Go Cavs!

Go Cavs! I heart JJ Hickson.

Hello

I don't know if anyone is still checking this blog, maybe through an RSS reader or something. Anyway, it was funny to read the latest post and exchange again after seven months and 102 games - what a different baseball landscape!

The Tribe in a quasi-rebuilding mode. Lee the leading Cy Young candidate in the AL. The Tigers struggling to remain competitive in a weak division. Willis in the minors (!). Detroit's lineup good but not at all great. The Marlins nominally competitive, with HR god Dan Uggla and some pitchers not named Miller being the main reasons. Cabrera and Guttierez both around or below the Mendoza line. Andy Marte with more dingers than Hafner and V-Mart combined (or something.)

Weird.

Where are the Tiger fans?

24 hours later, I'm still flabbergasted by the Marlins/Tigers trade. I'm really interested to know what Tiger fans, and baseball for that matter, think of the trade. I can't imagine Detroit fans would have anything negative to say on the subject. I have a few thoughts and questions about the trade, teams and the state of baseball. Please, if anyone still reads this blog, respond.

• I give major propers to Dave Dombrowski for having the stones to pull off what the Angels and others were afraid to - namely trade a bunch of young talent. I'm not going to say he gave up the farm system because it's much larger than six guys. However, Maybin, Miller, de la Cruz, and the others are major prospects not mid-level.
  


• How will Dontrelle Willis do in the varsity league? He's a tremendous talent, but I foresee a lengthy acclamation period. It simply takes pitchers time to adjust to new hitters (i.e. Beckett).

• Meanwhile, as Willis adjusts Cabrera will be mashing in the middle of the best line-up in the majors. The thought of Tribe pitchers facing this murderers row 19 times next season makes my stomach hurt. The projected line-up: Granderson, Polanco, Sheffield, Cabrera, Ordonez, Guillen, Renteria, Rodriguez, and Jones. Disgusting!

• Shouldn't the Marlins be contracted? They're a day care center for major league talent! Teams send their youngsters to Miami for about three seasons. They go through growing pains and mature against average competition. Eventually they're ready for school (the AL), and the Marlins ship them north in exchange for more babies. Soon Hanley Ramirez, Dan Uggla, and Anibel Sanchez will be ready for first grade and will need to leave the comfort of the Florida child rearing service. Welcome Camryn Maybin! Now go play with some blocks.

Scottie Pippen, basketbollspelare

I read today on TrueHoop that Scottie Pippen will play a game for a team in sweden this winter. Jake and Phoebe should get tickets now.

Big three?

I don't understand it.

When I was a little kid, I liked the Celtics, #33 and all that. And then they sucked, like unwatchably sucked for years. And now they are promising again. I should be psyched. But instead I find myself rooting against them. Why?

The culture of failure

I figure we might as well start a new thread for last night's game, which was really one of the hardest heartbreaks I can remember for this team, even if it isn't a huge deal from the perspective of the season as a whole. A beautiful game for Lebron (and again, encouraging in its way - being able to play to the final moments on the road, against an elite team, on the second night of a back-to-back has to say something), but my god what a failure on that last play. Deron Williams is strong and quick but there's no excuse for not having defended him at halfcourt. One he's in the paint, you have to be a bit reluctant because you don't want to foul, but fucking get in front of him when he's fifty feet from the basket. Make him throw a risky pass. Don't let him coast in for a layup. Is this not obvious? Lebron's instinct was correct to get all the way back on D, but someone has to press, if not two guys. It's a shame that they wasted a good game and a solid comeback effort on one stupid lapse.

Not that the game was perfect. The free throw problem is eating me alive. The Cavs were a pathetic 19 of 29 from the stripe. Lebron missed two early in the game and I thought to myself, this is exactly the kind of thing that haunts you in the final minutes, when a couple of free baskets in an early, low-pressure situation could have put you in control right now. In fact, Lebron was the only one to blame tonight - 7 of 15! When you shoot 40-45% percent from the floor, taking a fair number of outside shots, that just does not make sense. The turnovers were also an issue, but that concerns me less since I think it was just the texture of the game. The Jazz had almost as many.

Maybe girls are right that you need to drink organtic milk. (Clearly the perfect conclusion to any blasketblog post.)

What's a Man to Do?

Somehow Cavs GM Danny Ferry has become a local and, somewhat, national villain. NBA writers and most local fans are anticipating a difficult start for the Cavs for two reasons. First, their brutal early schedule. That's already been well document on this blasketblog.

Second is the absence of Andy Varejeo. Let me make one thing clear: Varejeo is worth, maybe, four million dollars annually. He's asking for ten million. Sir, you're welcome to spend the season in Europe, Asia, or on any other continent willing to give a big man of limited abilities ten million dollars a year. We don't need you for that price.

That brings me back to Danny Ferry. Somehow he's been blamed for Varejeo's absence as well as the underwhelming performance of the Cavs free agent class of 2005. At that time, Ferry was praised for bringing in Hughes, Jones and Marshall. Their fragility and erratic performances have nothing to do with Ferry! Now, all of a sudden, people are leaping all over him.

National writers and fans alike need to chill the fuck out. The consensus is that Ferry and the Cavs did nothing this offseason. That's because he, Ferry, had no resources to work with this offseason. The team had zero draft picks, due in no part to Ferry. They have no tradeable pieces outside of Boobie Gibson and he's untouchable.

Of course they also had zero salary cap room for free agents. I don't blame Ferry. I applauded Ferry for his '05 moves. So did most national writers. And those writers can't have it both ways! They can't laud Ferry for his aggressiveness in '05 and rip him for not spending in '07. The NBA salary cap doesn't work that way.

I guess in closing I will simply suggest everyone, fans and writers alike, relax, lay off poor Danny Ferry and allow the team to play. They will win or lose with virtually the same squad as '06. And that's not the bad thing some make it out to seem. Maybe Andy comes to his senses and tells his brother, who's his agent, to go fuck himself. On second thought, that won't happen. I hope you like Greece Varejeo.