Thoughts For A Sunday: The Result Was Good, The Signs Were Not Good

 We won the game....yeah.  The Twins did their best to give us the game and, this time, we did just enough not to give it back.

But there were some signs there that weren't that good, in my opinion.

• Andre Knott said that the Guardians said they 'need to get Gabriel Arias going because he is an important part of our future.' or something like that.  So they demote Oscar Gonzalez and put Arias in RF.  In true Amed Rosario fashion, he drops a very catchable fly ball.  For the game Arias was 0-2 with 2 Ks and 1 BB.  For the season he   For the season he is hitting .171 and has K'd 21 times in 47 ABs.  Last yera he hit .193.  In 2022 he hit .240 at AAA with 13 HRs in 288 ABs with 78 Ks.  Note that 2022 was his second full season in AAA.  They just sent Oscar Gonzalez down to 'get him going'.   

WARNING SIGN: They played Arias out of position against a tough right-handed pitcher when Brennan was available just to 'get him going'.  His defense almost cost us the game and his offense was non-existent.  He should be sent to the minors to get plenty of reps to get himself going.  The comment, the position he was playing, his stats, EVERYTHING, screams send him to the minors to get his act toghether.

• David Fry continues to sit.  I am reminded of two movies
• Wilfred Brimley in "The Natural" saying "Well, I may have to take him but it doesn't mean I have to play him.  EVER."
• The guy playing the Art Howe character in "Moneyball", refusing to play Scott Hatteberg at first base.  Then Billy Beane trading Carlos Pena so that Howe had no choice.

Fry is not chopped liver.  I have watched him play for two years at AAA.  He is professional, has played good defense, ESPECIALLY this year at 1B and 3B, can play some in the outfield and has about A MILLION TIMES more experience playing catcher than Gabriel Arias has playing RF.

WARNING SIGN:  The guy comes up and sits except for one ridiculous pinch-running assignment where, as a slow white guy, he replace Josh Bell on second base...in an at-bat where he could have pinch hit with the bases loaded in a game we were winning in the top of the 9th.  Instead, Francona pinch hit Gonzalez who was in a season-long slump.  Francona should have pinch hit Fry in that situatuon.  I get that these are all important games and maybe Fry will play against Detroit but the guy has now sat for about 5 days without playing.  How effective do we think he will be with that layoff facing ML pitching for the first time?  Can we say self-fulfilling prophecy?

• Josh Bell was, in my opinion, safe yesterday when Miranda bobbled a potential doubleplay ball.  The Guardians didn't challenge when I think they would have won.  I have seen a number of times this year when they weren't quick enough on the trigger or simply didn't challenge plays they could have won.  I don't know how they compare to other teams in that regard but, from where I sit, they are too slow or simply do not get good information about when to challenge and when not to, losing a number of opportunities for rallies.  Not that they are bad all the time, but when they are bad, they are really bad at it.

WARNING SIGN: Francona never looks quick on these things and more than once this year he was bailed out by the umpires cutting him some slack when he didn't really challenge in time.  It just seems like he is too slow.  This is something that can be fixed by quick information back to him.  This needs to be fixed.

• Brayan Rocchio is mashing.  He is making highlight reel plays although, truth be told, he is not as good at SS as Arias is.  Still, he is a switch-hitter who is hitting for average, steals bases and can play around the infield.  The fact he wasn't brought up when Gonzalez went down is disturbing.  I love Tyler Freeman's potential but the reason I think he came up is because he has been in the majors before.  It was clearly Rocchio's turn, especially since Freeman has never played the outfield in his life except for one game in a HS all-star game.

WARNING SIGN; Don't know what the warning sign is here except that maybe Francona will always opt for the more experienced guy, even if he isn't the right guy. 

• Bunting - I have already covered how Francona is not very good at the bunt, not considereing the guy who is bunting but, rather, assuming that everyone can bunt, especially rookie middle infielders, when, in fact that isn't true.  I have already documented how he asked Freeman to bunt when the guy had only 3 sacrifices in 1500 plate appearances in the minors.  One could argue that top prospects are not asked to bunt so that may skew his numbers but, really?  Ask a guy to bunt who doesn't have much experience?  

WARNING SIGN: I am not against bunting in general but I am against bunting the way Francona deploys it.  When Austin Hedges bunted I was all over it because (a) he couldn't hit and (b) knowing he couldn't hit he learned how to bunt effectively.  With this team and it's speed, you don't have many situations in which you HAVE to bunt, and, in my opinion, you only bunt in today's baseball when you absolutely have to.

• The wild and crazy Jose.  Twice this week he has done, how can I put this, overly aggressive things on the bases. 

WARNING SIGN: To me, when your captain and leader is doing crazy stuff it is a sign of desperation and you don't want to see that out of your leaders, either players or management.  So, there's that.

• Arias in RF.  Hey, my wife knows baseball. As we were watching Arias drop that ball yesterday, I said that I think it was his first game in RF ever.  She said 'Really, and he is playing it in the majors?'  My thought exactly, darling.  Shades of Amed Rosario.  Deploy a guy at a position he isn't comfortable in.  David Fry would have been soooo much better in terms of experience in the outfield than Arias.

WARNING SIGN: To me, learning to play a new position happens in the winter and in ST.  How many times did we hear that Freeman was going to be getting reps in the OF in ST but we never, NEVER saw it in a game.  Then he was going to play RF in Columbus the day before he was called up.  Really? One game, wave the magic wand and then he is good.

So, now we are at gametime.  But some things to watch for over the next couple of weeks.