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
Look out Big Ten, Jared Sullinger is leaner, meaner and ready to lead the Buckeyes- “Sullinger shot 54 percent from the floor last year, but most of those came in the paint. He has both touch and a little range, but last year he didn’t need to shoot much as the Buckeyes had Jon Diebler shooting from deep and David Lighty doing a little of everything from the wing. With those two and center Dallas Lauderdale gone, he might need to score more. And he’ll certainly be asked to lead.
Sullinger’s desire to be a hands-on leader for the Buckeyes’ talented freshman class is the main reason he chose to skip the chance to play for Team USA at the Under-19 world championships this summer. He said the new arrivals “get it early” and that he and fellow returnees Aaron Craft and William Buford are driven by that Kentucky loss.” [Jackson/FSO]
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Your Cleveland Indians. More bang for the buck than 27 other MLB teams- “Just behind the Rays on the bang for the buck chart: the Arizona Diamondbacks, who are rising in the standings on the backs of younger talent like pitcher Ian Kennedy and catcher Miguel Montero, among others, the Cleveland Indians, challenging in the AL Central thanks to contributions from low-priced pieces like shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera and pitcher Justin Masterson, and the Pittsburgh Pirates, whose general manager, Neal Huntington, has pulled off some shrewd trades for cheap pitchers Kevin Correia and Jeff Karstens.” [Forbes]
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The Tribe has gotten great starting pitching, with a couple exceptions- “So, here’s a guy at the bottom of the list for ERA, WHIP, and FIP with bottom-of-the-barrel peripherals who gives up a lot of home runs and, not to forget this, a lot of hard hit line drives. You can pull the cord on the small sample size siren if you’d like but the only AL starting pitcher that comes in BELOW Talbot in FIP and WHIP is the now-in-AAA Kyle Drabek, meaning that Talbot is perhaps the worst starter in the AL currently in a rotation by a couple of varied statistics.
In the interest of full disclosure, Carmona is below Talbot in both ERA and HR/9 and maybe Talbot’s been unlucky (his BABIP is the highest among AL starters at .353), but there’s a certain time when Talbot’s spot in the rotation becomes untenable because his underwhelming numbers go further back than simply Opening Day of 2011.” [Cousineau/The DiaTribe]
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“The reason is simple: Even if the Indians were willing to mortgage some chunk of their future in order to augment the ’11 club (unquestionably, the biggest need is another bat in the outfield, with Shin-Soo Choo out until September), it’s a seller’s market and a slow-developing one, at that. At this juncture, it’s hard to imagine the Indians being willing to give up anything of substance to land the likes of Melky Cabrera or Ryan Ludwick or Jeff Francouer. “We’re open in any way we can to improve the team, whatever that might be,” Antonetti said. “Especially with Choo suffering the injury that he suffered, we’ll probably focus most of our efforts on improving our offense and getting a little more consistency there.”
Had the market more to offer (and again, it’s still too early to get a firm read on it, simply because, as of today, 17 of MLB’s 30 teams are within five games of a division lead), the Indians would have something of a dilemma on their hands. They’d have to calculate how the risks associated with moving a Jason Kipnis, Jason Donald or Nick Hagadone stack up against the potential upside of adding an impact bat for the here and now. But beyond Carlos Beltran, whose contract is simply out of range for an Indians team always on a budget, none of the names bandied about at this still-early juncture of the in-season trade season strike me as the answer.” [Castroturf]
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Apparently a Yankee fan did not appreciate Texiera being hit the other night. Sent the Indians’ pitchers a nasty letter. Fuel for a Tribe win last night? [Joe Smith twitter]
(AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
