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.
Another in the ‘keep Baron’ camp- “As far as freeing cap space to sign an expensive free agent, there doesn’t seem to be a rationale for doing that. The Cavs have positioned themselves well for a rebuilding project. They just drafted Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson in the high lottery and have seven more first round picks in the next four drafts. Other than Irving and Thompson, only Anderson Varejao has a guaranteed contract beyond 2012 – 2013. Draft picks and flexibility are exactly what a re-building team needs; why would the Cavs add a new long-term free agent piece to the puzzle, before having a chance to evaluate how Irving and Thompson fit? It doesn’t make sense.” [Hetrick/Cavs the Blog]
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Oh man- “When Urban Meyer decided to take the Ohio State job less than a year after retiring from Florida, many Gator fans were upset with their former coach. But few more so than Jen Wiley, who named her son after Urban because of her and her husband’s allegiance to Florida. Wiley’s son, now 4 years old, is actually named Spurrier Urban Wiley, after Florida’s two national championship winning coaches — Steve Spurrier and Meyer — but after Meyer’s move to the Big Ten, Wiley wants to change her son’s middle name.” [Watson/Dr. Saturday]
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Exactly. Limited options to only trades- “The one thing that is kind of unsettling is how the Indians have almost no money leftover this offseason to spend. It was known going into the offseason that they only had about $60-65 million to spend, and when you add in all the expected raises in arbitration it left about $10-15 million to spend this offseason. The Indians decided to use that money by resigning Sizemore for $5 million and trading for Derek Lowe for another $5 million. By taking the chance on an oft-injured outfielder and back of the rotation starter in the twilight of his career the Indians pretty much blew all their available money to upgrade the offense in any way through free agency. I’m not a big proponent of free agency, but by going the route they have so far it has really pushed them into a corner where the only option available is to trade for a bat. That may have been the plan all along as the first base options in free agency are not all that great, but I know a lot of fans are already rolling their eyes after hearing the Indians are broke and can’t add a bat because they spread the available money on question marks like Sizemore and Lowe.” [Tony/Indians Prospect Insider]
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“When you look at the Browns, blaming the likes of quarterback Colt McCoy or offensive linemen Jason Pinkston and Shawn Lauvao isn’t the answer. These guys are playing as well as they can in the structure they are in. Simply put, they may not be good enough to make a difference for this team on game day, not today, not tomorrow, maybe never. They were put into the position they are today. McCoy is the QB and he hasn’t proven to be the presence a team in the game today at the position. Lauvao and Pinkston man the left guard and right guard spots and have been beaten too often on game-day attempting to protect McCoy, or in run-blocking situations.
Much of the same could be said about the wide receivers, the linebackers, the defensive line and so on. Without the talent, coaching, experience and confidence at the professional level, the fine line between winning and losing is often immeasurable. What we think about McCoy, Lauvao, Pinkston and others really means very little. It’s those men bunkered in the Browns’ training facility that mean everything. Those men must continue to retool this team objectively, as the issue doesn’t appear to simply be the on-field talent.” [Adkins/The OBR]
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Another trade question for Tribe fans- “I think Asdrubal is a terrific ballplayer and he’s certainly exceeded all expectations the Indians had for him when they acquired him from Seattle way back when. But I somehow don’t trust that 25 homers and 92 RBIs is his new norm. Maybe I’m turned off by his second-half slide and lingering concern over his conditioning. It’s quite likely I’m reading too much into that second half. But I think the goal of the trading season, for a team like the Tribe, ought to be to move guys at the peak of their powers, before their price tags drastically outpace their performance. I fear, for the Indians’ sake, that Cabrera could be headed in that direction.” [Castrovince/MLB.com]
