Monday Night Wrapup - The AFL Begins; Injury Reports on Injured Pitchers, Please; Other Things.

 THE AFL BEGINS

Chase DeLauter with a monster game tonight.  He might crash and burn the rest of the way but I expect him to be one of the stars of the AFL this year.  It will be interesting to see what scouts think of his interesting swing and his right foot plant...or lack thereof.

Kyle Manzardo went hitless.  I expect him to have a solid season in the AFL but, if he falls flat on his face, I would have to, once again, question the Guardians ability to evaluate hitters.

Jake Miller went 1.1 scoreless in a game that featured 20 runs and 11 pitchers pitching with only 4 unscored on.  The Guardians 2021 draft was just amazing. Miller was a 20th rounder and has been hurt almost since he was drafted and hasn't gotten to show all that he is,YET, but look at the college pitchers that came out of this draft

Gavin Williams (1)

Doug NIkhazy (2)

Tommy Mace (2s)

Ryan Webb (4)

Tanner Bibee (5)

Aaron Davenport (6)

Jack Leftwich (7)

Rodney Boone (8)

Will Dion (9)

Franco Aleman (10)

Hunter Stanley (11)

Davis Sharpe (13)

Trenton Denholm (14)

Alaska Abney (15)

Zach Pettway (16)

Tyler Thornton (17)

Jake Miller (20)

We can argue about the long term future of guys like Davenport, Boone, Stanley, Sharpe, Denholm, Abney, Pettway, Thornton and Miller but NONE of the college pitchers we drafted that year have pitched themselves out of the organization.  All of them, at some level, have performed and, in my opinion, their dreams of making it to the majors have not been quashed...so far.  That, for even a 20 round draft, is just amazing.

INJURED PITCHER UPDATES, PLEASE!

There are a number of injured pitchers who were draft picks (plus Gose) that it would be nice to have updates on.

Logan Allen

Tanner Bibee

Daniel Espino

Justin Campbell

Dylan DeLucia

Jacob Zibin

Geo Rivera Jr.

Javier Santos

Anthony Gose

Andrew Misiaszek

Nick Mikolajchak

Andrew Teaney

OTHER THINGS

• Hurston Waldrep, who advanced all the way up to AAA this year, is now the 100th best prospect in baseball (MLB Pipeline) and in his draft year.  He was the Guardians' obvious choice in the first round after we missed out on Colt Emerson.  Don't see either Emerson or Velazquez, our first round pick, on this list yet.  Waldrep reminds me of Gavin Williams in terms of his trajectory to the majors.

• Although not listed as injured, it would be nice to get an update on the health of Gavin Williams

• The managerial selection process has already begun but I would like to add some names to the list:
• Torey Lovullo
• David Ross
• Bud Black
• Mike Schildt
• John Farrell

I am just so much more comfortable with a guy with managing experience who can handle young players and low budgets like Kevin Cash and have had to deal with the day to day stress of being a ML manager.

• While getting a manager is important, getting better hitter evaluation and hitter instructional people are just as important tasks, IMO

• Still no reports from the instructional league.  It would be nice to get updates.