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2022 Season | Series #36 | Guardians @ Jays | Aug. 12-14, 2022

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OK, so they replaced Karinchak with Battenfield for the Toronto series. I'm sure Peyton will be going back to Columbus, but why not just roster him as opposed to Curry? I'm not suggesting they're wrong in doing so by any means. I'm just genuinely curious as to why. Regardless, I'm excited to see the talented prospects given opportunities and I'll be watching closely.

Well, the easy answer is that Gaddis and Curry are ahead in the 40 roster pecking order, simple as that. They've made the decision to roster those two because they would have done it this winter anyway. Battenfield was/is in a similar spot, they've taken a look at him in Toronto, but (for whatever reason) he hasn't gotten the stamp of approval yet. This tells me that our FO isn't 100% sure he should be on the 40 over what they currently have/need to protect. IOW, Battenfield is currently seen as a roster bubble guy.
 
I thought Kwan started off well, and he’s been good recently, but he slumped in May/June?
kwan's slump was a bit shorter.. it was a Tuesday game... there might have been another one on thursday of the same week...
 
Well, the easy answer is that Gaddis and Curry are ahead in the 40 roster pecking order, simple as that. They've made the decision to roster those two because they would have done it this winter anyway. Battenfield was/is in a similar spot, they've taken a look at him in Toronto, but (for whatever reason) he hasn't gotten the stamp of approval yet. This tells me that our FO isn't 100% sure he should be on the 40 over what they currently have/need to protect. IOW, Battenfield is currently seen as a roster bubble guy.
While status on the position on the forty man roster certainly could be the principle reason Battenfield was given a three day vacation in Canada... it could be a bit simpler... Battenfield would have been a day early, right on and, possibly, a day late of his normal start date... If a blow out (either direction) was in process, then Battenfield could have filled the role of a J.I.C... The most important part of Battenfield's participation was he could carry the "real players'" bags and fetch the free soda and get the morning coffee order, on time.. and hot.. really hot..

...the life of an MLB rookie... being exposed to the big leagues (and per diem big league meal money) is a really big deal for these guys.. really big !!
 
Nobody said this team would win the division in Spring. That's the beauty of it..

Paper is paper and games aren't played on paper. Whitesox were the sexy pick in the central. Twins spent the boatload on a few guys to compete. Guardians stayed the course, most fans didn't like it, even CATS. Don't let him fool you. Guy wanted BATS. He wasn't sold on this team being complete as it's been. Not many was. There was literally zero expectations, and that's the glory of baseball. Such a great sport when your team wins.

It was always pinned as a rebuild year. Depleting injuries opened the door to Cleveland conquering a division with the youth movement, and now it's looking like it's Cleveland's to lose. We get to see how they handle the pressure of building a lead going forward and whatever happens, happens.

Yeah, I'm not fully understanding the poo-pooing over the offense or over the division as a whole.

The Twins, Royals, and Tigers pitching staffs did little to nothing to guarantee improvement this offseason and are relying on growth from younger and less experienced internal options who struggled last season, which according to this board and how it is treating Cleveland's offensive prospects as a team for the 2022 season they have no shot at improving this season.

If Eduardo Rodriguez, Chris Archer, Zack Grienke, and Sonny Gray are the "big adds" to the division from a SP aspect that saw Rodon, Berrios, Boyd, Duffy, and even Mike Minor leave in the recent past then the SP quality has gotten considerably worse in division on paper.

And that list highlights another aspect of the pitching within the division...almost all of the LH starting pitching left the division. Right now there are only 4 LH starters projected to be in the division at the start of the season; Keuchel, Rodriguez, Skubal, and Bubic. Last year there were 8. Team had a decent year vs LHP last year, but for an organization that traditionally leans heavy on LH hitters that is not a typical outcome year-to-year. Less LHPs in division the better for a lineup that is projecting to be LH heavy with it's unproven guys like Gimenez, Bradley, Naylor, and potentially Kwan.

I don't think Minnesota's lineup got better than last year by replacing Cruz, Donaldson, and Garver with Correa, Urshela, and Sanchez. Their season relies 100% on Buxton staying healthy, which has yet to happen at any point in his career.

KCs only add to their lineup is Bobby Witt Jr. Terrific prospect, but as seen with Kelenic last season, prospects are a crap shoot year 1. That's also a team starting to get long in the tooth with Salvy, Carlos, and Merrifield playing a predominant role in their total offensive production.

Detroit is the only team on paper in division I think is noticeably better than last season offensively. If they get anything from Torkelson and Greene plus the addition of Baez over Goodrum is a sizeable improvement. But that is the team that will lead the majors in Ks this year, calling that right now. That will make the group as a whole very hit or miss, which caps them.

And I will keep harping this. July 1st is when Straw played his 1st game in Cleveland, Franmil came back from a lengthy IL stint, and the offense was for the most part exactly what we are about to head into the 2022 season with (save for Naylor and his injury). From that day forward they had a league average offense while getting below replacement level production offensively from C, LF, RF, and 2B. Unless you think a potential Rosario/Kwan platoon in LF doesn't pan out, Naylor doesn't get better at the plate, Chang doesn't carry over any of his production from the end of last season and ST so far into the regular season, Miller doesn't get better at the plate, and Gimenez doesn't get any better at the plate then it is hard to imagine them not being able to replicate that fairly lengthy stretch and be an average offense in 2022.

The big concern about the offense, for me, isn't the hit or miss aspect of almost half the lineup. They had that same exact concern last year and still put up fairly average offensive numbers for the entire season as a team. The concern is any of the top 4 hitters getting hurt for any significant length of time. Straw, Rosario, Josey, Franmil...they need all of those guys to play 140, 150+ games. If one of them misses 2 months, like Franmil last season, they're in trouble. If 2 are out at the same time? Yikes.

That is where the lack of investment in improving the offense as a whole hurts. Playing with razor thin margins over 162 games is a dangerous game. They did that with the rotation last year and it bit them in the ass.

Off-season take is still pretty accurate, minus a few small details here and there and Franmil which literally no one would have predicted.

Minnesota’s offense didn’t get noticeably better. .737 OPS as a team last year, .736 OPS as a team this year.

Byron Buxton, to no one’s surprise, is hurt yet again and can barely play.

Minnesota, Detroit, and Kansas City didn’t see any significant improvements from their pitching. 95, 98, and 87 team ERA+ this season, vs 89, 102, and 98 team ERA+ last season. So from below average compared to league wide production to…below average.

I was way off on Detroit leading baseball in strikeouts offensively. They’re 4th worst. What a miss.

Think the overreaction to what the division did this winter/spring is still that. An overreaction.

Meanwhile, the team that is the best in the division at player development has developed its players and that average to above average offense we saw for the last 2.5 months of the season last year has carried over to this season and players like Naylor and Gimenez have taken the next step.

Unfortunately, same as it’s always been after a lackluster off-season or poor stretch of play, a good part of this board likes to disregard any positive take as pure homerism. Same conversations I had with people back in 2014/15 here on the impending collapse of the Tigers and Royals and the Guardians farm system developing to a point where it will own the division while they were losing the season series vs Detroit and KC by a wide margin.

7/8 years later and those 2 teams have been the 2 cellar dwellers of the division since 2016 and Cleveland has won 3 division titles.

But hey man, I’m too positive about this cheap team that doesn’t spend to compete with the big boys. What could I possibly know.
 
Off-season take is still pretty accurate, minus a few small details here and there and Franmil which literally no one would have predicted.

Minnesota’s offense didn’t get noticeably better. .737 OPS as a team last year, .736 OPS as a team this year.

Byron Buxton, to no one’s surprise, is hurt yet again and can barely play.

Minnesota, Detroit, and Kansas City didn’t see any significant improvements from their pitching. 95, 98, and 87 team ERA+ this season, vs 89, 102, and 98 team ERA+ last season. So from below average compared to league wide production to…below average.

I was way off on Detroit leading baseball in strikeouts offensively. They’re 4th worst. What a miss.

Think the overreaction to what the division did this winter/spring is still that. An overreaction.

Meanwhile, the team that is the best in the division at player development has developed its players and that average to above average offense we saw for the last 2.5 months of the season last year has carried over to this season and players like Naylor and Gimenez have taken the next step.

Unfortunately, same as it’s always been after a lackluster off-season or poor stretch of play, a good part of this board likes to disregard any positive take as pure homerism. Same conversations I had with people back in 2014/15 here on the impending collapse of the Tigers and Royals and the Guardians farm system developing to a point where it will own the division while they were losing the season series vs Detroit and KC by a wide margin.

7/8 years later and those 2 teams have been the 2 cellar dwellers of the division since 2016 and Cleveland has won 3 division titles.

But hey man, I’m too positive about this cheap team that doesn’t spend to compete with the big boys. What could I possibly know.
Myles Straw!...it needed to be said
:cool:
 

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