GUARDIANS
1. Shane Beiber last night looked like Shane Beiber. With a combination of command and moxie and Gallagher helping him out, Beiber gave us 7 strong innings. Due to Beiber's low pitch count Francona, as usual, took the bait and sent him out for the 8th with disastrous results...again. No doubt aided by a little gamesmanship from the Torey Lovullo (phantom argument and intra-inning pitching change to a same-handed reliever, Beiber did not pitch well in the 8th. Francona should have seen what was going on and removed Beiber instead of just counting pitches.
2. Freeman as the pinch runner for Bell in the 8th and Arias as the pinch hitter for Brennan in the 9th was appropriate ONLY because Freeman has not been trained in the OF and Francona won't even consider putting Fry out there because, of course, guys who play catcher can't ever be outfielders. It worked out as Arias took a walk but it wasn't the right play. Ditto for Fry pinch hitting for Gallagher was also the wrong call as Freeman should have been saved for an important pinch hitting role instead of a generic pinch running spot.
3. Rosario with 3 hits (albeit 2 infield hits) was encouraging. Now trade him.
4. Kwan with 4 solid hits was encouraging. Don't trade him.
5. If you remember, in 2021 the Guardians had a winning record when they gave up on the season at the all-star break and Francona went on medical leave. I doubt they pull the plug on this season but if they ever were going to pull the plug on a season, now would make a lot more sense than 2021 did, at least in terms of the fact they had a winning record in 2021 when they sent the season down the drain.
MINORS
1. As the 2023 draft approaches, most of our key prospects continue to tank, including every draftee from 2022. This will be one of the most crucial drafts in Guardians' history unless we somehow turn Beiber, Straw and Rosario into a bunch of great prospects.
2. With MiLB now being part of my MLB TV package I get the opportunity to see a lot of games. This once again shows me how a small viewing window can give misimpressions of overall performance. Aside from watching top pitching prospects pitch, it doesn't seem time effective to look at batters every game when the best fail 7 out of 10 times.
3. PTBNL Watch
a. for Owen Miller - Announcement overdue. I want my Owen Mller PTBNL and he better be a good one.
b. Richie Palacios - I think we are getting cash in this case.
4. Winter minor trade results watch:
a. Will Benson for Justin Boyd and Steve Hajjar - So far this one sucks as Boyd and Hajjar have not looked good and Benson is, at least, giving the surging Reds some needed immediate help.
b. Carlos Vargas for Ross Carver - So far this one looks like a wash for both teams although maybe we get something later.
c. Nolan Jones for Juan Brito _ Too early to really tell but let's hope this turns out to be an even trade down the road with 'even' meaning that Brito is worth more than Jones as we have to wait years for him to get to the majors. Jones is giving Colorado some initial ML help.
d. Owen Miller for PTBNL - We will see if this one turns out to be anything at all.
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