Does the road the the ALC title still do through Cleveland?

[MMMordabito]

Listening to Henry Lake last night during the rain delay, he mad the comment that the road to the AL Central title still goes through Cleveland.

 

The Twins had a 6-5 lead at that point.

 

I don't think I agree with him.  

 

- Cleveland is the defending champion in name only.

 

- Cleveland has Lindor.

 

Other than that, I have a hard time with that take.

 

- Cleveland did nothing to improve the team in the off-season.  In fact, you could say they did some things to make the team worse.

- Cleveland is still 9.5 games back at the beginning of June

- Cleveland has been riddled with injuries, and some of those are still a long way from fixing.

 

I still think they will be sellers.  They can look know further than KC in their own division a couple years ago to see what happens when you hold on for the sentiment of yesteryear.

 

I'd be interested to see what others think of Lake's position.

[Sssuperdave]

I wasn't listening to that, but I wonder if it was more of a throw away line than a statement that Cleveland is the "team to beat" or "in the driver's seat" or anything like that.  I mean, the Twins are clear favorites to win the division at that this point.  Fivethirtyeight has them at 89% likelihood to win the division, and I'm pretty sure other sites that forecast are similar.

 

I think it's kind of a principle... Cleveland will be the defending AL Central Champs until the day another team clinches the Central.  Maybe "the road still goes through Cleveland" is another way of saying that, and would be said even if they were in last place and 20 games behind.  I think it's pretty silly though.

[diehardtwinsfan]

they are the defending champs, so yes. 

[Otto von Ballpark]

I only took a road through Cleveland once, on a Greyhound bus. I hope the 2019 Twins don't have to do likewise!

[Craig Arko]

I don’t think I need to care, do I?

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

I only took a road through Cleveland once, on a Greyhound bus. I hope the 2019 Twins don't have to do likewise!

 

yeah, that road has a 90 degree turn in the middle of a freeway and is appropriately labeled "dead man's curve"

 

 

[jkcarew]

Jose Ramirez...off of back-to-back 3rd-place MVP years, isn't going to OPS .617 for the entire year. Even as injured as it is, the starting rotation is still decent and can get better if/when it gets more healthy. Their bullpen seems better than it's been...better than last year, certainly.

 

The Indians can get to a point where they are better and more consistent. I don't think it matters...given the current standings...because the Twin's floor (if the starting rotation falters and further exposes the bullpen) still seems to be at least 'decent'. The wild card is that there are over 100 games to go in the season. A lot can happen in four months.

[James]

I don't know if they will be sellers or not.  Cleveland may have a rough road to get the division title at this point, but there is still (almost) two full months of baseball before the trade deadline and Cleveland is 1 game out of the second wild card spot.  I'm betting they will still be hanging around and will still have a chance at that by July 31st.  I actually hope they are and they end up trading some more prospects out for rentals.   It will make their impending rebuild take that much longer.