Some More Random Thoughts

* When I turned ESPN on this morning, the title at the bottom of the screen was "Reed looks for early interception" This to me was huge news, as I didn't think Ed Reed had any discretion towards when he intercepted passes. Possibly ESPN's best reporting since "Brett Favre has boarded a plane in Mississippi" I was very happy I caught that headline last summer.

* I just caught the Lebron commercial where he's doing it all for the Browns. Typically I don't read anything into this, but it was nice to see Lebron rocking another Cleveland team's gear... Even if he is getting paid millions to advertise this or that.

* Has there ever been a more underappreciated player than Donovan McNabb? The guy has been to 5 conference championship games. That is ridiculous. And he gets shit on all the time (I will say that I have ragged him to my Eagle fan friends for throwing up on the field). Give the guy some props though.

* I don't typically like to copy and paste other works in this column, but this excerpt from Baseball America excited me tremendously...

Adam Miller, rhp, Indians: While pitching may be down in the Dominican, it wasn’t when Miller was on the mound apparently.

The oft-injured righthander, the top pitching prospect in the Indians’ chain the past four seasons and again this year, sizzled with a fastball that an NL scout said roamed in the 96-98 mph range.

"I mean, he was carving these guys up," the scout said. "A nasty slider, too. Attacked hitters. Threw strikes. If he stays healthy, he’s going to be something to reckon with down the road."

Miller strained his elbow in 2005 and has suffered elbow and finger injuries in 2007, then missed most of 2008. But he was 3-1, 4.34 in 29 innings in the Dominican. Even better, the separation in his strikeout-to-walk ratio ought to be music to the Indians’ ears — 27 to 6, suggesting his command came back in a hurry despite missing so much time. He also held batters to a .268 average and yielded only one home run.

Miller is expected to be used in a relief role in 2009, though he did make five starts for Aguilas this winter.

That is from their Dominican Winter League notebook, where pitching has been treated like low income housing this year. The possibilities are endless with Miller. Can he be a flamethrower in the rotation? Can he set up for, and possibly take over for Wood? Hopefully he stays healthy and we will be able to see.

*As a rabid baseball fan, there is nothing better than the brand new MLB channel. They debuted on New Years, during the offseason, presumably to work out all the glitches and everything. Right now the programming is kinda crappy, playing games from the 05 and 07 World Series', a bunch of hot stove reports, and some Prime 9's in which they do a top 9 countdown of stuff. Nothing spectacular, but they did a very nice piece on the 1995 season, the year after the strike. That year holds a special place in every Indians fan's heart as the Tribe was nothing short of spectacular. While watching the highlights, and lowlights, from the World Series last year I started to ponder(and this may just be sour grapes)... how wide were the corners of the plate in the National League that year? It seemed like every pitch Maddux and Glavine threw were a solid 4-8 inches off the plate yet they were getting strike calls. Its ashame Questech hadn't been invented yet.

* It was nice to see the Buckeyes beat Michigan yet again, this time in basketball, on Michigan's home court, while they were celebrating something that happened 2 decades ago. Like BJ Mullens articulated so nicely "It feels good to know they had a parade and we won.”

*Pitchers and Catchers report in 25 days. That should coincide with the Cavs getting healthy, and possibly adding another piece for the stretch run. It's nice to think about that stuff while your cleaning off your car again after another awesome snowstorm.