(Chris is a long suffering Tribe fan, guest writing here for CST. He can be seen on Twitter at @Cheech99.)
As of this writing, January 17th clearly represents Arbitration Avoidance Fest as the Tribe has already agreed to one year deals with Joe Smith ($1.75MM), Jack Hannahan ($1.3MM), Shin Soo Choo (4.9MM) Justin Masterson ($3.825MM), Chris Perez ($4.5MM) with only Raffy Perez and Asdrubal Cabrera the lone unresolved cases. With the Tribe having avoided formal arbitration since the Governor (Jerry Browne) and the Flounder (Greg Swindell) in 1991, it would be a pretty big shock if Cabrera or Raffy P actually went before the arbitrator.
What this does is begin to cement the 2012 opening day payroll which, by my math, would seem to shake out around $65MM (not including various incentives like the Sizemore escalators). If the Dolans have given General Manager Chris Antonetti a budget ceiling, he obviously knows what he has to work with to augment the team via that oft-discussed first baseman/left fielder/ideally right handed stick, one of the more amusing off-season pursuits in recent memory.
Comparing current Cavaliers rookie and overall #1 pick Kyrie Irving to another certain Cavalier #1 overall pick may be as unfair as comparing WWE's diminutive but lightning-quick Rey Mysterio to the muscular, larger-than-life legend Hulk Hogan. So I did it anyway, comparing their first twelve professional games. I knew Kyrie was having a very good start to his career and it would be at least worth looking at the stats next that Guy in Miami's, but I was shocked by how comparable the stats are - particularly the points per game (PPG), considering Kyrie is averaging thirteen LESS minutes per game. Ultimately, there is one stat that matters when comparing Kyrie to LeBron in a Cavaliers uniform: Championships.God willing - Kyrie will be on the plus side.
