The Patience Vs. Stubbornness Argument And The Cleveland Guardians

One of our sports beliefs is that there is a fine line between patience and stubbornness. We also understand front offices of professional sports teams have to error on the side of the latter. Fans want players replace after they have two poor weeks. Front offices have to make sure before cutting ties with a player.

And players who have put up with good numbers for a long time deserve and get a longer leash. For example, Jose Ramirez hasn’t had a good season, although his OPS is still over league average. And even though he is now 33, you have to think he will get to being the player he has always been, with maybe a bit of a regression to age.

We are trying to ascertain how the Cleveland Guardians approach this process and make no doubt we believe they skirt the line of stubbornness. We ask this because of the recent move to cut bait on Juan Brito and earlier this year with George Valera.

The question comes because both players seem to have had patient approaches while hitting. In AAA, Brito fanned 192 times and drew 163 walks in 1151 plate appearances. Valera’s ratio wasn’t as good, but he still walked 164 times in over 1200 plate appearances at the AAA level.

Let’s take a look at Daniel Schneemann. He got off to a great start, putting up a 955 OPS in April. However, in May he struggled going 11 for 74 (417 OPS). Steven Vogt and the organization gave him 63 more plate appearances in June, and the results were much the same (11 for 63, 498 OPS).

We are talking about someone with a career 632 OPS, so it’s not like he has a long track record of success. Despite that, Schneemann got 40 more at bats in July, producing just five hits and a 362 OPS. At some point, perhaps in the middle of June, someone should have said even though he’s a great defensive player, maybe we shouldn’t be giving him semi-regular at bats?

Look at the way the team uses Rhys Hoskins. He is used mostly as a platoon bat against southpaws. Over his career, he’s been great against them, compiling an 855 OPS. This season, in 113 PA, he’s batting .143. Now 33, you have to wonder if he’s about done. On the other hand, as a veteran, he should get more of the benefit of the doubt.

The unfortunate thing with Hoskins is the Guardians keep hitting him in the middle of the lineup against lefties, and as we said, the .143 average doesn’t help. If we were a fading veteran, we’d sign with the Guardians and be a leader in the clubhouse. We’d get every benefit of the doubt.

Look at how long it took to make a decision on Gabriel Arias, he of the career 635 OPS. Let us remind you, the average OPS hovers around 710 most seasons, so you can see, Arias is a below average bat.

Yet, he now has almost 1200 plate appearances in the bigs and has fanned in over 1/3rd of those times at the dish, and hardly ever draws a walk, meaning he makes an out 72.5% of the times he goes to the plate.

He is what is known as “toolsy”. He has a cannon for an arm and occasionally can hit the ball a long way. However, he is wildly inconsistent and doesn’t seem to have a good feel for the game. Despite his pop, he has never had a slugging percentage over .400.

All of these weaknesses have been on display for at least three years, but it took this long for the Guardians to cut bait.

Meanwhile, a guy like Brito, a switch-hitter gets 56 at bats and is cut loose. We understand Brito is borderline terrible with a glove but deserved more of a chance in the majors in our opinion.

It will be interesting to see if the Guardians’ impatience with him is merited.

The Guardians’ Front Office Swings Into Action.

Well, the Guardians certainly did not stand pat at the trade deadline this season. And that is good to see.

For us, the biggest move was trading four players, one of whom saw time in the bigs this season in Will Dion, to the Washington Nationals for 30-year-old left-hander Foster Griffin, an All-Star with a 12-3 record and a 3.06 ERA with 116 Ks in 129 innings this season.

He will slide into Slade Cecconi’s spot in the rotation giving the Guardians a solid starter in every game in which they take the field. The southpaw spent the last three seasons in Japan winning 18 games with a 2.57 ERA.

We also think getting Griffin helps manage Parker Messick’s innings. He’s already at 129.2 IP just four short of his career high. So, he may get skipped a bit to keep him fresh for the stretch drive.

This move comes after the front office dealt for Craig Yoho from Milwaukee to bolster a sagging bullpen.

Yoho is the guy Cleveland wanted, he had a 3.15 ERA with the Brewers in 20 innings, despite a strikeout to walk ratio of 13 Ks vs. eight walks. Last year, in limited action (8.2 innings) he walked nine. But in his minor league career, he fanned 193 hitters in 131 innings, including 29 in 23 frames at AAA Nashville this season.

As for the offense, when several reactions to a trade, particularly in baseball, are something like “well, at least we didn’t give up much”, that’s not a good thing. That’s the reaction of several people when the Cleveland Guardians acquired OF Jo Adell from the Los Angeles Angels for minor league catcher Zack Cozart.

First, the good news. Adell has some power. Since the beginning of the ’24 season, he’s hammered 73 home runs, His 19 dingers this year would easily lead the Guardians this season, as Kyle Manzardo has hit just 13 HRs.

As we said, that’s the good news.

The bad news is Adell has an obscene strikeout to walk ratio. This year, he has fanned 108 times against just 16 walks. For a comparison, Gabriel Arias has whiffed 55 times vs. seven walks. More good news, Adell has like three times the plate appearances.

The good news is Adell does have a career 793 OPS against southpaws, and this year, has killed lefties, hitting .303 with a 910 OPS. However, against right-handers, his career mark is just 654 and just 593 this season. Which means he should be taking the Brandon Guyer role.

It is doubtful the Guardians will use him that way though. Our guess is he will be in the lineup most days and will madden fans by whiffing in key situations.

A better move, in our opinion, was getting 1B/DH Nathaniel Lowe from Cincinnati. A left-handed bat, he has a career 775 OPS and a 798 figure vs. righties. Lowe will replace Kyle Manzardo, who was sent to Columbus along with David Fry.

Manzardo has been lost at the plate most of the year, and his strikeout rate soared from 25% to 32% this season. We have advocated for him to go down and rediscover his swing, because right now, Lowe figures to platoon with Rhys Hoskins, who frankly has been terrible vs. lefties.

Getting Manzardo right would allow Steven Vogt (and the organization) to platoon Lowe and Adell, which would seem to be a productive pairing.

The Guardians will probably stop there, but we would still like to see Angel Genao and Cooper Ingle with the big club to improve the attack. There is still some dead weight on the roster. Angel Martinez is really struggling, and we continue to maintain Petey Halpin is not a big-league bat.

However, we wanted the Guardians to get better at the deadline and no question, they look to be improved for the stretch drive.

QB Decision For Browns Shows A Clear Lack Of Direction

The Cleveland Browns continue to be a weird organization. It seems they are set up with a bunch of department heads all trying to show the boss who is the best and worthy of promotion, but in reality, they have no true leader, not true direction.

They have a new head coach in Todd Monken, who is 60 years old and getting his first chance to be the top guy of an NFL team. He, of course, wants to win now and show he deserved to have this job sooner in his career.

That means he is going to start the best players at each position, which is the way it should be, but the question is, what does the front office think about certain players?

We are of course talking about the starting quarterback spot where the Browns are leaking through the media that Deshaun Watson has a leg up on Shedeur Sanders for the job.

This is something we just don’t understand.

The entire organization should be saying this is Sanders’ opportunity to see if he can claim the job. If he shows he can be an above average NFL QB, then the Browns are in a good spot with two first round picks in next year’s draft.

As for Watson, we keep hearing from certain members of the media about his “body of work”. We will simply say the last time he was an effective NFL quarterback was six years ago. We can’t think of anyone in league history who played at a high level, was largely ineffective or not available for that long of a time period and then returned to play at that same tier of performance.

Basically, the Browns are asking Watson to do something that has never been done before. Seems plausible.

How should the Browns be handling this? A few different scenarios come to mind.

First, don’t hire a 60-year-old first time head coach who wants to win immediately. If you hire a younger guy than you can tell him the plan is to not have Watson play again and let him leave the team at the end of the season quietly.

Or you could have told Monken that was the plan all along and he should devote all of his time getting the best of Sanders, and if it doesn’t work, he will be part of the development on whoever the Browns draft in the first round in 2027.

Many national pundits can’t believe Cleveland is even considering starting Watson. After all, his contract ends after this season, and as we have pointed out before, if you are going with him, you have to make the playoffs, correct? Going 7-10 or 8-9 with him aces the team out of a high draft pick and also, they didn’t find out if Sanders can play.

Note we’ve only mentioned Sanders, but remember the Browns used a top 100 pick a year ago on another quarterback in Dillon Gabriel who is barely talked about and probably is a longshot to make the roster.

That pick was another example of not having a singular direction, a lone voice, making decisions.

We fear until that is fixed, the Browns will continue to run around in circles, never making progress.

As The Offense Plummets, The Front Office Plays The Fiddle

The Cleveland Guardians haven’t exactly taken off following the all-star break, going 3-7 and generally not playing good baseball. And the hitting hasn’t been good either, as they’ve scored either zero or one run in half of these games.

And of course, the spector of the trade deadline looms, now less than a week away.

This recent stretch has led a few people to suggest that the front office should be selling a week from now, but really, what do the Guardians have to sell? First, Cleveland is still one of the 10 youngest teams in baseball.

Do you really want the Guards’ front office to shop Gavin Williams or even Tanner Bibee? Cade Smith? They aren’t going to move Jose Ramirez obviously, and with the offense already challenged, do people want them to deal Chase DeLauter or Travis Bazzana? That would be ridiculous.

The Guardians have won the AL Central the past two seasons and if the season were to end today (we know, it doesn’t) they would be in the playoffs. Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff should be looking for ways to punch their ticket to the post-season for the third straight year.

And as an added bonus, with the way the AL West is shaking out right now, winning the Central would mean skipping the Wild Card Series and put the Guardians right into the Divison Series.

But they simply have to be better offensively.

As they were last season, Cleveland ranks near the bottom in the majors in runs scored. This has now been the case for a season and a half. Yet it doesn’t seem like any changes in terms of coaching are on the horizon, and we don’t like calling for people’s jobs, but whatever message Grant Fink is sending to his troops, it is not getting through.

But it shouldn’t just fall on Fink. Look at the roster the front office has put together. They have 13 position players on the big-league squad and how many of them are just not even decent hitters? We aren’t going to ignore Austin Hedges resurgence this season, but neither he nor Patrick Bailey are serious offensive threats.

Kyle Manzardo looks lost. David Fry hasn’t been effective since the post-season in 2024, some of that due to injury, but it is what it is. We liked the signing of Rhys Hoskins during training camp, but he was brought in to hit lefties, and he’s batted .129 vs. southpaws.

Petey Halpin simply doesn’t look like a major league hitter, and Gabriel Arias, despite being on a bit of a good streak right now, still has fanned 51 times in 117 plate appearances this season.

And although Angel Martinez has shown some pop, since May 1st, he’s hit .203 with just 12 extra base hits and a strikeout to walk ratio of 35:4.

What this means is out of the 13 position players on the current roster, eight of them simply aren’t even competent big-league hitters as of now. It is tough to put Manzardo in that group right now, but he looks like he could use the same thing the Guardians did with Rocchio a year ago. That is, send him back to AAA for a reset and see what happens.

Let’s see what Kody Huff can do. He’s batting .275 with a .388 on base percentage and a 912 OPS at Columbus. And he’s thriving away from the hitters’ park that is Huntington Bank Field. What about one of the Guards’ top prospects in Angel Genao, hitting .305 with a .389 OBP? We’d also bring back Cooper Ingle.

Could they be any worse than what is currently on the roster? That’s doubtful. But it makes you wonder why moves haven’t been made.

The Clock Is Ticking For The Cavaliers

LeBron James made his decision where to play in 2026-27 and it wasn’t Cleveland. We aren’t one of those Cavaliers’ fans who are upset with James, who is still a good NBA player at 41, turning 42 in late December.

He averaged 20.9 points, 7.2 assists and six rebounds per game last year, and would have been an improvement over analytics darling Dean Wade in the Cleveland starting lineup. But that’s here, nor there.

Our problem is with the Cavs’ front office, notably president of basketball operations Koby Altman, who hasn’t done anything to improve the team that did go to the Eastern Conference Finals last season.

That’s not entirely fair, he did resign journeyman big man Thomas Bryant, who couldn’t get on the floor in the playoffs, and let guard Keon Ellis and Wade depart via free agency. So, as it has most times since Altman has been in charge, the Cleveland bench has a collection of 6’3″ to 6’6″ players, making it impossible for coach Kenny Atkinson to get them all enough minutes.

There’s Max Strus, Sam Merrill, Dennis Schroder (who everyone believes will be dealt soon), Jaylon Tyson (who should be the starter at small forward in our opinion), Craig Porter Jr., Tyrese Proctor, and he drafted another one in Meleek Thomas.

There are still no bigger wings, although Atkinson has alluded that last year’s second round pick, Saliou Niang, who is 6’8″ will likely be on the team and of course, Nae’Qwan Tomlin also 6’8″ returns and hopefully will have a more meaningful role, as he was largely ignored after the moves around the trade deadline.

There are rumors about the Cavs being very interested in 6’7″ forward Jonathan Kuminga, the 7th overall pick in 2021 and a player in this third year averaged 16 points a game for Golden State. However, he was in Steve Kerr’s doghouse for the past two seasons, was traded to Atlanta, and the Hawks declined to bring him back.

He played in 36 games last season and averaged 12.2 points per game. We’ve liked him, and just because Kerr didn’t play him isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Coaches may not like something about a player’s game, but that doesn’t mean he can’t play.

There are also rumors Cleveland is interested in Mario Hezonja, a former first round pick of Orlando, who has played overseas the last six seasons. Now 31, he averaged 7 points per game in five NBA seasons with the Magic, Knicks, and Trailblazers. He’s 6’8″.

We will keep harping on this, but as currently constituted, the Cleveland Cavaliers don’t have enough size. They need bigger, athletic wings, the “3 and D” guys talked about frequently. They need more big men than just having Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley.

And preferably, they need someone inside who has some girth. Allen and Mobley are tall, but in NBA standards, slender. A “bruiser” would be very welcome in Cleveland.

So, Altman is on the clock. Several teams in the East look to have passed the Cavaliers. Certainly, James’ new team, the 76ers, but also the Raptors if they work out the Kawhi Leonard trade. Also, the Pacers get Tyrese Halliburton back, the Pistons had a better regular season record, and Atlanta keeps getting more experience.

From where we are sitting, maybe the Cavs should have promoted Mike Gansey. There is still time to improve the team, but we are worried the wine and gold are now in the rut where a chance for a title might be out of reach.

If You Have No QB, Why Not Run The Ball More?

Recently, we mused on social media about what team in what sport would be the first team to go with an “old school” approach in building a team and in terms of style of play.

One of the reasons behind the thought was the Cleveland Browns and their constant search for a quarterback and using that need as the reason they cannot put together a winning team.

If you don’t have a “franchise QB”, why not just become highly proficient at running the football? We understand that would present its own set of challenges, such as what do you do if you fall behind, especially in the second half. That’s when a team needs to throw the ball and if you can’t do it, the team is essentially screwed.

Last year, the Baltimore Ravens threw the least number of passes in the NFL at 422, 24.8 per game, and they actually ran more than they threw, averaging 29.8 running attempts per game. That figure was almost three passes fewer than the next team, the Washington Commanders. The Ravens also ranked second in the league in rushing yards.

Buffalo and the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks also run more than they threw, but again, that might be a product of being ahead late in games and running the ball to keep the clock moving.

They did have Derrick Henry, who was second in the league in rushing behind Buffalo’s James Cook. The Bills led the NFL in rushing yards as a team.

Buffalo finished the season 12-5 while the Ravens were 8-9.

We thought back to when the Browns had Nick Chubb and in their playoff season of 2020, they ranked third in the league in rushing. In that year, they still threw the ball over 30 times per game. They also had Kareem Hunt on the roster, who led the league in rushing his rookie season for Kansas City. So, they had two great runners and threw the ball as much as they ran.

They were fourth in running the ball the following season and QB Baker Mayfield was battling a shoulder injury for most of the year.

They threw the ball 30.6 times per game that season and ran it just 28.5 times.

We get that it is never been easier to throw the ball in football than it is today. When the Miami Dolphins went undefeated in 1972, they ran the football 617 times and threw just 259 passes. For the season. Of course, wide receivers were allowed to be held up by cornerbacks at the line of scrimmage. And the Dolphins had two 1000 yards rushers in Larry Csonka and Mercury Morris.

In 1985, just 13 years later, the Browns had two 1000 yards runners in Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner and ran the ball 533 times. But that was in a 16-game schedule. Miami was running it 44 times per game. Cleveland ran it 33 times per contest and threw it 25.8 times.

We guess our question is if you don’t have a solid quarterback, why do NFL teams keep throwing the ball all over the place? The answer is they probably can’t help themselves. That’s how the game is played today, much like basketball players who keep firing up three pointers even though their team is ahead late in games.

That’s how they played coming up and they can’t change it.

You would think if you don’t have a good QB, you would put less emphasis on the position. Maybe that’s just using logic.

Can Guardians’ Front Office Make The Tough Decision?

With the trading deadline in Major League Baseball two weeks away, teams all around baseball have to make decisions. Are they a contender or a pretender? That’s the first thing executives around the game have to figure out, and we have seen it here and all around the sport, what the fans and even the players think is not the same as the GM.

For the Cleveland Guardians, that decision should be simple. They are currently one game out of first place in a weak AL Central Division, and they have won that division title each of the last two seasons. They should be in the business of strengthening their ballclub.

What president Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff have to decide is what areas need improvement and how to accomplish getting better. Those answers should be obvious, the offense is now last in all of baseball in scoring runs and of course, everyone’s bullpen could be deeper.

Offensively, are the Guardians ready to move on from some of the players they have seemed to give umpteen chances to? We look at the position players on the roster currently and see many players who could easily be sent back to AAA or even DFA’d in order to score more runs.

And yes, yes, we know Jose Ramirez will be back, hopefully before the August 3rd deadline and Angel Martinez will return as well, and when both are in the lineup, the hitting will be better. We understand that. But again, the offense is currently last in baseball, so even with that pair returning, Cleveland’s offense isn’t anything to write home about.

The front office leaned into giving their young players a chance this off-season and have been rewarded to some extent by the performance of rookies Chase DeLauter and Travis Bazzana. Still, it hasn’t been enough because, and we know we are repeating ourselves, they still rank last in scoring runs per game.

Part of that is Steven Kwan’s struggles, but he seems to be getting back to the player we’ve seen in his career up to this point.

We are sure they didn’t anticipate Kyle Manzardo’s struggles and that the DH spot would basically become a gaping hole. But the question now is what they are willing to do about it.

Will they continue to hope young players like Cooper Ingle or Ralphy Velazquez will come up and hit the ground running, or that Kahlil Watson or Petey Halpin will figure out the puzzle that is the strike zone and become competent big league hitters?

There are rookies that take the league by storm and maybe that’s what will happen for the Guardians, but history shows it likely won’t happen. Heck, Bazzana is going through a tough stretch right now, hitting .169 with a 525 OPS over the last month.

To us, there are a number of players in the organization we would have no problem if the organization decided to move on, but that seems to be an issue with the Guardians. They have a tough time letting go. However, using assets to go out and get a proven hitter is the prudent move to make. Adding even one bat should make a difference.

Looking At Guardians’ Top Hitting Prospects.

In today’s edition of The Plain Dealer, the great Terry Pluto spoke with Guardians’ farm director, Matt Forman, about the hitting in the minor leagues. Keep in mind, the Guardians rank near the bottom in the big leagues in runs scored. str

Also, in the last week or so, Baseball America came out with its revised Top 30 prospects for each organization. Of the players featured in the article, Jaison Chourio was rated the highest (#3), while Dean Curley (#8) and Jace LaViolette (#10) were also in the Guardians’ current Top 10 minor leaguers.

If you visit this site often, you know we believe the one of the most important indicators of success in the big leagues is strikeout to walk ratio, because in our opinion, hitters have a better chance if they can discern the difference between a ball and a strike.

Last night, Chase DeLauter knocked in the Guards’ first run in the nightcap after falling down in the count 0-2, and fighting off some tough pitches, taking some borderline one, and getting a 3-2 pitch which he (luckily, according to Chris Gimenez) pulled in the hole.

Cleveland’s #1 prospect is 1B/OF Ralphy Velazquez, currently hitting .269 (773 OPS) at Columbus after starting the year in Akron. The left-handed hitter has a 70:39 ratio this year, not bad, but something to watch, at AAA, that ratio is 39:17. Not awful. And the most he has fanned in any minor league season is 104. That’s pretty good contact.

The #2 prospect is SS Angel Genao, a 22-year-old switch-hitter, who the organization will have to get creative with, seeing the keystone at the big league level seems to be in good hands with Brayan Rocchio and Travis Bazzana.

He’s hitting .299 between Akron and Columbus and has drawn 51 walks vs. 55 whiffs. We wonder if he’s the big trade chip or if the Guardians ultimately move Bazzana to the outfield.

Remember, pitching doesn’t get easier as you move up the ladder in the minors and ultimately to the major leagues.

And that’s why we are watching the progress of Chourio, a 21-year-old, switch-hitting outfielder, whose brother Jackson plays for the Brewers. This season, he has struck out 60 times in 315 plate appearances and has drawn 46 walks with 26 extra base hits.

In his minor league career, his K/BB ratio is pretty much even (290/286). He has a .410 on base percentage to date, and we think as he gets older and matures, the power will arrive.

Another player we are keeping an eye on is 18-year-old (soon to be 19) OF Juneiker Caceres, who was just promoted to Lake County. A left-handed hitter, he walked more than he struck out at low A (31 walks, 23 Ks) and batted .320 with a 956 OPS. Again, he’s just 19, and just moved up to high A, but he definitely bears watching to see how he adjusts to better pitching.

Curley is a 22-year-old infielder who has pop, but a good eye. When we are accused of hating strikeouts, we always respond that strikeouts aren’t terrible if the hitter also walks a lot, like Jim Thome. That’s Curley. He has fanned in 92 of his 329 plate appearances this season, but he’s also walked 82 times, giving him a .454 on base percentage.

He was just promoted to AA Akron, so again, watch if that ratio can maintain moving up a level.

We aren’t sure about LaViolette, the Guardians’ first pick in last year’s amateur draft. He certainly has power, 30 extra base hits in 327 plate appearances, but has fanned a whopping 119 times vs. 39 walks. Let us remind you again, the pitching doesn’t get easier as you move up in the minors.

If he can’t harness the strike zone, we don’t see him ever being an impact player in the bigs.

Cooper Ingle is the #6 prospect, and we didn’t talk about him since we’ve discussed him earlier, and we still think he can help the big club.

On the other hand, none of these guys can help until the front office makes some decisions with some of the marginal players currently on the roster.

With Trading Deadline Coming, We’d Get A Bat. What Is The Front Office Thinking?

The Cleveland Guardians resume their season Friday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates and when they start play, they will have a little over two weeks before the MLB trading deadline which ends on August 3rd.

We doubt the front office will do anything major and might not do anything at all. However, the offense still ranks 29th in the big leagues and has been in that area now for a year and a half.

Our guess is the brass will look at the return of Jose Ramirez as a major event (and it is), but we believe a good offense needs seven effective bats in a lineup, and the Guardians will still be well short of that. And remember, the front office should plan things based on a worst-case scenario mindset.

For sure, Cleveland should be in the relief pitcher market because right now Steven Vogt can only have confidence in Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis, and Colin Holderman. Franco Aleman might be able to slide into the “circle of trust”, but in watching post-season baseball, a team can never have enough solid relief pitchers.

Back to the hitting, with Ramirez back, the Guardians have what we would consider three solid bats: Ramirez, Chase DeLauter, and Brayan Rocchio. We understand the optimistic fans will ask, what about Travis Bazzana, Angel Martinez, Kyle Manzardo, etc.?

Manzardo is suffering through a bad season. He’s hitting just .215 with an OPS of 669, a hundred points behind last year’s 768 figure. Can he have a much better second half? Of course, but over the last month, he’s hit just .165 and a 550 OPS.

Bazzana is hitting just .222 with a 685 OPS over the last 28 days. This could be the ups and downs a rookie experiences, but the front office should be a tad concerned, particularly over the 26 strikeouts in those 90 plate appearances.

And although Martinez adds some pop with 23 extra base hits and a .442 slugging percentage, he is very inconsistent at the plate, prone to hot streaks and deep slumps, mostly in our opinion because of a 53:7, strikeout to walk ratio.

It would help greatly if Steven Kwan’s resurgence over the past month (748 OPS) can continue. He could be a fourth solid hitter.

What we are saying is president Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff should be looking for a hitter between now and August 3rd.

We understand the prospect lovers will say what about Ralphy Velazquez and Angel Genao at Columbus? Again, they are rookies and you don’t know what you will get. Cooper Ingle had great numbers at AAA, but he was overmatched when he came up. And we still have confidence he can be a solid hitter in the big leagues.

As for Genao, could he be a piece used to get a proven hitter, particularly one who hits right-handed? The best deals are made from depth, and it appears like the Guardians are set at the keystone spots with Rocchio and Bazzana.

That said, we know the front office is loath to give up prospects, so it likely won’t happen.

What is more likely is a deal for someone like a Lane Thomas giving up marginal prospects. Don’t forget the organization figures to do something with Bo Naylor too.

How much that moves the needle is up for debate.

Is the goal is to get a first-round bye and ultimately get to the World Series, the batting order needs to be more formidable. Can the management pull the trigger and help the team currently on the field?

Memories Of All-Star Games And The Hometown Team

Tonight is the Mid-Summer Classic, Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game, the highlight of many summers for us when we were younger, and unfortunately, the game has lost some of its luster due to a variety of things, mostly interleague play.

Another reason is you can see every team’s games now. That’s a good thing, but still, it affects the All-Star contest. Back when we became a fan of baseball, the All-Star Game and the World Series were the only time you got to see the great players in the National League.

And growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, the NL dominated play winning every game from 1963-1970 and 1972-1982. The Senior Circuit had Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, and Joe Morgan.

Still, as kids, the night of the game was sacred. If you were playing ball, you rushed home by 8 PM to watch all the great players. We remember a few nights where sleepovers were scheduled so you could watch the contest with your friends.

In 1965 (still a day game), the Cleveland Indians had two starters, CF Vic Davalillo and RF Rocky Colavito, Sam McDowell pitched in the game and took the loss in a 6-5 NL win. (The winning pitcher was Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson got the save!).

They were the last Cleveland players to start in an All-Star Game until Manny Trillo in 1983. Trillo was voted in because people knew him nationally because he played for the Phillies prior to being traded to the Tribe in the Von Hayes (five for one) deal.

So, as an Indian fan, our hope was that our player would get in the game. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn’t, and many times it was a pinch-hitting appearance.

Of course, once the 90’s came, the Indians were all over the starting lineups. Kenny Lofton, Carlos Baerga, Albert Belle, Sandy Alomar Jr. were regulars in the AL batting order.

One painful memory was the 1970 game in which Ray Fosse’s career was ruined in a home plate collision with Rose on the last play. Fosse came into the game hitting .312 with 16 homers and 46 RBI (893 OPS) and was a great defensive catcher as well. He was the AL’s answer to Bench.

After the collision, which resulted in a shoulder injury (we believe Fosse said it was separated), his numbers in the second half fell off to .297 with only 2 home runs and 15 ribbies (713 OPS). Fosse played until 1979, won a couple of World Series rings with the A’s (’73 and ’74) and broadcasted games for Oakland for many years. But what could have been a great career was destroyed.

We have seen three games played in town. The ’81 game which was marred because it was the first game played after the work stoppage, the ’97 contest during the “Summer of Sandy” when Sandy Alomar came into the game hitting .375 and in the midst of a 30-game hitting streak and then hit the game winning homer to claim the MVP.

And of course, 2019, when Shane Bieber introduced himself to the country, striking out the side in a 4-3 AL win and winning the MVP for the game. Bieber was just 24 and in his second season in the bigs and won the Cy Young Award the next year in the COVID-shortened season.

It’s not the same today for many reasons, but it’s still an enjoyable evening for baseball fans. The only bad thing is we have to wait until Friday for another game. That can be painful.