Thoughts For A Saturday

 1. Jonathon Rodriguez Rostering

Thank you!  The only burning question is why can't the Guardians develop power hitters to shore up their weaknesses (generally high K rates, not using the whole field) while enhancing their strengths.  Reyes, Bradley and now, Gonzalez, Noel and Rodriguez, not to mention Jones, Benson, Yandy Diaz, Yainer Diaz, the list goes on.  The organization needs to do better as, because of their lack of development of power hitters, they will now be trading prospects this winter or paying a lot in free agency to get what they need.

2. Alfonso Rivas...WTF?

So, the first move of the off-season was to pick up Rivas on waivers.  The issue with this guy are:

• He was waived by the Pirates, which generally means he is not a very good player, especially when waived at this time of the year.  
• He is 27 years old and has never had success in the majors
• He hits LF and is primarily a first baseman
• As he is a waiver claim, he cost us $50,000
• We need roster space to add prospects by Nov. 15th to protect them from the Rule 5 draft.
• This was their first move of the off-season, essentially setting the tone for their off-season making this a really bad PR move
• No one, and I repeat, NO ONE, understands this move and essentially EVERY serious Cleveland baseball fan is rolling their eyes at this acquisition and I can tell you that essentially NONE of those fans even realized that the waiver claim cost us $50,000.  

This is not a good first move of the off-season.  It smacks as if someone in the organization in power wanted this guy.  It has been suggested that maybe the new manager has been identified and he said he wanted this guy.  If so, you really have to question that managerial choice.  Rivas is the kind of AAAA player who gets a minor league deal at the beginning of March as an organizational filler.

3. Lack of Catching Prospects in the Organization

A recent listing of the players in the Guardians' organization who are Rule 5-eligible showed included 11 catchers.  Only one of those, Bryan Lavastida, is as this point even a borderline prospect.  A futher look through the farm system shows that the only catching prospects are international signings who were at Lynchburg, ACL and DSL teams.  

There is literally a lack of catching prospects in this organization and much of that comes from not prioritizing catching prospects in the draft.  We have umpteen MIF prospects and umpteen OF prospects and umpteen pitching prospects but no catching prospects.

Note that in my mock draft for 2022 I prioritized college catchers and would have selected Daniel Susac over Chase DeLauter and Dominic Keegan over Joe Lampe.   In each case we would have gotten a quality prospect.

Susac, known as an excellent defender, hit .300 between A+ and AA this year with an OPS of .793

Keegan, more of an offensive catcher, profiles a lot like David Fry as he has a background as a position player.  He played overage in A ball and at league-average age in A+ ball this year and had on OPS of .852.  He is currently tearing up the Arizona Fall League with an OPS of 1.079 which ranks 5th in the league.  Note that unlike 2023 overdraft Cooper Ingle, Keegan was actually a very highly rated prospect at draft time and drafting him in the 3rd round would have been at the time and continues to appear to be really good value at that slot, not just as a catcher but as an excellent available and signable player in the draft at that point.

In hindsight if they had drafted Susac and Keegan and kept Nolan Jones, this organization would be in better shape, catching-wise and actually OF-wise then it is now.

4. AFL Homerun Derby and All-Star Game

Tonight is the HR Derby in the AFL and tomorrow is the annual AFL all-star game.  It is good that the Guardians have 3 of their representatves (Manzardo, DeLauter and Webb).  None of them are having great statistical AFL seasons.  Each has had their moments.  Webb leads the AFL in strikeouts.  Manzardo has had essentially 5 tape measure HRs and DeLauter is tied for the lead league in RBIs and has almost as many XBH as he has Ks and a 13/9 BB/K ratio.  Stats in the desert don't mean a lot but these are stats that given some hope for the future that each of these guys could be a bright piece of the Guardians' feature for the next 6-7 years.

5. More AFL

Christian Cario, Bradley Hanner, Ross Carver and Eric Sabrowski are all putting in the work in the AFL although they are not really priority prospects.  They have given themselves a chance to have priority positions in the Guardians' minor leagues next year.