"Here Lies the American League Central http://www.metsfanproshop.com/authentic-jacob-degrom-jersey , Which Just Sort of Withered Away."This one'sa work in progress, but a final epitaph for the AL Central will be needed eventually. After putting a team in the World Series four times in five years between 2012 and 2016, the division is experiencing historic levels of futility in 2018.Even as early as June 27,Ben Lindbergh of The Ringer marked the AL Central as the worst division of MLB's divisional era (which began in 1969). And it's only gotten worse.The Cleveland Indians have fortified their squad with trades for Brad Hand, Adam Cimber and Leonys Martin. The Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals, however, shipped out a good deal of talent鈥攅.g., Martin, Eduardo Escobar, Brian Dozier, Joakim Soria, Kelvin Herrera and Mike Moustakas鈥攂efore the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.Although their 61-49 record is the best in the AL Central, the Indians are only MLB's 10th-best team overall. The Twins, Tigers, White Sox and Royals are on track for 85, 94, 102 and 112 losses, respectively. The Tigers (minus-85) Nolan Ryan Jersey , White Sox (minus-143) and Royals (minus-200) also own three of MLB's seven worst run differentials.As far as how this has happened, it must first be understood that no other division has a smaller margin for error.According to Forbes, the AL Central's five teams combined to pull in $1.3 billion in revenue in 2017. That put it $157 million behind the AL West for the lowest take of MLB's six divisions.Certainly, it didn't help that the AL Central wasn't the best division in MLB last year either. But this is also a product of its limited returns at the gate and from local television contracts, which contribute to relatively low franchise values:Data courtesy of ForbesStill, the AL Central can't be written off as MLB's owndeadbeat dad monument. That's merely one plot point in a nuanced tale. How This Is Cleveland's FaultJason Miller/Getty ImagesThe Indians still mostly resemble their 2016 and 2017 selves, which produced 196 regular-season wins (including22 in a rowat one point)and one American League pennant team that won 94 games.However, the 2017 Indians proved to be mortal in the end. After jetting out to a 2-0 lead over the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series, the squad fell apart and lost it.That should have been Cleveland's cue to pursue substantial upgrades over the winter. Instead, it lost Carlos Santana and Bryan Shaw to free agency, and its biggest splash was signing Yonder Alonso to a $16 million contract.In the meantime, the Yankees got even better by adding Giancarlo Stanton, and the Houston Astros (Gerrit Cole) and Boston Red Sox (J.D. Martinez) responded in kind. With winning percentages north of .600, each of the three looks the part of an already elite team that went out of its way to get better.The Indians, on the other hand, have lived with a top-heavy offense and, up until their deal for Hand and Cimber, a woefully ineffective bullpen. These things have hurt them when they've played teams from the AL East and AL West, who have a 26-20 record against the Indians.Although Cleveland should have little trouble wrapping up a third straight AL Central title, another swift exit from the postseason appears to be in the cards. How This Is Minnesota's FaultBrace Hemmelgarn/Getty ImagesFollowing a largely hopeless stretch from 2011-16 http://www.metsfanproshop.com/authentic-tom-seaver-jersey , the Twins finally showed signs of life last year.On the heels of a 103-loss season in 2016, Minnesota rode a mix of veteran (Joe Mauer, Dozier and Ervin Santana) and youthful (Byron Buxton, Jose Berrios, Miguel Sano and Eddie Rosario) talent to 85 wins and a playoff berth in 2017. Although the Yankees dispatched them in the AL Wild Card Game, the Twins seemed to have turned a corner.Their response was to lean in to their rebirth with an active offseason. As Cleveland sat idle, Minnesota added Logan Morrison, Lance Lynn, Jake Odorizzi, Fernando Rodney and Addison Reed.Alas, these offseason additions have all flopped to one degree or another. Worse, the finger surgery that Santana underwent in February set an early tone on the injury front. Even worse, injuries and extended slumps have raised doubts about Buxton and Sano as franchise cornerstones.It's hard to fault the Twins for their actions last winter. But with many of their veterans now gone and some of their young talent on thin ice, a trip back to the drawing board may be inevitable.How This Is Detroit's, Chicago's and Kansas City's FaultCharlie Riedel/Associated PressThe Tigers, White Sox and Royals all fit the same mold. It's not just that each is rebuilding. Each is also guilty of waiting too long to start rebuilding.The White Sox won the World Series in 2005 and returned to the postseason in 2008. Then came an eight-year run between 2009-16 in which they rarely strayed far from mediocrity. They preferred to patch holes in their leaking ship as they found them rather than let it sink and build a better one.It wasn't until the 2016-17 offseason that the White Soxfinallypivoted in a new direction. Out went Chris Sale and Adam Eaton that winter and then Jose Quintana in July 2017. In came a wave of prospects headlined by Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech, Eloy Jimenez, Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez.What the White Sox are learning now is that nothing is guaranteed in a rebuild. They're waiting on Kopech and Jimenez to make their MLB debuts, as well as on Moncada Asdrubal Cabrera Jersey , Giolito and Lopez to live up to their billings. Thus, a return to contention is probably at least two years away.The Tigers and Royals, meanwhile, aren't even deserving of specific ETAs yet.Paul Sancya/Associated PressThe Tigers were the ultimate power in the AL Central between 2011 and 2014. They won the division each year and made it at least as far as the American League Championship Series three times. In 2012, they went all the way to the World Series.But then in 2015, a rebuild seemed to be upon the franchise. It cut David Price and Yoenis Cespedes from its roster and then-general manager Dave Dombrowski from its front office en route to 87 losses.Instead, late owner Mike Ilitch doubled down on a roster that was already old and expensive by investing $243 million in Jordan Zimmermann and Justin Upton the ensuing winter. A modest 86-win season followed in 2016. The Tigers kept the band together for 2017, but Ilitch's death and a subsequent step back to 98 losses made a full-on rebuild unavoidable.To this end, the good news is that the Tigers have quickly turned their farm system into one of the 10 best in MLB. The bad news is that they don't figure to start harvesting from it until next year. Further bad news is that they owe a broken down Miguel Cabrera $154 million between 2019 and 2023.That brings us to the Royals and how far they've fallen since they rode a core ofMoustakas, Herrera, Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain, Wade Davis, Greg Holland and Yordano Ventura to an AL pennant in 2014 and a World Series victory in 2015.Their franchise-record $72 million investment in Gordon has turned into a sunk cost via his offensive decline. Holland missed the entire 2016 season with Tommy John surgery.Ventura was tragically killed in a car accidentin January 2017. And on the field, the Royals stayed tethered the .500 mark.Kansas City had the option of tearing it all down last July, when Moustakas, Hosmer and Cain were just months from free agency. They instead bought into playoff hopes that quickly faded, thereby putting three primo trade chips to waste.The Royals are now a desolate franchise from top to bottom. They have the second-worst team in the majors, and a minor league system that entered the year at No. 30 has only improved to No. 24. They face a long road back to relevance http://www.metsfanproshop.com/authentic-tug-mcgraw-jersey , much less contention.All told, the story of how the AL Central found itself at the bottom is one of bad luck, bad timing and bad decisions. Such things can sink even the strongest of divisions. Throw in the AL Central's built-in financial disadvantage, and you get a perfect recipe for a perfect storm.When this one will clear is anyone's guess. Data courtesy of Baseball Reference. CARLSBAD, Calif. (AP) — Major League Baseball and its players’ union likely will not decide until the eve of spring training whether to change rules in an effort to increase action on the field next year.Deputy Commissioner Dan Halem said Thursday as the annual general managers’ meetings ended that there was no consensus for change yet. More discussions will take place when owners gather next week in Atlanta, the union’s executive board convenes in late November and major league executives go to Las Vegas for the winter meetings in mid-December.Topics being discussed include the increased use of defensive shifts, the decrease in innings thrown by starting pitchers and technology that aids sign stealing. A possible 20-second pitch clock and alterations to rules for waivers, trade deadlines and disabled lists also are being talked about by a tradition-bound sport resistant to change.“We’re an entertainment product. Certainly, we want to play the game in a way that’s compelling for our audience, including the younger audience,” Halem said. “We’re constantly looking at the way the game is changing organically and trying to balance the competitive issues with our clubs and our GMs doing everything possible to win versus what those decisions result in in terms of the product on the field. And it’s not an easy balance, but we work very hard at it.”Agreement with the union is necessary for playing rules changes, but management has the right to unilaterally implement a new playing rule with one year advance notice. Commissioner Rob Manfred had the right to mandate pitch clocks for 2018 but backed off when the union refused to agree, and he retains the ability to order clocks for 2019.MLB did initiate limits on mound trips without pitching changes in 2018, and the average time of a nine-inning game dropped to 3 hours, 44 seconds during the regular season from 3:05:11 in 2017 — although it rose to 3:34:50 this postseason from 3:29:28 in 2017.“It’s going in the right direction,” Halem said.Non-playing rules changes require agreement with players. Halem called the situation fluid, said he isn’t certain when management and the union will meet and set spring training as the deadline to determine any actions.Manfred has said the sport is examining whether it should attempt to manage the evolution of on-field play in an era when strikeouts topped hits for the first time in 2018 and the big league batting average dropped to its lowest level since 1972, the last season before the American League adopted the designated hitter. Strikeouts have set records for 11 straight years as more pitchers throw harder and teams more frequently bring in relievers.“I think the commissioner has said we’d probably like to see more balls in the play,” Halem said.There was just one trade announced during the four-day session: Seattle acquired speedy outfielder Mallex Smith from Tampa Bay as part of a five-player trade that sent catcher Mike Zunino and outfielder Guillermo Heredia to the Rays.Most general managers said their focus is winning under the current rules.“I just react to whatever’s happening and do everything I can to try to put our team in position to score more runs than the other team Juan Lagares Jersey ,” Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “I can understand from a fan perspective the increase in strikeouts obviously then decreases the action in a game and how that can be something that’s not landing well right now — and I totally appreciate that.”Agent Scott Boras on Wednesday attributed the 4 percent attendance drop this year to the decisions by several teams to jettison veterans in favor of rebuilding — which cuts the money spent on contracts for players, including his clients.“I certainly don’t agree with that characterization,” Halem said. “I don’t and our owners don’t believe that there’s any connection between the rebuilding process and overall attendance. There are a variety of reasons for our attendance numbers. We had poor weather,”There were 54 postponements, the most since 1989, and 26 were higher-drawing weekend games. Manfred said 35 games in April had a temperature of 40 degrees or less.“A lot of people like the way the game is being played right now. Other people would like to see more balls in play,” Halem said. “So on any of these issues I don’t think there’s a right answer. And some of these trends may be cyclical, too, and will reverse themselves, because our clubs are very competitive, and as soon as one club starts doing something that’s successful, reducing their strikeout rate as a team, for example, then other clubs follow.”