The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Callaway a candidate with Mets, Phillies
Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway is a hot name on the market for the open manager jobs with the Phillies and Mets. Plus, life as the Browns’ scout-team quarterback isn’t fun.
The Cavaliers knew they would have to reinvent themselves without Kyrie Irving in the lineup. It was only one game, but just how much he is missed was exposed in the season opener.
Even the convincing 116-97 victory over the Bucks in Milwaukee on Oct. 20 doesn’t change the need for the Cavs to find different ways to win this season. In reality, the early part of the season is showing how fragile the Cavs might be. Point guard Derrick Rose, with a long injury history, suffered a sprained left ankle in Milwaukee.
Irving asked to be traded because he was tired of playing in the shadow of LeBron James. He took over the game many times in his three years as James’ teammate. But still, the Cavs were always regarded as James and everybody else. It had to grind Irving’s gears to read or hear things like, “Cavs owner Dan Gilbert didn’t consult James before letting former General Manager David Griffin walk.”
One of the new additions, probably Rose or Dwyane Wade for now, has to step up and take over that role as second in command to James. James, as great and fit as he is at age 32, will burn out if that doesn’t happen because he cannot carry the team by himself.
The best candidate for that role is Isaiah Thomas, the point guard acquired from the Celtics in the trade that sent Irving to Boston on Aug. 29. The problem is Thomas is recovering from a hip injury and won’t be ready until late December.
This doesn’t mean the Cavaliers came up on the wrong end of the Irving trade, which also netted forward Jae Crowder, center Ante Zizic, Brooklyn’s 2018 first-round draft choice and Miami’s second-round pick in 2020. It just means coach Tyronn Lue and his players are being brutally honest when they say it will take time for the Cavaliers to be a finished product. Fortunately, they are talented enough to keep winning while they jell, as they did on Oct. 17 when they beat the Celtics, 102-99.
“We’re going to find our way,” Cavs backup guard Kyle Korver said after practice Oct. 19. “That was the third time we had all our guys together. It happened to be the first game of the season. We’re piecing things together. We’re trying to figure out lineups. Ty says, ‘Be patient with me.’ I think we’re all fine. We’re going to figure it out.”
May and June will always be more important to the Cavaliers than the sixth-month regular season. Lue and his players are like a gym filled with chefs tinkering with a recipe. They won’t deem the menu item fit for consumption until it is the best they can produce.
“One of the things that makes Ty special as a coach is he’s willing to adapt to his personnel and not just say, ‘This is who I am. Run my system.’ I think the units are going to evolve as the season goes on. Everyone here, more than any team I’ve ever been on, knows it’s all about building for the playoffs. Hopefully come April, May and June, we’ll know who we are.”
Korver is in his 15th NBA season. The Cavaliers are his fifth team, so when he says the Cavaliers are already thinking playoffs more than any team he has been on, he has the experience to compare. He played with 76ers, Jazz, Bulls and Hawks before being acquired by the Cavs in a trade with the Hawks in January. Molitor shocked everyone and showed a 26-game improvement),” Heyman wrote concerning Callaway. Indians president Chris Antonetti says he’d make a great manager, and a rival GM called him “’the best pitching coach in baseball the last few years.”
Heyman also connected Callaway to the Phillies managerial search.
The Indians would definitely miss Callaway, but they would be happy to see him get the promotion he richly deserves.
“The pride always wins out,” Indians manager Terry Francona said recently.” It never fails. Guys deserve a chance because of the work they do, and then it’s up us to find the next best person. And, yeah, it hurts when you lose guys, but believe me, the pride wins out, because they deserve that.”
The Indians pitchers led all of baseball with a 3.30 ERA. They also led all of baseball with 1,614 strikeouts. More than those numbers, Callaway has earned a chance to manage because of the way starters Trevor Bauer and Carlos Carrasco, plus relievers Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen improved under his guidance.
• The Indians are making contingency plans at first base in case they lose Carlos Santana in free agency. Lonnie Chisenhall can play first and so can Edwin Encarnacion. Michael Brantley can play first if the Indians decide to pick up his 2018 option. throwing three interceptions in the first half, he also suffered bruised ribs, so coach Hue Jackson decided to completely shuffle his quarterback depth chart. DeShone Kizer will start against the Titans, Cody Kessler will be his backup and Hogan will be inactive. Last week Kizer was No. 2 and Kessler was inactive.
Hogan took his role pretending to be Mariota seriously and paid for it with a shot to the ribs from a defensive teammate. Normally contact with quarterbacks in practice is offlimits. After that, Jackson held Hogan from practice the rest of the week.
“I was getting my Marcus Mariota on and I pulled the ball (to his side), and the defense, just doing what they do, just took a little extra bump there and I just decided to shut it down,” Hogan said. “They always wrap us up and try to strip the ball. Little things like that. They’re not really hitting us.”
Before practice started this week, Hogan tried to convince Jackson he was just a little sore and that he would be OK. Jackson has been coaching since 1987 and knew better.
“He was running a ball (in practice), and I knew what was going to happen,” Jackson said. “Sure enough, he was trying to be tough and prove that he’s ready to play. He gets hit right on the spot and drops the ball and everything.
“That tells me that coach is right. You have to be protective of these guys in that situation. They want to be out there. I think I have a pretty good idea of what a guy can do and what a guy can’t do, and I don’t think he’s ready to be out there right now.”
Kessler, 0-8 as a rookie starter last year, was inactive the first six games.