Ladies And Gentlemen, Your First Place Cleveland Guardians!
I could sit here this morning and talk about how the Guardians win total at the beginning of the year was 76.5, or how they had the 4th best odds to win the AL Central, or how the local newspaper wrote that Terry Francona would have to "balance patience and teaching the game with pursuing victories" this season. But I am going to take the high road and keep my head looking forward. Because there are 52 games and 55 days left in the season, and we are sitting alone in 1st place in the AL Central. Folks if the playoffs started tonight, we would be HOSTING some dopey Wild Card team in CLEVELAND.
The fact of the matter is that no one, not even the biggest Cleveland homer on the internet, thought this season would end with a division championship and a ticket to the dance. But now we're right in the thick of things and I am greedy. I'm out here doing schedule comparisons with the Twins and White Sox. I LIKE WHAT I SEE. Obviously the division is going to come down to the 14 remaining games we have with those two, but let me say this: I absolutely LOVE ending our season with a 6 game series against the Royals, who are 20 games below .500. Meanwhile, the Twins and White Sox will be playing each other, hopefully to a stalemate and not allowing anyone to make up any ground.
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Anyways, the Magic Number Tracker I follow says 52, but I also want to draw everyone's attention to the number 26. That's the average age of Guardians pitchers and hitters this year, far and away the youngest team in the league.
Not to mention we have 9 of the Top 100 prospects in baseball. The rest of the AL Central has 5 combined. Our time is supposed to be coming, but many are waking up this morning wondering if it's already here? And that would be a much needed change of pace in Cleveland right now. I know the National Media's favorite hobby these days is to discuss how much of a dumpster fire the Browns are, but I wouldn't mind a nice little October run in baseball to keep our mind off things.
**Please refrain from letting me know that the Guardians are in 1st in their division but would be tied for 4th in the AL East and wouldn't even make the playoffs in the National League. Iron is sharpening iron in the AL Central. Find a new slant.