Schedule Or Not, Guards’ Pitching Has Improved

A few weeks ago, we talked about what figured to be the Cleveland Guardians’ strength coming into the season, the pitching staff, wasn’t pulling its own weight, ranking near the bottom of the American League in ERA.

Things have taken a decided turn for the good for the Cleveland hurlers, as they have seen that ranking moved to 6th in the AL. Surprisingly, they are not doing it with the strikeout, as Guards’ pitchers are just ninth in the Junior Circuit in strikeouts per nine innings.

They are third from the bottom in total whiffs, but that has more to do with Terry Francona’s club playing at least three games less than every other team in the league.

They’ve allowed the third fewest hits per nine, behind only the Yankees and Astros, so there could be concern about how sustainable that is considering the lack of strikeouts.

New York is near the top of the league in whiffs per nine, while Houston averages the same as Cleveland.

In terms of issuing free passes, Carl Willis’ staff is right around league average, so nothing unusual there.

However, in the last 15 games, Cleveland pitchers have allowed more than four runs just twice, most recently, Saturday’s loss to Baltimore, and to take it back further, in the last 23 games, opponents have hit the five-run mark against the Guardians just four times.

The two most disappointing members of the rotation earlier this season were Zach Plesac and Aaron Civale. Plesac has two runs or less in three of his last four starts, and Civale has started only one game since May 13th, and it was a 6-1/3 inning, one run allowed (unearned) effort against Detroit.

Rookie left-hander Konnor Pilkington has subbed in with three starts and hasn’t allowed more than three runs in either of them.

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention the only above league average offense Cleveland faced in the last 15 games is Houston. The Tigers are the league’s worst offense, while the Orioles and Royals both rank in the bottom five in the AL in scoring.

There do seem to be changes afoot in the bullpen. Trevor Stephan has been struggling in his last few outings and Nick Sandlin has had issues throwing strikes all season, walking 15 batters in 15 innings.

So Francona has leaned more on Eli Morgan, a starter last season, and he has been more than impressive. Morgan started the year on the roster to be able to give the team innings because starters were still stretching out from the shortened spring training.

The 26-year-old righty has pitched 25 innings, allowing just 10 hits with only four walks against 32 strikeouts. He’s getting more and more opportunities in the seventh and eighth innings.

The same is true with southpaw Sam Hentges, who has thrown 16-1/3 frames, giving up just eight hits and four walks against 19 strikeouts. He has supplanted Anthony Gose as the late inning lefty.

Enyel De Los Santos has also worked his way into more high leverage situations as well.

If the club can get both Stephan and Sandlin straightened out, this has the makings of a very good bullpen.

If the pitching can keep this going, the Guardians can stay in the post-season race. Hopefully, the last group of games is more indicative of how good the staff can be.

The Rosario Dilemma

Occasionally on social media, we are accused of hating Amed Rosario, the Guardians’ sometime leftfielder and usually, their shortstop.

First, we don’t “hate” Rosario. We just feel that many fans fell in love with his .282 batting average last season. On a team that was pretty much offensively inept, he was among the better hitters on the roster.

He could be an asset for the Guardians if used in certain situations, for example, against left-handed pitching, he’s very good, with a career .463 slugging percentage and 804 OPS.

However, that’s not how the Guardians use him.

We know batting average isn’t as important as it used to be, but unless he is hitting around .275, he’s a bad offensive player. Right now, he’s batting .234, making his on base percentage under .280 because he doesn’t walk. His entire offensive worth is based on getting hits, and right now, he’s not getting any.

Conversely, Myles Straw is hitting .230, which isn’t great either. But Straw is among the league leaders in walks, so his OBP is around .330, not great for a leadoff man, but higher than the AL average of .305.

Rosario’s lack of on base skill could be overlooked if he was driving the ball, hitting with pop. But his slugging percentage is also under .300, and he has just eight extra base hits on the season. That’s less than Straw, Steven Kwan, and even Oscar Mercado.

Players who don’t get on base and don’t drive the ball simply don’t contribute much to the offense. But maybe a guy like Rosario could contribute at the bottom of the batting order, so when he gets on, he sets up the top of the order.

Except, the Guardians continue to hit him in the #2 hole, and when Kwan was going well early in the season, they put him in the #5 spot. Traditionally, that’s a place for a power bat.

There is always a place for guys with solid gloves, like Straw, who is a gold glove caliber defender. However, Rosario is below average defensively at short, although he seems better than he was last season.

It’s not up for debate that Andres Gimenez is better glove at short, but many times he’s put at second in favor of Rosario.

Terry Francona said after the Toronto series that Rosario was going to play more in left, but after a pair of games out there, he then played six straight at short. Then, after playing three out of four in the outfield, his last seven games have been at shortstop.

It just seems there is a priority to keep Rosario in the lineup no matter what, and to make sure he’s in a comfortable spot defensively, despite better options in both the lineup and defensively.

We understand Francona and the coaching staff are doing everything they can to get Rosario hitting like he did last season, and if they can do it, it would help the offense. Maybe what they should do right now is platoon him with Kwan in left.

The Guardians are giving Amed Rosario every opportunity to succeed, but you have to wonder if this is another patience vs. stubbornness situations. Not playing players who have been doing better is something that needs questioning.

Ramirez’ Place In Cleveland Baseball History

A few years ago, we wrote a piece talking about Francisco Lindor’s place in Cleveland baseball history if he were to play his entire career here, or at least a sizeable portion of it.

Well, we had the wrong player. Jose Ramirez is one of the best players in the game, and he wants to spend his entire career in a Cleveland uniform.

So, let’s look at some of the all time Cleveland counting stats and see where Ramirez will wind up statistically for the franchise.

The franchise leader in games played is Terry Turner, who played 1619 games with Cleveland, the last in 1919. Ramirez has played in 1026 as of today, and if he averages 140 games through the end of 2028 when his contract ends, he will surpass that total easily.

Napoleon Lajoie is the club’s all time leader in hits with 2047 and he last wore a Cleveland uniform in 1914. Ramirez has 1038 currently. Assuming he gets 100 more hits this season, he would need to get about 150 hits per season to pass the man the team was once named after.

Jim Thome’s 337 home runs is the current standard and Ramirez has belted 176 as of now, averaging almost 28 per season in the last five full seasons. After this season, the switch-hitting third baseman will need slightly over 20 homers a year to break the franchise mark.

As for RBIs, the all-time leader is Earl Averill with 1084 and Ramirez has 591 to date, averaging 90 a year in the last five full seasons. At that pace, he will pass Averill, but as we know that depends on his teammates and other teams choosing to pitch to him.

Averill is also the leader in total bases (3200) with Ramirez currently at 1885. Jose has averaged 290 total bases in the last five full seasons, so he should pass the 2000 mark before the end of this season.

Keep in mind using the last five full seasons includes the 2016 season in which Ramirez only hit 11 homers and knocked in 76 runs. His power surge started the following season when he belted 29 dingers.

Ramirez has 256 career doubles and the franchise leader is also the all time in this department, Tris Speaker, who had 486 of his two-baggers in a Cleveland uniform. Ramirez gets a lot of hustle doubles because of his speed, but his total has dipped since he started belting balls over the fence.

He had a league leading 56 in 2017, but the past few seasons, he’s been around 30-35. At that pace, he gets in the top five all time, but no higher.

In terms of WAR, Ramirez is already in 10th place at 36.9, and at the pace his current season is on, he will likely be 9th by the end of this season, passing the aforementioned Turner. Being conservative, he will be in the top five in franchise history during the 2024 assuming he stays healthy.

Many of Cleveland’s all time leaders in these counting statistics come either from the 90’s teams (like Thome) or more than 80 years ago, so it will be refreshing to see Ramirez’ name at the top.

No doubt he will be one of the greatest, if not THE greatest player to ever wear a Cleveland baseball outfit.

You are witnessing one of the best ever here.