While we’re waiting… Reviewing the Tribe’s Offseason, Stinkfest in Columbus, Browns and the New Cap Rules and Eyenga Passes Diop

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.

I’m somewhat amused that the Tribe added Derek Lowe because of his durability… and then brought back Grady Sizemore. “[Lowe’s] durability is what intrigued Antonetti. With the Braves accepting to pay $10 million of Lowe’s $15 million contract, the front office saw the move as a low risk-high reward type of deal.

“We feel like we were able to add a quality, durable Major League starter to our rotation; a guy who’s pitched 180 or more innings every year since 2002,” Antonetti said. “He has demonstrated durability. He has pitched on some very good teams, and we feel he has a leadership ability that could rub off on some of our starters.”

The Indians’ biggest offseason decision came when the front office decided to decline its $9 million option on outfielder, and fan-favorite, Grady Sizemore. For years, Sizemore had been one of the faces of the Cleveland Indians franchise, but multiple injuries had derailed the former star’s career. The $9 million option was too much for a small market team like Cleveland to pay for a player that came with a number of risks.

However, on November 23rd in a somewhat surprising move, Sizemore officially re-signed with the Indians on a one year, $5 million contract, plus performance incentives that could make the contract worth up to the $9 million he would have made had his option been exercised.” [Indians Prospect Insider]

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I like the idea of the Browns addressing the offense in free agency and the defense in the draft. “Myth # 2:  A team can ONLY spend their allotted cap space for the new (2012) league year, which is reported be somewhere between 120-125 million dollars.  This was true under the old CBA.  It isn’t true anymore.  The new CBA allows for teams to carry over unused cap space from the previous season for the first time in league history.  So in the case of the Browns who, according to a recent report published by Miami Sun-Sentinel reporter Omar Kelly, have roughly $103 million dollars tied up into player contracts, the amount they did not spend in 2011 will be carried over into 2012.  The 2011 salary cap was approximately $120 million dollars.  Assuming those figures are correct, the Browns will have an extra $17 million dollars of cap space, in addition to the expected bump from $120 to $125 million per team in the new league year.  Needless to say, this puts the Browns in an advantageous situation should they be interested in improving the roster by adding players through Free Agency.  But remember to keep in mind that it isn’t until next year when the team will have to spend 95% of that allotted cap space.  So while one might think Tom Heckert could be inclined to go hard after some big name free agents, the reality is, given his history and philosophy of team building through the draft, I expect the Browns to remain somewhat frugal in their approach to the offseason.

Now that we’ve cleared up some of the more tedious, financial aspects that face our favorite decision-makers, I would be doing myself a disservice if I didn’t delve at least somewhat into player acquisition.  Because what’s the point in being good all year in hopes of a Merry Christmas if you don’t even get to make a wish list?  Since I’ve already started on the topic of free agency, I’ll stick with that for now and get deeper into draft day scenarios as we head closer to Spring.  After all, Free Agency is only 5 weeks away, while the draft is about 11 and it’s logical to assume whatever happens in Free Agency will strongly dictate the direction teams decide to steer toward the Late April Super Bowl as it’s more commonly known around Brownstown.” [Ryan Alton/Football Sickness]

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Not a good game for Buckeyes not named Aaron Craft. “Jared Sullinger played arguably his worst game as a Buckeye posting a triple double that read 17 points on 5/15 from the floor with 16 boards along with a carer high 10 turnovers. He failed to control his emotions resulting in continuous frustrated lunges at the basket leading to numerous empty possessions triggering breakouts at the other end of the floor. Even with the 16 rips, Sully was far from effective at the defensive end as Adreian Payne went for 15 points on 6/6 from the field.

Deshaun Thomas and William Buford were even worse. Thomas was abused by Draymond Green (12 pts, 9 reb), particularly in the 1st half, and scored just eight points himself as he hoisted an array of poor shots making just 2/12 on the night. Buford posted his own 2/12 shooting night (4 pts) with three turnovers in a dreadfully freshman-like 36 minutes of basketball.

Aaron Craft was the only Buckeye to show up scoring 15 points propped by 8/8 from the stripe with just one turnover in 40 minutes though Keith Appling scored 14 for Sparty in the head to head matchup.” [Chris Lauderback/Eleven Warriors]

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Christian Eyenga just passed DeSagana Diop on the Cavs All-Time scoring list. A few more weeks and he’ll double Luke Jackson’s total. *sigh* “But last night, with a resounding slam dunk, Skyenga is officially back climbing the mountain. He only scored 2 points last night, but that now gives him 311 career points in 48 games (6.5 ppg).

That puts him one point ahead of the legendary DeSagana Diop. Yes that DeSagana Diop, the 8th overall pick of the 2001 NBA draft out of Oak Hill Academy. Diop was selected ahead of Joe Johnson (10th), Richard Jefferson (13th), Troy Murphy (14th) and Zach Randolph (19th) among others. Diop has somehow managed to last 10 years (and counting) in the NBA. He has never scored more than 226 points in any season, and his career high scoring average is 2.9 ppg in 2007-08; a season he split between the Mavericks and Nets. [Wooley/Stepien Rules]