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.

A look at what baseball movies should be made next- “Bob Feller would also make for a great movie, though I’m not sure what the second act would be. Josh Hamilton would make for a great and gritty movie, but I’m not sure what the ending is. Pete Rose would make for a great movie but I don’t think people leave the theater cheering. You could always try to do Babe Ruth again. Truth is, Jackie Robinson is the best and most important story in baseball history … and it’s a pretty long way down to No. 2, I think.” [Neyer/Baseball Nation]

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Scott provided the details for Duk’s ballpark tour- “1. It’s still “The Jake.”Sure, the sign out front may say Progressive Field, but the only people who religiously call it such are team employees and broadcast partners. Jacobs Field holds a special place in the hearts of many as this was the house that was packed for 455 straight games in the mid-to-late 90s. This was the home of Albert and Kenny, Carlos and Sandy, Omar and … Jose. But the reluctance of embracing the new name also serves as our last hope at avoiding the corporate takeover of our humble sporting abodes. Jump in a cab? Tell the drive to take you to “The Jake.” Slugging back a 24-ounce can of something hoppy at a local establishment? Ask a local what time they’re heading to “The Jake.” Clevelanders cling to nostalgia, almost to their own detriment. But if you’re looking to endear yourself early on, adding “The Jake” to your road trip lexicon is one of the most efficient ways possible.” [Big League Stew]

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Yahoo sports mock draft- “6. Cleveland Browns: I’m selecting Notre Dame TE Tyler Eifert. Conventional wisdom says TE is not a position you take in the top ten. Two tight ends have been taken in the top ten in this decade, both at number six: Kellen Winslow in 2004, and Vernon Davis in 2006. I have written extensively about the increased value of the “Joker” TE in today’s NFL, and have talked to many defensive coordinators who have told me that matching up to “12” personnel (one back, two tight ends, and two wide receivers) is a real problem. Eifert is the most athletic TE in this draft class. I saw him split outside the numbers many times, and beat corners on vertical routes. Two things to keep in mind: Rob Chudzinski was the OC in Cleveland in 2007 when Winslow had 82 catches for 1,106 yards (the Browns won the AFC North that season), and new OC Norv Turner is a master at utilizing the TE, most recently Antonio Gates, but you can go all the way back to Jay Novacek with the Cowboys in the early 1990s.” [Cosell/Shutdown Corner]

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“1. The Browns #1 priority remains to trade down and recoup the 2nd round pick they already used on Josh Gordon in last summer’s Supplemental Draft. But if they can’t, and they are forced to make a pick at #6, there is increasing chatter that they could very well take a Defensive Tackle among the likes of Star Lotulelei, Sheldon Richardson or Sharrif Floyd.

For fans, it would be a head-scratching selection for sure as the Browns seem to be set with Ahtyba Rubin, Phil Taylor, Desmond Bryant, Billy Winn and John Hughes already forming a talented rotation in Ray Horton’s 3-4 defense. But the prevailing wisdom of Drafting 101 is “Always stay true to your board and don’t reach for need.” If one of the DTs is clearly the better prospect than someone else who happens to fill a need when the Browns are on the clock, well… just don’t be surprised if that’s the pick. So before you light your hair on fire and put an anvil through your flat screen, just remember two things: 1) We don’t know what they know. 2) We will never see their draft board. Oh and, as a bonus: 3) The same goes for ESPN.” [Alton/DraftBrowns]

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Finally, we have no idea what this means. But we like to think it means Kyrie is obsessed with reading WFNY.

#obsession (wfny)

— Kyrie Irving (@KyrieIrving) April 23, 2013

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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.

“Their biggest problem at the moment with the offense may just be a lack of consistency, which is the result of a lack of good overall health to the lineup. Since the first week of the season the Indians have not had their optimum lineup out on the field as Carlos Santana had a hot start put on ice for a week because of a thumb, Bourn has been out the past week and will miss another week with a finger injury, and Jason Kipnis has missed a few games and not been himself because of a bothersome elbow.

Mix in Asdrubal Cabrera getting off to a historically slow start, Drew Stubbs lacking consistency, and Chisenhall have a subpar showing in the early going, those struggles combined with the injuries to the other parts of the lineup have plagued the lineup and kept it from performing as it was expected to this season.

It is still very early, and at least in the early going the Indians look liked they nailed their free agent signings of Swisher, Bourn and Reynolds as all have had big impacts on the lineup to date and are arguably the three best performers in the lineup right now outside of Santana.” [Lastoria/Indians Baseball Insider] [Read more...]

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.

“The Cavaliers were designed to lose. To brave a few tough seasons and take advantage of a series of upcoming draft picks and the stash of salary cap space that the team smartly went after in the wake of the 2010-11 disaster. Byron Scott was not hired to lead this team to a surprise run to the eighth seed, even if Varejao and Irving stayed healthy the entire season. This franchise, intelligently, is in it for the long haul.

And because they’ve seen such little progress even while working through the rebuilding caveats, they’ve garnered enough information needed to deduce that Byron Scott is not the man they want for the second part of this turnaround job.

The next voice? Between Irving, those draft picks, and that cap flexibility, the Cavaliers should have their pick of the litter. Make all the ‘Cleveland’ jokes you want, NBA fans, before you come to terms with the fact that this is an enviable gig. This is a team looking to turn the corner, the right way. Finally.” [Dwyer/Ball Don't Lie] [Read more...]

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Tribute to Summerall- “That’s the thing about the voice of Pat Summerall, who died in Dallas on Tuesday at 82. It became more than an unobtrusive guide to a football game. It became the voice you wanted to hear underlying the utmost sporting drama. Good, true, modest, soothing, maybe even dulcet in the non-ironic sense, it spoke over various sports but foremost as the soundtrack of the American Sunday. Without trying so hard, it came to convey the day of the week, the time of the day, the feeling in the air, the season of the year, the bigness of the game. For Sunday after Sunday, doubleheader game after doubleheader game, dusk after dusk, autumn after autumn, year after year it pleased the ear and built a lasting home in the mind.” [Culpepper/Sports on Earth] [Read more...]

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Postseason awards time for the Cavaliers. Flop of the year?- “Sloan set an incredibly high bar when he became one of the first two players warned for flopping this season. On a list full of contact exaggerators, no one, not even Martin, went to the same ridiculous lengths as Sloan. Down 20 points with six minutes remaining in a loss to the Bulls, Sloan picks up full-court pressure defense on Kirk Hinrich, who smartly runs him off of Mohammed near midcourt. Sloan turns to see the screen coming and mostly avoids it, but then chooses not to break his momentum before unfurling a figure skating-esque 360-degree helicopter spin with both arms in the air. His dramatics are so intense that they wind up sending Hinrich to the court, too. Impeccable work.” [Golliver/Point Forward] [Read more...]

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“Can we expect this to continue? Masterson’s biggest problem has always been his ability to contain left-handed hitters. Chucking the ball from a three-quarter angle, the right-handed Masterson has been murder on same-handed hitters, with lefties getting a good look at his two-pitch fastball-slider combo and thwacking him on a regular basis. In 842 career innings, righties are hitting a microscopic .223/.303/.300, versus a fat .289/.363/.427 for lefties. He hasn’t added any new pitches to his repertoire this season, failing to expand on the occasional changeup he throws that other hard-platoon pitchers have learned to use to their advantage against opposite-handed hitters.” [Keri/Grantland] [Read more...]

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“It is just one small sign of how far Detroit’s fortunes have fallen: the birthplace of the mass-produced automobile, the city that gave us the infuriating, bumper-to-bumper commute, is now so sparsely populated that it doesn’t have a rush hour.

Dan Gilbert would like to change that. No, he’s not interested in a honking pileup of S.U.V.’s. Mr. Gilbert, 51, a Detroit native and the fantastically wealthy founder and chairman of Quicken Loans, wants to revive two square miles that were once the thrumming heart of this city. To do so, he has already spent roughly $1 billion acquiring nearly three million square feet of real estate, and is ready to close another deal, for the Greektown Casino-Hotel and nearby parking lots, that will add one million more square feet to his holdings.” [Segal/NY Times] [Read more...]

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Leading off, the Ohio State football spring game is today, and Vico at Eleven Warriors has a nice preview lined up with everything you need to know for all of the action this afternoon at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati (how about one in FirstEnergy Stadium, eh?), “The spring game will not perfectly mirror the spirit of an actual football game. There will four 10-minute quarters instead of four 15-minute quarters. There will not be much of a role for special teams. There will be no kickoffs and all punts must be fair caught. As such, Kerry Coombs’ piranha tank will not be on display in Cincinnati. Braxton Miller and Kenny Guiton will be wearing black no-contact jerseys. Thus, they are above tackling during this game, unless Noah Spence didn’t get that memo. Referees will whistle a sack or down by contact if it looks imminent from their vantage point.” [Eleven Warriors]

Have you had enough NFL Draft talk yet? Of course not, you’re a Clevelander! Let’s go to Justin Higdon at DraftBrowns and see what he has to say about West Virginia QB Geno Smith, a potential first-round target, “Smith shows consistent accuracy with his passes, often hitting his receivers in stride and leaving them plenty of room to gain yards after the catch.  On more difficult throws, he shows a knack for placing the ball where only his man can make a play.  Like any quarterback, Smith misses from time to time; but when he does, he rarely makes a costly decision.  He is at his best throwing over the middle, but his sideline and deep ball accuracy are the best in the class.  Smith has a strong arm and is able to fit the ball in tight spaces.  He’ll have no problem making any pass asked of him at the NFL level.” [DraftBrowns]

[Read more...]

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“So control within the strike zone was just not happening for him. This is what likely contributed to his batted ball distribution for the night — he allowed five line drives for a 31% clip. Hitters were just teeing off on balls in the middle of the plate. Maybe Carrasco should be forgiven though. It’s always said that control/command is the last thing to return when a pitcher comes back from TJ surgery. And this was his first start since August of 2011! So he’ll go back down to Triple-A, hone his control, and hopefully be back in Cleveland some point later in the season.

But let’s step back and ignore the results for a moment. This is a pitcher who in his short career owns a 50% ground ball rate. So pretty strong worm burner? Check. His control has also been pretty good. Not great, mind you, but better than average. So he contributes positively in his avoidance in issuing the free pass as well.” [Podhorzer/Fan Graphs] [Read more...]

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Awesome. “David M. Evans, the writer, director and narrator of “The Sandlot,” loves to tell this story: He was in an airport a few years back. He saw a father trying to contain a wild child while also trying to carry his luggage. Finally, giving up, the dad put down his bags and told the child, “You’re killin’ me, Smalls.”

“He was three feet from me and I couldn’t resist,” Evans says. “I told the guy, ‘You’re never going to believe this’ …’” He took the guy’s address and sent him and his son an autographed poster.” [Oz/Big League Stew]

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“Network research executives say they don’t have enough information to determine whether Twitter affects TV ratings.

Take the soccer game, for example. It may have generated more Twitter trending topics than the NCAA tournament. But the NCAA tournament produced 11 times more TV viewers that night. The 9.8 million viewers who watched the NCAA tournament’s late window on March 22 dwarfed soccer’s audience. To me, the soccer game’s numbers backed up the skepticism most TV executives have when they talk about Twitter’s effect on sports TV ratings. But network executives had a different take. They pointed to the soccer game as an example where social media may have had an effect on the soccer game’s 0.5 national household rating.” [Ourand/Sports Business Journal]

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“We’ve spent the last few months talking about interesting these 2013 Indians would be. Well, they’re interesting, all right.

In what was supposed to be the ninth game of the season, the Indians were set to use their seventh starting pitcher (Corey Kluber: No. 7 in your depth chart, No. 1 in your heart). That would have put the Indians on pace to use 126 starting pitchers this season (which would of course be a record… but let’s not read too much into that, because I’m sure they won’t actually use more than 100).

Anyway, rain intervened to momentarily pause the merry-go-round, and now it’s Zach McAllister getting the nod in Game No. 9. So… six starters in nine days. That already sounds better, doesn’t it?” [Castrovince/Castroturf]

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“Ohio State will be No. 2 in the preseason polls. Phil Steele projected that, and it seems like the most rational assumption. The Buckeyes went undefeated last year; they’ll get the proper respect in the preseason polls.

The question of whether they are the best team to knock off the SEC in a title game this year, and whether they are better than every SEC team other than obvious preseason No. 1 Alabama, is debatable.

Ohio State had a special season, but it didn’t necessarily prove the Buckeyes are ready to beat the SEC. The best non-conference foe was UCF, and the only non-conference foe from a BCS league was a bad Cal team. The Big Ten was really down last year, and the Buckeyes got the two best teams other than itself, Michigan and Nebraska, at home. It needed overtime to beat Purdue and Wisconsin, and got a one-point win against Michigan State. Ohio State didn’t rank better than 10th in any major statistical category. And not playing a conference championship game or bowl game might have helped. Ask Georgia or Florida how much better its season would have looked without their extra games at the end.” [Schwab/Dr. Saturday]

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“I’ve been sailing through this analysis assuming that we all accept the premise that with Sheard, Taylor, Rubin (plus Hughes, Winn) the d-line and specifically the interior d-line was a strength. But at 119 rush yards/game, one might question that assertion. Let’s look a little closer.

Prior to the bye week, there was not one game with Taylor and Rubin played together. Over that span of games, the Browns allowed 132 rush yards/game. For a frame of reference, that would be 26th in the league if it were the year-long average.

However, in weeks ten through seventeen, Taylor and Rubin played together. Over that time period, the Browns allowed 89.7* rush yards/game. That rates out as SECOND BEST in the league. Coincidence? I think not.

If anyone has a better metric to measure the effectiveness of an interior d-line, I’m all ears. Until then, I say again: Rubin + Taylor = second best run defense in the NFL.” [Kanick]

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.

“There are obviously some mitigating factors. The Cavs are young, and young players are generally overmatched on defense in their first couple of years in the NBA. Starting Tyler Zeller at center is a big disadvantage; bullies can push him around, and like most rookies, he has found NBA-level help-and-recover stuff confusing.

But the lack of improvement in the big picture is alarming. Kyrie Irving is almost no better in Year 2 than he was in Year 1 (which is to say, he’s not good), and there is just a general lack of coordination to Cleveland’s defense that would worry me if I worked for the team. The Cavs can usually execute the first step of help defense without any problems, but the steps that must take place behind that first line of defense are a complete mess. Nobody helps the helper at the right time, guys are way out of position, miscommunication is rampant, and teams generally score easily against them.” [Lowe/Grantland] [Read more...]

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Oh boy. Maybe it was destiny. “Terry Francona candidly admits he is directionally challenged. He proved that before the Cleveland Indians home opener Monday. Francona lives two blocks from Progressive Field and walks to games. He had his first experience on the streets of Cleveland when he headed to the game at about 8:15 a.m.

“I got lost three times,” Francona said. Francona’s walk involves two long blocks and, depending on his route, maybe a left and a right turn. “I’m bad,” he said. “Guys that know me know. Even when I got to the garage, two people that work here said, ‘Hey do you know where you’re going?’ I was like … ‘nope.’” [McManamon/FSO] [Read more...]

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Making a strong case against Tavon Austin at #6- “Let’s think about it for a moment. Tavon Austin is 5’8″. That’s short for anyone. Don’t believe me? Go post a match.com profile with your height as 5’8″ and see how it goes. But ok, there have been short wide receivers, some good ones. How does Austin compare to some notable sub-six-feet-tall WRs?” [Kanick] [Read more...]

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Some numbers on Cleveland’s win versus Boston. “The Cavaliers broke an eight game losing streak that lasted over two months in games against teams that have clinched a playoff berth when Tristan Thompson attempts at least 10 shots. That being said, increasing Thompson’s role in the offense (attempted 10+ shots in 21.7% of games last season and is doing so in  48% of games this year) figures to pay dividends sooner rather than later. His scoring has increased by 25.6% while shooting nearly 5% better from the field. His numbers have spiked without a healthy Anderson Varejao, but the skill set is there, and shouldn’t disappear when playing alongside the rebounding machine. If Cleveland can ever get all of its pieces on the court at the same time, this is a scary team that is only going to get better with time.

Kevin Jones struggled from the field but was very active on the glass, earning his 22 minutes by grabbing eight rebounds (three offensive). Jones has appeared in 25 games this season, but has tallied 37% of his rebounds in just two of those contests and 50% of them have come on a Friday. At 6’8” and 260 pounds, Jones is another young force around the rim that can serve as a stop gap when the starters are out of the game. Jones’ rebounding and positive impact was felt by the 14 point advantage held by the Cavaliers in the paint, a game changing stat given the fact that Cleveland won the game by six points. His body type gives him the potential to turn into a specialist, as he can  matchup physically with some of the elite scorers in the league.” [Kyle Soppe/Hardwood Paroxysm] [Read more...]

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Cavs w in! The streak is over! “This game was a Rorschach test for Cavs fans.  Fans who think the Cleveland has been mostly tanking during this 10 game streak can say, “yep, when they needed to win to quell fan unrest, and they did.”  Fans who think that Byron Scott is a bad coach and that this Cavs team isn’t very good can look at this game and say, “Woo hoo.  The Cavs beat a team that is firmly implanted in the 7th seed in the East, and is sitting their two best players.”  They have a point.  The Celtics shot awfully.  Some of that was by design, as the Cavs packed it in the paint and dared the Celtics to beat them from outside.  The Celtics didn’t do it, but the Cavs gave up a lot of wide open corner threes, and the Celtics couldn’t convert, going 6-22 from the 3 point line.  The Cavs also gave up 16 points and 7 rebounds in 13 minutes to Shavlik freaking Randolph. The Cavs interior defense mostly stunk.  If the Celtics had anyone who could score in there, they probably would have won.

I don’t know what to think.  For what it’s worth, Tristan Thompson won the completely unfair referendum tonight for coach Scott and the team’s future — next referendum Sunday.” [Nate Smith/Cavs the Blog]

[Read more...]

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“I do realize the collective product is increasingly terrible and I know the Cavaliers are the worst defensive unit in the NBA at the moment. I also listened to a pregame press conference spent discussing aspects of a spider zone that eventually helped Brooklyn shoot 70-percent in the first half last night too.

So there is no way I blame any Cavs fan who is actually still paying attention at this point and believes that the coach should be fired for the product they are being forced to watch. I actually left the Q with six minutes remaining myself because the pain I felt in my eyes was so fierce I feared the possibility of future blindness.

In saying as much, though, the Cavaliers are still best served by allowing themselves to find out what Scott’s capable of doing when equipped with a reputable NBA roster and an organizational goal of winning basketball games. He has not coached in that environment since arriving in Cleveland.” [Bowers/Stepien Rules] [Read more...]