Ben Lindbergh from Baseball Prospectus has a post on ESPN Insider comparing the Indians' good start this year to last year's start and explains why this year is different. Last year the Indians were playing well with performances that were unsustainable and that led to regression after the first two months. The article explains why this year's team is winning without too many players exceeding expectations; he says the offense could be expected to stay the same or even get better but the pitching might be due for some regression. Even so, their PECOTA projections forecasts a .522 winning percentage for the Indians the rest of this season. Their projections give the Indians a slightly larger than 50% chance of winning the division and about a 60% chance of making the playoffs.

FanGraphs has an interview with Scott Radinsky and Chris Perez talking about various topics. I didn't realize that Radinsky is in a band but they discuss that along with getting a interesting perspective of what players and coaches experience at the ballpark. With Chris Perez they talk about throwing and how some of his Indians teammates can throw. It's interesting that Carlos Carrasco can throw a ball further with his left hand than with his right even though he's a right-handed pitcher.

By the way, this interview was done before Perez' comments this past weekend so there is no discussion about that topic.

This is a really nice story from Jackie MacMullan at ESPN.com about Kyrie Iriving's childhood and his family, specifically his relationship with his father. His father was a former basketball player who saw Kyrie's potential at a young age. The story also details how Kyrie's father, who is a financial broker, worked in the World Trade Center but changed jobs just a few weeks before 9/11. He still worked nearby, though, and was in the lobby of the WTC during the attacks. She writes about his experiences that day, trying to leave the city and get to his children at school. It's a very moving story.

[Editor's note: FP'd
Sebestain Pruiti at Grantland has posted rookie rankings throughout the season and Kyrie Irving has moved to first place this week. I had never read his work before it appeared on Grantland but it seems to be very well done. He uses advanced metrics to analyze players and gives pictorial evidence and detailed breakdowns in his rankings. Tristan Thompson was in the top 10 earlier this season but has fallen to just outside the rankings now as other players have stepped up.

The Browns have been awarded offensive lineman Oniel Cousins off waivers from Baltimore. Cousins entered the season as the Ravens' starting RT but was moved to guard because of poor performance then cut when they picked up Bryant McKennie. Ravens coach John Harbaugh has said that Cousins' future is at guard. Mary Kay Cabot tweeted today that the Browns need to make a roster move by 4 pm today to make room for Cousins so we may see Eric Steinbach moved to the IR.

Tony Grossi has a pretty good article in the PD today breaking down the so-called West Coast Offense and its origins in Cleveland under Paul Brown. There is a nice picture showing the coaches who followed Brown and Bill Walsh that have used some form of the offense in their coaching. The article also gives some description of what the offense entails and how it will be used in Cleveland. I know rufio has given a more detailed description of the offense on this board but this is a nice breakdown for fans to read in the newspaper.

MKC tweets that the Browns have signed Taylor to a 4-year deal. All our draft picks will now be in camp.

The Indians' twitter feed said today that Ubaldo Jimenez will make his Indians debut on Friday night against the Rangers. That means he'll have five days off since his 1-inning, 45-pitch start on Saturday as the trade was being finalized. He is expected to join the team in Boston this week.

MKC is reporting that the Browns have resigned Phil Dawson, who had the Browns' franchise tag, to a 1-year contract. They've also resigned RFA's Evan Moore, Brian Shaefering, Billy Yates, and Marcus Bernard. All of their draft picks have now been signed except for Phil Taylor, although reports are that his signing is expected today.

On ESPN.com (Insider required), Football Outsiders ranked the top NFL organizations based on their under-25 talent to see which teams are building best for the future and the Browns ranked 6th on their list. Their top five were Bucs, Chiefs, Patriots, Rams, and Lions. Other AFC North members were Bengals at 9th, Steelers at 15th, and Ravens at 28th.

The writers from FBO were impressed with the talent the Browns have assembled since Holmgren and Heckert took over two years ago (they were 8th in last year's rankings) and see the team improving quickly, especially with a new coaching staff.

Thank you to CoyG Biv for also posting a link to this article. I didn't see his when I posted mine, but since this one has all the comments I'll leave it up.

FSN Arizona is reporting that MLB has told the D'backs they won't be moving to the AL if baseball realigns. Arizona and Houston have both been talked about as candidates to move to the AL but the report states that the move of the Astros to the AL West is a precondition of the sale of the team to Jim Crane. This would also create a natural Texas-Houston rivalry and give the Rangers another team in their division in the same time zone, so this move seems to make the most sense. Selig said yesterday that realignment isn't on the table at the moment so this likely won't happen until 2013 at the earliest.

As expected, Pomeranz is being promoted to Akron and will join the team after the All-Star break. It will be interesting to see what he can do in AA for the second half of the season.

Travis Hafner was activated from the DL today and is batting 4th tonight against the Pirates. Travis Buck sent down to Columbus to make room.

Hopefully this will be the boost that our offense needs to get going. Acta has said that Hafner won't be playing first base, so after this 6-game homestand he'll see only pinch-hitting duties while the Tribe plays nine games in NL parks.

The PD is reporting that Cord Phelps was told after tonight's Clippers game that he will be called up to the Indians tomorrow. No announcement on what roster move will be made but hopefully this is the last we've seen of Orlando.

UPDATE: To make room for Phelps on the 40-man roster, Alex White was moved to the 60-day Disabled List. To make room on the 25-man roster, Shelley Duncan was optioned to Columbus. (Ryan)

Fangraphs has a funny interview with Masterson and Perez on how they would pitch if they were facing various hitters from Indians history. Both guys have fun with the questions and show that they know their baseball history along with having a good sense of humor.

Manny Acta has been named as one of the AL's All-Star coaches by Rangers manager Ron Washington, not surprising given that the Indians currently hold the best record in baseball. The other AL coach is John Farrell of the Blue Jays, so both coaches will have Cleveland connections.

It will be interesting to see how many Indians players get support for the All-Star game this year. I'm sure there won't be any voted in by the fans, given the lack of a popular player (except Grady, who has been on the DL twice already this year), but there should certainly be some Indians selected by the coaches as backups or on the pitching staff.

According to Adam Shefter, the NFL designed this year's schedule so that they could miss 3 weeks of the season and not lose any games. All the matchups in week 3 are between teams with the same bye week so they could move those games to the team's bye week. They would also skip the extra week off between the Championship games and the Super Bowl so the SB would only be moved back one week.

Also, none of the week 4 games are division games. Schefter said that there has never been a week in an NFL season without a single divisional game so that would obviously be done on purpose; if the lockout went further and the NFL had to cancel some games then they could lose week 4 and not miss any divisional games.

This might also explain why the Browns' schedule is so odd, that they play five divisional games in the last six games. The NFL wanted to have most of those games in the second half of the season so they wouldn't miss those games if any were cancelled because of an extended lockout.

Randy Lerner, who grew up in Cleveland but has been living in Long Island, said he is moving back to Cleveland so that his son may attend St. Ignatius next year when he begins high school. Lerner currently spends about two days a week in Cleveland but that will increase with this move, although he'll still spend time in Long Island with his other kids (who live with his ex-wife) and in England with his soccer team.

Lerner says, however, that this move will not result in him taking on more responsibility with the team or being more involved in team operations. He said that he's very happy with the job Holmgren and Heckert have been doing running the team and he's more involved in league operations than the day-to-day operations of the Browns.

Hoynes is reporting that the Indians traded Jayson Nix to the Blue Jays for cash considerations. The Indians were going to try to work a trade for him when he didn't make the 25-man roster so this isn't a surprise. I don't assume they're getting much in return.

Doug Lesmeries, the really good OSU beat writer for the PD, has a nice article at cleveland.com about Thad Matta's hometown of Hoopestown, Illinois, and people's memories of him playing basketball in high scool there. The residents of the town still remember Matta leading his team to the state playoffs and everyone knew he's be a great coach even when he was young.

One of the funniest parts was that after Matta was honored by Hoopestown a couple years ago they put a sign at the edge of town which read "Home of Big 10 coach Thad Matta" because so many people are Illinois fans and didn't want to mention Ohio State.