Thoughts for A Sunday -

 First, thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of the shooting victims in Monterery Park, CA.   I hardly ever go outside the lines of sports and usually stay firmly inside the realm of Guardians' baseball.  However, human tragedy strikes every day and it saddens me.  When that tragedy is created by human beings it is even more heartbreaking.  Prayers that we all be more accepting of everyone and that violence like this can end by that acceptance and the idea that helping takes less energy than hurting..

While, after this, it is hard to talk about baseball, let's dive in:

• From MLB trade rumors in a post about the Rockies: "The most significant move of the offseason was the surprising acquisition of young left-handed power hitter Nolan Jones for infield prospect Juan Brito back in November.".   Hmmm.  preach on, MLBTR.   Surprising indeed and a waste of a resource (Jones).   
• Along the same lines, Francona in an interview yesterday: “We have to be careful with our decisions,” said Francona. “We may hang on to guys longer than fans or you guys (the media) would like us to. But we have to be sure. We can’t out-spend our mistakes, so we try not to make them. It’s not the easiest thing to do.”  Let me start by saying that I get it.  What Francona says is the painful truth.  We can't give guys away without knowing that there is very little, if any, chance they will get better.  Zimmer, Chang, Miller, Mercado, Clement, Daniel Johnson etc. have gotten their chances and didn't run with them.  It is maddening to have watched these guys flail around as long as they did.   Still, looking at his statement how does that mesh with the Nolan Jones trade?  The truth is it doesn't and so I don't understand this trade, especially bringing back a very young player who had to be rostered that the Rockies likely would have left exposed to the Rule 5 and who will likely run out of minor league options before he is ready to stay in the majors.
• Just a follow-up on my mock draft post.  For the players I proposed to replace the ones the Guardians selected, here are their MLB Pipeline ranks.
• Daniel Susac - #4 for Oakland.  Rated right behind Zack Gelof (#94 overall, just ahead of Tanner Bibee) and right ahead of Kyle Muller, the headliner obtained from Atlanta in the Sean Murphy trade. [NOTE: Guardians drafted Chase DeLauter]
• Cayden Wallace - #3 for Kansas City, a couple of spots behind Gavin Cross who was #72 overall. [Note: Guardians drafted Justin Campbell]
• Jud Fabian - #22 Baltimore [NOTE: Guardians drafted Parker Messick]
• Jonathon Cannon - #11 White Sox [NOTE: Guardians drafted Joe Lampe]
• Dominic Keegan - #23  Tampa Bay [NOTE: Guardians drafted Nate Furman]
• Noah Dean - Not ranked in Red Sox top 30 [NOTE: Guardians drafted Guy Lipscomb]
• David Sandlin - Not ranked in Royals top 30 [NOTE: Guardians drafted Jacob Zibin]

 Not a lot we can make of this right now but the initial propsect rankings show that Susac and Wallace were quality picks, and Fabian Cannon and Keegan were on the radar.  To be fair, the guys the Guardians drafted are also on the top prosepct radar with DeLauter (#7), Campbell (#12), Messick (#24), , Zibin (#27), and Lampe (#29) making a strong Guardians top 30.

• FanGraphs published their Guardians top 50 prospects.  I think last year they had Steven Kwan rated much higher than the rest of us at #3.  Highlights of this year's ranking, which included our most recent international free agents, were:
• Logan Allen at #4.  They don't seem to find his diminished velocity and poor results at AAA to be that important
• Juan Brito at #12 - They don't seem to take into consideration his long development path for a guy on the 40-man.
• Jacob Zibin at #19 
• Davis Sharpe at #22 - Interesting. They had him at #22 last year so they must really like him.

The whole ranking system is pretty interesting for them.   I love getting expert opinions that I can compare to my non-expert opinions.