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.

Crazy

Things have been crazy here at the offices of DoubleWahoo as the offices recently moved, but they’re settling back down to normalcy.

Of note today: The Browns signed Jamal Lewis formerly of the Ravens to a one-year contract. If this means they are drafting Adrian Peterson, that makes me happy because nothing would be more painful than having to root for the Browns as they are led by former Notre Dame signal caller Brady Quinn. That would ruin my love for that franchise, and no one wants that to happen. I think Lewis would be a good mentor for Peterson (minus the jail-time for setting up a drug buy), they are both bigger power backs with more speed than say Jerome Bettis. While the bus really did run through people, Lewis and Peterson have the quickness to break it outside, not like Barry Sanders or Reggie Bush, but a mix of those two greats. The problem with versatility is that they’re not quite the strongest or the quickest, so the Browns will need to be sure to vary their offense and give teams different looks so that they don’t just expect Peterson between the tackles, but they don’t run him outside too much. Lewis did that in his record-setting yardage year (2003: 2,066 yards) and hopefully he can mentor Peterson to make him just as effective.

In other news the young kids are looking good in Indians camp. So is David Delucci, and the utility battle wages on. I for one hope that Hector Luna does not get the job. Outside of that I could care less. Hopefully our young guys around the diamond will stay healthy. The outfield has so many guys who want to play that we could almost field 3 full outfields of major-league ready talent. Granted they wouldn’t be the best at their positions like Sizemore is, but they could all face major-league pitching right now. The infield has Asdrubal Cabrera who is going to swing a toothpick in the big leagues, but his glove will allow him to rise to the top. I’m very excited about potentially seeing him when the Bisons come to Richmond. Second base is not an area of strength for the Tribe, but potentially Cabrera could slide over. If the injury bug bites, it bites.

Alright, off to healing old people.