Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words. Here’s a look at the top six teams in the most up-to-date Major League Baseball Standings as of this afternoon, Saturday August 3rd, 2024.To be clear, these aren’t division standings or league standings. They are quite literally just all thirty teams in MLB ranked.
Say… who is that listed at the top? Is that the league’s flagship team, the New York Yankees? Is it the New York Mets and their league leading payroll? Is it last year’s World Champion Texas Rangers? Is it the Atlanta Braves or the Los Angeles Dodgers, the two teams ESPN called “The Super Two” at the top of their pre-season predictions article?
Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. And… nope. Ladies and gentlemen, that is your Cleveland Guardians, sitting atop the baseball world. 109 games in and with the best record in baseball.
They are doing this despite replacing a Hall of Fame manager with a first-year rookie manager. Despite losing their ace starting pitcher just two starts into the season. Despite being the youngest roster in baseball three years running (11 rookie position players have collectively gotten 751 plate appearances across the year with 4 rookie pitchers throwing 114 2/3 innings, to a staggering 2.20 ERA, Cade Smith and Hunter Gaddis have been exemplary). They’ve done it despite a July lull that had some fans nervous.
But here’s the thing about that “July lull”. The Guardians went 13-12 in July, without a doubt their weakest month of the season. However, if you look at the other teams in the top 6 of the standings that I have above, you will find out that all of them went below .500 in July. Every last one of them.
When the Guardians were muddling through this stretch, Austin Hedges explained it best. July is the depths of the season. The vigor of the start of the schedule is over. That initial burst of energy to reach the top of the standings and maintain through the early parts of the season has come and gone. It gets harder and harder to bring the same amount of focus and good habits to every single at bat, series after series, day after day. Remember, this season is 6-month marathon. I’m not a runner, but I have to figure that there’s a point around mile 15 where the grind of putting one foot in front of the other over and over and over gets a little old. It starts to get easier to lose focus and break stride.
Now though, the Guardians have reached a new landmark. They have come out of the trade deadline with a new outfielder that should fit right in with their ethos on the field and off. The starting pitching reinforcements they have added may not be blockbuster names that jump off the page, but the team has done well to fortify itself with depth that should provide protection from overworking Smith, Gaddis, Emmanuel Clase and the rest of the best bullpen in baseball. Most importantly, they’ve secured the season series against a very formidable Baltimore Orioles team and done it in convincing fashion, with two games to spare, nonetheless. They appear to be not just coming out of those July doldrums, but bursting out of them, and in better shape than their closest rivals in the standings. The Phillies got spanked by Seattle last night. They’re 2-8 in their last 10. The Dodgers have lost three in a row, including to the lowly Athletics.
I’ll be honest. The Yankees look tough. They’re a really good baseball team with very few holes in their game. I was looking through some statistical characteristics of what the last three World Series winners have done well and compared those characteristics to this year’s top teams. While the Guardians match pretty well, so do the Yankees.
But that just means it will be that much sweeter when the Guardians advanced past them in October. I’ve been watching this team all season. They’ve answered every question, overcome every adversity put in front of them, competed against quality opponents night after night. I see little reason for that to just change overnight.
Some of the Cleveland sports fan-base remains doubtful or even somehow disinterested. To that second point, I’ve pretty much sworn off listening to sports talk radio. Somehow, the 85th day in a row of talking Browns training camp, stadium deals and DeShaun Watson is more interesting than this ball-club. These people are doubters. They either are disenchanted by the lack of flashy star power on the roster, are still stuck in the 90s or refuse to trust that the Dolans could possibly not be the worst human beings on the planet because they try to be smart with how they spend their money. I feel bad for those people. They’re missing out on the best team and best fan experience this city has to offer (no offense to the Cavs, that’s just how I feel). Badly. They see this team as not worthy of their time, a paper tiger that will fold because they don’t have enough pricey free agents or because Manny Ramirez isn’t on the roster.
I wish I could cobble together the collective spirit of this team, perceived as feeble and non-threatening but actually the opposite (to their opponents at least, they seem like a great group of high character guys) and allow them to have a conversation with those doubters. I think it would sound something like this:
Doubting Fans (DF): You’re not some hardened perennial contender with a big payroll, Guards (let’s be honest, they’d probably actually call them “Tribe” or “Indians” still). You are in over your head.
Guardians Personified: No, it’s not the truth.
DF: Of course it is. A low payroll team, youngest in baseball, not enough power, desperate for starting pitching?
GP: Okay, we’re done here.
DF: Roped into leading the AL Central- unable to back out of the division lead! Guards, please, let’s both of us stop trying to justify this whole thing and admit that you’re in danger.
GP turns around quickly
GP: Who are you talking to right now? Who is it you think you see? Do you know how many games we have won this year? I mean, even if I told you, you wouldn’t believe it. Do you know what would happen if we suddenly decided to stop taking extra bases and playing fundamental baseball? This city’s best opportunity to win a title goes belly up. Disappears! It ceases to exist without us. No, you clearly don’t know who you’re talking to, so let me clue you in. The Guardians are not in danger. The Guardians are the danger! The Phillies open their doors at home and lose five of six and you think that of us? No. The Guardians are the ones who knock.
That’s right. The Guardians are the who knock… and get knocks.
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