In a move that can only signify forfeiture of a season, the Indians traded away Mark DeRosa to St. Louis for a player to be named later.  Anytime a player is traded away to a contender for a player to be named later, it usually signifies the team getting the player later doesn’t need him yet because they quit.

Coming off of the heels of a 7-3 loss to the Reds Saturday night, the trade was announced immediately after the game.  Personally, I am suprised this move came before the firing of Eric Wedge.  See if the team can make a move with new any leadership.

DeRosa is batting .270 with 13 HR and 50 RBI in 278 at-bats.  He will be a good fit for St. Louis, probably seeing a bulk of the action at third base. 

So-long Mark, it was nice to have you here for a little while.  You are a versatile player who does what it takes to win. 

For Cleveland, failed closer Chris Perez and a “player to be named later” are coming.  Maybe DeRosa will outhit Albert Pujols and he will be the player we get in return..  haha fat chance.

Way to go… Go Pirates.

My heart goes out to Coach Chris MacKeown, his staff, and the players for Mahoning Valley.  If there were a betting line on this game in Vegas, Wilkes-Barre would have probably been 30 point favorites.  Mahoning Valley played a great game against a great team and came up short in the end, losing 62-47.

In a familiar scene, Quorey Payne returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown only to be called back for an illegal block.  That has to be the third or fourth time that has happened this season to Payne.  The Thunder took the ball and drove to a score when Brad Roach found CJ Brewer.  Nathan Palkovic missed the extra point, and the Thunder lead the game 6-0.

Wilkes-Barre returned the kickoff to the Thunder 8-yard line and scored on a Ryan Vena to JJ Outlaw pass on the first offensive play to give the Pioneers a 7-6 lead.  On the next drive, Roach was picked off on fourth down by Micheaux Robinson who returned it 15 yards for the Pioneer TD, and with the extra point kick the score was Wilkes-Barre 14, Mahoning Valley 6.

The Thunder responded on their next drive, cashing in on a CJ Brewer 1 yard run, and another Palkovic miss made it 14-12 in favor of the Pioneers. 

The two teams would exchange touchdowns several times as Ryan Vena was deadly accurate in the first half.  The Thunder kept responding behind Roach to Brewer and Payne scores all night.  At half, the Pioneers took a 35-28 lead to the locker room.

The Pioneers, who scored on 9 of 11 offensive possessions, took the second half kickoff and marched the length of the field capped off by a Vena to Outlaw strike putting the Pioneers up 42-28.  On the next possession, the Thunder again responded when Roach hit Quorey Payne in stride for a 45-yard bomb pulling the Thunder back to 42-34 as Palkovic missed another extra point.

After the teams exchanged TD’s, the Pioneers lead was 49-41 after 3 quarters. 

Vena hit Outlaw again at 9:39 in the fourth quarter to push the lead back to 56-41.  As things began to look gloomy for Mahoning Valley, CJ Brewer turned a modest gain into a monster play as Brewer sprinted up the field and got one of the best blocks I have ever seen by Jermaine Moye.  Moye’s clean hit knocked the helmet off of the Pioneer defender and when the block was shown on the replay, it was a better hit than I originally thought.

However, Vena hit Larry Kendrick in the end zone  for a 62-47 Wilkes-Barre lead.  Mahoning Valley got the ball back and drove to a first and goal, but Kendrick picked off a pass that was tipped to end the scoring.  The Pioneers ran the clock out to seal the victory. 

Coach MacKeown saw his team fight until the end, “We need to learn faster.  It’s a loss against a great team but it is still a loss.  This proves to everyone that we can play with anyone in the league.  I have a good feeling we can win our last three games.” 

Ryan Vena was 23-28 for 274 yards and 8 TD’s.  JJ Outlaw caught 6 Pioneer TD’s and ended up catching 8 balls for 126 yards.

For Mahoning Valley, Brad Roach had his best showing completing 21 passes in 41 attempts for 309 yards and 5 TD’s. Quorey Payne and CJ Brewer caught 15 of Roach’s 21 completions for a total of 240 yards.  They each ended up with three TD’s.

The Thunder head into the bye week at 1-12 with a 12 game losing streak.  They play next on July 11 in Peoria.

Eric Wedge relied on one of his battered bullpen converts to perhaps save his job.  Speculation that Wedge will be canned soon barring a miracle turnaround took a backseat to one of the Indians best all-around showings this season as the Tribe rolled past Cincinnati, 9-2. 

Cleveland scored all 9 runs between the 3rd and 6th innings.  Ryan Garko and Victor Martinez homered for Cleveland in the rout.  Grady Sizemore opened the Cleveland offensive outburst with an RBI double in the third. 

Cleveland starter Jeremy Sowers pitched into the eighth inning and was constantly ahead of hitters throughout the game. 

Jensen Lewis did his best to keep the Cleveland bullpen in a funk by walking the first two hitters he faced to open the ninth inning.  Tony Sipp was called upon and promptly struck out the side to end the game.

For Wedge, at least in my opinion, another bullet was dodged in saving his job.  The end is near.

Wow, an all-star center in Cleveland.  Welcome Shaq.  Nice to have a big guy who can score underneath and keep the other team’s big guys at bay.  Big upgrade folks, huge.

• PSAMP reports that Tito Ortiz is in Pittsburgh to promote a non-UFC MMA event.  Ortiz showed up decked out in Steelers-looking clothing and was a total suck-up.
• Josh Q. Public thinks the Spurs are back in the saddle again.
• Epic Carnival compiled a list of the top ten tennis shots of all-time.
• NESW Sports has the video of Tiger Woods losing to Jimmy Fallon at Wii golf.
• Sports Rubbish finds Chad “Ocho Cinco” Johnson comparing the death of Michael Jackson to 9/11, only to apologize immediately.

On what would already be a sad day losing Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson has killed himself much the same way Anna Nicole Smith did. The current speculation is that Jackson probably overdosed on perscription medication or pills of some sort.   According to TMZ.com, Jackson went into cardiac arrest and was rushed to UCLA’s medical center and could not be revived.  Jackson was 50.  Here is the link to the TMZ article…

As of 6:25 PM EST, CNN has confirmed Michael Jackson is in a coma, but not dead.  They are even commenting that CBS reported Jackson dead, but are refusing to confirm the death stating Jackson is still in a coma and not dead.  Wolf Blitzer is acting like a jackass making the story of official confirmation of whether or not Michael Jackson is dead or not bigger than the actual situation…

I know it doesn’t have anything at all to do with sports, but the King of All Pop is bigger than life, give the guy his respect.  Anyone who can keep an album like 1982’s Thriller on the top of the charts for 80 weeks deserves props.

I’m not a converted soccer fan by any means.  I am patriotic though, so I enjoyed the US Soccer Team shocking the world and beating Spain to advance to the finals.  Here are some great stories:

• ESPN.com threw me a bone Wednesday linking to my Kerry Wood story.  Check out the love that author Rob Neyer gave me by clicking here.
• Predominantly Orange salutes high school coaches of all sports.
• PacMan Jonesin’ warns you to be careful of who you mess with in the parking lot after games.
• The Friendly Blogfines looks at some truly amazing Cubs stats.
• Steady Burn covers Seve Ballesteros’ first post tumor appearance where he likens cancer to golf.
• Zoner Sports tells us why Twitter has changed sports.
• Detroit4lyfe comments on Magglio Ordonez’s new haircut.  Maybe the aerodynamics will improve and we will see Magglio steal 50 after the break!
• Fansided gives their Top 10 list of sports transformers.
• Major League Jerk reports that Texas has activated El Duque, Orlando Hernandez in his article El Duque or El Dookie?
• PSAMP brags for his territory saying at least one Pittsburgh team is going to lose.
• Josh Q. Public looks at the NBA’s drafts past busts and bargains.
• King James Gospel already found 20 nicknames for the newest Cav, Shaquille O’Neal.
• Sports Rubbish has a classic find of an old Joe Namath and Farrah Fawcett commercial.

The Mahoning Valley Thunder have made several player moves in the past few weeks.  Obviously in arena football, versatility means something.  Jermaine Moye is a versatile athlete.  He is being used primarily as a wide receiver, but was listed as the teams backup quarterback last week.

Moye grew up in Rochester, Pennsylvania.  After a stellar high school career, he enrolled at West Virginia.  Moye later transferred from West Virginia to The University of California (PA) and enjoyed all the success he could at that level.  Cal (PA) made it to the semifinals competing for a national championship.

“Those years really helped turn Cal around.  That changed the whole program there”, said Moye. 

Jermaine is all about reality television.  He told me that he could watch Flava Flav on VH1 all day.  “Really, any reality show on VH1 is good to see.  If I get up early enough, I never miss Ellen DeGeneres.  I am an Ellen fan, her show is cool.”  Moye also watches Sportscenter and other ESPN programming such as PTI with Wilbon and Kornheiser.

Musically, Moye shows a very interesting variety in taste.  Right now he said Lil’ Wayne is ruling his MP3 player.  He expressed interest in just about any kind of music including Classical and Country.  The only kind of music Moye cannot tolerate is Heavy Metal.

Moye, like Jon Loyte, is misrepresented numerically in EA Sports NCAA Football’s video game.  As a result, Jermaine only uses the big boys and plays Madden ’08 on his PS2.  Madden 08?  PS2?  “I can’t afford to go out and buy one of those fancy new systems yet.  The PS2 is holding up just fine”, said Moye.

Being fairly new to this area, Moye cited Antone’s as his favorite place to grub.  “It’s like a little Olive Garden, but better.”  

Regarding the Thunder team that Moye is now a part of, he said that the record doesn’t come close in showing the talent level and potential this team has.  “With all of the changes happening here, everyone is making progress, it seems like we have the right people and we are gaining confidence each week.”

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is like Goliath in AF2.  They are 11-2 and are bringing their show to The Covelli Centre Saturday.  I asked Jermaine for a prediction, to which he declined.  He did however say that the Thunder were not just going to roll over and play dead and to expect a competitive game, not a blowout.   

On a beautiful night for baseball, the Mahoning Valley Scrappers saw their undefeated streak end at five games.  The Scrappers had chances but could not get a big hit when they needed one, ultimately losing to the State College Spikes, 2-1.

State College took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a Pat Irvine RBI single.  With only one out and the bases loaded, Scrapper starter Anthony Ryan escaped without further damage.  Jose Hernandez hit a sac fly for the Spikes in the 3rd inning driving home Tony Sanchez.

Mahoning Valley answered with a Jason Smit RBI single driving in Kyle Bellows who doubled to open the inning.  With men on first and third, the Scrappers could only push their lone run across the plate as Tyler Cox struck out Kyle Smith and Rafael Vera looking to end the inning.

Scrappers Coach Travis Fryman knew the streak couldn’t last forever, “They made some great plays on defense and didn’t beat themselves.  We just couldn’t get a timely hit when we needed one all night.”

State College showacsed the Pirates #1 Draft Pick, Tony Sanchez, behind the plate.  Watching Sanchez throw a ball to second when the pitcher is done warming up is a treat.  Sanchez’s ball tails left to right a bit.  He blocked pitches in the dirt all night and moves with catlike quickness from his stance.

The Scrappers return home on July 1 to face Williamsport.  First pitch is set for 7:00 at Cafaro Field.   

Nothing like an old XFL memory huh?  Lots of good stories to check out today.

• Sports Rubbish has a video of a Samurai cutting a baseball in half with his sword.
• Sharapova’s Thigh found something interesting on Twitter.  ESPN’s Ric Bucher assuring Timberwolves youngster Kevin Love that he won’t be traded.
• Major League Jerk addresses what criteria people use when casting votes to select MLB’s all-stars.
• Josh Q Public writes about Yankees starter Chien Ming Wang, and the recent struggles of the Yankees and Mr. Wang, no offense.
• No Guts, No Glory  talks about ex-NFL players trying to peddle hopes of weight loss through eating chocolate.
• Hugging Harold Reynolds found Martina Navratilova’s ex wife/lover calling the former tennis great a hypocrite on gay rights.
• NESW Sports found potential #1 NBA Draft Pick Blake Griffin losing a game of H-O-R-S-E to Jared from Subway fame.
• Zoner Sports has picture of EA Sports NHL 2010 with Patrick Kane on the box cover.
• The Fifth Corner lists his 2009 NBA mock draft and also does a good interview with Bob from Detroit4lyfe.
• Detroit4lyfe has footage of Joel Zumaya whiffing Milton Bradley with 104 MPH cheese.
• Style Points analyzes the questionable investments Bernie Kosar made on his way to filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Kerry Wood is having a bumpy ride in his first season as a Cleveland Indian.  The former Cubs closer has really been struggling as of late.  Over the weekend, Wood blew two saves against his former Cubs team in his return to Chicago.  Last night, Pittsburgh almost rallied from a 5-0 deficit in the 9th inning to put an exclamation point on how terrible the Indians bullpen is this season.

In his last four appearances, Wood has pitched three innings, given up six hits, three walks, four earned runs and blown two saves.  His ERA over those four games is 12.00, and his overall ERA is currently at 5.68.  These are not the numbers expected when paying someone $21 million.

So what happens?  I believe Wood will be headed to the DL soon.  History is on my side.  I don’t know of any report of injury to Wood at all, but if he blows another save this week, expect his back to ache just to get him cooled off a bit. 

The Indians bullpen obviously is horrible.  No lead is ever safe, regardless of the size of the lead.  I have watched the starters consistently turn in good performances only to play roulette with a group of pitchers who struggle every single time they are called upon.

Wood is the least of the bullpen problems as bad as he has been lately, and that is a pretty sad but true statement.  I can recall at least seven games this season already, when the Indians had at least a three-run lead after five innings and have lost the game.

Eric Wedge needs to go.  He is bringing in the wrong pitchers in the wrong situations and has had zero luck finding a cork for the leaky dam we call the Indians bullpen.  The bullpen, and Wood in particular, need to step it way up and do a better job for the next manager.  Wedge downplayed last nights almost tragic collapse and said, “Wood got the last out and that’s what matters most.”  Wrong Eric, what matters most is the fact that Wood should not have even been used in the game and that you have serious problems behind the fence in your bullpen.