Saturday, July 31, 2010

Indians

So let me get this straight. We traded away more players.. and they were all for "players to be named" and or cash. Now, I have no idea what goes on in baseball, but to an average fan, or someone who just checks the scores and knows some of the players on the team, and is happy when they hear that they won, etc.. Jesus Christ. It seems like the management or owners of the Indians are.. jackasses. I get that "prospects" are about the equivalent of "nfl draft picks" but.. my god. Is this not the equivalent of say... The Boston Celtics losing 10 games in a row, and their reaction is to trade KG, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, (but they would keep Rondo) and all they got back are draft picks?

How can the Indians expect anyone to care about the team? This makes no sense to me. We're clearly NOT TRYING TO WIN. Yes? If we trade away a player the second he shows a sign of life, how do they stand a chance? Someone explain this to me because I must be an idiot.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Cavs / Browns

Is Ramon Sessions any good? If so, he's our new point guard and Mo Williams is playing Shooting Guard. Delonte's gone, which is a shame, but only because I was looking forward to some "Gloria! Gloria!" chants from the crowd. Apparently Sessions and Williams played together on the Bucks and became friends, so that's always good.

We also sent Sebastian Telfair to the Timberwolves and got back some really really tall guy. But I think he's just really tall - no clue if he's any good.

So as of this second, we're going into the season with this lineup:

Sessions/Gibson
Williams/Eyenga/Green
Nobody/Eyenga/Moon
Hickson/Jamison
Varejao/Tall Guy From TWolves

I really hope Eyenga is good. He has some killer highlight reels out there, and wasn't bad in the Summer League. Enough about the Cavs, let's get some simple Browns news going.

We signed Hardesty.. Four years. I don't think I've ever seen this guy in a game before, but he should have no problem impressing us as a Browns RB.

We've got McCoy for Four years. Is he our guy of the future? Can't wait to find out. He absolutely kicked ass in Texas and has the best name ever for a QB. Sounds like an action hero. "Colt McCoy" Yes? Well either way, hopefully he sits for a year or two, learns from January Jake, and comes in like Aaron Rodgers.

Jerome Harrison. Hopefully he picks right up where he left off.

Josh Cribbs and Seneca Wallace split in the backfield, no QB. There's a confusing as hell formation waiting to happen.

Massaquoi, Cribbs, Robiskie, Engram, Stucky at WR.. That'll work. No one needs to be double-covered though.. Could be trouble. But if January Jake is on, they'll be fine.

Watson at tight end - I still remember him saving a Pick Six by sprinting downfield and taking out that Cornerback at about the 2 yard line. Watson is a good player like that.

Same O-Line, Same Fullback.. To be honest I'm looking forward to this season. 7-8 wins sounds about right to me.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Lay off the Browns WRs

Stop telling me the Wide Receivers are the weakest part of the Browns team. I'm tired of hearing it. I'm not suggesting their good, I'm suggesting they're a completely overrated part of a football team.

Sure, every team wants the WRs that have freakish physical abilities; but those players also come with freakish attitudes. More importantly, the team the wins the Super Bowl every single year, does not always have the best WRs in the game. In fact, its almost always the complete opposite.

Look at past Super Bowl winning teams. The New England Patriots had absolute nobodies as their WRs, and won three times! The Saints had good ones, not great ones. Who did the Ravens have in 2000?? The Steelers have had good (not great; although Ward borders on great) WRs, the Giants had 1 good (not great) WR and a couple average ones. Sure, the Colts had great WRs and so did the Rams. But come one, it really is the exception more than the rule.

My point is, we can win 8 games this year with me as a WR if the rest of the team is improved. WRs are very dependent on the QB anyways, so the real focus here should be the QBs or more probably the defense. Defense has proven to win championships far more than the prima donnas known as Wide Receivers.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Changes to MLB

Since the Indians are on a 4 game winning streak...I'll post some thoughts on Major League Baseball.

If I were commissioner of the league, here are some immediate changes I would make:

  1. Change the All-Star game back to a true exhibition game. The fact that it determines the home field in the World Series is the worst idea in sports. Home field in the WS is determined by best regular season record...period!
  2. Get rid of Interleague play. At least on the general level. I could be okay with 1 to 2 series and that's it. Play the geographic rivals (Mets v Yankees/Indians v Red/Cubs v White Sox). Those are interesting to fans...nothing else is. Get the schedule evened out again.
  3. Add instant replay to calls on the bases. It doesn't take too long to look at a monitor and figure that out. But add one challenge per team so it doesn't get out of control. Keep balls and strikes called by the ump.
  4. Fix the divisions. Why does the American League have 15 teams and the National League has 17 teams?? So here's how i'd do it.
  • Move the Houston Astros to the AL West, making that 5 teams and creating a nice rivalry with the Texas Rangers. That evens the leagues, but I'd still make the next change just to keep things interesting for rivalry aspects.
  • Move the Kansas City Royals into the NL Central to compete with some teams closer to home. This might hurt because they'd lose the DH, but it hasn't worked for them so see if this can change things at all.
  • Move the Pittsburgh Pirates into the AL Central and give them a DH so they can try to turn their franchise around
I'd also start considering evening out the leagues again by either getting rid of the DH all together, or adding it to the NL. Then we can start discussing the salary cap. It's a necessary evil in baseball. I didn't include the salary in the above numbers because this will be the hardest thing to get past the owner.

The next commissioner needs to be a 'non-owner'. Bud Selig was a former owner and he is just too invested in the owners of baseball and not the fans. The fans pay the bills in the long run, make them happy.

Monday, July 12, 2010

LeBron: Go F Yourself

I know this is so last week, but here's my take on LeBron.

"I feel like we saw a different person from the playoffs on, and a really different person this past week." -My dad. And he's exactly right. It's now painfully obvious that LeBron quit in the playoffs. And I think I was the only one who stuck up for him, saying things like, "His elbow has to be destroyed," or "It's probably killing him to lift his arm up and now he's trying to run things from the court." It's now crystal clear that he didn't want to be there and was done with the Cavs. His mind was somewhere else. It could very well have been on the thought of teaming with Wade and Bosh in Miami, since Bosh let it slip a couple days ago that they've been talking about this "for months" then later in the interview switched it to "for days."

Or maybe it was about Delonte and Gloria? Someone I know ran into a certain Cavs player's bodyguard and asked straight up if the Delonte - LeBron's mom thing was true. The bodyguard said "It is absolutely true." This was back in May. When LeBron was standing around, doing nothing in the Boston series, was he too busy keeping an eye on his mom and making sure Delonte was still on the bench? LeBron probably went to the Cavs, said "Get this guy out of here," and they probably said no. "No, we're trying to win a championship."

I guess its obvious LeBron never cared about this city, and I don't think he has a clue about what he just did. In his mind, I think he just switched teams. He's clearly never heard about "The Drive" or "The Fumble".. So he goes and calls his show, "The Decision." But I don't think that's worthy to add to our list. This was manufactured. The others were just bad luck. Hopefully there's some sort of karma here, where manufacturing our latest heartbreak breaks the curse and this follows you to Miami.

LeBron, I'd rather see Boston and LA win the next 10 titles than to see you win one after this. You took the easy way out and I hope it backfires in every possible way. I hope your elbow is f*cked. I hope you go down in history as another Scottie Pippen. LePippen. Nothing against Pippen when I say this, but LeBron, you're now the guy who couldn't get it done. You had to go run to your friends and form a super group. I'll give you credit that this clearly isn't about the money for you. You left a lot of Cavs' money on the table to do this. So I know this IS all about winning a championship for you. But in the process, you've also just killed your legacy. You could've been a legend here, and that would've translated to a legend world-wide. You could've done an incredible thing for this city. You could've broken our curse. How long did it take your idol Jordan to win his championships? Seven years. That's exactly how long you stayed with the Cavs. So what, you were a year off. Well, maybe we finally had a team around you that could get it done. BUT, they couldn't get it done without you. Maybe that six year, max deal with the Cavs, and a bit more work with the roster would've given you your six championships? We'll never know, because you turned out to be the least classy person in the NBA. I hate you more than Boozer. I hate you more than Rasheed Wallace. More than Paul Pierce, More than Ray Allen, More than Rondo. I hope your little experiment fails and you three ass clowns become the laughing stock of the NBA for creating a freak show. Have fun knowing that you went from future legend to sidekick, and in the process you stabbed an entire city in the back.

How simple would it have been to quietly let the Cavs know you were leaving them, thanking the fans for all their support, letting us know we meant so much to you. Instead, you go with "The Decision." One hour, prime time, on ESPN. I was holding out hope that this whole production was so that everyone in Cleveland could hear something along the lines of, "I messed up last season, my mind was in other places, my elbow was hurting, and I'm sorry I let you all down. I will be back next season, and for several seasons after that and we will get it done."

Instead, we get a heartless, soulless interview, ending with "I'm going to the Miami Heat."

F*ck You, you out of touch, immature, piece of sh*t. I hope you take this curse with you, you arrogant asshole. You know who's always going to have more rings than you, and thus will go down in history as being better than you? Dwyane Wade. You alright with going down in history as being second best to Dwyane Wade? But I honestly hope that you go your entire NBA career without a single championship and you go down in history as the guy who tried to take the easy way out. And now I hope the Cavs get the job done without you. Now the championship will be even sweeter. And we have a half decent team right now without you. We've got a good core. We keep the right people, trade the right people, and we'll still be competitive.

I've got nothing left to say about LeBron, it's all right here. So I'll close this with my overall feelings on the matter: Go F*ck Yourself, way to steal Mario Chalmers' number, you c*cksucker.

Friday, July 9, 2010

The big announcement on Thursday night...

The Cleveland Browns signed veteran WR Bobby Engram!!!

Here we go Brownies, here we go. Woof Woof

Super Bowl here we come!!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

LeBron's leaving

I'm of the belief that where there's smoke, there's fire. I can't see the special that airs tonight on ESPN being anything other than a failed attempt at LeBron apologizing to Cleveland.

He's making the Cleveland fans look like fools, and bringing unwanted attention and embarrassment to them. No matter what the outcome of the show is tonight, this was the wrong approach to handle the situation. Nobody is bigger than the game, please respect the game enough to just have a press conference to announce your decision.

I don't care that he wants to go to Miami. Just go, don't drag Cleveland's face through the mud on your way out the door. That's uncalled for. You can have all the one hour TV shows you want in Miami, don't put this on National TV.

I've never gotten too sucked in to Lebron and his antics. Maybe its because I was never a huge basketball fan. But I'll be okay no matter what. I don't need your apology on ESPN tonight. I'm not a 6 yr old, you don't have to console me after you give me bad news.

The sun will come up tomorrow in Cleveland, and life will go on without you. Please just sign your contract and leave us alone from now on. Its been real, its been great; but it hasn't been really great.

Jim Brown's lawsuit

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5359701

Ha ha. This is funny. Does Jim Brown really think he's got a shot at winning this? As long as your name isn't on a jersey in the game, you can't win this fight. He must be broke, I can't imagine why he waited 15 years or so to finally sue EA sports over his likeness. He's been in every game since they started creating historical teams.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Madden 011 Ratings

The Player Ratings for the teams have been released for Madden 011.. And I must say, through no fault of the Cleveland Browns, this is the least excited I've been for a football game since I started playing Madden. Backbreaker is why. The next game I'm looking forward to is Backbreaker 2, or whatever it will be called. I just hope it has support.

Anyways. The Madden 011 ratings:

Ben Watson is our best receiver at 78. Cribbs is tied with him. Cribbs does have a 90some Swagger rating, which means god knows what. I'll assume something about deodorant. Perhaps part of the training regime we'll have to come up with involves using Old Spice? Our rookie, Carlton Mitchell is not in the game.

Backs: Vickers is an 88. Harrison is an 83. Hardesty is a 74. That's fine.

Quarterbacks: Delhomme is a 74, Wallace is a 73, McCoy is a 71. These are the exact same set of numbers Frye, Anderson, and Quinn got back in 2007.

Guards: Joe Thomas is a 95, Steinbach is a 91. Mack is an 87.

Linebackers: D'qwell is an 85, Everyone else is in the 70s, and the Hawaiians are in the 60s.

Linemen: Rogers is a 93, everyone else is in the 70s.

Corners: Brown and Wright are in the upper 80s, Haden's in the upper 70s.

The player on our team with the most Swagger is Josh Cribbs. Something tells me that this rating is going to be important, and that's retarded. The first time I see a player score a touchdown, and then put on deodorant in the endzone, I will immediately return this game and wish hell upon the developers.

Maybe Swagger means how much they're able to avoid suction blocking on the field?