1. Besides family and friends, I am thankful I have been able to spend my relaxation time watching the Guardians. They are fun and a small blessing to all of us fans.
2. Looking at the return for one year of Hunter Renfroe two things come to mnd. Why would the Brewers trade him? Would we have wanted him at that price which may have been, translating to the Guardians farm system, as small as Eli Morgan and Hunter Gaddis? Not saying I would have made that trade but it is certainly interesting to consider bringing in a 31-HR guy who can play RF, even if only for 1 year.
3. At the relatively small cost, would Joely Rodriguez have made sense for the Guardians? I hope we do better than him in getting a second, quality lefty in the bullpen.
4. I am telling you, it really scares me that the Guardans are going to be making trades this winter. My guess is that they give Zach Plesac away as it is obvious they get robbed in these 'small' deals all the time.
5. Given that the Guardians have taken the approach to not let draftees play in the minors the year they are drafted (with a couple of exceptions each year, of course), I can't really do an analysis of this year's draft. Still, we can now talk about the 2020 and 2021 drafts as we have some data to talk about:
2020 - This was the truncated, 5-round, pandemic year draft. I currently rate this draft as an A-, which is surprising as our first round pick, Carson Tucker, may be playing himself out of professional baseball. I know he has had injury issues but when I saw him play this year he looked very weak and overmatched AT LOW A BALL. His defense looked shaky. He basically looked like a 20th round pick. The rest of this draft looks really solid although, right now, I don't see a single star emergng from this draft. That beng said, Tanner Burns and Logan T. Allen look like solid pitching prospects and Mason Hickman may actually have some helium as a reliever. The other HS position player prospects, Tolentino and Halpin, have both shown promise. Bottom line: In a strong farm system to have 4 of your top 5 draftees be in your top 30 at this point is a really good sign and to have Hickman maybe moving fast as a reliever, this has the potential to be a really good draft down the road for the Guardians.
2021 - This is, of course, the college pitcher draft where 18 of the 21 picks were college pitchers. It is too early to tell about some of these guys but Gavin Williams and Tanner Bibee are already top 10 prospects in our system and, currently at least, on a fast track to Cleveland. Other college pitchers from this draft have had varying degrees of success with the jury on Nikhazy, Mace and Webb still beng out. Plus Jake Fox, our lone HS position player drafted, looks like a keeper. Even Connor Kokx looks like he could turn into the next Will Brennan. In fact, at this point, none of these guys have shown themselves to be washouts or just organizational filler. With possible conversions to the bullpen for a number of these guys and for already implemented bullpen conversions for some others, this draft stll has significantly more upside than it has shown in performance so far...and some of those performances, albeit from college pitchers in A ball, are eye-popping. I give this draft an A with a chance to move into the uncharted "A+" territory in the next year or two if everything continues on the upswing.
2022 - Again, I hated this draft. It wasn't, in my opinion, drafting for talent. It was very Moneyball-like where guys without the most talent were drafted because they fit the mold of Cleveland players who were CURRENTLY successful. I have already made my mock draft piccks for this draft and I stick by them. We will know more after the 2024 season as I anticipate most of these guys will spend all or the bulk of their season at high A ball. If the Guardians surprise us and start some of these college hitters at AA and they perform out of the gate with a varied, quality skill set, I will reasses. However, right now, I give this draft an on-paper grade of B- with a chance to go bust if the model they are drafting from falls flat on its face at the ML level in 2023.
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