It seems that unless Byrd, Westbrook and Lee pick it up, the great offense and solid defense could get washed away quickly.

But I still look at the Mariners and the Yankees, I guess you have to include them in this conversation, and don't see a team that is better than the Indians.

Yes, the Indians have holes but I think Seattle's and New York's are bigger.

Terry Pluto is calling for adding Kenny Lofton to the mix. Lofton has big numbers and would allow Sizemore to move down in the lineup, but pitching is more important at this point.

With David Beckham in MLS, will you pay any more attention than you already do (or don't)?

I find it interesting because of the dynamic he brings to the United States.

One, the international media is definitely paying attention to MLS and the Galaxy already are going to play in front of 70,000 people in Australia in the offseason. So worldwide, he will sell soccer in America.

Two, with the number of Hispanics in the U.S., soccer is going to grow no matter what some of us may or may not think.

Three, the U.S. National Team is doing well and the U20 team beat Brazil last week.

Four, his wife, Victoria, will keep his and her name in the news and might draw more females to the sport. Which is what all sports are trying to do.

And by the way, MLS does not need saving. It is doing well. It has new stadiums throughout the country. It has a solid TV deal with ESPN, ABC, Fox Sports. And it is about to expand again with entry fees in the $30 million range. It seems to be more healthy than the NHL and tennis. And the NBA is not doing much better.

So whether Beckham can take attendance from 15,000 around the league to 20,000, I guess we will see, but no matter what, soccer is drawing more and more interesting in the U.S.

Eric Wedge signs a contract extension to stay with the Indians through 2010.

Good move or bad move?

I think it might be one year too many for a guy who hasn't won anything and who has had one season that was surprising and another that was disappointing.

Is a designated hitter who can't play in the field worth $14.25 million per season?

There was some talk in the offseason that maybe $10 million per season would be enough to sign Travis Hafner. I wrote three months ago that I thought it would take around $15 million.

As expected, Travis Hafner was the most likely to stay with the Tribe rather than C.C. Sabathia. What do you all think? $140 million for seven years for Sabathia?

The question is should Hafner have been given the highest priority as it seems he was. Or is this the sign that the Tribe has no plans to try to keep Sabathia?

I see many of you have commented about the profits and losses for sports organizations.

There should be no doubt that even the worst run of sports franchises make money.

An incident I like to point to is the Indians' surprising run of a couple years ago when they finished a few games short of the White Sox in the Central.

The Tribe was not expected to do much that season, and the fans weren't expected to come to Jacobs Field. And the payroll reflected that.

When the Tribe started to win and led the division through the summer, fans started to show up in droves and the TV ratings spiked.

The Tribe was in the pennant race until the last week of the season. They made no trades to add salary either.

Yet, the Dolans announced in the following offseason that their part of the shared finances in baseball ($3 million) allowed them to break even.

There is no way the team planned to lose more than $3 million that season and with more fans at the game they actually had to make more money than they assumed.

So either the owners in baseball lie about profits or are terrible businessmen.

You decide.

First-half baseball awards
NL MVP, Chase Utley. AL MVP, Vladimir Guerrero.
NL Rookie of the Year, Hunter Pence. AL Rookie, Jeremy Guthrie.
NL Cy Young: Brad Penny; AL Cy Young: Dan Haren.

Likely World Series: San Diego Padres vs. Los Angeles Angels

Not much to complain about for the Indians in the first half of the season.

They sit one game behind the Tigers in the Central and hold a 2-game lead in the wild card over the Mariners. I said about a month ago that I thought the AL playoff teams would be the Angels, Red Sox, Tigers and Indians. And nothing makes me want to change my mind.

With Travis Hafner still not hitting and the Tribe in contention any way, that only can be a good sign because Hafner is going to get his hits.

It looks like two playoff teams in one year for Cleveland. It has been a while.

We just completed another high school year. We experimented with some new ideas:
1. Ready, Set, Play: a weekly section on high school sports.
2. We started our high school blog: Varsity Letters.
3. Due to space concerns, we limited the amount of space given to us naming all-star teams.

Now we are looking at a couple more things for the fall:
1. More nightly roundups, but less individual game coverage.
2. Even more use of Ohio.com, through blogs, video and audio.
3. Only putting scores in the newspaper, with the boxscores being online.
4. Eliminating high school all-stars altogether. Maybe just naming players of the year.

What suggestions would you have, and what of the previous ideas seems like good ideas?

By the way, Ready, Set, Play will be back next season.

Three things that could determine the Browns' future:

1. Does the organization have the wherewithal to give Joe Th0mas and Brady Quinn time to become good pros? Most times offensive lineman sit out all, if not most, of their first year. Same goes with non-elite quarterbacks. Remember Philip Rivers sat for nearly three seasons. Now he is a Pro Bowl player for the Chargers. Although Drew Brees is not the Browns QB either.

2. It seems that this will be the last season for coach Romeo Crennel. More and more reports say that GM Phil Savage and Crennel don't get along or, at least, don't seem to be on the same page. Without a team president, can owner Randy Lerner get the two to work together? Also if the season only produces six wins or less, should he start over again with a new GM, who then gets to chose the new head coach. I would think that hiring a new GM would be a bad move, but if Savage continues to have spats with those working with him, should he really be the guy building your organization.

3. Should Derek Anderson be given the reins on offense? Charlie Frye has done nothing to say he should be the guy.

If these three situations are handled well, the Browns might finally be on the road to becoming a playoff team. If not, they will be back to the beginning, again.

Does losing Anderson Varejao and replacing him with Morris Peterson seem like a plus, minus or an even situation?

Also some reports say that the Cavs tried to trade Eric Snow and Larry Hughes around the time of the NBA Draft and that if the Blazers buy out Steve Francis' contract that the Cavs would be interested.

GM Danny Ferry seems to be exploring options but it is time for a move or two. The Cavs made the Finals but I don't think the main rotation players are strong enough. So changes are necessary and maybe losing Varejao will cause a ripple effect of moves.

Remember how the surprising loss of Carlos Boozer caused the Cavs to be proactive. They were able to add Drew Gooden and Anderson Varejao in a trade.