The Mahoning Valley Scrappers continued to roll on their current homestand as they again outpitched the Batavia Muckdogs.  Clayton Cook was tonight’s Scrapper starter and turned in an impressive performance.  The Scrappers continue to struggle on offense, but remain solid on defense.

The Scrappers scored in the second inning.  Greg Folgia opened the inning with a double and would come around to score on a Casey Frawley RBI single.   Kyle Smith singled home Frawley in the eighth for the other Scrapper run.

Smith (pictured above) has been improving over the past three weeks with the bat and is starting to get comfortable at the plate, “I haven’t really made any changes.  I think it is more about the pitches that I am swinging at.  I’m really focused on swinging at strikes and making sure I get my pitch and not their pitch.”

Manager Travis Fryman feels blessed by the great defense Smith and Kyle Bellows are providing on the left side of the infield, “The left side of our defense has been really, really good this year.  Kyle Smith is a very mature and composed leader on the field at shortstop and Kyle Bellows is a converted shortstop and is learning third base and showing great potential over there at third.”

Clayton Cook looked good despite Fryman saying he didn’t have his best stuff.  Cook pitched six scoreless innings yielding just three hits and a walk.  He also ran his scoreless streak over the Muckdogs to 18 innings this season.  Antwoine Hubbard worked the seventh and eighth and Tyler Sturdevant pitched the ninth earning his second save of the season.

Mahoning Valley wished every day were a Saturday as they ran their 2009 record to 7-1 on that day of the week.  Game three of the four game homestand has Auburn coming to town to face the Scrappers.  First pitch is scheduled for 5:05.

The Cleveland Browns would like to put 2008 in their rear view mirror and lose sight of it as fast as they can.  In what can only be categorized as ignorant, Braylon Edwards showed up to Browns camp a day late and failed his physical.  Edwards was placed on the Browns Active/Non-Football Injury list.   Great leverage in a contract year would be to show up early and in shape.

Edwards, who led the entire NFL in drops last year with 17, has to be more of a leader.  If Cleveland is going to turn things around this season, everybody has to chip in and try a little harder.  With this being the first major story from Browns camp, it seems like another step backwards for a team trying to overcome the “underachiever” label they earned last season.

Edwards’ contract is done after this season.  He could be fined up to $17,000 for reporting a day late.  He also missed mandatory minicamp in June with an undisclosed injury.  The swirling rumor mill reported he hurt his ankle playing basketball.  Because he missed minicamp, Edwards was to report with the rookies a week earlier than everyone else on the active roster.  Instead, he showed up a day later than everyone else.

• Style Points added an interesting photo to their blog showing you where Braylon’s priorities lie these days, check it out by clicking on the link.

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers returned to Niles to open a four-game homestand.  The Scrappers got a great start from Vidal Nuno and held off Batavia to take a 2-1 verdict and remain in first place in the New York Penn League for the 28th day in a row.

Ben Carlson (pictured) hit a bomb over everything and into the right field parking lot to give the Scrappers a 1-0 lead.  Jason Smit then walked and stole second.  Smit scored the Scrappers second run when Jordan Henry hit into an apparent double play, but, Batavia shortstop Ryan Jackson floated his throw over the head of the first baseman allowing Smit to score from second.

Cory Burns had a shaky ninth giving up a run on a bases loaded double play.  Burns was able to escape without further harm to preserve the victory for Nuno and garner a save.

“We weren’t expecting to get that many inning out of him [Nuno] tonight.  We put him in the rotation, he has a spot there now.  We have to work on building his pitch count”, said Scrappers Manager Travis Fryman.

Ben Carlson talked about his long home run after the game, “I had two strikes on me and was actually looking to go the other way.  He [Batavia starter Chris Corrogan] came inside for the first time all night and I just kind of reacted and hit it good enough to go out.”

The Scrappers continue the weekend homestand tonight at Eastwood Field.

Smit-O-Meter:  1-2, BB, SB (7), R, Currently Batting .286

Man, when it rains, it pours.  It has been pouring in Cleveland all week.  Victor Martinez was sent packing by the Indians Friday.  In return, they failed to obtain Clay Buchholz, the prized pospect.  Instead they took a chance on potential with Justin Masterson and a couple of bowls of clam chowder. 

What can only be considered as weird, Saturday is Victor Martinez bobblehead giveaway night, in Cleveland, where Martinez used to play.  Maybe the front office can schedule CC Sabathia bobblehead night for September.  People will want the Martinez dolls, but you don’t go to McDonald’s and order a Whopper too often, do you?

The Indians trades are getting mixed reviews.  Some experts are saying that they did a wonderful job of stocking the cupboard with potential hurlers.  They traded one pitcher and got back nine in the three trades.  Other experts are ridiculing the front office for following the Pirates formula of finishing in the bottom five in MLB’s win column, but in the top five in MLB’s profit margin column.

Victor Martinez had his heart broken by the trade.  He cried as he hugged teammates and said his goodbyes.  He felt a loyalty that players need to become callous to in today’s economy.  I hate the fact that the Indians drafted him as a 17-year old and just kicked him to the curb so they can save a few bucks. 

The Pirates five-year rebulding plan has been in motion for 17 years now.  It still has not worked.  Being sandwiched halfway between Pittsburgh and Cleveland is annoying as a baseball fan right now.  Anyway, be one of the 20,000 in attendance at Progressive Field tomorrow and grab yourself a Victor Martinez Cleveland Indians bobblehead doll.

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers improved to 2-1 on their current road venture with a 2-0 victory over the Auburn Doubledays.  The Scrappers upped their 2009 record against the Doubledays to 4-0. 

The pitching on the road trip has been outstanding to this point.  Preston Guilmet went six strong innings and recorded five strikeouts while allowing just four Doubleday hits.  Guido Fonseca, Nick Kirk, and Tyler Sturdevant worked an inning each.  Sturdevant struck out the side in the ninth inning to earn his first save of the season.

The Scrappers posted both of their runs in the second inning.  Ben Carlson (pictured) singled to left and scored on Jason Smit’s 2-run homer to left.

The Scrappers wrap up the series and the road trip tonight at 7:05 and can be heard on AM-1390 with Marc Means calling the game.  The Scrappers return home to open a four-game homestand against Batavia and Auburn starting with Fireworks Friday.

Smit-O-Meter:  1-4, HR (1), 2 RBI (22), Currently Hitting .284

You would think that the Cleveland Indians would have learned a little something from the Toronto Blue Jays earlier in the week.  If not, you would think that the Indians may have learned something from the CC Sabathia trade last year.  Instead, the Indians are following the formula that has done so well for the Pittsburgh Pirates since 1992.  Dump salary and get prospects.

What the Indians should have learned from Toronto was not to donate Cliff Lee for prospects.  The Blue Jays traded offers with the Phils.  AJ Happ is a major league pitcher who is young and shows potential.  The Jays asked for Happ and Kyle Drabek, their #1 prospect for Roy Halladay.  Philadelphia said they wanted too much.  So Cleveland turns around and offers Cliff Lee AND Ben Francisco for neither of the aforementioned Phillies.  They get back four prospects with the best being Carlos Carrasco who is having a terrible year.  Good work Mark!  Give that extra guy and get neither big gun back.

What the Indians should have learned from the CC Sabathia trade last year was to get major leaguers back in the trade.  Cleveland basically gave Sabathia away to dump salary.  Sabathia and Lee, both Cy Young Award Winners should command a bit more demand than what they got back.  There are players on major league rosters who don’t make $10 million per year.  Young players with Major League futures.

The Pittsburgh Pirates, unless they traded their name away too, are the farm system for baseball.  Call them MLB’s only AAAA team.  Their role in sports is not to win, but rather to draft talent, develop it, and then sell it away for other talent to raise.  If you put together a team of Pirates traded away in the past five seasons, you would have half of a decent all-star team. 

You know the Indians are nowhere near done.  Victor Martinez will be heading away soon.  Guaranteed.  Kelly Shoppach is OK, but Martinez is special.  Carlos Santana is ripping the cover off of the ball at Double-A Akron and is a good defensive catcher.  That would make this trade more sensible, if and only if, Cleveland gets something back that they can insert NOW, not a future hopeful who might make it up someday.

I understand the economics of baseball.  There are two ways to play.  One is the greedy George Steinbrenner way.  Buy everything and field a bunch of big names.  The other way is to survive.  Cut your losses and hope for a better showing next year.  The Indians are reverse current on both right now.  They are buying very little.  Mark DeRosa was what they bought, and they already dumped him before the break.  Kerry Wood is what they kept, and frankly, he sucks this year.  Survival does not mean liquidation of every functional asset.  It means balancing the budget.  Cleveland is trying to ultimately show a profit when they do their taxes in April. 

Kelly Pavlik does not need to move up in weight and play with Showtime in their tournament.  As Pavlik recently said, “Careers will be ruined by that tournament and I will beat whoever wins.”  The champ is set to be interviewed within the next couple of weeks as he nears a Fall fight date.

Other great stories:

• My Sports Rumors thinks that Tampa Bay will be in for a good battle in camp to name the starting quarterback, Luke McCown, Josh Freeman, and Byron Leftwich all want it.
• Detroit4Lyfe has a screenshot collage of a call the umpires blew in the Pittsburgh vs SF Giants game.  Delwyn Young got screwed (and so did Garrett Jones).
• Tony Blogs says the NFL got it right by reinstating Michael Vick.
• The World Of Isaac found an executive for the Florida Panthers hitting on the FOX News lady, on the air.
• Pucks & Pitchforks takes a look at the greatest hockey uniforms, now and then.
• Inside The Iggles sends an open letter to NFL Commish Roger Goodell about Michael Vick, Plaxico, and addresses the fact that only four first round draft picks have signed.
• Joe Sports Fan says the influx of “Pujols 5” jerseys are so 2008.
• The Fifth Corner previews a game to have Carolina Tar Heels from the 04-05 season against members of last years team and 8 other alums in a charity contest.

Tim Lincecum looked worthy of some Cy Young hype with his effort agains the Pittsurgh Pirates Monday night.  Lincecum pitched a complete gams and struck out 15 Pirates.  The San Francisco Giants won the game 4-2.  The two Pirate runs were unearned gifts courtesy of wishy-washy and heavily traveled shortstop Edgar Renteria. 

Lincecum only surrendered three hits and made the Pirate lineup look foolish from top to bottom.  No doubt about it, The Freak was cranked up and rolling at the bay!

Granted the fete was somewhat downplayed because it happened against the Karen Carpenter-offense of Pittsburgh.  The Pirates had been shut out their last two starts and Lincecum was not the man they needed to see to get the offensive bus moving forward.

The Mahoning Valley Thunder closed out their season Saturday night.  Unfortunately, the home team was unable to end on a high note losing 63-43 to the playoff-bound Green Bay Blizzard.  The 2-14 record posted by the Thunder does not even come close to the spirit and competitive fire I saw all year.  This team was in more than half of the games they lost.

Personnel changes make a difference whether dealing with a band, a sports franchise, or the office.  Team chemistry needs to develop, it can’t just be inserted and plugged in.  With a high number of coaching changes and team philosophies, the odds of success increase greatly.  The Thunder endured three coaching changes in 2009.  Mike Hold started the season as the head coach.  He was terminated and replaced by Brennan Booth.  Andy Kelly was brought in to run an offense struggling to score.  Eight weeks in, Booth gets knocked down to defensive coordinator, Andy Kelly goes away without ever seeing a steel mill, and Chris MacKeown, the Bill Parcells of arena ball  is hired to run things.  Mackeown has the reputation of making bad teams good, “We want to build on guys that have character like this and play hard every snap.  I have always had an offseason to work on things and this was a new challenge.  I have taken bad teams and turned them around, which I was unable to do here.  We have to get better on offense.  We have to stay healthy to put more points on the board, and we will.  We scored 50 points once while I was here, and that will not happen next year.”

Problems at QB have been there all year.  Davon Vinson was pegged to start but  was replaced, Blake Powers took over for the Thunder and played respectably until breaking his collar bone and landing on IR.  When Powers couldn’t play, Vinson was rewarded the starting job back and was yanked after being ineffective.  Brad Roach was brought in to learn fast and thrown into the fire even faster.  Tom Zetts was a season-ending addition who took over for the injured Roach.  Three coaches + four quarterbacks = mess.

Quorey Payne should add the words “instant offense” to his name.  Payne was exciting to watch all season catching passes and returning kickoffs.  He made it through most of the year until knee problems ended his season.  Payne told me his agent is working on a highlight film to send out to UFL teams.  CJ Brewer missed the last couple of games with a broken hand.  Brewer had the best end zone celebrations I have ever seen with the exception of Jermaine Moye’s display Saturday.  On a Moye from Zetts TD reception, Jermaine mocked The Rock and gave the ball “the people’s elbow“.  I asked Moye about the celebration, “I’m not really a celebration type dude, but I am a fan of The Rock.”  Moye said he is looking forward to playing football and thinks Ohio is the advertised hotbed it has come to be known as.  He also said, as did Quorey Payne, they would love to play here again if there is a team and they don’t end up playing on Sundays.

Tom Zetts enjoyed his brief stint with the Thunder.  “We had a good crowd.  I was happy to see family, friends, teachers basketball players [that he coached],  it was great to see everybody.  I wish we would have pulled that win out for these fans.  We put on a little show for the hometown crowd.”  When asked about his future, Zetts simply said, “You never know, I never thought I would play these three games so you just never know.”

Frashon McGee showed his adaptability by switching to receiver for the last game and had a couple of big catches.  McGee had a tryout with the Buffalo Bills a few weeks back and has the size that Quorey Payne lacks to be a Sunday guy.

I will miss looking forward to Thunder games.  The question has been kicked around locally of whether this team will return to play in Youngstown next year.  I asked one of the owners, Tim Chesney, what the future prospectus of the team were.  ” We [the three owners] will sit down next week and evaluate everything.  I cannot say whether next year will happen yet or not until everything is assessed and looked over.”  I also asked Chesney what he thought of the crowd, “It was encouraging to have a good sized crowd and we thank the fans for their support”  The crowd of almost 4,000 proved that arena football in Youngstown is marketable.

So, before closing the book on 2009, and hopefully looking forward to 2010, there are some thanks to be given.  Thank you to Anthony Farris for always being accomodating and positive.  (The Farris – Aleshere broadcast team feature piece will be up in the next week).  Thanks to coaches Chris MacKeown and Brennan Booth.  They were also very generous with their time and deserve praise for their efforts.  Thanks to Blake Powers, Brad Roach, Davon Vinson, and Tom Zetts, for the constant effort at quarterback.  Thanks to Larry Harrison, the Reggie White of arena ball, for always having a smile and caring about the game results with all of his heart.  Quorey Payne and Jermaine Moye are two very special guys.  They were always polite, always had a smile on their faces, were thankful and praiseworthy of their profiles, and earned my respect as people.  Thank you to the girl who would burn 1,000 calories a night running scoring summaries all over the press area.  Thanks to the stats guys, the television broadcast team, and Scott Jones.  Carlos Spinner, put that camera down and heal up. 

I really hope this team comes back next season because these games are an event and those who attended appreciated the promos and dancers and watching a guy pick his nose on a big screen for a whole minute.  There were memories attached to anyone who attended.  Owners, if you are reading this, the demand is there, the right people are in place, and next year will be a playoff year. 

Probably the most racist thing WWE (WWF at that time) ever released.  Ironically, the WWE released Tony Atlas from his role as Mark Henry’s manager on ECW in June.  Atlas has been down and out in a classic story of a wrestler that went from the headlines to the bread lines in record time.