THE PRESENT
1. Logan Allen
OK, everyone is buzzing about his ML debut yesterday. It was a good one. But I wanted to provide a voice of balance here.
The issue for me was that Allen started off throwing 92-93, touching 94 once. As the game wore on, though, he was sitting more at 91. . Early this season and early last season he set more at 93, touching 95. When he moved to Columbus last year his velo was down and he started to get hit
I don't think he can be successful as a rookie sitting at 91. Maybe (like Beiber) when he gets experience Allen might be able to battle through like Beiber does. But now? Once the league scouts him I think he is going to have trouble getting outs unless he ups his fastball velo.
2. Peyton Battenfield
The question is, can he compete against the good teams? I don't know the answer to that. It seems his stuff would play better in the bullpen but maybe he can be a 4-5. Time will tell. His start on Tuesday will go a good distance in telling us who he is. That is, can he beat the rebuilding teams consistently. The next bar then will be to see if he can beat the first division teams. His stuff is not great but if he can compete, maybe he can be what Beiber is right now.
3. Hunter Gaddis
There are two paths with Gaddis at this point. We leave him in the bullpen and let him be a multi-inning guy or an opener, going through the lineup one time. Or we send him to the minors and let him work on what he needs to work on to be a #3 starter in the big leagues. He has the stuff to be successful as I see him having about 20% better stuff than Battenfield, but his stuff and command may play better as a reliever. That is my opinion but time will tell.
4. Xzavion Curry
If any one of these guys projects almost exclusively as a true reliever it is Curry. A short righthanded with a fastball/slider mix, he seems to fit exactly what you want in a guy wo isn't around more than one or two innings in an outing.
5. Cody Morris
If he gets healthy this year he could be sent to AAA to further develop as a starter. I don't know if he will be anything more than Gaddis and I don't know if his body will hold up as a starter without him having to take the foot off the gas pedal so much to stay healthy that he loses too much to be effective. Right now, unfortunately, he looks more like a power reliever to me, able to go two innings and dominate.
THE FUTURE
It is great to think of a rotation this year with Allen, Bibee and Gavin Williams pitching effectively.
However, what the Guardians did last year: bring up Gaddis, Curry and Morris, they did knowing that they were going to have to roster them last winter anyway AND, as college pitchers ready for the majors, it was doubtful that they would burn their 3 option years.
Allen, a 2020 college draftee, would have had to be protected from the Rule 5 this winter. So bringing up now doesn't change the dynamics of the roster this winter, if he doesn't get hurt.
We have guys like Brito, Noel, Tena and even Tim Herrin who are not truly ready for the majors. But they are on the roster to protect them from the Rule 5. Adding more guys to the 40 man who don't have to be rostered this winter (Bibee and Williams, for example) really creates a roster crunch that I don't think we can survive without DFAing real prospects. So, while guys like Richie Palacios are probably never going to be stars in the majors, they should just not be given away for nothing as they are worth more than that. We have already given away Nolan Jones, Carlos Vargas, Will Benson and Owen Miller for arguably little or no return. We really can't keep doing that, or at least we SHOULDN'T keep doing that.
And we haven't even mentioned Daniel Espino who we will have to roster this winter with very little chance of getting any return (in terms of major league production) from him next year.
We will likely have a roster crunch every year for the next few and, while I want to see some of these guys in the majors, it can only be if they are absolutely needed. Simply because they MIGHT help us win this year is not going to be a sufficient reason for them to be placed on the roster this year, have their arbitration and free agent clocks started and risk injury or a bad experience if they are not truly ready.
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