Advertisements
This Is Believeland Podcast for February 22, 2020. The top of the order for the Cleveland Indians will be interesting due to their switch-hitting options.
Daily Archives: February 22, 2020
Monsters make roster moves prior to Saturday’s game
Advertisements
The Columbus Blue Jackets have recalled defenseman Gabriel Carlsson and the Cleveland Monsters have signed forward Jared VanWormer to a PTO.
Well, the Cleveland Monsters are going to look a bit different for Saturday’s game with Rochester. Gabriel Carlsson has been recalled by the Columbus Blue Jackets after being assigned to Cleveland Friday.
Gabriel Carlsson appeared in the Monsters loss to Syracuse on Friday. If Carlsson does appear in a game with Columbus it will be his first NHL action since early-January.
Cleveland also made a roster move of their own, signing forward Jared VanWormer to a professional tryout contract.
Jared VanWormer was playing for the Allen Americans of the East Coast Hockey League prior to signing the PTO. VanWormer has appeared in 53 games for the Americans this season, totaling 36 points (21 goals, 15 assists). This is VanWormer’s first season with the Americans after spending the previous two with the Kansas City Mavericks.
This will not be the first AHL action for the 27-year old forward. Jared VanWormer made appearances for three different AHL clubs last season (Milwaukee, Colorado, Stockton). VanWormer appeared in eight games overall and registered one point off an assist. This point came during his longest stint with one team (four games with Milwaukee).
Pete Prisco has Browns drafting Tristan Wirfs
Advertisements
Pete Prisco of CBS Sports released a mock draft (without trades) that has the Cleveland Browns drafting Tristan Wirfs out of Iowa.
Pete Priso is on the trolley, the Cleveland Browns need an offensive tackle. In his mock draft for CBS Sports, Prisco has the Browns selecting Iowa’s Tristan Wirfs.
Here is the reasoning from Prisco and it is pretty straight forward.
Their tackle spots were a disaster last season. They have to protect Baker Mayfield better and Wirfs could step in and start right away.
Pete Prisco on Browns drafting Tristan Wirfs in his mock draft
There is nothing wrong with his reasoning. Cleveland’s tackle situation was bad last year and unless they do something about it through free agency and the draft it will be even worse next year. One potential free agent option is Tennessee’s Jack Conklin who is apparently on the Browns radar. If Cleveland somehow signed Conklin and draft Wirfs things would be “Coming up Milhouse” that’s for sure.
Pete Prisco has two tackles being drafted ahead of Wirfs in his mock. The New York Giants select Jedrick Wills Jr. fourth overall and the Jacksonville Jaguars take Mekhi Becton one pick ahead of Cleveland. (Charlie Casserly had the Browns selecting Wills at 10 in his latest mock draft).
Surprisingly Andrew Thomas falls all the way to 25th overall to Minnesota, which is interesting to say the least. (Chad Reuter had Cleveland selecting Thomas 16th overall in a trade down scenario).
Josh Jones to Miami is the final offensive lineman taken in Prisco’s mock draft at 26th overall.
The order of how the offensive lineman will be taken in the upcoming draft seems to vary. Some players go early in some and later in others. As long as Cleveland drafts an offensive tackle in the first round it is pretty safe to say everyone will be happy.
Cavaliers travel to Miami to take on Heat
Advertisements
The Cleveland Cavaliers will look to make it their second straight win under J.B. Bickerstaff and third straight overall in Miami Saturday night.
Fresh off a win in Washington, the Cleveland Cavaliers could pull off two surprising wins a row Saturday. The Cavs are in Miami to take on Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat. This will be a bit of a tougher test for Cleveland as the Wizards are nowhere near the level of team that the Heat are.
Miami is 35-20 on the season and average 111.9 points per game this season while giving up 108.7. Just a little bit different than Washington’s negative point differential (-4.2).
Interestingly enough Miami lost to the Hawks in their last game. The exact same Hawks the Cavs beat last week to end their winless streak at home this decade. Although it is worth noting that the Cavaliers do not have anyone like Trae Young capable of scoring 50 points in a game. That’s exactly what Atlanta needed to beat Miami Thursday.
If Cleveland can somehow come away with a win, great. The real expectation should be to keep things close and not get blown out by a far superior team. It’s really about progress and development right now and avoiding a lopsided loss would go a long way in both departments.
Rough night for Monsters in Syracuse
Advertisements
Things did not go so well for the Cleveland Monsters in their 6-3 road loss to the Syracuse Crunch in a game that got out of hand in more ways than one.
Perhaps the Syracuse Crunch take their team name just a bit too literally. Maybe their interpretation of the word Crunch is related to instigating fights and unnecessary penalties, because that’s what happened Friday night. There were 19 penalties between the Monsters and Crunch in an ugly loss for Cleveland. Eight of the penalties were entirely related to one incident at the 11:15 mark in the 2nd period. This resulted in Bryan Moore and Brett Gallant no longer being able to participate in the game.
The unfortunate thing about the timing here is that Cleveland was down 3-1 at this point. Hypothetically if they had their full compliment of players things may have been a bit closer. Syracuse would go on to score there more goals after the 2nd period incident. Cleveland did manage to score two more times, but it was too little too late.
Markus Hannikainen scored twice for the Monsters and Branden Troock scored once. These were Hannikainen’s fifth and sixth goals on the year and Troock’s second since joining the Monsters on a PTO.
Veini Vehvilainen only faced 19 shots on the night, saving 14 of them. Allowing five goals is never great. The fact Vehvilainen allowed five goals on less than 20 shots is a bit more alarming than usual. Things are not going well for Vehvilainen at this moment in time as he has allowed 15 goals in his past four games. Cleveland head coach Mike Eaves might want to give Vehvilainen the night off on Saturday as they travel to Rochester to face the Americans.
Cavaliers win first game under Bickerstaff
Advertisements
The J.B. Bickerstaff era for the Cleveland Cavaliers starts off with a win. These are words that not many expected to hear. The Cavs won their first game under Bickerstaff with a 113-108 road win over the Washington Wizards.
This win didn’t come easy. Cleveland found themselves down 16 points early on and the feeling of here we go again was quite prevalent. The Cavs were down 15 with 2:29 left to go in the half and then a rally started. Cleveland was able to close the gap thanks to a 14-4 run. This run was powered by 10 points from Cedi Osman and the Cavs closed the gap to just five at the half.
Cleveland and Washington battled it out in the 3rd quarter with the game staying relatively even. The Wizards increased their halftime lead by one point to six. The Cavs saved their best for the 4th quarter.
About midway though the final quarter Cleveland tied the game at 95 on a Tristan Thompson alley oop dunk. The Cavaliers went on a 14-6 run to take their biggest lead of the game with just 3:29 remaining. Cleveland managed to hold on an win by a final score of 113-108.
Two different halves for Collin Sexton
The Cavs 4th quarter push was led by Collin Sexton. Young Bull scored 14 of his 25 points in the 4th, helping Cleveland win their first game under J.B. Bickerstaff. This came after only scoring 8 points in the first half. Sexton finished 8-17 from the field and 2-6 from deep.
Rough night for Kevin Love
The fact the Cavaliers won without Kevin Love being a major contributor is sort of a miracle. Love only had 9 points on 3-8 shooting (2-5 3PT). Chalk this win up as the exception, not the rule for Cleveland wins this season.
Double-doubles for Cleveland’s big men
Talk about throwback basketball. Andre Drummond and Tristan Thompson are old school centers and both had double-doubles on the night. Drummond had 12 points and 12 rebounds while Thompson 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Kevin Porter Jr. ejected
This is a teaching moment for Kevin Porter Jr. After receiving his fifth foul call of the game Porter received two technicals and an ejection after arguing with the referee. J.B. Bickerstaff needs to talk to Porter one-on-one and explain to him why this is unacceptable. Cleveland managed to win without him but this cannot become a regular occurrence for someone that many peg to be the Cavs best young player.
Dante Exum to the rescue
After Kevin Porter Jr.’s ejection came in and was a spark plug for Cleveland. Exum made all four of his field goal attempts, including one three-pointer. Exum’s 10 points helped the Cavs in their comeback effort.