Thoughts on a snowy Monday in the Land

NON-BASEBALL

Cleveland State-Dennis Gates-Mizzou saga

All the props to Dennis Gates for landing the Mizzou basketball coaching job.  I think, though, he will be over his head in this one.   I thought this when he got the job (Horizon League to SEC doesn't translate).  Now I read that Tre Gomillon and D'Moi Hodge have transferred to Mizzou.  Again, while I commend these young men for parlaying their relationship with Gates into a basketball scholarship at an SEC school and I loved watching them both play at my alma mater, CSU, Gomillon's game will not translate to a conference like the SEC.  Now Hodge is interesting as he may actually 'go off' with better competition.   Certainly, it will likely help and not hurt his draft stock.  But looking at it from the other side, how in the world does Gates think he will help himself improve from a 12-21 record (5-13 in the SEC) by adding a couple of mid-major players who did not dominate their comference?  I just don't see it and I think if Gates is trying the same thing he tried at CSU, team first, school is important, everything else wll follow those two, he will likely do worse, on average, than the team last year.

Not faulting Gates for reaching for the brass ring, just questioning if he is really a one size fits all coach.  While that works in the Horizon League, I doubt that the scrappy underdog playing the game the right way thing will work in the SEC.   To play there you need talent and Gomillon and Hodge just don't add that much talent to an already talent-starved team in a big boy conference.

LeBron James to Cleveland

Look, most Cavs fans would love to see LeBron play with the Cavs.   I had to laugh though when I waw a trade proposal that sent Colin Sexton, Kevin Love and the exchange of first round draft choices in 2023, 2025 and 2027 to the Lakers for LeBron and his age-38 season/expiring contract.  First, there is not currently a fit for LeBron on this team with our 3 seven footers.  LeBron averaged 37 minutes a game this season.  Kevin Love averaged 22.5 minutes.   Even if we do that substitution, which you would likely have to do, it's going to cost someone some playing time in the front court.   Love fits in well with our 3 big men.   James is going to dominate but may spread the court enough to help.  Though, in my heart and somewhat in my head, knowing how good LeBron makes the guys around him, I could see this working, I like it the way it is now.   So, if pressed, I would trade Love, Sexton and Windler for one year of LeBron and the Lakers' first round pick in 2023.  I still don't think that is the best thing for this team's development but would be willing to make this deal to see if this gets us over the hump and can pass along his playoff experience to this team.

Baker Mayfield

The guy really needs to get over himself.   He was terrible last year.  Forget the injury he was terrible.  Lots of times I saw him not even look to an open receiver while trying to thread the needle through 2-3 defenders.  Never did I see him last year make something out of nothing and many times I saw him make nothing out of something.   Then he has to run his mouth with each time he opens it making it harder for him to get what he wants...out of Cleveland.   Hey Baker, we all want that for you, believe me.  But shut the F___ up.  At this point, if I am the Browns, I keep him, put him on the scout team and put him in a situation where he has to accept a veteran minimum to play on a team in the 23/24 season.   He deserves it...really.

BASEBALL

The way the Indians played over the weekend you could see they are not ready to play with the big boys.   I mean, the Giants had a leadoff hitter hitting .170 and their all-star shortstop cam in hitting under .200 and Buster Posey's replacement was hitting 9th.  Yet we still couldn't even win a game.  I am hoping for 3 more days of snow with the storm following us to NY for the three days after that.

Then we trade for Bryan Reynolds and a reliever using some, but not all, of our prospect captial.

This week asked more questions than it answered:

Is Owen Miller really that bad at second base?

Is Steven Kwan ever going to get another hit?

Will we be able to have an over .500 record against ANY team  that has an over .500 record?

And, of course, when are we going to get Bryan Reynolds or Juan Soto and when are we going to get a veteran reliever or two?