The Cleveland Guardians Aren’t Playing Like The Youngest Team In The Majors

They’re one of the major league teams that’s the least fun to play, but one of the most fun to watch.

On paper, they scare no one. On the field, they make everyone nervous.

They are the Cleveland Guardians, who make up for their piddling payroll and lack of star power by playing the game like their hair is on fire.

Remember the old scouting line, “He’s a baseball player”? The Cleveland Guardians may be short on stars and big contracts, but they are loaded with baseball players. Players who play hard and play the game the right way, all the time.

By doing so, you’d be surprised how often you can rattle teams with more talent and bigger payrolls. Manager Terry Francona’s feisty Guardians present daily clinics on the joys and, for them, the necessity of playing hard and playing the right way all the time.

While many teams win games by doing big things, the Guardians routinely “little things” their opponents to death. It’s been the foundation of Cleveland’s current extended surge of winning that has propelled a team that nobody took seriously in April into first place in the AL Central in mid-August.

This is a Francona team through and through. He is squeezing maximum production from a roster that in April seemed un-squeezable. And he’s doing it with the youngest roster in the majors. All that youth may explain all that loyalty to a manager with all those World Series rings won in Boston.

These Guardians aren’t those Red Sox. But these Guardians are playing winning baseball by playing hard, and playing smart. They rarely beat themselves. They frequently beat their opponents. The Guardians’ 7-2 win on Sunday in Toronto was their seventh win in their last eight games, during which they have outscored their opponents 33-12.

Winning two out of three from the Blue Jays pushed the AL Central-leading Guardians’ record to 61-53, 2 ½ games ahead of second-place Minnesota.

Unlike most first-place teams, the Guardians don’t have a lineup wallpapered with sluggers from stem to stern. They don’t bludgeon their way to victory. More often than not they do it with a thousand paper cuts.

They can be an annoying team to play because they are that rarest of offensive machines: they don’t hit home runs, but they rarely strike out, and they consistently put the ball in play.

Only the Tigers have hit fewer home runs than the Guardians, and Cleveland leads the majors, by a wide margin, in fewest strikeouts. The Guardians also lead the league in sacrifice flies and are third in sacrifice bunts.

They are very smart and aggressive base runners as well. Cleveland ranks second in the league in stolen bases, and the Guardians have five players in double figures in steals. Cleveland base runners have been caught stealing the fourth fewest times in the league.

The Guardians’ best, and fastest base-runner, not to mention being among the league leaders in hits, is shortstop Amed Rosario, who leads the American League in triples, and has 11 stolen bases.

If there was a stat for most times running hard to first base, Cleveland would likely lead the league in that category as well. All the Guardians run hard to first all the time, led by speedy No. 2 hitter Rosario, who, when hitting a ground ball, puts constant pressure on infielders to make a quick, accurate throw.

“I have so much respect for how he approaches the game, every day – and it’s a big part of what we’re doing,” Francona said of his indefatigable shortstop.

All of the above falls under the category of playing the game hard, and playing smart. The Guardians rarely beat themselves, and frequently beat other teams because of it. That, along with Cleveland’s ability to steal bases, take extra bases, and simply create runs by their speed, resourcefulness and aggressiveness, can make it a tough day at the office for opposing teams.

Call it “doing the little things.”

Francona is a big proponent of that. And the way his team plays proves it.

“They’re little things that can end up being big,” he said. “But you don’t know when it’s going to be big. That’s why you’ve always got to do it.”

Day in, day out, Francona’s team does. It’s a major reason why the Guardians, with the youngest, most inexperienced team in the league, and with one of the lowest payrolls in the majors, are leading their division.

It’s also why the feisty Guardians are one of the least fun teams to play, but one of the most fun to watch.