Sunday Morning Odds and Ends

•  Zunino is just bad.  He has tried to get better but, at this point, he is just bad.  Yesterday's game was embarrassing.  The Pirates have Austin Hedges catching for the same $6 million we are paying Zunino.   33-30 while the Guardians are 30-34.  Zunino is hitting .179 with an OPS of .591 while Hedges hits .179 with an OPS of .468    Zunino has 5 passed balls, 18 wild pitches and a CS rate of 18%..  Hedges has 0 PB, 11 WP allowed and a 16% CS rate.  No one really wants Hedges back but signing Zunino was a mistake.  If Gallagher didn't suck I would say to DFA Gallagher and bring up Bo Naylor, who has a 16% CS rate with 2 PB.  However, Gallagher brings nothing to the table and is cheap.   I would DFA Gallagher and bring up Naylor, making Zunino the backup.

• Today is Zach Plesac decision day.  It has been a week since he was DFA'd.  He needs to be traded or outrighted to the minors, or released, today.  The release would be the only one that doesn't make sense.  We still pay him his salary if we release him or have him in the minors.

• Owen Miller decision day is June 15th.  By that day we have to decide who the PTBNL as that date marks 6 months since he was traded to Milwaukee

• It is now less than one month (July 9th) from the start of baseball's first year player draft where I think they do rounds 1-2.  Rounds 3-10 will be done on July 10th.  .  It is also exactly one month from the last day of that draft where teams draft in rounds 11-20.  Teams can officially start signing undrafted free agents the next day but it usually takes some time for those announcements to come in as the guys who were not drafted are free agents who can negotiate with all 30 teams.

• As expected, Nolan Jones plus Colorado's thin air is producing results.  He has an OPS of 1.030 in 50 PA so far.  He has 16 Ks and 4 BB, acceptable for his power profile.   I still can't believe that he was only worth a guy, Juan Brito, that the Rockies were looking to dump because they didn't want to waste a 40-man roster spot on a guy with little power, little speed and bad defense.  On the plus side, Brito is taking to his promotion to Akron (OPS of 1.004 n 56 PA after .803 at Lake County in 161 PA), exactly  what he needed to do and where he needed to be if he is on a time table that would get him to the majors for good if he is to get to the majors BEFORE his minor league options are exhausted.  BTW, I think Nolan Jones is out of minor league options after this year.  

• Will Benson is back in the majors with Cincinnati, albeit posting Benson-like numbers: 20 K in 62 PA, .193 BA, .539 OPS.  Steve Haffer is rehabbing in Arizona putting up mediocre numbers while Justin Boyd, still trying to get acclimated to Lake County, is hitting .154 with an OPS of .536.   

• Ross Carver got bombed in his rehab start with our ACL team, giving up 6 ER in 1.3 innings.  Meanwhile Carlos Vargas is struggling at AAA after being wild in Arizona before being sent down.

• Not surprisingly, Richie Palacios was the DFA for Cody Morris.  Palacios started off hot but has really cooled off lately and his defense in the OF was really subpar.  Hopefully he clears waivers and stays in the organization.   I think this is a case where they sent him back to AAA and asked him to become someone he is not.   Part of me wishes he would get picked up by another team that would have a spot for who he IS, not who they think he could be.   Seems like they said 'Kwan is the same type of player but is better and we only need one Kwan'....then they go out and draft in 2022 a bunch of Kwan clones and trade for one, Justin Boyd.   

• David Fry has 18 PA in 6 weeks on the roster.  And it seems like Francona only uses him late in games and at catcher, his weakest position.  I felt really bad for Fry in Friday night's game.  In a pressure-packed game like that you can't put a rookie in who you have frozen on the bench for a month and a half and expect him to not be exposed.  Whether it is a fact or just my imagnation, the perception that is being created by what Francona is doing with Fry is to make him look so bad we have to either send him to the minors or DFA him.    I say again, Fry is the PERFECT guy to be your #26 on the active roster...but you have to give the guy playing time.  Today they start Arias at 3B when Fry is solid there defensively and he needs to get ABs.

• Manning commented yesterday that Freeman looks like the kind of guy who, if you play him solidly for a month, he could be a real asset to this team. It only seems like Francona lets these guys rot on the bench and then puts them into to tight spot and if they perform THEN he gives them more playing time, generally starting the day after.   Don't understand that.  It's not the way to build confidence in a human being, especially in a difficult sport like baseball.