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The Tribe made two moves this week that further echoed an ongoing problem since the club drafted and brought Jim Thome to the big leagues as a third baseman: since that time, other than the lightning-in-a-bottle Matt Williams year in 1997 and his subsequent trade to Arizona which brought in Travis Fryman prior to the 1998 season, the Indians have had a gigantic black hole at third base from top to bottom in their organization.

In reverse order, the Tribe sent current 3B Jhonny Peralta to Detroit for a minor league pitcher on Wednesday, and on Tuesday designated minor league 3B Wes Hodges for assignment, all but ending his tenure with the Tribe. At one point, Hodges was considered a bona-fide third base prospect, but as his 26th birthday approaches in September, it was becoming more and more clear that he was never going to be an option for the major leagues.

And now, as the under-achieving Andy Marte most likely picks up a chunk of the playing time at third in the short term, this triumvirate of suck at third base shines a bit more light on what has been a large problem for the organization for a long, long time. Buckle up… here comes a long, long list of bad, bad things, post-Fryman.

Two days ago Josh Tomlin made his debut for the Tribe against the New York Yankees—the same Yankees who lead the majors in wins (64), runs (545), OBP (.354), and wOBA (.351).  In other words, a 25 year old rookie was going up against the best offense in baseball.

And Tomlin was awesome.  He retired the first nine batters he saw.  He faced the minimum through six innings.  He didn’t walk a single batter against the team with the highest on-base percentage in baseball. The only run he “allowed” scored from first base after Tomlin had exited the game.  The rookie recorded his first win by going 7+ innings and walking off the mound to a standing ovation.

It was a remarkable debut.  Which makes what I’m about to do a real bummer.  Sorry ‘bout that.

Two days of voting down. We’ve whittled our field of 16 down to 4. Two very close races yesterday. Mo Williams edged Eric Wright by a narrow margin (perhaps vindication for my original top ten?) and Shaun Rogers gave rookie WR Carlton Mitchell a run for his money. Over 1,300 votes were cast propelling our top 4.

So let’s get right to it. In our first semi-final match-up we have the #1 seed Josh Cribbs (@JoshCribbs16) taking on the 4 seed rookie CB Joe Haden (@joehaden23).

Our second semi-final features the only non-Brown to make it out of round 1, Mo Williams (@mogotti2) who was the #3 seed taking on WR Carlton Mitchell (@clmitch18).

Ready…set…vote!

For years, nobody was a bigger Jhonny Peralta defender than me. When so many complained about his rise to the majors kicking Omar Vizquel out of town, I was convinced it was the right move. I still think it was. Of course, I miss Omar and wish he was here as our utility man (where he is doing a great job in Chicago), but the Peralta era had to begin in 2005.

Yesterday, that era came to an end as the Indians third baseman was sent to Detroit for A ball pitcher Giovanni Soto, who by the way, happens to be a decent prospect and not some throw-away.

It was obvious Peralta had no future here. His numbers have steadily declined since 2007 and he has never approached the 2005 season where he starred, hitting third for a 93-win team. That season, Jhonny set career-highs in batting average (.292), homers (24), and OPS (.886), while driving in 78. At that time, nobody was pining for Omar’s return.

Sure, Jhonny was never the most graceful shortstop, but nobody cared about his defense because he was hitting. Then, the hitting stopped.

I know it’s Progressive Field…..

There was little on the field to discuss in last night’s 8-0 loss to the Yankees. However, a scene in the bleachers stole the show. Some clown decided it was a good idea to come to the game wearing a brand spanking new LeBron James #6 Heat jersey. That’s right, in Cleveland, this idiot was prancing around the bleachers with his girlfriend throwing it in the faces of the fans around him.

While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com

On Sabathia’s latest quotes of only “knowing three guys” on the current Tribe roster: “To get back on track: there are 12 players still in Cleveland that CC Sabathia played with in 2007, including the men who played directly behind Sabathia in the 2007 playoffs at 2B, SS and CF. Also remaining are the starting DH, the obvious number two and three playoff starters and a reliever that CC watched become, briefly, the best in the world. So when Sabathia looks back and thinks there are only three players left from his era and one of the three he remembers fondly is a player that wasn’t even on the playoff roster in 2007, that CC played with for, at absolute most, a couple months in his career, it pisses me off. At least acknowledge your middle infielders.” [Lets Go Tribe]

As if the digital version of ESPN had not caused enough of a stir with their mysterious spiking of an alleged inadvertently published report, their on-air producers may also have some explaining to do.

During the 6:00 p.m. (EST) edition of SportsCenter on Wednesday evening, the topic of “LeBron [James] in Vegas” was in queue to be discussed right after Brian Kenny and company would dig into the “stock report” of one Chris Bosh.  However, after the flagship broadcast of the Worldwide Leader would go to their first commercial break, the James-based topic would disappear, instead transitioning directly into the ever-enticing talking point of “Pick Your Dream Team.”

Update: The Indians have sent 3B Jhonny Peralta to the Tigers for minor league pitcher Giovanni Soto. More on this tomorrow…

The Indians attempt to thwart Alex Rodriguez of his 600th home run once again, sending Fausto Carmona to the mound. Carmona has surrendered only 7 home runs on the season. He is a ground ball pitcher, which doesn’t bode well for A-Rod. Beyond trying to keep Rodriguez sans-homer, The Indians are looking to take their second game of this series, and ensure at least a split. A win would be 4 straight for Carmona, and improve on the Tribe’s 7-4 record since the All-Star break.

Dating back to 1999, the weeks approaching training camp are typically surrounded with question marks with regard to the Cleveland Browns quarterback position. 

For the first time in what seems like an eternity, the Browns know exactly who will be starting under center come Week 1.  And while the questions may still loom with regard to the level of talent calling plays in the huddle, Browns team president Mike Holmgren remains optimistic with the newly-acquired Jake Delhomme, the 14th different starting quarterback for the franchise since their return in 1999.

From “apparently” nude women in bathtubs to pouring vodka on the floor of a Las Vegas nightclub, ESPN’s Arash Markazi penned a night-in-the-life discourse on former Cavalier LeBron James and his close friends.  But just moments later, he didn’t.

After only several minutes of being a live link on ESPN’s Los Angelese affiliate site, the Markazi piece had inexplicably vanished.  But, in a fashion that LeBron James knows all too well following the Jordan Crawford “Dunkgate” tapes from a year ago, the Internet always wins. 

Not exactly casting James in the best of light as a professional or as a father of two, it is easily understood why this piece would top the list of the Greatest Hits that have come out since “The Decision.”  Alas, the piece was disseminated rapidly on Twitter, posted on message boards and even encapsulated in to image files.  Clips of the piece can be found after the jump.  An explination as to why the post is no longer in original form will likely not be found anywhere anytime soon.  Have at it, folks.

Thanks to Scott for helping with our technical issues yesterday. To see the voting results from round one click here. To see the Top Ten list that started it all click here.

Today we move on to the second round. One thing we learned from round one – it’s good to be a Cleveland Brown. The only non-Brown Twitter user to move on was Cavs guard Mo Williams, and he’ll face stiff competition this round from Eric Wright.

Remember, the contest isn’t about production on the field. This contest is purely based on who has the better Twitter account.

Here are your second round match-ups:

Nearly three weeks have passed since LeBron announced that he was leaving.  The Cavs joined the trade season this week and the front office, despite Dan Gilbert’s letter, quickly moved on from LeBron as they worked the phones, scouted Summer League, and stood their ground in negotiations with free agents.  The fans, while they will likely never forgive or forget, are starting to move on.  The fraternity of former superstars – those who built the modern NBA – continue to grumble.  This includes Michael Jordan, who, according to Michael Wilbon, has displayed about “one percent of the steam rising from [him].”

If there was ever a baseball game to bet on, this was it. CC Sabathia pitching for the World Champion New York Yankees in his return to Progressive Field. The Hefty Lefty had not lost since May 23rd. Opposing him for the Indians would be a 25 year old rookie who hadn’t even been on the 40-man roster before yesterday, Josh Tomlin. With Alex Rodriguez still in search of Home Run #600, this one had all of the making of a Yankees blow out.

But as a wise man once said, that is why they play the game.

While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com

Perhaps overlooked on a national scale, but something that may ultimately prove more important than “The Decision”: ”A solemn silence prevailed over the ballpark.  All conjecture about Lebron dissipated like so much talcum thrown skyward.  I went out to the mound to make sure that the pitcher had not lost consciousness, and to suggest that we stabilize his head, which a parent immediately did.  Ambulance crewmembers reported minutes later, and the boy was taken to the hospital where he received stitches for a laceration and underwent tests for a cranial fracture and traumatic brain injury.  Thankfully, both were negative and doctors deemed him stable enough to leave the hospital the night he was admitted.

Three days later, Cleveland absorbed a collective trauma from Lebron James, who, in a vainglorious ESPN special titled “The Decision”, made known his desire to leave the Cavaliers.  However dispiriting that event may have been for Clevelanders, the horrifying scene that I witnessed on my hometown baseball field has left me pondering a much weightier “decision” that our society must make: when will we start doing more to protect pitchers from head injuries?” [Danny George]

After narrowly missing the playoffs in 2007 and then living through the almost instantaneous internal combustion of the team a year later, Browns fans are all too aware of expectations.  In fact that is why the post-2007 optimism was so strange.  Fans were famously chanting about Super Bowls from the bleachers in Berea.  They were ignoring their previous hypotheses regarding Romeo Crennel, the quarterbacks and pretty much everything else.  The fans seemed to decide that it was finally time to drop the security blanket of pessimism that we normally carry around in a tighter fist than Linus in the Peanuts cartoons.  All the while, muttering about how we will never do that again.

I am sure there are a few fans out there that are feeling a little offended at the reports from prognosticators around the league that have the Browns ranked near the bottom of the league to start this season.  The Browns and their acquisitions flew largely under the radar this year, except when people were making fun of Jake Delhomme and the fact that the Browns didn’t manage to find a single receiver of known quality to add to the roster.