The Tigers losing streak is now 8 games and the Guardians officially hold a one game lead in the AL Central. If you need a frame of reference, understand that the Guardians play a similar brand of baseball to the 2015 Royals. They have perhaps the least amount of power of any team in the league, but I promise you they PUT THE BALL IN PLAY. Defensively, Cleveland won’t beat itself. Is this a referendum on what winning baseball looks like? Not really. I expect Cleveland to get bounced in the opening round of the playoffs. For now, after a month of timely hitting and generational run prevention, the Guards have the Rock and Roll Capital of the World absolutely buzzin.

Baseball should lean more into September. The NFL and NBA lack playoff chases because half the NBA makes the tournament and NFL contenders are virtually locked in by week 12. Baseball should steal this show. With three wild card teams in each league, playoff races are all but guaranteed to happen annually. How can the MLB capture what TNT’s 40 Games in 40 Nights used to deliver for the NBA?

It’s been a salty start to the college football season. We have no obvious Heisman candidates and Oklahoma’s star QB John Mateer is now out a month with a broken hand. Arch Manning (who the Rams should still definitely draft) has disappointed to the point that he won’t leave for the NFL next year. This season’s been defined by a few compelling matchups, but no obvious examples of GREAT BALL. More to the point, the contenders seem to be weighed down by failures from season’s past. Shall we take a look:

- #2 Miami, closed last season losing 3 of 4 to miss the playoffs. Is this year different?

- #3 Penn State, only just won their first playoff game last year and no one trusts James Franklin to win the Big One.

- #7 Oklahoma, has been saved by the now injured Mateer, but finished 6-7 in two of the last 3 seasons.

- #9 Texas A&M, haven’t won more than 10 games since 2012!

- #11 Indiana, sure.

- #12 Texas Tech, double sure.

Recency bias can be a bitch sometimes! Can we dig deep into our Blame Hat and find something to explain this? Maybe. Perhaps Saban’s departure, Dabo Sweeney’s fall, and the loss of Jim Harbaugh has thinned the most recent blue blood schools a bit, but coaching turnover is permanent in college.

Is this anything to even be annoyed about? Possibly. College football’s product is suffering in the transfer window era. Football is the ultimate team sport and roster turnover has a greater effect in this game than any other. Take NCAA Men’s Basketball for example. Conference re-alignment has done the game no favors, but the NBA instituting it’s 19 year old age limit caused more damage than anything. For top schools, losing freshman year after year had similar effects to football programs losing transfers. The NBA’s age limit happened long before modern transfer window policies and could serve as a decent proxy experiment. The quality of play simply isn’t what it used to be even if the best programs are still largely the same. More to the point, the most successful teams (Auburn, UConn) have proven to be older teams that keep guys around. Does this explain the makeup of the current top 12? Not really. But these early season rankings are largely just teams that haven’t lost yet. They bear little weight in terms of teams that are actually good. My hope: the three heavy hittin matchups (Georgia/Bama, Oregon/Penn St, and Ole Miss/LSU) this weekend restore a little faith in me. Show me the young boys poppin pads and we can file this post away as blasphemy.