Thoughts for a Wednesday

UPDATED TOP PROSPECT LIST 

1. I have updated my top prospects lists I just posted a couple of days ago.  Only a couple of changes at the bottom as I added in Connor Koxx (the guy is holding his own at AA in really only his 2nd pro season and has already stolen 20 bases which is a nice milestone meaning they think you have at least one above-average tool.  All of which will keep you in the organization's visibility.  Add that to the fact that he did get some play in ST and it means that, at least, he is on the periphery of their priority prospect list) and Melkis Hernandez (even though I take any Guardians' DSL pitcher who has had success with a grain of salt as their DSL pitchers tend to be older than normal and afterthought signings, he is a DSL all-star which counts for, at least, something).

DANIEL SCHNEEMAN

I love that, even though he got passed over for the cup-of-coffee promotion that Tena got, he is still raking and playing defense.  I love having the Guardians' AAA team in Columbus but it is a hitter's paradise which skews a player's stats so much that it makes it almost impossible to tell what is real and what is Memorex.  That being said, Schneeman is looking more and more like an organizational development success and less like an organizational filler and should have at least made his ML debut this year.  With Vallimont (at the time) we had a spot for him but used all our existing 40-man roster spots for Calhoun/Laureano.  Schneeman should have gotten the call based on PERFORMANCE.   It is such a boon for an organization to show that if an organizational player performs he will, at least, be able to fulfill his dream of getting into a ML game.  We have blown this opportunity and hopefully it won't come back to haunt us, either from a PR POV or in the loss of a real asset to the Rule 5 or a stupid trade (see below) this off-season.

ALEX CLEMMEY

Guardians Prospective posted that he will not play in the ACL this year but that he will be pitching in the Fall Instructs this year.   I have heard this tune before and then we get the announcement that a guy is being held back due to an injury, just in the abundance of caution.  Then, a little later, we hear that he is having some sort of arm surgery and is done for a year or so.    You can say that I am being paranoid and maybe I am but when Zinn and Bresnahan, two 2023 HS draftees, have each already pitched in ACL games, it adds extra fuel to the fire of Clemmey being injured.

 In ST they pass out daily activity lists and you could tell right away when certain pitchers were only doing PFP or were only doing strength training that they were having arm problems.  Every one of those guys (Campbell, Santos, Rivera Jr, DeLucia) ended up with arm surgery or a long-term rehab of some type.   This seems to be more of the same with Clemmey.    If he is, in fact, significantly injured and we paid $2.3 million (almost $900,000 over slot) for him, making him one of the two crown jewels of our 2023 draft and we find out that he may have been injured at draft time, it will be yet another black eye for our draft 'experts'.   An organization like Cleveland can't make these kinds of mistakes and to overpay for an injured guy (remember, it cost us penalty money as well as bonus money), is inexcusable, IMO. 

JOSE RAMIREZ HITTING SECOND

I don't know if I am more pissed that I didn't think of it at all or that it took the Guardians this long to think of it but the idea of hitting Ramirez 2nd is just genius.   As a fan by marriage of the Cardinals, I see the advantage of taking your MVP caliber position player (Paul Goldschmidt) and hitting him second.  We have been battling all year to find an effective 2-hole hitter and he was already here.  Now all we have to do is find another two run producers to hit in the top 5 with Josh Naylor filling the other slot.  

Also, in all transparency, I am, again, mad at me and mad at the Guardians for not seeing that Rosario would not be able to handle SS when he was put out on an island by the shift rules.  Although it would have been unconventional this team would have been a whole lot better if we had just put Rosario at DH and allowed one of the young middle infielders to start the year at SS.   It would have saved us a lot of money and frustration on Josh Bell.  That being said, most Cleveland fans would have been pissed if we had gone that direction as it wouldn't really have added offense to the club.  Bell was the PR-friendly signing but not the best baseball move.

ARE WE LOOKING AT PLAYER CONTROL MANUEVERING HERE OR WHAT?

It is really hard to figure out why Michael Kelly is still on this team with Karinchak at AAA.  The thought occurred to me with Bo Naylor and the Super 2 maneuvering that may have gone on there that maybe keeping Karinchak in the minors makes for so long makes it so he won't go to arbitration this winter.

Also, we likely wouldn't want to send any of our other current relievers besides Kelly down as none of them have used a minor league option this year and you wouldn't want to burn one for less than a month.  

So, I think Karinchak will be back up in September when the rosters expand and we keep him from being eligible for arbitration this winter and, even if he is, he won't have a strong case for a big bump in salary due to his year this year and his extended time in the minors.

Or, maybe we just think he is a headcase and we are done with him.  From all his pitch clock issues, his no vax stance and some other quirks in his behavior, maybe Francona is not mentally equipped to deal with guys like that and they are just freezing him out like they did Nolan Jones last year, ending up making some stupid trade over the winter to do an addition by subtraction thing.

Time will tell.

PERFORMANCE BUMPS BY THE PLAYERS WE TRADED.  DO WE HAVE AN INEPT PLAYER EVALUATION/PERFORMANCE PROJECTION METHODOLOGY?

Will Benson's double last night just poured salt in the wound of what has been a terrible 2.7 years for our FO.  Added to that the bump Bell got in his stats when he went to Miami, Nolan Jones platoon-limited but persistent performance this year, Benson's solidification as a major league with a MUCH reduced strikeout rate and even the help Owen Miller gave Milwaukee early in the year and the fact that we took cash over a PTBNL for him, reinforces my position that the FO sucks in making trades and, for the last two years, in drafting.   Add to that the 2+ years of control we gave up for a quality, reasonably-priced ML #3-4 starter in Civale (see KYLE MANZARDO below), it points out, once again that we are throwing away quality assets and not getting much back.  Small market teams like the Guardians can trade prospects but they have to get equal value back.  I doubt that in any of those trades above we got equal value back, reinforcing what I have said before.  Since the end of the 2020 season, we have made a lot of bad trades and signings and only have the David Fry for JC Mejia trade and Enyel De Los Santos signing as anything close to resembling positive moves.

KYLE MANZARDO

Here we are in the middle of August and the silence from the FO or player development staff on the status of Manzardo is deafening.    I think it is a distinct possibility that his shoulder injury is serious enough that we might not see him at all the rest of this minor league season or, at best, he might come back for a few games in a save-face cameo as our AAA DH to make it look like less than a disaster that we traded for a significantly injured prospect when we were holding all the cards when we had Civale.  Hey, Antonetti, you can't play the 'we're playing the long game' card when your moves fall flat on their face like this one appears to be doing.  Bringing in an injured guy who is so hurt he won't help you this year or for most of next year, if then.

PLAYOFF CHANCES

We keep hanging on the edges of getting back in the AL Central race and, thanks to Minnesota, we stay agonizingly close making every game pressre-packed.

That being said, we are still hanging on being buoyed by our young starting pitching being nothing short of outstanding.

Now if we can just keep hitting and get our other starting pitchers back and Josh Naylor can get healthy, maybe we can remain relevant in this race.  

I can tell you, last September and Ochave  The maddening situations and injuries we have seen this season have made it really hard on us die hard Guardians fans who have been spoiled by overperforming in the Francona years.