2022 Cleveland Guardians Regular Season Thread

Out of the Rafters at the Q said:

Yes.

Are you aware that I'm not clamoring for every single one of these moves to be made today?

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I was not.... No timeline was listed..

That said I have doubts Lavastida makes it back to the majors before a September call up..
Even if he begins rehabbing and playing again before the end of July, a bad/ weak hamstring (Lavastida's injury) won't go well with all the squatting and playing behind the plate...

MadThinker88 said:

I was not.... No timeline was listed..

That said I have doubts Lavastida makes it back to the majors before a September call up..
Even if he begins rehabbing and playing again before the end of July, a bad/ weak hamstring (Lavastida's injury) won't go well with all the squatting and playing behind the plate...

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Yeah, I'm not a wackjob.

The first list was players who I feel, ideally, should get a shot this year. I'd be slightly disappointed if they had to wait until camp next year to come up, but with our logjams it might resort to that.

Not many people alive have Kwan’s bat to ball skills.

Brennan is no slouch in that regard though. Sub 15% K rate for his career in the minors, sub 10% swinging strike rate at every level in the minors. That’s someone with above average bat to ball skills in the current climate of professional baseball.

But how many LH hitting OFs with low swing and miss rates, good on-base skills, and low power do you want on the roster? A lot of overlap between Kwan, Brennan, and Palacios.

Straw is too good defensively to take out of the lineup. He needs to get out of the 1 hole long term though. He's an ideal #9 hitter in my opinion.

BimboColesHair said:

The exact feelings I have about the present and future of this 2nd rate MLB franchise.

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100% agree. Granted this franchise is in its 1st year. Still. It’s just like the old one.

BimboColesHair said:

Not many people alive have Kwan’s bat to ball skills.

Brennan is no slouch in that regard though. Sub 15% K rate for his career in the minors, sub 10% swinging strike rate at every level in the minors. That’s someone with above average bat to ball skills in the current climate of professional baseball.

But how many LH hitting OFs with low swing and miss rates, good on-base skills, and low power do you want on the roster? A lot of overlap between Kwan, Brennan, and Palacios.

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If they aren't superhuman like Kwan, and they don't provide power, I'm not seeing the appeal.

Again, still have no idea on prospects, as I mentioned earlier.

Do you think there's any chance the org moves on from Straw? Would Kwan be able to hold down CF, allowing us to stick a bigger bat in the corner OF spot?

I have Valera penciled in as one of our corners long-term. But if the other is open as well, you can fit a logjammed bat into it like Amed or Nolan Jones.

mopete12 said:

It’s not a big deal, but I’m confused by the Arias call-up. I don’t see when he is going to play.

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With those plate numbers? Catcher, obviously.

Just some thoughts on roster moves,

I didn’t get Arias but with 3 NYY games w 2 lefties, they probably wanted the extra righty. They could have done Freeman though but he is not 3rd base guy for Jose DH role so Arias.

With Det, they have all righties inc Tues, so they need lefties which means Arias can go down for Jones/Brennan but no room on 40 for Brennan right now if McCarty needs to stay on 40 for rash of DH (to back up Pilk like this spur of moment DH.

Battenfield is starting to come around. Will be interesting when he is go to guy vs McCarty.

I didn’t get the Kar option for Myers deferral right now as it didn’t have to be now other than AA guys coming up for starter roles but Myers could have gone pen to still try to work things out. But, Kar has 1.169 of service time ... takes 28-30 games in AAA at some point this year to stop a full year ... maybe close unless he is in this Sandlin/Castro roulette wheel of reliever options to keep a guy fresh after going 2+ innings. We don’t want to burn out Clement right?

And for those still worried about Junior for Myers, realize he was in 2nd yr DSL (signed 7/19, 2020 Covid) so had monster yr in 21 but didn’t come over even with all those stats like our other top guys. Move forward to 22, he is .224 BA w 1 HR w Tampa CPX. Doesn’t look like that big of lose anymore.

Edit - Didn’t look it up til after posting but Kar started rehab on June 1 and pitched June 30 as 30th day of rehab. Thus, he had to be optioned July 2nd to have pitched again in AAA. Vargas rehab started June 19th so he has some time plus can go on 2nd assignment due to TJ surgery. But, I assume once Battenfield is good to be 7th starter, McCarty is deferred and Vargas optioned to get his minor league time to avoid full yr accrual.

Out of the Rafters at the Q said:

I don't think Brennan has the bat-to-ball skills that Kwan does. I see a guy with a significantly higher K%, at a more advanced age, at every step of minor league progression.

I think that exceptional bat-to-ball ability is the only reason Kwan is up here and a success story.

I agree that Brennan is likely a better defensive CF than Kwan would be.

I'd love for him to come up, take command of the position and prove me wrong.

Probably 90% of my knowledge/opinion is going to come from the people on this board who actually pay attention. @BimboColesHair @Derek and @AZ_ were a treasure trove of baseball knowledge. The rest I fill in by looking at Fangraphs and prognosticating based on that feeling I get way down in my plums.

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That's reasonable, but not every prospect develops at the same rate or is subject to the same development path. Kwan was drafted a year earlier and is 5 months older so I'm not sure "a more advanced age" is in play here because there's an argument that Brennan should already be in Cleveland.

I doubt you could find a player with Kwan's bat to ball skills and plate discipline. Brennan isn't too far behind him and I suspect that at 6' 200lbs we're just scratching the surface with Brennan. Kwan doesn't have much physicality for the lack of a better description. That's fine by me because I like Kwan just the way he is and he would be my leadoff hitter from here on out.

I feel like we're getting into a comparison of Kwan and Brennan and that's not really the issue at hand here. So is there a fit for Brennan and who does he replace because nobody has ever made a stronger case for promotion than Brennan is currently making. I don't think Kwan ever posted the numbers that Brennan currently is. I didn't look that closely so I might be mistaken.

BimboColesHair said:

Not many people alive have Kwan’s bat to ball skills.

Brennan is no slouch in that regard though. Sub 15% K rate for his career in the minors, sub 10% swinging strike rate at every level in the minors. That’s someone with above average bat to ball skills in the current climate of professional baseball.

But how many LH hitting OFs with low swing and miss rates, good on-base skills, and low power do you want on the roster? A lot of overlap between Kwan, Brennan, and Palacios.

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True. Then defense, speed, arm become the separator.

Palacios comes up short there, so he's the one I'd make available even though I believe in his bat to play given everyday ABs.
Kwan and Brennan can play CF, Brennan might be a ML CF.

But why not keep all 3 through the offseason? Even adding Benson to the mix, that's 8 OF on the 40? That's within reason, isn't it? No need to sign a FA, all from within or trade.

Tondo said:

T.....

But why not keep all 3 through the offseason? Even adding Benson to the mix, that's 8 OF on the 40? That's within reason, isn't it? No need to sign a FA, all from within or trade.

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Agree with this...

CDAV45 said:

That's reasonable, but not every prospect develops at the same rate or is subject to the same development path. Kwan was drafted a year earlier and is 5 months older so I'm not sure "a more advanced age" is in play here because there's an argument that Brennan should already be in Cleveland.

I doubt you could find a player with Kwan's bat to ball skills and plate discipline. Brennan isn't too far behind him and I suspect that at 6' 200lbs we're just scratching the surface with Brennan. Kwan doesn't have much physicality for the lack of a better description. That's fine by me because I like Kwan just the way he is and he would be my leadoff hitter from here on out.

I feel like we're getting into a comparison of Kwan and Brennan and that's not really the issue at hand here. So is there a fit for Brennan and who does he replace because nobody has ever made a stronger case for promotion than Brennan is currently making. I don't think Kwan ever posted the numbers that Brennan currently is. I didn't look that closely so I might be mistaken.

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Kwan had about the same numbers last season as Brennan, that being stated, Kwan forced our FOs hand cause of that and Brennan is doing the same thing. It's hard not to merit adding him to the 40 man roster.

I really think we are going to make a buy move for a player line a Reynolds/France to fill in a need while helping JRam...

sportscoach said:

I really think we are going to make a buy move for a player line a Reynolds/France to fill in a need while helping JRam...

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...doubtful.. fantasy belief at best...

Reynolds is too expensive, so that won't happen..
France is injured and not worth his inflated ask..

A more realistic deal could be in the offing.. but, not these..

Promotion from within is the best path at this time.. the NYY's series, Boston series and Houston series is eye opening w/r to window of contention.. Short series hopes aside.. more is needed..

re kwan (and tho out of nowhere) he hit 12 hrs last season in 300 or so pa's in akron and cols combined - do we - and the fo - consider that a fluke or can he age/mature into 10 or 15 hrs/season at the ml level?