2024 Season | Series #3 | Guardians @ Twins | April 4-7, 2024

[Otsego Mar]

Speaking of Florial, Freeman may allow Florial to get more ABs with his production dipping a bit (of course it's very early).

 

[sportscoach]

EVERY youngster 'needs' at bats. Florial 'needs' at bats, because if the argument is that Arias hasn't been given a real opportunity, it applies to Florial, too. Seemingly all of Manzardo, Brito, Martinez, and Delauter will 'deserve' a callup, at which point they will all 'need' at bats.

And Fry 'needs' at bats right now, too.

There is no way that every kid is gonna get what he 'needs', unless he hits the ground running.

So three questions posed...

1) How many at bats do you think that Arias should get?

2) Who should lose PT to give at bats to Arias?

3) How many games are you willing to lose while Arias...or Florial...get the at bats they 'need'?

Arias is and will get ABs, I don't get why a few posters don't understand, yes he has flaws, but he was one of our best hitters vs RHP in 23... Hes apart of this roster and will be for some time since at the very least he is a legit utility man on defense that can hit right handed pitching... Starting is the question mark, but being a solid bench guy, is not...

I am okay with both Laureano and Florial going... I wouldn't even care if Straw had the last bench spot at this point... I'd rather see Arias, Fry etc get OF time with Straw being the late inning/defensive replacement...

Will Hedges get less starts not being Beiber's personal catcher?

Hedges is the team captain for sure... he's not going anywhere IF we are in the playoff hunt...

Now, how often he starts, I'd essentially say once a weekish... Fry will be more of a matchup for now, but he's earning more and more ABs...

 

[sportscoach]

Speaking of Florial, Freeman may allow Florial to get more ABs with his production dipping a bit (of course it's very early).

xBA/xwOBA/xSLG as of right now on fangraphs for Freeman is... .289/.356/.449...

Freeman isn't going anywhere... He isn't losing ABs... He is hitting just fine...

 

[Otsego Mar]

xBA/xwOBA/xSLG as of right now on fangraphs for Freeman is... .289/.356/.449...

Freeman isn't going anywhere... He isn't losing ABs... He is hitting just fine...

I really don't care about advanced stats and "likelihood" stats.

With that being said, I'm not suggesting he's going anywhere, but simply stating that Florial may end up being given some ABs in center in the "maybe" likelihood that Freeman starts to putter a bit from being an almost every day player.

I'm a fan of Freeman. I'm also a fan of anyone who, you know, produces when they play.

 

[CATS44]

Arias is and will get ABs, I don't get why a few posters don't understand, yes he has flaws, but he was one of our best hitters vs RHP in 23... Hes apart of this roster and will be for some time since at the very least he is a legit utility man on defense that can hit right handed pitching... Starting is the question mark, but being a solid bench guy, is not...

I am okay with both Laureano and Florial going... I wouldn't even care if Straw had the last bench spot at this point... I'd rather see Arias, Fry etc get OF time with Straw being the late inning/defensive replacement...



Hedges is the team captain for sure... he's not going anywhere IF we are in the playoff hunt...

Now, how often he starts, I'd essentially say once a weekish... Fry will be more of a matchup for now, but he's earning more and more ABs...

You didn't answer the questions...lol.

How many more at bats are you willing to give Arias.

Who loses at bats?

How many games are you willing to lose?

And another....

IF he is, as you say, he has established himself as a solid bench guy, what do you plan to do with Brito and Martinez.

BTW, we have plenty of players who can hit righties. What we need are a bunch who can hit lefties. Only Colorado was worse than us against lefties last year.

 

[sportscoach]

I really don't care about advanced stats and "likelihood" stats.

With that being said, I'm not suggesting he's going anywhere, but simply stating that Florial may end up being given some ABs in center in the "maybe" likelihood that Freeman starts to putter a bit from being an almost every day player.

I'm a fan of Freeman. I'm also a fan of anyone who, you know, produces when they play.

All I see is stats that say, stay the course, don't take ABs when he is hitting just fine even when the regular numbers aren't saying to do that....

 

[sportscoach]

You didn't answer the questions...lol.

How many more at bats are you willing to give Arias.

Who loses at bats?

How many games are you willing to lose?

And another....

IF he is, as you say, he has established himself as a solid bench guy, what do you plan to do with Brito and Martinez.

BTW, we have plenty of players who can hit righties. What we need are a bunch who can hit lefties. Only Colorado was worse than us against lefties last year.

Who says we are going to lose because he gets ABs? Playing Arias in a bench role won't cause us to lose to be honest so I am not worried...

Right now, Arias is at the big league club and in a bench role, he is way better than Martinez and Brito since he is a much better defender than those two... Those two are potentially better hitters, but right now, they aren't on the big league club so Arias is going to get his ABs...

And who would I take them from... Hmm... Laureano and Florial, duh... Both guys I don't see in Cleveland past this June/end of season...

 

[rcristal]

Since the season started I have wanted Fry to get regular at bats for a while. My Wife is tired of hearing me talk about it lol.
Rcristal

 

[avs2000]

A true homer couldn't have predicted this start to the season. Amazing road trip.

It has been. The extra plus is we got a west coast trip over with in early April. And it was highly successful

 

[avs2000]

I'd be really happy for him to get thru four without anymore damage,

Cookie in long relief would be better. But now with Bieber gone he has to start

 

[sportscoach]

Since the season started I have wanted Fry to get regular at bats for a while. My Wife is tired of hearing me talk about it lol.
Rcristal

Your poor wife! Lol

 

[sportscoach]

Cookie in long relief would be better. But now with Bieber gone he has to start

Plus Gaddis looking really good in relief role... He was hitting 98 I believe...

Curry, Lively and Williams will be back by May, so we will get a shuffle then...

 

[macbdog]

Who knew the solution to the team offense was 'Unleash David Fry'.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Who knew the solution to the team offense was 'Unleash David Fry'.

I would play him as much as possible while he's swinging a hot bat. That 424-foot blast yesterday was into the wind. The next at-bat he hit an outside pitch off the end of the bat and it was caught on the warning track in right field. He has tremendous power and plate discipline, which is a very dangerous combination.

Fry's outside-the-zone swing percentage so far is 10.5%. Next best on the Guardians is Bo Naylor at 22.6%. No wonder Fry is crushing the ball. In fact, that 10.5% is best in the majors. The median is 31%.

The Guardians are 7-2, all on the road, so they need to keep doing what they're doing until it stops working, then consider some changes.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Here's an example of Fry's plate discipline - his first at-bat of the season.

Strike looking
Strike looking
Foul ball
Ball, ball, ball
Double

Talk about patience and plate discipline. Next at-bat:

Strike swinging (changeup down the middle)
Ball
Strike looking
Ball, ball
Single

Again, he gets down in the count, lays off multiple pitches out of the zone to get to 3-2, then gets a hit. Next at-bat:

Ball
Strike looking
Single

In his fourth at-bat he took four pitches and with the count 2-2 they got him to ground out on a breaking ball on the edge of the zone at the knees.

On the 3-run homer yesterday he took a fastball on the outside edge, then crushed a slider middle of the zone. Fry has shown a tremendous ability to take strikes early in the count if the pitch is on the edge of the zone. He is very comfortable being down in the count and doesn't expand the zone as so many hitters do when they have two strikes (I'm looking at you, Jose).

Fry also has three walks and has been hit by a pitch. He's 5-for-11 with 2 sac flies so something good has happened in 11 of his 17 PA's. So far he is teaching his teammates a lesson in what happens when you 1) don't chase pitches out of the zone, 2) don't swing at strikes on the edge of the zone early in the count, and 3) stay disciplined with two strikes and be willing to risk being called out rather than chase a bad pitch.

My point is that Fry hasn't been lucky in a small sample size and he isn't just riding a hot streak. When you break down his at-bats you can see he's doing exactly what successful hitters do. He has not struck out once in 17 PA's. There's a reason for that; he doesn't swing at balls or marginal strikes, unless there are two strikes on him.