Thoughts for a Thursday Morning - No Series in June Is Crucial...Except This One and Other Things

 MAJORS

• Anytime you win a series against a hot, first-division team in their home ballpark it is a good sign.  When your two veteran starters EACH get hammered for 8 runs in 4 innings it is pretty disturbing, though. 
• I try to tell myself that this is just another series but with teams starting to make decisions about whether they will be buyers or sellers at the deadline...or even right now, if the Guardians tank in Minnesote and end up leaving there 7 to 9 games under .500 I am afraid they will make the decision that this season is lost and they need to salvage what they can in prospects while still making the effort to compete.  As I said before I think Beiber, Straw and, especially, Rosario are still in play to be traded and what we have seen from these guys recently really lowers their trade value and doesn't help the ML team win this year.  Not a good situation for a team on the fence like Cleveland to find themselves in.
• Looking at the pitching matchups for this weekend it is obvious why the Twins are in first place: dominant starting pitching.  Let's see if the Guardians can continue their hitting breakout this weekend.  If they do it against these starters it is, to me, a really good sign.
• I don't know if people were paying attention but twice on Wednesday guys chose not to take the extra base on Arias' arm in right field.  It is a shame that he really hasn't shown he can hit ML pitching as if he could produce at the 2022 Oscar Gonzalez level with that arm he could be a useful player at multiple positions as evidenced by his THREE great plays the other day at 3rd when Ramirez DH'd.
• I don't have the stats to back it up but we have to be one of worst, if not the worst, team in the majors at requesting or failing to request a replay challenge.  I mean, yesterday was just another example where we WASTED our challenge on whether Ramirez should score on an errant throw from the OF.  It was obvious that he had stopped about 10 feet past second base and no way was he going to score if the ball hadn't gone out of play.  I probably can't read Francona this well but looking at him in the dugout I thought I saw him seething after being told to challenge that play.  Too many times I have seen the Guardians make ill-advised challenges or be too slow on the trigger to get a challenge when they would have won.  This is, to me, a MAJOR issue that needs to be corrected. And one that is EASILY fixed by people just paying attention to what is going on.
• Go Guardians!  Let's have a June this year like we had a September last year.

MINORS

• Hey, I had forgotten that Justin Boyd hits right-handed.  That's different.   Excited to see how he can produce now that he is back playing.
• I got to see Lynchburg hit against the Brewers young stud prospect Jacob Misiorowski and his high octane fastball.  Only Angel Genao solved him with a solid line drive up the middle.  Everyone else either took walks or faliled at heaters, mostly out of the zone, much like you would expect for young hitters like this who have likely never seen this level of veolocity except from maybe a pitch machine.  Good to see him be able to handle a tough fastball on the inner half of the plae.
• Herrin's fastball was electric.  I bet he is back up at some point this year and I think he has a 6th/7th inning future in the big leagues after he gets a little more seasoning.
• Not a good day at the plate for the Clippers' top prospects Naylor and Rocchio.  These things happen but you would like to get both of them on a roll in case the Guardians call.
• Zach Plesac.  Man, I just don't get it.  I can't tell if he is just so lost mechanically that no one can help him find his way out or if he just wants out of this organization and is tanking it so he gets his wish. After the 2020 incident I have wondered how much his heart is in this organization as Clevinger was his buddy and he might feel, as I did, that trading him was more of a sign that they wanted his personality out of the organzation more than that they saw the opportunity to fleece the Padres and leverage their excess of starting pitching into a long-term upgrade for the organization's prospect list and ML team's immediate success.   Clearly, after his first outing in Columbus where he went 7 strong innings, he has looked really bad.  This is not good for the Guardians who needed Plesac to find himself so he could be a viable option this year or so that he could be a valuable trade chip at some point this year.  Neither and I doubt it ever will with Cleveland even though part of me believes his value will return if he ends up with another organization like, say, the Yankees.
• Do Daniel Schneeman and Korey Holland have a chance to surprise all of us?  The longer they have success the more it looks like they might.  Time will tell but we are quickly moving out of small sample size range.
• Just when I was really concerend about Halpin and Martinez they have started to hit.  Brito is being Brito, which is not a bad thing if he can perform at AA like he performed at A+ earlier this year.
• Yesterday was not a good day for 2021 draftees at Lake County.  Fox did have a triple but is still hitting .194.  Johnston, Denholm and Thornton, all who have varying degrees of success this year, looked not too good on this one day.