Box Score: Cavaliers 83, Pacers 102
April 13, 2012On the Cavs, Tanking and Lester Hudson
April 14, 2012While 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.
Stepien Rules with a guest post by Dan Coughlin– “Some people took advantage of him. I’ll never forget the day he called a press conference to announce the signing of a free agent. Ted thought he had the deal done, but no papers had been signed. The press conference was set for noon at his “Competitors’ Club,”a girlie bar in the basement of the Statler Office Tower. Half an hour before the press conference, Ed Keating, the player’s agent, said to me, “Wait right here. I’m gonna get another million out of Ted.”
Both Keating and Stepien had offices in the Statler Office Tower.Keating asked Stepien to step into his lair, where he had his secretary type up a fresh contract that raised the player’s salary by an extra million dollars. “Sign it or cancel the press conference,” said Keating.
Stepien should have cancelled the press conference and sent everybody home. He should have told the caterer to take away the tray of cold cuts and close the bar, but Ted caved in. With his back against the wall, Stepien signed the contract and held the press conference. In the corner of the room Keating laughed his rear end off. Keating could be vicious. That’s how people did business with Ted. They squeezed every dollar out of him.” [Coughlin/Stepien Rules]
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“If you want perhaps the most revealing barometer that best reflects the Indians’ systematic demise as an American League powerhouse from the late 1990s until now, look at the evolution of the left-field position. It goes something like this: from Albert Belle to David Justice to Ellis Burks to Matt Lawton to Coco Crisp to Jason Michaels to David Dellucci to Ben Francisco to Michael Brantley to Austin Kearns to The Goodyear Seven.
Go ahead, connect the dots. It is not a pretty picture.” [Ingraham/News Herald]
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Getting Blanked doing work this season tracking the effectiveness of shifting infielders. [Fairservice/Getting Blanked]
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Another argument for Claiborne at #4– “The Browns need to continue to work to build a defense that can bring the pain and shut down the Steelers, Ravens and Bengals. Pair Claiborne with Joe Haden in the secondary and suddenly the linebackers don’t look so suspect.
Pair Claiborne with Haden and suddenly Ben Roethlisberger, Joe Flacco and Andy Dalton don’t have anyone open, which allows Ahyta Rubin, Jabaal Sheard, Phil Taylor and Frostee Rucker more time to make their life miserable (instead of the other team making Browns fans miserable).” [Red Right 88]
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Great list of the ‘Unwritten Rules’ of baseball. [Cameron/Fan Graphs]
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Kind of an amazing headline– “Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau homer in the same game for first time since July 2010”. Wow. [Big League Stew]
2 Comments
I liked the Red Right commentary. Other then Kalil I believe Claiborne is an automatic starter from the day he signs his contract. And with virtually no risk that he’s a bust. It’s time for the Browns to start building on at least one side of the ball. The way they draft seems like a buckshot approach we’ll take one guy on offense (a fourth TE), then a decent guy on defense oh then a rookie FB who can’t catch to replace the guy we didn’t resign because he wanted to much money and couldn’t catch. Of course losing guys to free agency and not signing replacements doesn’t help either.
I’ve been on Claiborne since January because he’s just that good and impact players don’t have to always be on offense. Plus the more I’ve read the more I’ve switched away from the thought that Colt McCoy will get better with better players around him.
The offense will get better if the Browns select Richardson or Blackmon, but it’s not the players around the QB that make him better, it’s the QB that makes the players around him better. And while McCoy can be a serviceable player, I think their is enough data on him to know he doesn’t have “it” – whatever “it” is.
Plus a tiny part of me wants the Browns to go defense in the first round just to see the hoopleheads on the radio and in the media lose their minds.