The Cavaliers were thought to be the easy favorite to sign shooting guard Joe Johnson when he was bought out of his contract by the Brooklyn Nets.
This had been rumored for well over a year that if this came to pass,Johnson would likely be a Cavalier target and most considered Cleveland to be the likely destination.
Instead,the 34 year old Johnson will be heading to Miami and the Heat,where he has been promised the chance to start.
Johnson will likely be a major part of any Miami playoff run,while in Cleveland,he would have likely been a scorer off the bench.
One can make the argument that Johnson may receive more minutes in Miami,but his minutes in Cleveland might be more important.
Johnson would have been helpful,but his loss won't ruin my day.
I questioned several times why the Indians were counting so much on Abraham Almonte based on a 51 game stint by a career AAA player that was around league average as their starting centerfielder.
I'm not a believer in Almonte and it'll be even harder to think that he'll be a contributor after a PED suspension that will see him miss 80 games.
I'm not a fan of the team's off season moves and with the less than motley crew that the Indians have for outfielders in the absence of the injured Michael Brantley,I have real doubts on the Indians being able put together an offense capable of backing up what looks to be a strong starting rotation.
The Indians did sign former Padre Will Venable to a contract to join a less than intriguing group and Venable does bring some experience,if not a key bat after splitting last year between San Diego and Texas.
The best bat available as a free agent right now that might help is Austin Jackson,but between the noted Cleveland reluctance to spend and Jackson's decline in productivity over the 2014 and 2015 seasons,I'd be surprised to see Jackson hit Cleveland....
The Browns continue to go through the NFL combine process and prep for the upcoming free agency period.
I don't really watch the combine much,but I will try to watch the quarterbacks with the Browns likely to pick one in the draft.
Talks can begin with free agents on March 7,although new players cannot be signed until March 9.
The key Browns that are free agents are Alex Mack (expected to activate a clause),Mitchell Schwartz,Travis Benjamin and Tashaun Gipson.
It'll be interesting to see with all the hype around the "analytics" driven front office to see how many of these players are valued enough to return-especially Mack and Schwartz,who would likely take a massive pay increase to retain them...
Rumors are flying that Hue Jackson wants to heavily raid his former team in Cincinnati in free agency with wideouts Marvin Jones and Mohamad Sanu each mentioned often.
My question is that if the Browns bring both of those two in,will they go above and beyond to retain Travis Benjamin?
My guess would be that that they would try,but would not go all in for Benjamin...
Back later with the boxing challenge...
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