Jim Ingraham: The bar is set pretty low, but the Browns could actually have a better season than the Guardians

Don't look now, but "And down the stretch they come!" Is this going to be one of those rare years in which the Browns outperform the Guardians? If this week is any sort of barometer, it could very well happen. While the Guardians spent the days leading up to this week's trade deadline trying to decide whether they wanted to compete for the AL Central title or just sort of hang around in the off chance the Twins would simply hand it to them, the Browns' junior varsity Thursday held the Jets' JVs scoreless in the second half of a 21-16 win in the Hall of Fame game, played under the lights, some of which were working. The biggest highlight of the event was the presentation of this year's Hall of Fame class, which included the exquisite and indestructible Mr. Joe Thomas, the perfect football player, who toiled with class and dignity for 11 years on some of the worst Browns teams ever (and that's saying something!). Never complaining about all the losing. Never asking for a trade. Never walking away from the team prematurely to escape all the incompetence that surrounded him both on the field and in the executive suites, Thomas deserves a statue next to Jim Brown's. ** With the MLB trade deadline having come and gone, the wiz kids at FanGraphs now say the Twins have an 81.1 percent chance of making the playoffs while the Guardians have a 17.6 percent chance. Winning the AL Central? It's virtually the same: 81 percent chance for the Twins, 17.5 percent for the Guardians. In his before and after trade deadline evaluation of various teams, FanGraphs' Dan Szymborski called the Twins the fifth-most improved team, although they basically treaded water. "But," wrote Szymborski, "that results in a significant improvement solely because the Guardians went backwards." There is now, according to FanGraphs' ZiPS calculations, a 24 percent chance that the winner of the AL Central will have a losing record. Overall, says Szymborski of Cleveland's trade deadline activity, "The Guardians literally made their roster worse." ** One thing that happened that literally prevented Cleveland from making its roster better was the injury to Shane Bieber. The Guardians' latest Cy Young Award winner was the trade chip that could have been used to reel in the feared slugger the franchise has lacked since 2004-2007, when Travis Hafner averaged 32 home runs and 108 RBIs per year. That's not to say Cleveland lacked usable trade chips with which to go big-bat hunting. There's a reason why Guardians officials collect middle infielders like sea shells. The middle of the field — catcher, second base, shortstop and center field — is the spine of baseball teams. If you're strong up the middle, with good pitching, you've probably got yourself a pretty good team. As currently constructed, however, the Guardians only have one of those four key spots being filled by a difference maker: second baseman Andres Gimenez. It's not from a lack of trying. Cleveland's glut of middle infielders is the result of an ongoing search for not necessarily the next Omar Vizquel. The next Jhonny Peralta, who for six years in Cleveland (2005-10) averaged 18 home runs per year, would do just fine. The current candidates are Gabriel Arias, Tyler Freeman and Brayan Rocchio. Pick one and trade two. There are plenty more where those three came from because the Guardians' minor league system is one of the majors' biggest middle infielders greenhouses. The delay in finding Mr. Right is preventing the Guardians from packaging some Not Quite Mr. Rights in a potential trade or trades for a slugging outfielder. Or even a sort-of slugging outfielder. That could have been the trade the Guardians made at the trade deadline. Instead, they traded for still another middle infielder, Kahlil Watson, whom they acquired from Miami as part of the Josh Bell trade. The Guardians did use Aaron Civale as a trade piece to acquire a potential slugging first baseman in Kyle Manzardo, who hit 22 home runs last year in Tampa Bay's minor league system. But he apparently won't be major league ready until sometime next year. ** So the Guardians' roster is still a work in progress. The problem with that is a work in progress rarely goes deep into the playoffs, if it even reaches the playoffs. The Browns could have leaned on that last year. This year they are not a work in progress, or at least not as much as the Guardians appear to be. Since 2000 the Guardians have had 14 winning seasons and made trips to the postseason eight times. The Browns since 2000 have had three winning seasons and made trips to the postseason two times. Even though in this century the Browns have been wildly more popular in Cleveland than the Guardians, the Guardians have been definitively the better franchise — with 2023 up for grabs. Contact Jim Ingraham at jingraham4@gmail.com and follow him @Jim_Ingraham on Twitter.