The Cleveland Guardians weren’t supposed to be here — not yet. They entered the season with the youngest roster in MLB, at least a season or two behind a Chicago White Sox team that many pundits believed would run away with the American League Central race.
And yet, here they are, after taking the division with 92 wins and sweeping the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL Wild Card Series, now facing off against the New York Yankees in the division series.
Their unexpected success can be attributed to a number of things: smart promotions from the front office and successful debuts from many of the franchise’s 25-and-under crowd. But, most importantly, the presence of a bona fide superstar in veteran Jose Ramirez — the heart and soul of the team and a man who, in early April, was hours away from being traded.
On the final day of spring training, the Guardians’ front office had hit its deadline — if it couldn’t get a contract extension done with its All-Star third baseman that day, he was going to be traded before Opening Day. The San Diego Padres, among other contenders, were waiting for a call.
Team interpreter Agustin Rivero, who was coaching first base in a split-squad game that afternoon, was pulled away for one last conversation between the player and his front office, and to help Ramirez share his take: He wanted to stay in Cleveland.
“I’m so grateful Jose wanted to be here, and he made that a priority,” Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said during wild-card weekend. “He got personally involved. … We wouldn’t be standing here without that.”
After a few hectic hours, Ramirez went from the trade block to a long-term commitment from the only franchise he has known. And six months after Ramirez signed a seven-year, $141 million deal, he and his squad celebrated their first playoff series win since the 2016 AL Championship Series.
“I’m really happy, especially for the commitment the organization made,” Ramirez said through Rivero recently. “It’s very really special. The most important part is family. The city has given me the opportunity to take care of my family. Cleveland is my family.”
As one of the only veterans in a clubhouse full of youngsters, Ramirez has led his squad to an unlikely extension of its season — first with an MVP-caliber season that got the Guardians to October, then with a go-ahead home run in Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series against the Tampa Bay Rays.
But how far Ramirez could lead this team came down to how quickly a roster that debuted 17 rookies this season was ready to follow.
A lot of the Guardians’ success as a young team is a credit to the franchise’s culture, according to Antonetti. The current rookies watched as previous Cleveland teams made the playoffs while they were doing the same in the minors. Winning begets winning, in his estimation.
“Our Double-A team won a championship in the Eastern League in 2021,” Antonetti said. “And there’s like seven to nine of those guys up here now that are AL Central champions.”
The rookies got their first taste of a pennant race during that minor league season, but there is a level of pressure in the major leagues that is impossible to replicate anywhere else. And perhaps the number of intense showdowns they needed to put away two division competitors to clinch this season gave the kids a little extra edge when their October moment arrived.
And arrive it did, when Oscar Gonzalez — a rookie with fewer than 100 games under his belt — provided the only run in a 1-0 Game 2 win by depositing a 15th-inning pitch into the right-center-field bleachers — and sending Progressive Field into a frenzy.
“I could never imagine anything like this,” another rookie, Steve Kwan, said on the field after the wild-card series win. “And how it’s happened as well. Tito [manager Terry Francona] expressed at the beginning of the year that we’re going to play the game right because we can’t live and die by the home run.”
It wasn’t lost on anyone that the Guardians’ two wins against Tampa Bay came via the long ball, as did their only run in Tuesday’s 4-1 ALDS-opening loss at Yankee Stadium. But no one, including the Guardians, thinks that’s how Cleveland is going to win a championship — at least not this year.
Their 127 home runs in the regular season ranked second to last in the majors, and while three runs might have been enough to get past the Rays, the Guardians are going to need to score some runs to take down the Yankees in the division series. Part of what helped spur a 16-2 run in September that vaulted Cleveland into the playoffs was putting the ball in play and working the basepaths: That month, the Guardians posted the second-highest batting average in the majors (.264), fourth-best OBP (.331), fifth-fewest strikeouts (195) and most stolen bases (31).
Cleveland is known for that scrappy, high-energy style of baseball — not for mashing balls into the stands. But what might matter more to the Guardians, who were as many as five games below .500 twice this season, is their resolve.
“There’s a quiet confidence in our group of guys,” 26-year-old reliever Sam Hentges said. “We come to the ballpark every day and we don’t really back down from challenges. That’s preached from Tito … and that’s how we attack each day.”
Hentges, in his first full year in the big leagues, compiled a 2.32 ERA in 57 games then followed that up with three pressure-packed scoreless innings Saturday to earn the clinching win over the Rays.
But now after grinding out that wild-card series over a fellow small-market team, Cleveland is being put to the ultimate test against the big-market, big-money 99-win Yankees, who won five of the six regular-season meetings between the teams before grabbing a 1-0 ALDS lead Tuesday night in New York.
“I was kind of wide eyed the first time,” Kwan said of playing in New York back in late April. “Hopefully, we can play baseball like we always do.”
While the Guardians’ front office would never use the payroll discrepancy as an excuse for whatever happens on the field this week, it’s hard to overlook the David vs. Goliath nature of this matchup as Cleveland brings an $82 million payroll that ranks 28th in all of baseball against New York’s $265 million roster.
“We operate in very different markets, but we have the same goal,” Antonetti noted with a smile.
That goal — to win in October — might have seemed far-fetched in March, but it became a bit more obtainable once Ramirez signed. Then as each youngster began to contribute and the team kept racking up wins, the concept of the postseason emerged as a reality. Cleveland went from a complete unknown, with just a 7.5% chance to win the division at the start of the season, to an ALCS contender. Now, facing their first series deficit of the playoffs, it’s time to see if the Guardians can quiet their doubters once again.
“They didn’t let anyone else write their season story for them,” Antonetti said. “They took the reins and wrote their own story.”
The Hockey Hall of Fame is going to swing open its doors to some impressive former NHL stars in the next few years. Legends such as Zdeno Chara, Joe Thornton, Duncan Keith and Patrice Bergeron. Eventually Jaromir Jagr will be inducted. Probably in his 80s, when he’s done playing.
The Hall can welcome up to four men’s players in every annual class. Given how many current NHL players have a legitimate case for immortality, the selection committee will not suffer for a lack of choices.
Here is a tiered ranking of active NHL players based on their current Hall of Fame cases. We’ve picked the brain of Hockey Hall of Fame expert Paul Pidutti of Adjusted Hockey to help figure out the locks, the maybes, “the Hall of Very Good” and which young stars are on the path to greatness.
Let’s begin with the two players who have defined this century of hockey, and another player whose legend has grown to the point where he’s a sure-thing Hall of Famer.
“Honestly, when we lose, I don’t even get in the shower until early this morning. I’ll just be mad. I just brush my teeth. It’s like, I don’t deserve soap.” — Syracuse head coach Fran Brown
Here at Bottom 10 Headquarters, located behind the “sorry, not sorry” bouquet of water hemlocks sent to the Big 12 officiating office from Utah athletic director Mark Harlan, we know all too well the sting of losing football games. We see it every week in every game we watch.
Yeah, yeah, we know what you’re thinking. “Come on, dummy, someone loses every game that anyone watches.” That’s true. At least now it is. We are also old enough to remember when games ended in ties. That was way worse.
But here in the Bottom 10 Cinematic Universe, losses are worse because that’s all you experience. You’d think we’d get used to it, numb from the pain like when you keep accidentally biting that same spot on your tongue to the point that it just becomes sensory free. But instead, it’s like Bruce Banner explained about being the Hulk: “You see, I don’t get a suit of armor. I’m exposed. Like a nerve. It’s a nightmare.”
However, as we learned in “Age of Ultron,” even after one of his worst losses, Bruce Banner does take a shower. So, Coach Brown, take it from us, in a world where every team has a helluva lot more losses than Syracuse … dude, wash up. Seriously. We can smell you from here. And we’re in Kent, Ohio.
With apologies to Mr. Clean, former Miami (Ohio) quarterback Mike Bath, former Southern Illinois running back Wash Henry and Steve Harvey, here are the post-Week 11 Bottom 10 rankings.
The Golden(plated) Flashes are still America’s last winless FBS team, losing their 18th straight game when they were edged by Ohio 41-0. Now they travel to My Hammy of Ohio, where they are given a 2.8% chance to win by the ESPN Analytics Ouija board, er, I mean Matchup Predictor. But honestly, that game will only be the appetizer ahead of the, yes, Week 13 main course that is the Wagon Wheel showdown with Akronmonious. And by appetizer we mean way-past-the-expiration-date freezer-burned mini-pizza bagels.
The New Owls not only used their talons to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at UTEP, losing in double overtime, they earned Bottom 10 Bonus Points for firing their head coach — and during their first year as an FBS team, no less. Though the AD issued a statement that Brian Bohannon had “stepped down,” Bohannon himself responded on social media: “Contrary to what’s been reported, I want to be clear that I did not step down.” But there is no confusion as to whether the Owls have stepped up or down in these rankings, where every move up is also a move down.
Brett Favre Funding U. lost to We Are Marshall 37-3, meaning all eight of their defeats this season have been by double digits. In related news, I also received double digit political texts on Election Day — and one of those was from Favre. No, for real. I wonder, did he cover the data charges himself or did he steal change from the donation jar at his grocery store checkout?
Sometimes in this life we are asked to do things that go against the fiber of our being. Like taking your daughter to the concert of an artist you’ve never heard of. Or me having to use Earth’s most annoying instrument, the leaf blower. This weekend this team of Minutemen will be asked to try to defeat Liberty.
5. The Sunshine State
The Coveted Fifth Spot has never been more crowded. The FBS, FCS and NFL teams of Florida posted a 1-11 record over the weekend, salvaged only by the Miami Dolphins’ win over the Los Angeles Rams on “Monday Night Football.” UC(not S)F, US(not C)F, FA(not I)U, Stetson, Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman all lost, led in misery by the Wildcats’ five-overtime loss to Southern. The Flori-duh Gate Doors celebrated the announced retaining of coach Billy Napier by losing to Texas in a squeaker 49-17. And My Hammy of Florida finally spotted an opponent a lead too large for a Cam Ward comeback and took its first loss of the season, falling to unranked Georgia Tech. If only someone else in the state could relate to that …
The Semi-No’s are continuing to work around the Coveted Fifth Spot by earning their Bottom 10 keep the old-fashioned way, not only losing to semi/sorta/kinda ACC member Notre Dame by a scant 52-3, but also earning a pile of their own Bottom 10 Bonus Points not by firing head coach Mike Norvell, but because Norvell fired both his offensive and defensive coordinators and a wide receivers coach. In related news, over the weekend a friend of mine steered his bass boat into a giant pile of sharp rocks and reacted by throwing his shirt and hat overboard.
It was three weekends ago that the Buttermakers lost to then-second-ranked Oregon 35-0. On Saturday, they lost to then-second-ranked Ohio State 45-0. Now they play sixth-ranked Penn State, and in two weeks end their season playing currently eighth-ranked Indiana. We have to assume that a team of professors from Purdue’s legendary mechanical engineering department is studying this experience as a way to assess the stress put on a school bus that is attempting to drive over a lava field covered in landmines.
The Minors have a weekend off to continue their post-Kennesaw victory party. And what’s the best way to snap yourself out of a two-week hangover? Hair of the dog? A cold bucket of water over the head? How about the hair of a coontick hound and a bucket of water from the river during a Week 13 trip to Neyland Stadium to play Tennessee?
Whatever is left of UTEP after Knoxville will then play whatever is left of the Other Aggies after their Week 12 trip to face the OG Aggies of Texas A&M. If there’s any justice in this world, then the loser and/or winner of that Aggie Bowl would go on to play …
The Other Other Aggies lost to the one-loss team the nation forgot about, Warshington State. But if you consider the week before that, we find a Bottom 10 conundrum. Utah State beat WhyOMGing? but the week before that lost to Whew Mexico by five points. Meanwhile, Wyoming, who lost to Utah State two weeks ago, spent last weekend beating New Mexico by five points. Perhaps we will be given some clarity when Wyoming ends the year at Washington State. Or perhaps we will have already given up. As so many here in the Bottom 10 seem to do.
Waiting list: Miss Sus Hippie State, Georgia State Not Southern, FA(not I)U, Akronmonious, Meh-dle Tennessee, WhyOMGing?, Temple of Doom, Living on Tulsa Time, You A Bee?, Standfird, people who put all those election signs up but now won’t take them down.
NEW YORK — An arbitrator upheld five-year suspensions of the chief executives of Bad Bunny’s sports representation firm for making improper inducements to players and cut the ban of the company’s only certified baseball agent to three years.
Ruth M. Moscovitch issued the ruling Oct. 30 in a case involving Noah Assad, Jonathan Miranda and William Arroyo of Rimas Sports. The ruling become public Tuesday when the Major League Baseball Players Association filed a petition to confirm the 80-page decision in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan.
The union issued a notice of discipline on April 10 revoking Arroyo’s agent certification and denying certification to Assad and Miranda, citing a $200,000 interest-free loan and a $19,500 gift. It barred them from reapplying for five years and prohibited certified agents from associating with any of the three of their affiliated companies. Assad, Miranda and Arroyo then appealed the decision, and Moscovitch was jointly appointed as the arbitrator on June 17.
Moscovitch said the union presented unchallenged evidence of “use of non-certified personnel to talk with and recruit players; use of uncertified staff to negotiate terms of players’ employment; giving things of value – concert tickets, gifts, money – to non-client players; providing loans, money, or other things of value to non-clients as inducements; providing or facilitating loans without seeking prior approval or reporting the loans.”
“I find MLBPA has met its burden to prove the alleged violations of regulations with substantial evidence on the record as a whole,” she wrote. “There can be no doubt that these are serious violations, both in the number of violations and the range of misconduct. As MLBPA executive director Anthony Clark testified, he has never seen so many violations of so many different regulations over a significant period of time.”
María de Lourdes Martínez, a spokeswoman for Rimas Sports, said she was checking to see whether the company had any comment on the decision. Arroyo did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment.
Moscovitch held four in-person hearings from Sept. 30 to Oct. 7 and three on video from Oct. 10-16.
“While these kinds of gifts are standard in the entertainment business, under the MLBPA regulations, agents and agencies simply are not permitted to give them to non-clients,” she said.
“While it is true, as MLBPA alleges, that Mr. Arroyo violated the rules by not supervising uncertified personnel as they recruited players, he was put in that position by his employers,” Moscovitch wrote. “The regulations hold him vicariously liable for the actions of uncertified personnel at the agency. The reality is that he was put in an impossible position: the regulations impose on him supervisory authority over all of the uncertified operatives at Rimas, but in reality, he was their underling, with no authority over anyone.”