2022 Cleveland Guardians Regular Season Thread

[DCTribefan]

Crying over Alex Call is the worst look this board has ever shown.

Alex. Call.

 

[DCTribefan]

Old photo.

New celebration photo courtesy of editing

 

[BMAN]

Interesting observation. Tito clearly not on the same page with all his vets; kind of explains his effusive, almost bizarre praise for his boy/mole/clubhouse commissar Bryan Shaw.

Franmil probably reached his boiling point after the send down, I'm assuming. The team waited for Bauer to boil over first, too. Team seems to struggle with the hotheaded types; might even explain why Straw still openly pounds the drum for his old team, too. Have to wonder if Tito isn't running out his welcome like he did in Boston.

Man what.

 

[avs2000]

I don't think it's our business. Sometimes private things should stay private.

If I had to guess, it's probably something where our organization upset Reyes. I feel like this happens occasionally, but we're really good at keeping things under wraps and giving off a certain appearance to the public.

Everyone thinks Tito is a perfect manager of people. But situations like Bauer, Brantley and Mickey Calloway certainly show that isnt always the case.

No one is perfect.

 

[avs2000]

Shitting on Jose, Kluber and Santana have to be up there.

All the pandemonium over Lindor being traded.. .fans wringed their hands for what, 3 years before he got moved? And even if you ignore the money (which you shouldn't), it looks like we might end up ahead in the deal.

Wait 4-5 years from now as lindor naturally declines and still is being paid 33 mil

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

I think a lot of it has to do with wanting to open up the DH spot to give guys like JRam, Gimenez, Rosario, and especially Naylor a day off while keeping their bat in the lineup.

It also opens up a spot on the 40-man and cuts payroll.

Franmil provided much needed power but with guys like Benson, Gonzalez, and Jones arriving they don't need a power hitter than can't play in the field and is very streaky at the plate.

The trend in baseball seems to be to use the DH position as a revolving spot to give players a day off their feet without losing their bat. I could see Tyler Freeman playing third, second, and short to give Hosey, Amed, and Gimenez a DH day each week. The other days Naylor can DH.

 

[buzzdog]

It’s nice if none of those LH bats can handle LH pitching.

Kwan can. Has proven so at every level as a player too. A debut season hitting .289/.330 against same handed pitching for a LHH should erase any idea of platooning him moving forward.

Valera has a higher OPS vs LHP this season in AA than he does vs RHP. He’s not going to be brought up and debut as a platoon player.

Palacios has hit LHP at every level.

Brennan, who should be added to the 40 this winter, has hit LHP at every level.

Sure, they’re LH heavy, but they have multiple lefties who can handle LHP. If they can hit LHP who cares which side they swing the bat from?

It seems like Tito might care. He likes to go lefty/righty and visa-versa as much as the roster will allow. I don't agree with that thinking and would like to see him rely on the results you're describing, and give the young LH batters a chance to see how they fare against LH pitching at this level.

 

[kidduck]

FWIW, during the pregame interview Francona was very complimentary of Rosario.
Hammy asked Tito if Rosario was becoming a glue guy/team leader and Francona
said that was an understatement. Raved about his hustle and attitude. Also mentioned
his bond with Jose.

 

[kidduck]

TF on Reyes:

“It’s difficult when you know a guy can get hot and carry a team,” said manager Terry Francona when asked to evaluate Reyes’ season. “His swing and miss comes with the territory. But he wasn’t getting to the fastball and he was hitting the hanging breaking ball for a single and an occasional home run. He just wasn’t getting to pitches that he used to.”



When asked if the Guardians ever talked about letting the 270-pound Reyes play his way out of his slump so he could produce like he had over his last two full seasons (2020 and 2021), Francona said, “I would say yes, but there is an exception. Sometimes when you see different like body-wise. You see things different and you’re not sure he’s going to do it. So there is some hesitancy there when you see things like that.”

 

[Tondo]

Oh I’m sure.

But complaining about a guy who is posting his first .800+ OPS season in the minors since rookie ball at the age of 27 1200 PAs into the upper levels and acting like he is a make or break to the MLB team and a must keep player because he hits RH is #1 for me.

Alex Call and his career .754 minor league OPS was totally going to be better than Benson (career .793 OPS), Miller (career .818 OPS), and Jones (career .847 OPS).

Alex Call, at the same age as those guys are now, was busy slashing .205/.266/.321 in AA.

You can literally find a RH platoon bat for free at any given point of a season, it’s not that big of a deal. Let the kids spin, time to figure out what they have with their actual prospects, not their minor league depth like Call.

Cmon Man, ad hominem aside (really necessary?), if that's the boards worst, defending a guy who got the raw end of the stick, then this place is pretty good.

You citing career minors OPS is disingenuous for two reasons.

1.You know better that Call has been a completely different bat since 2021 (or maybe 2020), and yes, it's a testament to the org's dev department or Betances or whoever was the whisperer here.

2. He's been still better vs LHP than all the guys you mentioned.

Look, I already said I'll take your word for it as far as keeper goes, but that wasn't my point. We're currently contending and did shit to improve at the deadline so we need every little internal edge we can get. If you want to sell me that playing Benson over Call helps us win 2023 and beyond, I might even agree, but your "spin the actual prospects" is a fancy way of saying "who cares about this season anyway".

And if you can find RH platoon bats in every dumpster, how come we're looking for one regularly. It's been the same with 1B. It's true that those are lower value niches, granted, but you have to actually have one or invest some playing time to get some results there too, otherwise you end up with a bunch of LH OF or MIF playing 1B, because you hoarde too many of those

 

[kidduck]

Reyes stats:

Reyes vs. breaking balls in 2021: .219 average, .521 slugging percentage, 43.6% whiff rate
• Reyes vs. breaking balls in 2022: .162 average, .242 slugging percentage, 55.1% whiff rate

His chase rate increased, but his contact rate when chasing dropped drastically.

• 2021 chase rate: 25.8 percent
• 2022 chase rate: 29.4 percent

• 2021 chase contact rate: 49.3 percent
• 2022 chase contact rate: 35.7 percent

Reyes’ 37.1 percent strikeout rate ranks second worst in the majors, ahead of only Joey Gallo, whom the Yankees dispatched out of the Bronx earlier this week. Reyes’ .196 expected batting average (based on the quality of his contact) ranks ahead of only Gallo, Martín Maldonado, Max Muncy and Mike Moustakas.

 

[kidduck]

With the release of Reyes, all five players obtained in the Trevor Bauer trade are no
longer with the Cleveland organization.

 

[buzzdog]

With the release of Reyes, all five players obtained in the Trevor Bauer trade are no
longer with the Cleveland organization.

When you look at the big picture I'll still say we came out better off having made the trade.

Why, you might ask?

Because I just had a thought about what Cleveland sports would be like if we had both the Watson saga and the Trevor Bauer situation in place at the same time, and it made me shudder.

 

[Chris]

First win ive seen in person in a decade

 

[xmasbuck]

When you look at the big picture I'll still say we came out better off having made the trade.

Why, you might ask?

Because I just had a thought about what Cleveland sports would be like if we had both the Watson saga and the Trevor Bauer situation in place at the same time, and it made me shudder.

bauer wasnt gonna be here after 2020 anyway so he and watson would not have been on cleveland teams at the same time - your spin falls flat