Contract Roundup

All three Cleveland teams were busy negotiating or finalizing contract extensions for key personnel this week, so I thought it would be useful to recap this week's transactions:

The Crooked Cap

Just so there's no confusion, Sabathia did not sign a contract extension this week. Negotiations are still ongoing between the Front Office and Sabathia's agent. Word on the street is that the Tribe has placed a four year contract with an option year on the table. No monetary values were provided, but a lot of fans have been pointing to the number of years as the potential snag for both parties up to this point.

The Diatriber countered with a comprehensive breakdown of pitchers awarded five year-plus contracts in the past and how those pitchers fared for their team(s). The article makes for a very interesting read; I hadn't realized just how spectacularly bad some of those hefty contracts were (my favorite one is Mike Hampton, I honestly don't know how the man can sleep peacefully). According to the article, only "[seventeen contracts] have been signed by starting pitchers for 5 years or more in the last 10 years, only six for 6 years or more, and merely three for 7 years or more." Most of those signings ended up as poor investments as the pitchers succumbed to age, chronic injury, or just plain stunk for the duration of the contract.

It's difficult to comprehend how Major League GM's continue to get sucked into this vortex of stupidity where 7-year contracts even enter the discussion. Actually, I'll just go ahead and say it: Brian Sabean, is a moron. The unfortunate part is that a ridiculous contract like Barry Zito's can cause a ripple effect in the pitching market, causing guys like Santana and Sabathia to expect no less than five years per contract.

Obviously, there isn't a single team that wouldn't like to have an ace of that caliber, but the team is paying more than just a salary. They're taking on a certain amount of risk as well and when the stakes (payroll flexibility, health, etc.) are so high, teams have to protect themselves. Taking on a player for a guaranteed four years is risky enough, but seven? How does an agent even ask for that kind of contract with a straight face?

I understand the pitcher is looking for the best job security possible and a long contract is their insurance against injury or a poor season. Before I go off on a tangent here, I guess the bottom line of any discussion about contracts is risk. Some team's can afford to take on more risk (read: years and money) and gain a competitive advantage when recruiting free agents. As long as some nutty GM thinks believes its worth rolling the dice on a potential stud pitcher, players will keep seeking them out. Fortunately these contracts do not have as much of a precedent as some agents would like you to believe; not yet anyway.

As far as Sabathia is concerned, I think he should take a long, hard look at the contracts Carlos Zambrano (5 years plus option, $91 mil) and Jake Peavy (4 years plus option, $14.5 mil) signed recently. Peavy's contract is a true hometown discount and I wouldn't expect Shapiro to low-ball C.C. with that kind of salary. Zambrano's may be close to Cleveland's ceiling for Sabathia. It's important to remember that Zambrano was in his walk year when he signed the contract mid-season and expressed interest in staying with Chicago.

If Cleveland offers Sabathia Zambrano's deal and he turns it down?

Trade him.

If it were up to me, I'd give Sabathia a deadline before Spring Training to get this extension done. If he truly wants to stay in Cleveland, he'll make some concessions (like Zambrano and Peavy did) to stay here, be it a little less money or one less guaranteed year. He'll get paid, no doubt about that, but if he wants to play games with this and wait until the last minute where the Tribe may get nothing in return if/when he walks then I'd ship him out for a cost-controlled replacement, like Phil Hughes, in a heartbeat.

Cleveland does have other options to take Sabathia's place, but once you start bringing Adam Miller and Fausto Carmona into the "ace" discussion, the future becomes a bit hazy. Miller has yet to throw a pitch in the Majors and has had a few injuries slow down his development already. Carmona may very well develop into an ace, but I doubt Shapiro and Wedge would want to place the burden of anchoring the rotation on either young pitcher just yet.

Coach Brown Gets a Raise

The Cavs inked head coach Mike Brown to a two year contract extension through the 2010-2011 season. Official numbers haven't been released yet, but according to Brian Windhorst, Brown will see his current $2 million salary jump to $4 million in addition to the two extra years being tacked onto his old contract.

I've always been a fan of Brown's defense-first philosophy and think he's done a great job keeping the team together this season despite all the contract B.S. and injuries. Brown's track record has been outstanding: two straight 50-win seasons, four playoff series wins in two appearances, and a franchise best .592 win percentage since 2005.

I was a little concerned Brown may take the fall if things turned ugly following the team's championship run last season. Apparently the Cavs' Front Office got something right this year as they reward Brown's solid work thus far.

In the meantime, Cleveland has won 8 of their last 10 games, including road wins in Dallas, New Orleans, Toronto, and San Antonio.

The Browns

Head Coach Romeo Crennel and starting QB Derek Anderson are in line for new contracts this off-season. No specifics have been released while preliminary negotiations take place. I don't have much of an opinion on Crennel, but I am glad to see a head coach for the Browns finally pan out. If the Front Office and players have faith in Crennel, then that's good enough for me. Stability often gets overlooked in pro sports, but the extension is a good move to take pressure off the coaching staff and their players.

Re-upping Anderson makes perfect sense to me, although I'm sure a lot of fans are itching to get those Brady Quinn jerseys out in the open. The success of Anderson last season allows the Browns to take a slow approach to breaking in Quinn and may leave them with a tough decision depending on how 2008 plays out. Look for either Quinn or Anderson to get shipped out of town by the end of next season. For now, the Browns can afford to bide their time and evaluate their options at QB.

Bringing back first-year offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski didn't make a big splash, but could prove to be just as important as Crennel's contract. Chudzinski maximized his resources in Anderson, Edwards, and Lewis and molded Cleveland into an elite offensive unit. It would have been a shame to see him leave for Baltimore's head coaching vacancy after just one year of running his offensive juggernaut. Cleveland was smart to get Chudzinski's extension wrapped up quick because Baltimore had been knocking on the door.

The Browns are also exploring an extension for running back Jamal Lewis and his 1,304 rushing yards this season.

Finally...

Just in case you missed out on Tony Lastoria's Top 50 Prospects list for the Tribe, check out the link here. If you're like me and have always wanted to learn more about the Tribe's farm system, this is a great place to start. It's really an impressive piece of work and deserves all the praise it's received around the blog-o-sphere.

Cavs Look to Defense for Help

The Cavaliers may be struggling, but at least they know where their faults lie. Coach Brown’s approach last season focused on defense and turned out to be the Cavs’ calling card en-route to a second 50 win season. The Cavs’ seemed to have forgotten what made them so tough to beat though, slipping to the middle of the pack in many defensive categories. In Saturday's Plain Dealer, Brown admitted his coaching strategy had changed going into the preseason:

I came into training camp talking offense. I felt we understood defense and that we had the technical stuff down and we just needed to be more efficient offensively.

Through 31 games, Cleveland is just 14-17, sharing the 9th spot in the East with Philly. With all the discussion on the Cavs’ neglected defense, I expected their stats to be in decline. Rebounds, blocks, and steals are all about the same, but the bottom-line is how many points are surrendered. Cleveland is giving up 6.3 more points per game while teams are shooting 46% against them. Cleveland’s stats from ’07-’08 are average compared to the rest of the league. Below are Cleveland’s defensive stats from the last two seasons:

Year Games Win Pct. Opp. PPG Opp. FG% RPG BPG TO SPG '06-'07 82 .610 92.9 44.7 43.5 4.3 13.7 7.6 '07-'08 31 .452 99.2 46.0 43.5 4.4 15.1 7.3

That’s a huge difference on defense and has a lot to do with the Cavs poor season so far.

Cleveland has shown encouraging signs on defense lately. In their last five games, the Cavs have gone 3-2 (don’t nitpick, that’s above .500) and held the opposition to 90 points or less in four of those games. They’ve been turning the ball over less and played solid defense against the Mavericks and the surging Lakers. It’s a small sample size, but still counts as a step in the right direction for a team that seems to have lost its identity. Below are the Cavs’ defensive results from their last five games:

Opponent Result Opp. Pts Opp. FG% TO Differential* L.A. W 90 45 +3 Golden State L 105 52.1 +5 Miami W 82 43.1 +5 Dallas W 81 36.5 +1 New Orleans L 86 41.9 -5

*(Opp. - Cle)

Cleveland isn’t quite in a groove yet (see their ugly loss to New Orleans), but they are playing some of their best defense of the season and getting positive results. According to Coach Brown:

It's encouraging to see us win the right way. I've emphasized that end of the floor [defense] more and the guys have embraced it. I've done this with more drills in practice and showing more clips of us defending the right way and not the right way. The guys [now] understand what we have to do.

Hopefully the renewed approach will help smooth over those 2-point nights from Larry Hughes and diffuse any big runs from the other team with LeBron on the bench. The offense may have its warts, but that’s all the more reason to emphasize stout defensive play.

Another contributor to the Cavs' upswing is health. When was the last time Cleveland’s personnel were healthy and accounted for this season? Between the early holdouts, depleted bench, and LeBron’s finger, Cleveland’s projected starting five has not had a ton of opportunities to play together. The bench is still among the NBA’s worst, but fortunately for the Cavs all their key players are coming together as a team now.

On the Browns

This was a rough way to end the season. Brown’s fans essentially got burned twice as they suffered through last week’s game against the Bungles and Sunday’s debacle in Indy. The Colts had every right to blow their final game; it had no impact on them, win or lose. The worst part is that Tennessee was horrible against the Colt’s reserve corps. I bet Indy could have won handily if they had two or three more series with their starting offense in. If Dungy had put Manning back in and he got injured it would have been incredibly bad for Dungy (where else can you get this type of hard-hitting analysis?). So despite the big middle finger Tony Dungy gave Cleveland as he benched Peyton Manning early in the game, you can’t truly fault him. Cleveland missed their boat in Cincy when they coughed up a completely winnable game. Simple as that.

The Brown’s deserved to be in the playoffs, but I think they’ll have a better chance to go deep into the playoffs with the experience they picked up this season. Just as long as Pittsburgh gets destroyed by Jacksonville, it won’t feel so bad.

On the other hand, Cleveland had a great season. Edwards and Anderson emerged as stars, Jamal Lewis resurrected his career in orange and brown, no one got fired (except Frye), Chudzinski had an outstanding first year as offensive coordinator, the O-line is finally fixed, and a downtrodden franchise finally earned back some of the respect it used to command. Just to put it in perspective:

2006: 4-12

2007: 10-6

I always feel a bit awkward talking about the Browns, since I haven’t been a diehard like most of the fans, but I think the fans have plenty to be proud of this year. I’m still not used to all the positive coverage the national media outlets have been sending Cleveland’s way, so apparently they’ve been turning some heads. This season is just a building block too; these guys are only going to get better as the talent matures. When was the last time fans could truly look forward to football season without that feeling of dread in the back of their minds? Just wait ‘til next year…

Congratulations, Cavaliers

First, I'd just like to congratulate the 2007 Eastern Conference Champion Cleveland Cavaliers on the best season in franchise history and bringing the excitement of the playoffs to Cleveland for the second straight year.

Now, not to take anything away from the team's performance, but I've been almost as aggravated with the lack of respect Cleveland received during the playoffs as I was with the team's shooting troubles.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are a flawed basketball team. While the defense was rock-solid, their struggle to score points in the NBA Finals has become a showcase for what the team lacks and what it still needs to perform better in the future.

The operative term here is future.

At this stage in LeBron James and Mike Brown’s basketball careers, I think it is fair to say that winning a championship would still be considered a rather lofty goal. What they have accomplished (along with the rest of the Cavs players and coaches), is go from a 35-47 team to the Eastern Conference Champions in four years, after taking LeBron James with the first overall pick in 2003. LeBron James has been in the league four years and is still only 23 years old. Coach Mike Brown has only been with Cleveland since the 2005-2006 season, his first ever as an NBA head coach. The average age of the team in 2007 was only 27.8, which takes a noticeable dip when 32 year old veteran Zydrunas Ilgauskas is removed from the equation. These are the statistics people should look at before they start heaping on the criticism of the ’07 Cavaliers.

My point is, as well as the Cavs played this season, they are still inexperienced and have a long way to go. Just how far did people expect them to go?

I honestly don’t know anyone outside of Cleveland who picked them to make it to the Finals. So if very few basketball experts thought the Cavs were worthy of playing in the Finals in the first place, why is there such a strong backlash against the team? I’ve heard just about every adjective under the sun used to describe this series, especially “worst ever.” Is it really fair to call the Cavs the worst Finals team of all-time? Has anyone bothered asking how any of the other Eastern Conference teams may have fared against a powerhouse Spurs team? Detroit may have taken a game, but it’s pretty safe to say any Eastern Conference challenger would have gotten their tails kicked. Is the real issue with the Cavs or with the terrible television ratings and lack of competition between the two conferences in general?

The Cleveland Cavaliers should have taken at least two games against the Spurs, but they lost four straight. Do LeBron James and Mike Brown deserve to be crucified for this by the media? No, because James can not make his teammates hit wide-open shots, or absorb playoff experience from the Spurs through osmosis, or shelter his teammates from the expectations of a championship starved city (most of which already rests on his shoulders).

It’s a flawed team, but that does not change the fact that they are the Eastern Conference Champions. Rather than look at what they haven't done, how about looking at what they have done.

The team's defense (only the second full year the players have been running under such a game plan) was excellent for most of the playoffs, but the team's offensive short-comings were exposed time and again in the playoffs this year. The defense won games, but the offense usually lost them. The Spurs were more than ready for the Cavs; Popovich knew exactly what he was doing against his old protégé and had plenty of time to prepare his team ahead of time. It doesn't take an expert to see that the Cavs had been struggling with their shooting most of the postseason and the Spurs knew how to exploit this to their advantage.

The Cavaliers were obviously in over their head. While the Cavs proved they were fully capable of handling Detroit, the Spurs are arguably the best defensive team, have several premier offensive players, and possess a colossal (but often overlooked) advantage in experience over the Cavs. Matched up against that, the Cavs are now the "worst finals team of all time." How does that work?

Analysts are quick to confuse being overmatched and inexperienced with being just flat out bad.

As I’ve said before, experience is a crucial element to any championship team. This Cavs team had only been to the playoffs once before making the franchise’s first ever NBA Finals appearance. Each year the team’s young players have matured and each year they have advanced a step farther in the playoffs. This year’s experience should help the team address several issues such as isolating the team’s major weaknesses, finding a balance between offense and defense, and learning how to handle key situations late in a playoff game.

GM Danny Ferry and owner Dan Gilbert are going to face some tough decisions in trying to retain part of the team’s young core (Varejeo and Pavlovic are restricted free agents this off-season), while addressing needs for now (a true wingman for LeBron) and the future (replacing an aging Ilgauskas). The Cavaliers are already facing salary cap issues, making things that much more challenging. There have been rumors that Ferry is going to try and acquire a first round draft pick to bring in some help.

Finally...

The audacity of the media during the Finals was amazing. If you don't believe me about the media hyping everything up to add drama to a "boring" series, just look at the opening sequence for Game 3. It’s the first game with championship implications to be played in Cleveland in 10 years and they go right to the city's history of losing in the playoffs. Why? It's not enough that two of the top teams in the league, with two of the best players in the world today (James and Duncan) are playing for a championship?

Apparently not.

First, we have to throw the crowd a hook, like Cleveland’s championship drought (oh, well I'll just have to root for them and watch to see if they break it!). I'm tired of my city being used as a doormat by the rest of the American sports scene, enough already. It's like kicking a kid in a wheelchair at this point, what are Cleveland fans going to do but sit there and suffer through.

It's the middle of the finals, an Akron native is making history with the hometown team, and all everyone else wants to do is bring Cleveland fans down by dredging up the painful past. At this point it's cruel, they weren't even talking about basketball for most of the time, just failures in general.

Criticism of the team’s inability to hit the open shot or make any kind of stand on offense are certainly valid, but I’ve heard almost as many complaints about the quality of the games and the television ratings as I have about the teams themselves.