I was really going to title this post "My Thoughts on the Current State of the Cleveland Guardians."
The text of the blog was then going to be "My mother taught me that if couldn't say anything nice then don't say anything at all" and that was going to be the entire post...because there is nothing nice I can say about this team right now.
But I was thinking about not just what was being done by this team but what was being said about this team by management and what was being done by that management to try to make this team better.
So let's go over that:
Francona has said that it is really hared to win in the major leagues the way the Guardians play baseball.
Antonnetti said, when describing the reason why the Guardians didn't bring Bo Naylor up, that their plan was to play the players who they felt gave them the best chance to win.
Francona also said that he just couldn't find places to put Tyler Freeman into games.
Francona also has had David Fry up for 23 days now and he has gotten 12 ABs.
Freeman has been up since May 6th and has hardly played, either.
Gabriel Arias has been up all season and has played a lot, putting up numbers very reminiscent of Oscar Mercado and Bradley Zimmer. Today he K'd, again, and grounded into a late DP to kill a potential rally.
Rocchio was up for a few games while Jose was on his bereavement leave but was sent back down. He did make two errors.
Rosario keeps playing and making mistakes. I read a tweet from Quincy Wheeler that said that since the Guardians got him Rosario is almost the worst SS in baseball defensively. His offense is not
But none of this tracks. If your M.O. is to win as many.games as possible, and what you are doing is not working, why not try something else? So let's talk about that:
Francona said it is hard to win the way Cleveland is playing but they were beaten by Romy Gonzalez, not by Tim Anderson or Yoan Moncada. We were beaten because our best hitters could not do what Gonzalez did when presented with similar situations. This crap about having a hard time winning the way we play doesn't track when the White Sox only hit one HR in this series, the same number as the Guardians. They only had 5 XBH hits in the series, 2 doubles apiece by Gonzalez and Benintendi and the aforementioned HR by Grandal. We actually outhomered the White Sox in this series. We were beaten because our hitters didn't hit at all and Francona played the same lineup, essentially, the whole series, Francona didn't play Freeman and Francona left Allen in too long in the second game just because he hadn't thrown many pitches, not considering that it is not the pitches but the number of times through the order that is important.
Not brnging up Naylor doesn't track if your offense is struggling and your current catchers can't throw out runners, the big dig against Naylor. Not playing Freeman doesn't track if Rosario is stinking it up and Arias is only mediocre at the plate.. Not using Fry doesn't track as your catchers are providing no offense.. Not keeping Rocchio up doesn't track as he is hitting so well right now AND plays in the Guardians' style doesn't tradk. Leaving his starting pitchers in too long doesn't track as it is not the number of pitches but the times through the order. Hey, I can even understand leaving Clase as the closer as, except for maybe De Los Santos, I don't see anyone who has a chance of being successful in that role on our team or in the minors. That, to me, does track, even if it is not working out right now. However, one thing that doesn't track is trusting his veterans when they continue to screw up game after game. It also doesn't track that Francona keeps playing the same guys, especially the veterans, when they don't produce. If it is so hard to win the way we play ball then why not at least try some other guys who might help you win now when your veterans are struggling.
Management is saying one thing but doing something else: They are favoring the more expeirenced players and not holding them accountable for their constant screwups. That is what they are doing and that is why we aren't winning. Hey, even if we go on a 20 game wnning streak starting Friday, it won't change what we are seeing right now: Veterans getting free pass after they screw up and rookies sitting on the bench, rusting away.
Look, Francona has hated rookies ever since hs has been here and only plays them when he has to. He makes them earn their playing time when his veterans continue to get passes when they screw up. He would rather stick to his struggling veterans and hope against hope they get hot. This is NOT trying to win games. It is trying to not get his veterans mad at him. He lost his job in Boston because the veterans were running the clubhouse and he favored his veterans. He needs to realize in Cleveland that you play your rookies when your veterans suck...like they are here.
OTHER THOUGHTS
Steven Kwan should never swing and miss on pitches ABOVE the strike zone, especially with two strikes on him. Today he did that twice. He is hitting so many fly balls that even his hits are on bloopers that are high in or above the strike zone. That is fixable if he will only change his approach. But he is not MADE to change his approach so he doesn't. Typical of how Francona treats more experienced players.
Today Josh Naylor got a hit. But in that at-bat, when we needed to start a rally, the pitcher threw four pitches outside the zone and Naylor swung at two of them, the second swing going for a basehit. If he would have just stood there he would have been on base. Obviously it wouldn't have helped his stats as much to do that, and maybe that is the point.
In the 9th Gimenez singled and was out trying to stretch that into a double...while being down 6-0. Some managers would bench Gimenez while Francona would only bench someone for doing that if that someone was a rookie.
Sure, the bullpen didn't give up a run but the White Sox were up 6-0 to a team they KNEW wasn't coming back. It was obvious that they were mailing it in when hitting so as not to embarass the Guardians any more than they already had AND to avoid anything that would be bulletin board fodder to help the Guardians get fired up the next time the two teams played. So even the one plus in today's game was meaningless when you consider the situation.
One last point on Rosario. Looking at the stats he is totally untradeable right now. We would be lucky to get the type of return we got for Will Benson. His stats show that he simply can't help a team win, either defensively or offensively. We have simply kept him too long and now he is pretty valueless as trade bait. And, unless he makes a huge turnaround, he won't be a positive influence on the field n this team winning games this year. So, given that, why wouldn't we just float him out there and get what we can for him right now...if the goal is to win as many games as possible.
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