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2024 Guardians Regular Season Thread

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Kwan explains why Hedges has a spot on the roster.

“He’ll always be saying the stupidest thing in the world,” Kwan said, “so other people can say stupid things and it’s like, ‘Well, it wasn’t as dumb as what he said.’ People are allowed to blossom and feel safe and feel like a part of something.”

As long as he keeps walking around saying stupid things his job is safe.

Actually I fulfilled the same role at my high school. Our morale was tremendous and everybody felt very safe.
 
Josh Naylor has a 187 wRc+ and none of it is any luck. His xwOBA matches his wOBA and BABIP is a sustainable 302 (296 career).

The "worst" regular hitter is Rocchio, who still has a playable 82 wRc+, especially with BABIP (245) and xwOBA (303) pointing at positive regression looming.
I'd consider a 90ish wRc+ season from him a huge success.

Vogt can fill out a competitive lineup every game. And all of that with Jose being in a slump with some bad luck mixed in. But Jose being Jose, he still found ways to be productive with 18 RBIs.
 
Wham with the Right Hand said:
Kwan explains why Hedges has a spot on the roster.

“He’ll always be saying the stupidest thing in the world,” Kwan said, “so other people can say stupid things and it’s like, ‘Well, it wasn’t as dumb as what he said.’ People are allowed to blossom and feel safe and feel like a part of something.”

As long as he keeps walking around saying stupid things his job is safe.

Actually I fulfilled the same role at my high school. Our morale was tremendous and everybody felt very safe.
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So KFlash_12 has really been Austin Hedges the whole time?
 
The Guardians rank second in the league in percentage of base runners who ultimately score. They rank first in reaching on errors.

They've played 14 of 22 games against the A's, White Sox, and Red Sox, who Fangraphs ranks 25th, 22nd, and 28th in fielding. They won't continue to rank first in reaching on errors. The Royals, Tigers, and Twins rank 4th, 6th, and 8th in fielding and we have 37 games left against those teams.

The Guardians should continue to rank high in percentage of runners who score, although they might not continue to hit .304 with runners on. They have good baserunning (10th according to Fangraphs) and the third lowest strikeout percentage with runners on, so when runners are on base they put the ball in play, creating opportunities.

They are tied for 3rd in sacrifice flies, so they are doing a good job of getting the runner in from 3rd with less than two out. This ties in directly with having the third lowest K-rate with runners on base. Gimenez is the perfect example of this - shortening his swing with two strikes and punching a base hit to drive in a run, often to left or center field. He's 10-for-19 with RISP.
 
Tondo said:
The "worst" regular hitter is Rocchio, who still has a playable 82 wRc+, especially with BABIP (245) and xwOBA (303) pointing at positive regression looming. I'd consider a 90ish wRc+ season from him a huge success.
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Rocchio is a wierd case, IMO. He's hitting .203 with no home runs and 3 RBI's, his hard hit percentage is 28% which means he hits medium or soft 72% of the time, and his ground ball percentage is 49%.

The one skill he seems to have is pulling low breaking balls down the left or right field lines. Of his 13 hits, 7 are doubles. He has 7 doubles in 64 at-bats, which would project to 63 doubles in 576 at-bats if he played every day. As a point of reference, Jose Ramirez had 36 last year and 44 the year before. His career high is 56.

Doubles from a #9 hitter are valuable because if anybody is on base it drives in a run, and if not we have Kwan and Gimenez coming up with a man on second.

Rocchio is at his best with nobody on base; he's hitting .265/.783 with an on-base percentage of .342. Those are very acceptable numbers, and great numbers for a #9 hitter.

But with runners on he wilts under the pressure, hitting .133. With runners on and two out he's 1-for-11 with one walk. He's only 23 so hopefully with more experience he'll learn to relax with runners on base and wait for his pitch. Pitchers know that Kwan, Gimenez, and Jose are up next so they will give him pitches to hit with runners on, especially with two out.

He's also been bad hitting right-handed, going 2-for-18 with one walk. Both hits were doubles, of course. If I were Vogt I would start Arias at short against LHP's; he's 6-for-11!

So hitting left-handed with nobody on base he's been very good. He's hitting a double every 9 at-bats against RHP's. In all other situations he's been awful. He also needs to get better at bunting. If he comes up late in a tie game with a runner on first or second and nobody out he needs to be able to move the runner with the top of the order coming up behind him.
 
Wham with the Right Hand said:
Rocchio is a wierd case, IMO. He's hitting .203 with no home runs and 3 RBI's, his hard hit percentage is 28% which means he hits medium or soft 72% of the time, and his ground ball percentage is 49%.

The one skill he seems to have is pulling low breaking balls down the left or right field lines. Of his 13 hits, 7 are doubles. He has 7 doubles in 64 at-bats, which would project to 63 doubles in 576 at-bats if he played every day. As a point of reference, Jose Ramirez had 36 last year and 44 the year before. His career high is 56.

Doubles from a #9 hitter are valuable because if anybody is on base it drives in a run, and if not we have Kwan and Gimenez coming up with a man on second.

Rocchio is at his best with nobody on base; he's hitting .265/.783 with an on-base percentage of .342. Those are very acceptable numbers, and great numbers for a #9 hitter.

But with runners on he wilts under the pressure, hitting .133. With runners on and two out he's 1-for-11 with one walk. He's only 23 so hopefully with more experience he'll learn to relax with runners on base and wait for his pitch. Pitchers know that Kwan, Gimenez, and Jose are up next so they will give him pitches to hit with runners on, especially with two out.

He's also been bad hitting right-handed, going 2-for-18 with one walk. Both hits were doubles, of course. If I were Vogt I would start Arias at short against LHP's; he's 6-for-11!

So hitting left-handed with nobody on base he's been very good. He's hitting a double every 9 at-bats against RHP's. In all other situations he's been awful. He also needs to get better at bunting. If he comes up late in a tie game with a runner on first or second and nobody out he needs to be able to move the runner with the top of the order coming up behind him.
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I prefer our 9 best hitters, rather then people trying to squint and see positives "as a 9th batter" in a poor hitter.

I don't think Rocchio is good enough with the bat or in the field to be one of those top 9 guys.

If we're going to paint our #9 hole hitter in the most favorable light possible, it sounds like the same arguments people used to make for Drew Stubbs or Myles Straw. At the end of the day, they just aren't good enough and should be moved on from.
 
jmilo said:
I prefer our 9 best hitters, rather then people trying to squint and see positives "as a 9th batter" in a poor hitter.

I don't think Rocchio is good enough with the bat or in the field to be one of those top 9 guys.

If we're going to paint our #9 hole hitter in the most favorable light possible, it sounds like the same arguments people used to make for Drew Stubbs or Myles Straw. At the end of the day, they just aren't good enough and should be moved on from.
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Uh oh, prepare yourself.
 
Alabuckeye said:
For a “National media“ view on our Tribe of Guardians, here’s a taste. Generally, imo an ignorant take, as he has no broader understanding of the team….

www.cbssports.com

MLB Power Rankings: Braves back at No. 1 as Orioles, Phillies surge, plus are the Guardians for real?

The Braves took the top spot back this week from the Yankees
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com
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Not sold on his justification, but I have no issue with having us at #5. In fact, that's a bit of a shock.

I haven't looked The Athletic but I'd imagine they got us in the #12-15 range.

I don't mind writers having a take going into the season, and slowly adjusting to reality. I actually appreciate them standing by their take and not just ping-ponging teams based on their record because of well.. their record. Otherwise, why bother with a power ranking? Just look at the standings!
 
Wham with the Right Hand said:
That's all good, bushwick, but we've also played the easiest schedule in the majors so far.

MLB Strength of Schedule Rankings & Ratings

MLB Strength of Schedule Rankings & Ratings from TeamRankings.com, your source for baseball computer power rankings.
www.teamrankings.com www.teamrankings.com
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and we also got a west coast trip out of the way, that counts as well.
Maybe its the easiest schedule because we beat all of those teams

We played a west coast trip. We played 4 games in Fenway which is never easy. We had a series with the Yankees that easily we could have taken 2 of 3 instead of the other way around.

Not worried about "the easiest schedule" thing.
 
Tondo said:
Josh Naylor has a 187 wRc+ and none of it is any luck. His xwOBA matches his wOBA and BABIP is a sustainable 302 (296 career).

The "worst" regular hitter is Rocchio, who still has a playable 82 wRc+, especially with BABIP (245) and xwOBA (303) pointing at positive regression looming.
I'd consider a 90ish wRc+ season from him a huge success.

Vogt can fill out a competitive lineup every game. And all of that with Jose being in a slump with some bad luck mixed in. But Jose being Jose, he still found ways to be productive with 18 RBIs.
Click to expand...

I think Jose is as much bad luck as anything. He really has some hard hit balls get caught. I have 99 problems, but Jose is not one of them, lol
 
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