While We’re Waiting… Browns Minicamp, Second-Round Picks, Chun Chen, Detroit’s Woes

It’s Friday, you all like sports and so do we. Thus, to celebrate this momentous occasion and our shared passion for all things Cleveland, here are some lovely links we thought you might enjoy. You know the drill: Share your thoughts in the comment section. Email us your suggestions for tomorrow’s WWW at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.

This is a nice compilation of reports from recent activity over at Browns minicamp: “Based on the way things sounded, if you had walked up to minicamp and caught the beginning of practice, Brandon Weeden would not have looked like a very competent quarterback. Burge notes that he horribly underthrew a ball early on, and cornerback Dimitri Patterson baited him into another throw. Colt McCoy, on the other hand, was deemed as having a “solid practice” by Ulrich.” [Chris Pokorny/Dawgs By Nature]

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Another mock draft has us landing this UNC product: “4. CLEVELAND CAVALIERS: Harrison Barnes – The Robinson situation is interesting because both the Wizards and Cavaliers invested top-6 picks in power forwards in 2011. If Charlotte passes on him, he could slip right down to No. 5. Cleveland most assuredly would prefer MKG or Beal here, but Barnes is the next best non-PF and — more importantly — is not Andre Drummond, who like 2011 pick Tristan Thompson is a project.” [Tom Ziller/SB Nation]

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For those that love NBA Draft scouting reports, I’ve got two for you today. First is a nice Draft Express video looking at UCONN guard Jeremy Lamb, with help from head coach Jim Calhoun.

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Then, I also have heard many people linking the Cavs to Syracuse center Fab Melo later in the draft. Rush The Court posted a nice profile on Melo yesterday as well.

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Again, great stuff from Brendan about the Cavs and the draft. Yesterday, he looked at our No. 33 and No. 34 picks: “High second round picks are valuable in the sense that a team could take a chance on a first round talent who may have slipped through into the 2nd round without having to offer a guaranteed contract. Most times, however, 2nd round picks don’t the team. Isaiah Thomas doing what he did for the Sacramento Kings this past season as pick no. 60 in last year’s Draft is most definitely an exception. What the Cavaliers could do with these two picks is find one guy who can become a quality rotation player / fringe starter over the next few seasons in my opinion. Essentially two chances to hit on one player. The other option is to select one or two European players, stash them overseas for a while, and see what happens from there.” [Brendan Bowers/Stepien Rules]

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I agree with this assessment of Indians prospect Chun Chen. It’s been disappointing to see the catcher-turned-first baseman struggle with the Aeros: “With the potential to develop into a fringe-average receiver, Cleveland kept him behind the plate until 2012 but appears to have mostly abandoned the idea of keeping him behind the plate. He’s appeared in just five games as a catcher, as well as 32 at first base and 16 at DH. His power has chosen a bad time to disappear given that there has now been a higher expectation placed on the development of his bat. The 23-year-old right-handed hitter is looking more and more like a bench bat and third-string catcher.” [Marc Hulet/FanGraphs]

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To end today, I’ve got two posts that aren’t directly related to Cleveland, but are still fun reads for the NE Ohio sports fan. First, here’s a nice look at why the Tigers maybe have been so mediocre so far. The keys are 2B and RF: “Based on the above data, the difference between an average second baseman and what the Tigers have had this year is about 2.9 WAR (2.2 + 0.7) which is a lot for two months of play. Thus, if the Tigers had an average second baseman, they would be about three wins better which would put them one game above .500 and two and a half games out of first place. That’s still not great, but it would have put them in a little better position than they are now. … The Tigers have been -1.7 WAR in right field. Add 0.7 (for an average right fielder) and we see that the Tigers could be 2.4 WAR better with an average right fielder. Suppose we round that up to three wins. Now, the Tigers have six more wins with an average second baseman and average right fielder. That would put them in first place.” [Lee Panas/Tiger Tales]

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Also, the San Diego Padres drafted Toledo QB Terrance Owens. And, no, he doesn’t play baseball: “Nope, Owens is the Rockets starting quarterback and has been for the past two seasons. He doesn’t play on the Rockets’ baseball team and while he played a little baseball in high school, he wasn’t considered a two-sport athlete. But somehow the Padres thought Owens might make a stellar left-handed pitching prospect. It’s a real shocker the Padres are in last place. Owens started his first game in 2010 after then-starter Austin Dantin suffered an injury. He started 12 of 13 games last year and completed a Toledo record 72.2 percent of his passes.” [Graham Watson/Dr. Saturday]