2023 Season | Series #25 | Brewers @ Guardians | June 23-25, 2023

[CDAV45]

I don't know why you refuse to admit tactical mistakes.

It's just weird.

Yeah, Tito has a bunch of positives around the clubhouse culture he builds and being patient with guys. He helps them feel comfortable and that plays well over a 162-game marathon.

He also makes plenty of tactical errors, like having Straw bat with the game on the line while Josh Bell sits on the bench.

You can say that you feel the positives outweigh the negatives, but to pretend like the negatives don't exist is just weird behavior.

I believe CATS is an older gentlemen and would love nothing more than to see the Guardians win a WS before departing this world. He has been critical of the FO, but usually in a different way than many of us are. He's frustrated that they haven't made trades to acquire established MLB players and he has a point even if I don't agree with it entirely. I don't disagree entirely either.

I'm not even on the Tito sucks bandwagon at all. I think this roster construction blows hairy balls and I'm not sure Tito has much to do with that. I also acknowledge that this roster isn't what they hope it to be by as early as the 2nd half of this season. Certainly not by next season because I firmly believe they intend to be extremely competitive by 2025.

 

[CDAV45]

Way too much handwringing going on over this. Tito made one mistake- not pinch hitting for Straw. That was it.

1. Pinch running Straw was the right move. Straw is supposed to do two things well: defense and steal/run the bases. This is exactly how he should be used. Straw failed to swipe the bag, and the two hitters didnt get hits either. I don't see any blame for Tito here.

2. What exactly did it hurt pulling Freeman? Because guess what: you STILL should pinch hit Bell for Freeman, too.

3. Jose and Naylor needed to come through there. Not going to rio into them, though, because that's baseball, even the best fail 70% if the time there.

4. Only real fault there is not pinch hitting for Straw. So criticize away there.

All that being said, this level of arguing doesn't make sense to me. Time to move on.

Wrong. Freeman has been one of our better hitters and pulling him to hit Bell in that scenario wouldn't have been the right move.

Jose and Naylor didn't come through. Should they be expected to come through every single time or should we be leaning on others occasionally as well?

Agreed. Not pinch hitting for Straw was a mistake.

It's frustrating and understandably so. I don't care to talk about it really, but I understand why folks here are expressing their frustration because this is the place to do it.

 

[Gson]

The guardians aren't "going to be competitive" (fill in the date/year/duration)...

The Guardians are competitive every game.. So far this year, they've lost more than they've won..

That is the essence of a Tito managed club.. win today's game.. yesterday's game doesn't matter.. and tomorrow's game doesn't matter yet... Win enough and the team plays in October.. Lose too many in October & the team goes home for the winter..

The roster construction isn't perfect.. who's is?..

Tomorrow.. the easy part of the schedule begins.. or so it seems..

 

[Out of the Rafters at the Q]

Wrong. Freeman has been one of our better hitters and pulling him to hit Bell in that scenario wouldn't have been the right move.

Jose and Naylor didn't come. Should they be expected to come through every single time or should we be leaning on others occasionally as well?

Agreed. Not pinch hitting for Straw was a mistake.

It's frustrating and understandably so. I don't care to talk about it really, but I understand why folks here are expressing their frustration because this is the place to do it.

Jose's AB was worse than Tito's decision to not pinch hit Bell for Straw.

Naylor's was up there.

Neither of those bad things mean that Tito's bad thing wasn't bad.

 

[CDAV45]

The guardians aren't "going to be competitive" (fill in the date/year/duration)...

The Guardians are competitive every game.. So far this year, they've lost more than they've won..

That is the essence of a Tito managed club.. win today's game.. yesterday's game doesn't matter.. and tomorrow's game doesn't matter yet... Win enough and the team plays in October.. Lose too many in October & the team goes home for the winter..

The roster construction isn't perfect.. who's is?..

Tomorrow.. the easy part of the schedule begins.. or so it seems..

It's not about the roster construction being "perfect". There will be under performances and flaws in every lineup, but this one is atrocious and all you have to do is look at the offensive rankings to understand that. I know I lack patience, but the needs are blatantly obvious and I'm not one for putting off the inevitable.

No, no they're not "competitive every game" as you've pointed out with their record.

 

[CDAV45]

Jose's AB was worse than Tito's decision to not pinch hit Bell for Straw.

Naylor's was up there.

Neither of those bad things mean that Tito's bad thing wasn't bad.

Agreed and you know how I feel about Straw. He wouldn't be on my roster let alone allow him to hit in that scenario. When Straw came in for Freeman I yelled at the TV loud enough that the wife came in thinking something was wrong. I told her "Yeah! Tito's being a fucking idiot" and she just closed the door and went about her business.

 

[Kiddo]

Oh, he could have swung the bat more the way he did when he was in Cleveland.

I get frustrated too but these guys aren't machines, they're human just like us fans. I've played baseball and now i just golf. Baseball is HARD, it's so hard to hit a 90 MPH fastball or an 85 MPH pitch that has movement. It's similar to my golf swing, some days i have it and i cant do anything wrong and the next day nothing feels right.

 

[Kiddo]

Jose's AB was worse than Tito's decision to not pinch hit Bell for Straw.

Naylor's was up there.

Neither of those bad things mean that Tito's bad thing wasn't bad.

Jose didn't see a strike all at bat, it was like he decided not to take a walk before the first pitch was even made. I think Naylor saw 1 strike but struck out on a pitch at least 12" inside.

 

[DCTribefan]

I'm not blind to all the winning that Franconas teams have done.

The key for a manager is more about macro managing, not micro managing...but fans only see, and focus on in game decisions. And they have the benefit of hindsight, while ignoring the fact that no decision is black and white.

The 'right' decision isn't defined by the result, although that's the only thing that fans see.

The other night Tito left Bibee in in order to try to get him thru the sixth. It 'worked', so it must have been the right call. But had Bibee given up a hit that scored runs, there would have been two pages of complaints about Tito always leaving a pitcher in one batter too long.

Same decision, different result...different opinion of Tito.

Yesterday, Straw stole second, putting him in scoring position...which was the reason for Titos decision....a great decision.

But...

Arias interfered with the catcher. The stolen base didn't count. Straw was then thrown out. Titos decision went from great to awful. Same decision, different result.

Tito IS a HOF manager, and that fact IS germane to any discussion of him and his in game decisions.

And he definitely has scoreboard.

And I will ALWAYS use that as the counter to all the ridiculous carping about Titos managerial ability.

And one more thing...

If this org had another $50-100 mil to put into payroll, Tito would be an even better manager...lol.

Players play the game, not managers. Blame the players when they fail.

The mighty CATS has spoken.

 

[buzzdog]

I get frustrated too but these guys aren't machines, they're human just like us fans. I've played baseball and now i just golf. Baseball is HARD, it's so hard to hit a 90 MPH fastball or an 85 MPH pitch that has movement. It's similar to my golf swing, some days i have it and i cant do anything wrong and the next day nothing feels right.

Nothing personal with Owen. I can forgive him being a butcher at 1st base for us (out of position), being mediocre at best at 2nd base, hitting GIDPs and lazy fly balls in numerous spots where we needed RBIs, over and over and over again. I'm sure he's a great young man. I just needed one of those lazy fly balls in that last at bat instead of the shot off the wall. For me that warrants an F-U, given how many times he didn't come through for us.