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2023 Guardians Offseason Thread!

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How Do You Feel About the 2022 Season?

  • Ended too soon!

    Votes: 8 8.9%

  • Great job! The Boys did good!

    Votes: 45 50.0%

  • Good start and promising future

    Votes: 26 28.9%

  • Lousy Bums choked!

    Votes: 1 1.1%

  • Meh, regression coming

    Votes: 3 3.3%

  • Gonna go all the way next year!

    Votes: 2 2.2%

  • Herbert Perry

    Votes: 5 5.6%
  • Total voters
    90
sportscoach said:
You are really the only one (outside of Dicky) who is so adamant about Straw not starting...
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That's because I want to win a WS. We don't have a lot of power in this lineup when compared to the other playoff teams, and that's fine. If we want to attempt to win by smacking the ball around and running the bases then fine, but you better have an entire lineup capable of that and even then your chances are slim. You cannot have 2 blackholes in a lineup constructed like that. Clearly they want to and are addressing that issue at C. The issue in CF needs addressed as well. I'm not even suggesting get rid of Straw. All I'm saying is use his strengths(speed and defense) while avoiding his weakness(hitting).
 
CATS44 said:
From a Pluto column Nov 19th:

The front office and coaching staff are in baseball love with Brennan.

They believe he is excellent in left and right field, okay in center.

From a Morning Journal column July 25th, 2021:

Quoting a MLB scout....

Would project out more as a corner outfielder.

*********

If a prospect projects more as a corner OF, he is not a CF.

I pay close attention to what Bimbo says, but he admits that he stresses the positives when discussing prospects over the negative. If a prospect is only the fourth best defensive CF prospect in an org, he is not a MLB CF...and thats fourth without counting Straw and Kwan, and at that time Zimmer.

There is a vast difference between being able to play a position and actually being good at it. You would think we've seen enough players able to play CF without being good at it.

We've had a bunch of players capable of playing CF who could hit better than Straw. Anybody want any of them back?

Naquin
Harold Ramirez
Gamel
Luplow
Johnson
DeShields
Greg Allen

*********

Fans may not like the lack of offense from Straw...and sniff at the value of his GG defense, but the idea is to win games, and we won 96 games last year with Straw manning most of them in CF.

I want to win games, and I dont care if we do it with offense or with pitching and defense...but in the present concept of this org we do it with the latter, and have four GGs to prove that it works.

Do we need more offense? Yep. But not at the cost of the defense that carries this team. Find it somewhere else.

Nobody in this org, and few in all of MLB, can come close to providing Straws defense in CF.

Every play that he made that had us all going WOW was worth a double. Add those in to his offensive totals.
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I want anything but this in the outfield:
 

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The front office and coaching staff are in baseball love with Brennan.

Pluto also banged the drum for the fo and coaching staff's love for scott moss - it's a little bit of these guys grading their own work
 
A lot of people are talking about regression years for certain guys, I actually think Straw is a good candidate for a bounce back year.

He was hitting behind Hedges and Maile a ton and that doesn’t help anyone. I realize we haven’t upgraded C yet but I’m pretty sure Bo will at least hit a bit better than they were and I’m also pretty sure we are still absolutely adding someone to the position
 
Soar said:
A lot of people are talking about regression years for certain guys, I actually think Straw is a good candidate for a bounce back year.

He was hitting behind Hedges and Maile a ton and that doesn’t help anyone. I realize we haven’t upgraded C yet but I’m pretty sure Bo will at least hit a bit better than they were and I’m also pretty sure we are still absolutely adding someone to the position
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agree with this...

it was pointed out that from the august debacle, Straw stopped watching pitches earlier in the count and starting swinging at them.. effectively too.. While is a SSS, it's a start...
 
If Straw can return to his 2021 offensive form, that's fine with me. I don't think that's too big a stretch.
If he can work this offseason to increase his power, even slightly, that would be good too.

But I just LOVE watching him in centerfield. He is a savant.
He steals a double almost every game.
His defensive talent is very rare. Haven't had one of those since Omar.
 
A silly little comment about Straw's extension sure fired some of you up lol.

1. Unless unexpectedly traded, Straw is our 9 hole CFer starter most days.
2. Offense ineptitude will not be tolerated nearly as long in 2023. Straw will need to keep his OBP consistently above 300 to keep the role of starter IMO.
3. If Straw maintains an OBP around/north of 320 - that is acceptable and it will be hard to bench him... BUT.
4. Brennan or even Benson (Benson might be GG in CF himself) will have an opportunity to knock Myles out of CF. This could be one of those "good" problems to have.
5. Worst case scenario for Straw - his bat doesn't bounce back/reach consistent OBP and he moves into a 4th OFer role who sees A LOT of time as a pinch runner/defensive replacement. This would also likely mean one of the Willie Bs have seized their opportunity and are blossoming into a better than average player in CF.
 
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this has no basis in measurable fact but I think a lot of Straw’s issues last year were mental. First the stress and pressing when he was underachieving as the lead off hitter. Then the feeling of shame and stress of not turning things around once in the 9 hole. His September was certainly the outlier of his season, so I don’t expect that, but I think he can be more of a .240-.250 hitter. And if not, if he’s as bad offensively as he was for much of last year, I agree that the hook will be quicker and that guys like Brennan or Bensom will get a shot to establish and hold a spot in CF
 
Can't believe you're hating so much about Straw hitting 9th and giving us GG defense at a premium position. I'd argue Rosario hitting 2nd every day is the much bigger issue. And he's at best average at a premium position

Straw's career: 247/322/313, wRc+ 81
Amed's career vs RHP: 264/296/379, wRc+ 84

This guy is getting 75% of his ABs between Kwan and Jose with that crap of performance. And don't get me started on his GIDP tendencies. His net BA was around 250 if you factor in the extra outs he "produces". He walked 25 times last season and GIDP 19 times. If there was a ratio stat for this, Amed would be MLB's worst. Myles Straw walked 54 times and GIDP just 4 times. That's why his 2022 OBP was just 21 points lower than Rosario's, despite a 65 point gap in BABIP, and again that's without accounting for the net 15 extra outs he produced compared to Straw.

But yeah, let's hate Straw, he's the problem, lol
 
One more thing with Straw - he has a good eye at the plate no doubt. At some point between taking pitches and his uhh "ability to hit" pitchers realized they could throw FB's anywhere in the strike zone (right down the middle) and he still wasn't swinging or he was grounding out or another lazy fly to right...

The walks dried up... His entire offensive profile nosedived.

Then and as noted by others, he began to "attack" early in the count. Those early strikes that were a given just a mere fortnight ago were now getting swung at as hard as Myles could muster. Myles realized there was one way out of this hole, hit the ball - hit the ball HARD.

He got way to complacent and that will destroy someone with his profile... I expect him to be more aggressive at the plate in 2023, also he should work on BUNTING this off-season.
 
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Didn't he lay down a good bunt in the postseason, or late in the season? He can do it, and should also do it more often. Same with steals. He was 21 for 22, he was also very hesitant on the bases, so I agree it was mental in parts during the season.

But if you look at his monthly splits, most of it was BABIP driven. When he struggled in August, his BABIP was barely over 10. July and September it was 300+ and his slash was fine.

Straw is an absolutely fine no 9 hitter, especially with Kwan coming up right behind him. I just hope Bell or Jose hit 2nd next season. Rosario can bat 2nd vs LHP, no problem, but move him to the bottom of the order vs RHP.
 
Tondo said:
This guy is getting 75% of his ABs between Kwan and Jose with that crap of performance. And don't get me started on his GIDP tendencies. His net BA was around 250 if you factor in the extra outs he "produces". He walked 25 times last season and GIDP 19 times. If there was a ratio stat for this, Amed would be MLB's worst. Myles Straw walked 54 times and GIDP just 4 times. That's why his 2022 OBP was just 21 points lower than Rosario's, despite a 65 point gap in BABIP, and again that's without accounting for the net 15 extra outs he produced compared to Straw.

But yeah, let's hate Straw, he's the problem, lol
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To be fair, Straw hit A LOT of double play balls.. Grounders that would be GIDP for anyone without some decent wheels. Also some of the double play grounders weren't DPs due to how weakly they were hit, which isn't exactly an endorsement.

Can't recall how many times I saw him beat the throw to 1st on a fielders choice... If you want to look up how many FCs he hit into that might be a little more telling.

As for the bunt I do seem to remember one, against TB? But there were a few occasions I wish he had gone that route but instead swung away. Especially late in the season.
 
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