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tomlinvcinWith the Indians already desperate for some sort of starting pitching help, they can remove Josh Tomlin from 2013 consideration. The Tribe's right hander will undergo Tommy John surgery on Wednesday with famed doctor Lewis Yocum, according to the Indians' official Twitter feed. The pitcher nicknamed "My Little Cowboy" by Manny Acta had seemed to pitch through various levels of pain for most of the last two seasons, including being shut down last season for elbow pain. Now, the situation has to come to a head and Tomlin will miss the entire 2013 season.

For Tomlin, it's a disappointing finish to the 2012 season, a season that saw him go on the disabled list in May with a wrist injury and also a demotion to the bullpen. He finishes the year with a 5-8 record and a 6.36 ERA. Tomlin allowed 18 home runs in just 103.1 innings of work. His last outing on August 12 was a disaster, allowing seven runs to the Red Sox in just 1.1 innings of work. That will be the last we see of Tomlin until 2014.

That leaves the Indians to hope for Carlos Carrasco, currently recovering from the Tommy John surgery he had performed in August 2011. Carrasco will be expected to get back into the rotation as the Indians starting pitching depth is severely lacking. With Justin Masterson and Zach McAllister the only certainties to be in the 2013 rotation, barring injury, the Indians will have to find some starting arms. With Ubaldo Jimenez's performance this season, his 2013 option is not a guarantee. Guys like Corey Kluber, Chris Seddon, David Huff, and Carrasco will get strong looks in Spring Training. The Indians will also have to acquire a couple pitchers to put into the mix.

For now, the focus is on Tomlin, who showed flashes in 2010 and 2011 as guy with a lot of fortitude and a reliable #5 starter. It remains to be seen if the elbow issue was a major culprit in Tomlin's ineffectiveness, but we'll have to wait until 2014 to find out.

omri-casspi-f-31925This blogger may have spoken too soon.  The reports of the Cavaliers and Alonzo Gee reaching a three year $10 million contract may have been premature.  Mary Schmidt Boyer of the Cleveland Plain Dealer set the record straight on Sunday with the following tweet:

 

It is difficult to ascertain what the current status is on the contract of Alonzo Gee.  Seeing Gee accept the one year qualifying offer appears to be a possibility considering that the reports of the deal were premature.  On the other hand, Gee and the Cavs could be close to a deal and a source spoke too soon.  Whatever the situation is, I hope it gets resolved quickly.  

The importance of bringing Alonzo Gee back to the team is less pressing with the Cavs signing C.J. Miles.  They are both similar players and Byron Scott would likely struggle to find playing time for Gee, Miles and Omri Casspi.  

There are rumors that the Cavs and Casspi would like to reach a contract buyout with the 24 year old small forward.  Casspi had a disappointing season with the Cavs.  He averaged 7.1 points and 3.1 rebounds per game with the club.  Casspi has regressed in each of his three seasons in the NBA.  If this pattern continues, it will be scary to see how he plays in the following season.

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Alonzo Gee Dunks On Joel AnthonyThe Cavs are reportedly on the verge of re-signing free agent swingman Alonzo Gee to a 3 year $10 million contract.  This is good news for a myriad of reasons.  Alonzo Gee proved that he has a place in an NBA rotation last year when he averaged 10.6 and 5.1 rebounds in 63 games.  Gee started 31 of those games after Byron Scott was left with no choice but to look elsewhere for a starting small forward after the disappointing first half of the season that Omri Casspi had with the club. 

Another reason that the contract extension is good for the Cavs is because it appeared as if the discussions had reached a stalemate.  It would not have been surprising if Gee begrudgingly accepted the one year qualifying offer from the Cavs and played his way into unrestricted free agency.  The most-likely outcome of this scenario is Gee playing out his contract with the Cavs and leaving for another team after that.  

Gee had what many considered to be a breakout year with the Cavs.  One item of concern is that with the exception of the month of March, his field goal percentage dropped as the year progressed.  in fact, he shot a measly 34.1% from the field in 12 games in April.  Having said that, Gee has been re-signed to a long-term contract that is reasonable.  He is capable of playing the shooting guard and small forward positions.  In fact, he posted almost identical stats when he started at both positions (with the exception of assists, steals and rebounds). 

Gee signed with the Cavs on December 28, 2010 in what was considered another meaningless undrafted free agent during the dismal 2010-2011 season.  He played four games with the San Antonio Spurs prior to signing with Cleveland and he only averaged 0.4 points with the veteran team. 

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2012 08 tomlin elbowThe Cleveland Indians placed right-hander Josh Tomlin on the 15-day disabled list on Tuesday, opening up a spot for Roberto Hernandez.

Tomlin is 5-8 with a 6.36 ERA in 21 appearances this year, including 16 starts, and has been troubled by a sore right elbow for a while now.

"It's been a while -- more than a month -- that I've felt something," Tomlin told The Plain Dealer. "I didn't really tell anybody because I thought I could go out there and get outs. Apparently, I couldn't. I feel like I have a pretty high pain tolerance, so I'm not exactly sure what it is. I've pitched through stuff like that for the better part of this year, but there comes a point where you compensate too much."

Tomlin has said the pain is similar to the elbow problems he had last year that ended his season on Aug. 25.

Indians manager Manny Acta told The Beacon Journal that team officials were not informed of the injury until a series against the Orioles between July 20 and 24.

As for Hernandez, he will make his first big-league start in almost a year when he takes the mound Wednesday night against Ervin Santana. Hernandez has missed the entire season and served a three-week suspension after being arrested on Jan. 19 outside the United States consulate in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, for pitching under the name of Fausto Carmona.

(Photo by The Associated Press)

The Browns picked up DT Ronnie Cameron today through the waivers process after he was released by the Bears.  Four other teams (DET, NYG, PHI, HOU) put in claims for him, but Cleveland easily won the bid due to their 2011 suck-osity.

Cameron was an Undrafted Free Agent this year out of Old Dominion University, where he had 73 tackles (28 solo, 45 assisted) along with a team-leading 17 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks last season.

Naturally, no one should look to an undrafted guy that was released before even the first round of cuts to make any kind of difference whatsoever, but the Browns are cobweb-thin in the Defensive front 7 right now.  So you never know.

2012 06 joe haden revisAn off-season trip to Las Vegas may end up costing Cleveland Browns cornerback Joe Haden four games.

According to Pro Football Talk,a "league source" says Haden tested positive for Adderall after taking the medication as a "pick-me-up" during an offseason visit to Las Vegas. A positive test would result in a four-game suspension of the Browns best defensive player.

Great.

PFT also says that, because the clock hasn't started ticking on the appeal process, Haden may be able to avoid a possible suspension until well into the 2012 season (or maybe not until next year). The NFL appeals process takes months to process.

If Haden does end up serving a suspension, he will join a growing list of young players who have been nailed for using Adderall, according to Gatorsports.com. New Orleans placekicker Garrett Hartley and former Cardinals tight end Ben Patrick were each suspended in 2009.

Brandon Spikes, a teammate of Haden's at Florida, was suspended for the final four regular season games of  2010. Spikes reportedly dose suffer from ADHD and had a prescription for the medicine. He reportedly did not challenge his suspension because he did not want to miss a playoff game.

Two New York Giants players, rookie safety Tyler Sash and fourth-year running back Andre Brown, were suspended this year even though both have prescriptions. Sash's suspension has been upheld while Brown's was overturned after notifying the NFL of his Adderall prescription.

Gatorsports.com points out that a  "2011 survey of students at 119 colleges in America done by the publication Addiction reported that 25 percent of students at 'very competitive' campuses take Adderall for academic purposes."

It will be interesting to see how the NFL handles all this.

2012 08 fausto returnsRoberto Hernandez is coming back to Cleveland.

Hernandez, who has missed the entire season after being arrested on Jan. 19 outside the United States consulate in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic,for pitching under the name of Fausto Carmona, will join the rotation and start Wednesday's game against the Angels.

"We liked what we saw," Indians manager Manny Acta said, according to the team's website. "He's ready to go. It makes no sense for us to activate him now, It buys us a couple more days so we can make a decision with the rest of the guys, especially our bullpen. We'll probably need a day or so to get it completely in order and rested."

The charges against Hernandez were dropped in exchange for community service, and he returned to this country with a new visa in late July. Hernandez served a three-week suspension and  then made four minor league starts, posting an ERA of 4.07 in 24.1 innings of work. His last minor league game was Friday with AAA Columbus.

"They liked the way he threw the ball down there," Acta said. "He attacked hitters. It was obviously better competition than being in Lake County, and he was able to go seven strong innings."

During parts of six seasons with the Indians, Hernandez has a record of 53-66 with a 4.59 ERA in 181 games.

So there you go.

Trent RichardsonTrent Richardson is having surgery.

After reports came out yesterday that Cleveland’s first-round pick might miss the Detroit game due to knee soreness, Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Mary Kay Cabot confirmed that Richardson is having arthroscopic knee surgery to remove a very small piece of cartilage -- the source of his soreness.

No one is sure how long Richardson will be sidelined, but most believe it shouldn’t be more than a few weeks due to the minimal severity of the operation. The rookie running back might make it back for Cleveland’s last preseason game, but it’d be a shock if he didn’t take the field against Philadelphia in the season opener.

Richardson will have well-known orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrew perform the operation. More details to follow.

hafnerAccording to any source for Indians information that you follow on Twitter, the Indians have placed Travis Hafner on the 15-day disabled list and have recalled IF/OF Jason Donald from Triple-A Columbus. Hafner just recently returned from the paternity list, played one game, and sat out with a back issue up until a MRI that was completed yesterday.

The results of the MRI are still pending, but the Indians are labeling it "lower back inflammation" as of now. An update from Lonnie Soloff will likely come in the near future.

As for Jason Donald, he was batting .277/.365/.441/.807 in Columbus over 65 games played. Donald should see some playing time against lefties as he hit .317 in 60 at bats against them this season on the farm and has a Major League split of .301/.372/.438/.810 against southpaws. Donald played in 18 games with the Indians back at the start of the season, due in large part to the fact that he was hitting .188. He's just 5-for-21 in August, but also had a 5-for-5 game back on July 31.

Hafner has played just 60 games this season, batting .239. He had a nice game on August 5 against Detroit, driving in three runs and hitting a home run, but the back must have flared up after that point. Registering just 201 at bats to this point this season is not beneficial to Hafner as the Indians have a $13M club option for him next season that looks like it will not get picked up.

radinskyThe Indians clearly lost something when Tim Belcher stepped down from his role as the team's pitching coach to tend to other issues. Scott Radinsky, who had been serving as the bullpen coach, stepped in and took Belcher's place for the 2012 season. Just four months into his first season as pitching coach, Radinsky was "dismissed" by the Indians per the team's official Twitter. Ruben Niebla will assume interim duties.

This season, the Indians have clearly had issues on the pitching side of things. Their 4.74 ERA is the third-worst in baseball and just .03 runs away from being the worst in the American League. They have also issued the second-most walks. The timing of this move has a lot to do with the fact that the Indians have posted a 5.55 team ERA since the All-Star break and have given out 106 walks in just 26 games.

Niebla takes the short drive up I-71 from Columbus, where he was the pitching coach for the Columbus Clippers of the International League, to Cleveland to take over for at least the remainder of the season. Niebla also served as the Double-A Akron Aeros pitching coach in 2009. The Clippers had a team ERA of 3.91 this season under Niebla's guidance. Unlike the Indians, however, the Clippers were last in the league in walks with just 330 in 119 games.

Stay with TheClevelandFan.com for any other breaking developments as it appears the Indians are in a bit of a transitional phase with the players and personnel.

2012 06 joe haden revisCleveland Browns cornerback Joe Haden is reportedly facing a four-game suspension for allegedly failing a drug test.

According to ESPN Cleveland, "multiple sources" (all unnamed) claim the NFL is reviewing the result of the test, with one source (also unnamed) saying that  Haden "tested positive for the prescription drug Adderall during a routine, off-season test" that the league adminsters as part of its policy to detect the use of anabolic steroids and related substances.

Adderall is a stimulant that is commonly prescribed to treat ADHD. It is also on the NFL's list of banned substances.

If Haden did test positive, the league mandates a second test from the original sample. If that shows up positive as well, Haden would be suspended for the first four games of the regular season. Haden can appeal the suspension if one is handed down.

If this is true and Haden is suspended, the Browns will open the season without four starters on defense, with Haden joining suspended linebacker Scott Fujita, and injured defensive tackle Phil Taylor and injured linebacker Chris Gocong.

 

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