No dog in the hunt, no horse in the race, no skin in the game. I think the Super Bowl was better this year without Cleveland in it. Now, next year, we're all in.
Back to baseball
So without the angst of losing the Super Bowl on a last second field goal after a questionable penalty, we can jump right into baseball.
1. Re-opening old wounds - OK, coming into the winter we needed three things: a solid catcher, a run-prodcing firstbaseman and a left-handed reliever. I had it all figured out. sign Abreu, trade for Murphy and AJ Puk. But that didn't happen. We lost out on Abreu. We couldn't get Murphy and Puk, although both were traded for prospects who I KNOW the Guardians could have matched. But we didn't get them. We had to watch while Gregory Soto went to Philadelphia for a set of prospects that, again, the Guardians could have easily matched. Then we lost out on Puk, who went to Oakland for a guy who started 2022 as Miami's #10 prospect. In 2022 he went the majors the first time and hit under .200. We could have easily matched that price and had our second lefty, a quality lefty, to balance our bullpen. I just don't know what the Guardians are thinking as I can't see a single lefty in our system who can be anything more than a mop-up reliever or a guy we throw out there and just hope he doesn't drown. We still need a lefty reliever, in my opinion, but am losing faith we will sign one.
2. What will the balanced schedule do to our competitiveness? Well, I predicted 90+ wins looking at our schedule this season and I stick by that. The playoffs REALLY favor the Guardians in that if they win the Central they are almost guaranteed to play the weakest wild card team AND play all the games at home. I think last year showed that getting that win in the first round can help the Guardians once they have to play Houston or New York in the second round. The Guardians play a different kind of baseball. Seeng that less times during the season should favor, somewhat, the Guardians as their style is an anomaly compared to what the rest of the league does. The fewer times you see a quirky team, the less chances you have to adjust to their style. I think (hope) that this works in Cleveland's favor rather than having to play teams in their division 19 times where they really get to know your style.
3. Our starting 5 really has a chance to be close to the best in baseball. I still say that having Civale and Plesac (in that order) as our #4/5 starters gives us one of the strongest starting staffs in the majors. I mean, some teams can't even field 5 starting pitchers who they want to throw out there. They, instead, use openers. We don't have to do that. I am still hoping that Plesac finds his cool and Civale can stay healthy. All Plesac has to understand is that if he just pitches like a good #4 or a great #5 that he will help this team win by giving us more good starts than most teams will get out of their #4s and #5s. He just has to realize what he needs to do to have the team win. Civale...all he needs to do is to stay healthy from day 1 in spring training until the end of the post-season and he WILL help this team.
4. I think Myles Straw was hurt last year. I think that impacted his hitting. I think he will do better this year and really be a spark at the bottom of our lineup. The similarities of his ABs to those of Ramirez after Jose hurt his thumb(s) was, to me, remarkable. If he is healthy and stays healthy this year I think you will see the .260/.330/.380 guy we need him to be.
5. How will the rules help the Guardians? No one knows how the pitch clock will impact hitters this year. We don't really have any Mike Hargroves in our lineup. Everybody seems to be ready at the beginning of the at-bat and between pitches. I do think the larger bases. the pitch clock and limitations on throwing to first will help speed-first contact teams like the Guardians. On the other side of the ball...who knws. I think the lack of shifting may turn out to be a wash for the Guardians. I just didn't see them trying to beat the shift enough last year or, when they tried, show any aptitude for it. Instead, they tried to hit through the shift. Maybe that will favor them this year or maybe it will hurt them because they will take less pitches because they feel they can hit with the more normal defensive alignments and maybe will go for borderline pitches earlier in the count. Who knows?
That's it for now but, as pitchers and catchers report, we should find out soon about guys coming in with injuries or those, like Zunino, who may end up being a little behind others as they are rehabbing.
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