Wow, how things have changed!
The Guardians get good enough starting AND relief pitching to win the series and, instead, get swept, allowing Minnesota to move to within 2 games and KC to move to within 3 games of tieing for the AL Central lead.
Fangraphs still has us with a 90% chance of making the playoffs and an over 50% chance of winning the AL Central but right now it seems more tenuous than that.
So, in this Monday that is filled with trepidation and question marks for many fans of the Guardians, and anger for others, let's unpack a lot of things:
THE FRONT OFFICE
Right now I think this front office absolutely sucks. I mean, really sucks. Hardly ever use that language on this blog but I don't know how else to say it. Unpacking all the moves they have made since the end of last season, here's what we have:
- Cal Quantrill & Enyel De Los Santos for Scott Barlow & Cody Huff - OK, so this was 2 deals but the FO said at the time that they could not have taken on Barlow's salary unless they shed Quantrill's. Turns out Barlow was NOT the backup closer we wanted and is now the 6th or 7th reliever option for the Guardians. Cody Huff is just who we thought he was: a throw-in with little or no chance of making an impact in the majors. The only yukker in this situation is that the Padres AND the Yankees weren't able to get what the Guardians got out of De Los Santos but both those teams will make the playoffs without a significant contribution from EDLS.
- Signed Ramon Laureano for $5 million to avoid arbitration. We were told how tight money was when we had to do a salary dump with Quantrill, then we overpay for the journeyman OFer Laureano who we cut when we realize that he had never really been since his PED suspension in 2019. Then he proceeds to get picked up by Atlanta and, with the Guardians picking up most of his salary, he has proceeded to a .782 OPS with 6 HRs in 91 ABs.
- Signing Ben Lively - Probably the single positive thing except for the draft lottery that came out of this off-season, Lively has been a lifesaver. When you are only 2 games ahead in the standings there are a lot of players who you can say that about but the Lively signing was a clear win
- Signed Austin Hedges - I feel now like I did then. Hedges was a good signing but, in the face of having to trade Quantrill to afford Barlow, it was a questionable financial decision. Again, a big win for the FO here.
- Signed Carlos Carrasco - Although some may disagree, I think this was a good signing. He ate innings and has been a veteran influence in the clubhouse. Their mistakes in not having enough SP depth exposed Carrasco. He would have been great as a long man.
- Estevan Florial for Cody Morris - This trade was doomed from the beginning. The only thing that saves this trade is that Cody Morris has given the Yankees nothing. But the trade was terrible as the Guardians kept Florial and returned Deyvison De Los Santos to the Diamondbacks and he has blossomed this year into one of the better prospects in baseball. The FO gambled on the wrong guy and lost...again.
- Acquired Alfonso Rivas on waivers - A 4A firstbaseman in an organization with Naylor, Manzardo, Fry, Noel and others. Waste of a move by this FO
- Jaime Barria, Adam Oller, Tyler Zuber, Anthony Banda, Tyler Beede all signed as minor league free agents. None contributed anything to the Guardians and all were gone by the beginning of June.
- Acquired Wes Parsons, Darren McGaugher, Spencer Howard, Peter Strzelecki and Zac Kent off waivers. None of them except for Strzelecki really provided anything to this team.
- Traded Jose Tena, Alex Clemmey and Rafael Ramirez Jr. for Lane Thomas - This was a questionable trade at the time as Thomas was trending toward being a platoon player. Still, he had speed, was a solid veteran on defense and had some room to improve when he was traded to a contender. Instead, he has been, so far, the absolute worst position player who has played for the Guardians this year. While Tena is a poor defender and not that athletic, Clemmey is more of a long-term project than most would have liked given his bonus, and Ramirez looked really bad at Lynchburg, Thomas has given us absolutely nothing and has taken playing time away from prospects.
- Traded Jacob Bresnahan and a PTBNL for Alex Cobb - Cobb came to Cleveland on the IL and now is back on the IL with a fractured finger nail, throwing our rotation into chaos once again. Whether you liked this gamble on paper it has not worked out in the Guardians favor so far.
- Signed Matthew Boyd - So far this looks like a great signing as opposed to getting robbed for SP talent if we had traded at the deadline.
- Picked Pedro Avila off waivers, DFA'd Xzavion Curry - I put these two together as Curry did in 2023 what Avila has done in 2024. We didn't need Avila and having him meant that the Guardians totally screwed over Curry, jerking him around to the point that he pitched poorly. We all knew he wasn't a SP so him failing in that role at Columbus was no surprise even though he was good in spot starts for the Guardians early in the year. So if you think Avila was a good signing it was more than made up by the loss of one of our own, Xzavion Curry...for nothing.
So, the FO, starting in November 2023 has made 5 good moves: Boyd, Lively, Hedges, Strzelecki, Carrasco. Every other move was bad and has either hurt the team this year and in the future or was unneeded and not fruitful, with none of them providing anything positive for this team. The FO have screwed this season so far by not giving the team enough resources to win and, in many cases, squandered valuable resources (prospects) without getting anything tangible in return. The FO of a small market team has to be better than this. These people have failed us this season.
POSITION PLAYERS
We have had to endure Florial, Arias, Freeman, Rocchio, Bo Naylor, Jonathon Rodriguez, Manzardo, Tena, Schneeman and Noel this season. While Schneeman and Noel have provided some spark and Rocchio has played good defense AT TIMES, not a single one of these players has helped this team significantly this year, with a number of them getting sharing the Oscar Mercado award for breaking our hearts with repeated, frustrating poor performances this year. Look at every one of these players and compare them to Austin Hedges, who is offensively challenged at historic levels. Hedges scraps and claws and does what needs to be done to help this team offensively. All I see from the rest of these guys is disbelief that they screwed up again and again when we only needed one or two of them to perform at David Fry levels consistently throughout the season. While Noel has a chance to continue his upward trajectory it is not likely that he will this year. But each and every one of these guys is a failure offensively. That can't all be their fault. It is the hitting coaches' fault. They have not developed these guys or put them in situations where they can be successful. The strain that their epic failures has placed on the rest of this offense is dragging the team down and bringing in Lane Thomas only made it worse. Each of these players should be able to right this ship and make offensive contributions but they don't make adjustments and make stupid outs in hitter friendly counts and do stupid things like swinging at the first pitch with a pitcher who has trouble throwing strikes. Really, frustrating, boneheaded offense with some boneheaded defense as well.
THE PITCHERS
Look, I can't say anything, not one thing, bad about the pitchers this year. People like to pick on Sandline, Morgan and Curry this year but just because they haven't been Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith doesn't mean they are unvaluable. In fact, they are VERY valuable as middle relievers because they generally keep you in the game. For heaven's sake, Sandlin is 7-0. That is not all luck because we rallied after he gave up a lead. We are blessed with great pitching, with pitchers who try their hardest and it shows. If the guys listed above on offense would just 'find a way' like our pitchers have, this team would be 30 games over .500 right now and we would be planning for the playoffs instead of worrying about getting to them.
THE FUTURE
SO, we go into NY tomorrow with lots of chaos and lots of question marks. Could wholesale swapping out of players at AAA for our weak performing position players in the majors help? Maybe. But that is just throwing stuff against a wall hoping it sticks. No player on the offense with the exception of Kwan, Ramirez, Josh Naylor and, to some extent, Fry, Gimenez and Brennan have performed this year over the long haul. We have 45 days left in the regular season and SOMEBODY on offense has to step up and our pitching has to hold up AND we have for find who will give us good, dependable innings now that Cobb is hurt. It is doable but people have to fix their problems and become part of the solution instead of part of the problem. All these players were studs at some levels when they were younger. Time to help out our pitching staff and provide offense now and stop looking like AAAA guys like Florial. Without that, it will be a hard ride to the finish line, and maybe a VERY frustrating and disappointing one.
THE FANS
Like the pitching staff and our core position players, the fans have NOT failed the team or the ownership. They have shown up in large numbers. They have cheered loudly. And, even though I would understand if they wanted to, they have avoided booing or deriding our players when they screw up or fail to perform. They have been the ideal, supportive fans a small market team needs. They deserve better out of the FO and they deserve better out of the position players. It's time for the position players to show up and time for the FO to stop screwing up. This team, this city and these fans need this. I don't give a crap if you are 20 games over .500 right now. The season starts today and you are 0-0. Time to do your job and do it well. No excuses. None. Just get mad, get motivated, get focused and do your jobs.
GO GUARDIANS!
No comments:
Post a Comment