Around the Diamond: Every MLB Team in One Fast Weekly Rundown

lot one this morning the american league pennant tied two games apiece after yenidiaz hit a ninth inning homer against his old team week we looked at the whole league picture but the room is smaller now the crowd is thin and the bidding is getting serious the tampa bay rays beat the cleveland guardians seven to three on sunday silencing progressive field and leveling the alcs that one swing from diaz changes everything it guarantees this series goes at least six games it puts all the pressure back on cleveland and it proves once again that in october guy who wants it more often gets it now for the rest of the floor in the national league the milwaukee brewers have the los angeles dodgers on the ropes leading that series two games to none the story there is a kid named jacob missiorowski he threw eleven fifteen pitches over 100 miles per hour this season 115 he topped out at one zero five point five that's not a pitcher that's a physics experiment he's sixteen and five with

a 1.80 era and right now the dodgers have no and we have to pour one out for the chicago white sox what a run two years ago this team lost 121 games this year they finished eighty four and seventy eight won their first postseason series since 2005 by sweeping houston and led the american league with 776 runs scored they went down against cleveland in the alds but that's not a failure that's a down payment on next year hammer's down on their season but the bidding for their future is just getting started finally some roster moves before the deep dive the rays added rookie right hander brody hopkins to their alcs roster the guardians countered with righty slade zacone just a little late series tinkering looking for one fresh arm to get three big outs so let's talk about the cleveland guardians because what they did this year looks like a master class it looks like a front office that went to the auction with a plan a number and ice in their veins everyone else

was chasing the big shiny names at the trade deadline cleveland was in the corner buying up lots nobody was paying attention to and those lots won them the division and got them to the doorstep of the world series think about it they didn't land the blockbuster star they acquired pitchers foster griffin and craig yoho outfielder joe adell and infielder nathaniel lowe you probably didn't even notice but look at the numbers in this postseason lowe has six hits and four rbis adele has six hits two triples and a team leading eight rbis griffin has pitched 6.2 crucial innings out of the bullpen is the pattern matching i love it's the same thing you see in the art world one bidder pays a record price for the picasso on the cover of the catalog but the smart collector in the back of the room buys three incredible supporting pieces for half the price they don't get the headlines they get the better collection

cleveland's front office built a better collection they even did it earlier in the year grabbing catcher patrick bailey for a draft pick manager steven boat said it himself he praised them for thinking short term and long term they found players who didn't just fill a hole on the spreadsheet but fit the personality of the team here's where the analogy holds value is value whether it's on a balance sheet or a baseball diamond here's where it breaks in baseball assets have to work together a painting doesn't have to get along with the other paintings on the wall joe adell has to hit behind nathaniel lowe foster griffin has to trust patrick bailey cleveland didn't just buy talent they bought chemistry and they exposed the weakness in their opponent the white sox offense was a monster 111 home runs 589 walks they were all or nothing and in the alds cleveland's pitching staff sat them down 75 strikeouts in five games a new postseason record that's not luck that's finding a weakness and exploiting it relentlessly i'm

i'm bid somebody in this room always is just made sure they were bidding on the right things so what is this all set up we've got a tied alcs on bid two two two two do i hear three do i hear three game five is on the block who wants the lead tampa in the back cleveland on the phone going once going twice hammers down now let me tell you what that actually was that was the sound of two perfectly matched teams fighting for every increment tampa has the power cleveland has the pitching and the defense built from savvy traits the brewers are riding a lightning bolt of a right arm in the nl and the dodgers are a 100 win juggernaut trying not to get swept the lesson from this week is clear you can try to buy a championship outright or you can build one piece by piece a price is just the last person who wanted it more and for the next week we get to see who wants this pennant more

than anybody else in the room this is not financial advice just an observation from the rank the smart money is on the team that knows exactly what every single piece is worth