Excitement and Optimism Reign Supreme for the 2012 Cleveland Indians
April 5, 2012The Opening Day Nine: Reasons for Opening Day Optimism
April 5, 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.
The DiaTribe features its annual player/song matches to get folks psyched for today’s opener: “[T]o lighten the mood before Game #1 – the annual suggestion of music to accompany each Indians’ player to the plate or to the mound. After an off-season of conjecture, a Spring Training of dissection, and before a season of heavy lifting, this little exercise in frivolity always serves to break up the tension and perhaps provide a little bit of “firing up” to those in need.” [Paul Cousineau/The DiaTribe]
A final look at how spring treated the Tribe: “The Cleveland Indians finished the spring season 7-22, good enough for last place in the Cactus League standings. Not only have the Indians been playing poorly, they have suffered setbacks and injuries that will impact the team negatively.” [Tommy King/SB Nation]
And finally, here is a quick look at the last moves the Indians made to get the 25-man roster ready: “The Indians have designated Thomas Neal for assignment and released Felix Pie. … Jeremy Accardo, Ryan Spilborghs, and [Henricus] Van den Hurk will all report to Triple-A.” [Mike Axisa/MLB Trade Rumors]
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Switching to the Cavs, my old favorite NBA stats blog look at the expected value of tanking: “When we look at what tanking is, it is in essence a tradeoff. As a team you consiously make a decision to trade wins for a better draft pick. In fact, since the advent of the current version of the draft lottery, that is exactly how it works. The worse a team you are, the better your odds are for a good pick. I used the math for this to give you the exact expected draft pick based on your team’s lottery rank.” [Andres Alvarez/Wages of Wins]
Our very own Brendan analyzes what’s left of the basketball season in the CLE: “But absolutely none of that matters to me at this point, and it really shouldn’t matter to you either. This Cavs season, for me, ended when Ramon Sessions was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. It was over then. I’ve already begun the process of reflecting back upon the good times we had this year too.” [Brendan Bowers/Stepien Rules]
Even after a relatively close loss last night, this amazing stat still rings quite true: Cavs now have a -18.44 point differential in nine straight losses since dropping Ryan Hollins. [@WFNYCraig/Twitter]
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And coming up next for the Browns will be another likely top five pick in Matt Kalil, sometime this week: “Cleveland may not be a realistic landing spot for Kalil, who isn’t expected to make it past the Minnesota Vikings’ No. 3 overall pick in the draft. That could change, however, if a team falls in love with another prospect, such as Texas A&M quarterback Ryan Tannehill, and trades up with Minnesota.” [Evan Silva/Pro Football Talk]
Here’s then the Browns preseason schedule, with an odd twist: It’s the exact same teams from the 2011 preseason. Shucks. [Chris Pokorny/Dawgs By Nature]
To close it out for the morning, here’s what’s next for the Buckeyes’ men’s basketball team: “With Sullinger’s announcement, there are now at least two starters that will not return for next year as guard William Buford has used up his four years of eligibility. … There’s also one problem. Matta’s recruiting class for 2012 is zero.” [Matt Barker/Buckeye Banter]
4 Comments
How has Matta not recruited anyone? How is this possible?
Welcome back Jacob!
And recruiting is what Matta is supposed to be good at, because it sure isn’t in-game coaching.
He did only have one roster spot opening up for sure.