Thoughts For A Friday - One Season Ends, The Next One Begins.

 Every true baseball fan of the Cleveland Guardians knows they have 3 more games, all home games, left in the regular season.  

The Guardians have checked almost every box they could have wanted to check for this regular season.

• Have a winning season - CHECK (remember I predicted them to go 61-101)
• Make the playoffs - CHECK
• Win the AL Central - CHECK
• Get a first round bye in the playoffs - CHECK (although some would say that is NOT an advantage)

The only boxes they haven't checked are:

• Have homefield advantage through the American League playoffs
• Have homefield advantage through ALL the playoffs

The AL Central homefield advantage is still in play but the Yankees magic number to clinch that is 2, as they own the tiebreaker over Cleveland in the season series.  

The goal of gaining homefield advantage through the World Series is now gone as the Dodgers hold the season series tiebreaker over the Guardians and are 3 ahead of them with 3 to play, meaning the Guardians are eliminated from that goal, really the first one they have been eliminated from all year.

They have a number of potential award winners:

• Emmanuel Clase - Cy Young, Rolaids Relief Pitcher of the Year
• Jose Ramirez - AL MVP, Silver Slugger, Gold Glove at 3B in the AL
• Steven Kwan - Gold Glove in LF in the AL
• Andres Gimenez - Gold Glove at 2B in the AL, Platinum Glove Award
• Cade Smith - Rookie of the Year
• Josh Naylor - Silver Slugger at 1B in the AL

Plus a number of these guys could make all-star teams and, of course, earn post-season MVP honors in the different playoff rounds.

So, what would be good to look for in these last 3 regular season games against Houston:

• Steven Kwan to have a good final regular season series and go into the playoffs healthy AND on fire.
• Andrew Walters and Eric Sabrowski to solidify their spots on the post-season roster.
• Lane Thomas and Kyle Manzardo to have a good offensive final series
• Everyone else to go into the post-season healthy and performing well
• Players to make their personal performances goals
• Jose Ramirez to get to 40 HRs (needs 2) to give him the first 40-40 season in Cleveland history
• Andres Gimenez to get to 10 HRs (needs 1)
• The Naylors NOT to try to steal any bases and end up in a 6 to 6 tie
• My personal goal: see Enright, Aleman, Brito and maybe JRod play in Cleveland this weekend.

As far as team goals, the Guardians just need clarity from performances in these last 3 games as far as putting their post-season roster together.  So let's use this as a jumping off point to talk about their 'next' season, the 2024 post-season.

2024 Post-Season

Here are my projections/hopes for the post-season roster

C - Naylor, Hedges

1B - Naylor

2B - Gimenez

SS - Rocchio

3B - Ramirez

LF - Kwan

CF - Thomas

RF - Brennan, Freeman (CF, Thomas moves to RF)

DH - Manzardo, Fry

Utility - Martinez

Rotation: Bibee, Boyd, Cobb, Lively

Bullpen: Clase, Smith, Gaddis, Herrin, Morgan, Walters, Sabrowski, Avila, Williams (could be the 5th starter in a 7 game series)

Injury replacements:

Utility -Schneeman

Relief - Aleman, then Enright, then Sandlin f you need a righty or Cantillo if you need a 3rd lefty.

Starting Pitcher - Cantillo

Outfield - Noel, JRod

DH - Brito

Well, that's it.  More after this weekend.

Go Guardians.  Finish healthy and, if possible while finishing healthy, finish strong.