The Major League Baseball All-Star break just wrapped up. After losing 10 straight games, the Cleveland Guardians finished very strong by sweeping Houston and taking three of four games from the Chicago White Sox. Somehow, the Guards managed to make you hang around to see what comes now, after the break.

They have 67 games to make the playoffs. Suppose the front office wants to try to play ball this season? It would be a change of pace. We are all waiting to see if they start trading off the players who are helping the team by the end of the month. Trading Carlos Santana would be a sign that the team is tagging out like a pro wrestler.

I hope they don’t. Yes, they still need to figure out a way to get some of their bats going. It is hard to watch guys in the lineup hitting under .200.

The losing streak put the 2025 team in a serious hole.

Consider this: The next five series are against teams with records under .500. If the Guards can win each of those, they will be 11-5 in that span. It would get the boys over .500, making them 57-53 with 51 games to play.

Currently, the third wild-card spot belongs to Seattle, who is six games over .500. The more difficult issue is the number of teams they must surpass to reach the postseason. They are six spots out of that last spot. Heading into the next home series this weekend against the Oakland A’s, they were only 1½ games behind four teams.

I don’t know why I’m an optimist. Looking at how crazy the game is, if Bo Naylor stops a ball from getting away against Detroit, and the Guardians get a clean play on an infield hit in the 11th inning against Chicago, they would be on an eight-game winning streak.

I do want to see Chase DeLauter and CJ Kayfus at some point. But skipper Stephen Vogt needs to pick a lineup and stick with it. Stop worrying about lefty-right match-ups and leave players like Kyle Manzardo in the lineup every day. Also, Angel Martinez is improving in every game.

They may have shifted their drafting philosophy. It was refreshing to see them draft Jace LaViolette, a power-hitting outfielder out of Texas A&M with the 27th pick earlier this week.

A year ago, it looked like he would be the No. 1 overall selection. He didn’t have a great season and he broke his hand in the Southeastern Conference Tournament. He still played through it. He has a high strikeout ratio. But the franchise’s home run leader, Jim Thome, is also the franchise leader with 2,548 strikeouts. Let’s see what the 6-foot-6, 230-pound son of former NHL head coach, Peter LaViolette, can do for the franchise.

The Guards have earned attention at least through the end of the month.

OFF-FIELD WOES FOR BROWNS

Somebody has to explain to me why is it so difficult for NFL players to stay out of trouble. For the second year in a row, the Cleveland Browns’ second-round pick from The Ohio State University is in trouble. Last year, it was Mike Hall; this season, it’s Quinshon Judkins.

Junkins was in line to battle for a starting running back spot for a team that experts think won’t win more than five games. The tandem of Judkins and fellow rookie Dylan Sampson appeared to be a giant bright spot heading into the upcoming season.

Judkins was arrested on domestic violence charges July 12 in Florida. The police report was not good. The league will not care if he is innocent or guilty. He’s looking to miss at least six games. He also has not signed his rookie contract.

The league and the National Football League Players Association need to re-evaluate the training players receive when they enter the league. They need to take another look at a more transitional program to prepare them for the NFL life.

They used to have an on-site rookie transition program. The entire league sent rookies to Northeast Ohio to meet.

“Nearly 55 percent of all NFL rookies signed with their clubs as undrafted free agents,” according to the NFL’s football operations website. “That meant that more than half of the new players were not receiving the information that they needed to successfully transition to the league.”

They changed the program. Implementing education on the teams with guidelines provided by the league is needed.

There are 15 mandatory topics. One is social responsibility for players, which covers league policies and the ramifications of issues like driving under the influence, or committing acts of domestic violence or sexual assault.

There were five reported domestic violence cases against NFL players in 2024. The numbers have gone down since the Ray Rice incident in 2014.

It’s a bad look for the player, the Browns, the league and Ohio State. We all know OSU is about as close to an NFL team as you can get.

Most players from Columbus are well ahead of the game when they reach the NFL. So, in the big picture, they do a good job, but it only takes a few players to change the perception and image.

If you have a suggestion for a column idea for Andy Baskin, send him an email at columnists@cjn.org. He can be heard on “Baskin & Phelps” weekdays on 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland at audacy.com.