2022 Cleveland Guardians Regular Season Thread

[Wham with the Right Hand]

And there's more from The Athletic with regard to the baseballs themselves. In 2019 there were 715 opposite field home runs. This year teams are on pace to hit 390. It's due to the "humidor effect".

“We’ve done a ton of work on the humidor effect,” one AL exec said. “And one of the things we’ve looked at is the spin of batted balls, because the spin on the baseball has a big impact on how far it goes. … When you’re hitting a home run to the opposite field, it’s impossible to topspin it. You have to backspin it. And when you hit the ball with backspin, it has more humidor effect.”

Most teams expect the overall home-run rate, and the opposite-field home-run rate, to tick up as the weather heats up, based on what they’ve been told by MLB about the humidor effect....

“We have to figure out how to adjust the humidor, based on different weather, and make it more adaptive,” an NL exec said. “We just need more consistency in the ball, month to month, season to season and ballpark to ballpark.”

For the Guardians I believe Franmil Reyes has been hurt most by the fact that balls are not flying as far. He's hit a number of fly balls to right center that were caught on the warning track that probably would have gone out last year. I've seen both Reyes and Josh Naylor (yesterday) crush a ball and stand there watching, obviously thinking it was out, only to have it stay in the park.

And finally, we still have a strikeout problem.

“We can keep talking about all these other ways to solve the (action) problem,” one AL exec said. “But I don’t really know that you’re solving that problem until you address the strikeout problem.”
“But here’s the question no one can answer,” another exec said. “If we want less home runs, we know how we can do that. But if we want less strikeouts, what’s the answer to that?”

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

I'm dealing Bieber by the break if(emphases on if) a team is willing to give a haul for him. I'm calling the Dodgers and asking them if they would like Bieber for Miller, Pages, and Cartaya.

How about the Angels? From The Athletic:

Still, it feels like their time. Time for Mike Trout to finally win a playoff series. Time for Ohtani to work his magic on the October stage. Time for what, potentially, could be a must-see attraction for the sport.

“What they do at the deadline, I think, will determine how far they go,” one rival exec said, “because they’re going to have to almost create a second layer of starting pitching to get through the season. … But they obviously are really talented. There’s a reason that everybody wants to believe that this is the year of the Angels.”

 

[CATS44]

We keep talking about offense offense offense, and how ours is negative this and negative that with a focus on home runs and consistency.

We are scoring more runs per game than Minnesota.

In 42 games we've scored three runs or less 21 times. In 47 games the Twins have scored three runs or less 26 times.

And yet, they lead the division.

Pitching...theirs has been better, but ours will catch up.

Not to mention the difference in the schedules. Minnesota has had the easiest schedule in the AL so far.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

We keep talking about offense offense offense, and how ours is negative this and negative that with a focus on home runs and consistency.

We are scoring more runs per game than Minnesota.

In 42 games we've scored three runs or less 21 times. In 47 games the Twins have scored three runs or less 26 times.

And yet, they lead the division.

Pitching...theirs has been better, but ours will catch up.

Not to mention the difference in the schedules. Minnesota has had the easiest schedule in the AL so far.

KC and Detroit are both 16-29 and we have 30 games left against them. Also 13 games against Baltimore, Texas, and Oakland.

After the All-Star break the Twins play the Angels 6 times, the Dodgers twice, the Padres 3 times, Toronto 4, Houston 3, the Giants 3, and the Yankees 4. Pretty brutal.

 

[sportscoach]

Yu Chang has been traded too....

The Pirates...

 

[PIP]

Yu Chang has been traded too....

The Pirates...

Did he too get traded for 1.00 ?

 

[Benway]

Did he too get traded for 1.00 ?

I'd not take a penny less than $5.

(With the injury to Ben Gamel, we pretty much have them over a barrel.)

 

[PIP]

I'd not take a penny less than $5.

(With the injury to Ben Gamel, we pretty much have them over a barrel.)

I dunno, dude— they really bent us over for Brian Giles….

Ricardo Rincon’s juice was not worth that squeeze….

 

[CDAV45]

Meanwhile, as we gripe about our pitching for some unknown reason, we lost again today 2-1. Yeah, pitching is the problem.

 

[Ohio]

I dunno, dude— they really bent us over for Brian Giles….

Ricardo Rincon’s juice was not worth that squeeze….

 

[Benway]

I dunno, dude— they really bent us over for Brian Giles….

Ricardo Rincon’s juice was not worth that squeeze….

I have actually addressed that trade personally with Mike Hargrove.

He cast a downward glance. I did not pursue.

I had the feeling that Mike did not like Brian very much.

 

[Benway]

I have actually addressed that trade personally with Mike Hargrove.

He cast a downward glance. I did not pursue.

I had the feeling that Mike did not like Brian very much.

edit: Ricky Rincon was a left-handed stiff. Terrible trade, and Hart never forgave him for it.

 

[CDAV45]

We only need one of Palacios, Kwan, and Mercado. Some would say Kwan, but I like Palacios. Edited to say that after looking further at his performance Alex Call needs to replace Mercado yesterday. In 112 AB Call is slashing 277/390/491/881 with 18 BB and 26 SO. That's a 23% SO rate and a 16% walk rate. He can play all 3 OF positions well and has some power. He has 5 HR and 7 2B. Over the course of 600 AB that's 25 HR and 37 2B. Clearly, it's very unlikely that all of that success will translate, but if he could hit .250-.260 and maintain his power then we have another corner OFer. What better time to find out? He's 27 so it's now or never for him in this organization.

We need to rid ourselves of Amed and Hedges.

We need to trade a starter or 2 and promote whoever deserves it. It's time to start seeing what guys like Pilkington and Battenfield can do with steady ML outings before they get overran by guys like Espino, Williams, Morris, Bibee and maybe even Gaddis. We have Morgan as well who is deserving of more innings.

Be nice if Franmil finished the first half strong. If he did, I wouldn't be opposed to moving him at the deadline either. I'd like to replace him with a guy that could play a little corner OF and 1B so that Naylor can get off his leg more frequently by DHing.

Other than that, this team is looking like it's going to be a force as soon as next season. The future is certainly bright.

 

[petes999]

We need to trade a starter or 2 and promote whoever deserves it. It's time to start seeing what guys like Pilkington and Battenfield can do with steady ML outings before they get overran by guys like Espino, Williams, Morris, Bibee and maybe even Gaddis. We have Morgan as well who is deserving of more innings.

I get what you are saying but I just don't think with Guardian way of pitching that they will trade for an AAA/MLB level pitcher who is about ready to make the jump. I guess that they tried with Myers but that was just a flyer and I think people saw him as a reliever anyways. If you look at AAA stats, he had 12 games at 58 innings and 4 quality starts. Thus, to be a starter, he had a lot more time at AAA to get extended due to COVID and now lockout.

We all wanted to see that flyer trade of Myers, Battenfield or Pilk pay off ASAP, like a Kluber trade. But, sorry guys, no sane GM is going to trade a stud pitcher for a rental as in Luplow, Cesar or JC (DSL guy). These guys needed work. Pilk being a AAA 6th guy is the best that we could have expected so soon. Heck, Kluber had 7/27/21 starts in 2010/11/12 for us to learn our way of pitching to take an AA decent prospect to next level. Give these guys a little time to acclimate and adjust especially Myers and Pilk who had no real ST (and hands off for first month or two in system before our coaches tinker before we slot them as our 4th and 5th starter. I rather see Morgan sent down to be extended first.

As for Battenfield, remember what BHC said ... with control issues that his stuff says something as to how well it compensates for control issues (paraphrase). We are wowed by his numbers last year but his K to BB dropped from high A to AA with each jump (10:1 at A+ to 7:1 at AA to 5:1 with us). Still good but he was sitting about 67% strikes to balls all season (few high 50s with us though). This year, it is sitting at 63%. It is amazing, but those 4% points from mid-60 to low-60, is all the difference in a good K/BB and bad numbers. I am assuming the Tribe is adjusting Battenfield and Myers because there is a good K/BB that you can get away with at lower levels and being accurate in exact location is another thing. Think of Castro and knowing where ball is going. I was laughing at my daughters coach as he was trying to get our catcher to set up low and away (getting her to go more off plate -- and finally did after few frantic seconds of him actually yelling more ... more was he tapped his outside leg). Yet, the pitcher threw one up and over middle of plate for a strike (swing and miss). K/BB at lower level can be misleading if the ball totally misses the intended location.

Guardians have their way of doing things ... but when was the last pitcher we traded for to be in bigs? Usually, just relievers like Rincon and Miller. Few flyers like Santos and Castro and Rodgers ... But, when was last starter seriously other than possible FA 5th guy to fill out rotation in non-competitive year?

 

[The Oi]

Jesus. I didn’t realize how good Giles was until just now.

Guy had a ton of power and was an OBP machine. Stayed effective late into his career too.