Tuesday Thoughts: Guardians Playing; Crickets Chirping; Pension realities; Instructional League Updates Needed; Minor League Seasons End, Are Promotions Coming?

 Guardians Play

Well, sort of.  Have I mentioned how emotionally, agonizingly painful it is to watch this team play?  You spend the whole game waiting for something to go wrong as you NEVER have any cushion at all to make your feel safe and, even when something bad doesn't happen, you end up not feeling like you had a good time watching the game.  For a team like this, it is better that they would have not signed Bell and Zunino, not traded Jones and Benson and just began the season with a 20 game losing streak to eliminate any possibility of making the playoffs.  Then we could have all just watched and rooted for our hometown team without the specter of having to worry about winning any particular game...just like in the 80s.   But where we have been this entire season is waiting for a spark, a hot streak, that would allow us to pass Minnesota.  But it never comes.  Something (stupid signings and damaging trades, injuries, bad performances, bad luck) always derails that hot streak.  And it makes these types of games agonizing because you know, I mean really know, that it wouldn't have taken 9 Shohei Ohtanis in your lineup to win this game.  Just 9 guys who can perform offensively when it is needed and not totally screw up the moment being 'that guy' who hits a fly ball when it isn't needed and strikes out whan a fly ball is needed, for example (cough! Arias. cough!).

So was the case last night.  Bad clutch hitting, bad closing...just enough to make us lose against a struggling, depleted Angels team.  Really frustrating as we hung on to the slim hope of making the playoffs.

Frustrating, exasperating, anguishing, disappointing, all the 'ings' that you can think of that express what this season has been to the fans.

Crickets Chirping

As I write this, Cam Gallagher, Kole Calhoun and Ramon Laureano are still members of the Cleveland Guardians.

Why?

At this point of this season for the Guardians they should have two kinds of guys on their active roster: guys helping them win this year and guys helping them win next year.  These three are doing neither.   After Saturday night you can likely add Lucas Giolito to this group although, if he goes 6 innings a start, he does serve SOME purpose: to save the arms of the young starters and the bullpen, although rentals Moore and Lopez should be used as heavily as we can to save our bullpen arms for next year, as well.  If Giolito can't go 6 innings a start then dump him because, frankly, another start like his last one against Minnesota is the polar opposite of helpful, just ask David Fry's right arm.

But, you say, that would be a very bush league thing to do: bring these guys in off waivers (and Calhoun via a minor league trade) and then cut them just a couple of weeks after acquiring them, making it impossible for them to play for someone else in the post-season.  Yeah, you might take it that way.  I will just write that off to a stupid front office.

Basically, this is the reality of what the Guardians have done and now they need to do what is best for the future of the Cleveland Guardians and own the consequences of their actions before.  If we had been TRULY worried about what it would mean to bring in these guys with our slim chances of making the playoffs after giving away Bell, Rosario and Civale (yes, I said, giving them away for very little or no return) and then not make a serious run at the playoffs then we wouldn't have done it in the first place.  So do we eat the rest of the season and let these AAAA players continue to burn through experience that young players could use or do we do what is right for the Cleveland Guardians of 2024 despite how stupid it looks and how the rest of baseball just laughs at or scorns us?  Again, you do what is right for the 2024 Guardians and get rid of these guys and replace them with prospects to get those guys their 'firsts'.  That is, if the intent is to roster those guys this winter and they have already used their minor league option this year.

To me it is simple: DFA Gallagher, Laureano and Calhoun today.  Bring up Lavastida, Rodriguez and Noel today.    I would like to bring up Rocchio, as well, but none of our MIFers except Arias have been trained to play the OF.  I would DFA Giolito right now but if you want to wait until his Saturday start is done then, fine.  But if his start Saturday is terrible, I bring up Cantillo just to get his feet wet this season.

There is no other rational choice here.  None.  Bring up the young guys, play the young guys.  Dump the old, unproductive guys  Do it now.

Pension Realities

Gosh, I love Rick Manning as a color commentator.  He pulls no punches and says, sometimes, what we are all thinking.   But the guy needs to get his facts straight.

He says Calhoun needs just a little more service time to get to 10 years and that 10 years is, somehow, a magical number regarding the MLB pension plan.  Well, from what I have read, Manning is wrong.  

The pension plan contains a graduated scale.  The longer you play, the larger your pension benefit...until you get to 10 years MLB experience and then it doesn't get any larger.  Those 10 years are broken into 40 quarters of 43 days each for an in-season total of 172 days per season.   If you stay on a ML roster for 43 days during your career you receive a pension starting at age 62 of about $34,000 a year.   If you get to 10 years, your pension is $100,000 a year.  So, only a $66,000 difference per year between 43 days of service in the majors and being a 10 year veteran.  So the big jump in pension goes from 42 days (no pension) to 43 days ($34,000).  The rest, up to 10 years, is graduated, soooo....

Calhoun is now at 9.75 years.  Right now his annual pension would be $95,000 a year at age 62 (less, like social security, if he takes his pension starting when he officially retires) whereas if he would get 43 more days (not possible this year) he would be at $100,000 a year for his 10 years of service time.  After he gets to 10 years his pension can't get any larger no matter how long he plays.

The truth is that this 10 year threshold is more symbolic than anything else as less than 10% of guys who played in the majors reach that level of service time.  It isn't like his pension goes from $50,000 a year to $100,000 a year if he gets those additional 43 days.  

For a guy who has made over $50 million during his playing career, I am not at all impacted by cutting him today and making him earn that other $5000 a year in pension playing for another team.  So, despite what Manning says, cutting Calhoun right now is a non-issue, empathically, for me.  If it makes sense to keep him for clubhouse stability at the end of the bench and only use him in late inning PH situations, fine.  But if he blocking some rookie from getting his ML feet wet, then cut Calhoun today.  I don't lose any sleep over that as the amount of money it costs Calhoun is really small.

Instructional League Info...please!

Information from the instructional league is so limited I have been tempted to just rent a place in Goodyear for a month and just mine for information.  Most important to me, right now, is how our injured pitchers are doing AND to find out if Alex Clemmey is hurt, if so how badly and if not, how he's doing.   Yeah, it's nice to see the guys putting in the work.  Watching spring training this year you could see some things that translated into failures during the season.  You could also tell, by the daily schedule, which pitchers and players were hurt.  

So we need information from the instructs, real, unfiltered information that tells us the status of our top prospects, including the guys brought over from the Dominican who had good seasons there.  Just don't know how to get it.  Todd Paquette, any ideas?

A and A+ Seaons End This Weekend...Any Promotions to AA and trickle up promotions to AAA coming?

With the A ball seasons ending this weekend and the AA season going through next weekend and the AAA season going for 3 more weeks, I would like to see some promotions.  Here are a few guys I would like to see brought up:

Ryan Webb, Chase DeLauter, Khalil Watson, Jake Fox and Lenny Torres, Jr. brought up to AA

Juan Brito, Petey Halpin and Franco Aleman up to AAA and Randy LaBaut returned to AAA. 

I would just like to see the season extended for these guys to give them more reps.  Maybe with the pitchers the Guardians just want these guys to be done and start their off-season conditioning or maybe there is some intent to send some of these guys to the Arizona Fall League in November so they don't need the extra reps these promotions would give them.  Maybe they don't want to risk pitcher injuries by putting tired players at higher levels where they might get injured trying to up their game to the next level...or even just get their confidence busted by getting shown up at that next level.  

But, as a fan, I would like to see these promotions.

Congrats, Guardians...Now Let's Talk

 OK, congratulations Guardians.  We won the season series over the Twins but it's not exactly like they were sweating about it.  You see, every time I thought the Twins would choke, like when we took 2 out of 3 from them in Minnesota and then they had to go to Texas, they performed well.  In fact, they performed well all season.  As the announcers said, they are winning the division but don't have a single guy among the league leaders.  That is teamwork and picking each other up.  That is why they are probably not really worried, especially looking at their and our remaining schedules.

Given all that, let's assume that we won't be able to catch them and then, if somehow we do, then we can all be pleasantly surprised.

So what do we do now that the season is, essentially, over.  In order to see that we should examine the roster.

Starting Pitching:  Right now we have 6.  If Giolito is injured we just put him on the 15 day IL and bring up Cantillo or Gaddis.   If McKenzie and/or Beiber come back, we just transfer Giolito to the 60 day DL. 

If he is just bad as I see it we have two choices:

(a) DFA Giolito and, if someone doesn't pick him up on waivers, just release him.  Then you bring up Cantillo to finish the season and to get his feet wet in the majors without losing his rookie status and start to get the idea if he can really compete for a starting pitcher role in ST or if we need to get someone in a trade or as a FA.

(b) Continue to pitch him and just make sure he gets to between 90-100 pitches each start, even if he is getting hammered.  This saves Cantillo and saves the bullpen.

In either case I am done with Giolito.  Maybe it is just because I had to live with Syndergaard or I have seen this story before with the Guardians but if he is bringing nothing positive to the Guardians AND we don't need him to eat innings AND we are really out of the race, there HAS to be something better we can do to help us for the future.

So, for me, the starters are Quantrill, Bibee, Williams, Allen, Cantillo and Curry.  

Bullpen:   It looks like we will go with what we have now:

Clase

Stephan

Morgan

De Los Santos

Lopez

Moore

Hentges

Sandlin

The big question, for me, is if Stephan is cooked due to overuse.   We need to make this determination before tomorrow's game and, if we think he is, give Stephan a DL vacation and bring Karinchak back up.  There is no time to mess around here.  There is no time for, 'well, let's just see how he does his next time or two out'.  He either is good or he is DL'd, period.  Note that we also have Herrin, Gaddis and Morris at AAA as backups and even Michael Kelly, although I would DFA him if McKenzie or Beiber come back.  

Catcher:  DFA Gallagher and bring up Lavastida.  Look, I know it may appear bush league but we really need to get a look at Lavastida and Gallagher is never coming back and hasn't played well enough to justify us keeping him for the rest of the season as a favor.  I go with Bo Naylor, Lavastida and Fry as my 3 catchers the rest of this season.

First base/DH - I think Calhoun has played well enough to become an end-of-the-bench player for the rest of the season.  I hate saying that because I would much rather bring up Jhonkensy Noel and watch him flail and miss very often rather than watch a AAAA veteran who should have ZERO chance of making the roster next year, take those ABs.  With Naylor at 1B, we can fill in at DH with the other guys.  But Calhoun only appears as a PH or maybe when we want to load the lineup against a particular RH starter who is tough on our righties, if he is on the team at all.

Middle Infield: We are pretty set at middle infield right now (Ramirez, Freeman, Gimenez, Tena, Arias).  I don't see them making a change at the moment as Rocchio is not going to play SS this season with Arias there.  Tena is a better end of the bench guy with Rocchio continuing to get every day ABs at the top of the Columbus battng order that will be playing almost as long as the Guardians, given the extended length of the AAA season.

Outfield:  This is simple.  Kwan, Straw, Rodriguez, Brennan with Fry and Calhoun (or Noel, if we DFA Calhoun) as backups.

So, in summary, starting tomorrow night, our active roster should be

Starting Pitchers

Quantrill

Bibee

Williams

Allen

Curry

Cantillo

Bullpen

Clase

Stephan (or Karinchak, if Stephan is cooked)

Morgan

De Los Santos

Lopez

Moore

Hentges

Sandlin

Catcher

Bo Naylor

Bryan Lavastida

David Fry

Infield

Naylor

Gimenez

Arias

Ramirez

Freeman

Tena

Outfield

Kwan

Straw

Brennan

Calhoun (or Noel, if we think we are out of it and want to get his toes wet in the majors)

Rodriguez

Win The Season Series...Then We'll Talk

 Today's job for the Guardians is to win the season series vs the Twins.  It would be embarassing to get swept at home. 

After today's game we can talk but for the city, for the team, for the coaching staff and for the individual players, especially the rookies and other young players, today's game is the most important game of the year, even if it doesn't have any playoff implications, as it sets the tone for the rest of the year, the off=season and next year, IMO.

We'll talk again tomorrow.

Tuesday Thoughts - post-Labor Day Hangover Version

 20-6

A couple of thoughts:

• Minnesota, winning by more than 10 runs, should NOT have been able to use Willi Castro in the 9th inning.  This position player pitching rule should be disallowed (see below) and any other rule enacted to replace this position player pitching rule should be for use by the LOSING team only.  You don't get to use your position players as pitchers to save your bullpen if you choose to destroy the other team.  Why more people are not complaining about this I don't know.  It was bush league for Minnesota to use Castro.  If they don't like it, have their guys stand there with bats on shoulders or put in your weakest pitcher to keep the margin to under 10 runs.  
• Francona should have sent Gioloto out there for the 4th inning.  He was only at 79 pitches.  Francona is such a veteran's manager.  He doesn't want to risk Gioloto, a throw-away (apparently from his performance) waiver wire guy getting hurt but he risks his rookie utility man going on the DL with a bad shouldber or elbow by having him throw 4 innings.    And then he had the balls to basically say that he didn't want it to become a game because either he would have had to put a true pitcher in or Fry might have overextended himself.    I get all of it but it's just stuff you should keep to yourself...and you should make Gioloto pitch until he gets to 100 pitches, at least.

Rule Changes

• To repeat and earlier post (or two), I don't want them to change, in any way, the waiver rules this winter.  Yes, it gives weaker, fringe playoff teams the advantage but so what?   These teams deserve any advantage they can get as they can't just sign guys to high salaries and have to cobble together rosters in an attempt to compete with the high rollers.  
• Three rule changes I would like to see implemented this winter are:
• Changes to the rule 5 giving international free agents signed under the age of 18 and extra year of development before they are Rule 5 eligible (already mentioned in earlier posts)
• Create a perpetual 27th man spot on ML teams to avoid the travesty and injury risk that we saw with Francona's preposterous use of Fry yesterday.   I have also mentioned this in a previous post and it goes like this:
• Each ML team is allowed to carry a 27th player on their roster for all games. The player must be:
• a pitcher
• someone not on the 40-man roster who has not appeared in a major league game that season as a 40-man roster player.
• Must have played in at least 5 professional seasons (2020 counts even though there was no minor league baseball)
• must not appear as the 27th player more than one week every calendar month
• must only appear in a game where his team is trailing by more than 10 runs.   If you are winning by more than 10 runes (say, Minnesota last night) you don't get to take advantage of this rule.
• The player
• receives his minor league salary on all days where he does not pitch
• receives major league salary in games where he does pitch
• does not receive credit towards his pension for time as the 27th man
• does not have to be optioned to the minors after his time as a 27th man is complete
• A 28th man is allowed to be carried on the roster for a doubleheader situation under the same rules as the current 27 man rule.

NOTE: Examples of pitchers in the Cleveland organization who would qualify would be: Adam Scott, Jason Bilous, Jerad Eickoff, Nic Enright, Luis Oviedo, Thomas Ponticelli, Justin Lewis, Eric Sabrowski.  The goals of this rule are to protect pitchers from having to pitch in blowout games and to give minor league lifers a chance to appear in a major league game and sit in a major league dugout/bullpen as a reward for service to their organization.  Let's call it the "Rudy Rule".

• Revise the minor league option/player control rules in the following ways:
• Give all players on the 40 man roster and in the minors in 2020 an additional option year if they used one of their options in 2020
• Give all players an extra option year if they were signed in 2017-2019, were under 17.5 years old when orignially signed and have been added to their team's 40 man roster after the 2021 or 2022 season. (NOTE: This is designed to give players such as Juan Brito and Jhonkensy Noel the extra year of development in the minors they need before running out of minor league options.)
• Give teams an extra year of player control (before becoming 6-year minor league free agents) for all players who had signed a contract before 2020 and were under 19 years old and in the minors during that cancelled season. (NOTE: Obviously aimed at young international signings)

Today's Game

Paul Hoynes called out the Guardians in his article yesterday asking if they were going to roll over in today's game after getting killed yesterday and, essentially, mail in the rest of the season.  I agree that this should be in the forefront of everyone's thoughts today.  If they just give up today they should be booed by everyone in attendance.  Today, more than any other game this season, the players  AND the manager should take on a 7th-game-of-the-World-Series attittude and put it all on the line.  Today AND tomorrow.   you play hard through the end.  Plenty of time to coast through the rest of the season WHEN AND ONLY WHEN you are essentially eliminated which, to me, unless you are officially eliminated, should be no earlier than September 15th and you have to be 10 or more games out of your best playoff possibility at that time.  Until then, last game of the WS attitudes and efforts, PLEASE!

One more thing.  This applies to the FO, too.  Despite his 3 hits yesterday Ramon Laureano should be gone.   He is a veteran space filler.  He won't kill you and might provide you an occasional flash but he won't really be a difference maker, EVER.  We need a minor league spark and this would come from Jonathon Rodrigez.  Also, Kole Calhoun should be a bench player or hitting way down the order right now.  Naylor should be at 1B and someone else like Freeman should be at DH.    Continuing to use Laureano and Calhoun in the middle of the order is the OPPOSITE of trying to pull out all stops to win.   Would Rodriguez fall on this face and potentially be worse than Laureano?  Absolutely.  But Laureano won't ever be better than what he has given us so far and Rodriguez might, which is a good thing as Laureano's best is not even replacement level performance and replacement level performances don't get you to the playoffs.

Monday's Thoughts: Maintaining Rookie Status, Sunday Minor League Performances, Biggest Series of the Year (Until the Next One); Injured Lists

 ROOKIE STATUS

When we think of rookies a lot of us thing about guys making their ML debuts.  

But sometimes rookies can maintain their rookie status over 2 or more years.   Such is likely the case for Brayan Rocchio who got on base 6 times in Columbus' game last night.   He is currently our #1 prospect on MLB Pipeline.  He doesn't appear on my mid-season list because I was sure he would end the season with enough ML ABs to exhaust his rookie status.

Apparently, unless an injury occurs, he will not come back up to the majors this year, maintaining his rookie status to next year.

This is significant because, as I read the rules, this would keep him eligible for the ROY award in 2024 and, as a result, the Prospect Promotion Incentive.  As I wrote previously, if a player wins ROY and he was in the top 100 of two ranking services going into that year, his club gets an extra draft pick the next year.  If they finish 2nd or 3rd in the balloting, their team gets 'an international pick', whatever that means, as their isn't an international draft yet.  The player doesn't have to be new to the majors, he just has to have maintained his rookie status, i.e., less than 45 days in the majors or 120 ABs.   So it would behoove a team to get a player as much playing time as possible yet stay in the rookie category.  In that way they can start the next year in the majors, probably as a high-ranking prospect and hit the ground running at the beginning of the ML season due to his exposure to the major leagues the year before, enhancing their chances of having a full season ROY performance.  Also, the team gets a little performance out of a player one year and then gets a full year of better performance out of them in their true rookie season meaning they get more than 3-4 years of service before arbitration and more than 6 years of service before free agency.   

So, maybe the Guardians are protecting Rocchio's rookie status...or maybe they have given up on him the same way they gave up on Nolan Jones and Will Benson last year!

SUNDAY MINOR LEAGUE PEFORMANCES

Seeing Rocchio go 3-3 with a long HR, 5 RBI and 2 walks was encouraging.  It did only push his season OPS to just over .800 which is a little light for AAA Columbus, but I'll take it as a positive sign he is going to be a great hitter for the Guardians next year.

Also in Columbus, Noel goes 5-6 with a double and a HR.  He has been hitting a lot of balls the other way which is both a good sign but also possibly the Oscar Gonzalez curse, where power disappears as he goes into protect mode.  Note that his OPS is way low for a power hitter of his stature meaning he still has mucho work to do if he wants to be anything more than the next Bobby Bradley.

In Lake County Parker Messick has a mediocre line in his game until you see all the runs he gave up were on a 5th inning HR in a game he struck out 6 in four scoreless innings before that HR.  BTW, that HR was the first he has allowed for Lake County.  I think this may be due to his increased velocity as his FB seems to have increased 2-3 MPH since his promotion.   Not sure if that is true but that is what it seems to me looking at the radar gun readings.  Not saying he is a top 20 prospect in our system yet but he is trending in the right direction making him, finally, an intriguing prospect going into 2024.

Speaking of the lightbulb going on after a promotion, Franco Aleman is still perfcet in Akron in terms of not giving up a run.   When you are touching 99 and have a WHIP of about 0.5 at any level, that is significant.  Doing that at AA is even more significant.  I mean, Trey Benton throws hard but he is not very effective, making Aleman's performance even more impressive, IMO.

Aaron Bracho continues his quietly effective performance for Akron.  Like Aleman, Bracho was had disappointing performance after disappointing performance in previous years.  Unlike Aleman, Bracho was a formerly highly touted prospect who has been passed by others in his international signing class.  It is great to see him push toward 20 HRs at the AA level.  He won't be rostered this winter but with a breakout performance next year at Columbus could put himself in position for a ML career of some type.  

Is George Valera finally coming out of it and regaining his topic 100 prospect form?  I hope so and the extra long AAA season will get a chance to build on what he has done over the past 11 games or so.

INJURED LISTS

The Guardians are going through the due diligence with McKenzie and Bieber with the goal of having them ready for a possible push to the playoffs/playoff run but I still think their return this year depends on how we do in this series against Minnesota.  If Minnesota comes in hot and takes 2 of 3 or sweeps the Guardians I think you will see the Guardians rethink their return this year, especially McKenzie.   Bieber did benefit in the past from coming back after a long leayoff to shake off the rust at the end of the season so maybe they will see the benefit in bringing him back this year.  Still, player and team, the hard push to bring back McKenzie and/or Bieber will depend on the results of the Minnesota series.  And as a segway...

BIGGEST SERIES OF THE YEAR (until the next one)

This is what it is all about, playing meaningful games in September (and October).  If we keep pushing forward, winning series, we have a chance but it would certainly be great, given how easy Minnesota has it after this series, if we swept.  If we don't sweep it would certainly take us playing out of our heads the rest of the way and for Minnesota to have a monumental choke for us to catch them.   IF we do sweep it still means that Minnesota would have to at least have a mini-choke and we still play out of our heads to win.  Basically, we handle what we can handle and hope Minnesota chokes.  

Still would like to see us inject more offense because a team that has two retread MLers (Calhoun and Laureano) hitting in the middle of your offense doesn't scream offensive juggernaut...or even offense that you should fear.  Doesn't mean they can't impact a game (see Calhoun in some of his games so far), but it makes it that much harder to expect veterans to be impact players if their previous profile doesn't suggest that level of performance is possible or sustainable.

Go Guards!

Saturday Thoughts: Wah, wah, wah; We need a hero (but not Josh Naylor or Jose Ramirez); Minor League Stats in Late Auguest/September

Wah, Wah, Wah, Wah - Stop Whining

I am a baseball prospect geek guy but I am also a volleyball guy.  First as a player then, as the saying goes, those that can, do and those that can't teach...which is why I became a coach.  

In my years of coaching I had the good fortune to talk to a number of players from the US Men's National team.  One anecdote I remember really sticks with me, even to this day.   The US Men's volleyball team was not always one of the best in the world.  There was a time when they were not that good.  In a particular match against one of the best teams in the world the US was getting killed as everyone knew they would.  We used to call it lose two and barbeque.  This match was played in a venue that was particularly hot that evening and the US players were diving all over to try to dig up spikes by their opponent.  Whenever they dove it left a wet spot that had to then be mopped up, slowing down the match and its inevitable outcome.  One of their opponents told the US men to stop diving because their sweat was slowing up the match.  Basically, the guy told the US players they were so bad they hadn't earned the right to sweat!

The reason I am relating this story is because what I read after the Guardians pickup of Gioloto, Lopez and Moore can be summarized in the following sentence:

Why are the Guardians, who have no chance to win the World Series, picking up these players and depriving the teams who COULD win the Series and these players of that chance?

Even though there were many articles/blog/twitter posts of this comical nature that came from all the entitled east coast and west coast teams and/or their fans, the one thing that really irritated me the most was reading the Cincinnati Enquirer article  (subscriptioon required) bemoaning that the Reds could have picked up these players instead of the Guardians and how unfair it was for the Guardians to hog them.  The ironic thing was that people would have said the same thing about the Reds that the Cincinnati newspaper article was saying about the Guardians if the Reds had made these pickups, especially in addition to the two they DID make.  The cherry on the icinng on the cake of this article insinuated that the Reds should use this presumed slight as fuel when the Reds played the Guardians later this season.  Priceless.  Pot to Kettle: You are black. 

The point here is that most rules are set up to favor the richer teams.  This waiver priority list is one of the few designed to favor the weaker teams.  While I am sure there will be talk this winter of amending the waiver rule, it should remain how it is.  

There ARE rules that need to be changed in baseball with the Rule 5 rules for international free agents who are signed under the age of 18 to give them an extra year of development before they are subject to this Rule 5 being the most apparent to me.  It is ridiculous to put these 16 year old kids in the same group as 18 year old US HS kids who are playing on showcase circuits and getting better coaching and access to better facilities before they go pro.  The Guardians are facing issues of rostering guys too soon with Jhonkensy Noel and Juan Brito, to name a couple.

But the irrevocable waiver rule is NOT a rule that needs to be changed.  

And the teams, fans, media, talking heads who are bemoaning how it is unfair that teams like the Guardians get to sweat can just continue to whine the whine of the entitled.  Wah, wah, wah.

We Need a Hero

I am going to combine the thoughts from two previous posts.  

1) Josh Naylor and Jose Ramirez are MUCH less effective when they try to be heroes.  This team is built on keeping the line moving.  So I have 'designed' (LOL) a t-shirt that all the team should wear when they are warming up

(2) Aside from the above mentality the team should have, we need a guy who could provide a significant unexpected positive (READ: power) contribution.  Last year it was Juan Gonzalez.  Previously it was Fanrmil Reyes and before that it was expected from Bobby Bradley, but never happened.

Now I suggest we give a shot to Jonathon Rodriguez.  I suggest sending Ramon Laureano to the minors, DFAing Michael Kelly and bringing up Rodriguez.  Do I think the guy might fall on his face?  Absolutely.  But we are trying stuff to break this team out of its slump and Rodriguez, like Gonalez last year, might just provide that energy.  I thnk it is worth a shot.

Other than that, just keep the line moving.

Late Season Minor League Stats

Watching a lot of minor league games I have seen an influx of guys being promoted from lower levels of minors for the laste month or so.  It coincides with rookie leagues ending and guys getting promoted to the majors after teams fall out of playoff contention.  That being said, late season stats (put up by guys who have spent the entire year at THAT level) that show an increase in performance should be taken with a grain of thought.  As opposed to guys moving up from low levels of the minors to play stronger competition who struggle should be expected and the ones who thrive after a late season promotion should be considered as better prospects, IMO, everything else being equal.

So, when I look at minor league stats I am starting to consider the monthly stats as more important than I used to.  I used to think that guys were just figuring it out but lately I am starting to think that it is more likely that the competition level in their league has been diluted at every level in the minor leagues by these promotions and these late season bumps in performance are not representative of anything useful in terms of predictors of future performance or prospect status.

Just something to consider.

Friday Thoughts - Waiver Wire Night Hangover

 1. ML baseball is likely to overhaul the irrevocable  waiver wire process over the winter (more on this is another post).  Not that I think it needs to be overhauled but there will be enough crying and whining that it is currently unfair to the richer/more powerful owners/teams that they won't let it stand as is.  Maybe they limit the number of waiver wire pickups in a week to 2 on any 7 day period.  I don't know but I am sure it will change.  No rule that favors weaker, poorer teams like the Guardians will ever be allowed to stand now that it has been identified.

2. Getting Gioloto, Lopez and Moore isn't going to cure all that ails the Guardians.  But it may keep their heads above water long enough to help.  

Some will say, as I did, that they should have brought in Hunter Renfroe.  This would have likely cost us Ramon Laureano on a DFA, which I would have been OK with.  It might have also cost us Juan Gonzalez on a DFA, something I would not have been comfortable with.   

But we didn't get any offensive help when some might have been available.  If the FO decision not to bring in Renfroe or Randall Grichuk is a sign that they think what they have currently is better.  

Looking at the current 26 I don't think we have enough.  Maybe if you include the minors.  Which brings me to what could change.  Bringing up Rocchio won't give us a dramatic upgrade.  Bringing up Noel or Lavastida or Schneeman or Pries or Valera won't give us that upgrade.  There are only 2 guys in the farm system who can help us catch that lightning in a bottle right now: Jonathon Rodriguez and Chase DeLauter.  If DeLauter had been healthy all year and was raking in Akron right now after raking in LC for the first half of the season I might buy into rostering him 2 years early.   But not now.  Which brings me back to Rodriguez.   Sticking with Laureano is a fool's play.  You have to bring up Rodriguez and DFA Laureano.  It probably won't work but if it does, if the league takes 3-4 weeks to catch on to Rodriguez's weaknesses, we might get enough of a spark to the offense to separate us from the teams we are playing in September.   

If Will Brennan or Myles Straw lose a little playing time to get Rodriguez some ABs, so what.  We need instant offense and he is the only guy I can think of who has a chance to, along with Calhoun, give us that lightning.  

With our offense, even if Josh Naylor comes back as strong as he was when he left (his rehab is not really showing that so far) we still need one more hitter.  That hitter is Rodriguez and if the cost of a lifetime fringe player like Laureano to DFA, so be it.  

We are 5 games back.  The time is not for the Laureanos of the world.  We need a hero and my hope is that, like Gonzalez last year, Rodriguez is that guy this year.  Otherwise, we are making the same mistakes we did for most of this year.

C'mon Guardians, be bold. We need SUCCESSFUL bold right now.  Miracles can be made of that.  That plus Bieber and McKenzie coming back in Cy Young caliber form by mid September :-)