As the Cavs continue their throat slitting tour through the Eastern Conference and the Indians continue to "fade into Bolivian," it seems like an appropriate time to reshuffle the Power Rankings a bit. My first inclination, and one that has been supported by a few members of the CMRC faithful, is to automatically ban all Indians from this list for trying to ruin summer in Cleveland.As much as I would've liked to act on this impulse out of spite and pettiness, in all fairness, I couldn't do it. Is Sizemore off to a pathetic start hitting .227? Yes. But the power rankings are supposed to be a reflection of the comprehensive feelings that fans have on a daily basis about the players in this city. Cleveland fans might be upset with Grady right now because he strikes out every time he comes to bat, but they still love him, they still haven't forgotten how good he can be, and he's still the second most famous athlete in Cleveland. Similarly, Victor Martinez may be on the verge of irrelevance (at least until we hear his name start popping up in trade rumors), but he's still beloved in this town and he's still hitting at an absurd .374 clip. The fact that he was moved down in the power rankings is more a reflection of the fact that fans will begin to forget about him with the Indians being so terrible, because unlike Sizemore (and rather inexplicably since Victor has twice the personality that Grady has), he doesn't have the star power to keep himself in the Cleveland conscience with the team out of it.
In addition, I had to move Varejao up right now. He's beloved, he's playing insanely good basketball, and this team is starting to build a lasting legacy for itself in this town. The same is true for Delonte who, after months of not being the same guy he was at the beginning of the season, finally appears to be back at full strength. He's playing inspired defense, picking up the scoring load when needed, and endearing himself to the Cavalier faithful. He deserves a spot in these rankings.
Falling off the list is Shaun Rogers, not because of anything he did, but because with Browns fans resigned to the fact that the Browns are going to be bad again this year, nobody is going to give a damn about the veteran players. All of the focus will be on Quinn and our sexy high-octane young rookies like Brian Robiskie and Alex Mack (shaking head).
Just missing this list: Dave Dellucci, Rafael Perez, Lorenzen Wright
That's it for now. GO CELTICS! (and if you don't get why I'm saying that, you don't know the NBA)
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