Quiet offseason a risky business for Browns' front office

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Heckert, Shurmur and Holmgren...Cleveland's new hope.

The Browns' workmanlike performance during the first quarter Saturday night was nice to see, even if the preseason is a dull and virtually meaningless exercise that the NFL has the gall to charge good money for.

But if you were looking for progress I guess we saw some in the small sample size of a couple of possessions. The offense, led by Colt McCoy and his much-maligned receiving corps, looked crisp in scoring two touchdowns, albeit against a vanilla Packers' defense without the services of cornerback Charles Woodson. The Browns' defensive first-team, meanwhile, forced a punt on one possession and got burned by Aaron Rodgers on another.

There were unsurprisingly no clear answers to be gleaned from this first bit of post-lockout competitive football. It was fun seeing the guys on the field again. Even the predictable tedium of the preseason has a certain feeling of well-worn comfort to it. After all, people don't watch practice games to get stressed out. We save our sweaty palms and rapid heartbeats for the regular season, and hopefully for heights far beyond anything this town has seen since about 1989.

What is Ubaldo wearing on his head and how do I get one?

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As Ubaldo deals with the 'pressure' of his first home start, all I have to ask is--what is on his hat?

Hope the adoring fans and gorgeous ballpark help him deal with it!

UPDATE: The lack of sleep has gone to my brain, and apparently to my eyesight. Those are sunglasses, which now I can see clear as day. What a stupid post. My fault.

From mlb.com homepage

Here's a link to the accompanying article by Anthony Castrovince (@castrovince), including some interesting chatter on whether Ubaldo's presence could be a spark for Fausto Carmona.

Bleary eyes, sore elbows, can't lose for the Indians this morning

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Thomas Ondrey/ Plain Dealer

What a morning. What an evening? I don't even know, because waking up this morning after about 4.5 hours sleep was pretty tough. I actually had a dream in which I thought that I had dreamed that the Indians won, since I almost went to bed after the ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth inning. But no, this is real life.

But I didn't go to sleep. Like many of the Indians faithful in the seats and on their couches (and on Twitter, it seems), I stayed up and watched the Indians pull off the antithesis of an exciting walkoff, scoring on a Fukudome bases-loaded hit-by-pitch. in the bottom of the fourteenth inning. Whatever! Looked like it hurt for sure, and even though Kosuke had done nothing but strike out four times before the fourteenth, the last thing the Tribe needs is another subtraction from their income.

Either way, Tuesday and Wednesday were going to be big games because of the daunting prospect of Justin Verlander on Thursday. The rain delay took our ace Masterson out of the game, but the Bullpen Mafia lived up to their name, pitching an amazing twelve scoreless innings. Even though a few hits were scattered throughout, there was no serious Detroit threat to score.

What I won't dwell on is the botched suicide squeeze in the eighth inning. All I'll say is that if it had worked--and it easily could have--Manny Acta would have been seen as ballsy and smart. So with the Indians' bats virtually silent for six innings, let's not criticize him trying to manufacture a run.

Time for another cup of coffee. If someone in my office left an empty pot there will be hell to pay.

What If?

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What If?

What if last week was a bad dream?

What if dreams where something is just out of reach are worse than total nightmares?

What if the Indians had won six or seven of the games where they were tied or ahead in the eighth or ninth inning?

What if their August Monday off sets them in the right direction?

What if they realize that neither the Tigers nor the White Sox are a team to fear?
What if the Indians could put it together over the next two months of almost solid AL Central games?

What if twenty-two games versus Detroit and Chicago are plenty to make a statement?

What if I mean that those twenty-two games are a fine way to make a GOOD statement?

What if the Indians do what they should and dominate the lesser teams still remaining on their schedule?

What if Ubaldo Jiminez continues to hit 97-98 MPG and his spots?

What if it's not 150 degrees every time he pitches?

What if Justin Masterson and Josh Tomlin are the real Tribe studs for the next two three months?

What if Carlos Carrasco is on the DL under false pretenses?

What if he comes back in a bullpen role to make the team even stronger?

What if Shin Soo Choo's reengineered thumb makes him stronger?

What if we have to start calling him a "six-tool" player because of that thumb?

What if our bullpen cosa nostra figures out that they are made men, and play like it?

What if they let morons on Twitter just go unanswered?
What if the two rookies in the lineup keep getting better?

What if "We are all Kipnesses" becomes a trendy slogan?

What if Fukudome is indeed getting comfortable in a new league?

What if the Indians can just put it together again, at a level even close to the beginning of the season?

A huge stretch of games starts tonight versus the Tigers. But it's not just three games this week that are "make or break." It's not far from that--being down four games is a lot better than being down eight games come Friday morning. Being down two is even better. But the Tribe plays the AL Central so much in the next month that a sweep either way vs. Detroit wouldn't be the end of the world--or a cause for Champagne.

What if this Indians season didn't resemble the stock market?

What if investors and Tribe fans didn't need a cabinet full of Pepto Bismol?

Because it's Cleveland and there's no other way.

Curious start to the trip for the Indians. Plus Kenny Powers and Ubaldo.

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This week opened unusually for the Indians. Obviously an important road trip was starting, with visits to first place Boston and Arlington. The Indians had looked like a joke for a number of weeks, with the third worst record in the American League over that time. A feeling of "here we go again" was rampant for Tribe fans. For every thrilling walk-off win, there were a couple games of Indians hitters looking like they were straight out of double-A.

Jim Rogash/ Getty Images

So what the the team do? At the trade deadline, they made a huge wager on the future of Ubaldo Jiminez, and that did send a bit of excitement through the team, although didn't seem to solve the Indians biggest problem areas. But Ubaldo isn't pitching until tonight, and the Tribe had four games versus the bloody hose to worry about first.