Now that the season is officially over...

...we need to start being real about what is going on the rest of the year. 

The moves we have made: bringing in guys off waivers from Oakland and Detroit and bringing in a 35 year old fat guy who couldn't crack a ML roster this year just scream of Francona saying that he needs veterans.   If any of these three guys (Calhoun, Laureano, Haase) are on this roster when it is frozen in November, it is a sign that this organization is floundering beyond belief.  How anyone (read: our less than astute FO) can think that having these guys on this roster right now is a good thing is beyond me.  Winning games isn't important right now.  Playing the kids and seeing what we have IS the only important thing.

There is no sense in doing anything right now, but everything that we should do in September should be based on who we think might be on the team next year.   That being said, here are the roster moves I would make on September 1st:

1. DFA Cam Gallagher, Ramon Laureano and Michael Kelly

2. Bring up Jonathon Rodriguez, Cody Morris and Brian Lavastida from the minors

3. Leave in the minors Joey Cantillo, Hunter Gaddis, Peyton Battenfield, Juan Brito, Angel Martinez, Jhonkensy Noel, Jose Tena and George Valera

4. Make a decision whether Quantrill, McKenzie or Bieber will pitch again this year and what moves you would be comfortable with if they come off the IL and have to be rostered.

5. While Kole Calhoun has performed well, it is hard to justify him being on this roster for the rest of the season if we don't really care about whether we win any more games.  Consider DFAing him if we need the 40-man roster space.  Ditto for Eric Haase if Fry and Lavastida are healthy.

6. I would love to bring up Daniel Schneeman as a reward for a great season but I sense that ship already sailed when we brought up Tena.  Amazing.  We can bring in all these DFA guys from teams with losing records but can't give one of our own a reward and see what he has after a good AAA season.  Yeah, I know we have umpteen middle infield prospects we have to sort out and Columbus skews statistics but, really, you can't give one of your own a chance?  If he performs well it increases his trade value, too.  

Have I mentioned that winning games is not a priority right now?  Why are we doing half-hearted things that are costing us money and our prospects experience?  Time to cut the crap and play the kids...and if it isn't successful right now, we get a better draft slot next year.

 

All You Booers of Paul Dolan - Listen Closely

 I have never really been on the 'Dolan Is Cheap" train.  Yes, the thought has occurred to me on occasion and I have even written those words a time or two.

But the guy, for being an owner in Cleveland, is not cheap.  He is a good steward of the team's money.  This is not Monopoly money we are talking about here, these are real dollars.

So, I have to ask you how would you have liked him to spend money?

• Would you have liked him to OK a $60 million/3 year deal to Jose Abreu instead of the 2 year deal with Josh Bell?  Well, Abreu is hitting .234 this year with 10 HRs.  Bell actually has much better stats and, even if we kept Bell we would have gotten better production for less money than what Abreu is giving the Astros, who have the spectre of his contract hanging over their heads.  
• Who else would you have gotten: Andrew Benitendi and his .689 WAR for 5 yrs, $75 million? Michael Conforto and his 0.8 WAR for 2 yrs, $36 million? Mitch Haniger and his -0.4 WAR for 3 yrs and $43.5 million?  Trey Mancini and his -1.4 WAR for 2 yrs, $14 million?  Willson Contreras and his 5 yr, 87.5 million when we have Naylor in the wings? Joc Pederson and his 0.6 WAR for $19.5 million?  Now, Brandon Drury and JD Martinez would have made sense but neither position was needed on our team.   Josh Bell made just as much sense as these two.
• It was Dolan who pushed to get a deal done to keep Jose Ramirez here long term.
• It was Dolan who opened his checkbook to the tune of $40 million to sign Bell and Mike Zunnino on the advice of his FO, analytics and scouting staff
• It is Dolan who allowed his scouting department to go over by the max amount on the bonuses he paid 2022 and 2023 draftees.
• Dolan OK'd taking on Laureano's and Kole Calhoun's salaries when the team had already given up on the season AND when we had prospects who could have used those ABs.

If you want to boo anyone you should be booing Chris Antonetti and, to a much lesser extent, Terry Francona.  

Antonetti is responsible for the terrible analytics that led to the signing of Bell and Zunino.  He is also responsible for the terrible analytics that led to picking Will Brennan over Nolan Jones and Will Benson.  He is also responsible for the lopsided trades where we lost Junior Caminero, Benson, Owen Miller, Carlos Vargas, Amed Rosario and, to a lesser extent, Nolan Jones, Aaron Civale and Bell (going out the door) getting much less than equal value back in every one of those trades.  He also has responsibility for two pathetic drafts in a row.  Finally, Antonetti also is responsible for bringing in Laureano and Calhoun and keeping Gallagher when we had already thrown in the towel on the season and should have used every AB and every inning to get younger guys experience going into next year...and making decisions about keeping or trading some of those guys.

Francona is responsible for staying with his veterans too long because it is the easy way to go and for not managing the young players effectively this year.  Most of what he has done, even in this year, has been miraculous but his complicity in the screwups by Antonetti is, IMO, real.  Plus, he is not nurturing with young players, totally favoring veterans, even when they suck, and, despite what the stats say, it appears to me like he is a disaster when it comes to challenges where he always looks flustered and has repeatedly failed to challenge things that other managers have been successful challenging.

SUMMARY

So, when you are booing Dolan, realize that if Antonetti had made good trades, the right FA signings (or come up with a way to be successful W/O expensive FA signings, like playing Rosario mostly at DH), we would be in a much better place now, likely in the thick of the AL Central race.    

Now, if you want an owner who will spend to offset the FO and managerial screwups like they do have in New York. feel free to boo Dolan.  But remember, that is not even a guarantee of success as the Yankees are 60-64 and essentially out of the playoff picture as are the Mets (58-67).  

Look, this was a bad year.  Bad performances, bad injury luck, free agents who sucked.  It is just bad.  The difference between us and, say, the Texas Rangers from 2022, is that we are constantly throwing away assets and not effectively replenishing the farm system like the Reds did through trades and good drafts.    But, like the Rangers this year, we have enough juice to compete for the division championship in 2024.

So, if you want to boo someone, the next time Chris Antonetti's name is announced on the stadium PA system, boo the hell out of him.  While I still love the guy as our leader maybe he will get the idea of how bad he sucked up this season and lose whatever ego he has and actually do something that helps this team now and in the future instead of tearing it down with stupid trades, stupid draft picks and stupid free agent signings.  He isn't bad as our club president, he just needs to be MUCH better than he has been.  

So, feel free to boo Antonetti, but leave Paul Dolan alone...at least for now.

Sunday Morning Thoughts: Is it really Jonathon Rodriguez Time, Veteran Presence, Battle of Ohio

As we approach the game on Sunday where a loss to Detroit will (unofficially) end the Guardians chances to make the playoffs, some things come to mind.

BATTLE OF OHIO

The Reds just called up Noelvi Marte (#24 prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline) who is like the millionth top 100 prospect in baseball that they have already called up this year.  They still have Rhett Lowder (#44), Edwin Arroyo (#61) and Connor Phillips (#71) who they have yet to call up.   

From what I can see the Reds are looking more and more like the Guardians of the early/md-90s where they have exactly the set of prospects that they need to have to be competitive for a long time.  They only need to add a few veterans through free agency who pan out (sort of like Dennis Martinez and Orel Hersheiser did) and sprinkle in a few relievers and they could be the NL Central team to beat for years to come.

So what does that mean for the Guardians?  Well, the Guardians are a shipwreck.  They have wasted talented prospects and gambled on free agents and gotten little, if nothing, in return.   They have bet on certain prospects (Will Brennan) while deciding to let other ones (Jones, Benson) go with disastrous results.  

Look at the Reds transactions in the past 2 years.  They have not wasted money on failed FAs.  They have not had bad drafts (2022 grade A-, 2022 grade for Guardians B-; 2023 draft grade A).  They made great trades (Luis Castillo, Tyler Maile) with guys who they likely couldn't sign and got guys back who are top prospects in baseball and already in the major leagues and, finally, when faced with bringing in veterans or giving their young guys a chance IN THE MIDDLE OF A PENNANT RACE, they chose the young guys.

Right now the Guardians' FO sucks and not only are they costing us a playoff spot, they are making it so we can't even win the battle of Ohio, for gosh sakes.

IS IT JONATHON RODRIGUEZ TIME?

Interestingly, when the Reds called up Marte there was an interesting note that his AAA OPS of .820 was just slightly above average in AAA this year.  That means Jhonkensy Noel's .710 OPS gives him a wRC+ of 74,  which is utility infielder like.  Wow!

Which brings us to Jonathon Rodriguez.  With the failure of Will Brennan, the failure of Juan Gonzalez and the failure of Gabriel Arias, to say nothing about the semi-failures of Tyler Freeman and Brayan Rocchio this year (not that these are real long term failures) fans are asking why we haven't brought up Jonathon Rodriguez.   It's a fair question and one that I think that will be addressed on September 1st.  Right now don't expect to see any other roster movement as they aren't going to DFA Laureano or Calhoun, DFA someone else or blow a minor league option on anyone for two weeks of production when we can't even beat the rebuilding Tigers when we are playing them at home.

So, on September 1st when the rosters expand expect them to promote Rodriguez and Cody Morris and, unless someone else goes on the IL, that will be it.  Too bad as Daniel Schneeman deserves and congratulatory promotion and, like so many other times, the Guardians missed the boat on a feel good story.  

One more point.  If, at some point, we DFA Laureano and he is not picked up on waivers we will have thrown away about $1 million...and for what?  At least if we had brought someone up from the minors we would have saved that money.  More on this below when I talk about veteran presence.

VETERAN PRESENCE

Look, it is just a fact.  Every young team needs veteran presence to show the young guys the way to play in the majors and to provide a leveling influence by providing steady production in the face of highs and lows that young players can have.

Manny Ramirez spoke of this yesterday in his interview when he said, as a young player, he watched and learned from Dave Winfield.  

While that's great, Kole Calhoun and Ramon Laureano are NOT those players right now.  Potentially Calhoun is one of those players next year but this year, if we lose to Detroit on Sunday, we need to give ABs to young players, not some grizzled veteran trying to get enough service time for him pension.

The reason for this is simple.  Who gives a flying flip if we lose every one of the games for the rest of the season if we weren't going to make the playoffs anyway?  I mean, freakin' Texas was like 68-94 last year and they are 72-51 this season.  If you have the talent a one year negative blip means nothing.  If you DON'T have the talent you need to find out what your talent is like.

Last year, based on a few ABs, the Guardians chose Will Brennan over Will Benson and Nolan Jones.  That has turned out to be a devastatingly stupid mistake when you look at the production for all three this year.  Going into next year we have ZERO RFers.  ZERO.   

So we need to find out, at every position, who can play and you don't do that by giving ABs to Cam Gallagher, Kole Calhoun, Ramon Laureano and Zack Collins.  Give the young guys the ABs.  Screw the record for this year.  The worse you are, the better the draft picks next year...as if our draft people can ever do anything well with their heads firmly implanted up their butts.  But, at least they have a better chance with higher slots.  

If the season is essentially over after today, we need to fill this roster with all the young people we are going to roster this winter and maybe even some we are unsure of and give those guys some play.  There is really no place on this roster for guys who we know are not going to be part of this team next year, 'veteran presence' be damned.  

Suck it up Tito and manage your rear end off.   

And, FO.  Stop screwing up and wasting valuable resources and get us some freaking studs next year WiTHOUT overspending your farm system assets.  THAT, like 1994 and 1995, is how you supplement a good, young nucleus and provide APPROPRIATE veteran leadership!

Geez, people, let's go!

Does Our Management, Including FO and Francona, Hold Grudges/Get Closed Minded About A Player?

 Look, none of us know what is said in these meetings where they send players to the minors, either during spring training or during the year.    It is possible that the players say things that the manager and/or FO don't want to hear about how badly they are doing their jobs.  It is possible that those things are said once the player gets to the minors after being sent down and this gets back to the FO/Francona.  

None of us know.

But what we do know is that there are some pretty f****d up/head scratching player decisions that are being made recently.   Besides the fact that the best player acquisitions since the end of the 2020 season are David Fry and Enyel De Los Santos and there are PLENTY of bad player decisions including:

• Junior Caminero for Tobias Myers
• Signing Josh Bell
• Signing Mike Zunino
• Will Benson for Boyd/Haffer
• Nolan Jones for Juan Brito (who needed to be rostered after his A ball season)
• Owen Miller for cash
• Carlos Vargas for Ross Carver

So, today, we had a couple of more moves:

• Daniel Norris DFA and Tim Herrin promoted.  This is actually a good move as it brings back Herrin and causes us to DFA a replacement level player in Norris who has pitched a lot recently and so is probably not an option over the next couple of games.
• Placed Cam Gallagher on the concussion IL and brought up Zack Collins.  This seems like an odd move to me.  Collins is not a great catcher and, like Bo Naylor, bats left handed.   The obvious move would have to bring up homegrown Bryan Lavastida, who hits righthanded.  I guess you could say that Lavastida is 0 for his last 20 and that would hold water until you look and Collins is 2 for his last 20.  The move should have been to bring up Lavastida

We also, recently, did or did not do the following:

• Brought up Jose Tena who played all of one game at AAA
• Did not bring up Daniel Schneeman who had a whole season of great production at Columbus
• Did not bring up James Karinchak (fixed today)

The questions I have here are:

• Did Karinchak and Jones say or do something to make Francona and/or the FO mad at them?
• What is the player evaluation process that led to all of the decisions above?

I literally don't have the answer to the above questions but the answers, the real answers, might tell us a lot about why we are hemorrhaging ML players without getting enough back and having a bad ML season.

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.

Updated Post-Deadline, Post-Promotion Top Prospect List - August, 2023

***UPDATED 8/16/2023***

Here is an updated top 100 Guardians prospect list after the deadline deals and promotions.  For fun, I recounted my 2023 mock draft and (entries without rankings, in bold font) where the players I selected fit into this list.  Remember my mock draft only selected the first 10 rounds and it was assumed I would take the same picks the Guardians did in rounds 11-20.   Our 2023 draft picks are in italics,

1. Daniel Espino

Hurston Waldrep

2. Kyle Manzardo

3. Chase DeLauter

4. Juan Brito

5. Joey Cantillo

6. George Valera

7. Jaison Chourio

8. Welbyn Francisca

9. Alex Clemmey

10. Angel Martinez

11. Petey Halpin

12. Angel Genao

13. Jhonkensy Noel

14. Ralphy Velasquez

15. Dayan Frias

16. Justin Campbell

17. Doug Nikhazy

18. Jonathon Rodriguez

19.. Jose Tena

Jack Gelof

20. Cody Morris

21. Jake Fox

22. Khalil Watson

23. Hunter Gaddis

24. Tanner Burns

25. Andrew Walters

Joe Whitman

Levi Wells

Tanner Witt (didn't actually sign - assumed he would take $1 million)

26. Will Dion

27. Tyler Thornton

28. Tommy Mace

Michael Carico

Jake Bohrofen

29. Jackson Humphries

30. Parker Messick

31. Daniel Schneeman

32. Franco Aleman

33. Jacob Zibin

Blake Dickerson

34. Ethan Hankins

35. Wuilfredo Antunez

36. Rafael Ramirez Jr.

37. Rafael Devers

38. Robert Lopez

39. Ryan Webb

40. Jose Cedeno

41. Estaban Gonzalez

42. Alex Mooney

Alex Mooney

43. Bryan Lavastida

44. Milan Tolentino

45. Evilio Hernandez

46. Jogly Garcia

47. Joe Lampe

48. Justin Boyd

49. Nate Furman

50. Jose Pirela

51. Cade Smith

52. Davis Sharpe

53. Ross Carver

55. Jack Leftwich

55. Cooper Ingle

56. C J Kayfus

57. Dylan DeLucia

58. Yorman Gomez

59. Hunter Stanley

60. Steve Hajjar

Ross Dunn

61. Micah Pries

62. Alexfri Planez

63. Juan Benjamin

64. Christian Knapczyk

65. Maick Collado

66. Victor Izturis

67. Yerlin Luis

68. Luis Aparicio

69. Logun Clark

70. Emilio Tavares

71. Yaikel Mijares

72. Manuel Mejias

73. Reid Johnston

74. Nic Enright

75. Shawn Rapp

76. Magnus Ellerrts

77. Tomas Reyes

78. Alonzo Richardson

79. Trenton Denholm

80. Austin Aldeano

81. Guy Lipscomb

82. Korey Holland

83. Nick Mikolajchak

84. Andrew Miziasek

85. Randy LeBaut

86. Yeury Gervacio

87. Javier Santos

88. Geo Rivera Jr. 

89. Fran Alduey

90. Lexer Saduy

91. Tommy Hawke

Matt Etzel

92. Jacob Bresnahan

93. Connor Koxx

94. Melkis Hernandex

95. Victor Planchart

96. Rodney Boone

97. Yordys Valdes

98. Elvis Jerez

99. Matt Turner

100. Jake Miller

Thoughts For A Saturday: Ranking Wars, Bo--advanced baserunning class, Columbus Triangle, Ramirez being out means Clippers vs Rays

Ranking Wars

MLB Pipeline just dropped a new Guardians top 30 prospects.  Different people rank prospects differently but in what world is CJ Kayfus among the top 30 Guardians' prospects?  In what alternate universe does a 21 year old Jhonkensy Noel drop from 15th to 28th since the last ratings came out earlier this month even though his two best months of the season so far have been July and August?  Where Noel is rated below Jonathon Rodriguez?  Where 6rh round draft pick Alex Mooney is rated 21st even though he hasn't swung a bat (at the time) in the minors?    Where Andrew Walters, a guy whose upside is as a setup man, is ranked 18th before he even throws a pitch?   To make all this happen Cody Morris, Hunter Gaddis, Justin Boyd and Joe Lampe have disappeared off this list, as Nate Furman did earlier this year.  

To those people doing those MLB Pipeline rankings:  You realize announcers use these rankings all the time and even certain GMs quote those rankings as fact when they trade their best starting pitcher for a guy on the IL in AAA.  These ratings mean something.  It appears that if you have a large bonus or are drafted in a high round but there is no history of you as a professional you STILL get ranked highly.  Hey, I have no trouble with that, generally, but the Guardians 2023 draft is highly suspect and to rate   those draft picks ahead of guys like Rodriguea, Frias, Noel, Morris and Gaddis, and other...as my wife's grandmother use to say..."that ain't right...that ain't right".   Ranking level does not equal bonus amount, people.  It just doesn't.

Bo Naylor - Advanced baserunning class

So, I think it was Wednesday's game.  We were rallying and, with the infield in, Kwan hit a grounder to second, and the secondbaseman tagged out Naylor and stepped on first to double Kwan, ending the inning.  I think that if Naylor just dives back to first base it does two things: (1) creates enough confusion that they may not even get one out, let alone 2 or (2) slows the play down enough that the runner on 3rd scores before the double play is created.  As I am sure you all knnow the 1st baseman would have to, without stepping on 1st, tag out Naylor and then step on firsr to get Kwan.  Looking at the replay I don't think he had time to do both.   If he bends down to tag Naylor, Kwan would beat the tag of first base.  If he tags the bag he couldn't reach down fast enough to tag Naylor before the run scored.    He could have looked like a genius...but he ended up looking like a rookie in the headlights when he froze and made the fielder's job easy.  Rookies!?!?!?!?! Arrgh.

Columbus Triangle

What the heck is going on?  Given the success (albeit limited, in some cases) that some of our current Columbus pitchers have had in the majors, it is incredibly puzzling as to why these guys are struggling like AAAA players in their second time around in Columbus.    Hunter Gaddis, Jamex Karinchak, Peyton Battenfield, Tim Herrin and even Zach Plesac have not looked all that sharp this year.  These guys were supposed to provide above average (for the average ML team, that is) AAA depth for our pitching staff.   

Instead, these guys have all, to some degree, had their performance fall off the table this year in Columbus.  Is it something in the water in Columbus?  Is the pitching coaching in Columbus messed up?  Are these guys just pouting because they think they belong in the majors?   They should be dominating but they are not.  It is puzzling and infuriating as we need that depth so we don't have to use AAAA retreads with Michael Kelly and Daniel Norris, neither of whom SHOULD have a future in this organization.  

Well, I have come up with a plausible explanation.   The Clippers team is surrounding by a time warp creating what I have termed the Columbus triangle. Pitchers go into that triangle and one of two things in happening: (1) their careers crash and burn and they disappear from the majors forever or (2) they gointo the triangle and never come out, simply being replaced by dopplegangers who can't pitch or (3) they go into the triangle and come out as 45-year old versions of themselves where all their stuff has naturally age-degraded although their journaey through the space-time continuum has made their external bodies appear the same age.

In any case, call the medics, call the astrophysicists, call the Bermuda Triangle or Alaska Triangle experts, call somebody and let's get to figuring out how we can reverse this.

These guys are important and that is why they are considered assets.  They actually should be positive contributors to our ML team and not just look like AAAA guys who you can get on the waiver wire any day of the week.

Ramirez out, today's game is Columbus vs Tampa

In sort of the cherry on the whipped cream on the hot fudge sauce on the ice cream sundae, Jose begins serving his (now) 2 game suspension today.  That pretty much nails this moment as the completion of the 2023 Columbus Clippers being converted to the 2023 Cleveland Guardians.  We will see today if a AAA team can, in fact, beat a WS contender.   

BTW, here is hoping that MLB looks at Tim Anderson's suspension and says "Oops, sorry. After relooking at the video, we have decided that you are a punk a--, b----- and we have raised your suspension to 7 games instead of our original underestimate of 6 games.  And, if you are wondering, yes, the game we took off Ramirez's suspension we added it to yours. How do you like that, sucka?"  Then I woke up from the best dream I have had recently.  

When you have a player suspended does that mean you have to play one player short during that stretch?  It appears so as I don't think we added a player for Clase's suspension and it doesn't look like we have added one to today's active roster.