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2023 Guardians Spring Training Thread

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Mott the Hoople said:
MMBC- Monday Morning Bench Coach
  • If I was Amed's agent, there is no way in hell I would have him sign a team friendly extension right now. If he has a season similar to last year, and becomes a FA, it would be the perfect storm. He would be the top FA SS. Actually, he might be more valuable than some SS that have already cashed in. Salaries don't go down in MLB. That would be generational type money.
  • Last spring, the G's were negotiating with JRam. Obviously, they got the job done. But it wasn't a sure thing. In fact, there were serious negotiations going on with the Blue Jays and Padres. Yesterday some negotiations took place with Amed's representatives. A deal was not reached. But now the G's know what ballpark they are in money-wise. Could this lead to an Amed deal this week? It's either trade Amed, or trade 16 MIF prospects.
  • Even if TMac's arm soreness is minor; do you want him to start game 2? I'm not sure if I do. Give him a short stay on the DL to ramp up some more. Nothing wrong giving Morris a start.
  • The plan at catcher still gives me heartburn, If Zunino can't be the regular catcher, trade for somebody that can. Let Zunino be the backup.
  • Dreaming. Who would you rather trade for, Bryan Reynolds or Shohei Ohtani? Reynolds is an All-Star level player that you could control for a few years. Ohtani is an MVP level player, but you would have him for only one season. (But it might be a helluva year,)
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Boy this guy must be some kind of genius. I agree, Amed should hit the open market.
 
And the Fangraphs right field power rankings are up. They're not that impressed with Oscar just yet. The G's rank 22nd.

As a 24-year-old rookie, [Oscar] Gonzalez became a postseason hero last fall thanks to a pair of game-winning hits on top of a .296/.327/.461 (126 wRC+) regular season performance in 382 PA. However, he chased 48.3% of pitches out of the zone, 0.4 points off major league leader Javier Báez’s clip, and his 3.9% walk rate was hardly an aberration, a reminder that his swing-happy approach offsets his plus power and other tools, and raises questions about whether he can maintain that productivity.

Brennan, a contact-oriented 25-year-old rookie, had a scalding cup of coffee last fall (.357/.400/.500 in 45 PA). He has a compact left-handed swing and a good enough glove and arm for center field, but his 30-grade game power probably limits him to backup outfielder status. Valera has pull-side power and plate discipline but also contact issues. He’s got just 42 games at Triple-A under his belt, so it could be awhile before he has a real chance to make an impact.

My comment: If Oscar puts up a 126 wRC+ over a full season this year, even swinging at nearly half the bad pitches he sees, the Guardians will rank a lot higher than 22nd this year. They obviously don't think Oscar can put up the same numbers as last year over a full season.
 
CDAV45 said:
Just imagine the addition of Bell and not having 2 other black holes in the lineup. The lineup is still short unless Brennan takes over CF against RHP, but there's no denying that Bell should give us a boost.
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I get Zunino, but not sure why you think Oscar is going to be a black hole.
 
Wham with the Right Hand said:
Fangraphs has the G's bullpen ranked 3rd going into the season. Why not - it's the same group as last year except either Gaddis or Herrin or Morris replaces Bryan Shaw's 5.40 ERA.

The Guardians are the only A.L. team in the top five. Houston is 6th.
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They get Hentges back soon and Herrin performs like I think he will then I don't believe there is a better BP out there. For crying out loud, how many teams would Karinchak be the closer for? It's a deep, talented bunch and there are a couple more SP prospects who will probably be relievers this year to whatever degree, and they're pretty damn good too.
 
Wham with the Right Hand said:
And the Fangraphs right field power rankings are up. They're not that impressed with Oscar just yet. The G's rank 22nd.

As a 24-year-old rookie, [Oscar] Gonzalez became a postseason hero last fall thanks to a pair of game-winning hits on top of a .296/.327/.461 (126 wRC+) regular season performance in 382 PA. However, he chased 48.3% of pitches out of the zone, 0.4 points off major league leader Javier Báez’s clip, and his 3.9% walk rate was hardly an aberration, a reminder that his swing-happy approach offsets his plus power and other tools, and raises questions about whether he can maintain that productivity.

Brennan, a contact-oriented 25-year-old rookie, had a scalding cup of coffee last fall (.357/.400/.500 in 45 PA). He has a compact left-handed swing and a good enough glove and arm for center field, but his 30-grade game power probably limits him to backup outfielder status. Valera has pull-side power and plate discipline but also contact issues. He’s got just 42 games at Triple-A under his belt, so it could be awhile before he has a real chance to make an impact.

My comment: If Oscar puts up a 126 wRC+ over a full season this year, even swinging at nearly half the bad pitches he sees, the Guardians will rank a lot higher than 22nd this year. They obviously don't think Oscar can put up the same numbers as last year over a full season.
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Oscar is going to put up even better numbers than last season. What they either fail to realize or don't want to take into consideration is his elite bat to ball skills and immense strength. His exit velocities bear that out. The dude makes a lot of contact and when he makes contact it's scalded. I'll be surprised if he doesn't hit 30 bombs this season. God forbid he start demonstrating a little more discipline because we would be talking about 40 HR over the course of a 600 AB season. What Oscar demonstrated in Cleveland last season is nothing new for him. It was just at a higher level against the best competition.
 
CDAV45 said:
Oscar is going to put up even better numbers than last season. What they either fail to realize or don't want to take into consideration is his elite bat to ball skills and immense strength. His exit velocities bear that out. The dude makes a lot of contact and when he makes contact it's scalded. I'll be surprised if he doesn't hit 30 bombs this season. God forbid he start demonstrating a little more discipline because we would be talking about 40 HR over the course of a 600 AB season. What Oscar demonstrated in Cleveland last season is nothing new for him. It was just at a higher level against the best competition.
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I agree except that he needs to get better at hitting the ball in the air to get 30 bombs. The swing he had last year resulted in a lot more ground balls than is desirable for a player with his "immense strength". Hitting the ball on the ground that much is wasting his strength to a large degree.
 
CDAV45 said:
Oscar is going to put up even better numbers than last season. What they either fail to realize or don't want to take into consideration is his elite bat to ball skills and immense strength. His exit velocities bear that out. The dude makes a lot of contact and when he makes contact it's scalded. I'll be surprised if he doesn't hit 30 bombs this season. God forbid he start demonstrating a little more discipline because we would be talking about 40 HR over the course of a 600 AB season. What Oscar demonstrated in Cleveland last season is nothing new for him. It was just at a higher level against the best competition.
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Oscar is a lot like Amed offensively only with a little extra pop. They both hit the ball at low angles and hit too many bad pitches to really barrel up at a super high rate. Amed's max EV was actually quite good and his average EV was actually 0.2 MPH higher than Oscar's. There's a cost when you swing at bad pitches even when you put the bat to the ball and it's at the expense of power.
 
Every time the national media have counted out OGonz, he just goes "f u" and hits the ball. His profile is so strange but it's working and as long as it's working, then that's all that matters...

Don't forget OGonz also is a tall and can get to a lot of pitches off the plate outside and shown with his natural strength he can get hits even just using his hands in a sense...
 
Wham with the Right Hand said:
I agree except that he needs to get better at hitting the ball in the air to get 30 bombs. The swing he had last year resulted in a lot more ground balls than is desirable for a player with his "immense strength". Hitting the ball on the ground that much is wasting his strength to a large degree.
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It was his first experience in MLB. He hasn't had trouble prior to that and he didn't really have trouble hitting the ball out last season either. He hit 11 HR in 362 AB while with Cleveland and 9 in 182 AB with Columbus. That's 20 HR in 544 total AB, most of which were in Cleveland. He hit 31 in 2021 between Akron and Columbus. Maybe I'm being overconfident in OGon's abilities, but I don't think so. It'll have to play out to see if I am.
 
mopete12 said:
Gaddis is stretched out to 70 pitches right now. Doubt Curry is much more stretched out.
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I believe Curry should be stretched out as much as the starters are while Gaddis isn't because he is made a bullpen spot not a rotation spot.
 
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