Author: MW

First Checkpoint For The Guardians

Tomorrow is May 1st, and yesterday evening, the Cleveland Guardians played their 27th game of the season, the 1/6th point of the year. That’s the time we take our first overall view of the team.

Under Terry Francona, this first part of the year is the “feeling out” period. Look at Cleveland’s record at this point over the last six seasons:

2023: 13-14
2022: 13-14
2021: 14-13
2020: 17-10
2019: 15-12
2018: 15-12

The best record came in the pandemic shortened season of 2020. It’s an old baseball adage that you can’t win a pennant (now, post-season berth) in April, but you can lose one, and the Guardians certainly don’t screw up a season at the beginning.

So far, it’s the offense that hasn’t lived up to expectations. The Guards are currently 12th in the American League in runs scored at 3.85. The home run power, which the front office tried to address with the signing of Josh Bell, hasn’t materialized yet, as Cleveland ranks last in the league in round trippers.

What the Guards do well is walk, ranking second in the AL in bases on balls. They are 8th in on-base percentage, and 13th in slugging percentage. They get doubles and triples but no long balls.

Individually, only the great Jose Ramirez and Mike Zunino have performed up to expectations with the bat. The latter has struck out a ton, as advertised, but he’s walked a higher rate than ever.

Steven Kwan has gotten on base (.358 OBP), but so far, he hasn’t driven the ball, with only four extra base hits (three 2B, one 3B).

The players counted on for middle of the order production have all got off to slow starts. Josh Naylor is hitting .214 with 3 HR and 15 RBI (619 OPS). Bell is at .214, 3 HR, 13 RBI (714 OPS), and Oscar Gonzalez is at .188, 1 HR, 4 RBI (509 OPS) and is now sharing time in right field with Will Brennan.

Naylor is starting to look like a platoon player, going 2 for 22 vs. southpaws this year and his career mark vs. LHP is .199 with a 538 OPS. Unfortunately, right now the Guardians don’t have a right-handed hitting alternative.

The pitching ranks 7th in ERA, but the starting rotation has been riddled by injuries to Triston McKenzie and Aaron Civale. McKenzie has been out all year, while Civale has made just two appearances.

Compounding the injuries has been the relative ineffectiveness of Cal Quantrill (1-2, 5.40 ERA) and Zach Plesac (1-1, 7.59). Quantrill has made two solid starts, but also two poor ones, while Plesac has just one good one, his second outing vs. Seattle.

On the year, he has pitched 21-1/3 innings, and allowed a whopping total of 37 hits and 18 earned runs.

Last week saw the promotion of two of the Guardians’ top pitching prospects, lefty Logan Allen and right-hander Tanner Bibee. Both pitched very well, and if they continue to do so, the organization is going to have to make a decision.

The strength of the team has been pitching and the rotation is the backbone. Francona depends on the starters to eat innings, lessening the burden on the relief corps. The Guardians need Quantrill to pitch like he did a year ago, and Allen and Bibee to hold down the fort.

The ‘pen has been sporadic, but over the last week have started doing better. They have been allowing too many home runs. James Karinchak in particular has struggled, but Eli Morgan has pitched like he did early last season.

The Guardians need to get the offense going more consistently and have the starters pitch much better. It’s still early and history says Francona’s teams get better as the year goes on.

Hopefully, history repeats itself.

Can The Cavs Respond Tonight?

A week and a half ago, basketball fans in northeast Ohio were excited about the Cavaliers. They won 51 games and had homecourt advantage in the first round of the NBA playoffs.

Things can change drastically in ten days, right?

Tonight, the Cavs are playing for their playoff lives, down 3-1 to the New York Knicks with a possible elimination game at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.

Can the Cavs come back and win the series? Our first thought is no, because New York has exposed the weaknesses the Cleveland roster has, namely a top-heavy roster that provides little depth.

One issue we don’t think J.B. Bickerstaff can address is the lack of a third big man who can get on the court. We aren’t going to re-hash the whole Kevin Love situation again, but the real issue is Koby Altman and Mike Gansey did not replace Love with another serviceable big. So, when Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley are on the bench, the Cavaliers really have no big bodies to replace them.

We say it all the time, yes, basketball has changed. The smaller players do have a bigger impact on the game right now, but never forget that size still matters. You have to have size to win, and beyond Allen and Mobley, the wine and gold don’t have enough.

Bickerstaff needs to pull out all stops tonight, he really has nothing to lose. The Knicks primary offensive threat is Jalen Brunson, and the Cavs best success against him is to guard him with bigger people, which we agree with.

Brunson is simply too strong for Donovan Mitchell or Darius Garland.

We believe you have to use Isaac Okoro on him with Caris LeVert and Lamar Stevens also taking turns guarding him. Stevens hasn’t played real minutes in the series, but we think he has to be on the floor tonight.

We have heard many folks complaining about Mitchell’s performance on Sunday and about Allen’s play in general. We agree Mitchell played poorly, but think about it, what did the coaching staff do to help him?

The Knicks are trying to take Mitchell away from the Cavs, and that’s good strategy, he’s their best player, but the Cavs’ staff have to figure out a way to get the All-Star guard some good looks, perhaps with some off-ball screens to get some shots in the paint so he can get in a rhythm early.

As for Allen, he is having problems defensively, but mostly because he is helping with players who are penetrating, and he’s done that all year. He either needs his teammates to keep their men in front of them or somebody to pick up his man when he helps.

That isn’t happening.

Offensively, the Cavs really don’t do much for Mobley or Allen. When the Knicks’ trap out front, the middle is open and that’s where Mobley can help. Get him the ball there and he can either attack the basket or set up a lob for Allen. But really, the Cavaliers don’t ever make a reasonable effort to establish either on the offensive end.

We would go back to starting Okoro, and use LeVert, Osman, and Stevens off the bench. That’s it.

Again, it is a tough road for the Cavs to win this series, but they need to extend the series back to New York to gain some respect among the basketball cognoscenti.

The flaws were always there, they are just being exposed now.

More On Guardians’ Bullpen And Arias

The good news for the Cleveland Guardians last week was when they played one game in a day, they were undefeated, going 2-0.

However, because of our beautiful springtime weather, the Guards were forced to play two doubleheaders and were swept in Detroit by the Tigers and at home by the Marlins.

The offense was the main culprit as in the five games played prior to Sunday’s 7-4 win over Miami, Cleveland scored a total of nine runs. It’s hard to win averaging less than two runs per contest, but the Guardians did it once, winning the series finale in Motown, 3-2.

The pitching hasn’t been bad, allowing 20 runs in the six games, just a shade over three per game. So, as has been the case in pretty much every game in 2023 thus far, the result of the game was in doubt all the way to the bitter end. Only the 6-1 loss in game one Saturday was not in doubt when the ninth inning started.

Home runs continue to be a problem for the bullpen crew, as both Trevor Stephan and James Karinchak gave up solo shots in the win over the Tigers and the latter served up a three-run bomb on Sunday to make what was a commanding 6-1 advantage into a close game.

Cleveland pitchers have allowed 21 homers this year, and a dozen of those have been served up by the relievers. The only bullpen members who have been unscathed by the long ball are Eli Morgan and Enyel De La Santos.

There was some good news as southpaw Sam Hentges made two rehab appearances in Akron last week and is getting closer to returning to the big league roster. That’s needed as rookie Tim Herrin hasn’t been effective, allowing two dingers and four walks in his eight innings of work. He has a 7.45 ERA.

Karinchak has allowed four bombs in 12 innings of work, and probably will not be used in the eighth inning until he cures that issue.

Here’s our current bullpen confidence rankings–

Clase
Stephan
De Los Santos
Morgan
Karinchak
Sandlin
Curry
Herrin

Sandlin gets ranked lower because he still has control issues, walking five in 9-2/3 innings and he seems to fall behind in the count an awful lot.

Hopefully, the offense will continue to come out of the doldrums, but one player who worries us right now is infielder Gabriel Arias.

Arias has always had strike zone judgment issues in the minors, his career numbers in 494 minor league games are 539 strikeouts vs. 145 walks, and he wasn’t outstanding at AAA, a 768 OPS.

However, thus far this season, he’s made 40 plate appearances and has struck out in 18 of them, drawing four walks. He’s batting .167 (6 for 36) with a home run and a double.

We understand it is difficult for a young player to adjust to not getting regular playing time, but that’s the lot he drew with the Guardians. Terry Francona has tried to spot him vs. lefties, but he is just 4 for 24 with 13 Ks against them.

If he was hammering southpaws, we are sure Francona would be more anxious to put him in there against left-handers, particularly because Josh Naylor is a career .202 hitter (544 OPS) against them.

It will be interesting to see if Tyler Freeman, who was up for a handful of games last week (2 for 7 with a walk), starts getting some time at 1B in Columbus to see if he can take Arias’ spot on the roster.

A tough gauntlet is coming up for the Guards, a weekend series in Boston and then a trip to Yankee Stadium before coming home for a clash with the division contending Twins.

We will learn a lot about this year’s group in those nine games.

Once Again, The Cavs Have To Dig Deep.

The Cleveland Cavaliers seem to relish a challenge, especially in their first-round playoff series against the New York Knicks.

They blew the home court advantage they gained with their 51 regular season wins by losing game one at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, and after a win to even the series, they put the pressure firmly on themselves this afternoon by getting smoked at Madison Square Garden Friday night, losing 99-79.

It was the lowest point total of the year for any NBA team.

Both teams struggled in the first quarter which ended tied at 17. Jarrett Allen was outstanding, making all three of his shots, grabbing three rebounds, and blocking a shot. On the negative, Darius Garland was awful, missing eight shots, including four three-pointers.

That was followed by a 15 point second quarter. Cleveland was 2 for 19 from beyond the arc at the half, and to us, the crazy stat was that those 19 attempts were almost one-half of their field goal attempts (43).

The Knicks started knocking down closer shots and led by 13 at the half. The wine and gold actually outrebounded New York before intermission26-24.

In the second half, only Caris LeVert (7 of 11, 3 of 7 from three) and Donovan Mitchell, who was 5 of 11 in the first half, and made half of his eight shots in the second, were able to put the ball in the basket.

Coach J.B. Bickerstaff did change the starting lineup, moving LeVert in, replacing Isaac Okoro, but that left the bench with no weapons. The non-starters, excluding garbage time, took just seven shots, making two.

We said (before the game) we would have started Danny Green if he was going to make a change, but frankly, we would have just stayed with Okoro. And although we are usually critical of Okoro, we thought Bickerstaff didn’t play him enough. He was making an impact when he came in during the first half, but only played seven minutes until the game was decided.

Before the series started, we noted Cleveland needed at least one reserve to play well. In game two, LeVert did. With him starting, they need all five starters to produce. They didn’t.

We mentioned earlier that Allen took three shots in the first quarter, making all of them. Unfortunately, those were the only three he took all night, as the Cavs decided to ignore going inside.

Why is that a problem? If you aren’t going to look inside, Evan Mobley only had 10 shot attempts as well, it allows the Knicks’ big men, mostly Mitchell Robinson to have no real defensive responsibility. Robinson was able to block a Mitchell jumper in the first half.

After the game, Bickerstaff said the Cavs had open looks, they just didn’t make them. To us, that’s a rather simplistic view of the game of basketball. True, the wine and gold shot just 38.8% from the floor. But if a team takes a lot of poor shots, they will probably shoot a poor percentage.

Bickerstaff keeps talking about his team’s inexperience, and they haven’t grasped that in the playoffs, every possession is important. You cannot have 20 turnovers, and bad shots are pretty much the same as a turnover.

Here’s what we mean by a bad shot. At the end of the first half, the Cavs were down 40-32 with :40 remaining. They had a chance to keep it close going into the half.

Instead, Mitchell took a three with plenty of time on the shot clock, missed it, and New York came down and hit a three. Then another turnover and a Knick hoop and the Cavaliers were down 13 at the half.

In our mind, Mitchell’s shot is only good if he makes it.Today’s game is the turning point. If Cleveland wins, they regain homecourt advantage and come home with two of the remaining three in downtown Cleveland.

Can the Cavs adjust? Can they get someone out of their bench? Can Garland rebound from a terrible game? The answer to those questions has to be yes.

JB Makes Changes, Cavs Win Game Two

The Cleveland Cavaliers needed a win badly Tuesday night and they got it, evening the series with the New York Knicks at one game apiece with a 107-90 victory at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.

The wine and gold showed toughness, especially on the glass, outrebounding New York a few days after the Knicks dominated on the glass.

And J.B. Bickerstaff totally changed his rotation, benching Ricky Rubio and Dean Wade, both of whom contributed little in game one, and pretty much went with seven players in the win. We don’t know how sustainable that will be going forward, but it worked in Game 2.

Darius Garland was phenomenal shooting the ball, making six of ten from three-point range, scoring 32 points, 26 of them in the first half. In the early moments of the game, Garland was very careless with the ball, seeming to want to make the spectacular pass rather than the right one.

He corrected that issue by just making a bunch of shots.

Donovan Mitchell became the playmaker, dishing out 13 assists to go with 17 points. There is no doubt the Cavs will need Mitchell’s scoring ability before this series is over, but with the Knicks trying to double him when they could, he simply made the right basketball play over and over again.

Caris LeVert was skewered by many fans after the first game, but he has been so solid over the second half of the season, we figured he would bounce back, and he did, scoring 24 points, grabbing four boards, and dishing out three dimes, as well as hounding Jalen Brunson all night.

He played a team high 40 minutes.

Cedi Osman didn’t shoot the ball well, but played solid defense and grabbed six rebounds, behind only the Cleveland big men, Jarrett Allen (10) and Evan Mobley (13).

We are critical of Bickerstaff at times, mainly how he judges the talent of his players, but it took guts to not play Rubio and make the decision after Dean Wade’s poor first half in game one, not to give him any time during game two.

But the shocking move was with Isaac Okoro. Okoro started and picked up two fouls in the first three minutes on the floor, was removed from the game and never returned. Was his knee acting up again? After all, he did miss the last two weeks with an injury. Still, we were stunned he never went back in.

Instead, Bickerstaff went with veteran Danny Green at the #4 spot. Green only took two shots, making one, but the defense has to guard him, and they don’t do that with Okoro.

We expect the Knicks will try to exploit Green defensively as the series goes on. Quite frankly, having Green guard Julius Randle is not a good match for the Cavs, but the element of surprise worked for Cleveland.

So, the series goes back to Madison Square Garden for games on Friday and Sunday and the Cavs need to win one game in New York at some point if they want to win the series.

As mentioned earlier, the Cavaliers are going to need quality minutes from players not named Mitchell, Garland, Allen, Mobley, and LeVert if they are going to prevail. So, there will be opportunities for guys like Okoro, Rubio, and Wade to help.

They have to come through because you can’t keep playing seven players.

It worked in game two, and it had to. Going down 0-2 at home would have spelled a quick end to the Cavaliers’ season.

Close Games For Guardians Mean Added Pressure For Bullpen

At the end of last season, the Cleveland Guardians knew if they had a lead after six innings, the game was effectively over. Their bullpen was dominant, led by closer Emmanuel Clase. Trevor Stephan and James Karinchak combined to take care of the seventh and eighth, and Terry Francona had Sam Hentges, Enyel De Los Santos, and Nick Sandlin if needed to bridge from the starter to the set up men and closer.

It is also said the most volatile part of any team is the relief pitching, and just because it happened a year ago doesn’t mean it will happen again.

It’s still early, so Francona and Carl Willis are still trying to decide how to use some of the pieces of the ‘pen and integrate a couple of new hurlers into the mix.

Last season, Cleveland relievers threw the fifth least innings of any bullpen, the third least in the American League behind only Houston and Seattle. The non-starters pitched 37.7% of the innings played by the Guardians.

So far this season, that number is up to 43%. There are several reasons for the high total, and one of them is the Guards have played four extra-inning games to date, which is 25% of their schedule.

Another reason is right now, Cleveland has two inexperienced starting pitchers in the rotation. Hunter Gaddis has made three starts and pitched into the sixth inning just once, while Peyton Battenfield made his first career start last week and threw just 4-2/3 frames.

Add in Zach Plesac’s one inning outing in his season debut, and Cal Quantrill getting into the sixth for the first time in three starts in his last outing, and the relievers have had to soak up a lot of the workload.

We have always maintained there are two things a relief pitcher cannot do: Walk people and give up home runs. Cleveland pitchers in total have walked 44 batters in 2023, 25 of them have come from the bullpen.

Clase, who walked just 10 hitters all last season, has already issued four in nine innings this season. De Los Santos has issued four free passes in ’23, after allowing only 17 all of 2022.

The home run numbers are similar. Guardians’ hurlers have allowed only 14 homers this season, a total that ranks tied for 5th in the AL for the fewest coughed up. Unfortunately, the relievers have allowed eight of the blasts, with Sandlin and rookie Tim Herrin each giving up a pair.

We think De Los Santos should be the secondary set up man if the normal three who close out games (Clase, Karinchak, and Stephan) are unavailable because any of them have worked two days in a row. We have the most confidence in him out of everyone else.

Sandlin still falls behind too many hitters and Herrin is a rookie, but he does have electric stuff.

Another thing that magnifies the results of the bullpen is that the Guardians have only won one game this year by more than two runs, the 9-4 victory against Seattle on the second day of the season. There isn’t much room for error for a guy like Herrin to work with.

It takes time to develop a bullpen and having all the close games means the growing pains that go along with it get closer looks.

In the meantime, mixing in a few 6-1 or 7-2 victories would really help the principal relievers get some needed rest.

Cavs’ Warts Show In Disappointing Game One.

Sometimes, it stinks to be right. That’s how we felt last night watching all our fears about the series between the Cavaliers and Knicks come true.

We were concerned about the Cleveland bench, and led by Josh Hart, the New York reserves outscored the Cavs’ by a 37-14 count. Hart not only scored more (17 points) than the wine and gold’s bench, he also outrebounded them, grabbing 10 boards.

The Cleveland bench had just five.

We were also worried about the rebounding of the Knicks. Cleveland spent the last two months of the regular season losing the battle of the boards, and indeed, the same thing happened in game one, as New York grabbed 51 caroms to the Cavs’ 38.

We have been complaining about the lack of size for the Cavs since the trade deadline, when the organization decided to let Kevin Love go. Love can’t guard on the perimeter anymore, and his shooting dropped off when he injured his thumb.

We felt they would add another big man to the roster to replace Love on the buyout market. Instead, they picked up Danny Green and Sam Merrill, two wings, neither of whom saw action in game one.

And by the way, former Cleveland big man, Isaiah Hartenstein had eight points and five rebounds.

Our other concern was J.B. Bickerstaff. The coach had a week of practices to decide who would get action in the playoffs, and the only member of the bench who made an impact in the game was the last player he used, Cedi Osman.

Osman had nine points and two rebounds and drew the defensive assignment against Jalen Brunson in the fourth quarter, and we thought he acquitted himself quite well.

The first big man sub used by Bickerstaff was Dean Wade, who somehow was put on Julius Randle, and was abused by the Knicks’ star in seven minutes, and Cleveland was outscored by 14 minutes while he was on the floor.

Cleveland out-shot the Knicks from the floor (43.4% to 42%) and from three (32.3% to 27.6%). The young Cavs inexperience showed, missing six free throws (NY missed just three), including a pair each by guards Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland.

Mitchell tried to will the Cavs to victory, scoring 38 points and dishing out eight assists, but he got very little help. Garland had 17, but also five turnovers. Evan Mobley seemed a bit tentative around the basket, hitting just 4 of 13 shots.

We saw some criticism of Jarrett Allen, but he had 14 points and 14 boards and dished out 4 assists, the second highest total on the team.

New York predictably left Isaac Okoro open on the perimeter and he missed all four of his attempts from long range and went one of six overall. The Cavs need Okoro’s defense on the floor, but he can’t be a liability on the offensive end.

And Caris LeVert, who finished the regular season strong, had an off night, making just one shot in seven tries, and had just one assist and one rebound.

The good news is the Cavs know now what kind of performance is needed in the playoffs. And we have always said until the ultimate game in the series, the even numbered games are most important. The Cavs can even things up on Tuesday night, and if they lose that one, it could be a very short visit to the playoffs for the wine and gold.

Simply, Garland, Mobley, and LeVert must be better in Game 2. We wonder if we will see Osman earlier in the next game. And why not use Lamar Stevens, who may be the “grittiest” Cavalier?

But it will be a big issue if the Cavaliers cannot hold their own with New York on the glass. The defensive job isn’t over until you get possession of the ball.

Gonna Be A Tough Series For Cavs Against The Knicks

The NBA playoffs start this Saturday and the Cleveland Cavaliers will be hosting the New York Knicks Saturday night at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.

Many fans are using the Cavs’ 51 regular season victories and the home court advantage in the series to proclaim a win in the best-of-seven series and an advancement to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

We have our doubts.

This doesn’t mean we think the wine and gold will lose to the Knicks, but it will be a very difficult series for J.B. Bickerstaff and his squad.

In the regular season, teams play the way they play. The league schedule is such that there is very little practice time, so coaches set a style of play and a plan and the players execute. In the playoffs, coaches take advantage of things their opponents do not do well, and they exploit weaknesses.

This isn’t to say the Knicks have no areas where Cleveland can attack them, nor are we proclaiming Tom Thibodeau a genius. Yes, Thibodeau has more playoff experience than Bickerstaff, coaching in 61 post-season games.

His record is just 25-36. The last time he won a series was in 2015-16 when his Bulls were eliminated by the Cavaliers. His last two times in the playoffs have resulted in first round losses in five games.

Our worry is the lack of depth for the Cavaliers will hurt them against the Knicks, who are much deeper. Earlier in the season, we felt if the Cavs got production from one or two of the non-core players on the roster, they had a very good chance to win.

And we include Caris LeVert in the core player category.

This means Bickerstaff needs solid games from one of these guys on the nightly basis: Isaac Okoro, Cedi Osman, Ricky Rubio, or Lamar Stevens.

Okoro has missed the past few weeks with a knee issue and no doubt his defense will be needed, particularly against Knicks’ guard Jalen Brunson. Okoro missed the last regular season game vs. New York, and Brunson went off for 48 points.

We are also concerned about the decline in rebounding for Cleveland over the last two months. The Cavs outrebounded their opponent for four of the first five months of the season (January was the exception), but March and April (18 games) have been a different story.

Opponents are grabbing five more caroms per game since the beginning of March. You can be a very good defensive team, but your job isn’t done until you corral the missed shot. Lately, this has been an issue for Cleveland. It’s one of the reasons we have advocated getting another player with size who can play.

And we do remember Jarrett Allen did miss some time during this period, which didn’t help. By the way, the Knicks are third in the league in offensive rebounds this season.

No doubt, the Knicks are going to try to devote attention to Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland, the Cavs’ primary scorers. Hopefully, Cleveland uses Evan Mobley to ease the pressure. The second-year player increased his scoring from 15.7 points per game before the All-Star Game to 17.5 after. His rebounds and assists increased too.

We will learn a lot about not only the players, but the coaching staff in this series. That’s one of the reasons we wanted the Cavs to get in a seven game series last year. We would already know.

This series will go at least six or seven, the people who think it will be a five gamer and likely viewing with rose colored lenses.

Playoff basketball is back in Cleveland. That’s the best news of all.

Guards’ Last Week In Our View

We are sure he wasn’t the first to say it, but former Indians’ broadcaster, the late Mike Hegan used to say if a team can win three out of every five games, they will be doing just fine. If a baseball team plays at this pace, they win 96 games and now, with the expanded playoffs, will be playing in October.

The Cleveland Guardians have done just that after 10 games, winning six of them. The odd thing and probably a bit troubling is four of the six victories have come in extra innings.

The good thing is they still count.

If not for the extra-inning games, the bullpen would be rested after the second run through the rotation as all five starters gave Terry Francona at least five innings, with Zach Plesac giving the Guards seven on Sunday. The shortest outing was Cal Quantrill’s five on Saturday night.

Hunter Gaddis really helped out in this regard with six one-hit innings in the west coast trip finale in Oakland on Wednesday. He will get a bigger (and better) test tonight against the Yankees.

Offensively, the Guardians continue to put pressure on opposing pitchers because they get men on base, leading the AL in walks in the young season.

The middle game vs. Seattle was frustrating because the Guards only scored two runs, but they had nine hits and six walks in that game, and more often than not, if you put 15 men on base, you will score more than two runs. They just couldn’t come up with the big hit.

Sometimes the big hit is a home run, and the Guardians ranked second last in the American League in long balls last season, and unfortunately, that hasn’t changed through ten games this year. Cleveland is tied with Detroit for the least homers with just five.

No doubt part of that is the Guards haven’t exactly played in balmy weather this far, whether it be in Seattle, Oakland, or Progressive Field. Cleveland is fourth in doubles and lead the league in triples but are still fourth from the bottom in slugging percentage.

Part of that is Josh Bell’s slow start (3 for 35). Bell was signed to give the Guardians some much needed power, but right now, it hasn’t shown up. On the plus side, Bell has drawn eight walks, so hopefully the home runs and extra base hits are on the horizon.

One troubling area thus far is the lack of blocking pitches by the new catching trio. Hopefully, it is just a matter of the newcomers not working with the pitchers until spring training, but the Guardians lead the Junior Circuit in wild pitches with 11.

Last year, Shane Bieber had five all season. He has three in two starts in 2023. Emmanuel Clase had four in 2022, he has two already in ’23. We mention both of those hurlers because the wild pitches cost them both a run in the past week.

Bieber’s success is dependent on getting ahead in the count and then throwing a wicked breaking pitch in the dirt. If the catchers can’t block that pitch, it’s a big issue. Hopefully, as Mike Zunino, Cam Gallagher, and Meibrys Viloria work with the staff more, this number will start to go down. And Zunino did do a much better job last night.

Cleveland pitchers aren’t wild. The leaders in walks allowed are both relief pitchers, with Clase and Enyel De Los Santos each issuing four.

When it starts costing the team runs, it gets magnified, and as we said two of the wild pitches came back to haunt the team this past week.

Browns Still Have Faith In Watson. Without A Doubt.

Even though the Cleveland Browns had a pretty good free agent signing period, most pundits still don’t seem to think that highly of Kevin Stefanski’s squad, thinking they are still not a playoff team.

Most of that comes from the lack of faith in QB Deshaun Watson, who didn’t exactly light up the league when he returned from suspension for the last six games of the 2022 season.

After all, Cleveland went just 3-3 in the games Watson piloted the team, and his best passer rating in the half dozen starts was in the win over the Commanders, and he was only 9 for 18 in that game, but threw three touchdown passes with no interceptions.

The football press seems to have lost confidence in Watson, despite his last complete season in which he threw for a league-leading 4823 yards, and had 33 TD tosses and just seven picks. The Texans went 4-12 that year, allowing the sixth most points in the NFL.

Some folks in the local media have extrapolated that lack of faith from the national media and attribute it to the Browns’ front office, after all, what did Watson do in those last six games to make anyone think he can lead Cleveland to the postseason in 2023?

Don’t buy into that.

First, when the Browns decided to move off of Baker Mayfield following the 2021 campaign and go after Watson, they didn’t do it based on a whim or irritation that Mayfield had problems with some teammates and perhaps didn’t see eye to eye with Stefanski.

They did it because one of the league’s best quarterbacks, which Watson was at the time, was available and the Browns’ thinkers saw it as an opportunity to get a great QB in his prime, after all Watson will be just 28 years old when the season begins.

Really, what do you think is more indicative of Watson’s abilities, the three year period from 2018-20, when he led the Texans to two playoff appearances, including a wild card win over Buffalo, and followed that up with his individual excellence in ’21, or the last six games of last year, following a year and a half layoff?

The Browns’ front office, GM Andrew Berry, Paul DePodesta, and Stefanski did their due diligence, studied Watson’s time in Houston and we are sure it was discussed that it might be a long, long time before a QB as good as Watson, and in their prime would come available.

So, they went all in.

The Browns get charged with being dysfunctional all the time, particularly when they lose a game, but to us, being dysfunctional involves making knee-jerk decisions based on emotion. Losing faith in Watson after those half-dozen games at the end of last season would fit that profile.

They know what they traded for and they saw Watson in practice, meaning they’ve seen him more than anyone else. We are sure they still think they made the correct decision on giving up a lot of future assets for a player they believe can solve their quarterback problem for years to come.

And let’s face it, if they are wrong about the former Clemson quarterback, they made a colossal mistake, one that will take them years to recover from.

When you make a move like this, there is no going back, and that’s why the Browns went hard in free agency. They know the time to win is right now. We are sure they are confident that Deshaun Watson is the man to take them to the Super Bowl.

Losing faith on this would be a sign this leadership group is doomed.