Your 2023 Guardians at the Break! Perspective, please!

PERSPECTIVE, SOLUTIONS AND CHASING BAD PITCHES

 

Perspective is important. The best advice I could offer you if you’re ever standing in the on deck circle, is probably this: 

 

“Don’t chase bad pitches. If you do, they become someone else’s elite pitches.” 

 

Last spring I was standing in a pavilion, four city baseball diamonds with little league games well underway surrounding me on all sides. 

My son was at bat on Field 3, bottom of the 4th, 2nd and 3rd, two down. 

He chased ball four in the dirt for strike three. 

A barely audible “wow he chased a bad pitch” came from under my breath as I did the dad shuffle and clapped some short rapid claps of encouragement along with the standard chant: 

 

“Good at bat…Good at bat” 

 

Now, you have to be careful when you choose the pavilion as your seats for a little league game. 

 

The crowd can be mingled, and you just may find yourself halfway through your shuffle and clap, looking up directly at the picnic table next to yours and the mom of the other team’s pitcher is staring daggers at you as the words “bad pitch” come out of your mouth. 

 

My West 69th Street smarts kicked in and I didn’t miss a beat..

 

“Unless you’re standing on the mound. If you’re the pitcher, it’s the best pitch you’ve thrown all day.” 

 

Karen and her daggers nodded coolly as my son hung the ridiculously expensive little league lumber, aluminum, graphite, whatever, on the rack and grabbed his glove.

 

Baseball. It’s all in how you look at it. 

 

PICK A PERSPECTIVE 

 

Right now, being a Cleveland Guardians fan may require some perspective. 

 

We sit idle at Major League Baseballs 93rd All Star Game Break and face the second half of the 2023 campaign precariously atop the American League Central. 

 

(Courtesy of MLB.com)

 As fans, we are faced with the big question, how is this thing going to end? 

 

Are the 2023 Cleveland Guardians an underachieving ball club blowing an opportunity to run away with the worst division in baseball? Are the 2023 Cleveland Guardians a very young ball club learning how to be big leaguers and find themselves defending a 2022 division title they surprised all of baseball, including themselves by winning? 

 

We’ll circle back to this later on. Take notes. There will be a test. 

 

DEJA VU 

 

They won the division last season with a combination of an exciting brand of small ball, elite defensive, solid pitching both front end and the bullpen. Maybe a touch of luck, a nice September hot streak and the ineptitude of the other organizations in the AL Central, namely the Minnesota Twins and the Chicago White Sox, helped. Both clubs entered 2022 as clear cut favorites to battle for the division title.

(From Draftkings Network)

It’s 2023 and the first half of the season is in the books. We are at the break and our Cleveland Guardians battled their way from a rough start to the top of the A.L. Central Division. The Club nabbed 3 out of 4 from the lowly Kansas City Royals before the sun set on the first half of the 2023 season Sunday night. 

 

Last season at the break we were 46-44.

 

Right now we sit at 45-45. 

 

We’ve been here before. The difference?  

 

Last season we were not expecting much at the All Star break. 

Casuals were still boating or rock climbing, or whatever it is casuals do during baseball season before they hop on the bandwagon.

 

Because there were no expectations, Guardians baseball was fun. Even, sometimes on social media and the local air waves. 

 

This season people have heaped a load of expectations on  young ball players to be more than they are at this point of their young careers and where they are at organizationally as a ball club. 

 

Expectations?

 

It’s said that expectations are premeditated resentments. I don’t know much about it, I’ve kept my expectations low, but it sure doesn’t sound fun. 

 

If history or my article back on April 10th tells us anything, baseball is hard but there is a formula and if you can stick to it, you will be playing baseball in October.

 

BASEBALL, WINNING FORMULAS, AND CAPTAIN KIRK! 

 

Seven out of 10 years Tito Francona has managed to finish better than .500 at home and at least .500 on the road. 

All seven of those seasons we played October baseball. 

Factor in the history of Tito Francona lead teams being second half teams.

I’m starting to see a pattern. 

 

SOLUTIONS ARE NOT THE ANSWER 

 

A lot of fans are looking for that instant success. They want a World Series Championship now, in July if possible. They criticize every lineup card set throughout the week. Sometimes it’s pure misery. 

 

They all have solutions to the immediate problems as they see them and parade them as answers. 

 

Some solutions involve bringing up even younger players and inserting them into constant, major league high pressure situations. 

 

Veteran big leaguers face normal high pressure situations throughout ball games. For a minor league ballplayer just called up, every at bat, every pitch, every ground ball is a high pressure situation. You only get so many. 

 

Oh yeah, then add the usual normal high pressure situations. 

(Reed Hoffman, AP)

Other solutions include trading my favorite Guardian, Amed Rosario. I can’t wait to see Brayan Rocchio penciled in the #6 position because I love defensive baseball more than life itself.

 

Please, give me a ballplayer who demonstrates professionalism in everything he does, and I appreciate what he means to a young team. 

 

I can wait until next season for young Brayan to dazzle me in the 6 hole. Amed Rosario means too much to this clubhouse. 

 

Myles out? Bye bye Bieber?

 

Some suggest a solution is taking Myles Straw out of CF. 

 

I get exhausted explaining this fact: if Terry Francona has a Gold Glove to put in center field, guess what, the Gold Glove will be in center field. He can hit .100 and he’s still playing centerfield. 

 

Another solution is to trade Shane Bieber to plug a hole in the line up at the expense of creating a hole in the rotation. 

 

The teams most interested in a Shane Bieber would be teams like Cincinatti with a good young team and a good young staff looking for veteran leadership. 

 

Hold on a minute. That sounds familiar. 

 

Sometimes, solutions are not the answer. 

 

Each and every, very viable solution I read on social media or hear on the local sports talk shows have merit and 90% of them are not preposterous. 

 

I believe some of the suggested solutions are that of a ball club with a veteran roster which is one player away from winning a pennant.

 

It's a Friday night … We'd like to invite you to a (socially-distanced) #PartyAtNapolis!#OurTribe | #TribeReplays pic.twitter.com/6V0XvU3ggv

— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) May 1, 2020

 

Not the solutions of a ball club whose average age just recently was allowed to purchase alcohol. 

Another solution was to put all the young ball players out there and… “see what you got”. 

That might work when you play once a week, but running a kid out there 5-6 nights a week is….. 

 

 A WHOLE DIFFERENT BALL GAME 

 

We watch young NFL football players make an immediate impact on the field 4 months after they are drafted. Some of these kids only play three years in college and still dominate in the NFL. 

 

Some NBA players come in as young as 19 and make an immediate impact. 

 

One kid from Akron made an immediate impact at 18 on his team and had them in The Finals 4 years later when he was 22. 

 

MARK DUNCAN/Associated Press

Famous players in MLB under 20

 

The number one overall pick in the 1987 MLB draft only needed 552 swings in the minor leagues before beginning his Hall of Fame career. 

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ken Griffey Jr (@therealkengriffeyjr)

 

There are only a handful of successful ball players in the modern era besides Ken Griffey Jr. who began their major league career under the age of 20.

 

Right now Marcado, Soto and Bryce Harper are big leaguers who broke through under 20 years old. 

 

That’s three players currently playing today, along with the other 747 players who spent various amounts of time in the minor league systems. 

 

Here are the average ages of an professional players. An NFL player is 26 years old. NBA player… a tick higher at 26.1. 

 

The average age of a MLB ballplayer is 29.3 years of age. 29.3!

 

By then, the men are certainly separated from the boys. 

 

Jordan and Baseball

 

Michael Jordan “retired” from basketball and decided at 31 years old he would give ol’ Major League Baseball a try. #23 was assigned to The Chicago White Sox minor league affiliate, The Birmingham Barons. 

 

Michael Jordan hits a HR with the Birmingham Barons – the Chicago #WhiteSox AA baseball team! (1994) Happy 60th Birthday MJ! pic.twitter.com/lCdPBoJMMj

— Baseball by BSmile (@BSmile) February 17, 2023

 

Michael Jordan never ended up playing in the MLB. Tito Francona, the 1994 Barons manager  said : “I do think with another 1,000 at-bats, he would’ve made it.” 

 

Jordan opted to go back to the NBA after only 13 months and 400 at-bats in the minor leagues.

 

No where near the at-bats a Hall of Fame manager thought it would take for Jordan to wear a White Sox jersey. 

 

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it but, baseball is hard. If it were easy Michael Jordan would have done it. 

 

The MLB draft was this past weekend. Most ball players take four to six years through the different levels to make it to the big show. And that’s after most of their college careers. 

Only 10% of minor league players actually make it and stick in the big leagues. 

 

John Lindsey spent 16 years in the minor leagues before making his major league debut for the Dodgers in 2010. 

 

Lebron James entered the NBA directly out of high school and dominated from day one. 

He doesn’t know the struggles of a guy like John Lindsey. 

 

He also didn’t have to learn how to hit big league curveballs. Maybe Michael Jordan can tell him about it. 

 

IT’S A PENNANT CHASE 

 

Here we are circling back to perspective. Maybe I’ve done my job here and convinced you to join me and enjoy the second half of the 2023 season. Let’s see this young team continue to grow and play ball for each other.

They’re exciting and usually have you engaged until the last pitch. 

 

Put down the torches and ax. Let’s give them all a fair shot. 

 

There are 72 games to play. I opened the season predicting 92 wins, I’ve shaved it down to a 91-71 finish which means we must go 46-26 the rest of the way. 

I think 90 games wins the Central. Maybe 89. The White Sox fire sale should begin soon. 

 

91 wins is completely doable for a Tito Francona lead team in the second half of a season. 

Just get to October and give yourself a shot at a pennant race. 

 

Find someone who is as happy to see you as Tito is to be back with his scooter.

I’m really not sure it’s possible. pic.twitter.com/52g4aLX5Su

— Mandy Bell (@MandyBell02) January 25, 2023

For us fans, take a chance and have some fun. Enjoy Guardians baseball. Enjoy a beverage. It should be a hell of a ride. 

 

That’s the solution that answers all our questions. 

 

But what do I know?

 

(Featured Image from Eli Lucero/Herald Journal)