2024 Guardians Regular Season Thread

[Tondo]

Yeah it does feel like Manzardo is out of the blue because of their history with service time and not being on the 40. Wonder who gets replaced on the 40 for him.

They currently have an open spot after Beede DFA, but there's a handful of guys that aren't locks on the 40

Avila
Parsons
Z. Kent
Noel (last option year)
Tena (last option year)

Plus Laureano and Florial. I expect most of them wiped off the 40 during the season or in the offseason to make room for the 2021 Draft class wave of arms in need of protection (Aleman, Dion, Webb, Mace, Nikhazy, Leftwich, Sharpe)

 

[MattyFos.]

They currently have an open spot after Beede DFA, but there's a handful of guys that aren't locks on the 40

Avila
Parsons
Z. Kent
Noel (last option year)
Tena (last option year)

Plus Laureano and Florial. I expect most of them wiped off the 40 during the season or in the offseason to make room for the 2021 Draft class wave of arms in need of protection (Aleman, Dion, Webb, Mace, Nikhazy, Leftwich, Sharpe)

I didn't even realize we didn't fill Beedes 40 man spot. Thanks for the catch

 

[CBBI]

I wonder with Valera back this weekend with the Clippers why Johnathan Rodriguez wasn't brought up for a cup of coffee.

Because it’s not a cup of coffee. Manzardo, unless he falls flat on his face, ain’t going back down.

Kwan is going to be out a long time.

 

[CDAV45]

@CDAV45 Kwan has demonstrated higher range on average.

This is just objective, first Kwan, 2022-2024:
View attachment 20048

Then Brennan, 2023-2024:
View attachment 20049

Kwan has just showed better coverage. I think it's got to be more of a consistency thing than a maximum thing. At his best, Brennan could match Kwan I am sure because he's got the foot speed, but if he's just not as consistent with taking optimal routes his success rate at getting to borderline catches is going to be lower.

Nobody's going to argue the arm angle but that matters a lot more in RF anyway.


93 AB is a terrible sample size. His xStats are fine though, nothing amazing but significantly better than Bo, Laureano, Arias, and Rocchio, and basically tied with Brennan and Gimenez despite getting exposure to both sides of the platoon.

Simply put, if anyone is on the hot seat, it's not him.

Looks like we're kinda splitting hairs between Kwan and Brennan. Hopefully Brennan demonstrates that while Kwan is out. We'll see how it goes and like I said the bigger concern for me is Brennan seizing the opportunity offensively.

I think a good arm in LF plays a lot more importance than people give it credit for. Brantley is a good example. He had a shit ton of assists from LF because he played the ball so well and had a good, accurate arm. I think LF had just become a place to hide a big bat and the defense suffered because of it. Seems like more balls are hit to LF than RF too, but I could be wrong there.

I agree on Freeman's sample being extremely small and I'm in no way advocating for him to be cast to the side even though I don't see him as the longterm answer in CF.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

They have already tried to put something in that foot and his body rejected it, if I remember correctly...

If that's the case, Delauter might never have a career.

This reminds me of former Cavalier Zydrunas Ilgauskas and also Bill Walton, who suffered injury after injury because the bones in their feet were too fragile to take the pounding of running up and down the court day after day.

They might have to develop him as a full-time DH.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Eli Morgan and Sam Hentges appear ready to return to the Guardians' bullpen. James Karinchak is throwing and should be available at some point although probably not this month.

The bullpen options Vogt will have over the next couple of weeks are going to be interesting. We're also starting to get more length from the starters. Cookie went six innings yesterday (his average was less than five) and he could have gone longer as he only threw 71 pitches.

Did Josh and Jose break out of their slumps? Josh had a home run and lined a sharp single to left. Jose is 3-for-6 with two walks in his last two games.

Jose is off to a bad start with a line of .230/.694. But he has 27 RBI's in 33 games, which projects to 123 RBI's if he plays in 150 games. Jose has 11 extra base hits and 9 have come with runners on, including 5 of his 6 home runs.

He's getting fewer hits than at anytime in his career but he's getting the extra base hits at the right times.

His OBP with nobody on base is .235. That needs to improve. He's such a good baserunner we need him to get on more. His OBP is only .279 - over 70 points under his career average. In the last six years his outside-the-zone swing percentage has increased from 22% to 38%. But he's walked twice in the last two games, once leading off an inning, so maybe he's on the right track.

 

[sportscoach]

If that's the case, Delauter might never have a career.

This reminds me of former Cavalier Zydrunas Ilgauskas and also Bill Walton, who suffered injury after injury because the bones in their feet were too fragile to take the pounding of running up and down the court day after day.

They might have to develop him as a full-time DH.

They will try to let him do at least RF first... IF he can't handle it then, the DH, but hopefully they are able to figure out something.

 

[sportscoach]

Eli Morgan and Sam Hentges appear ready to return to the Guardians' bullpen. James Karinchak is throwing and should be available at some point although probably not this month.

The bullpen options Vogt will have over the next couple of weeks are going to be interesting. We're also starting to get more length from the starters. Cookie went six innings yesterday (his average was less than five) and he could have gone longer as he only threw 71 pitches.

Did Josh and Jose break out of their slumps? Josh had a home run and lined a sharp single to left. Jose is 3-for-6 with two walks in his last two games.

Jose is off to a bad start with a line of .230/.694. But he has 27 RBI's in 33 games, which projects to 123 RBI's if he plays in 150 games. Jose has 11 extra base hits and 9 have come with runners on, including 5 of his 6 home runs.

He's getting fewer hits than at anytime in his career but he's getting the extra base hits at the right times.

His OBP with nobody on base is .235. That needs to improve. He's such a good baserunner we need him to get on more. His OBP is only .279 - over 70 points under his career average. In the last six years his outside-the-zone swing percentage has increased from 22% to 38%. But he's walked twice in the last two games, once leading off an inning, so maybe he's on the right track.

I feel like this whole team is hitting better IF there is someone on...

 

[MattyFos.]

Because it’s not a cup of coffee. Manzardo, unless he falls flat on his face, ain’t going back down.

Kwan is going to be out a long time.

Yeah Kwan will prolly be out long enough to get a good look at Manzardo. When he's ready to return the team should have enough info to make a decision on the end of the bench whether it's trade Laureano, DFA Florial, send Rocchio back down, figure out what to do with Arias or send Manzardo back down for a few months.

The injury is a killer to the team because Kwan is such a valuable player. But there's a silver lining when it comes to roster decisions.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

They should definitely bring up JRod. The simple solution is DFA RL.

I don't think they believe in JRod. They didn't bring him up last year when we had by far the worst outfield in baseball in terms of power and run production.

This year JRod does not seem to have made any progress. Last year at Columbus, after being promoted, he hit .280/.936 in 175 AB's. So far this year in 114 AB's he's hitting .271/.874. He looks like the same player they didn't bring up last year even after they were eliminated from contention.

They signed Calhoun to play RF at the end of last season rather than bring up JRod.

 

[thestatman]

I don't think they believe in JRod. They didn't bring him up last year when we had by far the worst outfield in baseball in terms of power and run production.

This year JRod does not seem to have made any progress. Last year at Columbus, after being promoted, he hit .280/.936 in 175 AB's. So far this year in 114 AB's he's hitting .271/.874. He looks like the same player they didn't bring up last year even after they were eliminated from contention.

He would probably be a right handed version of Florio. But this team can't afford to play Laureano anymore. JRod's OPS is just a hair under 1000%. They should definitely give him a shot.

 

[BimboColesHair]

This year JRod does not seem to have made any progress. Last year at Columbus, after being promoted, he hit .280/.936 in 175 AB's. So far this year in 114 AB's he's hitting .271/.874. He looks like the same player they didn't bring up last year even after they were eliminated from contention.

When a guy has had swing and miss concerns every step of the way in the minors and is all of a sudden seeing a 7% drop in his K rate and a 7% drop in his swinging strike rate with contact rates up all across the board, I would say that is progress. For him to be in the single digit swinging strike % after his entire minor league career leading up to this point where he has consistently been in the high teens, that is a bigger deal than a .053 difference in OPS.

What he is doing so far this year in AAA is so much more sustainable than what he was doing in AAA last year. And teams tell you how they believe in players with their actions. If we didn't believe in JRod he wouldn't be occupying a 40-man spot.

 

[Tondo]

Agreeing with Bimbo everywhere. I feel dirty.

JRod had RH Florial profile going into this year, but as Bimbo pointed out, he's improving on his weaknesses. Reminds me of Will Benson's final year in the org, when he made me a believer again.

I hope he gets a shot at some point, as I've kept his prospect status on life support for years.

 

[Tondo]

Found this elsewhere...

Arias had two more 3 pitch strikeouts yesterday.

In 73 PA he's had 0-2 counts 14 times.

He struck out on the 3rd pitch 10 times.

TEN !!!!!

10 three pitch Ks in 73 PA

 

[Criznit]

If that's the case, Delauter might never have a career.

This reminds me of former Cavalier Zydrunas Ilgauskas and also Bill Walton, who suffered injury after injury because the bones in their feet were too fragile to take the pounding of running up and down the court day after day.

They might have to develop him as a full-time DH.

Bad feet/foot in the NBA? Greg Oden and his career derailing Dance Dance Revolution injury.