I Believe in the Cleveland Guardians.

The Guardians have gone further than I expected. They have a long way to go. But I believe.

American hero and social justice pioneer Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “ We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”

I wanted to open up this piece with this quote because I think it can really describe the Guardians’ season in a nutshell. The Guardians had a historic start, the hopes got high, but then they started to really regress once July hit. Things were ugly week in and week out for the most part. And as things became more and more bleak, the more and more fans, I included, began to lose hope for our boys.

But what is beautiful is that most lessons are learned in the struggle. You try different things and fail, you work to build yourself up but sometimes go crashing down. You learn to be more hopeful in times of distress and accept the pain for what it is — a finite disappointment that leads to better days.

My hope is that no matter what the Guardians play the best they can, and I will be doing all I can to encourage them from now on — I encourage you readers to do so too.

But in terms of contending, I do believe that we can still throw punches with the big dogs, at least for a few rounds. Of course, things will have to change, but I am confident they will.

One of the biggest issues that this offense was presented with was the untimely slumps of Steven Kwan, Josh Naylor and Jose Ramirez right at the same time. Steve started to sell out for more fly balls and that took him off his path, Josh started to get beat outside a lot, especially by changeups and other pitches with arm-side break, and Jose has been doing okay, but not up to par with his superstar self. I think without those three being exactly who they’re supposed to be, this offense loses its spark. If they get back to what they were doing before their dry spells started, which I am confident they will, the team will have a lot of their firepower back and we can look back on these slumps as a necessary bump in the road for the team — a finite disappointment.

But that’s one half of the issue with the offense. Though the spark hasn’t been provided by the big three of our lineup, that doesn’t mean they could always do so even if they were their normal selves. The other six guys in the lineup also have to be the backup for those big three. And the Guardians’ remaining six hitters have had trouble picking up for our big three, excluding one Jhonkensy Noel. I think the backup for the top three hitters in the lineup is almost as important as the top three themselves. Speaking reasonably, you cannot expect a team’s offense to be amazing only with their big three. It needs their supporting cast to carry their weight as well.

But I believe that the answer to this problem is to bring up guys who are more likely to carry their weight than some of the guys on this roster at the moment. George Valera, Gabriel Arias, Juan Brito and Kyle Manzardo (who is already being called up by the time I’m writing this) are guys I believe can have that sort of impact and strength to hold up the bottom half of the lineup.

I don’t think there is much to be said about the bullpen, besides the fact that I am as confident in them as ever, that’s been my one constant throughout this year. And I do remain very hopeful for the rotation. Though it’s had way more than its fair share of failures and struggles, the worst is definitely past us, and I like the guys we have in our rotation right now. My expectations aren’t through the roof for them, but my hope for them is that they do perform as good as their resumes have depicted them to be this year.

Lastly, I remain hopeful in Stephen Vogt. I know that he has been a big subject of criticism lately, but I would say that the things we are criticizing him for regard traits that will only be sharpened up with experience. All I am going to preach here is patience, because Vogt has the barebones structure of a great MLB manager. These failures are just the aforementioned bumps in the road and I will stand by him and hope he does his best.

I think that, despite al these ways we could be better as a team, I think it’s just as imperative that we could be more hopeful and supportive as a fanbase. It’s okay to offer criticism, but don’t lose hope! This group of guys showed early on in the season that they could keep up, even considering the countless unlucky breaks our rotation has encountered along the way. The pain is only temporary. It hurts, but let’s keep the perspective fresh and finish this season out strong and right behind our guys.