Thoughts About DeLauter and Manzardo

 DeLauter

• I was wondering about his swing.  He seems to connect with the barrel A LOT.   After watching him play this year it occurred to me that he hits a lot of medium to deep fly balls and I was wondering if that would result in him getting more than the average number of sacrifice flies.  He had 3 during the regular season this year in 242 PA, meaning that he would have probably had 7-8 if he had played an entire season.  So far in the AFL he's had 5 sacrifice flies in 53 PA.  Now, I get that he has had a lot of opportunities in the AFL as his team is scoring a lot.  But, still, he has taken advantage of those opportunities and I honestly think his odd swing helps get him more SF.  Being able to put up a sacrifice fly when you need a run is a good skill.  I think that would make him a good #6 or #7 hitter in our lineup even in back half of 2024.  
• He is 2-11 against LH pitching in the AFL and was hitting .244 with a .592 OPS in the regular season.   His ability to hit LH pitching is still in question.
• He can run for a big guy as he is 4-4 in the AFL in stolen bases after stealing 6 bags (9 attempts) in the regular season.  He's looked fast on the bases, at least to me and above average going from first to third, even while probably babying his recovering broken foot.
• His defense seems to destine him for a corner OF position and I would like to see more of him in RF to see if he his arm plays there.  In the regular season he had 2 OF assists, one from LF and one from RF.  In the AFL he has two assists from RF.  He did pitch in college which shows that his arm is above average, at least. 
• Although the AFL inflates offense stats he has walked more than he has struck out and has scored and driven in more runs in each of those categories than he has base hits. 

I think that he has a good chance to play in Cleveland sometime next year but I don't know if the Guardians will do that as they might want to hold him back until 2025 when they could get a full year out of him and put the team in position to get a draft pick from the PPI if he wins the ROY in 2025.  If he comes up in the middle of the year they can't get a PPI draft pick.  He has to be there to open the season or be called up for good less than two weeks into the ML season.  He could still play for a short time in September and retain his rookie status for the PPI in 2025.

DeLauter does not have to be rostered until after the 2025 season to avoid exposing him to the Rule 5 draft.

Kyle Manzardo

• He has been pathetic against LH pitching this year, He hit .159 against lefties in AAA this year on a sample size of 131 PA.  His OPS against lefties was .595.   This is not really a small sample size and is trending towards being a weakness that he has not addressed in the AFL, going only 2/13 against LH pitching there.  
• He has hit 5 balls a long way in the AFL.  You can say what you want about AFL hitter inflation but the guy has an OPS of over 1.000 so far in 49 PA but has struck out 12 times compared to 6 walks, which is not exactly a great rate if you are thinking he will be in the majors next year.  The best thing about that power surge is that it makes it look like his shoulder is healthy as its hard to imagine that level of HR production from someone with an injured shoulder.
• He has made 14 errors in the equivalent of one full minor league season at 1B.  He doesn't look smooth right now, even compared to Josh Naylor, so he likely appears, until he works more on his defense, as being a DH more than a 1Bman. He also has the disadvantage of throwing right handed as right-handed first basemen are at a disadvantage on pickoff throws and some throws to second base.  So, for the Guardians, he is the worst combination of being yet another LH bat while being a 1B-linited RH fielder.

If Manzardo showed even an inkling of being able to hit LH pitching or that he could play an above average 1B defense I could see him making the team out of spring training.  However, I see him starting 2024 back in Columbus.  I would rather give RHH Jhonkensy Noel a shot at 1B before Manzardo, even though I think Manzardo will end up as a better overall hitter of the two.  Just don't know if the limitations in Manzardo's game will cause him to have to polish his game up before he gets to the majors.  I don't however, think the Guardians would hold him back for PPI reasons.  I honestly don't think with what I have seen so far that he would put up the kind of numbers as a rookie, especially not in 2024, that would even keep him in the ROY conversation.  Also don't think another year at AAA would change his first year production in the majors.  So they can bring him up whenever they think he is ready.  He does have to be rostered after the 2024 season to keep him out of the Rule 5.