Drew Gooden re-signed with the Cavs for three seasons for $23 million bucks.  The Cavs have done a good job keeping their corps together for a run at a NBA Championship.  Gooden has been a fine player for the Cavaliers the last two seasons.  He has played in 161 games (159 starts) and has made 50% of his field goals, and has averaged 12.6 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists.  Gooden is an unselfish player that works hard and makes his team better.

The lastest to go in the Indians firesale is second-baseman Ronnie Belliard.  Belliard was hitting .291 this season, he scored 44 runs, hit 8 homers and drove in 44 runs, his OPS was .757.  Belliard rejuvenated a sagging career on arrival in Cleveland.  In 390 games with the Tribe, Belliard hit .285, scoring 192 runs, hitting 37 homers, and driving in 192 runs.  Belliard will be missed.

The Indians got Hector Luna back in the trade.  Luna can play second, third, shortstop and the outfield.  He was plucked three years ago from the Indians in the Rule Five Draft.  Luna stayed with the Cards that whole season and has been a productive bench player for them.  This season Luna was hitting .291, scored 27 runs, hit four homers and drove in 21 runs with a .772 OPS.  In Luna’s career to date, he has batted 533 times, scored 78 runs, hit 8 homers, drove in 61 runs and stole 21 bases.  Luna’s career average in .276 and his career OPS is .734.

Luna might get a chance to replace Belliard at second-base.

The Indians have gotten rid of another productive veteran in Ben Broussard, who they traded tonight to the Seattle Mariners for outfielder Shin-Soo Choo.  Broussard was hitting .321 with 13 homers and 46 RBI as the left-handed part of a platoon at first base.  Broussard immediately improves the Mariners line-up as he will be reunited with his platoon mate in Cleveland Eduardo Perez.  It was a good move for the Mariners as they like young Adam Jones more than Choo.

Choo only batted 11 times for the Mariners before they saw enough.  Choo only had one hit.  Choo has played well at Tacoma (AAA) where he was hitting .323 with 13 homers and 48 RBI.  No word on whether Choo will start in Cleveland or Buffalo.  Only time will tell if Choo is part of the Tribes’ future or not.

The Indians traded their all-time save leader to the Atlanta Braves for a single-A catcher.  The move saves the Indians over 2 million dollars and was the only reason for the trade.  If the Indians would have kicked in some cash they could have gotten a much better prospect from the Braves.  Wickman (who was acquired for Richie Sexson….ouch) compiled an 8-16 record with the Indians but saved 139 games with a 3.23 ERA.

It could be a very depressing next two weeks for Indians fans as more players will be leaving for players you’ve never heard of.  Last years’ team was a tease.

James re-signed with the Cavs to a three-year $60 million dollar extension.  Both he and Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat were set to sign 5 year, $80 million dollar deals like Carmelo Anthony, but their agents’ were very smart here.  The salary cap goes up every year, thus in four years they will be able to be offered alot more cash than they would have been paid.

It’s still fantastic news for Cavs fans, as the King will be around to get the Cavs a championship…..or four!

The Indians of 2006 might be looking on giving up this season and looking to have a fire-sale.  Hindsight is always 20/20, but the Indians should have re-signed Bobby Howry and Kevin Millwood.  With the Tribe sitting at 37-43, 18 games behind the TIGERS and 15 1/2 games out of the wildcard….it may be time to trade everyone whose last name begins with a B.  Belliard (.291, 7 HR, 37 RBI), Aaron Boone (.253, 4HR, 32 RBI), Casey Blake (.304, 10 HR, 36 RBI), Ben Broussard (.329, 10 HR, 38 RBI) and Paul Byrd (6-5, 4.10 ERA) seem to be the most likely players to be traded. 

This is very depressing for an Indians fan after last season when the team showed so much promise.  Hopefully if the Indians go the re-building route they can make up for some horrible trade they made when they were contending…..namely……Kevin Seitzer for Jeromy Burnitz, Ricardo Rincon for Brian Giles, Bob Wickman for Richie Sexson, Dave Burba for Sean Casey.  All of those trades give me a gigantic headache, because the Indians gave up all that talent and still didn’t win a World Series.  If they would have won at least once those trades wouldn’t hurt so bad…..but they didn’t.

The Cavaliers couldn’t believe their luck at #25 in the first round.  They had been targeting Daniel Gibson (point guard from Texas) at number #25, he was there but the Cavs took Shannon Brown from Michigan State instead.  As soon as the Cavs made that pick, they started burning up the phones to trade up to get Daniel Gibson.  No takers were found for what the Cavs were offering, and lo and behold, Gibson was there at #42.  The Cavaliers seemed so happy that they probably wasted their third pick of the night (Ejike Uboaja) on a player that probably will stay in Africa for a year to try to hone his game before joining the NBA.

The players:

Shannon Brown, 6-4, 205   20 years old   shooting guard   Michigan State    Brown in his career at Michigan State played in 97 games and scored double figures in 61 of them, including 20+ in 13 of them.  He is known for his intensity on the court and is a very good defender.  His career averages as follows:  12.2 pts., 3.4 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.28 steals per game.  He probably will start his Cavs career as Larry Hughes back-up, and he provides excellent insurance against a Hughes injury.

Daniel Gibson, 6-2, 190   20 years old   point guard  Texas     The Cavs were ecstatic to get Gibson in the second round.  It seems as if he’ll start his Cavs career as Eric Snow’s back-up, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if Gibson beat him out for the starters job.  Gibson was the Big12 freshman of the year in 2004-05, and an Honorable Mention All-American last year as a sophomore.  Gibson, like Brown, is a very good defender.

Ejike Uboaja  6-9, 225   20 years old   power-forward   Nigeria    Uboaja was a puzzling pick as he’s not thought of as a player that will be available at all for the Cavs this season.  He was a member of the Nigerian National Team.