The Tribe started the weekend 2.5 games up on the Tigers in the AL Central. They ended the weekend 2.5 gams up on the Tigers in the AL Central.
The Browns started the weekend not knowing who was going to be their opening day starting quarterback. The Browns ended the weekend not knowing who would be their opening day starting quarterback.
So what did we learn about Cleveland sports this weekend? At first glance it would seem about the same thing a third-grader would learn by sitting in on a calculus class, nothing.
But that shouldn’t be the case.
For the Browns, they should have learned that they finally have their quarterback of the future. Brady Quinn played another very solid game. He got to play against most of Denver’s first team defense and went 7-11 for 81 yards and a TD. Quinn easily could have had another TD pass if the Browns would have challenged a pass to Joe Jurevicius.
After the game, GM Phil Savage said Quinn would not start Sept. 9 against Pittsburgh and coach Romeo Crennel gave his standard robotic answer of “it’s still a competition” and “I like all three quarterback. I’m can’t name a starter.”
I hate these answers from Crennel. Quinn should be the starter but he won’t be. Just say it. Pick Frye, let him know he’s the starter so he can build his confidence up, let Quinn settle into the role as backup, trade Anderson and get this thing over with. There is no reason to keep saying “I don’t know” when asked who is going to start. Crennel, the pay you to make these decisions. Don’t worry about hurting anyway feelings and just make the call. Enough is enough. I don’t know how this is healthy of any of the quarterbacks or the lockerroom.
As for the Indians, we learned that if Fausto is on the hill, the Tribe offense doesn’t show up. They almost wasted another fine effort for Fausto. He should easily be 20-4 not if the offense would give him any run support. In five of his loses, the Tribe as scored a total of four runs. That’s a grand total of four runs, not an average.
Luckily, Fausto only pitched six innings. That gave the offense time to realize he was out of the game and they had better score.
We learned, once again, that Grady Sizemore is the best player in the American League. When everyone else thought the game was over in the bottom of the ninth and two strikes on him, Grady blopped a fly ball into centerfield and stretched it into a double and eventually scored the tying run.
We learned that Josh Barfield will be nothing more than pitch runner for at least the rest of this year. That’s because Asdrubal Cabrera is playing like Carlos Baerga.
We learned that maybe, just maybe, Hafner will finally start coming through like we all though he would be doing all year.
We also learned that our hatred for the Yankees continues to grow since they can’t beat the Tigers to help Cleveland extend their lead. But on the other side, as long as they keep losing, they get further out of the wild card and AL East race. That is nice.
So overall, we learned, Quinn is good, Crennel is a robot who was never programmed to make a decision, the Indians must not like Fausto since he can’t speak English, that’s the only reason I can think of why they don’t score runs for him, Grady is great and the Yankees still suck.
Sizemore isn’t even in the top 20 players in the AL. What a pedestrian season he is having.
Sorry that the Yankees can’t do your dirty work for you.