Update, long time coming

Fair readers, we at DoubleWahoo apologize profusely for the insane dearth of posts recently. Although you number few in readership (approximately 2 at last subscription renewal), I have received multiple comments about my lack of progress in updating the world on Cleveland sports, UVA sports, and other stuff that I feel like talking about. So here it is.

The Browns got two of the 5 highest rated players in this years draft, OT Joe Thomas, and QB Brady Quinn. Those two guys also fill 2 of the 5 positions on a team that pundits say make a winning club, left tackle, defensive end, QB, wide receiver, and cornerback. Speaking of corners, the Browns also picked up Eric Wright out of UNLV, who apparently has first round talent, but had some character issues, so he fell to the Brownies in the second round. Personally I’m not worried about character when Romeo Crennel is around. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy you mess with. This draft could go down as the turning point of this franchise, and golly let’s hope so.

In terms of franchises that had their turning points a while ago and are now reaping the rewards, the Indians are atop the American League Central at the end of April. Despite missing 4 games with Seattle due to snow, and having to play three “home” games in Milwaukee, the Tribe posted a 14-8 record for the month of April, and worst case scenario will have a 1 game lead entering the month of May. Here’s some keys to the team thus far.

• They’re winning series: The only series defeat came in a sweep to the Yankees at Yankee stadium against three pitchers the Tribe has never seen before, and with Victor who has been the best hitter with runners in scoring position on the team. The final game should’ve been a win after Fausto pitched a gem, but Borowski came in and choked in the ninth. Not even a save oppurtunity.
• Despite Borowski’s choke in the Bronx, the bullpen has been more successful this season thus far. Cabrera is re-emerging as an unhittable back of the bullpen option. Found it interesting the other day to read an article that in the last two seasons, Cabrera’s slider has been the most unhittable pitch in all of baseball. He misses bats with that pitch around 60% of the time. In ‘05, by far his more effective season, he missed bats close to 3/4 of the time with his slider. Gross. What’s different this year? He has confidence. He goes out there, throws his sinking fastball for strikes, gets ahead of the hitters, and then makes them look stupid with his splitter and slider.
• Some kind of weird, elusive, winning mojo. They’re winning the one run games and extra inning games that didn’t go their way last year.

Reasons the rest of the league could be in trouble?

• Lots of hitters for the Indians are still trying to hit their stride. Guys who are playing well: Grady, Pronk, Martinez, Garko, Nizon. Guys who are still trying to find themselves at the plate a bit: everyone else. That is scary, for a team who is second in runs scored per nine innings to only be able to look up. In the recent win streak even, Grady and Vic had a little bit of a down turn with Hafner turning it on. Now he’s pressing a bit again, but Barfield and Blake are turning it up a bit. Let’s get this offense running on all cylinders and then everyone watch out.
• Cliff Lee is coming back, which means Fausto Carmona who beat Johan Santana and then gave up only 1 run in 8.3 innings against the Orioles has to go somewhere, which is scary. Few teams have six quality MLB starters in their pocket, and you need that many to get through the season, just ask the Yankees.

School is still going well, and we keep plugging along. Four more weeks, and then you loyal readers might see an increase in the rate of posting here.

That’s all for now.

Tribe starts season 2-0

On opening day, the Indians brought their bats. They scored 11 runs in the first three innings, including a 5 spot in the first en route to a 12-5 victory over the White Sox. It’s run production like that that has people picking the Indians as a playoff contender this year. In the second game of the season, the Indians came from behind all day after Jake Westbrook yielded a 3-run homerun in the bottom of the first, but prevailed with an 8-7 victory. Making these victories that much sweeter is the opponent: Chicago White Sox. For whatever reason, as an Indian’s fan I am very bitter towards the White Sox. I think it has a lot to do with their television announcer, Hawk Harrelson. He is an idiot. He was an OK player, a really crappy GM, and now the worst homer in all of baseball. For those unfamiliar with the term, homer means you root for your team and your team only. He is not excited about baseball at all unless the White Sox did something good. Granted, the home team announcer should be a little biased, rooting for his team etc., but Harrelson takes it to new heights. He practically shouts everything that happens for the White Sox and then barely mutters, in the most monotone voice, inserting extra pauses to show you how unexcited he is, whenever the Indians have a positive outcome. I stopped listening to him last year, but just seeing the White Sox station covering the game makes me think of his voice in my head and it almost ruins the game.

This writer is trying not to get overly excited about the first two games, but when you have performancs like todays by Victor and Hafner, you can’t help but get excited. Martinez was 4-4 today with two walks and is batting .750 so far this season. I know it’s only two games, but .750!?! Hafner drew 4 walks today, two of them intentional, the other two intentional unintentional walks. Grady Sizemore has hit two homeruns, one off of the second pitch of the season, and the other today with the Tribe down 1, a man on base, and a left handed pitcher in the game. Huge. Grady is hitting .400 to start the season. Just overall very happy about the Tribe. A few kinks that still need to be worked out, and the platoons aren’t able to substitute very well yet because the regulars against leftys haven’t gotten a chance to play. Once they get their swings under them I think this team could do great things.

While not thrilled with the bullpen today, they got the job done. Mastny came in for two batters and promptly retired them. Then on comes Fultz to get two batters (and surrender a walk), Betancourt on for two batters (with a walk), and then we get to the back-end of the bullpen. Hernandez is 42, still throws the ball 94, and you can tell has the swagger of a veteran. He gave up a leadoff double, but then sat down the next three. Joe Borowski looked to be having trouble finding the zone in the ninth, surrendering a lead-off walk to Darin Erstad, who then promptly stole second because Borowski wasn’t even pretending to hold him on. A strikeout of Jim Thome, then a walk to Paul Konerko, then a strike-out of Jermaine Dye, and then he gets Joe Crede on a full count, Crede gets a hold of one to left field, but Michaels tracks it down and cradles it into his abdomen as he’s falling on his tush to end the game.

Notes:

•  Sizemore is really pumped. He was very excited after his home run, and extremely excited about Michael’s catch. He may not be a very vocal leader, but he plays with a passion that is infectious.
•  The Indians squandered back to back bases loaded oppurtunities in the eighth and ninth innings. Would’ve been nice to see those converted, but, a win is a win.
•  The bottom of the order went a combined 4-19 with a walk. However, those four hits were one after another with Delucci getting a double, Peralta tripling him home, Barfield singling him home, and Marte crushing one to left. Good job by them that inning. Less impressive was Delucci, then Peralta, then Barfield getting struck out with the bases loaded. Followed by Marte and Sizemore in the next inning, and then Nixon gets the new rally going, which also wasn’t converted.
•  Alot of the walk drawing and giving has to be due to an extremely inconsistent strike zone called by the ump. He’s old, and I bet if you look up his computer rating, it was horrible.

Lots of hope going into this season. The bullpen got the job done, I won’t say they looked strong, but this loss is on the White Sox bullpen, not ours. A little better outing from Jake and this game wouldn’t have even been a contest.

Not a good day to be a Wahoo fan

A Wahoo fan of any kind.

In what was supposed to be his final start before the season begins, CC Sabathia, ace of the Tribe’s pitching staff, took a line-drive off of his forearm from Reed Johnson. This is bad news. Anyway you dice it, a bruise affects his control because it’s hard to use muscles when they’re in pain, and they don’t respond as well, a fracture means time off and more arm strengthening needed to get back. A bruise would hopefully be less time, although often guys will rush back if they don’t think there’s a big injury.

The other bad news is for fans who like to chant Wahoo-wa Wahoo-wa, Uni-v-virgin-ee-uh: Leading receiver from last season, Kevin Ogletree, will be sidelined this season with an ACL tear. He’ll likely have it repaired sometime soon, but this is bad news for the Hoos, who often have trouble putting together good offensive sets.

Whether their lack of offense is due to a no-nonsense offense that often runs the same play, or due to lack of playmakers, or just due to the youth of the line and well everyone last year, losing Ogletree is a big hit. He’s not a huge guy, but think Steve Smith, just not quite as good in all aspects of the game quite yet. Regardless, the next best receiver coming into this year was under 100 yards last season. That’s right, not game. Season. We’ll see how the Hoos rebound from this. The good news is the main receivers in the Cavalier’s offense are usually the tight ends, but it would help the Cavaliers out to have a deep threat and stretch the field.

So, here’s hoping CC isn’t hurt that bad, and Ogletree makes as full of a recovery as you can after tearing your ACL.

TiVo

And other things that might cause me to fail out of medical school. Only kidding. The key to being successful in professional school is to give yourself breaks every now and then, no one can go full bore forever. The problem is that sometimes the best time to take that break is 1:00 in the afternoon while you’re eating lunch…and what if you want to watch Sopranos from the night before, but there’s no re-run on? Well, the editors have now solved that problem for themselves, we don’t know about you, but we’re set now with TiVo.

For those unfamiliar, look it up online, you obviously are on the internet.

Anyway, in combination with the cable guys hooking up my HBO, I will now be able to get movies, and great HBO shows which can then be transfered to my laptop and burned for “archiving”. Great. I’m really stoked.

That’s it for now.

Second Round of the Tourney pt. 2 AKA the Cavs go Home

The Cavaliers took one on the chin today and were knocked out of post season play by the Volunteers of Tennessee. The editors here at Double Wahoo believe the outcome would have been different if JR Reynolds hadn’t come up gimpy on a twisted ankle; however, those are the breaks. Tennessee also hit their final 9 free throws after struggling at the line earlier in the game to earn their date with Ohio State University.

All four of the #1 seeds moved on, but the first 2 seed lost, in Wisconsin. They were outplayed by the Running Rebels of UNLV with their father son tandem, Kevin and Lon Kruger leading the way. 3 of the 4 5-seeds moved on (that’s a loaded sentence) with Virginia Tech being the only 5 seed to fall. They were also the final hope of the ACC getting a second team through to the Sweet 16. Instead, all hopes for the ACC ride on the shoulders of UNC.

Strongest conference in terms of Sweet 16 reps: tie between the SEC and Pac-10 with 3 a piece. The Big 12 and Big East each pushed through two teams, and the Big Ten and ACC join some other not so recognized conferences with only one team each in the round of 16. Overall a pretty poor showing for the ACC with 1 out of 7 advancing to the round of 16, but they had some tough match-ups along the way with teams that were under-rated due to playing in said “mid-major” conferences. Granted, UVA lost to Tennessee, an SEC school, but Maryland and VTech were both knocked out by solid mid-major schools, Butler and Southern Illinois respectively.

This further emphasizes why the NCAA men’s (and women’s) basketball tournaments truly are the best way to decide a national champion. Regardless of conference or division you are matched up in a bracket and you get to play your way to the next day. There’s nothing else an athelete could ask for. Much better than having to hope that a committee thinks that your 11-1 season is better than another team’s 11-1 season. Just a thing of beauty: the true winners shine.

Before everyone gets down on the Cavs, let’s remember they have two shooting guards coming in next year, Jeff Jones and Mustapha Farrakhan (yes, that Farrakhan) who are both bigger 2 guards (6′4″ each) who will provide a nice complement to SS in the backcourt. Zeglinski, Singletary’s replacement at both Penn Charter School and now UVA also comes in next year to learn the ropes, and UVA is still one of six schools in the running for the services of Patrick Patterson the number 2 rated power forward in the nation out of West Virginia. Locking him down would be a huge boon for the Cavs, but we’re butting heads with the likes of Duke and Florida, so let’s see that new arena and a successful season pay off.

Second Round of the Tourney, pt. 1

Day one of the second round of the Tourney began today. Winners of these games find themselves in the much coveted Sweet 16.

Both #1 seeds who played today advanced: Ohio State and UNC. Ohio State was taken to overtime by Xavier, but once there Mike Conley Jr. tore it up and pushed the Buckeyes into the Sweet 16. UNC just stayed on top of Michigan State to knock them out of the tournament.

In other ACC/Virginia news: BC lost to Georgetown after leading for much of the second half. Roy Hibbert at 7′2″ wore the Eagles down down the stretch. Maryland got knocked off by a pesky-little-quick Butler team. VCU also bit the bullet against Pitt, although the came back from a double-digit second-half deficit to force overtime, but then the Panthers hit some big threes and the Rams couldn’t pull it out.

Vandy with former Cavalier Derrick Byars (SEC player of the year) knocked off the 3-seed in the East, Washington State.

So, the Cavaliers need to man up tomorrow and stop the potent Volunteer offense of Tennesse who tied an NCAA first round record with 121 points on Friday. If the Cavaliers can do that, then they have a date with the Buckeyes in the sweet-16 and this fan’s dreams would be fulfilled. Any wins after that for the Cavaliers would be gravy in my book, although I shouldn’t sell my team short. If JR Reynolds truly is healthy again, and they can keep Cain and Soroye marginally involved in the offense, both Singletary and Reynolds shoot the ball well enough that the Cavs will never be out of a game. First things first: Chris Lofton had 25 of the Volunteers’ 121 on Friday and he needs to be shut down for the Cavaliers to be successful.

Go Hoos.

Even more first round of the tourney

The Cavs held on, winning by a final score of 84-57 against the Great Danes of Albany. Georgia Tech has come back to take the lead against UNLV, so if they hang on now Duke could be the only ACC team not moving on.

Good things about UVA’s win:

• JR Reynolds seems to be back in form from his hip injury. 9-13 from the field.
• Singletary played a very balanced game and didn’t feel the need to take over
• Diane played good defense and hit a couple 3’s
• Soroye, Cain, and Mikalauskas were big inside getting rebounds

Bad things about the win:

• Can’t really say anything. They made some sloppy passes inside and played some lax defense but it was with 10 minutes to play and they were up 30 and had been almost all game. Give the kids a break.

Looking forward to a second round match-up with the winner of the Tennessee/Long Beach State game at noon on Sunday. Now let’s go Yellow Jackets

More First Round of the Tourney

Well, barring a massive collapse, Virginia is currently leading by 20 at the half, so I guess so much for people predicting the Albany might upset us. Seriously though, JR Reynolds has scored 22 or 23 points in the first half, until the very end he was out scoring Albany by himself. I guess he’s feeling better. He hurt his hip earlier this year, and now he practiced this week for the first time, so that is great news for the Cavs NCAA chances.

In other ACC news: Georgia Tech is showing their freshman colors and losing big to UNLV, but they could still put a run together…doubtful. Maryland won yesterday, so did BC, VT plays Illinois today, and obviously everyone in the world knows that Duke lost. UNC handled their first round opponent yesterday and so if VTech plays up to their potential the ACC should get 5 of the 7 teams through to the next round.

First Round of the Tourney

Well, just watched Duke stink it up in the first round of the tournament. They just didn’t seem to have anyone willing to catch the ball and try to score, they’re all looking for someone to pass to. This is the same problem they had all season. They’re all too unselfish and need someone to just sack up and score. Ah well, the more the Dookies lose, the happier I am. My only problem with them losing is I had every game right up to that point (I know, no upsets, how hard is that, but I wasn’t just picking every top seed) and Duke spoiled that for me.

Regardless, my current school just beat Duke, my alma mater beat them in their only meeting earlier this year. It’s a good year to hate Duke.

Tribe looking good in Spring Training. In three games over two days they have allowed 0 runs. That’s right, the much maligned bullpen from last year has combined with the 4th best starting staff (last year, according to ERA) to allow zero runs the last three games. That’s good news for the Tribe who finished second in offensive production last year and have upgraded themselves in that area. We didn’t have an everyday second basemen last year after the break, and our third baseman (Marte) will hopefully pick up his hitting a bit. Combine Barfield (second base) with Marte’s hopeful improvement and Peralta’s Lasik in the offseason and the Tribe should need an average pitching squad to break .500. With a standout pitching squad AL Central opponents had better watch out.

UVA vs. NCState

Since Duke bit it and has now lost the last three games including their first round ACC tournament game tonight, UVA will face NCState in the second round tomorrow at 7 o’clock on ESPN2.

Good news for the Hoos: NCState really only plays 6 guys, and they all played an overtime game tonight. The Hoos also won both of their meetings against NCState this year. In addition, even though UVA is the 2-seed, NCState will surely suffer a hangover from this big win, and that should dog them energywise even more.

Bad news for the Hoos: NCState has some very young big guys who have gotten more and more polished offensively as the year goes on. They have beat UNC and Duke now this season, and that says alot about a program, even though it seems to be happening alot this year.

Go Hoos