playing one game: Prospect Acquisition. Get enough of them, and they can compete in a weak division every year. Don't get enough, and just hope to get lucky every few years. At this point they're doing well with hitters, but the jury's still out (way out) with pitchers. And they have to hit on both.

I do want to add one thing: One of Santana's homers came two pitches after a purpose pitch that was thrown behind him. So the guy's pretty unflappable, too.