2023 Guardians Offseason Thread!

[Gson]

I wonder why people wouldn't want to take out someone out of the lineup who has averaged 2.6 fWAR over the last 2 years to replace him with someone slow for a CF who so far in his MLB career has had BABIP fueled success over a few weeks while chasing more pitches than OGonz and Javy Baez before finishing off on a completely terrible ote.

hmm... I'm getting a hint there is some sarcasm coming out in this posting.. just a hint, though...

yuze gize have to quit picking on the Lone Ranger..

...what's next?.. Battenfield battering?

 

[CATS44]

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.

 

[CBBI]

Does not have to hit much is not a phrase most fans love to hear in the offseason when the team ran out of offense in the playoffs.

This is true, but it’s a lot more palatable to have a weak bat in the lineup when there’s only one of them.

The Guardians’ problem was that they had three (DH, C, CF) and sometimes four (1B v. LHP) automatic outs in the lineup in the playoffs at the same time.

Bell solves one (potentially two) of those problems. A new catcher/Bo’s emergence would solve another.

 

[sportscoach]

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.

His numbers and Bimbo say the opposite... His numbers actually say CF is his best position and Bimbo even stated his route running in CF is way better than LF...

Some scouts said he shouldn't even be on the 40 man... lol

 

[Out of the Rafters at the Q]

This is true, but it’s a lot more palatable to have a weak bat in the lineup when there’s only one of them.

The Guardians’ problem was that they had three (DH, C, CF) and sometimes four (1B v. LHP) automatic outs in the lineup in the playoffs at the same time.

Bell solves one (potentially two) of those problems. A new catcher/Bo’s emergence would solve another.

Yep.

Everything has to be looked at from a wide-angle. You can't just say "We didn't score enough in the playoffs! Get me a bigger bat in center and I don't care how bad he is defensively!"

I don't really care if we get an extra hit out of the CF spot in our lineup if we're giving up extra runs. Losing 7-2 isn't better than losing 4-0.

You just need to improve where you can, and it looks like we're doing that.

If we can improve in center, you know we'll do it. But if we can't, Straw isn't the worst thing in the world--especially if he gets on base out of the #9 hole.

Don't change your philosophy. Just improve your weaknesses. Catcher, 1B and DH all look to have been, or are being, addressed. Combine that with your youth getting better, hopefully going into October without broken thumbs and shit, and you have a chance.

Good pitching, good bullpen, good defense and timely hitting is how we're going to win. This team is never going to have the money to match home run power with the Yankees or the Padres, so let's just try to make sure that our guys get on base and turn those home runs into three-run shots instead of solo jacks--then trust our pitching staff to finish the job.

 

[Holden beach]

With the larger bases, limited throws over to first base and pitch clock, good base stealers are going to have a field day next year.

If Straw can learn how to Baltimore Chop or bunt his way onto first base, and get his average above .240, we can forget about his awful year at the plate in 2022.

 

[kriegs]

With the larger bases, limited throws over to first base and pitch clock, good base stealers are going to have a field day next year.

If Straw can learn how to Baltimore Chop or bunt his way onto first base, and get his average above .240, we can forget about his awful year at the plate in 2022.

Yes, steals were way up in the minor leagues last year once these rules were implemented. Good to see our organization was a year ahead enacting their approach to aggressive base running.

 

[buzzdog]

This is true, but it’s a lot more palatable to have a weak bat in the lineup when there’s only one of them.

The Guardians’ problem was that they had three (DH, C, CF) and sometimes four (1B v. LHP) automatic outs in the lineup in the playoffs at the same time.

Bell solves one (potentially two) of those problems. A new catcher/Bo’s emergence would solve another.

Beat me to it, I was going to come in and say exactly this. Bell, offensive upgrade at catcher, and hopefully Straw can become just a little more more Kwan-like. He has the perfect examples all around him, figure it out.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

After going 7-for-75 in August, it looked to me like Straw made a change. He started swinging earlier in the count and pulling the ball. In Sep/Oct he hit .308 with a .368 OBP.

It looked like when he was hitting leadoff he got into the habit of "working the count" and trying to take a lot of pitches and draw walks. He was always behind in the count and took a lot of strikes. In September he started attacking the first good pitch. The results were dramatically different.

I'm not saying he'll hit .300 next year. But he won't be hitting leadoff and if he continues to take the same approach as he did the last month of the season he'll hit a lot better than the .198 he bottomed out at on Sep. 1.

That being said, if we could trade him and some prospects for Bryan Reynolds I'm all over it.

 

[CDAV45]

His numbers and Bimbo say the opposite... His numbers actually say CF is his best position and Bimbo even stated his route running in CF is way better than LF...

Some scouts said he shouldn't even be on the 40 man... lol

Why would you even converse with him on that matter? I mean he's referring to Pluto for God's sake. If you haven't watched him play CF then you shouldn't comment. If you've watched him and came to the conclusion that Will isn't a good CFer then you don't know your ass from a whole in the ground.

Some folks need to understand defensive metrics and how flawed they are. Besides, making miraculous play after miraculous play at any position while providing a wRC+ of 64(fucking 64) is not a positive WAR player. Just make the plays you're supposed to make and hit the ball. If you can run then that's even better.

They've brought Bell in and that will help. Naylor will probably replace a good portion of the C duties and that will help by default(Hedges' 42 wRC+). The idea that a player who is well below average offensively is valuable as a starter is bogus. If that was the case then we could just cheaply fill every position with GG defenders and not worry about offense. Straw and Hedges killed this team and numerous rallies when they were in the 8 and 9 holes. All the defense in the world cannot overcome the lack of offense they provided this team.

 

[sportscoach]

Why would you even converse with him on that matter? I mean he's referring to Pluto for God's sake. If you haven't watched him play CF then you shouldn't comment. If you've watched him and came to the conclusion that Will isn't a good CFer then you don't know your ass from a whole in the ground.

Some folks need to understand defensive metrics and how flawed they are. Besides, making miraculous play after miraculous play at any position while providing a wRC+ of 64(fucking 64) is not a positive WAR player. Just make the plays you're supposed to make and hit the ball. If you can run then that's even better.

They've brought Bell in and that will help. Naylor will probably replace a good portion of the C duties and that will help by default(Hedges' 42 wRC+). The idea that a player who is well below average offensively is valuable as a starter is bogus. If that was the case then we could just cheaply fill every position with GG defenders and not worry about offense. Straw and Hedges killed this team and numerous rallies when they were in the 8 and 9 holes. All the defense in the world cannot overcome the lack of offense they provided this team.

You have to accept the fact Straw is Cleveland's CF in 23...

If he gets to a 100 OPS+ he would likely be one of the top bWAR in CF in all of baseball... if not he loses his spot to Brennan in the second half of the season. It's Straw's spot to lose and he's going to get a legit amount of time to prove himself. I'm not stating that cause it's the way I would run the team, cause it's pretty much a fact...

 

[PPark]

Agree. They need to double-down on what makes them unique: improve plate discipline, OBP, BSR, XBH, etc.
I’m thinking because of the D bar behind the plate we’ll like be betting on Naylor for offensive improvement (exceeding Maile, Leon data). Welcome back, Austin.

 

[CDAV45]

I wonder why people wouldn't want to take out someone out of the lineup who has averaged 2.6 fWAR over the last 2 years to replace him with someone slow for a CF who so far in his MLB career has had BABIP fueled success over a few weeks while chasing more pitches than OGonz and Javy Baez before finishing off on a completely terrible ote.

Let me help you stop wondering. People want to take Straw out of the lineup because he provides little to no value offensively.

I wonder why people would dig into garbage stats to downplay and excellent performance from a rookie who had been performing at that level for 2 yrs prior to his call up? Especially when he hit better than Straw in that very same postseason.

 

[sportscoach]

Let me help you stop wondering. People want to take Straw out of the lineup because he provides little to no value offensively.

I wonder why people would dig into garbage stats to downplay and excellent performance from a rookie who had been performing at that level for 2 yrs prior to his call up? Especially when he hit better than Straw in that very same postseason.

You are really the only one (outside of Dicky) who is so adamant about Straw not starting...

 

[CDAV45]

You have to accept the fact Straw is Cleveland's CF in 23...

If he gets to a 100 OPS+ he would likely be one of the top bWAR in CF in all of baseball... if not he loses his spot to Brennan in the second half of the season. It's Straw's spot to lose and he's going to get a legit amount of time to prove himself. I'm not stating that cause it's the way I would run the team, cause it's pretty much a fact...

OK Dad. I don't know if Straw is the starting CFer next season or not. All I know is he shouldn't be and nothing will change that. If, if, if. If Straw hits 1 HR then he'll have doubled his output from 22. If Straw gets to a 100 OPS+ then he'll have nearly doubled his production. If Straw wasn't such a good defender then we wouldn't be having this conversation. If Straw wasn't such a terrible hitter then we wouldn't be having this conversation. You're points are pointless.