MLB News: Indians agree to one-year deals with Drew Stubbs and Lou Marson
January 18, 2013NFL News: Cleveland Browns Hire Michael Lombardi as VP – Player Personnel
January 18, 2013While 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.
“The construction of the team seems to indicate how the front office will work, and that Banner will be involved with football. Banner came to Cleveland touted as an expert in team business affairs, but has hired three people on the business end. He has said his coach will be heavily involved in personnel to the point of making final roster decisions, but hired a coach who never had personnel experience. The GM was described by owner Jimmy Haslam as “player personnel type.” These dots seem to connect to Banner having real input in football decisions.” [McManamon/FSO]
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The top lead off men in Tribe history– “According to the Play Index at Baseball-Reference, since 1916, there have been 268 different players to start a game as the lead-off hitter for the Indians. Roger Maris and Joe Carter, each best known for home runs, both batted at the top of the order for the Indians fifteen times. Larry Doby and Al Rosen both started there four times. Alex and Joey Cora each hit lead-off three times, Casey Blake was there twice, and on June 14, 1975, big Boog Powell was given the lead-off spot for a night (he went 0-4, ending that experiment).
Of those 268 players, 37 of them have been penciled into the top of the lineup enough times to collect at least 500 plate appearances there. I’m using that as the cut-off for these rankings (since they will be largely dependent on rate stats, it seems unfair to include players who were good, but in only a small sample of games). Beyond the 500 PA cut-off, my rankings attempt to balance the rate stats against the counting one. In other words, while an OPS of 850 is better than an OPS of 825, if the former came in 600 PA and the latter came in 2,000 PA, I’m probably going to favor the second player. I’ve attempted to make some adjustments for the run scoring environment of different eras and I’m also looking only at contributions on offense, which I think is reasonable.” [Lukehart/Let’s Go Tribe]
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“Urban Meyer and the coaching staff will also attempt to take full advantage of Chip Kelly’s departure from Oregon. A couple hours after the media found out about Kelly accepting the Philadelphia Eagles job, we found out that the OSU coaching staff had sent out offers to Oregon commits ATH Tyree Robinson and ATH Tyrell Robinson, who are a pair of talented twins.” [Young/Eleven Warriors]
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Cavaliers guard Jeremy Pargo wants an invite to the NBA Slam Dunk contest. Maybe he has a case– [Youtube]
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Finally, another video. Former Buckeye Nick Mangold’s mancave. [The Post Game]