In the past couple of years, Cleveland professional sports teams have gone against the grain in their respective sports.
Today’s NFL is largely a passing league, but the Browns’ offense is based around the running game, featuring one of the best running backs in the sport in Nick Chubb, and another former NFL rushing champion in Kareem Hunt.
The Cavaliers have gone away from the current trend of guard oriented attacks and three point shooting, and J.B. Bickerstaff starts three players 6’11” or more on a nightly basis.
For the most part, those teams have had success being different.
We would like to propose the third professional team in town, the Guardians do something other teams are not doing as well.
Bring back the stolen base.
Most of the teams around the major leagues are talking long ball. Scoring runs with a few base hits are rare now. The collective batting average in the American League last season was .245. When the Indians were the American League champions in 2016, the league average was .256.
The Guardians can hit home runs, they were 7th in the AL last season. But they were third worst in the circuit in on base percentage.
They did rank 2nd in the league in stolen bases though. Why not go against the grain and have an homage to the way the sport was played in the 70’s and 80’s?
Myles Straw stole 30 bases last season, but he gets on base at a .349 clip. Could Straw steal twice that many if encouraged to do so? We believe he could.
Jose Ramirez belted 36 dingers last season, but he is one of the best baserunners in the game. He stole 27 bases last year and surely could do the same this season.
Amed Rosario and Andres Gimenez, one of whom will likely be the Guards’ starting shortstop in ’22, combined to steal 24 bases without being caught. Both have excellent speed and whoever gets the bulk of the playing time should be able to swipe 30 bases.
The prevailing thought today is the fear of getting caught stealing, thus ending a rally or taking the bat out of a player like Ramirez’ hands.
So, to embrace the speed game, you must eliminate fear. If Straw gets on base and steals second leaving first base open with Ramirez coming up, let the opponents put him on. Then do a double steal, putting the runners on second and third.
We aren’t big fans of Bradley Zimmer and/or Oscar Mercado, but if they earn spots in the lineup, it just adds another speedster to the batting order. Zimmer in particular can fly.
Richie Palacios, who could make the Opening Day roster with a good spring, stole 20 bases between AAA and AA last season. If he’s on the roster, let him run.
Using the running game would also help with the excitement factor at the ballpark and give the newly named Guardians a new identity. And you would put pressure on the defense and the opposing pitcher knowing the team would be uber-aggressive on the basepaths.
We wouldn’t ask a slugger like Franmil Reyes to be running wild, but when you think about it, how many “sluggers” do the Guardians have? The team’s personnel kind of lends itself to a speed game.
The Guardians are aggressive already trying to take extra bases on hits, and we love that. But why not extend it to stolen bases?
Bring back the steal! The Guardians are the team to do it.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 