Now that the NBA’s moratorium on signings and trades has (finally) been lifted, teams have begun to announce to the public deals the public has known about for weeks.

Tuesday, Cavaliers GM Danny Ferry talked about his summer spending spree that resulted in new deals with Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Larry Hughes and Donyell Marshall. “It’s been a successful free agency period. Each guy brings us something different and should help us be competitive. We’re trying to build a team-first attitude. I think these guys will all play that way.” Ferry also made it clear that Hughes was the team’s first choice, not Michael Redd or Ray Allen, to step in as the starting shooting guard. “His ability to play and defend different positions, I think, is going to be of great value. He’s 26 years old and his best years are ahead of him.”

While I’m not sure I believe the talk about Hughes being the top choice (they seemed to go after Redd pretty hard), I do believe Hughes is a better fit for this team, especially in light of the Donyell Marshall signing. I have to admit that I wasn’t very optimistic about the Ferry hire initially, but he’s done an excellent job so far, getting the guys he wanted to get and filling some gaping holes in the process. Plus, he’s still got a little change jingling around in his pocket, perhaps enough to sign an offensive point guard to share the load with Eric Snow. Meanwhile, the more I think about it, the more keeping Drew Gooden makes some sense. Don’t get me wrong — there’s also a compelling argument to be made for trading him — but at this point I think they’ll be fine whether Gooden’s in Cleveland next year or not.

Bob Wickman made it interesting but in the end, the Indians beat the visiting Yankees 6-5 Tuesday night. Victor Martinez continued to sizzle, going 2-3 with a home run and an RBI single, while Ronnie Belliard drove in three runs and Grady Sizemore tallied two hits and stole a base. Scott Elarton delivered a decent performance considering the opponent, yielding three runs on four hits in six innings, but after Arthur Rhodes and Bobby Howry surrendered single runs in the seventh and eighth, Wickman allowed the tying run to reach second base before getting Derek Jeter to ground to second for the final out of the game.

It was a significant win for the Indians, moving them to within 1.5 games of the Yankees in the wild card race, five behind front-runner Oakland. The question is, will they follow through tomorrow and Thursday? It seems that, whenever this team has been faced with the opportunity to improve their playoff chances, they fail. Let’s hope that trend ends this week.