The End Of the Road, But Do We Want To See Them Again?
April 1, 2009Jackets Playoff Push Update – 4/2
April 2, 2009While We’re Waiting aims to be the round-up of the recent WFNY-esque information for your morning viewing. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email in the sidebar.
Sports Guy, FTW: “What’s the point of having reporters or columnists sit courtside when 97 percent of them don’t use that access for their stories? Most of the savvier teams (the Lakers, Celtics, Cavs and others) already came to that realization and moved press sections to the corners or balconies. […] Jason Quick (The Oregonian) and Brian Windhorst (Cleveland Plain Dealer) are two examples of thoughtful beat writers who use their access as a strength — not just plum courtside seating, but locker room access for overheard conversations, mood reads or even armchair psychology — and really, that’s why I have both of them bookmarked.” [Bill Simmons/Page 2]
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This could get interesting: “Look, the Magic are going to end up winning sixty games. The Pistons are not a lock to make the playoffs at this point. The Magic have beaten the Lakers, the Celtics, the Cavs, and just about everybody except the Pistons. So are the Pistons a better team than the Magic? Does anyone think that? Do the Pistons think that? Okay, well, maybe. But then, they’re biased. The fact is that the Magic have nothing to prove by beating the Pistons. It’s a lose-only scenario. The Pistons have their number, not because they’re a better team, but because of matchups. [Matt Moore/Hardwood Paroxysm]
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Welp, see ya later: “First, it was Chris Cooley who didn’t want his ass shipped to Cleveland. Now, apparently, not-for-long Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler shares the Washington tight end’s feelings regarding the city. According to two sources with knowledge of the quarterback’s thinking, Cutler has a list of teams to which he’d be willing to accept a trade. The team of interest to those on this site, the Browns, do not appear on that list. “He wants no part of the Belichick tree. Two months of (Broncos head coach Josh) McDaniels was enough for him.” [John Taylor/The OBR]
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Get out the name tags: “OSU will be young but talented. He also pointed out that the Buckeyes (10-3 last season) might not get a true picture of how they’ll look until fall camp opens, considering that 18 of their 25 incoming freshmen will not arrive until then. This newness will be particularly evident on offense, where just four starters return.” [Ken Gordon/Columbus Dispatch]
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Negative VORP. Where your back-up would actually help your team more than you. Vince Grzegorek breaks out the list of those single-season Indians that actually took runs away from the team. [64 and Counting]
19 Comments
Why does Cutler have the choice of where he gets shipped? I am hoping as punishment they send him to Cleveland or Detroit.
Don’t miss Windhorst’s sidebar in the Simmons article.
Moore’s article is a great read. I don’t have anything to add except, thanks for scouring the intertubes and filtering out the jems.
I am not a stat geek but I really like VORP (and neg VORP). It’s odd that the neg VORP list is loaded with infielders. I wonder if that trend continues with other teams or it means the Tribe has struggled with INF’s.
Both Jerry Browne and Chris James both recovered and had good follow-up years, and Brandon Phillips recovered as well. Here’s the list.
. Brandon Philips, 2003, -21.9
2. Chris James, 1991, -16.9
3. Einar Diaz, 2002, -16.3
4. Del Unser, 1972, -15.7
5. Bubba Phillips, 1960, -15.5
6. Willie Kirkland, 1962, -15.6
7. Josh Barfield, 2007, -15.1
8. Cory Snyder, 1989, -14.3
9. Chris Macruder, 2002, -13
10. Jim Busby, 1956, -12.7
11. Andy Marte, 2008, -12.5
12. Tom Veryzer, 1979, -12.2
13. Junior Ortiz, 1993, -12.1
14. Jerry Browne, 1991, -12.1
15. Sandy Alomar, 1998, -11.3
16. Jose Hernandez, 2005, -10.5
17. Alex Johnson, 1972, -10.3
18. Rusty Torres, 1973, -10.3
19. Tony Bernazard, 1984, -10.2
on the VORP thing, it’s interesting that few of the 70s and none of 60s players are on the list. i guess that shows how bad the starting players were?
Sorry but I can’t find this info online anywhere. The Cavs have 61 wins with 8 to play. I read there have only been like 60 teams to win 60 games. But with each win does this class keep getting smaller. How many teams have won these # of games have won championships.
If the Cavs win all 8 games, they will have 69 wins, tied for 2nd most all-time. If they win all 8, they’d have a 21 game winning streak, 2nd longest of all time.
I think we are losing the historical significance of how rare this team is…
I thought I heard this morning on Mike and Mike that Cutler told Jay Glazer last night at a UFC fight that he “didn’t think it would ever get this far” and that he “didn’t actually want to be traded at all.”
I’m shocked that Aaron Boone 2005 wasn’t on there. He killed the Indians for almost all of that season.
I truly thought yesterday both Cutler and the Broncos would come out and say it was one big April Fool’s joke that they’ve been planing for weeks…
That being said, I think the Browns only really want Team first players like it has said before (other than the possible exception of Shaun Rogers) and with a great record of 17-18 as a starter why would we want Jay Cutler on this team at this moment
I have no problems with the Browns being a facilitator using DA (and possibly BQ depending on what we get back and even that would have to be a treasure trove of picks) but otherwise I don’t want Cutler on this team… send him to the Bears so he can get bowled over on the right side when Shaffer get pushed around
I don’t want Cutler on the browns anyways.
The last thing we need is a touchy quarterback who cries when he learns about the true nature of the NFL.
Could you imagine Cutler the first time he got booed here? Baby. No thanks. He is not tough mentally.
I hope the kid ends up playing for Detroit; if he is such a valuable player, he ought to be able to turn around the worst team in NFL history, right? Right?
I never thought Jay Culter and I would have something in common…I don’t want him to come to Cleveland either!
yo bridge:
NBA wins [wiki]
I’m not going to tabulate it, but 2 more wins for 63 would be top 23 all-time.
This hasn’t been completely lost, because there was (is?) potential for 4x 60 wins teams and I believe the most in one season is 2.
asides from some great seaons from all of our teams over the past few years, its also great to bein the midst of some of the best sports writing the city’s seen in a long time. pluto and windhorst are top notch and its awesome to see that they get respect for it from the commentors on cleveland.com to the big wigs at espn.
Sandy Alomar’s magical ’97. Juiced? I wouldn’t care, that was a hell of a season.
How is Ricky (i’ll leave out the nickname) Gutierrez not on the negative VORP list?
I don’t understand why everyone is linking the Browns to actually obtaining Cutler. The only reason the Browns are in the discussion is that they are on of the few teams that can give up a QB without needing to get one back. This sets up a possible three way trade although that is very unusual in the NFL.
The Browns would get back picks and not players, either BQ or DA would go to Denver and Cutler would go TBD.
******** Thanks Swig **********
So a 7-1 finish puts us in the top 6 regular-season teams ever. 4 of the previous 5 won titles.
the bears got taken to the cleaners.
glad it wasn’t us.