2024 Minor League Thread

[CDAV45]

Good to see Manzardo playing well, hopefully he’ll be the first offensive guy called up.

At what point do we start being concerned about DeLauter? I was hoping to see him carry his hot spring training into the start of the season but it just hasn’t happened.

I'm not at all concerned with DeLauter and I actually think it's good for him to struggle a bit. Hopefully the issue isn't health.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Getting back to the farm, I was looking at the Fangraphs power rankings of every minor league player...Here are the top Guardians:

13 Matt Wilkinson RP, A (2nd highest ranked player in A ball)

So who the heck is Matt Wilkinson? He was our 10th round pick last year out of Central Arizona College. He's a left-handed relief pitcher...So far he's pitched 14.2 innings for Lynchburg, allowing one run, six hits, five walks, and striking out 26. Interesting prospect.

The latest on Matt "Tugboat" Wilkinson from the "Next Year in Cleveland" website, which covers the farm teams on a daily basis.

Matt Wilkinson (SP, Lynchburg): 6IP, 0H, BB, 15K - Yes, you read that right. 15 strikeouts. The performance heard round the minors on Thursday was Tugboat’s 15K outing where he struck out the first eight. and never allowed a hit. At Low-A, hitters are just not prepared to face a pitcher who has control of a three pitch arsenal. At 89-92, Wilkinson is hard to hit at this level because he commands his fastball, slider and change. Most pitchers at this level are looking for control of two pitches, let alone three. But what an outing for Tugboat who looks like he needs to be in High-A soon.

So the Cavaliers have a "minivan" and the Guardians have a "tugboat". With performances like this the Tugboat will be moving up the Fangraphs rankings, although you can't get much higher than 13.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

I understand what you are saying, and some of it is IMO sound reasoning, but...

Williams and Hentges are likely to be back soon, but how far into the season do you really think TMac and Cookie will last? How many innings do you expect a starter to last with an elbow problem? We have two.

Brennans wRC+ is 87. His career number is 88. I expect him to be better, but its hardly like his present lack of production is unsustainable. Even more so with Freeman. His present wRC+ is 105, well above his career 87. While I'm high on both..esp Freeman...its not like they are underperformed what they've shown so far.

I think we are an above average team, but that comes with several major caveats, including having an upper level rotation that remains healthy and an elite pen over the course of 162 games...both of which I think are...uh...questionable.

We talk mostly about our offense. Is it really improved? Are the results, individually and as a team, sustainable?

None of it matters if the pitching blows out.

The Guardians are 4th in the majors in runs per game and nobody other than Kwan is performing OVER their career norms. OK, David Fry, but he's had just 35 AB's in 25 games.

By the way, Fry is 5-for-13 with 9 walks and 2 HBP against left-handed pitching. That's a .640 OBP! He won't keep that up.

Jose is well below his norms. Bo is hitting .186. It's not like we have five guys hitting at clearly unsustainable levels.

The question is whether we can continue to hit .315 with RISP. Probably not.

The stat I find interesting is the Guardians rank 4th in on-base percentage with runners on (.361) but just 23rd in on-base percentage with the bases empty (.293). They're well below average at getting the first runner on base, but once somebody is on they've been outstanding at getting more runners on and knocking them in. They've had a lot of mutliple run innings. Rick and Matt have commented on that.

So although they may not continue to hit .315 with RISP, I think they will improve at getting the first runner on base, which will create more opportunites to score. So it might be a wash. It will be interesting to continue to track this.

The Guardians are good at a lot of things and it's hard to say if they are sustainable because their schedule has been rather easy.

The Guardians are 4th in doubles. Probably sustainable because they make a lot of contact and have good overall speed.

They lead the majors in getting plunked. Very sustainable as long as Gimenez is playing.

They have the 5th fewest strikeouts. Sustainable due to excellent bat-to-ball skills. The Guardians rank 2nd in outside the zone contact percentage, meaning even when they chase bad pitches they foul them off (or sometimes make outs) more than all but one team.

They're 8th in stolen bases. Sustainable.

BABIP - 18th. It's not like they've been exceptionally lucky.

Sac flies - 2nd. Given their high contact rates probably sustainable.

Line drive percentage - 2nd. I don't know about this one.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

More interesting stuff from Fangraphs. I noticed Jose has been crushing the ball the last week or so but making a lot of outs so I decided to look at the Guardians' hard hit percentages since April 19. Here are the hard hit percentages:

Florial 71%, 7 events
Brennan 69%, 17 events
Freeman 64%, 20 events
Jose 61%, 20 events
Fry 60%, 15 events
Josh Naylor 50%, 24 events
Bo Naylor 37.5%, 13 events
Gimenez 33.3%, 20 events
Kwan 22.7%, 25 events
Arias 22.2%, 12 events
Rocchio 13.3%, 15 events

And average exit velos:

Freeman 96.6
Brennan 95.5
Jose 94.4
Florial 93.9
Josh 92.5
Bo 91.3
Arias 90.5
Fry 88.0
Kwan 87.0
Gimenez 85.3
Rocchio 82.8

The boys are starting to smoke the ball. Great to see Freeman, Brennan, and Florial making hard contact and producing good EV's. We know Josh, Jose, and Kwan will produce but the key to this offense continuing to be well above average, IMO, is the secondary bats like Freeman, Brennan, Florial, Bo Naylor, Gimenez, and Fry.

Bo is still struggling and we're not getting much from Rocchio (wRC+ 73), but otherwise guys who had low batting averages like Freeman and Brennan are starting to sting the ball. Jose has a wRC+ of 220 in the last week and that's with some bad BABIP luck.

 

[Criznit]

Here's a video of Tugboat's dominance yesterday. As you can see the camera setup for Lynchburg/Low A leaves a lot to be desired, it's very hard to tell balls and strikes.

 

[Lee]

Here's a video of Tugboat's dominance yesterday. As you can see the camera setup for Lynchburg/Low A leaves a lot to be desired, it's very hard to tell balls and strikes.

We need Tugboat to make the majors, he will be a fan favorite if he does.

 

[Criznit]

We need Tugboat to make the majors, he will be a fan favorite if he does.

Absolutely... His next bump will make him a Lake County Captain... Guarantee they'll have a "Tugboat" jersey give away... If they start selling a Tugboat Captains jersey in the LC team shop/online... Take my money.

 

[southernflyer]

We need Tugboat to make the majors, he will be a fan favorite if he does.

 

[Gson]

Absolutely... His next bump will make him a Lake County Captain... Guarantee they'll have a "Tugboat" jersey give away... If they start selling a Tugboat jersey in the LC team shop/online... Take my money.

He was promoted earlier today..

 

[Criznit]

He was promoted earlier today..

Wait... What? Really? Wow.

 

[CATS44]

The term 'beast', as in, 'This guy is a beast', is overused and usually greatly exaggerated.

Not in Wilkinson's case.

This guy at 6-1 270 IS a beast.

When CC first got to Cleveland, he was 6-6 280. This guy is nearly as heavy, but five inches shorter.

Bartolo was about 5-11 280, and he became a fan favorite throughout baseball.

But neither CC nor Bartolo had a nickname like Tugboat.

I dont know if this kid will ever get to the Bigs. I highly doubt it. But if he does, and he has any kind of success, even for a short time span, he is gonna be a fixture on ESPN, like The Bird.

Tugboat Mania will rule, and he will be hawking everything, from automobiles to underwear. He will be an agent's dream.

I HAVE to root for this kid.

 

[southernflyer]

The term 'beast', as in, 'This guy is a beast', is overused and usually greatly exaggerated.

Not in Wilkinson's case.

This guy at 6-1 270 IS a beast.

When CC first got to Cleveland, he was 6-6 280. This guy is nearly as heavy, but five inches shorter.

Bartolo was about 5-11 280, and he became a fan favorite throughout baseball.

But neither CC nor Bartolo had a nickname like Tugboat.

I dont know if this kid will ever get to the Bigs. I highly doubt it. But if he does, and he has any kind of success, even for a short time span, he is gonna be a fixture on ESPN, like The Bird.

Tugboat Mania will rule, and he will be hawking everything, from automobiles to underwear. He will be an agent's dream.

I HAVE to root for this kid.

Does anyone know what David Wells was topping when he was pitching? Two sources I saw was 6'4" 187 (which had to be rookie) and the other was 'officially' 225 pounds while in Toronto.

If Tugboat could get down to 220-230ish he could still be bulky but manageable for a career.

 

[Gson]

Wait... What? Really? Wow.

 

[macbdog]

The latest on Matt "Tugboat" Wilkinson from the "Next Year in Cleveland" website, which covers the farm teams on a daily basis.

Matt Wilkinson (SP, Lynchburg): 6IP, 0H, BB, 15K - Yes, you read that right. 15 strikeouts. The performance heard round the minors on Thursday was Tugboat’s 15K outing where he struck out the first eight. and never allowed a hit. At Low-A, hitters are just not prepared to face a pitcher who has control of a three pitch arsenal. At 89-92, Wilkinson is hard to hit at this level because he commands his fastball, slider and change. Most pitchers at this level are looking for control of two pitches, let alone three. But what an outing for Tugboat who looks like he needs to be in High-A soon.

So the Cavaliers have a "minivan" and the Guardians have a "tugboat". With performances like this the Tugboat will be moving up the Fangraphs rankings, although you can't get much higher than 13.

Two things: he is clearly ready for high A and keep him away from every single one of the team's weighted balls.

 

[Real Deal]

He's very ready