The Indians were one of the first teams to sign their youngsters to long-term deals in the late 90s, and that obviously worked well.
They aren't first with signing players after good rookie years to big deals — the Colorado Rockies with Troy Tulowitzki and the Arizona Diamondbacks with Chris Young started the trend — but, in this instance, not being first is OK.
Fausto Carmona is worth risking a seven-year contract on. He has shown to be a tough pitcher and more important he has shown mental toughness.
His disaster as closer two years ago showed that Carmona can bounce back from tough times.
GM Mark Shapiro deserves credit for rolling the dice in this situation.
My favorite playoffs in sports begin tonight — the NHL.
The NHL regular season is too long, and there probably are too many teams in the league. Once the playoffs start, though, the NHL jumps to the top of the heap as far as producing exciting and intense games and series.
Baseball is too slow; football is a one-and-done type of atmosphere; the NBA playoffs are too drawn out … the first round takes nearly three weeks to finish.
So find Versus on your TV dial … it is there somewhere … pick a team (some day the Blue Jackets might make the playoffs) and enjoy.
A side light: NHL Network has produced some funny commercials promoting the league and the channel. Here is the latest one.
I think this shows just how far NASCAR has come with its safety precautions. Michael McDowell, a rookie driver, crashes during qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway, near Dallas.
I love the game of baseball; my boys play, I played and I enjoy talking about it, and maybe it is because I grew up a Pirates fan, but I am down on the sport.
This new habit of taking pitches is killing the game. I understand the reasoning … get to the bullpens.
But here is the result: the Pirates-Cubs game yesterday, it last about 4.5 hours for 12 innings, there was 19 walks, nearly 500 pitches. It worked out to nearly 6.5 pitches per out.
That is ridiculous, but you know what else, it is the normal game.
John Calipari's Memphis team fell apart at the end, by not making their free throws, and Kansas is the best team this season. I still like Calipari as a coach, but Bill Self won the battle last night.
I do have a problem with the end of basketball games. We generally watch 38 minutes of good college basketball and then we play a free-throw, 3-point shooting contest. Heck, we might as well stop the game and vote on a slam dunk contest. In the NBA, shot clock and inbounds rules change the way the game is played in the end.
Change the rule so that after 10 team fouls the team gets two free throws and the ball back.
Playing the regular game, Memphis won last night. But as soon as we stop playing basketball and play the foul (smelling) game, we got a different champion.
Folks want to know why TV ratings are down for NBA and college basketball; all I know is it is pretty unanimous that the end of games make for awful TV.
– Why does Memphis coach John Calipari get no credit for being a good basketball coach? I know that he can recruit, that he took UMass to the Final Four and that his teams have never gone on probabtion. I know that he struggled in the NBA, but he knows what he is doing on the college level. He outcoached Ben Howland of UCLA, and I expect the same thing tonight against Bill Self and Kansas.
– We received our shipment of MLB media guides this morning, what team do you think produced the thickest book? Try the Tampa Bay Rays. 576 pages; it works out to nearly a page per all-time victories. Very strange.
– If the Cavs end up fifth and then lose in the first round of the playoffs to the Washington Wizards, we all know the calls will be loud for coach Mike Brown to be fired. My guess is that won't happen. I think it is more likely that GM Danny Ferry gets bounced, but even writing that, don't look for a cleaning out of the Cavs by Dan Gilbert.
– Browns GM Phil Savage says he isn't going to trade up in this year's draft. And that is the correct choice. First, I don't think he has anything to trade beside next year's No. 1 or Brady Quinn, and Quinn isn't going anywhere this year. Check back on that this time next season if Derek Anderson goes to the Pro Bowl again. Lastly, Savage has built this team to win now, so he should give it a shot and see what happens this season.
– The first week was choppy for the Tribe, but a heck of a lot better than the Detroit Tigers'. Talk about flaming out.
The answer: C.C. Sabathia at $11 million, Jake Westbrook at $10M (with $21M more to come in the next two years), Travis Hafner at $8.05M (with $51.75M more to come over the next four seasons … he better not hit .250 ever again), Byrd at $7.5M and Blake $6.1M.
The total, according to numbers published in USA Today, is $78,970,066. Not bad for a team that could win the World Series.
The biggest bargain is a toss-up between Jensen Lewis ($393,000) and Asdrubal Cabrera ($393,300).
It also was reported that the Indians have committed more than $124M in future deals through 2013. The bulk of that being Hafner's crazy contract.
The rest of the AL Central:
Tigers at $137.7M
White Sox at $121.1M
Royals at $58.2M
Twins at $56.9M
The NFL doesn't need to do anything about the end of the season because some teams opt to not play their starters.
To me, it is each team's choice. The Indianapolis Colts earned the right to do what they wanted with their team. If folks remember, Browns linebacker Willie McGinest thinks the same way even though the Tennessee Titans beat a backup team of Colts, keeping the Browns out of the playoffs. The New York Giants, on the other hand, opted to play their starters against the New England Patriots even though they couldn't improve their standing in the NFC playoffs. That is fine, too.
On top of that, how do you legislate a team to play its starters, how do you determine who should start and who shouldn't. There is no way to determine that. It is fool's talk.
I also am against reseeding for the playoffs. If a team wins a division it earns one home game in the playoffs. With the schedules not being the same for each team, the divisions aren't equal.
Take the upcoming season, the AFC North, home to the Browns, plays the AFC South and NFC East. That means six 2007 playoff teams right there. My guess is whoever wins the AFC North (By the way, I think it will be the Browns), they will win 10 games at the most and maybe nine. The schedule will be very tough so the division winner deserves to be home, not on the road to play an 11-win wild-card team from a weaker division.
