{"id":194598,"date":"2025-07-07T20:35:30","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T01:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=194598"},"modified":"2025-07-08T10:35:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:35:12","slug":"random-thoughts-guardians-reds-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/07\/07\/random-thoughts-guardians-reds-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: Guardians, Reds, more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Editor’s note: this feature has been updated to include the New York Yankees and their last World Series appearance, which was last year. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s edition of Random Thoughts centers around the Cleveland Guardians, the Cincinnati Reds, home field advantage, and the start of college football, sort of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cleveland Guardians<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been painful to watch the Cleveland Guardians as of late. Actually, it\u2019s been difficult to watch for at least several weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cleveland went just 6-21 in June and entering Monday night, the Guardians were 0-10 in their last 10 games. After Sunday\u2019s 7-2 loss to Detroit, Cleveland dropped to 40-48 overall and 15.5 games out of first in the Central Division. Oof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, this is a team that has a handful (at best) of bona fide Major League players, with the rest mainly consisting of AAA players. I know many fans are screaming for the Dolan family (the owners) to shell out way more for payroll or sell the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selling the team probably isn\u2019t going to happen and yes, the team\u2019s 2025 payroll (estimated to be $100 million) is low, fifth lowest in baseball, with only Pittsburgh ($87 million), the White Sox ($82 million), Tampa Bay Rays ($79 million) Athletics ($73 million) and Miami ($67 million) spending less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, I\u2019m not in the group that believes the highest or second highest payroll all but guarantees at least a World Series appearance. Just ask the Yankees (current No. 3 payroll, last World Series appearance: 2024, but before that, it was 2009, or 15 years), or the Mets (current No. 1 payroll, last World Series appearance: 2015). Yes, there\u2019s the Dodgers (No. 2 payroll), but in some ways, they almost appear to be exception, not the rule. Yes, spending more money on quality players helps but again, it\u2019s no guarantee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless, here\u2019s hoping the Guardians can get back on the winning track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cincinnati Reds<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Entering Monday night, the Reds stood at 46-44. I casually follow the Reds and I casually root for them (except when the play the Guardians). Generally, I want to see them do well. I\u2019m curious though. Reds fans \u2013 what are your thoughts on this year\u2019s team? Did you expect more or less? What do you like and not like?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home field advantage<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been well publicized but it became official last week. The Cleveland Browns will move about 20 minutes away to the suburb of Brook Park. A new enclosed stadium (it\u2019s not really a dome) will be built there and should be open in time for the 2029 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve heard people complaining about the Browns losing weather induced home field advantage by moving to an indoor stadium. Of course, the inference is an advantage in snow games in December and January. Here\u2019s the thing \u2013 what home field advantage? Since resuming play in 1999 at the current downtown stadium, Cleveland\u2019s home record is 84-116-1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to that, the Browns have never hosted a playoff game at the current stadium. You read that right. I double checked \u2013 Cleveland qualified for the playoffs in 2002, 2020 and 2023, but none of those games were played at home. The last Browns home playoff game was in 1994, when the team played at old Municipal Stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the Browns will have better luck in their new home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big week<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a big week for many college football fans. The season is starting this week, sort of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the delight of fans, it\u2019s the week EA Sports releases the College Football 26 video game. The game was brought back last year after a 10-plus year hiatus and apparently, it proved to be wildly popular. In fact, it was reported to be the top selling sports video game ever. Not bad for a company that has produced Madden Football video games since the 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judging by online chatter, this game should be just as successful, if not more so. My first football game was Atari Football (yes, I\u2019m old) and I still think Tecmo Super Bowl is the great football game ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, if you have thoughts or comments on any of the above topics, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: this feature has been updated to include the New York Yankees and their last World Series appearance, which was last year. SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports This week\u2019s edition of Random Thoughts centers around the Cleveland Guardians, the Cincinnati Reds, home field advantage, and the start of college football, sort of. Cleveland Guardians It\u2019s been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-26 08:04:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194598"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194637,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194598\/revisions\/194637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}