Now let's see if the Cavs can't get some separation from the Celtics! Each team has a difficult road stretch coming up soon; could be a pivotal stretch in the season. Boston has roadies with PHX and DEN. The Cavs go to HOU, SAN, ATL, and MIA beginning next week.

Q: Is this the most you’ve looked forward to a year, to prove something?

TH: You look forward to every year and you prepare for every year, but it just feels like I haven’t played for so long that I’m excited to get back out there and start playing again.

Q: Do you have to fight doubt?

TH: Not really. I feel my shoulder is healthy now and it’s not going to be an issue.

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Nice little piece of audio on the PD website ...

Buried at the bottom of Hoynes' coverage of the Pavano signing is this little nugget:

"Hafner update: DH Travis Hafner recently had his right shoulder re-examined by Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala. On Oct. 14, Andrews performed surgery on Hafner's shoulder joint.

Andrews cleared Hafner to initiate "pre-hitting' activities this week at Progressive Field. He's expected to start hitting in mid-January.

Hafner was held to 57 games last year because of his shoulder."

Thanks for all the great details, Hoynsie!

Here's a link to Lastoria's 12/27 notes, which include some potentially bad news regarding Tony Sipp's shoulder. This might be old news to some, especially those of you that read Lastoria regularly, but I haven't seen this mentioned here yet. In fact, most have simply continued to include Sipp's name among our 2009/10 bullpen depth options. I hope we're still able to ...

Lastoria reported in mid-Dec and then again on 12/27 that:

"Tony Sipp had not gone to the Dominican Republic as originally planned because the Indians completely shut him down for the rest of the offseason after he complained of some shoulder discomfort at the end of the season and in the early part of his offseason workouts. The severity of the injury is not known, but according to a baseball official I talked to over the past few days if the shoulder does not feel better by spring training Sipp may need to undergo surgery (again) ... No word on what the exact injury is, how it happened, or how serious it is, but this is concerning to say the least. "

"The sports model I can envision will mean that the merely nice, serviceable players — the character actors of games, like the rebounding power forward who can't shoot, the good-field-no-hit shortstop — will see their multimillion-dollar salaries considerably reduced, even if the celebrity stars may still receive the real big money."

One could argue that this trend has long been on-going, but Deford is arguing for a Hollywood-like model, with a single star making in the neighborhood of $20 mill and the rest of the players on the order of $1 mill.

Is this likely? healthy? inevitable?

The link takes you to the audio podcast, about 4 minutes worth, from his NPR spot.

"The Cleveland Browns are sending tight end Kellen Winslow to the doctor for tests after he missed his second straight day of practice with an unspecified illness."

Oh boy ...

Thorpe's advice for his Top-20 NBA Rookies includes this take on J.J. Hickson, who he has rated at #15 in his Rookie Rankings:

"Hickson looked like a top-10 talent in Vegas summer league, but he'll have a different role as a rookie on this contending team. Cleveland is one of the league's best in rotating on defense, which requires good anticipation skills. Hickson needs to immerse himself in defensive film and technique so those rotations become second nature as soon as possible."

I missed this earlier in the week, but Gammons makes a case for Jhonny as the most valuable AL shortstop. ESPN Insider content, but here's the main quote (before the discussion devolves into a Jed Lowrie lovefest):

"Have you checked out the contrast between National and American League shortstops? And if you're a general manager filling out that Sporting News ballot, isn't it hard not to write Jhonny Peralta in as the AL shortstop?

Peralta is the only AL shortstop to make the top six in OPS (.786, tied with Derek Jeter for sixth among major league shortstops, behind Hanley Ramirez, Jose Reyes, J.J. Hardy and Stephen Drew), homers (21, third behind Ramirez and Hardy) and extra-base hits (62, fourth behind Ramirez, Reyes and Drew). "