Does Guardians’ Front Office Have A “Hate To Lose” Mindset?

In our coaching days, we used to say there was a difference between wanting to win and hating to lose. Our favorite players were the latter.

Some people might think that is the same thing, but they are not. Everyone likes to win. It’s more fun, your peers love it, everybody is happy. But if you hate to lose, that means you will do everything you can to avoid having that feeling.

That means putting in extra work, studying the game, recognizing something your opponent does that you can take advantage of. It’s taking the extra step, so you don’t have the feeling you have after a loss.

We bring this up because recently there have been conversations on the sports talk shows around town about the ownership of the city’s three professional sports teams.

Some fans of the Cleveland Guardians have been upset because it has been suggested that the owners of the franchise don’t have the same attitudes as the Haslam family and the Gilbert family.

The first thing to point out is this has nothing to do with the success of the franchise. We know of the three teams, the Guardians have been the most consistent winners, making the playoffs seven times in the last 12 completed seasons.

The Cavaliers have won the only title northeast Ohio has seen in the last 61 years, hanging a banner after the 2015-16 season. They have been wildly successful since drafting LeBron James in 2003, and even without James, they have made the post-season the past three years and had the best record in the Eastern Conference this past year.

We all know about the woeful history of the Browns since they returned to the league in 1999. They have had three playoff seasons, but also 18 double digit loss years, including the infamous 0-16 in 2017.

The argument isn’t who has had the most success though, it’s what group would do the most to get a championship for the franchise and city?

We know Dan Gilbert did everything he could to win a title when James was here both times, and he spent all he could after the superstar returned, trading draft picks to put together a roster to achieve the title in ’16, and he has said he has no problem paying a tax to win again.

You have to know he would love to get a second title and one without James.

The Browns have made many ill-fated moves in order to get to the franchise’s first Super Bowl since the Haslam family bought the team. But you can’t say they aren’t passionate about getting to the championship game.

And we have every confidence that if the Browns were in that “one piece away” situation, the ownership would step up and do what it takes to get there.

We are sorry but we do not feel the same way about the Dolan ownership of the Guardians. There is a feeling they are in the class of being happy when they win, but if they don’t, well they don’t like it, but they don’t hate it.

With all the success the Indians/Guardians have had since 2013, the only time the franchise really “went for it” was in ’16 when they traded for Andrew Miller and don’t forget they had another deal in place for catcher Jonathan Lucroy that he vetoed.

Also remember, that team went to the World Series.

If they do have a burning desire to win a championship, they don’t communicate it to their fans very well. The attitude that surrounds the franchise is that of we hope we can get in the playoffs, and we’ll see what happens then.

We understand baseball has the flukiest post-season of the major sports, but the most recent example of last off-season echos. The Guardians were three wins away from getting back to the Fall Classic and decided to allocate less money to the front office than they did the year before.

We have said it before, and we will say it again. 1948 should ring throughout the bowels on the offices on Ontario and Carnegie.

Do People Really Think A New Guards’ Owner Would Replace The Front Office?

Whenever people are critical of the Dolan ownership of the Cleveland Guardians (and we are among that group), one of the retorts from the Dolan supporters is they leave the front office do their job without interference.

The secondary theory is if a new owner that was willing to spend more cash were to buy the Guardians, they would get rid of Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff, despite the way they produce winning seasons on a shoestring budget.

Talk about living in your own fears.

If anything, wouldn’t the new owners want to see what kind of magic Antonetti and Chernoff could perform if they had an extra $30-$40 million to spend? Because we would. That’s only logical.

Baseball’s new villain, the Los Angeles Dodgers are a great example to look at, $350 million payroll notwithstanding.

When the Dodgers hired Andrew Friedman as president of baseball operations following the 2014 season, they did so based on the job Friedman had done in his tenure as vice president of baseball operations with small market Tampa Bay.

Friedman took over the Rays following the 2005 season, and took the downtrodden franchise to its first playoff appearance in 2008, as they made it all the way to the World Series.

He also was in charge as Tampa made the post-season in 2010, 2011, and 2013.

The Dodgers felt like if Friedman has this kind of success guiding a team with a small revenue stream, imagine what he could do with all of the money a team in a huge market has.

Now no one can be sure, but we would bet when the Dolans’ sell the team to minority owner David Blitzer (or someone else, who knows?), the new person holding the purse strings would take notice of the job Antonetti and Chernoff have done and would think (we think correctly) they could do more with more money to spend.

Especially if Blitzer takes over because he’s seen the results first-hand.

And that would be seven playoff appearances in the last 12 years, including going to the seventh game of the World Series in 2016. That team ranked 17th in the majors in payroll.

Cleveland got as high as 11th in players’ salaries in 2019, a season in which the Indians went 93-69, missing the playoffs after three consecutive playoff appearances.

When they missed, the payrolls were sliced, dropping to 20th in ’20, 27th in ’21 and ’22, the latter season being a division title team, 29th in ’23 (following a division winner, a forebearer to this off-season) and last season.

NOTE: Payroll numbers are from baseballreference.com

We know the Guardians’ owners have justifications for reducing the cash spent on players, but frankly, we don’t believe them. We believe the money is there.

Some of the reasons for supporting an owner that doesn’t spend or better yet, doesn’t seem to have an overwhelming desire to win a title, are crazy. We have said before that the Dolans seem to be nice people, and we are sure it makes it difficult to be critical, especially by media members.

We also understand the goal of owning any business is making a profit but also think winning and making a profit aren’t mutually exclusive.

In fact, if the Guardians won the World Series, the owners would make even more cash.

But giving them support because you think they will fire people who are very good at their jobs seems silly. Come up with a better reason.

A Pair Of Puzzling Moves For The Guardians

Hopefully, the Cleveland Guardians let us in on the grand plan pretty soon. All of their fans would like to think the organization wouldn’t take a step back after a trip to the American League Championship Series, but right now, there has to be some anxiousness.

That’s what has to be the thought after the Guardians traded Josh Naylor, who hit 31 home runs and knocked in 108 for Cleveland in 2024 to the Arizona Diamondbacks for right-handed pitcher Slade Cecconi, who had a devilish 6.66 ERA last season.

The Guardians ranked just 7th in the AL in runs scored for the season, and in the second half of the season they were near the bottom, and yet they dealt one of their best offensive players.

There are extenuating circumstances to this deal.

First, Naylor would be a free agent after next season, and with Kyle Manzardo ready to play first base, the odds of signing Naylor long term were slim, especially because it’s the Guardians.

The return wasn’t much. Cecconi is 25 years old and has pitched 104 big league innings, sporting a 6.06 ERA, allowing 117 hits. We would guess unless he has a tremendous spring training, he will open the season in AAA.

Since the season ended, the organization shed a large contract and a potential free agent for a young pitcher who should be in the starting rotation, although he has only 30 big league starts.

Not really looking like an organization that is “going for it” in terms of taking the next step and getting to the World Series.

However, the Hot Stove season is not over and hopefully there is a big move coming soon.

It does appear the ownership wants to stay in the same area as last year in terms of payroll, despite an attendance boost and some nice post-season gates. We’ll probably soon hear from the local media defenders of the Dolan family and how tough they have it financially in a small market.

Making the trade even more confusing was the signing of veteran Carlos Santana, whom the Guards will be paying $12 million next year, albeit on a one year deal. In his third stint with Cleveland, he seems to be a platoon partner with Manzardo, having hammered right-handed pitching with Minnesota last season at a 934 OPS.

He had a .354 on base percentage vs. righties.

The switch-hitter has played 1334 games with the organization and ranks tied for 6th in homers with 216, and second in walks.

Right now, the Guardians aren’t as good as they were last season. We like Manzardo, but he’s still not a proven player, so Cleveland has question marks on the right side of the infield.

They are still short in the starting pitching depth as well. We have maintained we were okay with a deal for Naylor if it were a baseball trade for a proven starter, but that’s not what it was.

So, the front office is still on the clock. They need to improve this team, which won 92 games a year ago in a surprisingly tough division.

Fans will be understandably upset, but they aren’t the reason another move needs to be made. The front office traded one of their leaders, which won’t sit well in the clubhouse.

It also may not sit well with Jose Ramirez, who took a hometown discount to remain here.

Hopefully, Guardians’ fans won’t have to wait long for some much-needed good news.

Guards Make Two Deals And Get A Much Needed Starter

It was about one month ago that we wrote about the Cleveland Guardians overpaying for defense (https://wordpress.com/post/clevelandsportsperspective.com/21673). Three of their top five contracts (Andres Gimenez, Myles Straw, and Austin Hedges) are for players who are great with the glove, not so much with the bat.

Our theory was that there are tons of players in the minor leagues who can pick it, there is no reason to overpay for fielding. More money should be spent on hitting and pitching.

Essentially, the move the Cleveland Guardians made on Tuesday was dealing Gimenez, the best defensive second baseman in the game, for a starting pitcher, an area of huge need.

We cannot complain about that.

While we are no fans of the Dolan family ownership, we don’t view these moves as a salary dump. Cleveland would have had to pay Gimenez over $23 million per year starting in 2027, and let’s face it, in Gimenez’ four seasons with the Guardians, he was above average as a hitter only in 2022.

In exchange, the Guardians get Luis Ortiz, who made 15 starts with the Pirates a year ago, pitching 135.2 innings with a 3.32 ERA (3.22 as a starter). He struck out 107 hitters, walking only 42.

The 26-year-old right-hander figures to be in the Cleveland rotation to start the season, and let’s face it, the Guards need starting pitchers.

They also received three minor leaguers, all who have either never played professionally (Josh Hartle) or played in low A last season (Nick Mitchell from Toronto and Michael Kennedy from the Pirates). Those guys are lottery tickets.

And let’s face it, the Guardians system is loaded with middle infielders. We would think Juan Brito (807 OPS at AAA in ’24) would get the first shot at taking the spot. Brito, a switch-hitter, hit .256 with 21 homers at Columbus last season, but also drew 88 walks against 105 strikeouts.

His career lifetime on base percentage in the minors is .384.

Besides Brito, the Guardians also have Gabriel Arias, Tyler Freeman, Daniel Schneemann, and/or Angel Martinez who can play second base next year. So, it can also be a move made from strength.

And you cannot forget the organizations’ best prospect is Travis Bazzana, the first overall pick in last year’s amateur draft. He could be arriving sometime during the upcoming season.

There is a difference between a salary dump and moving a contract that an organization doesn’t think is going to age well, and we think the Guardians did the latter.

We still think the Guardians’ ownership needs to spend more, and they freed up almost $11 million to the pool as that was what they were going to pay Gimenez this year. Hopefully, these funds can be used to sign or trade for another starting pitchers or another bat.

If the result of this trade is being able to get another solid starting pitcher or getting another solid hitter to play every day, then we are all in.

But if this is all the Guardians’ front office is going to do? Then they have probably kept the payroll the same after a good year at the gate and on the field. That won’t play well with the people who buy tickets.

Despite Baseball’s System, Guardians Need To Spend More

The first defection from the Cleveland Guardians occurred early Monday morning when it was announced that Matthew Boyd signed a two-year contract with the Chicago Cubs.

Since there are still two and a half months until spring training starts, we aren’t going to start hammering the front office and ownership about not improving a roster that got to the American League Championship Series in 2024.

Look, we get the playing field isn’t level for all teams in Major League Baseball. Bigger markets get more local broadcast revenue, and unlike the National Football League, these incomes aren’t pooled together and distributed evenly to all 30 teams.

And we still don’t understand how the Dodgers can use deferred money in some huge contracts in order to avoid the total deal counting towards the Competitive Balance tax.

It’s also true that every ownership of an MLB team is unbelievably rich and can probably afford to pay players more than they do. According to Baseballreference.com, the Guardians’ payroll is $20 million less than Milwaukee, $28 million less than Kansas City, and $44 million under what Tampa Bay pays.

No doubt, the Dolan family can spend more than they have.

Remember, they spent a significant amount of money on a campaign to get someone in the family in the US Senate. So, it’s not as though they will be visiting soup kitchens during the holidays.

While there are defenders of the Guardians’ ownership throughout the fandom, the reason for the critics is the lack of effort to go “all in” to win a title when the opportunity is there.

Yes, they did it in 2017 after the painful World Series loss to the Cubs, signing free agent Edwin Encarnacion, but that’s been the exception rather than the rule. After the surprising run to the playoffs in 2022 with the youngest team in baseball, they did sign Josh Bell as a free agent, but that wasn’t a huge splash.

There is no question the current Guardians need starting pitching and that’s why the news about Boyd going elsewhere was disappointing. Fans have to be wondering if Shane Bieber, who won’t be available until the middle of the season, is the next to go. We are guessing he will be in demand even though he won’t be ready on Opening Day 2025.

But going into next season with a rotation of Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams, Ben Lively, and Triston McKenzie doesn’t scream contender. Especially when you can make a very good case the latter three are big question marks.

The organization is either going to have to spend some money or make some good old fashioned baseball trades in order to have a solid rotation heading into the season.

Nobody is saying the Guardians should be in the market for Juan Soto or even Blake Snell for that matter. They don’t have the same revenue stream (again, local broadcast revenue) as Los Angeles or New York.

However, the fans have showed up. The Guardians’ teams of the last three years are very fun groups and also likeable. Now, the ownership needs to step up and thank those fans.

There is still time, but let’s hope it’s not another off-season where nothing is done.

Guardians With Their Annual “We Can’t Spend” Talk

There are rites of spring concerning baseball and in Cleveland, there are the rites of winter, the time right around the sports’ winter meetings when the owners of the Guardians come out and give us the reasons they cannot spend money.

It used to be attendance. Ownership would tell fans they would like to spend more money on players, but the number of paying customers prohibited that. But last season, attendance jumped from 1.3 million in 2022 to 1.8 million. So, they had to invent a new reason.

Let’s keep in mind if Cleveland sold out every game, they could draw at most 2.8 million fans.

And the current financial issues with Bally Sports was chosen. Cleveland doesn’t know if it will be their local television money, an estimated $60 million, but if the contract is dissolved, Major League Baseball will step in and give the Guardians a percentage (reportedly between 70-80%) on what they would have been paid.

The Guardians’ ownership wants you to believe those are their only sources of income when they also receive money from baseball’s national broadcast package, and they are also a recipient of a share of the luxury tax payments from those teams that spend above the salary threshold.

So safe to say, the franchise has a lot of money coming in. At this time, we would also point out that the Guardians will save money on their new manager, Steven Vogt, who replaces the highest paid skipper in the big leagues in Terry Francona. And we would also bet with only three holdovers on the coaching staff, they will save money there.

Look, the organization may feel they are better off not paying a free agent(s) big money because they think they can get production from their prospects. That would be a strategy, and although it is probably a poor one, because most prospects do not become stars, at least the fan base would know they probably aren’t looking at contending in 2024.

Our problem is the way the organization handles this, it’s all they talk about. And as a longtime fan of the team, we are tired of hearing about it. No matter how they finish a season, when it comes to hot stove season, they make sure they tell the people who cover the team about their bleak financial situation.

No one is going to force the Dolan family to sell the team. They had David Blitzer buy into the franchise but frankly we haven’t seen any difference in the way the Guardians operate.

However, we will not buy (no pun intended) that the franchise isn’t a money maker for the Dolans. No one running a business loses money year after year without making changes or selling it.

What fans care about is the ownership giving the front office and manager the resources to win, and hopefully, it results in a world title. If the current owners don’t want to do that, it’s fine, but please, stop telling us what a challenge it is for you. No one is buying it.

And stop announcing that you are not going to increase payroll for any myriad of reasons. It’s like telling your partner you are going to cheat on them before you do it. Why? To prepare them for it?

Just stop talking about your finances. It’s done just to hear yourself justify why you aren’t trying to win. Yes, you will be happy if you do win, it’s just that unnecessary means will not be done to insure it.

We are sure next year will hold a different excuse.

Why Do The Browns Get Most Of Our Sports Love?

We have said many times that our favorite sports are baseball and basketball, making us a minority in a city that presents itself as a football city.

That doesn’t mean we don’t follow and root for the Browns, we certainly do, and find it crazy that there are people in town who are die-hard followers of the brown and orange, but pay no attention to the Guardians or Cavaliers.

We are lucky to live in a city with three major league professional franchises and we don’t take that for granted.

Our question though is why do the Browns get so much love and loyalty in northeast Ohio, and do they deserve it?

For older fans like us, it could be because the Browns were the only winning team in our youth, that being the late 60’s. The Cleveland Browns were one of the premier franchises in the NFL from the time they entered in 1950 until basically 1970.

At that time, there were no Cavaliers (started in 1970-71) and the Indians were just starting a malaise that lasted from 1960 through 1993.

After pretty much a dormant period in the 70’s and early 80’s (excluding the Kardiac Kids season of 1980), the Browns reemerged as Super Bowl contenders in the late 80’s, led by Bernie Kosar, Hanford Dixon, Frank Minnifield, etc., coming up just short in some of the most excruciating ending to seasons you could imagine.

However, if you were growing up in the 90’s, the Guardians and Cavaliers have been far more successful than the Browns have since returning to the league in 1999.

And maybe that’s it. Perhaps the loss of the team for a few seasons has created a fear that if people aren’t zealous in their support of the Browns, they will move again.

Or maybe we are just grasping at straws.

Since 1995, the Indians/Guardians have made 12 post-season appearances (likely to become 13 with this season) and have played in the World Series three times, losing twice in heartbreaking circumstances.

That shouldn’t be held against them, see our earlier comments about the Browns of the late 1980’s.

The Cavaliers have played for the championship of their sport five times in this span, and cashed in 2016, the only professional title in a major sport the city has seen in the last 58 years.

The Browns? They made the playoffs twice since 1999.

That’s why we don’t understand the undying loyalty of sports fans in this area.

What about ownership? We understand baseball fans here don’t like the Dolan family because they rarely go “all in”, but it’s not like the Haslams or Gilberts are on the same par as Bill Veeck.

Haslam has had business issues and is very impulsive. How many regime changes have the Browns gone through since he bought the franchise? Gilbert inherited LeBron James, but he did everything he could to bring a championship to the city.

We understand the midwest is by and large a football haven. The NFL has it’s roots right in Canton, which is why the Hall of Fame is there. High school football is a big deal in Ohio, so the leaning toward the pro football team is understandable.

Again, we aren’t saying to not root for the Cleveland Browns. We would love nothing more than a Super Bowl berth for them. But, they certainly don’t give fans here a great deal to be proud of, instead they have given us a tremendous amount of anguish.

We guess the heart wants what the heart wants, even if it doesn’t make a great deal of sense.

New Minority Owner For Guards, New Hope For Fans

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announced it Thursday, the Cleveland Guardians have a new minority owner in David Blitzer, who reportedly owns about 25% of the team.

This should be good news for baseball fans in northeast Ohio, although it did bring out a number of the Dolan defenders on social media.

Let’s face it, for most of the time the Dolan family have owned the team, they have been run on a shoestring budget. And since we are firmly in the camp that no Major League Baseball team is struggling to stay solvent, that means the Cleveland owners have made a lot of money having the Indians/Guardians as an asset.

Does the family have some positive attributes as owners? Of course. They are notoriously great in hiring good management and letting the baseball people run the organization. Team president Chris Antonetti and his front office are the envy of many teams, and recently, other organizations have targeted the Cleveland baseball people for high management roles.

You have to think the owners do step in when it comes time to pay the better players who were drafted and/or developed by the baseball people when the time comes.

Since the Dolans’ have controlled the purse strings, the franchise has traded C.C. Sabathia, Cliff Lee, Victor Martinez, and Francisco Lindor because the team would not pay the going rate for talent like theirs.

Defenders point to the Jose Ramirez deal as proof the owners were willing to spend, but as we have said before, we can’t give the Dolans credit for Ramirez staying. They were lucky that one of the best players in the sport decided to leave a considerable amount of cash on the table to stay with the franchise.

No doubt the atmosphere, created by the folks the owner hired, was important to Ramirez, but if Ramirez had wanted to be paid like the superstar he is, he’d be wearing a different uniform today.

It isn’t just spending on players’ salaries that has been lacking by the current ownership. Hopefully Blitzer, who has been involved in professional sports for some time, talks to the controlling owners about doing a better job promoting and marketing the Guardians.

The Dolans have complained about attendance, but it has seemed for years that their belief seems to be winning is the only thing that matters. The local television ratings have been among the best in the sport, but it doesn’t translate to putting folks in the stands.

Has anyone ever bothered to find out why?

There are also reports that Blitzer has plans to develop the area around Progressive Field in order to bring in money from other areas. This is similar to what the St. Louis Cardinals’ ownership did.

Quite frankly, it seems like a great idea.

We would also like to see a more fun gameday experience at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario. Professional sports are entertainment and going to a game should be a fun time and affordable for families.

Get fans in the park, show them a good, fun time, and they will come back, particularly if the team in winning, that’s seems to have been ignored for some time with the Cleveland franchise.

So, forgive us if we aren’t holding a parade in honor of Larry and Paul Dolan. On the other hand, here’s hoping having a new minority owner means the pocketbook will open up more often.

At least, it is encouraging off the field news for the Cleveland baseball franchise. It’s been a while since that could be said.

The Sadness Of Being A Baseball Fan.

It pains us to say it, but the sport of baseball is in trouble. The people who are supposed to be the stewards of what used to be known as “The National Pastime” simply are out of touch with not only reality, but also the people who buy tickets.

The negotiation of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement has simply been a joke. After locking the players out (let us repeat, the players are NOT on strike), they waited 43 days before sitting down and negotiating with the players. 43 days!

No sense of urgency at all.

The commissioner, Rob Manfred, who is hired by the owners, has revealed himself as a vindictive, petty man. He had one of the premier baseball writers ever, Ken Rosenthal, removed from the sport’s network because he dared to criticize the commish on his handling of the sport during the COVID year of 2020.

He also was laughing during a press conference the other day when he was announcing the cancellation of the first two series of the 2022 season. A somber mood would be more appropriate.

The owners continue to cry poor, when there is a whole lot of evidence to the contrary. Here in Cleveland, we have an owner that is always telling the fans how difficult it is to make ends meet, but meanwhile cuts payroll and leaves ticket prices the same.

Besides canceling games this season, think about what the leadership of the game has given fans over the past three years.

First, one of the things the MLB office does is constantly tell everyone how bad their sport is and how it needs fixing. No other professional sport does this. We aren’t saying baseball is perfect, but would you buy a car if the dealer told you what a lemon it was?

The owners panacea is to expand the playoffs to 14 teams, making it more like the NBA. Apparently, the players balked and they decided on 12 teams, which is still too many considering the regular season is 162 games, and the best team wins roughly 60% of its games.

It’s strictly a money grab for the owners, who have revalued the regular season already and this will continue with more teams in the playoffs.

The ownership group has also given fans a ghost runner in extra inning games and seven inning doubleheaders, and are proposing a rule limiting how a team can play defense (banning the shift). Our opinion on that is you are rewarding players who are not good hitters.

The owners always focus on the payroll discrepancy within the sport. But isn’t that more on the smaller payroll teams? There were only two teams that exceeding the tax threshold last season, the Dodgers and Padres. Meanwhile, there were eight teams with payrolls less than $75 million, including the Guardians/Indians.

We have heard several fans say at least the Dolans want to win. Do they? We think they like winning. Everyone does.

We will say the same thing about owners as we do about players. We’d rather have an owner that hates losing more than one that likes winning.

The owners on the lower end of the payrolls spectrum are happy spending little, and even happier if they happen to win while doing it.

Fans who love the sport say something has to change, and they are right. Someone with some common sense needs to be in charge. Until that happens, we are afraid the sport will continue to fade in the sports fan’s psyche.

That’s not good for the future of the “grand ol’ game”.

A New Investor Means Positive Changes For Guardians? (Fingers Crossed)

Even though Major League Baseball is in lockdown mode (and they don’t seem very anxious in rectifying the situation), fans of the Cleveland Guardians got some good news in the past week.

According to reports, the Dolan family has found a minority owner to take the place of John Sherman, who sold his interest in the team to purchase the Kansas City Royals. The rumor is David Blitzer, who owns shares in the New Jersey Devils (NHL) and Philadelphia 76ers (NBA) and several European soccer teams.

Hopefully, this will inject some capital into the operations of the Guardians, who badly need it, not only in terms of players but we feel in the business operations as well, particularly in marketing and scouting.

We love that Blitzer has experience in professional sports, so perhaps he will share the realization that you need to spend money to make money, a premise known by many people in the business world, but not by the majority owner of the Guardians.

It is no secret the payroll of the baseball team has dropped significantly since Sherman decided to buy the Royals, and we hope having another investor will cause the amount of cash spent on players’ salaries to rise dramatically and hopefully immediately.

Besides the on the field product, we would also like to see an upgrade in the marketing and game day experience at Progressive Field. We know the renovations were supposed to start this off-season, but we would like to see the hiring of more ticket takers and people working concessions stands at the ballpark as well.

The days of frugalness need to end right away.

If you visit this site often, you know how we feel about the Dolan ownership, and you also know we don’t believe for a minute they are losing money. We don’t believe anyone owning a Major League Baseball team is under a financial hardship, despite their claims to the contrary.

We believe one of the reasons fans do not go to Progressive Field is it’s not a fun experience. Hopefully Blitzer (assuming the rumors are true) takes what he learned from his other investments and makes going to a Guardians’ game the thing to do on a warm, summer night in Cleveland, and also does some things to boost attendance during the times when school is still in session.

On the field, the first big decision is with Jose Ramirez. The switch-hitter is one of the franchise’s all-time greats and it would be nice to see one of those types finish his career in a Cleveland uniform.

Remember, Ramirez did not receive a huge signing bonus when he came to the organization, and over the past five seasons, he has been one of the best players in baseball. If he and his agent see this as an opportunity for him to finally get paid, it could be difficult to get a long-term agreement here.

Regardless, the payroll has to increase to a more respectable number.

As part of the investment, Blitzer is expected have the opportunity to become the majority owner when the Dolans decide to sell. Assuming a lease (or by then, a new stadium deal can be put in place) extension. This could be another win for Guardians fans.

For whatever reason (and we don’t buy the reason they give us), the Dolan family decided to take a very frugal approach when it came to running this baseball team, and that wasn’t fair to the fans.

Yes, they had some success, particularly in the last 10 years, but they always seemed to stop short. Hopefully, this deal gets done, and the Guardians can end the longest championship drought in the sport.