Random Ramblings - Thursday Night Edition

 1. Guardians Prospective Twitter asked which two players would you bring up when the rosters expanded. While that is a loaded question as it might require more than a simple addition of two players currently on the active part of the 40-man roster (remember, we have 2 players currently on the 60-day IL who don't count against that roster).   So, with that proviso, the two players I would add on September 1st would be:

Bo Naylor (requires removal of one player, Anthony Castro, from the current 40-man roster)

Cody Morris (requires reinstatement from the 60 day IL and, in a parrallel move, removal of one player from the 40 man roster, which would likely be Kirk McCarthy, although it could be Ernie Clement).

We will have to add Morris to the active 40-man sometime soon as we can't continue to have him on the 60-day as his rehab stint is about to expire and that will likely require bumping someone off the 40-man anyway so it's not like doing what I think the Guardians would prefer to do (adding guys already active on the 40-man) would be possible anyway.  Naylor is an obvious add as he could bring some offense to the lineup and he would be added to the 40-man this winter, anyway.

I am not saying that either of these guys would make the playoff roster if we make it that far, but I just see Naylor and Morris, if their stars align and they can perform and stay healthy in September, making the biggest impact in leverage situations in September games and beyond.

This would leave Pilkington, Vargas, Curry and Gaddis as emergency pitcher callups in case of injury and Arias, Lavastida, Nolan Jones, Brayan Rocchio, Ernie Clement (if not DFA'd) and George Valera as emergency position player callups. 

Another thought: If we are trying to catch lightning in a bottle we might send down Palacios and bring up Valera or send down Miller and bring up Arias.  Those moves would still give us the flexibility to put Miller and Palacios on the playoff roster(s), should that be needed.

Unfortunately, at this point, I just don't see a path for Will Brennan to make his major league debut as I don't see who, at this moment, we could and would DFA from our current 40-man if we, indeed, plan to bring up Naylor (obviously the Morris activation will be, I think, mandatory even if he isn't recalled from Columbus and someone from the 40-man will have to be DFA'd in any case).

2. Today's start did not ease my concern about what is going on with Logan T. Allen.   Maybe he has just reached the wall after a long season as he is now being tested against better competition.  In any case, color me still concerned.

3. Just couldn't quite get the big hit today.   It doesn't get any easier the rest of the year so let's just keep rooting and hoping that we continue to play good ball and get a lot of wins.    It is good that Minnesota and the White Sox have been losing, though.  It keeps the pressure off us.  Still, I would like to go into the the day after Labor Day with a bigger lead than we have now.

4. Bibee and Burns looked good the last two nights.  I still worry about a loss of velocity for either of them and they don't show the velo on the screen for Akron home games so...I am not sure if anything is going on.

5. I saw Dylan Beavers and Jud Fabian and Dylan Beavers play for Delmarva the last couple of nights and it reminded me how nice it would have been to draft Fabian and made me, again, wonder if we made the right selections in the most recent draft.  Also saw Jackson Holliday in his pro debut and, as I said in a previous post, seeing your top draft picks do their intro cameos this year DOES raise the excitement level for next year.  Doesn't appear to be the Guardians MO, however.

6. Korey Holland broke the Mendoza line tonight.   I know this doesn't even make a glitch on the seismic prospect impact device but I hope it is a sign of things to come in future years.  Ditto for Aaron Bracho.

7. Nice to see Valera, Noel, Tena, Rocchio, Mace, Halpin, among our best prospects, have good days today.

8. Those of you who have read my posts over the past couple of years know that I have begged to have Mason Hickman transition to the bullpen.  Even though today he looked more like the hittable version we have seen of Hickman as a starter in the low minors and that his success at AA should be expected given his age and draft status (year and round), it is nice to see that the Guardians appear to be going all in on the experiment to convert Hickman into a leverage reliever.

9. Looking ahead to the Rule 5, it will be interesting to see which players the Guardians assign to the Arizona Fall League.  My early predictions would be Lavastida, Mikolajchak, Vargas and Arias (to work on first base and the outfield).  I think the Guardians will not put  alot of guys on this team who they don't think they will roster this fall.  Thus they only add one, Mikolajchak, who needs more innings this year than he has right now.  

10. Finally, I am so thankful that I got to see my favorite team on Tuesday and look forward to seeing them more next year if I can get to a game or two in San Diego.  Go Guardians!