AL Central: A game of inches

Cleveland Guardians

Branch Rickey is often quoted for saying "Baseball is a game of inches," though usage of the phrase is documented well before him, and has been adopted in many sports. We see evidence of that axiom all the time in baseball—in fact, with the new implementation of ABS, we're seeing ball and strike calls overturned by pitches that hit or miss the zone by mere fractions of an inch.

Or just look at CJ Kayfus last Sunday against the Mariners. Kayfus (pictured above, from 2025), making only his second career major league start in left field—part of Guardians' manager Stephen Vogt's bold/questionable decision to have four-time Gold-Glove-winning LF Steven Kwan make some starts in CF in an effort to potentially add more...

Almost!

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