I haven't blogged in a little over three months. You know what exciting stuff has happened with Cleveland sports since then?
Nothing good.
Shocker, I know. Let's see...the Indians finished up their epically awful 2nd half of the season and finished under .500. The Browns are (once again) on pace for a 5-11 season at best. The Cavs will certainly still be one of the worst teams in the NBA once the season finally starts. So in other news, everything's normal in Cleveland.
The Browns have regressed like crazy since last season, which is pretty damn disappointing. Colt McCoy has looked MUCH worse than last year and doesn't look like a long-term answer at QB (another shocker, I know). Joe Haden has been getting burned by far too many WR's to be considered an 'elite' cornerback in the NFL. Pat Shurmur has done a horrible job in his first year as coach.
The Indians have made some minor transactions during the offseason, adding Derek Lowe (yay?), and picking up options on Fausto Carmona/Grady Sizemore. Other than that, they haven't done anything of note. Hopefully they go out and find a 1B and another OF, otherwise there's a few significant holes on this team.
The Cavs should be better than last year (once the season starts), but that's mainly by default considering they only won 19 games last year. I'm looking forward to seeing Kyrie Irving play in a Cavs uniform. Tristian Thompson doesn't excite me at all, so hopefully he proves me wrong.
Sadly, just nothing to really be excited about in Cleveland right now (you know what's coming--shocker, I know), outside of watching Irving play once the season starts at the end of this month. So at least we can look forward to that. And Spring Training is only like three months away.
After all, the Indians are the 'best' team running in Cleveland right now. (Sadly.)
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
Welcome home, Thome
See those posts down below? In case you forgot what it was like to be following a baseball team that wasn't absolutely terrible, there's some flashbacks for you.
Since the last time I posted, the Tribe have managed to fall back to Earth, going from what at one point was a 7-game lead in the AL Central to now being 6.5 GB, and virtually eliminated from playoff contention.
Now, under normal circumstances, I'd still feel pretty good about the season--giving us hope that we have young guys that could continue to get better and maybe even turn the Indians into contenders. However, our (idiot) general manager felt our best move at the trade deadline was to trade away our top-two pitching prospects (Alex White & Drew Pomeranz) for a pitcher with a season ERA close to 5. You all know who I'm talking about--Ubaldo Jimenez.
The ONLY good thing about this trade (and trust me, I dug for days trying to find a positive) is that he'll be under control through at least 2013 (2014 player option as well) with a team-friendly contract. So if we somehow can manage to make a playoff push in the near future, he should still be on the team. (As for how much he can help, who knows. He's been rocked in half of his starts, and he's pitched great in the other half.)
Now, onto the reason for this post. One of the greatest Indians of all-time made his return to Cleveland in an Indians uniform tonight. I'm talking about Jim Thome, the Indians all-time leader in HR's. With Travis Hafner out for the season, the Indians picked up Thome as a fill-in DH for the rest of the season. It's awesome to have him back, even though we most likely won't see any monster Thome playoff HR's from him.
Oh well. Childhood flashbacks are good enough for me.
On to the Browns!
Since the last time I posted, the Tribe have managed to fall back to Earth, going from what at one point was a 7-game lead in the AL Central to now being 6.5 GB, and virtually eliminated from playoff contention.
Now, under normal circumstances, I'd still feel pretty good about the season--giving us hope that we have young guys that could continue to get better and maybe even turn the Indians into contenders. However, our (idiot) general manager felt our best move at the trade deadline was to trade away our top-two pitching prospects (Alex White & Drew Pomeranz) for a pitcher with a season ERA close to 5. You all know who I'm talking about--Ubaldo Jimenez.
The ONLY good thing about this trade (and trust me, I dug for days trying to find a positive) is that he'll be under control through at least 2013 (2014 player option as well) with a team-friendly contract. So if we somehow can manage to make a playoff push in the near future, he should still be on the team. (As for how much he can help, who knows. He's been rocked in half of his starts, and he's pitched great in the other half.)
Now, onto the reason for this post. One of the greatest Indians of all-time made his return to Cleveland in an Indians uniform tonight. I'm talking about Jim Thome, the Indians all-time leader in HR's. With Travis Hafner out for the season, the Indians picked up Thome as a fill-in DH for the rest of the season. It's awesome to have him back, even though we most likely won't see any monster Thome playoff HR's from him.
Oh well. Childhood flashbacks are good enough for me.
On to the Browns!
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Midseason Tribe Talk
Today the Indians played their 81st game of the season, which officially signifies the midway point of the 2011 season. Coming into the season most predicted the Tribe would finish with close to 100 losses, and finish at or near the bottom of the Central. Instead, they're currently 44-37, 1.5 games in front of Detroit for 1st in the Central.Not bad.
The craziest part is that Travis Hafner has missed roughly half of the season. Grady Sizemore has missed close to half of the season. Shin-Soo Choo is currently injured and out for the next two months. Three of your best players have had injury problems and the Tribe are still in first.
Not to mention...Choo and Carlos Santana have both had horrible years thus-far, both struggling to even hit .230 on the season.
If you would've told me three of the five best hitters on the team would have missed significant time by being on the DL, and the two bright young talents on the team would both struggle to hit .230, I would've told you the Indians would probably be 30-51 at best right now.
Instead, they're in first.
A very solid rotation (not great, but not terrible) and one of the best bullpens in all of baseball have carried the Tribe so far. If they can continue to get good starts from Masterson, Carrasco and Tomlin throughout the season, and figure out a way to get Fausto Carmona on track, there's no reason to think the Tribe can't tread water in the AL Central. If they can just hang around until September, anything can happen.
Choo should be back in September, and Alex White will also be healthy by then. Adding him to the rotation (over Fausto should he continue to struggle, or Talbot if he can't get it together) would certainly make the rotation even stronger.
Either way, it was a fun first half of the season. Hopefully it continues and we have some meaningful baseball in September/October in Cleveland.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Cavs hit the lottery
Random preface: Something that's always drove me nuts....why does my blog name appear as "Believeland." on any blog roll? There's no period after it in the heading. There's no period after it anywhere. I don't like being OVERLY grammatically correct.
Moving on....
The NBA Draft Lottery was held last night, and the Cleveland Cavaliers entered it having two lottery picks. If the draft fell based off of records, they would've had the 2nd and 8th picks. (That 8th pick came with Baron Davis from the Clippers for Mo Williams and Jamario Moon. You might've read about it here.) Anyways, lady luck had other plans for the Cavs. Or maybe it was karma. Or maybe it was rigged. I don't know, and quite frankly, I don't care.
That Clippers pick didn't end up being 8th. It ended up winning the lottery and becoming the #1 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. Our original pick ended up 4th, so instead of the projected 2nd/8th picks, we ended up with 1st/4th. Tough to complain about that, even if it is a weak draft class.
Surely two top-5 picks will help move the rebuilding process along much faster than just one pick would have. On the other hand, the Clippers essentially traded Baron Davis and the #1 pick (Kyrie Irving?) for Mo Williams and Jamario Moon.
We'll see what the Cavs do with those two top-4 picks in next months draft.....assuming the world doesn't end this Saturday like the Mayans claim.
BUT, if it does, at least we'll all go out with the Indians still in first place!
Moving on....
The NBA Draft Lottery was held last night, and the Cleveland Cavaliers entered it having two lottery picks. If the draft fell based off of records, they would've had the 2nd and 8th picks. (That 8th pick came with Baron Davis from the Clippers for Mo Williams and Jamario Moon. You might've read about it here.) Anyways, lady luck had other plans for the Cavs. Or maybe it was karma. Or maybe it was rigged. I don't know, and quite frankly, I don't care.That Clippers pick didn't end up being 8th. It ended up winning the lottery and becoming the #1 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. Our original pick ended up 4th, so instead of the projected 2nd/8th picks, we ended up with 1st/4th. Tough to complain about that, even if it is a weak draft class.
Surely two top-5 picks will help move the rebuilding process along much faster than just one pick would have. On the other hand, the Clippers essentially traded Baron Davis and the #1 pick (Kyrie Irving?) for Mo Williams and Jamario Moon.
We'll see what the Cavs do with those two top-4 picks in next months draft.....assuming the world doesn't end this Saturday like the Mayans claim.
BUT, if it does, at least we'll all go out with the Indians still in first place!
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Random nonsense
Some (probably nonsensical) thoughts about Cleveland teams currently...
Cavaliers:
Well, the first season post-LeBron has come and gone, and honestly, I'd call it a success (in my eyes at least). I know a lot of Cavs fans wanted to see the Cavs do everything they could to make a run at the playoffs this year, and hope to build the team through deadline deals similar to the way they've worked over the past couple years, but I was 100% against that. At the beginning of the season, I said this season would be considered a 'success' (I use the term loosely) if the Cavs managed to do three things: 1.) Manage to trade away some of the older veterans for either draft picks or young players, 2.) Lose as many games as possible to get the most ping pong balls for when the Draft Lottery comes around in the summer, and 3.) Find a way to beat LeBron and the Heat just once.
All three things were accomplished for the most part. They got rid of Mo Williams and Jamario Moon for a top-10 pick from the Clippers and Baron Davis. Davis wasn't that big of a deal, but the top-10 pick is. I said on this blog when the season started that I was hoping for a 16-66 record. The Cavs finished at 19-63, good for 2nd worst in the league. That should land us a top-3 pick in the draft. And lastly, they not only found a way to beat the Heat, but they went wire to wire on them, leading for ALL 48 minutes of the game.
Going into the off-season they now have two top-10 picks in the draft, and have found some young players that could be contributors in the future for this team. Varejao and Hickson are both big time players in their own right, so that's a nice cornerstone to build off of. Add in two top-10 picks, and the continuing progress of guys like Ramon Sessions and Christian Eyenga, and you might just have a young nucleus that can contend in a few years.
Thankfully for all of us Dan Gilbert realized he needed to go all-in with the rebuilding process, and so far, it looks like this might take less time than everyone thought--and in Cleveland, there's nothing better than hearing that.
Browns:
Even though there's a chance the 2010 season doesn't happen (which would be awful), the draft is coming up in a little over a week. As usual, the Browns have a top-6 pick, and I'm kind of torn between what I want to see the Browns do. On one hand, the thought of adding Patrick Peterson into a secondary with Joe Haden, TJ Ward and Sheldon Brown sounds amazing. That would instantly become one of the toughest secondaries in the NFL to throw on. On another hand, we need a dominant pass rusher that can get to the QB on a consistent basis and cause havoc. On a nonexistent third hand, adding a playmaking WR would really help Colt McCoy, Peyton Hillis, and the rest of the offense.
Sadly, we don't have three top-6 picks, so we can't fill all of those holes, but on the bright side, we should be able to address one of those three, regardless of who gets drafted before we pick. I'm leaning towards wanting a nice WR the most, but as long as the Browns address one of the three mentioned above, I won't be able to complain. Also, if they do go defense in the 1st round, I'd love to see a nice WR like Jonathan Baldwin (from Pitt) fall to them in the 2nd round, and then hope that a guy like Casey Matthews (Oregon) is available in the 3rd. It would be awesome to see one of Clay's sons rocking the Brown & Orange just like daddy did.
Indians:
Somehow, this team has managed to start the season off 10-4, and currently sit tied for the lead in the AL Central. Now there's about a 99% chance that the Indians can't keep this up for the whole season, but that's fine. No one expected the Tribe to win more than 70 games anyways. What I do like, however, is the fact that this team is 10-4 without their top two hitters doing anything so far. Carlos Santana and Shin-Soo Choo have both been virtually nonexistent this entire season, and yet the team is still winning. Also, the lineup should only get better once we can add a (relatively) healthy Grady Sizemore to the lineup, as he's clearly a huge upgrade over the current platoon of Austin Kearns/Travis Buck.
But as I've mentioned before on this blog, once we get some of our top of the line prospects in Cleveland, there's no reason to think we can't make a run at a World Series. If Lonnie Chisenhall and Jason Kipnis are as good as they've been in the minors, they make the offense 10x more powerful. If Alex White and Drew Pomeranz are those front-end-of-the-rotation guys everyone expects, the pitching staff looks 100x better. If these four guys all pan out the way they're expected, I'm 100% convinced that the projected 2012 (2013?) Indians team as a whole is much better than the 2007 Indians that were one win away from making the World Series.
There might not be much hope in Cleveland right now for any of the teams, but if we can get two good drafts this spring/summer out of the Browns & Cavs, all three teams will certainly be looking much better than they all did the year before. And you can't ask for much more out of Cleveland teams than forward progress, opposed to the backwards progress we've been so accustomed to over the past decade or so.
All three things were accomplished for the most part. They got rid of Mo Williams and Jamario Moon for a top-10 pick from the Clippers and Baron Davis. Davis wasn't that big of a deal, but the top-10 pick is. I said on this blog when the season started that I was hoping for a 16-66 record. The Cavs finished at 19-63, good for 2nd worst in the league. That should land us a top-3 pick in the draft. And lastly, they not only found a way to beat the Heat, but they went wire to wire on them, leading for ALL 48 minutes of the game.
Going into the off-season they now have two top-10 picks in the draft, and have found some young players that could be contributors in the future for this team. Varejao and Hickson are both big time players in their own right, so that's a nice cornerstone to build off of. Add in two top-10 picks, and the continuing progress of guys like Ramon Sessions and Christian Eyenga, and you might just have a young nucleus that can contend in a few years.
Thankfully for all of us Dan Gilbert realized he needed to go all-in with the rebuilding process, and so far, it looks like this might take less time than everyone thought--and in Cleveland, there's nothing better than hearing that.
Browns:
Even though there's a chance the 2010 season doesn't happen (which would be awful), the draft is coming up in a little over a week. As usual, the Browns have a top-6 pick, and I'm kind of torn between what I want to see the Browns do. On one hand, the thought of adding Patrick Peterson into a secondary with Joe Haden, TJ Ward and Sheldon Brown sounds amazing. That would instantly become one of the toughest secondaries in the NFL to throw on. On another hand, we need a dominant pass rusher that can get to the QB on a consistent basis and cause havoc. On a nonexistent third hand, adding a playmaking WR would really help Colt McCoy, Peyton Hillis, and the rest of the offense.
Sadly, we don't have three top-6 picks, so we can't fill all of those holes, but on the bright side, we should be able to address one of those three, regardless of who gets drafted before we pick. I'm leaning towards wanting a nice WR the most, but as long as the Browns address one of the three mentioned above, I won't be able to complain. Also, if they do go defense in the 1st round, I'd love to see a nice WR like Jonathan Baldwin (from Pitt) fall to them in the 2nd round, and then hope that a guy like Casey Matthews (Oregon) is available in the 3rd. It would be awesome to see one of Clay's sons rocking the Brown & Orange just like daddy did.
Indians:
Somehow, this team has managed to start the season off 10-4, and currently sit tied for the lead in the AL Central. Now there's about a 99% chance that the Indians can't keep this up for the whole season, but that's fine. No one expected the Tribe to win more than 70 games anyways. What I do like, however, is the fact that this team is 10-4 without their top two hitters doing anything so far. Carlos Santana and Shin-Soo Choo have both been virtually nonexistent this entire season, and yet the team is still winning. Also, the lineup should only get better once we can add a (relatively) healthy Grady Sizemore to the lineup, as he's clearly a huge upgrade over the current platoon of Austin Kearns/Travis Buck.
But as I've mentioned before on this blog, once we get some of our top of the line prospects in Cleveland, there's no reason to think we can't make a run at a World Series. If Lonnie Chisenhall and Jason Kipnis are as good as they've been in the minors, they make the offense 10x more powerful. If Alex White and Drew Pomeranz are those front-end-of-the-rotation guys everyone expects, the pitching staff looks 100x better. If these four guys all pan out the way they're expected, I'm 100% convinced that the projected 2012 (2013?) Indians team as a whole is much better than the 2007 Indians that were one win away from making the World Series.
There might not be much hope in Cleveland right now for any of the teams, but if we can get two good drafts this spring/summer out of the Browns & Cavs, all three teams will certainly be looking much better than they all did the year before. And you can't ask for much more out of Cleveland teams than forward progress, opposed to the backwards progress we've been so accustomed to over the past decade or so.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
LeBron returns to Cleveland, leaves a loser!
Damn, does that feel good.LeBron returned to Cleveland for the 2nd time since stabbing the city in the back on national television, and he walked off the court with his head hanging. He ducked player intros like a complete coward, and was dealt a nice batch of karma by losing to the worst team in the NBA.
In a season that has been extremely frustrating and disappointing, the Cavaliers have at least given fans something to be excited about by beating the one team they wanted to beat more than any other team in the NBA.
Add in the opening night win against Boston (who had beaten Miami the night before), two victories in the span of a week over Amare and Melo's Knicks, and the mid-season victory over the defending champion Lakers, the Cavs have proven they CAN beat elite NBA teams, but they have to play near perfect basketball. The team isn't anywhere near playoff contenders, but winning the lottery in a few months would certainly help the cause.
Nonetheless, in an absolutely miserable season, the Cavs do have 5 marquee wins. And if I have to watch a team go 16-66 (or whatever they end up), at least we can say we beat LeBron's Heat, the Celtics, the Lakers, and the Knicks a few times.
It can't get any worse than this season, but beating LeBron at home, and (hopefully) winning the #1 pick in the draft in a few months would certainly be a decent consolation prize going into the future.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Let 'The Process' Begin!
The Cavs took a big step towards a complete rebuild tonight by trading away Mo Williams and Jamario Moon for Baron Davis and the Clippers 1st round pick in 2011.The Clippers pick should be a top-10 pick, and that's the key component of this deal. Mo Williams/Baron Davis is a wash. Both have around the same talent level, and neither are 'future' pieces for this team. The Cavs took on Davis' contract that expires at the end of the 2013 season and hopefully that's around when the Cavs are turning the corner, and we can move him and his (then) expiring contract for someone that can help the team at that time.
The bottom line is the Cavs will now have two top-10 picks in next years draft. That's how you rebuild, folks. Hopefully the Cavs aren't done and can find someone to take Jamison off our hands, and if so, we can jump all-in and get this rebuild rolling as fast as possible.
I love the move. Top-tier picks is the fastest way to rebuild a team, and adding two top-10 picks around JJ Hickson, Anderson Varejao, Ramon Sessions (maybe--not sold on him yet) and Christian Eyenga is a good nucleus of guys to start to build around.
It's gonna take a few years, but hell....we're Cleveland fans. We're used to waiting anyways. At least it looks like the Cavs are serious about blowing it up and completely rebuilding, which is what they need to do if they wanna be championship contenders ever again.
Step one of The Process is complete. Let's keep it rolling!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Wait, what?
Remember this?
That was about a month ago. Virtually the exact same team took the floor tonight in the much anticipated (ha) rematch between the Lakers and Cavs, and the Cavs won by 9. The only real difference in the Cavs lineup between the two games was that Mo Williams was back in the rotation...yet he only played 3 minutes and scored 0 points.
Yea, I really don't know how the hell the Cavs won either.
Nonetheless, at least the Cavs have two jewels in their crown from this 'season from hell' in beating both the Celtics and Lakers so far. We'll just disregard the fact that they set an NBA record with 26 straight losses during one point between those two wins.
So the obvious question: Is there actually a tiny bit of hope for the Cavs? Who knows. Considering they're still from Cleveland, highly unlikely. But J.J. Hickson has played great, Ramon Sessions has played pretty solid, and Christian Eyenga has shown ridiculous athleticism and a good chunk of potential. Add a healthy Varejao next year along with (hopefully) a #1 draft pick, and maybe you do have a few pieces to build around.
It's gonna be a long time before the Cavs are contenders again, but a win over the Lakers proves that there are at least a few decent pieces already on the roster. Now it's up to the front office to do a good job and slowly start to build up a respectable roster.
That was about a month ago. Virtually the exact same team took the floor tonight in the much anticipated (ha) rematch between the Lakers and Cavs, and the Cavs won by 9. The only real difference in the Cavs lineup between the two games was that Mo Williams was back in the rotation...yet he only played 3 minutes and scored 0 points.
Yea, I really don't know how the hell the Cavs won either.
Nonetheless, at least the Cavs have two jewels in their crown from this 'season from hell' in beating both the Celtics and Lakers so far. We'll just disregard the fact that they set an NBA record with 26 straight losses during one point between those two wins.
So the obvious question: Is there actually a tiny bit of hope for the Cavs? Who knows. Considering they're still from Cleveland, highly unlikely. But J.J. Hickson has played great, Ramon Sessions has played pretty solid, and Christian Eyenga has shown ridiculous athleticism and a good chunk of potential. Add a healthy Varejao next year along with (hopefully) a #1 draft pick, and maybe you do have a few pieces to build around.
It's gonna be a long time before the Cavs are contenders again, but a win over the Lakers proves that there are at least a few decent pieces already on the roster. Now it's up to the front office to do a good job and slowly start to build up a respectable roster.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Cavs game, twitter style
Alright, here we go...tonight's Cavs game, recapped through twitter and twitter only.
And one final tweet to sum it all up....
You guessed it. Cavs lose yet again, now 1-26 in their last 27 games.
And one final tweet to sum it all up....
You guessed it. Cavs lose yet again, now 1-26 in their last 27 games.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Rock Bottom for the Rockers
(Get the reference? Cleveland Rockers...the old WNBA team. They clearly have the same talent level.)
55.
The Cleveland Cavaliers really lost by 55 tonight to the Lakers. On the bright side, at least they didn't lose by 55 to the Pistons, Timberwolves, Kings, or the Nets.
The Cavs are now 8-30 and currently hold the worst record in the NBA. Rock bottom? Yea, I think that's a safe assumption. It's not humanly possible to get much worse. I think the worst part is the fact that the only person that seemed to care tonight wearing Wine & Gold was Alonzo Gee.
No, I don't know who he is either.
The only thing left to do now is trade away Antawn Jamison and Mo Williams for any type of prospects or draft picks we can get, and start the rebuilding process with (hopefully) the #1 pick and a nice chunk of other picks. There's only one player on the team I'd actually want to see the Cavs keep, and that's Anderson Varejao. I honestly see no reason to keep anyone else. If there's a team out there that wants anyone not named Varejao, it makes no sense to not trade them away. There's not a single promising young guy on this team anymore. JJ Hickson doesn't care, Ramon Sessions is terrible, and the rest of the roster is either filled with veterans (Parker/Moon) or D-League talent (Gee/Samuels/Harris/Hollins).
And if Dan Gilbert doesn't think rebuilding is necessary and actually keeps Jamison or Mo going into next season, then it's pretty clear this team needs new ownership. Or contracted. Or moved.
There's really no hope left for this team. No one on the Cavs cares, so none of the fans really should either. It's basically impossible to watch the team even play anymore. The lottery can't come soon enough. Maybe if we can at least get the #1 pick, the hope will go from 0% to around 2%.
Never thought I'd say this, but Spring Training can't come soon enough. Hell, even the Indians are closer to a Championship caliber team than the Cavaliers are now.
55.
The Cleveland Cavaliers really lost by 55 tonight to the Lakers. On the bright side, at least they didn't lose by 55 to the Pistons, Timberwolves, Kings, or the Nets.
The Cavs are now 8-30 and currently hold the worst record in the NBA. Rock bottom? Yea, I think that's a safe assumption. It's not humanly possible to get much worse. I think the worst part is the fact that the only person that seemed to care tonight wearing Wine & Gold was Alonzo Gee.
No, I don't know who he is either.
The only thing left to do now is trade away Antawn Jamison and Mo Williams for any type of prospects or draft picks we can get, and start the rebuilding process with (hopefully) the #1 pick and a nice chunk of other picks. There's only one player on the team I'd actually want to see the Cavs keep, and that's Anderson Varejao. I honestly see no reason to keep anyone else. If there's a team out there that wants anyone not named Varejao, it makes no sense to not trade them away. There's not a single promising young guy on this team anymore. JJ Hickson doesn't care, Ramon Sessions is terrible, and the rest of the roster is either filled with veterans (Parker/Moon) or D-League talent (Gee/Samuels/Harris/Hollins).
And if Dan Gilbert doesn't think rebuilding is necessary and actually keeps Jamison or Mo going into next season, then it's pretty clear this team needs new ownership. Or contracted. Or moved.
There's really no hope left for this team. No one on the Cavs cares, so none of the fans really should either. It's basically impossible to watch the team even play anymore. The lottery can't come soon enough. Maybe if we can at least get the #1 pick, the hope will go from 0% to around 2%.
Never thought I'd say this, but Spring Training can't come soon enough. Hell, even the Indians are closer to a Championship caliber team than the Cavaliers are now.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
New Year, No Hope
What better way to start off a new year than by coming to the realization that all three of Cleveland's sports teams officially have no hope for the future? For the first time in a long time, I can't even really say 'there's always next year', because in all reality, there's absolutely nothing to look forward to in 2011 from Cleveland sports. The Indians are coming off yet another 90-loss season, with owners who aren't willing to spend any money to bring in OR keep talent around. The Cavaliers are the worst team in the NBA, as evidenced by them being 0-1 against the only team with a worse record than them (Sacramento). And then there's the Browns, who finished the season on a four game losing streak, and in the process managed to lose to two really bad teams (Bengals, Bills), and get throttled 41-9 in the season finale against the Steelers.
A few months back, at least the Browns were showing some signs of hope. They seemed to have pieced together a respectable defense. They seemed to have found a great running back for the future in Peyton Hillis, and Colt McCoy was playing well enough for many people to think he was the quarterback of the future for the Browns. Then, in the last 4 games of the season, the Browns defense couldn't stop anybody. Hillis managed to rush for a whopping 165 total yards over those 4 games, and Colt McCoy looked as lost as he did in the preseason, as he managed to toss 7 INT's in the final two games.
From the looks of it, the Browns are right back to square one all over again. A suspect defense, a shaky quarterback situation, and (hopefully) and entire new coaching staff.
Add all that up and what do we have? A terrible Indians team, an even worse Cavaliers team, and a typical Browns team that seems stuck in neutral for the 12th season in a row.
Hey, there's always next year.
See, I said it after all. Besides...the sad reality is this: the best thing Cleveland fans have going for them is 'next year'.
A few months back, at least the Browns were showing some signs of hope. They seemed to have pieced together a respectable defense. They seemed to have found a great running back for the future in Peyton Hillis, and Colt McCoy was playing well enough for many people to think he was the quarterback of the future for the Browns. Then, in the last 4 games of the season, the Browns defense couldn't stop anybody. Hillis managed to rush for a whopping 165 total yards over those 4 games, and Colt McCoy looked as lost as he did in the preseason, as he managed to toss 7 INT's in the final two games.
From the looks of it, the Browns are right back to square one all over again. A suspect defense, a shaky quarterback situation, and (hopefully) and entire new coaching staff.
Add all that up and what do we have? A terrible Indians team, an even worse Cavaliers team, and a typical Browns team that seems stuck in neutral for the 12th season in a row.
Hey, there's always next year.
See, I said it after all. Besides...the sad reality is this: the best thing Cleveland fans have going for them is 'next year'.
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