Cleveland Guardians 2022 Season (Columbus, Streetsboro, Toronto: health, ranked, park)

[WRnative]

Can the youngest team in the MLB with the fourth lowest payroll actually win a World Series???


At least the G's are earning some respect outside of Cleveland!


https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...-division-race

[TheProf]

Originally Posted by WRnative

Can the youngest team in the MLB with the fourth lowest payroll actually win a World Series???


At least the G's are earning some respect outside of Cleveland!


https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...-division-race

Very nice article... The surprising success of these very young Guardians shows, once again, what an amazing (obvious 1st ballot Hall of Fame) manager Terry Francona is. Last year's "Indians" had a rare bad season and fell way short of the playoffs and were disappointing. Of course, midway through the season Tito got sick, was hospitalized, then sat out the balance of the season to recoup...

Coincidence? I think not.

[ohioaninsc]

AL Central Champs....Woohoo

I'll eat some crow...never would have dreamed this team would win the division...huge accomplishment.

Would love to see us at least win the wild card series.

[QCongress83216]

Which team would you want the Guardians to play in the Wild Card? It can be just one or rank them 1-3.

[TheProf]

Originally Posted by QCongress83216

Which team would you want the Guardians to play in the Wild Card? It can be just one or rank them 1-3.

Tampa Bay, since we just beat them and they are reeling right now (3-7 over their last 10 games) while our Guardians are on fire! (9-1). Seattle has been major trouble for us and Toronto has big bats plus anti-vaxer James Karinchak can't travel in Canada for that reason -- not that he's lights out, but I'm sure Tito would like to use him in setup and/or closer situations when Clase is either gassed or otherwise unavailable.

[tribecavsbrowns]

Originally Posted by TheProf

Tampa Bay, since we just beat them and they are reeling right now (3-7 over their last 10 games) while our Guardians are on fire! (9-1). Seattle has been major trouble for us and Toronto has big bats plus anti-vaxer James Karinchak can't travel in Canada for that reason -- not that he's lights out, but I'm sure Tito would like to use him in setup and/or closer situations when Clase is either gassed or otherwise unavailable.

Good thing the Guardians are guaranteed to play the first round at home and thus, the bizarre shot you're taking at Karinchak is completely unnecessary.

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by tribecavsbrowns

Good thing the Guardians are guaranteed to play the first round at home and thus, the bizarre shot you're taking at Karinchak is completely unnecessary.

Love Karinchak. Nobody wants to face him or Clase. Anyway, not to get into this territory too much on a baseball thread, but Canada is getting rid of vaccine requirements for travel starting tomorrow. https://www.deseret.com/utah/2022/9/...r-vaccine-mask

Tbh I would take any of the Wild Card teams.

[QCongress83216]

Originally Posted by TheProf

Tampa Bay, since we just beat them and they are reeling right now (3-7 over their last 10 games) while our Guardians are on fire! (9-1). Seattle has been major trouble for us and Toronto has big bats plus anti-vaxer James Karinchak can't travel in Canada for that reason -- not that he's lights out, but I'm sure Tito would like to use him in setup and/or closer situations when Clase is either gassed or otherwise unavailable.

All 3 Wild Card games will be in Cleveland so the Guardians don't have to travel. I know that we didn't fare well against the Mainers during the regular season, but sometimes that may not carry over into the postseason. Also, the Mariners have been struggling throughout September just like the Rays.

[MPK21]

Originally Posted by QCongress83216

I'm enjoying watching this young team play and grow together. It's similar to the '90s teams and how they ascended to one of the top teams in baseball. Hopefully, we can see this team playing in October and go on a long run. If Tito isn't in the conversation for AL Manager of the Year, he should be. What he has done with the youngest team in baseball and having them in contention this late in the season is amazing. For those of you who are still holding on to long grudges for whatever reason; it's time to let that go and enjoy this team.

I just wanted to share something also. I was watching "Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show" the other day when Jay Crawford was talking about the Guardians' attendance during the weekend series against the White Sox. He went on how low the attendance was. He said that he was afraid that due to the fact that Cleveland's population has dwindled that the team is going to move to a city with a more growing population like Nashville or Vegas when the lease is up. But, my counterargument with someone in the chat was that there are teams with bigger populations than Cleveland and their baseball teams don't sell out like Tampa or Oakland even the Braves for years struggled to draw fans in. Plus, the Browns and Cavs have sold out home games in Cleveland. I said that it's more of a MLB problem than a Cleveland problem. So, what do you guys think about the future of the Guardians? Do you think they'll move? Do populations really matter in baseball attendance? Or, does the MLB have a huge problem connecting with their fans?

Right, as if The Guardians attendance is due to the tired and lame ''declining population'' line/excuse (actually CLE area issue is more sprawl-with-stagnant population growth).

The issue with The Guardians is that CLE went from The Indians with a 108 year old tradtion to a brand new team. At least The Browns name was retained for the 1999 NFL expansion.

It's not a MLB issue with The Guardians, it's an issue with the whole transition and reason for it. That said, MLB is having general attendance issues.

Owners had to know there this was going to happen though with this lame Guardians name and the baggage it carries.

Still, the 2022 AL Central Champs drew less than 12,000 to last night's game. 25th in MLB season attendance. If this was still The Indians, attendance would be way up.

That's not MLB's fault.

[tribecavsbrowns]

Originally Posted by MPK21

Right, as if The Guardians attendance is due to the tired and lame ''declining population'' line/excuse (actually CLE area issue is more sprawl-with-stagnant population growth).

The issue with The Guardians is that CLE went from The Indians with a 108 year old tradtion to a brand new team. At least The Browns name was retained for the 1999 NFL expansion.

It's not a MLB issue with The Guardians, it's an issue with the whole transition and reason for it. That said, MLB is having general attendance issues.

Owners had to know there this was going to happen though with this lame Guardians name and the baggage it carries.

Still, the 2022 AL Central Champs drew less than 12,000 to last night's game. 25th in MLB season attendance. If this was still The Indians, attendance would be way up.

That's not MLB's fault.

If it's the same population but it lives farther and farther from Progressive Field every year, is attendance going to go up or down? How many people in Streetsboro or Grafton are saying, "hey, it's Tuesday night after work, let's go to downtown Cleveland?" Are we supposed to believe that people would drive an hour into town for these weeknight games if only the team were still called the Indians -- even though they've been the Indians for decades, and people have done that only once, the clearly anomalous perfect storm of the second half of the 1990s, when the ballpark was brand new, we had hall of famers batting sixth and seventh, and the Browns had left town?

The narrative about the name change being the reason for 12K fans at a post-clinch, 55-degree game on a weekday night in late September sounds good until you take two minutes and go to Baseball Reference and look at attendance from 2016 when they were still called the Indians and they wrapped up the division and had 13-14K at September weeknight games then.