Guards Need To Remember How They Got Here Offensively

The post-All-Star part of the schedule did not treat the Cleveland Guardians any better than it did before the break came. Steven Vogt is going through something for the first time as a big-league manager. A streak where nothing is going right.

That’s how you have a period where your team has lost 14 of the last 22.

A couple of weeks ago, the Guards were scoring runs, but the starting pitching simply wasn’t giving the team a chance to win. Not enough length, which has been the case most of the season, and then they were giving up runs early, putting the offense in a tough spot.

A visit to Tampa cured the pitching staff. They still weren’t giving Vogt much length, but they were keeping the opponent off the scoreboard. But now the offense has taken a siesta, a deep sleep.

In their last 11 games, the Guardians have been shutout four times, and scored one run twice. In Friday’s win over San Diego to open the second half slate, Cleveland scored one run in the first seven innings before putting up six in the eighth to seal the game.

Even with that seven run effort and scoring nine in one of the games vs. Detroit, the Guardians have scored just 28 runs in those 11 contests, an average of 2.5 runs per night for the mathematically challenged.

It’s tough to win doing that.

The team seems to have gotten away from what made them successful early on. A lot of solid contact and aggressive base running.

Daniel Schneemann is getting a lot of playing time and has a 30% strikeout rate. Jhonkensy Noel was getting at bats (though that has tapered as of late) and he fans 40% of the time.

Note both players have limited at bats.

We would also note that Angel Martinez is been getting regular at bats and he whiffs just 14.9% of the time.

The players who seems to have lost at bats are Tyler Freeman (14.9% K rate) and Brayan Rocchio, who has a 19% strikeout rate. And the latter is by far the best glove the team has at shortstop.

Schneemann has been used there recently and has made a number of defensive mistakes.

They also have seemed to abandon the stolen base, pilfering only 8 during the month of July and five of those came in two games. We know, we know, it is difficult to steal first and that’s been a big problem as of late, not getting runners on, but when they do get on, it seems like there isn’t a lot of aggressiveness.

It’s only three games into post break play, but the Guardians need something to get them going again. Obviously, the offense centers around Steven Kwan, Jose Ramirez, and Josh Naylor, but literally, no one else is doing anything either.

Andres Gimenez has been in a hitting funk over the last month. Because of David Fry’s elbow issue, it has forced more at bats for Austin Hedges, and that’s not going to help the offense.

Maybe it’s time to go back to what got the Guardians in first place. Put the ball in play and put pressure on defenses to make plays.

It wasn’t broke, but the Guardians tried to fix it. Now is the time to get back to the roots of the ’24 season.

Browns’ Biggest Question? Still Watson

The Cleveland Browns start training camp this week, meaning an end to the local sports talk stations searching for content.

Because even though the Cavaliers made it to the second round of the playoffs this year, and the Guardians have one of the best records in baseball, football is the preferred subject for the radio sports talk folks.

The Browns went 11-6 a year ago, making the playoffs before they “picked a bad day to have a bad day” to quote coach Kevin Stefanski, losing to Houston in the wild card round.

However, Cleveland earned a lot of respect within the NFL last season. Myles Garrett was voted the league’s defensive player of the year. Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz was voted the NFL’s best assistant coach, and Stefanski himself was named Coach of the Year for the second time.

Many of the team’s star players are in their prime: Garrett, CB Denzel Ward, LB Jeremiah Osuwu-Koramoah, and TE David Njoku. The secondary is among the league’s best led by cornerbacks Ward and Martin Emerson along with S Grant Delpit.

And with Schwartz in his second year, the defense which allowed the least yards in the league last year should be able to provide some new wrinkles, particularly on the road where they had some struggles last season.

Nick Chubb, who suffered a severe knee injury last season, has attacked rehab like he attacks would be tacklers and amazingly looks like he could be ready for the season opener.

To be honest, we felt we wouldn’t see Chubb until mid-season.

But the key to the Browns’ Super Bowl hopes is still QB Deshaun Watson. Many in the local media continue to think with new offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey, Watson can get close to being the quarterback he was in Houston in 2020, when he led the NFL in passing yards, yards/attempt and yards per completion.

Notice we said that happened in 2020. This is 2024.

Watson is coming off shoulder surgery which cost him the last eight games of the regular season in ’23, but that’s the only injury which cost him playing time since his last productive season.

The national media have their doubts to whether or not we will ever see that Watson again. And if they are correct, can the Browns get to where they have never been? That being a Super Bowl.

The first thing for Watson is availability. He’s been with the Browns for two seasons and due to suspensions or injury, he has played 12. In both seasons, the offense looked better with another passer, the first year it was Jacoby Brissett, and last season Joe Flacco.

That’s what the national guys are seeing.

If you look at the teams who are getting to the conference championship game, most often than not, those teams are getting very good quarterback play. Watson doesn’t have to be the 2020 version, but he has to be close for Cleveland to get where they haven’t been since 1989.

And here’s another big question. What if the Browns get off to a slow start, say 1-3 or 2-5, and a big reason is Watson still hasn’t regained his Texans’ form?

Does the organization have the stomach to make a change? They brought in Jameis Winston for a reason, he’s a capable NFL signal caller. There are 230 million reasons they won’t make a change but remember what we said earlier.

This team is built to win NOW. What about the great players currently wearing the Browns’ uniform?

The organization and the fans need to see a Pro Bowl version of Deshaun Watson. The biggest question for the franchise is does that guy still exist?

People On The Spot In Second Half For Guards

The All-Star Game is over, and the Guardians contributed to the American League’s victory with an RBI single from David Fry, and Emmanuel Clase’s save, his second in the Midsummer Classic.

It’s back to the regular season grind on Friday night with a seven game homestand against San Diego and Detroit. And we will see a lot of the Guardians at Progressive Field for the rest of the year with 40 of the remaining 69 games at home.

There are key figures for the team in the second half, some with names and others will come to light as the rest of the campaign plays out. Here are some key people and/or situations to watch for starting this weekend:

Gavin Williams is a big key for the starting rotation especially with Triston McKenzie and Logan Allen currently in AAA. Williams missed most of the season to date recovering from an elbow issue which occurred in spring training.

In his three starts so far, he’s pitched 14.1 innings compiling a 3.77 ERA. The first number isn’t good, but the second number is solid. Because he’s still building up from his late start, if he can start giving Steven Vogt at least six effective innings in each start, that will go a long way toward easing the burden off the bullpen.

He’s been throwing in the upper 90’s in his starts, it’s a matter of pounding the strike zone and being able to throw his breaking stuff for strikes.

If that happens, it will provide a huge boost to the starting rotation.

The offense has struggled lately, most because Steven Kwan and Jose Ramirez haven’t hit like they have all year over the last week or so. That’s not a criticism, it’s just that they were putting up ridiculous number which probably weren’t sustainable.

Those two and Josh Naylor have been carrying the attack all year. Kwan leads the AL in hitting and Ramirez and Naylor are 2nd and 3rd in the league in RBIs.

Someone has to step up and help. In April and May, that was Fry, who was setting a blistering pace early and came up with big hit after big hit.

Who can emerge in the second half?

Perhaps it’s Angel Martinez. Martinez has made a big impact since being called up, playing several positions and putting up an 850 OPS in just 56 plate appearances. The thing we like about him? He has eight walks and seven strikeouts.

He seems to understand the strike zone and is willing to take walks. That’s a big help when the hits aren’t falling.

The front office is also among the people to watch. The Guardians currently have the best record in the American League. Right now, their path to the post-season is not winning the usually weak Central Division.

They have a chance to get a bye into the Division Series and avoid the best-of-three wild card round. To do that, the front office needs to improve the current roster.

The organization still has a plethora of middle infielders, and they upgraded their farm system by taking Travis Bazzana with the first overall pick in Sunday’s draft, making him the organization’s top prospect.

They did it in 2016 and it paid off with an American League pennant. This group deserves the same consideration especially if it rights itself after the break.

Evaluating The Guards First Half

The Cleveland Guardians have the best record in the American League at 58-37, but kind of limped into the All-Star break losing 11 of their last 18 games. While it’s true that many of the other teams with good records have struggled lately as well, that doesn’t mean all of those teams will rebound.

So, while we are not worried about the Guardians right now, we do have a level of concern. For example, the Mariners had a 10 game lead in the AL West a few weeks ago, and have lost 18 of their last 25, and now the lead is just one.

One of the troubling things is this stretch came against AL Central Division teams and a Tampa Bay squad that is treading around the .500 mark.

The offense, which has scored the 4th most runs per game in the AL this year at 4.78, an increase from 4.09 for all of 2023, hasn’t produced, averaging just 3.4 runs per contest in those 18 games. In that stretch, Cleveland has put up nine runs once, eight runs once, and seven runs twice.

Needless to say, that means there were some droughts, and the Guardians scored three runs or less in ten of the last 18 games. That makes it difficult to win.

The offense isn’t a huge concern because a big part of the problem is Steven Kwan and Jose Ramirez aren’t hitting. Over the last 14 days, Kwan is batting .283 (well below his .352 season mark) and Ramirez is hitting .216 with no homers and just one run batted in.

Another all-star, David Fry, is not hitting either, going just 3 for 30 in that span. When one third of your lineup isn’t producing and they are your better offensive players, it’s going to be difficult to put runs on the board.

Steven Vogt has done a very good job in his first year, but let’s face it, things have been going swimmingly so far and this is the first rough patch for the Guardians. What does the skipper and his staff do to get the team righted?

There is an old basketball saying that if you never play your bench, you will never have a bench. We are reminded of this with Vogt’s use of the bullpen this season.

The Guardians need length out of the starting rotation, but Vogt has a quick hook with the starters, sometimes pulling them prematurely. The bullpen is so good it works out, but if you don’t allow the starters to go deeper into games, they are never going to be able to do so.

We would also like to see more stability in the lineup. We get the “beat today’s starter” philosophy, but it seems some of the players who got the Guardians off to their red-hot early pace have fallen by the wayside.

For example, Daniel Schneemann, who got off to a great start after coming up from Columbus is now in the lineup most days despite hitting .185 with a 676 OPS in the last 28 days with 23 strikeouts in 76 plate appearances (30.2% rate). And he’s played some at shortstop (to get his bat in the lineup), and he made two critical errors there over the weekend.

The one rookie who does continue to impress is Angel Martinez, who seems to have a great grasp of the strike zone so far (8 BB, 7 K), and looks very comfortable in the #2 hole. We would find an everyday spot for him right now.

As for Fry, it could be that he is overexposed a bit and needs to go back to a platoon role where he plays mostly against southpaws.

The influx of young players could be due to the front office wanting some extended looks at players before the trading deadline. So, the herd could be thinned when the calendar turns to August.

When the season resumes on Friday, the Guardians should have a bit of a sense of urgency to get things turned around quickly.

On the other hand, Cleveland has 40 of its remaining 67 games at Progressive Field, including 16 of the last 19 contests. That could be a big advantage down the stretch.

Guardians’ Rotation Had Quantity Issues, Now Have Quality Problems

The Cleveland Guardians have had starting pitching issues since pretty much the first week of the regular season. That’s when Shane Bieber went down after his second start in Seattle. After 12 scoreless innings and 20 strikeouts, he was done for the season.

However, until recently, it wasn’t quality that was the issue it was quantity. The starters simply could not pitch deep enough in games to assist a bullpen that although was performing yeoman work, was pitching a lot of innings.

Triston McKenzie, counted on to be one of the rotation’s stalwarts, had a 3.23 ERA after beating Minnesota on May 17th. The issue was he had one start of seven innings and two others were he went 6.2 frames.

The longest he has gone since? 5.1 in back-to-back starts in early June before he was sent to Columbus a couple of weeks ago.

Logan Allen went 6.2 shutout innings in his second start of the year in Seattle, and that was his longest outing of the season. He went six innings four times and was sent to AAA last week.

Staff surprise Ben Lively has gone seven innings once and pitched into the 7th just one other time. He has a 3.59 ERA on the season, so he’s been pretty effective.

However, since Tanner Bibee went six innings on June 29th in Kansas City allowing two runs in beating the Royals, the issue has been quality as well as quantity.

Since that start, a stretch of 13 games, the Guardians’ starters have compiled a 5.69 ERA , with one start of seven innings (by Bibee Wednesday night in Detroit) and two starts where the starter completed six.

In this period was Gavin Williams’ 5.1 IP scoreless outing against the Tigers, the best performance by a starter in the last two weeks. Removing that start from the equation raises the collective ERA by the rotation to an unsightly 6.41.

Teams with that high of an ERA from starters are largely non-competitive. They are behind early in games and it very difficult to come back and win. That the Guardians are 5-7 in these games speaks to the resolve of the players.

The last two games in Tampa have returned to the original problem, which is length by the rotation. Carlos Carrasco and Gavin Williams both pitched five innings, allowing two runs against the Rays, but that meant the relief corps had to cover seven innings because they lost Friday.

We have already seen Nick Sandlin go on the injured list and now Sam Hentges is out with a shoulder issue. It’s not a leap to think the arm problems are due to the overuse of the bullpen.

We know president Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff are aware of the problems with the rotation and are working the phones for help before the trading deadline.

However, there are a week and a half worth or games before the deadline, and Steven Vogt has to have starters. We would assume Bibee, Williams, and Ben Lively would start the first three games out of the break, but what about after that?

Yes, there is Carrasco, but only the most optimistic Guardians’ fans feel good about that. He’s a fan favorite and his return has been a great story, but he still has a 5.02 ERA. Lefty Doug Nikhazy has been great in AAA in three starts, allowing no runs and six hits in 17 innings. Maybe he gets a shot?

Can the Guardians get enough out of the rotation for the rest of the season in terms of both quality and quantity? That might be the biggest question of the season.

Cavs Still Haven’t Made A Move

Cavaliers’ president of basketball operations Koby Altman has said it a number of times since the season ended with a playoff loss in five games to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.

He has said he wants the Cavs to run it back with the same core players (the so called “Core 4”) for the 2024-25 season with a new coach in Kenny Atkinson. And after the draft and the beginning of the free agent period, he has done just that, stand pat.

Yes, the team’s perennial all-star, Donovan Mitchell, signed a three-year extension last week, meaning he could be here for four more years, but that’s the extent of the club’s transactions so far this summer.

We guess Altman wasn’t using “GM speak” in talking about the current roster.

If that’s going to be the case, it puts a lot of pressure on new coach Kenny Atkinson, because his hiring looks to be the only reason the current roster will get better, outside of the natural growth of young players.

Cleveland likes to talk about the youth of their roster, but really the only player with the potential to make a substantial leap in performance is Evan Mobley, who will be in his fourth year in the NBA. Yes, Darius Garland will turn 25 during the new season, but he has been in the league for five seasons.

How many players improve their performance greatly after they’ve been in the NBA five years?

And Kenny Atkinson is a coach, not a magician. He can put players in situations where they can succeed more, but he’s not going to make Evan Mobley a great outside shooter and he’s not going to make Darius Garland less turnover prone.

Nor is he going to make a backcourt with two smaller guards along with a small forward who is 6’5″ a defensive force.

We understand the Cavs didn’t make the trade for Mitchell until September 1st, so there is plenty of time before training camp starts to improve the roster. However, virtually every team in the league has made moves since the playoffs ended.

Outside of drafting Jaylon Tyson, Cleveland has been idle.

We have seen reports that the organization is waiting for a decision on Isaac Okoro’s contract status and if that’s true, it’s pretty disturbing. Okoro is a very good defender who is limited offensively and he’s only 6’5″.

If he’s holding up potential moves for the Cavs, well…

The current regime seems to be looking at the incremental improvement from non-playoff team to play-in tournament team to lose in the first round to winning in the first round and thinking they should stay the course.

We believe in the philosophy of every move a team makes should be gearing towards winning a championship. Falling short of that goal is a failure. Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t look at progress and think we are getting closer to the goal though.

Perhaps a big move will come in the next couple of weeks. But at the end of the playoffs (and last year for that matter), we have felt the Cavaliers needed to add size at guard and small forward, and also get a solid backup for Jarrett Allen and Mobley.

And remember, Altman sped up the winning process when he traded for Mitchell.

We don’t think they can contend for a title without more size. The front office seems to think differently.

Five All-Stars, But Another Starter Sent To The Minors

The Cleveland Guardians have one of the best records in the American League to date, so it figures they would be well represented on the AL All-Star team.

The Guardians are sending five players. Jose Ramirez and Emmanuel Clase are kind of perennials, with Ramirez making his sixth mid-summer classic, and Clase has now made three in a row.

With his .364 batting average and 956 OPS, Steven Kwan was a shoo-in to be named to the team, and it was a bonus that he was elected as a starter, meaning Cleveland will have two starters as Ramirez will also be in the starting lineup.

Josh Naylor was picked for the first time, although he was probably snubbed a year ago when he was hitting .305 with 11 homers and 64 RBIs at the break. This season he has even more ribbies (3rd in the AL with 66) and has already set a new career high in circuit clouts with 21.

The biggest surprise was David Fry, who started the season as basically a platoon player, but has put up tremendous numbers with a .305 batting average (920 OPS), 8 HR and 33 RBIs. The super utility player came into the 2024 season with 113 big league plate appearances, and has already caught, and played 1B, 3B, LF, and RF for Steven Vogt this season.

Even with the good news regarding the honoring of several players, the Guardians made another move involving their starting rotation over the weekend.

Logan Allen was sent back to AAA after compiling a 5.67 ERA over 18 starts. Allen allowed 100 hits and 35 walks over the 87.1 innings he has thrown this season, and has given up 18 home runs, tied for third most in the AL (FYI, Triston McKenzie is 2nd in this department).

Because of ineffectiveness or injury, the Guardians are now without three of the pitchers who began the year in the starting rotation. Based on that, it has to be considered rather amazing that the Guards sit at the top of the Central Division standings.

Since the All-Star game is next week and teams are off through next Thursday, it will allow both Allen and McKenzie to get an extra start in AAA before they are needed after the San Diego series coming out of the break.

It gives the organization a chance to regroup, so to speak, and the only immediate question will be who starts Thursday afternoon in Detroit, which would be Allen’s turn.

Gavin Williams gave the team 5.1 innings last night, and if Ben Lively and Tanner Bibee can give the team length tonight and tomorrow, this could be the scenario for Thursday.

We could see a combination of Pedro Avila and newcomer Spencer Howard in the series’ finale. Howard, a right-hander, was picked up over the weekend from San Francisco, after posting a 5.63 ERA in 24 innings with the Giants.

For his career, he has a 6.93 ERA in 139 innings, allowing 170 hits in those frames, so let’s just say we are less than enthusiastic about the move. Even worse, in his only AL experience with Texas, he posted an 8.37 ERA.

On June 24th, he did pitch 4.2 innings against the Cubs, not allowing a run and fanning eight, so there’s that.

Let’s hope the organization can find something that works for him, but they may have dealt for him with the idea of getting the team through the all-star break.

Guardians Hit Their First Rough Patch Of The Season

The Cleveland Guardians have hit their first rough patch of the season. Even though they won the series at Progressive Field against the lowly White Sox, starting with the last game of the Baltimore series, they have lost six of their last ten games.

They still have a six-game lead in the AL Central over Minnesota, but it would be nice to regain some momentum heading into the All-Star break, and the Guards look like a team that could really use the four days off.

Under Steven Vogt, the Guardians have been a team all year that has mixed and matched in terms of the starting lineup, looking for the best way to beat that day’s starting pitcher.

And it worked, as Cleveland was baseball’s surprise team.

However, the organization seems to be still in tryout camp mode, shuffling players from Columbus to Cleveland, appearing to search for players like a team floundering in the standings does.

The roster changes aren’t based on a rash of injuries either. The only Cleveland player currently on the injured list is Will Brennan. Since Steven Kwan went on the IL with his hamstring injury, we have seen Kyle Manzardo, Johnathan Rodriguez, Daniel Schneemann, Jhonkensy Noel, Jose Tena, and Angel Martinez getting at bats at the big-league level, all with varying success.

From here, it looks like what we feel is a weakness in the organization, the inability to make decisions on players.

Vogt uses these players at these positions on an everyday basis: 1B Josh Naylor, 2B Andres Gimenez, 3B Jose Ramirez, LF Steven Kwan. With David Fry’s injured elbow, he has become the DH most days, with Bo Naylor and Austin Hedges behind the plate.

Brayan Rocchio is the shortstop most of the time, but we have seen Schneemann there, as well as the organization’s hope, Gabriel Arias, despite Rocchio’s defensive prowess at the games most important defensive spot.

Tyler Freeman did a solid job defensively in centerfield most of the year and it was revealed yesterday he is battling a wrist problem, and while he hasn’t hit like we thought, he’s held his own. His 653 OPS is better than Rocchio’s and comparable to Gimenez.

We get the front office is probably trying to take a look at as many players as they can before the trading deadline at the end of the month, but when the team is in a bit of a downturn, that should be secondary.

As for Arias, at what point is the organization going to realize he just isn’t a good hitter right now? He went 6 for 11 vs. the Orioles, part of a stretch where he went 8 for 19. Since then? 0 for 12 with six strikeouts.

The bullpen is also starting to leak some oil, with the lack of innings from the starting rotation perhaps starting to take its toll, especially with some of the younger arms.

Veteran Scott Barlow has emerged as the most reliable arm out of the ‘pen of late, allowing just two earned runs since June 1st. Cleveland still has four of the top 11 pitchers in the American League in terms of appearances, and that’s concerning.

Don’t get us wrong, every team in the major leagues goes through slumps or downturns, and the Guards are no exception. Again, we are sure Vogt, and the front office are hoping the club rights itself before the Mid-Summer Classic in Texas next week.

And they need to address the starting pitching…

Are Cavs Overrating Their Roster?

For many years after Andrew Berry took over as Browns’ GM, people were noting that he didn’t cut any of the players he drafted. Part of that was when he got the job, the Browns weren’t very good, but it is understandable that if you draft a player, you see the reasons you chose him.

Therefore, you give them the benefit of the doubt.

On the other hand, we have been around coaches who love players from afar, and if and when they get them on their team, all they see are the warts.

So, we understand that Koby Altman has a certain fondness for the players he has brought into the Cavaliers’ organization. But we also think it’s fair to ask if he can evaluate them without bias.

In Kenny Atkinson’s introductory press conference, the new coach referred to coaching “four all-stars”. We bristled at that.

First, only three of the current Cavaliers have made an all-star team: Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, and Jarrett Allen. Despite the organization’s wishes for Evan Mobley, who Altman picked with the third overall pick, he has not made one.

And while technically, Garland and Allen have made the team, they made it once, and they made it during the 2021-22 season, which will be three seasons ago when the new season starts.

Garland was comparable to his all-star season the following year, but last year, injuries caused his numbers to drop. And you know how we feel about starting two smaller guards and how it affects things defensively.

Allen was an injury add on in 2022 but was in the discussion to make it to the mid-season classic last year when he averaged a career high in points at 16.5 per game.

Mitchell is an all-star, making the team five times. It may be semantics, but Garland and Allen are players who made an all-star team, we would not consider them perennials.

The elephant in the room is Mobley. We know everyone is high on him, but it is fair to point out his progress has been slow. He averaged 15 points and 8.3 rebounds as a rookie, and although his shooting has improved from 50.8% as a first-year player to 58% last season, his scoring went from 15.0 to 16.2 to 15.7.

Granted, some of that is due to his role (or lack of one) in the offense. The player taken right after him, Scottie Barnes averaged 15.3 a game in his rookie season and 19.9 last year.

What if Mobley is just a real good player, an excellent defender, but not quite an all-star level player?

It wouldn’t mean writing him off, if he can score 18 points, grab 10 rebounds, block a couple of shots in addition to playing excellent defense, that’s something any coach can work with. But it’s not what many expected after his first year.

The Eastern Conference got better since the playoffs ended. Philadelphia signed Paul George. The Knicks swung a trade for Mikal Bridges. Indiana gained valuable playoff experience.

The Cavs need to get better and although we like Kenny Atkinson, we don’t think that’s enough. The off-season has just begun, but hopefully Altman can be truthful with himself about the roster he has built.

That’s a trait the best executives have.

McKenzie Is First Shoe To Fall In Guardians’ Rotation

The first shoe dropped for the Cleveland Guardians’ starting rotation when they sent struggling right-hander Triston McKenzie to Columbus in order to active Gavin Williams from the injured list, where he has been all season.

McKenzie hasn’t seen the fourth inning in any of his last three starts and leads the American League in two dubious categories: Walks allowed, and home runs allowed. If you want to be an effective starting pitcher, you can’t do both of those things.

Williams has been out with an elbow issue suffered in training camp and will finally make his season debut this week. He threw 82 pitches in a rehab start last week, and hopefully he picks up where he left off in his rookie season.

The former first round draft pick pitched to a 3.29 ERA last season, striking out 81 hitters in 82 innings. If he can get to around that form this year, it will be a big boost to a rotation that has been mediocre even though the Guardians have a six-game lead in the AL Central Division.

We say this because the rotation seemingly keeps springing leaks. Logan Allen has been one of the guys who has been in the rotation all year long, but in June he made five starts totaling 24.1 innings (less than five per start for the non-math majors) and had a 5.55 ERA.

Unfortunately, Allen has had three of the worst starts by a Cleveland pitcher this year. He went 2.1 giving up seven runs vs. Detroit, an inning and 2/3rds allowing seven runs against the Rockies and three frames allowing six runs vs. Baltimore.

The confidence in him is low enough that Steven Vogt took him out of Sunday’s game against the Royals after allowing two runs in 4.1 innings because three right-handed hitters were coming up for Kansas City.

That leaves only two starters that Vogt can rely on right now. Tanner Bibee has pitched wonderfully, and it was fun to see him struggling a bit in his last start, but as soon as his teammates got him the lead, he locked it in and wound up with a solid outing.

And Ben Lively has been a godsend. He had a 5.38 ERA with the Reds a year ago, and we pooh-poohed the signing as a roster filler. But he’s given the Guardians at least five innings in all but two of his 13 starts and has a 3.03 ERA to boot. Who knows where the rotation would be without him.

Carlos Carrasco has been a little better his last two starts, but still has a 5.27 ERA and has allowed more hits than innings pitched. Right now, we don’t have any more confidence on days he pitches than we did a month ago.

The front office is obviously trying everything to get a starter and to prove it, they signed Matthew Boyd, a 33-year-old lefty to a free agent contract. Boyd is coming off Tommy John surgery and the hope is he will be able to pitch for the big club in August.

He started 15 games for Detroit last season, compiling a 5.45 ERA, but striking out 73 hitters in 71 innings with 25 walks. His career ERA is 4.94. Could he help down the stretch? Possibly, but we wouldn’t bank on it.

As we said, we know the front office is aware and is working to get some help for the rotation, if only to ease the burden on the bullpen, which continues to be amazing.

As for McKenzie, we figured his issue would have been staying healthy rather than being sent down for ineffectiveness.