Thoughts for September 16th

 MINOR LEAGUES

Akron has finished their season.  Here are my thoughts on several position players who started in Lake County or were injured during the season but finished the season in Akron:

• Ralph Velazquez finished the season in Akron and finished with an OPS of .994.  I see him as a top 100 prospect in baseball this winter on at least some ranking websites
• Wuilfredo Antunez hit well at both Lake County and Akron, maintaining his OPS and SB rate with a drop in power and walk rate after the promotion.  The Guardians will have an interesting choice deciding on whether he will be placed on the 40 man this winter in order to protect him from the Rule 5.
• Angel Genao was hampered by injury but remains a top prospect in the Guardians' system.  He finished the year strong, pushing his BA to .260 with concomitant improvement in his SLG, OBP and, of course, his OPS. 
• Jorge Burgos is an under-the-radar prospect who stays interesting.  He ended the season injured but put up good numbers leading to 73 RBI and 14 HRs in only 355 ABs.  
• Jacob Cozart looked like a AAAA catcher in his time in Lake County but hit a little better when promoted to Akron.  I still think he profiles as a ML backup, something that that you don't want to see in a 2nd round catcher.  BTW, Antonneti said that they really liked Khal Stephen in the 2024 draft but just couldn't draft him.  Well, Cozart was drafted BEFORE Stephen in the 2nd round, meaning they liked Cozart better than Stephen. 
• Alfonsin Rosario struggled upon his promotion to Akron but finished with 5 HRs and 6 2B in 128 ABs after a good season in Lake County. 

I will have a complete article on Akron after the baseball season is complete but suffice it to say that there is a lot of talent on the current roster and it will be interesting to see how many of these guys are rostered by the Guardians this winter to protect them from the Rule 5..

Lynchburg goes for the Carolina League championship tonight with Joey Oakie on the mound.  Oakie finished strong in the ACL and carried that momentum to Lynchburg where he has just been dominating.  I think it likely will help him that he has not faced Columbia in the past.  If he is on, the Hillcats have a good chance of winning the league title.  Even if they lose tonight they still can win tomorrow but it would be great for Oakie if they could win tonight with him on the mound.

Columbus finishes their season this week and it would have been great to see Valezquez get a cup of coffee with the Clippers or DeLauter get back for a few games. But I guess that is not to be unless there is an injury that requires a replacement.  Still, if we could get a promotion for a guy like Austin Peterson it would decrease a little suspense regarding who is getting promoted this off-season.

Lake County ended their season by getting swept in the playoffs but defeating Great Lakes (Dodgers) head-to-head in the last series to make the playoffs was, by far, better than any first round win in the playoffs, especially since the Dodgers held off promoting their best players until after their season was done, likely with the goal of keeping the roster strong just to make the playoffs.  If you look back, the Guardians DID promote some of their better players at Lake County to Akron in August, meaning they were actually more concerned with player development than winning a meaningless (unless a Cleveland farm team wins, of course, LOL) minor league championship.

GUARDIANS

At the beginning of the year I didn't think the Guardians had a chance to make the playoffs as they actually got weaker from last year, trading away Gimenez and Josh Naylor. I predicted that the most likely result, even factoring in the returning players and that Vogt was really a good manager, was an 84-78 record.  Given everything that has happened this season, the Guardians being 78-71 going into Detroit tonight is pretty remarkable.  

I promised about 23 weeks ago that I wouldn't scoreboard watch but I have already broken that promise.  So, resetting to tonight's game, I promise to just enjoy my favorite team, whatever happens,  and only peak, out of the corner of one eye, at the scoreboard.  Look, it isn't perfect, but it's the best I can do which, I guess, is the output of the Guardians playing meaningful games in the last half of Setptember.

Go Guards!