2023 Cleveland Guardians Season Thread

[Derek]

Meh.

This is you guys focusing in far too much on results of individual ABs during various games. I credit it to the passion some of you have to follow and comment on every single game.

Jose was better in high leverage situations than he was overall this season. Had an 18.8% BB rate in those situations too. He was taking his BBs. Just his Ks or pop outs got more attention from you guys.

He also just put up the highest BB% in his career with RISP, 19%. But again, that went unnoticed because the K's and pop ups got more attention from you guys. Jose hates to BB with RISP too. Plays into his aggressiveness with runners on, and why he got himself out a lot more than normal this year.

Need a better lineup to get him back to seeing pitches to hit consistently in those situations.

Just to add to your points:

José Ramírez - Splits - Career - Batting | FanGraphs Baseball

José Ramírez career batting splits statistics for Major League, Minor League, and postseason baseball

www.fangraphs.com

Career-high walk rate with RISP (as you stated)
Strikeout rate in line with his career numbers (12.6%)
.208 BABIP (there it is)

Personally, I don’t put much weight in RISP stats within a single season. The sample sizes are inherently small which leads to a lot of noise and variance.

If you look at most guys’ career numbers with RISP, it usually falls in line with their overall numbers.

 

[daddywags]

Gabe Kaplan, seems like a gamble, but Welcome Back.

Well played.

 

[Lee]

Well played.

Bit of an obscure joke, but if you know Gabe Kaplan, pretty funny double joke, lol....very much a dad joke though, lol

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Bo Naylor bottomed out on Aug. 18 with a .179 batting average in his first 117 major league at-bats. Since then in 94 plate appearances his batting line is a mind blowing .342/.457/.724/1.181.

These numbers put him first among all major league catchers since Aug. 19 in batting average, OBP, slugging percentage, OPS, and wOBA. In fact, his wOBA of .482 is miles ahead of the second place catcher, Willson Contreras, at .398. Bo's wRC+ of 217 is also miles ahead of the next highest (Contreras at 154).

Bo's WAR of 2.1 in the 26 games he's played in the last six weeks is tied for highest among catchers with William Contreras, who has played in 10 more games. If you multiply Bo's WAR by five to project to a 130-game season he's playing at a 10.5 WAR level. Aaron Judge was the AL MVP last year with a WAR of 11.6 in 157 games.

It's astonishing at how well Bo has hit the last six weeks. Just the .457 on-base percentage alone is mind-boggling. It shows he's been really selective and will take a walk rather than chase bad pitches.

Bo ranks first in on-base percentage over the last six weeks among ALL players, not just catchers. Bryce Harper, Mookie Betts, and Yordan Alvarez rank 2-4. By the way, Nolan Jones is 6th at .433.

The real mind blower is that in the last six weeks Bo leads the majors in slugging percentage at .724. The next closest is Trea Turner at .695. The next closest catcher is at .585 - nearly 150 points behind!

Defensively Fangraphs has Bo ranked 9th out of 26 catchers who have at least 90 PA's over the last six weeks. He's been above average but not elite.

Bo's turnaround from being a .179 hitter to one of the top five hitters in baseball at any position in the last six weeks has been amazing. It's like a switch flipped on Aug. 19. On that day he went 3-for-4 against the Tigers and he hasn't stopped mashing since.

 

[southernflyer]

Who knew this tweet was actually a threat.

If the tweet said grinders three times Eric Wedge would have popped up.

 

[BimboColesHair]

Gabe Kapler fired in San Francisco. Is he on the G's suspects list?

Considering it’s very public knowledge how the Francona’s feel towards Kapler, this is an easy one to figure out.

 

[macbdog]

If the tweet said grinders three times Eric Wedge would have popped up.

He still could.... grinders grinders grinders...

 

[BigJ0526]

Bo Naylor bottomed out on Aug. 18 with a .179 batting average in his first 117 major league at-bats. Since then in 94 plate appearances his batting line is a mind blowing .342/.457/.724/1.181.

These numbers put him first among all major league catchers since Aug. 19 in batting average, OBP, slugging percentage, OPS, and wOBA. In fact, his wOBA of .482 is miles ahead of the second place catcher, Willson Contreras, at .398. Bo's wRC+ of 217 is also miles ahead of the next highest (Contreras at 154).

Bo's WAR of 2.1 in the 26 games he's played in the last six weeks is tied for highest among catchers with William Contreras, who has played in 10 more games. If you multiply Bo's WAR by five to project to a 130-game season he's playing at a 10.5 WAR level. Aaron Judge was the AL MVP last year with a WAR of 11.6 in 157 games.

It's astonishing at how well Bo has hit the last six weeks. Just the .457 on-base percentage alone is mind-boggling. It shows he's been really selective and will take a walk rather than chase bad pitches.

Bo ranks first in on-base percentage over the last six weeks among ALL players, not just catchers. Bryce Harper, Mookie Betts, and Yordan Alvarez rank 2-4. By the way, Nolan Jones is 6th at .433.

The real mind blower is that in the last six weeks Bo leads the majors in slugging percentage at .724. The next closest is Trea Turner at .695. The next closest catcher is at .585 - nearly 150 points behind!

Defensively Fangraphs has Bo ranked 9th out of 26 catchers who have at least 90 PA's over the last six weeks. He's been above average but not elite.

Bo's turnaround from being a .179 hitter to one of the top five hitters in baseball at any position in the last six weeks has been amazing. It's like a switch flipped on Aug. 19. On that day he went 3-for-4 against the Tigers and he hasn't stopped mashing since.

almost like getting consistent at bats is good for a young players development

 

[sportscoach]

Bit of an obscure joke, but if you know Gabe Kaplan, pretty funny double joke, lol....very much a dad joke though, lol

Or is it a grandpa joke by now? Lol

 

[CDAV45]

We see the severity of his issues and his upside (as a hitter) differently. Also have a different perspective on the disappearing walk rate since the Rosario trade. It’s a product of approach and completely under his control.

To move this beyond Arias, plate approach IMO is the biggest issue the club needs to address this winter and should be the emphasis of many exit interviews. If I didn’t know better I’d say the offensive theme this year was, “Be the least you can be”. Honestly, Gimenez disturbs me the most in that regard (likely has to do with my investment in his upside).

We're dealing with one of the youngest teams in baseball and plate approach is a skill developed with experience so I'm expecting it to happen. We are ranked 25th in BB and I suspect the lack of walks is significantly influenced by the lack of power. Pitchers just don't fear our weak hitting lineup nor should they. We are dead last in HR by a wide margin 28th in SLG and 27th in team OPS. This season's plate approach very well may be a result instead of an issue.

Whatever the reasoning may be, it is blatantly obvious to all of us that this team needs to improve offensively or we'll be right back in the same scenario next season.

 

[Gson]

We're dealing with one of the youngest teams in baseball and plate approach is a skill developed with experience so I'm expecting it to happen. We are ranked 25th in BB and I suspect the lack of walks is significantly influenced by the lack of power. Pitchers just don't fear our weak hitting lineup nor should they. We are dead last in HR by a wide margin 28th in SLG and 27th in team OPS. This season's plate approach very well may be a result instead of an issue.

Whatever the reasoning may be, it is blatantly obvious to all of us that this team needs to improve offensively or we'll be right back in the same scenario next season.

While they cannot be completely dismissed, statistics have to be taken with at least a small amount of salt:

2023 San Diego Padres have:

• this year’s NL Cy Young
• three 25+ HR hitters
• 2nd-best team ERA in NL
• a closer with a 1.16 ERA
• 3rd-highest offensive fWAR in NL
• 3rd-fewest errors in NL

From: Re-Posted by Jon Heyman via Danny Vietti @ X formerly Twitter..

...and were eliminated from the playoffs.. with very little chance of even a miracle comeback to sneak into October baseball...

 

[macbdog]

While they cannot be completely dismissed, statistics have to be taken with at least a small amount of salt:

2023 San Diego Padres have:

• this year’s NL Cy Young
• three 25+ HR hitters
• 2nd-best team ERA in NL
• a closer with a 1.16 ERA
• 3rd-highest offensive fWAR in NL
• 3rd-fewest errors in NL

From: Re-Posted by Jon Heyman via Danny Vietti @ X formerly Twitter..

...and were eliminated from the playoffs.. with very little chance of even a miracle comeback to sneak into October baseball...

So because the Padres are a shit show that missed the playoffs despite a ton of talent, the Gs are fine having a horrible offense? I'm just not seeing the correlation. All it tells me is this club is really gonna miss Tito.

 

[Gson]

So because the Padres are a shit show that missed the playoffs despite a ton of talent, the Gs are fine having a horrible offense? I'm just not seeing the correlation. All it tells me is this club is really gonna miss Tito.

No... it doesn't mean that.. try another meaning...

 

[KluberSociety]

The way I would read something like that is it doesn't matter how much top talent you have if you have blatant holes that need patching up.

 

[Gson]

The way I would read something like that is it doesn't matter how much top talent you have if you have blatant holes that need patching up.

Agreed...

The Padres as a team didnt gel.. they more or less.. congealed..

They couldn't get out of their own way when it came to momentum.... In a minority of games, they would prevent runs being posted while they would score in bunches or were comfortably ahead about 40 % of the time. In meanwhile, they would suck in the other 60 %..

They were wildly inconsistent.. Good players playing well in short spurts while being so abjectly poor the majority of the time.

Injuries to key or major/leadership players.. hurt more than anything.. This was found in the "run prevention" area as the only SP that made it through the season was Blake Snell.. Every other SP missed anywhere from a fourth of the season to half.. Patchwork pen and ancient starters lead to runs by their opponents..

Couple the inconsistency of the offense with the scattershot staffing of their pitching while playing in arguably one of the toughest divisions/leagues led to early elimination from playoff contention..

Jon Heyman may have it right.. the Padres are going to be a sleeping giant if they can gel..