House Money

 I am not the first person to say or hint at this in the 2026 post-season for the Cleveland Guardians.  But here goes:

The Guardians are playing with house money.  Easier path than most teams? Got just hot enough at the right time at the end of the season/in the ALDS?  Luck?

Whatever you want to call it, the Guardians should not be here, not now, not based on how they set up their team in the 2025/2026 off-season.

But here we are.  

I watched both games this weekend with that in mind and it was very calming.

Do I want them to make the World Series?

Do I want them to win the World Series?

Affirmative to both those questions.

But would I be OK if they didn't?  Absolutely.

To keep winning this team has sacrificed our best pitchers' arms on the alter of run prevention.  Do we want to continue to tax those arms in another make or break series where every game may hang on a single pitch?

This has been a great, albeit bumpy, ride.  But it has taken its toll.  Pushing our star pitchers beyond their normal limits is never, IMO, a good idea.  This is especially true because this organization, after the great pitcher draft in 2021 and the first two rounds in 2022 (Campbell, Messick), inexplicably moved away from the proven position that you can never have too much pitching.  The cupboard is, essentially bare, folks. We have a short HR RHP (Braylon Doughty) and a bunch of AAAA pitchers and HUGE question marks in the minors.  The cavalry is not coming.  They were sacrificed on the Little Big Horn of our analytics team which said, if you draft enough college and HS hitters you will end up with good position players.  While that is likely true, I have never heard anyone say that you can never have enough hitting!

So, let's go for it in Game 6. Throw caution to the wind.  Start Bibee. Maybe he produces a game of his life.  Shake up the lineup.  Try something different.  Be aggressive.  Maybe you crash and burn,  maybe you excel.  

Make something happen so that we win tonight and then get one more Gavin Williams start in Game 7. 

What do we have to lose? We're playing with house money.