LeBron to Cleveland supposedly confirmed by some 21st century investigating

Submitted by ypsituckyboy on

I know the LBJ-to-Cleveland smoke is getting thicker and thicker, but I thought this was a pretty great piece of internet sleuthing. Tweet below:

 

21st Century sleuthing. RT @mattborcas: Web developer friend's take on the http://t.co/euNrsZxo2X stuff: pic.twitter.com/iYbyVRWR33

— Neal Rothschild (@nrothschild3) July 10, 2014

Text of the message in twit pic in case you can't see it:

"But I think LeBron James is going to Cleveland. I just ran Firebug across his site and came up with a few things... Right now, there are pages on his site that were built yesterday. There is no content on them, but they do have a color palette. ffbb42, 012a60, 870038, ffffff. Those are the colors of the Cleveland Cavaliers for those of you too lazy to plug them into a hex chart. Everything else is the same. His web developer built pages with a navy blue header, crimson font sets, and golden accents. That seems a little suspect."

Yeoman

July 10th, 2014 at 1:33 PM ^

He hit .252 with the Scottsdale Scorpions in the Arizona fall league. Arizona batting statistics are usually inflated because of the elevation and dry air. It might have been a little better than the .202 in Birmingham but he certainly wasn't tearing it up.

Major league equivalency for his Birmingham numbers would be a .172/.236/.221 slash. I've never seen a calculator for the fall leagues and I can't even find a site with league stats from that far back.

In reply to by BloomingtonBlue

JBE

July 10th, 2014 at 11:40 AM ^

I'm not talking fall league, where the stats are not official. I'm only talking professional baseball.

JBE

July 10th, 2014 at 11:47 AM ^

Melodramatic much. I'm only saying that your original claim was incorrect. Jordan wasn't hitting .300 and moving up. As an actual professional baseball player he hit .202 and never made it above AA.

BloomingtonBlue

July 10th, 2014 at 11:51 AM ^

Meant getting better. I hate, haters like yourself. People who can't stand when others take chances and do crazy things that make them more successful in the long run. Take more chances in life, "fail" more. You'll be far more successful.

BloomingtonBlue

July 10th, 2014 at 12:05 PM ^

Your own feelings on how I'm saying these things. I'm completely calm. But I will get a grip and chill. I had season tickets for the bulls from 88-98 and love Jordan to the death. My bad, Go Blue!

JBE

July 10th, 2014 at 12:10 PM ^

I'm only stating facts. I have no horse in this race. I've always been a fan of Jordan, and I remember watching his baseball games and rooting for him, but, simply, he didn't hit .300.

Space Coyote

July 10th, 2014 at 11:32 AM ^

Even if he was improving (and I give him some credit, he hadn't played baseball since high school and was playing AA ball against some decent prospects), he wasn't improving nearly enough to likely ever amount to much.

He not only batted .202 on the real, he had 114 strike outs in 127 games, and had only two more total bases (116) than he had strike outs. His OBP was a paultry .289, and his OPS was .556. He did steal 30 bases, but also got caught stealing 18 times. He eventually probably could have been a decent AA type player, and may have been alright if he stuck with baseball through, but his 6'6" height and long arms weren't going to help any baseball career he hoped for. Still an incredible athlete, still a much better baseball player than I ever would have been, but not much of a baseball player or prospect by pro standards.

nowicki2005

July 10th, 2014 at 11:46 AM ^

first off AA is where your best prospects are, most talented. Second, hitting over .200 and stealing 30 bases for a guy who was 31 and hadn't played baseball in over 13 years is pretty damn good. if you take your higher round draft picks and start them in AA I don't see a lot of them doing much better, some even worse. Hell, he would have been better than Austin Jackson

Yeoman

July 10th, 2014 at 1:50 PM ^

and you get an average rookie-league hitter with less than average power.

Whether that's good or not depends on your perspective. Compared to any of us it's fantastic; compared to other high-level athletes that haven't played baseball in over a decade it would probably be pretty good if we had anyone else to compare to. Compared to the set of players that ever have MLB careers, it's off-the-charts bad.

I'm having trouble finding anybody with a similar slash line then that ever made the majors, and Jordan was already 31 so he wouldn't have had a lot of years to improve (if it's even possible at that age). Glen Barker is a pretty close equivalent and he eventually spent some time with the Astros as a pinch runner--that's the best I've got.

MGoBrewMom

July 10th, 2014 at 10:53 AM ^

but that's because of the way he handled the last decision and my disdain for the huge egos. but the networks and news agencies are the only ones creating the circus. LeBron is handling this fine. It's his business he's researching employers/teams/situations just like any of us would if we were looking at a different job. good lord, get off his back.

I Like Burgers

July 10th, 2014 at 12:08 PM ^

People forget all the day to day minutiae of history, and instead just remember all of the highlights.  And if the person was an all-time great like Jordan or Babe Ruth, they forget about all of the horrible shit that person did on the side.

Nearly every sports star has had the benefit of playing their careers in an era without 247 reporting, cell phone cameras everywhere, and loosely/poorly fact-checked sources as the basis of "reporting."

So with all of that said, Jordan would not be as reveered if he was playing in this era.  Can you imagine the firestorm if word got out that LeBron was a degenerate gambler, or if he just up and decided that he was going to go play basball now instead of siging with the Heat or the Cavs?  Jordan absolutely held the sports world hostage for the entirety of his "retirement."  Its foolish to pretend otherwise.  If LeBron pulled the same stunt now, it would bring the networks and internet to their knees.

FreddieMercuryHayes

July 10th, 2014 at 10:14 AM ^

Well if so, I can actually start hating LeBron like everyone else. I wanted him like 500 championships at Miami; I feel like he should have been richly rewarded for abandoning Ohio.

maize-blue

July 10th, 2014 at 10:19 AM ^

So much Johnny Manziel on his site. I kind of hope Manziel crashes and burns in his NFL career. I actually like the way he plays and he was fun to watch in college but can you imagine how nauseating a successful pro Manziel will be?

EDIT: I think Manziel and James have a business partnership(?) but my feelings on Manziel still stand.

maize-blue

July 10th, 2014 at 11:19 AM ^

Manziel personally I don't have ill will towards, it's just the media coverage we'd have to endure. Actually, either way, success or failure, I think it will be alot. I do know one thing, he's going to get piled on if he has any struggles.

Space Coyote

July 10th, 2014 at 10:44 AM ^

"ALBANY, NY—In what impressed coworkers are describing as an unprecedented application of minimal exertion, local office worker Doug Slater is reportedly just about pushing himself to the point of basic effort, sources confirmed Monday."

LINK

West German Judge

July 10th, 2014 at 11:48 AM ^

If I'm reading these rumors correctly, Cleveland has a deal for Kevin Love in place.  It's hard to argue against a potential Irving/James/Love trio.  It's certainly going to age better than Wade/James/Bosh.

mGrowOld

July 10th, 2014 at 11:53 AM ^

That's what's being reported here in Cleveland.  That IF Lebron agrees to sign Cleveland has a sign & trade deal in place with the T-Wolves for Love in exchange for Waiters, Wiggins and one of our three #1's next year.  There is some debate on if both Waiters and Wiggins are being packaged but that's the rumor.

The other interestng nugget is that Anthony Bennett has apparently reported for summer bal looking like a greek god.  Lost about 30 pounds and is tearing it up in summer play.