Cleveland Indians ink five-year broadcasting deal with Clear Channel
January 29, 2013WFNY Stats & Info: Luke Walton’s passing excellence
January 29, 2013While 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.
Which of Urban’s assistants are likely to get head coaching jobs soon– “Luke Fickell & Everett Withers. I’m including both of these guys because I think that one is dependent on the other. At some point, Fickell and Withers will be playing a game of head coaching chicken to see who will bolt for a MAC school first and leave the other as the sole proprietor of the title of defensive coordinator. The loss of either of these guys would hurt; Fickell is a very popular “player’s coach” who suddenly looked a lot more competent once Zach Boren move to linebacker and the team settled on a scheme to use, and Withers is an excellent recruiter with strong ACC country ties.
The real question isn’t “will one of them leave?”, it’s more “who will blink first?” For what it’s worth, my money is on Fickell. I think he wants to prove himself as a head coach at a program that’s slightly less in disarray than the OSU program he took over once Tressel was fired, and in truth he’s not Urban’s guy to begin with.” [Ginter/Eleven Warriors]
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“I am. In fact, the worst part about this season is that I can’t take pleasure in all the glorious Laker schadenfreude. But I’m enjoying this Cavalier squad. This is really the first year it has felt like watching a “rebuilding team” and not “leftover LeBron parts”. With Anthony Parker retired and Antawn Jamison involved in the aforementioned Laker clusterfuck, the only hold overs from the LeBron-era are Anderson Varejao and Boobie Gibson, and they’ve both missed major time due to injuries (which is SHOCKING).” [Cox/Fear the Sword]
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The NCAA investigative committee. Cue Yakety Sax– “Last week, we learned that NCAA investigators pole-vaulted over the line of legal propriety by obtaining information from a bankruptcy proceeding that had nothing to do with the association. According to a source who spoke to ESPN’s Joe Schad, the NCAA provided Shapiro’s attorney with questions to ask on its behalf. The attorney sent the NCAA a bill, because that is what attorneys do. (The lawyer also speculated that the NCAA might be trying to torpedo its own case, which seems unlikely, but who in the hell knows at this point.) And, in the Beyond, William Blackstone suffers a brief bout of projectile vomiting and takes to his bed.” [Pierce/Grantland]
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Bastian’s rotation predictions. In which every starter wins 12 games. “With these projections in hand, combined with the offensive numbers I compiled on Friday, I tried to come up with a reasonable expectation for a 2013 win total for the Indians. I looked at the combined rotation numbers, took the projected runs scored for the offense, and then compared the results to the past 50 years. Let me walk you through it.
While it is rare to have five pitchers each compile 180-plus innings (Cleveland has only had four-plus accomplish the feat in the same season twice in the past 23 years), the projected ERA that I came up with for Masterson, Jimenez, Myers, McAllister and Carrasco was 4.54. For argument’s sake, let’s say that is where Cleveland’s rotation ERA ends up for the season.” [Bastian/MLB.com]
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This is kind of bizarre– “You’ve heard of Indian petroglyphs? There’s a Native American artist named Nicholas Galanin who has an interesting riff on that phenomenon: He carves the Cleveland Indians logo into various surfaces and photographs the results, as you can see here, here, and here. “My sense is that it’s both a criticism of the white appropriation of Native names and imagery, and a reappropriation of it,” says Laurence Holland.” [Lukas/Uni-Watch]
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Seriously, this makes me want to hurl– “I had the opportunity to work under Newsome for four seasons in the Baltimore personnel department, and I learned many valuable lessons during this period of time. I learned that it’s important to build a team rather than just collect talent. I also learned the importance of adding tough-minded players. Ozzie always made a point to ask the important questions during NFL draft meetings. These were the two that he repeated most often: 1) “How will he fit in our locker room?” 2) “Does he help us beat the Pittsburgh Steelers?”
Newsome never got too carried away with height, weight or speed. He wanted football players. Period. That philosophy helps explain the makeup of this current Ravens roster. What follows is an in-depth look at the key acquisitions that formed this Baltimore team. For a chronological look at the entire team makeup, scroll to the bottom of the page.” [Jeremiah/NFL.com]
3 Comments
why we didn’t offer Ozzie the same deal Carmen Policy got in 1999 is something I will never be able to comprehend
He hadn’t won a Super Bowl yet. In fact, the Ravens were 4-12, 6-9-1, and 6-10. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for a GM.
what’s interesting about Ozzie’s penchant for guys who can just play over phyical specimens is that Ozzie himself was that off the charts specimen – bigger, stronger, faster than almost all other TEs. Of course, he could also ball a little at ‘bama.