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2023 Guardians Spring Training Thread

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Wham with the Right Hand said:
That was no meatball Straw hit, or a hanging off-speed pitch in the middle of the zone. That was a fastball on the inside corner at the belt. Not a mistake from how it appeared. And it cleared the fence by plenty.

It reminded me of how Kwan was turning on inside fastballs and driving them down the line and over the wall at the end of last season. Four home runs in his last 23 games and another one in the playoffs off Garrett Cole.

Straw is up to .357/1.009 this spring. He hit .313 in September last year then went to swing camp in the winter. He looks great.

Josh Naylor is hitting .333/.905. It seems the elimination of the shift plus being a year away from his ankle injury is helping him. I'm expecting a big year. That .385 OBP is impressive.

Jose is at .356/.911. He is poised to have a big year with no shift and hopefully no torn ligament in his hand the last 100 games. He and Naylor will benefit the most from no shifting.

Kwan has a .412 OBP this spring, picking up right where he left off.

Josh Bell is coming around; he's up to .250/.886, including 4 homers in 40 at-bats. The Guardians will take that all day long.

Will Brennan continues to rack up doubles with 5 in 40 at-bats and a .826 OPS.

Oscar and Amed have been the slackers at the dish, but with Amed hitting .282 and .283 the last two seasons while playing every day I'm not worried. Oscar has seven hits in the last five games so he's coming around. However, 9 of his 11 hits have been singles and I would like to see him get more balls in the air.

Zunino looks like he will need some time after having to cut his season short last year.

Juan Brito has the craziest numbers; a .120 batting average and a .512 on-base percentage. I assumed he must be 5'6" with all those walks but he's listed as 5'11". He must have a Kwanesque level of plate discipline. Last year in A ball he drew 78 walks in 107 games with a .407 on-base percentage. Interesting guy and he'll be 21 the entire season.
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Great post/info. A lot to be really excited about and it all starts in less than a week. Gonna head down to MGMand plunk down 5 hundy on winning over 86.5 games.

The keys in my view...overall health, and how well Cavale. Plesac and Bell perform. How good will this team be if Cavale and Plesac revert back to their rookie seasons.
 
AZ_ said:
The same spot where opinions like “anyone could have hit that pitch out” come from.
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Where did you get that quote from? Where the fist enters you because that's not what I said. You do you though. Good talk.
 
CDAV45 said:
While my expected win total isn't quite as aggressive as yours they should see marked improvements in some key areas. I think the balanced schedule doesn't work in our favor and I also feel that unless the White Sox and Twins sustain an enormous amount of key injuries again we'll probably drop a few more to them. I think we could hit 92 again if things go right. I feel comfortable saying 88-92. I'm expecting a battle for the division.

Bullpens are unpredictable, but I think ours is going to be fantastic. Especially when Hentges returns. Certainly a strength for this team.

Miller is no 1B and was only used there as a last option. He did hit really well for the first month and a half, but about the time he started seeing reps at 1B is when he tanked offensively. I don't know if that's coincidence or not, but he never regained his form at the plate. I still think he's a very good hitter and that will probably show here soon.
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Miller was an awful first baseman defensively. Not his fault because he was a middle infielder asked to play out of position, but his glove and his decisions were bad and his bat didn't play as a corner infielder, either.

I don't expect the G's to win the same or fewer than last year. They got off to a bad start before making some changes, like dumping Franmil, moving Kwan to leadoff and Straw to 9th, bringing up Oscar, and getting Karinchak back at the start of July, not to mention significant improvements in Hentges and Sandlin in the second half. The last two-thirds of the season they played at a 99-win pace and since then they added Bell and Zunino while losing nobody who played well last year (Shaw, Jones, Benson, Miller, Clement, Hedges, Maile).

On paper they're a better team than what they had in the second half. Chances are the White Sox will be better with fewer injuries and the Twins are always competitive. We have 12 less games against the Tigers and Royals and most of those games will be against stronger teams. A lot depends on the 4th and 5th starters, either Civale and Plesac or (if they aren't cutting it) their eventual replacements.

But we're not counting on any rookies to play key roles and we're not counting on any injured players to have bounce-back seasons, except Civale. The Sox are counting on guys who are hurt all the time to be healthy. No other team in our division was over .500 last year.

It's very possible both the Twins and Sox will be over .500 this year, but the Guardians have the best roster top to bottom and there are no weaknesses anywhere; starting pitching, relief pitching, offense, defense, depth, and the ability to make a trade or two if necessary. We have no 30-somethings whose performance might drop off (like Nelson Cruz the last couple of years). This is a young team that is still getting better and the rule changes will help them generate even more stolen bases. The elimination of the shift will most likely result in career seasons for Naylor and Jose, probably Bell and Zunino, too, since they are pull hitters. Everything is looking awesome at this point.
 
CDAV45 said:
Something like a triple dutch rudder?
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By the way bro....gonna reneg on our 2 bets. Exchanging money is a pain in the ass when people want to remain anonymous, just sayin. We are both die hard tribe baseball fans. So we disagree on a few things. No big deal man.

Doesn't mean I won't be chirping at you whenever Amed makes the All Star team
 


Semi interesting development here.

Both Quinn and Palacios are not making it.
 
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