John Clay's Sidelines

Austin Kearns

The Cleveland Indians have released former Lafayette star Austin Kearns.

This from Sacramento Bee:

The Cleveland Indians have released outfielder Austin Kearns.

In 57 games for the Indians this season, Kearns was hitting .200 with two homers and seven RBI. He was designated for assignment last week when Shin-Soo Choo was activated off the disabled list.

Kearns spent the first four months of the 2010 season with the Indians before being dealt to the New York Yankees on July 30. He batted .263 with 10 home runs and 49 RBI in 120 combined games.

Originally drafted seventh overall by Cincinnati in 1998, Kearns is a .254 hitter with 117 home runs and 478 RBI in 1,019 career games with the Reds, Nationals, Indians and Yankees.

Lexington’s own Austin Kearns could end up with a world championship ring.

The Cleveland Indians have traded the former Lafayette High School star to the New York Yankees tonight.

Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Paul Hoynes has the story.

Indians’ manager Manny Acta told Hoynes: “”I’ve got a soft spot for this guy,” said manager Manny Acta. “He played for me in Washington and he came to camp this spring for the first time without a guaranteed job. He made the club and he carried this club for about a month or so when Grady Sizemore got hurt and some of our other older guys weren’t performing. I’m glad he’s getting a chance to go to a contender at this stage of his career and maybe win a ring.”

Marc Carig of the Newark Star-Ledger has the Yankee angle on the Kearns trade.

(AP photo)

Some daily randoms from an Easter Sunday at the Final Four:

To me, anyway, it’s not too hard to figure out what’s going on with Daniel Orton. He’s going into the draft. He may be dropping out of school, or finishing school in California — how exactly do you do that? — or training for the draft in California. He may love John Calipari, or hate John Calipari. None of that seems to matter. What matters is that Larry Orton said his son is testing the NBA draft waters, so Daniel will test the waters. But if you really are going to California to train, chances are you are doing more than testing. And in speaking with Calipari here in Indianapolis on Thursday, the guess here is that Cal’s guess is that Orton will not be a Wildcat next year.

If you’re a Kentucky fan, the only thing worse than watching you team make just four of 32 three-pointers against West Virginia in a regional final is to see Duke make 13 of 25 threes against West Virginia in the Final Four. Duke shot lights out, but then the Blue Devils own better shooters than did this year’s Kentucky. Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler and even Nolan Smith can light it up, as they say. They lit up the ‘Neers.

Afterward, Bob Huggins lamented his switch to a 1-3-1 zone without using a dead ball situation first, but that didn’t make any real difference. Duke was on fire. West Virginia left its game up in Syracuse.

Speaking of West Virginia, got some flak for tweeting that Huggins’ emotional on-the-floor hug of De’Sean Bryant Butler after the Mountaineer tore up his knee was “weird.” Was accused of being a cynic, and mean, and sarcastic. I admit, poor choice of words, or word. Just not sure that I’d ever seen anything quite like that before. Not saying it was bad, or wrong. And from what I hear, on television it certainly looked powerful, what with the coach right up in Bryant’s face, trying to get him to calm down. But you have to admit, it was unusual.

Huggy-ologist Paul Daugherty writes about the Huggy/Bryant Butler moment here.

Continue reading ‘Daniel Orton, the Final Four and other random notes’