00:00AL Central here. We're going to go over all of these teams and you might think the first place
00:03team we're going to be talking about maybe should have been one of those last place teams and the
00:07last place team should have been the first place team that we're talking about. Where are we going
00:10first? It's the Cleveland Guardians. First place in the division. Craig Mish here as they sit with
00:16a 31 and 23 record here. Run differential of plus 21 coming into Memorial Day weekend. One of those
00:22teams we didn't really know what we would get, but how about this? Playing good baseball, Craig,
00:27against teams above 500 with over 500. What do they say? Play 500 against the good teams here.
00:32Beat up on the bad teams. That's a recipe for success. One run games at 500 at seven and seven
00:37and right where they're supposed to be. Expected win loss 30 and 24, but they said 30 and 23. One
00:43of the bright spots in Major League Baseball here and leading the Central Division. Yeah, the Tigers
00:48who we'll talk about have been a big disappointment and Cleveland has been a nice surprise yet again.
00:53And I feel like Donnie, doesn't it feel like five years from now? I mean, who knows, but hopefully
00:58we're doing this show. I feel like five years from now, we look forward and say Cleveland,
01:03you know, they're 31 and 23 and Milwaukee, you know, they're doing well. It just feels like the
01:08same teams have this incredible player development system, drafting and finding guys, bringing them to
01:13the big leagues. And then out of nowhere, they're good teams too. And Cleveland is definitely one of
01:18those. Like I just didn't have Parker Messick on my bingo card this year as like a potential ace on
01:25a
01:25Major League Baseball team. He almost pitched a no hitter earlier this year, but yet another pitcher
01:29who Cleveland has found and they found them through the years when they were winning a lot. It was
01:34Kluber and then it was Bieber. And it's just, they just keep finding and developing these pitchers.
01:39They had to go along with Jose Ramirez. That's kind of scary, Donnie. When you think about it,
01:42Jose Ramirez hasn't really done a lot here and he's going to finish top five in the MVP voting.
01:47He does every single season. So Cleveland, as far as being legitimate, it kind of falls into the
01:52same Tampa Bay model for me, where a team, again, built for the regular season, just kind of depends
01:58how far they want to push their foot down. But these organizations like Cleveland and Tampa Bay,
02:03Milwaukee, very specifically, Donnie, it feels like they don't sacrifice for the future, but they're
02:08kind of content winning their 90 and fans showing up every single year and knowing they're going to
02:13win. If they get lucky in the postseason, then that's the way that they operate.
02:16But none of these teams really unload for the future, which is why Cleveland is going to be
02:21a great regular season team. And for me, again, hard to see them in a world series scenario,
02:26unless they decide, Hey, let's, you know, go for it. Yeah. Not a lot of, not a ton of power
02:32in that
02:32lineup. Not a lot of great pitching, but still playing good baseball. But the one I'm telling
02:35you right now, Craig, one of my favorite guys in major league baseball, let's go to the past three
02:38to four years. If you said, Donnie, give me a couple of players. You'd want it to play. If you
02:42have
02:42to cash in a team total over four and a half, where the team sitting at four with a runner
02:46on
02:46third and one out, give me Steven Kwan. What? One, one 96. This is one of the guys for me
02:53is the
02:53Philadelphia Phillies know that we got to get a guy like Steven Kwan. How is he under 200? That's not
02:57the MO here. And also he's under 200. And this team's actually playing good baseball. Wait till
03:02some of these guys start to hit. Cause even when you take a look at guys that I love Jose
03:05Ramirez,
03:06231 well below his average as well. It feels like they're holding on right now, not playing great
03:11baseball. And when some of these players might kick it in, that's going to be a boost.
03:15I would assume that Detroit will be better. Like I can't believe they've been this bad and the White
03:20Sox will probably play. Okay. I don't think Cleveland as an example is going to win 95 games or
03:26anything like that. They played a little bit above their skis. I think that's fair to say. I'm a little
03:30probably more bullish maybe on Milwaukee if we're going to compare those two. But you're right. Look,
03:35Kwan's got to be better. And Jose Ramirez is going to hit 260 at the end of the season. So
03:40I don't
03:40know what the second half for him is going to look like. It's going to look better than this.
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