Author: JEC (Page 3 of 46)

Ferry, Gilbert now working with a four-year plan

July 11, 2006 / JEC

If the reports are true about LeBron James agreeing to a three-year extension with a player option for a fourth season, instead of the max five-year deal, things at the Q are about to get very interesting.

If he were to decline his player option after the 2009-10 season, James would move into a higher salary bracket. As a seven-year veteran, he would be able to sign a contract paying up to 30 percent of a team’s salary cap, as opposed to his current ceiling of 25 percent.

Okay, so financially, this move makes sense for LeBron since he would be able to sign an even bigger contract once those three years run out, but let’s not kid ourselves: there’s much more than money motivating this decision for LBJ. He’s a loyal guy and, as I’ve stated before, I believe him when he says he wants to stay in Cleveland for his entire career. But wanting to stay and being compelled to stay are two very different things.

The Cavaliers aren’t getting a free pass here, no hometown discounts and no benefits of the doubt. LeBron wants to win, especially after his buddy Dwayne Wade hoisted the championship trophy over his head last month. If his player option comes up in four years and LeBron’s not happy with the direction of the franchise, he’ll bolt, hometown roots be damned. Playing at home for your entire career is a great story but it’s an incomplete story if there’s no championship involved. If LBJ can’t get his ring here, he’ll get it somewhere else.

Which puts the pressure squarely on Danny Ferry and Dan Gilbert. Ferry came from San Antonio, a franchise that placed high value on big men in the middle. Hey, that philosophy works great if you’ve got David Robinson and Tim Duncan on your roster, and if you don’t have arguably the best player on the planet at small forward. Zydrunas Ilgauskas has his moments and he’s always been a fan favorite, especially once he kicked his foot problems and became one of the better low-post scorers in the East. Unfortunately, he doesn’t fit here.

The NBA has been tightening up its rules on contact, which favors athletic teams that run, like the Suns. With the talent they have, the Cavs could be a very good up-tempo team, pushing the ball aggressively up the floor looking for high-percentage shots. The only problem is, your starting center is about as up-tempo as a funeral procession. Dude can’t run. In fact, you don’t want dude to run because every time he does, he looks like a wounded giraffe galloping down the court and you’re sure that, one of these times, he’s going to lose his balance, topple over and break his wrist, ankle or, even worse, his foot.

Z is built for the half-court game but the Cavaliers are built for the run-and-gun game. If LeBron, Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Donyell Marshall and Shannon Brown (yeah, I’m excited about this guy) were on the run all game, they’d be one of the most explosive offensive teams around. But they’ve got Z holding them back.

Even worse, the front office has Z’s contract holding them back for another four years. The Larry Hughes contract is almost as bad but, assuming he’s healthy, he’s still a much better fit on this team than Z. The Cavs need an athletic big man who can run, block shots and play solid D in the post more than they need a stationary guy with a great low-post game who’s a liability in transition and mediocre at best defensively.

So what to do? The Dans need to figure out how to clear Z’s contract off the books and start building an athletic roster top to bottom. Would they even be able to move Z? I’m sure someone out there who’s enamored with offensive-minded centers would love to have him; question is, who is that and what are they willing to give up in return?

These next four years are the most important four years in franchise history, without question. Ferry and Gilbert can’t afford to make any mistakes, and they can’t let past mistakes continue to haunt them. Every contract they take on needs to contribute to this four-year plan, every rookie they draft needs to fit the system, and every dollar they spend has to bring them one step closer to an NBA title.

The Cavaliers don’t necessarily have to win a championship by the time LeBron’s option year comes up, though that certainly would improve their chances of keeping him beyond 2010. Instead, when it comes time for LeBron to either re-up or bolt for greener big-market pastures, the Cavaliers need to be one of the NBA’s elite franchises, a team on the shortest list of title contenders each year and one that LeBron is confident will one day soon bring home a championship.

So let’s see what you’ve got, Ferry and Gilbert. It’s on you now. You’ve got four years to convince LeBron that this is, in fact, where he wants to be. And not to add any unwanted pressure, but an entire city is counting on you.

Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James

You can’t pin this one on the front office

July 10, 2006 / JEC

Judging by some of the comments I�ve seen here, it seems a lot of people are holding Mark Shapiro accountable for the Tribe�s problems this year. It�s nice to see that most of us, as evidenced by our current poll, believe the players are more to blame than the front office but, nonetheless, several readers have been griping about some of Shapiro�s moves heading into the season. Specifically, Brandon Phillips, Coco Crisp, Kevin Millwood and Bob Howry.

First, Phillips, who�s having an exceptional rookie season for the Reds, hitting .306 with 7 homers, 44 RBI and 16 steals in 17 attempts. Would it be nice to have him doing that up north instead? Absolutely, but where were the Indians going to play him? In place of Belliard? Peralta? No. There was NO ROOM for Phillips here, and while it’s easy to say Shapiro screwed up now that he�s playing so well in Cincinnati, Phillips gave the Tribe absolutely no reason to include him in their long-term plans. They’d been waiting for him to develop for years and this spring, because he was out of options and therefore couldn’t be sent back to the minors, they were faced with a tough choice with Phillips. Had they kept him, he would’ve played maybe once a week in a utility role, and I can guarantee with that kind of activity he wouldn’t be hitting the ball the way he is now in a starting role with the Reds.

In fact, people are whining about Coco (still) but why are they so bitter about that trade? Because the Tribe gave up a good major leaguer for a great minor leaguer? So what, should the Indians have benched/traded/released Belliard or Peralta to make room for a guy who never showed any production within the system and reportedly never made much of an effort to improve? How much sense does that make, and how much heat would Shapiro have taken (from the same people bitching about the Coco trade) for getting rid of a productive major leaguer for an unproven kid? Sure, it would’ve been nice to see them get more for Phillips but, the fact of the matter is, he wasn’t WORTH more at the time. The Reds rolled the dice and it paid off for them. If the Indians had kept Phillips, he�d be wasting away on their bench or they would�ve cut him by now anyway. Either way, his breakthrough season wasn�t happening in Cleveland. Get over it.

As for Coco, wow, a quick look at his numbers tells me he really would�ve made a difference this season:

Crisp: 183 AB, .268, 4 HR, 14 RBI, 8 SB, .313 OBP

How do those stellar stats compare to Coco�s replacement in left and in the second spot in the lineup, Jason Michaels?

Michaels: 265 AB, .268, 6 HR, 26 RBI, 5 SB, .330 OBP

Granted, Coco missed several weeks with a broken knuckle and Michaels hasn�t been the on-base machine that he was advertised to be, but these guys look pretty damn interchangeable to me. People cited an expected jump in Coco�s power numbers as one of the reasons they objected to the trade but it�s obvious he hasn�t been doing much of anything for the Sox. In fact, Boston moved him out of the leadoff slot and now has him hitting in the bottom third of the order. Would the numbers look different if Coco was still in Cleveland? Probably. But at the same time, it seems pretty clear to me that he�s not the kind of �irreplaceable� player many fans claimed (and still claim, apparently) he was at the time of the deal.

How about Millwood and Howry? Well, it�s tough to really gauge the Howry situation. The Cubs agreed to pay him $12 million over three years, which is pretty steep for a set-up guy. Still, looking at the Indians� bullpen woes this year, it�s all too easy to say things would be different if the Tribe had kept Howry. He�s won three games for the Cubs, saved two, struck out 40 batters in 43 innings and sports a 3.12 ERA. Would those numbers look nice in the eighth inning here? Absolutely, especially considering the problems Guillermo Mota and Fernando Cabrera have had this year. But relievers can be very difficult to predict from one year to the next. For proof, check out Cabrera�s numbers last year to his numbers this year (2-1, 1.47 ERA, 29 strikeouts in 30 innings / 1-1, 6.46 ERA, 33 strikeouts [and 20 walks] in 30 innings), or Mota�s from 2004 to Mota�s in 2005 (9-8, 3.07 ERA, 85 strikeouts in 96 innings / 2-2, 4.70 ERA, 60 strikeouts in 67 innings), or Howry�s from 2002 to his next healthy season in 2004 with the Tribe (3-5, 4.19 ERA, 45 strikeouts in 68 innings / 4-2, 2.74 ERA, 39 strikeouts in 42 innings). As we�ve seen, your bullpen can be great one year and awful the next, and that�s because relievers can be great one year and awful the next. Putting $4 million a year into a 32-year-old reliever with a history of arm problems wasn�t the right move last November and it isn�t the right move now.

And speaking of giving too much money to aging pitchers with lengthy injury histories, as much as I wanted the Indians to resign Millwood, and as much as I wasn�t thrilled with the Paul Byrd signing to replace Millwood, again, letting the Rangers give him $60 million over five years was without question the right move. Shall we look at the numbers?

Millwood: 8-5, 4.83 ERA, 134 hits and 75 strikeouts in 110 innings pitched
Byrd: 6-6, 4.31 ERA, 112 hits and 59 strikeouts in 102 innings pitched

Again, pretty damn interchangeable. Would having Millwood instead of Byrd have us competing with the Tigers and White Sox in the Central? For that matter, would having Millwood, Coco, Howry and Phillips have us up there? Maybe we�re a little better than 40-47 at this point, but not much. In fact, the only one out of this group who conceivably, when comparing the numbers, would�ve made much of a difference this year is Howry, and at the end of the day, how many wins is one reliever worth?

So while it may be easy to pin this lost season on the front office in general and Shapiro in particular, let�s get real. There�s more than enough talent on this roster for the team to be at least 10 games higher in the standings, but they�re not living up to that potential. Before you go blaming Shapiro for this mess, let�s not forget that he�s the one who went out and got Travis Hafner, Grady Sizemore and Cliff Lee, among others. He built this team back into contention several years sooner than anyone thought possible. He�s avoided getting stuck with awful contracts (Millwood and Thome, to name two). If there�s one thing I can blame him for, it�s sticking with Aaron Boone this long rather than calling up Andy Marte, but doing that raises the white flag on 2006 and I imagine that�s a tough thing to do when you�re talking about a team whose talent isn�t translating into wins.

Cleveland Indians

What’s the holdup?

July 4, 2006 / JEC

‘Melo and Wade have both signed, so why hasn’t LeBron? Sitting on a max extension offer from the Cavaliers, LeBron James has yet to let the team or its antsy fans know if he plans on accepting the deal. Heading into the offseason, everyone assumed the extension was a mere formality and that LeBron meant it when he said he had absolutely no intention of leaving.

So why hasn’t he signed?

I’m not jumping the gun and saying LeBron won’t sign, though I also won’t lie and say that the thought doesn’t scare the daylights out of me. Still, LeBron seems like a genuine guy, and when he says he wants to stay, I believe him. (Then again, I also believed Jim Thome.)

Since the Cavs aren’t going to do anything less than offer LeBron the max allowable money, this delay would seem to be about more than dollars and cents. A blogger on our sister site, The Scores Report, wonders if LeBron wants more say in front-office decisions, and that certainly wouldn’t surprise me, but I think there’s something else going on.

LeBron’s agent, Leon Rose, wants the Cavaliers to know exactly who’s in charge here, and while LBJ is saying all the right things about building a championship team in Cleveland, that doesn’t mean he won’t bolt if he’s not happy. So Rose took care of his newest client, #1 pick Andrea Bargnani, first and he’s also dealing with the Allen Iverson trade drama. You can take your time when you’re sitting in the power position, which is exactly where LeBron and Rose are because the Cavs need LeBron but LeBron doesn’t need the Cavs. Rose wants to make sure everyone involved understands that.

Still, I doubt LeBron will wait too much longer before announcing his intentions. A week or two? Fine. Maybe he’ll hold off until Chris Bosh, the last remaining big name from the ’03 draft class, is locked up, showing up fashionably late to the extension party. Fine, I can handle that. Just don’t drag it out, don’t make us sweat. If you really want to stay, stall to make your point but then show your commitment by inking the deal. Then we can all sleep easy.

Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James

Play in the mud…for charity

June 29, 2006 / JEC

The 21st annual Mud & Grass Volleyball and Mud Dodgeball Tournament to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association will be held Saturday, July 22 beginning at 9:00 a.m. at the Cuyahoga County Airport in Richmond Heights, Ohio. More than 4,500 players, spectators and volunteers are expected to participate in the event. Children and adults come from miles around to play or just watch, enjoy good food and music and help kids with neuromuscular diseases.

For more information on this immensely popular event, including team fees and sign-up instructions, click here.

Cleveland Chatter

Sauerbeck runs and hides from cops

May 30, 2006 / JEC

You can’t make this stuff up:

Cleveland Indians pitcher Scott Sauerbeck was arrested early Tuesday after he and a woman fled from his vehicle and were found hiding behind bushes, police said.

Sauerbeck, 34, of nearby Avon, was the passenger in his car, which a patrolman saw weaving. The vehicle pulled into a driveway and the driver, Lily Miller, and Sauerbeck got out, walked into the backyard and jumped a fence, according to a police report.

The owner of the house reported hearing voices outside and police found Sauerbeck and Miller hiding between the home and some bushes.

Miller reportedly blew a 0.253, more than three times the legal limit, and faces DUI and obstructing official business charges. Sauerbeck, meanwhile, was charged with obstructing official business and wrongful entrustment, apparently for allowing someone who was shit-canned drunk to drive his car.

All of which makes you wonder: If letting Miller drive was the best option available, exactly how smashed was Sauerbeck?