Mike Aller

Yeah, Cleveland has been tough to figure out the past few years. I always felt like they should be scoring more runs than they have. Pronk's collapse has had a lot to do with that. They've also continually lived with sub-par production from first base. But I think another issue has been that they have relied way too much on finesse pitchers and didn't have a great defense to pair them with. If you are going to live with guys like Peralta at SS, then you are going to have to put people on the mound that can get some strikeouts. However, all this is from the outside without taking too close a look at what has been going on. Not a terrible explanation. Last year was extremely frustrating because our bullpen was absolutely terrible and our offense decided to match them during the first half of the year. Our offense really picked up in the second half (mostly because of Choo), but it was too late. We were too far behind and had already traded our ace. This year was ridiculously frustrating. We would beat a team by 8 and then lose three consecutive games by 1 run. Once again, the bullpen was absolutely terrible. The Kerry signing didn't help matters, but most of the time our bullpen blew it before Kerry even got his opportunity to suck. Shapiro has tried to spend money in places where he thought it would help, but if you look at all of our 8-figure salaries for next year, they have all been colossal disappointments for one reason or another (Westbrook, Hafner, Wood). Today's trade hurt the most. I definitely understood the CC trade last year. I was able to accept the Lee trade. But Vic was to Indians fans what Wood was to a lot of Cubs fans. He was the absolute heart of the team. He had a different handshake for every single person on the team, was always upbeat, and always seemed to care about winning. This sucks.

Bye Vic. :'(

I bet Bartman was juicing.

Oh sweet Christ. Just when the Favre "saga" was over and the Vick situation was dying down, now this. And here I thought SC would have to spend most of their show on actual games. Dodged a bullet there!

:( Bye Cliff.

Pete hit .268 his last 5 years. Well below his career average, and other statistics dropped as well, but it's not exactly like he went out like a chump.

I mean, really?

Yeah, the spurs are going to be scary. There hasn't actually been a lot of talk about them. It's almost all about where Odom is going to sign, the Shaq trade, and the Artest signing. But, the Spurs are going to be really, really tough if they can actually manage to stay healthy. As far as the Cavs' offseason, I'm really happy. After the Shaq trade, we repeatedly missed out on the "big" names like Artest and Ariza, but I love the pieces that we added in Parker and Moon. Every Cavs fan I know is whining and complaining because we've only added "role players," but we have a team that won 66 games and lost in the playoffs because of matchup problems. We need role players. By the way, lol @ detroit.

It would be nice, but it's still disappointing to see us groom and raise studs only to have to trade them away when they become elite players because our team sucks. :(

Mariano is good.

SCARED OF VICTOR IMO :(

Greinke is good.

I feel bad for that dude. i give him credit though, i thought his career was over the first time he broke it. big dudes with foot problems don't last long in the nba. however, ilgauskas was able to get over his early foot problems and have a relatively productive nba career, so why not? Yeah, Yao reminds me a lot of big Z. I just hope he can have the same luck Z did, because he has twice the talent.

lol nice. Oh and...sorry guys. I wouldn't have preferred it to go this way. But, then again, I wouldn't have preferred to be in last place either. :(

Thank you Chicago Cubs for... Two heartbreaking losses, an almost certain Kerry Wood suicide, and convincing Eric Wedge that Luis Valbuena is an everyday player. I hate you.

Kerry Wood is a cheater. ........:'(

I apologize. I wasn't aware. But, thanks for not deleting the thread. I've gotten a few PMs over the issue.

Well hopefully that string of consecutive quality starts is stopped next Sat when Im sitting in the bleachers lol Hah, well there is a damn good chance I'll be at the game as well, so let's hope he doesn't. Let's hope for a low scoring 3-2 game (all three runs coming off of DeRo solo HRs). Then, Kerry comes in and gets a 9 pitch, 3k perfect 9th. :)

Cliff Lee is really, really good again. I'm pleased. He started off pretty bad at first, but I heard he has 10 (this will be 11) consecutive quality starts. He doesn't appear to have been a fluke.

[expletive].

Come on Cliff!

Shaq's footwork and touch around the basket was a lot better than Howard's is now. Plus he was a good passer out of double teams and didn't spaz out like Dwight has a tendency to do when he's pressured. By "spaz out" I'm assuming that you mean throw elbows.

I'm not sure how many season ticket holders actively post, but here goes. My friend is driving (or flying, not sure) up from Ohio, and I'll be driving from Wisconsin to Wrigley to see the Indians play the Cubs. The problem being: we don't have tickets. I have no idea what a guy on the street charges around there, so I'd prefer a sure thing. I'm guessing that it's too short of notice to mail anything, but I'd be willing to meet someone wherever they choose. I'm trying not to pay more than $60 a ticket. Anyway, any help would be appreciated. Also, if anyone wants to meet somewhere before/after for some beers, it'd be kind of cool to meet up with a few people. Plus, I have no ideas what bars are better than others. Thanks for any help! Also, I have no idea where a thread like this goes, so I just put it here.

In that case, we'll take him. Howard and LeBron >>> Shaq and Kobe. :D Even as a Cavs fan, I'm going to have to disagree. Howard isn't even close to being what Shaq used to be. That said, where were these missed shots when Orlando was playing Cleveland? =/

And how about this as an example: Michael Jordan. There was a time where he was easily the best player in the league although he had no championships.