2024 Guardians Spring Training Thread

[Mott the Hoople]

6:40 PM start time from June to September.
Wow. The game will be over before it gets dark. I might have to put a TV in the kitchen for dinner though.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

From Fangraphs, who in their first Power Rankings put the Guardians in Tier 4; "High Variance Could Be's":

ZiPS actually likes Cleveland’s chances of challenging Minnesota in the AL Central, projecting the two teams to finish with the same record. That’s interesting, considering the Guardians enter this season with mostly the same players as last year’s team that missed the playoffs. But they’ve got a talented pitching staff that could carry them, and they’ll be calling on a couple of their prospects — Brayan Rocchio and Kyle Manzardo — to improve their lineup. It might not be enough, but Cleveland has the potential here to make for an interesting division race if things break right.

Maybe that's because ZiPS is paying attention and noticed the Guardians are adding a healthy Shane Bieber and Tristan McKenzie to their starting rotation while the Twins lost Sonny Gray and Kenta Maeda?

I agree that the Guardians are "high variance". They could be average or very good depending on Bieber and McKenzie, the three second year starters, Bo Naylor, Clase bouncing back, and whether they can find some young players like Arias, Rocchio, Florial, and Manzardo to step up.

Fangraphs actually thinks the Twins improved their pitching. What am I missing? They put the Twins in Tier 2.

The Twins, who cruised to a division title last year, look like they have a clear path to repeat. They still managed to improve their pitching staff and alleviate their infield logjam, even as they cut payroll. Despite the rosy projections, it still feels like the success of their season will hinge on the health of Byron Buxton, Carlos Correa, and Royce Lewis. If that trio is producing regularly, their lineup should be formidable. If not… well, the depth behind those three is rather lackluster.

If their success hinges on the health of Buxton - good luck. Buxton is now 30 and in the last six years has never played in more than 92 games and averaged 65. Over the last six years, age 24-29, he missed almost 600 games!!! They tried to keep him healthy last year by DHing him. It didn't work - he played 85 games and hit .207 with an OBP of .294. This year the plan is to put him back in center field where he's even more likely to get hurt.

Last year Buxton hit .141 with runners in scoring position and .176 with runners on base. He played 73 games in the first half and 12 in the second, which is normal for him. This is one of the three guys they're counting on to drive the offense?

Correa hit .230 and drove in 65 runs in 514 at-bats. I'm not impressed. He hit .207 with RISP.

Lewis is a stud; a .309/.921 line with 52 RBI's in 58 games. At 24 he's a superstar in the making, but he needs to stay healthy.

I think the Twins are overrated. But they do hit a lot of home runs. They have 12 guys on their roster who had between 11 and 24 home runs last year. Everybody is a threat to hit one out - all it takes is a couple mistakes to get you beat.

 

[AZ_]

I love this so much.

Fanatics getting absolutely killed in here.


Michael Rubin laughing at fans from his white party.

 

[Lee]

I love this so much.

Fanatics getting absolutely killed in here.


Michael Rubin laughing at fans from his white party.

Why is it Fanatics fault? Explain, I thought they were just the site that sells them like others, these are actually made by Nike right? I know fanatics is like ticket master making huge profits off of being the middle man, so I am not saying they are good or moral, just dont see how ugly jersey's are their fault. But honestly, I really dont know a ton about this.

 

[DJTJ]

Why is it Fanatics fault? Explain, I thought they were just the site that sells them like others, these are actually made by Nike right? I know fanatics is like ticket master making huge profits off of being the middle man, so I am not saying they are good or moral, just dont see how ugly jersey's are their fault. But honestly, I really dont know a ton about this.

Nike branded, Fanatics made.

 

[MikeOC33]

I couldn't care less what the jerseys look like. Give me Aaron Judge and Shonei Ohtani in crappy looking Guardians' jerseys over Ramon Laureano and Myles Straw rocking something really spiffy all day long.

Ummm....I really don't think that is one of our options...

 

[33Y0]

 

[Lee]

Nike branded, Fanatics made.

really? Fanatics makes clothes? I am not doubting, very ignorant to this.

 

[AZ_]

Why is it Fanatics fault? Explain, I thought they were just the site that sells them like others, these are actually made by Nike right? I know fanatics is like ticket master making huge profits off of being the middle man, so I am not saying they are good or moral, just dont see how ugly jersey's are their fault. But honestly, I really dont know a ton about this.

Fanatics has largely taken over the means of production for the apparel space in baseball.

Even though some of the facilities associated with producing the jerseys have remained the same (just changing the keys), the overall quality of materials and Nike's inability to connect with what baseball players previously had in terms of fitting/sizing has been a huge disappointment.


But this is par for the course for Fanatics overall, they deprioritize quality for cost savings every single time they have the opportunity to.

Players are speaking up, and its great. Can't stand the company...

 

[Lee]

Fanatics has largely taken over the means of production for the apparel space in baseball.

Even though some of the facilities associated with producing the jerseys have remained the same (just changing the keys), the overall quality of materials and Nike's inability to connect with what baseball players previously had in terms of fitting/sizing has been a huge disappointment.


But this is par for the course for Fanatics overall, they deprioritize quality for cost savings every single time they have the opportunity to.

Players are speaking up, and its great. Can't stand the company...

Thanks for explaining that, I had no clue.

 

[DJTJ]

Fanatics has largely taken over the means of production for the apparel space in baseball.

Even though some of the facilities associated with producing the jerseys have remained the same (just changing the keys), the overall quality of materials and Nike's inability to connect with what baseball players previously had in terms of fitting/sizing has been a huge disappointment.


But this is par for the course for Fanatics overall, they deprioritize quality for cost savings every single time they have the opportunity to.

Players are speaking up, and its great. Can't stand the company...

The Athletic had an article where an Angels pitcher said that his pants couldn’t be altered to fit to preference, and that the colors on jersey/pants didn’t match.

Very on brand. Fanatics is fucking awful.

 

[Stark]

I'm a huge jersey guy, not on the level of @David., but I love jerseys.

I will, 110%, never, ever buy any MLB baseball jersey if they're going to look like that. My high school had better looking jerseys. The numbers and last names look so small, cheap, and weird.

Putrid.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

Stephan Vogt just had a radio interview.
One question was if you were commissioner for a day, what would you do?
His answer: I would want last year's uniforms back. That's for sure.

 

[Criznit]

I'm reminded of that time when Chris Sale all those years ago was so furious with the throwback jerseys, he took a pair of scissors and proceeded to cut them all up in the clubhouse so the team wouldn't be able to wear them.

Classic.

 

[CalBuckeyeRob]

The Chinese knock-offs will end up better than the authentics.