After a weekend off the grid...

 1. The Guardians won their season-opening series against Seattle

The Guardians could have easily swept this series apart from Karinchak's implosion in the first game.  Still, a great series.  Let's look at the stats so far:

• Pitchers
• Civale and Beiber looked outstanding.  Gaddis looked as expected for a rookie trying to find his footing.  Quantrill had lots of problems.  Assuming he is not injured I am not worried about himself yet.  Remember his last outing in the spring was outstanding.
• Take away the first game outing by Karinchak and then bullpen has gone 14 innings (14.1 innings), given up 4 hits, 0 runs, walked 3 and struck out 22.   That is beyond outstanding.  It is almost other worldly.   This comes with a warning, though.  Two guys, De Los Santos and Stephan pitched in 3 of those 4 games and should not be available tonight.  Clase, Morgan, Sandlin and Karinchak pitched in 2 games a piece and Herrin pitched in one game, but in multiple innings.  If Plesac has an early exist today we are set up with Curry and Herrin to eat innings but, hopefully, none of the rest of the guys have to pitch in a blowout.  If it is a close game tonight it will tax our bullpen as some of Karinchak, Morgan, Morgan and Clase would be pitching in their third game in 5 days, which is not optimal.  Despite trying to win we don't want to burn out our bullpen this early in the season.
• Hitting
• No one except for Zunino has hit their stride yet.  
• Gonzalez looks really weak as he is not driving the ball with lift.  Just like in spring training he is not striking out much but isn't producing much hard contact.  Bell has gone all Juan Brito on us, making 6 times in 18 plate appearances.  Like Brito, however, he is not producing hard contact yet and is producing too many groundballs for being a power hitter.  Straw is also not showing much statistical improvement from last year but I like his approach at the plate better than the hitting-with-a-wet-noodle approach he employed last year.
• Everyone else has had his moments and, like the guys above it is hard to get a read using such a small sample size.  Let's just say that the production has not been exceptional by anyone so far and there is lots of room for guys to heat up as the season progresses.
• So far having one extra catcher has not come back to bite us but I am still afraid every game that it could.  We are walking a very fine line with 3 guys who have no other position than catcher.
• One final hitting note: Four games in and Bell, Gonzalez, Straw and Ramirez no RBIs in the first 4 games and we are STILL 3-1.  This bodes well for the future if these 4 guysjust  get to their career mean production.
• Defense
• Look, spring training can be a mirage on hitting as pitchers are 'working on stuff' or guys, in the middle innings, facing prospects instead of major league hitters.  It can be the same with pitching when the results are negative (yes, working on stuff) or positive (as teams clear their benches early to save their veterans).  However, the one place that, in my opinion, is a good measurement of what is real is catching the ball and throwing the ball.  Zunino looked really weak at blocking balls in spring training.  He looked very weak at throwing runners out trying to steal.  I don't think that is lost on Francona and two times already this season he has mentioned that he thinks Zunino will be better at blocking balls in the dirt and throwing out runners as the season progresses.  What we saw in spring training IS carrying over to the regular season.  
• Everything else in terms of fielding seems to be in line with what was going on in spring training and what we saw last year.

2. The Clippers got swept with a weird rotation

• The Guardians appear to be being very selective with their starting pitching prospects. 
• The first 3 starters were Konnor Pillington, bullpen game (Daniel Norris) and Adam Scott.  This has to be considered the weakest part of the rotation as the rotation for the next three games that are supposed to be played in warm weather, are Peyton Battenfield, Logan Allen and Tanner Bibee.  Looking at the current roster this looks like 'it' for the early season rotation.
• Due to injuries and the way guys were signed to minor league deals this off-season, the bullpen for Columbus is populated by minor league veterans.  Not to be all negatve but the two guys who were signed in the off-season who looked like they might have promise in the bullpen, Daniel Norris (pickup after being cut) and Touki Touissant have performed.  The rest of the AAAA bullpen should be solid during the season but I don't think any of those guys will ever see the majors.
• Looking forward to the first 3 games of the homestand with these 3 guys.  Given what saw from the first 3 games, not excited to see the pitching in the last 3 games of the series. Adam Scott was especially scary hitting 5 guys in less than 2 innings.  I just don't see, for the safety of the players on the other team, you can send Scott out there again if he has a second performance ANYTHING like the first one.  
• The hitting has been amazing.  
• Tyler Freeman looking like the prospect we all thought he would be all along
• Bo Naylor hitting the ground running in his second season in AAA, just like he did in his second season in AA last year.
• Micah Pries picking up wher he left off in ML spring training this year with a double and triple and a 1.050 OPS so far.
• Collins, though a AAAA guy, still being productive early with what he does best: hit.  Right now if Zunino, bite my tongue, goes on the 60-day DL, calling up Collins would not be the worst thing that could happen if we wanted to leave Bo Naylor at AAA to become more seasoned.
• On the downside
• Noel looks overmatched so far putting up a Bobby Bradley-esque 0-14 with 10 Ks.  I We will have to be patient with him as this is quite the push by the Guardians to start him at AAA this year.  I think he will really be challenged and, given that this is AAA, they should keep throwing him out there while be mindful to not let the kid bury himself mentally.
• Palacios, to me, looks like he is pressing.  I love the look of him as a right-handed leadoff hitter and giving him more reps there is a real positive not only for his value there but also his trade value ad #8 hitters in AAA don't generally have much value.
• Fry and Rocchio keeping their heads above water in this first series but expect improved production from each of these guys.
• Offense positioned well for the home opener on Tuesday as Columbus tends to be a hitters park.  Looking forward to seeing this 6-game homestand develop for the hitters

3. Looking forward to see what the minor league rosters look like and watching some Akron, Lake County and Lynchburg baseball coming this Thursday. Much more to conjecture on once we see the rosters and who the starting pitchers are.