Saturday morning post

 What's right?

The Guardians are hitting the ball.  I make this prediction before tonight's game.   I think they bounce back and score a bunch of runs tonight.  I believe in this lineup.   Is it the best?  Absolutely not.   Put Juan Soto or Bryan Reynolds in this outfield and it would be a GREAT offense.  I just believe in it right now.  

The Guardians are pitching the ball well.  Yes, every pitcher on the roster has been successful.  No big flameouts.   Could they be better?  Sure.  The starters could go deeper and allow fewer runs.  Clase could be sharper.  The defense could help out the pitching staff by giving up less runs.

But I like the Indians so far.  Now, if there is a tougher part of their schedule I would like someone to show it to me so there is an outside chance that by next week at this time we could be looking at being 4-11.  Still, I like this team.

As far as the minor leagues, you gotta love the high K numbers our starting pitchers are getting.  It is too hard to gauge at this point how these gaudy stats will translate long-term as a number of these guys, like Espino, Logan T. Allen and Gavin Williams, among others, are giving up more hits and runs than I would like to see.   Time will tell.

Our minor league hitters are a mixed bag at this point.  Some of the high level prospects who struggled early this season are starting to trend up.  Guys repeating levels appear to be dominant, as expected.   And Arias and Noel look really solid to me, probably the most solid of the guys I have seen.

I love the signing of Ramirez. Exactly the right number of years to get to the right age.   Look at Pujols contract with the Angels.  Probably 3-4 years too long.   Ramirez, through his age 36 season, is about right.  Doesn't mean we won't sign him at the end of it, just means that we won't likely have to have him at age 37 what he was worth at age 29.  I love the signing of Straw.  As the weakest hitting player on the field (outside of the catcher) you can take what Straw gives you.   The signing of Clase is the most dicy but it isn't for a lot of money so it is the right length and the right dollars to hedge against him flaming out, no pun intended.

What needs fixing?

Well, besides trading for Soto or Reynolds, I would say that we have a number of guys like Chang, Bradley and Mercado who simply are not playing like quality major leaguers.  Why do I include Mercado?  Hey, he has run into some balls to get some extra base hits but, aside from those outliers he looks lke the same guy who has frustrated us (and I am sure, the Guardians) over the past two years.   The problem is the book isn't closed on any of these guys and they are all out of options.   So, give them away for nothing or let them rot on the bench?  Those are our only two options at this point if we don't throw them into a trade for Reynolds or Soto.

We have a number of guys on the DL in the minors with Freeman and Jones standing out.  I really want to get those guys playing as it will increase their trade value.  I don't honestly see either of them helping us this year due to their late start but they might surprise me...if they can just get on and stay on the field.

I would love to see more of our high end pitching prospects be successful.  Nikhazy has me scared with his struggles and early exit today.  I would love to see all of our 2021 college pitcher draftees be at least at Lake County with Williams, at least, be at Akron.   Having college pitchers pitching at Lynchburg does absolutely nothing as far as I can tell, to help evaluate them as true prospects.  Not like all 20 draft picks will end up being real prospects