Dayton Flyers, Cleveland’s third baseman and the Cats … While We’re Waiting

More Flyers madness: Tonight has been 30 years in the making for University of Dayton fans. I know I’m pumped. Per FiveThirtyEight’s odds, Dayton has 50.076% odds against No. 10 seed Stanford. It’s a toss-up. It’s only the second-ever 10 v. 11 game in NCAA tournament history. I’ve been loving all of the recent UD articles trending on social media: like this, this and this.

I’m also especially excited by this project from some of my classmates: Stand4, a new non-profit, is donating meals to Dayton homeless people for everyone that declares as a Flyers fan on their website. It’s just that easy. Click here and sign up. Even if you haven’t been a UD fan forever but just want to cheer on America’s new Cinderella, you should go do this.

I’ll be over at Mullarkey’s in Willoughby tonight if you’d like to join me at one of Northeast Ohio’s many official watch parties. I actually wrote about Mullarkey’s a few years back — it was that Irish pub that petitioned for Mike Mularkey to be the Browns coach back in 2011. The place is owned by John Bowers, father of Brendan Bowers, Stepien Rules overlord and former WFNY contributor.

So giddy for tonight. Go Flyers.

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The third base situation: One of the hottest topics for the Indians this offseason has been the actual hot corner. We’ve heard all about Carlos Santana’s re-transition back to third base. Lonnie Chisenhall also made the Opening Day roster. Terry Francona has been somewhat vague about how exactly playing time will break down between the two and full-time catcher Yan Gomes.

If you haven’t read it yet, you should go read Jon’s piece on pitch framing. Read it again if you haven’t memorized every line. That math shows how much relative value Gomes has as the everyday catcher over Santana, perhaps necessitating this move.

Did The Tribe Win Last Night’s Mike Brandyberry wrote about Chisenhall’s future yesterday. The former first-rounder has struggled mightily for three straight seasons to seize the third-base job. If he can’t beat out Santana for time this year, then it might be time for him to get a fresh start elsewhere.

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Fear The Sword interviews: Had the big-league pleasure of meeting Justin Rowan from FTS this past weekend. Justin and David Zavac attended Saturday’s Cavs-Rockets game and were in the media section, so they got a chance to chat with some players and Houston coach Kevin McHale. Their Q&As were pretty good.

Particularly, yeah, this upcoming summer will be huge for Anthony Bennett. I’m fascinated to see how he plays in NBA Summer League. If that one Orlando preseason game is any indication, I think he definitely has some potential to be really, really fun.

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The Cats: I really was eager to read Zach Lowe’s long article about the Charlotte Bobcats. Lowe is the best in the business. You should be reading his work all the time at Grantland anyway. This one was somewhat relevant for the Cavaliers, as it touched on the slight step forward for Charlotte this season.

The Bobcats, then, serve as a useful reminder amid the heated debate over tanking and rebuilding: There are already enormous incentives driving teams toward short-term wins, even at the expense of idealistic long-term team-building. There may be a time limit on sucking, from both a financial and a morale perspective.

Maybe the Cavs aren’t in as desperate of a financial situation as the Cats were last year, hence the huge value in signing apparent defensive albatross B-list free agent Al Jefferson. In turn, Jefferson has been phenomenal, they’re right around .500, they’re getting way more sponsors and there’s lots of excitement about the Hornets rebranding process. Their defensive improvement is pretty interesting in the context of our usual defensive metrics.

Lowe shared a similar paragraph about the unusual allure of mediocrity in his Draft Wheel update article earlier in the month:

Lottery reform also touches on how teams define being “good.” Some franchises are more satisfied than others with annual win totals in the 40-50 range, short playoff appearances, and healthy balance sheets — the kinds of outcomes a mediocre team might shoot for under the wheel instead of bottoming out. But there is a growing sense that several new owners (and new GMs who have won over longtime owners) are in the NBA solely to be great — to chase 55 or 60 wins and perennial title contention.

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Jimmy Fallon, man: I know I usually don’t talk about entertainment or music here, but I couldn’t help but share the video that he did with Billy Joel. I’m not even the biggest Billy Joel fan and this was absolutely fantastic. It’s worth your time for sure.

Fallon, man. He’s so, so much fun in everything he does. An argument I’ve made a few times: There’s only one better all-around entertainer in the world and that’s Justin Timberlake. He’d thoroughly dominate late-night television, but he doesn’t really need to work that hard. Instead, we get Fallon. And I’m mighty fine with that. He’s phenomenal.