The Daily Take: Indians, Playoffs, etc...

The first game to start with is the Indians game.  The Indians had a good game with all of their hitters at the top of the order hitting (except for Choo who is struggling to break this funk).  It was nice to see a homer from Santana who is showing some really solid numbers and nice to see Brantley hit and get on base. Carlos Carrasco pitched for the first time since his injury and while his stuff was there, his control wasn't.  It took him almost 100 pitches to get through 5 1/3rd innings.

I was looking and I am glad Alex White is being kept in the rotation instead of Jeanmar Gomez.  I like Gomez but he has been shaky this year and Alex White has great upside. Outside of WHIP, White has been decisively better, albeit a small sample size and its this small sample size (or SSS) that hurts him in WHIP.  Hitters have hit .361 on balls in play off of him (also known as BABIP) and the league average is .300 so it should be expected to regress to the mean.  He has just been the recipient of poor luck.

The Mavericks vs. Thunder game was some great entertainment.  One of the greatest shooting performances by 2 players in a game in playoff history.  Dirk and Durant combined for 33 shots from the field, 43 free throws, 88 points, 14 rebounds, 9 assists, and 66% from the field and 97.6% from the FT line.  Both teams need to be worried after this game.  Dirk was just unstoppable and Oklahoma may have no one to guard his rare mix of size and athleticism. Dallas is also the hottest team right now and playing the best of any team so they'll be tough to beat

Dallas needs to worry how they can keep up with the Thunder when Dirk isn't scoring 48 points.  Dirk is not going to score that every night, but Durant much more easily can.  Durant is heating up and has scored 79 points in the last 2 games.  Russell Westbrook has really stepped is scoring up too in the post-season and Harden is a solid #3 option.  After Jason Terry (who has been really streaky), they really have nobody.  In a long series, Dallas may get worn down because of their age and their tertiary options (like marion and Kidd) may not come through.

Other News:

OJ Simpson was declined an appeal for trying to steal back memorabilia.  Even if the judge feels the need to keep OJ in jail because he believes OJ did it (the first time), it also seems like a pretty open and shut case that an objective viewer could look and see that an appeal is unnecessary.

Braylon Edwards missed his court date because of a "delayed flight".  If it were anyone else, I would buy the story but Braylon Edwards is enough of a dope at times that I can easily see him missing his court date.

Tonight the Indians play the White Sox which matches Justin Masterson who has been great against Jake Peavy in his 2nd start of the year.  The Heat will also be playing the Bulls which will be a key game for the series