Good Road Trip Changes Mind Of Guards’ Front Office?

Perhaps the Guardians going on the road versus two teams with playoff aspirations and winning both series had an impact on the minds of Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff.

We have not been shy in saying the front office of the Guards has not been totally in on making a playoff push since the trade deadline after moving Amed Rosario, Aaron Civale, and Josh Bell. The players weren’t happy which caused Antonetti and Chernoff to fly to Houston to meet with players about the moves.

Players think about the season they are playing. They don’t care about the 2024 edition of the Guardians because they may not be in Cleveland next season.

And we repeat, our problem was not in trading the people they did, it was not getting anything that could help the team this season, seeing as though they were a half game out at that time.

We have always been under the opinion that if a team is five games or less out of a post-season spot on September 1st, they are legitimately in the race. And today, Cleveland sits five games behind the Twins.

So, the Guardians’ management saw an opportunity on the waiver wire and took advantage. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim decided to dump salary with a month to go in the regular season and Cleveland took advantage, claiming three pitchers: Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, and Matt Moore.

Giolito is the most familiar name, having had three very good seasons with the White Sox (2019-21), going 29-21 in those campaigns with ERAs under 3.53. This season, he is 7-11 with a 4.45 ERA combined with Chicago and the Angels, giving up just 139 hits in 153.2 innings, striking out 165.

He has been plagued by the long ball with the Angels, giving up 10 in 32 frames. He gave up three each in losses to Atlanta and Philadelphia. He can soak up innings and is an upgrade over Noah Syndergaard, who was designated for assignment after pitching on Sunday.

With Cal Quantrill coming back tonight, hopefully he and Giolito can ease the burden on the Guards’ young starters for the rest of the season.

Lopez, a right-hander like Giolito, figures to help the bullpen. He is 2-7 with 6 saves and a 3.93 ERA in total, and had a 2.77 ERA with the Angels. He has whiffed 71 hitters in 55 innings, but did walk 30. He has also allowed 8 home runs.

Moore is a southpaw and has been around the block at 34-years-old. He’s also been very effective this season, compiling a 2.66 ERA and 49 strikeouts over 44 innings. His last four appearances haven’t been good, he’s allowed six runs in four frames. But he was great before that.

He provides another solid lefty along with Sam Hentges, who has pitched much better of late.

It did cost the Guardians some money, but they also saved money in the deals they made at the end of July, so it’s likely a wash.

If Giolito regains something close to his old form with the Pale Hose and with the additional bullpen help, perhaps the Guards can put together the run they have been searching for all year. Their longest winning and coincidentally longest losing streak are both four games.

It’s too bad these moves couldn’t have been made sooner and let us also stop you from thinking this was some sort of grand plan. There is no way the front office could have seen the bizarre collapse by the Angels.

With Tampa in for the weekend followed by the Twins, this stretch of six games will determine whether or not this will be a fun September.

And a hot streak from Jose Ramirez and the return of Josh Naylor could be large helps too.

Important Series In Minnesota? Don’t Think The FO Thinks So

The Cleveland Guardians should be entering a crucial stretch as five of their next eight games are against the Minnesota Twins, who currrently lead the AL Central Division by six games over Cleveland.

We say should because we aren’t sure the management of the team are interested, or should we say fully invested in catching the Twins.

We are sure the players are trying to win every night, but it seems like Terry Francona, Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff are ambivalent.

In Sunday’s game, the Guards had a 4-3 lead in the sixth inning and Noah Syndergaard had thrown over 80 pitches. He allowed a runner to reach, but no one was warming in the bullpen meaning the starter was out there to complete the inning.

He gave up a two-run homer to allow Toronto to capture the league and was removed after six frames. He was also designated for assignment after the contest.

With Cal Quantrill likely to be activated on Friday, he will take Syndergaard’s place in the rotation, but to replace him, the Guardians called up retread Daniel Norris to take his place.

Norris replaced Xzhavion Curry last night and promptly gave up four runs turning a 6-5 contest into a 10-6 Twins’ lead.

Last year, the organization was very aggressive bringing up young players like Will Brennan, Gabriel Arias, Tyler Freeman, and Cody Morris, even if they weren’t on the 40-man roster to help down the stretch.

Why not bring up Franco Aleman, who has made 13 scoreless appearances at Akron, striking out 29 and walking just 3 in 19.1 innings at AA. To be fair, he didn’t have great numbers at Lake County (5.52 ERA) but did whiff 46 batters in 31 innings.

Norris is a 30-year-old journeyman who made six appearances at the big league level this year and walked 11 batters in 10.2 innings coming into last night. Heck, if they didn’t want to go with Aleman, Hunter Gaddis, who opened the season in the starting rotation would have been a better choice.

Francona could’ve turned to Eli Morgan in the 3rd and maybe went with Morris later, but no, it was Norris, just like a game in June against a team not ahead of them in the standings.

We understand the Blue Jays threw two southpaws at the Guardians over the weekend, but instead of playing Bo Naylor, the best catcher on the roster, in one of the games vs. a lefty, both Cam Gallagher and Eric Haase, who at best are replacement level major leaguers both got starts.

We have seen fans angry that Naylor only played in one game in essentially his hometown. That shouldn’t be the argument. He’s clearly the best hitter of the three, and isn’t a terrible defensive catcher. He should be in there most nights.

This shouldn’t be news. The organization told the fan base they weren’t interested in contending on August 1st. And it wasn’t trading Amed Rosario, Josh Bell, and Aaron Civale that was the main crime, it was not trading for someone to help a bad offense and a struggling bullpen.

A sweep could have cut the Minnesota lead to three games, heck, they could still walk out of the Twin Cities down five. But we don’t think that was a major consideration.

Fans can’t want something more that the organization does.

If Tito Retires, Who Should Be Next In Line?

Terry Francona is certainly leaving all the hints that this will be his last year as manager of the Cleveland Guardians. Of course, this has led to all kinds of speculation as to who would will be his successor.

First, no matter how frustrating Francona can be at times to fans, particular younger ones, he has been a tremendous leader. He has won a club record 906 games to date, winning 55% of the contests he has piloted.

Overall, he sits currently at 1935 victories, so he will not become the 13th skipper in big league history to get to that plateau. Every manager with more wins that Francona are in Cooperstown, except for Dusty Baker and Bruce Bochy, who are still active, and will be enshrined when they retire.

He has managed in three World Series, winning two in Boston and of course, losing in the 7th game with the Indians in 2016.

In the four years prior to his arrival, Cleveland won 68, 80, 69, and 65 games. Their lowest since? The 80 wins in 2021.

Francona has faults as a manager, all good managers do. We have always said he skirts a fine line between patience and stubbornness, and we are willing to admit that as much as much as we may want a particular player’s playing time reduced, usually Francona was right in staying with him.

That doesn’t mean we want a current coach to take over though. No matter how much DeMarlo Hale, Mike Sarbaugh, or Sandy Alomar Jr. (three people mentioned as successors) will carry on the foundation of what Francona has built in terms of culture, they aren’t Francona, and that will likely cause a conflict down the road.

We would like to keep Carl Willis, but he’s 63 years old and may not want to work with a new manager. But he’s a big reason for the organization’s “pitching factory” and if the new manager wants a chance to win, the knowledge of the young starters that Willis has will be crucial.

Let’s bring in someone new, perhaps even someone from outside the organization, but also a manager who can combine the analytics-based thinking with some “old school” thoughts as well.

For example, we don’t like the use of openers. We still believe the best way to win a baseball game is to have your starter go six or seven innings of effective work and turn it over to the bullpen.

Francona always said the problem with an opener is what happens if the pitcher you designate gives up three runs in the first. Then you are screwed.

But we don’t want someone who is a slave to the numbers. Someone once said that analytics often get used to justify a decision even if it doesn’t work. We agree with that thinking.

So, we would hire from outside the organization, and let the new manager pick his staff. Sometimes, having someone with a different “perspective” looking at the players is very much needed for an organization.

However, whoever the next skipper is, he won’t have the impact or the longevity of Terry Francona. Cleveland hasn’t had a revolving door in that position since Mike Hargrove was hired in 1991.

Hargrove was here 8-1/2 years, Eric Wedge seven, and Francona 11. Yes, Charlie Manuel and Manny Acta were mixed in, but the organization has been very stable. We would guess that’s something Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff will be looking for.

Finally, Garrett Has Some Help Rushing The Passer

For much of Myles Garrett’s career with the Cleveland Browns, he’s been a one-man gang in terms of rushing the passer. Last year might have been the best example of that. Garrett led the team with 16 sacks and the next best total was Taven Bryan who had three.

This is Garrett’s 7th season in the league, and on paper, this is the best group of defensive linemen Garrett has ever been surrounded with and probably the most accomplished defensive coordinator the Browns have had in his tenure (with all due respect to Gregg Williams).

It is interesting that the years where Cleveland had a decent pass rusher to pair with Garrett were the bad seasons the Browns have had since he was the first overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft.

In his rookie season, the Browns had the 14th ranked defense and although Garrett played just 11 games, he led Cleveland in sacks with seven. Ranking second was LB James Burgess, and the next best defensive lineman was fellow rookie Emmanuel Ogbah, who had three.

The next two seasons, the best pass rusher to compliment Garrett was DT Larry Ogunjobi who had 5.5 sacks in both 2018 and 2019. Garrett had 13.5 in ’18 and dropped to 10 in ’19, which of course was the year he played only 10 games because he was suspended.

When the Browns finally made the playoffs in 2020, there finally was pressure coming from the other side at defensive end as Olivier Vernon had nine sacks to go along with Garrett’s dozen. And the following season, Cleveland went 8-9 with Jadeveon Clowney contributing nine sacks and Garrett getting a career high 16, which he matched last season.

Williams liked to put pressure on the opposing quarterback, but as we noted before, it seems Joe Woods’ philosophy was if Myles doesn’t sack the passer, then we need to go to Plan B.

That’s not Jim Schwartz’ plan.

This off-season GM Andrew Berry brought in several defensive linemen, basically overhauling the unit outside of Garrett. Part of this was brought about by Cleveland’s dreadful performance against the run in 2022, but Schwartz loves to have depth so he can rotate lineman and keep them fresh.

They brought in Za’Darius Smith, who has 54.5 sacks in his career and has accumulated at least 10 in three of his last four seasons. That total would be the highest by any Garrett teammate since the former Texas A & M standout arrived on the shores of Lake Erie.

Another pass rusher acquired by Berry is Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, who had five sacks in his first full season in the league last year for Houston.

And during training camp, the Browns signed Shelby Harris as a free agent. Harris only had two sacks last year for Seattle, but had two seasons (’19 and ’21) in Denver where he got to the QB six times.

Add in DT Dalvin Tomlinson, whose 2.5 sacks for the Vikings last season would have tied him for third on the team in Cleveland a year ago. Tomlinson was brought in primarily to be a run stopper, but he can get to the QB as well.

Former Browns’ GM Ernie Accorsi used to say the two most important positions on the field were quarterback and guys who can get to the opposing QB.

The Browns should have found some help for Myles Garrett in that regard this off-season.

A Lot Of Open Spots For Guardians In 2024.

With the Cleveland Guardians now six games off the pace in the AL Central, it’s time to look toward the 2024 season. The front office started this process at the end of July, when they decided to sell at the trading deadline.

Before we go on, let’s just say we are on board with the trades that sent Amed Rosario to the Dodgers and Josh Bell to Miami. Rosario was below average defensively and had an OPS of under 700. Based on that, it is a shock that the deal was made and the Guards got worse offensively at the position.

As for Bell, the Guardians would have been on the hook for $16 million next year. The problem was dealing a starting pitcher and not adding anyone who could help the offense, even incrementally in 2023.

Cleveland is now 13th in the AL in runs per game, and much like the standings, Detroit is getting close to passing them in this category. So, can they improve the hitting next season?

Right now, we would say the Guardians have five players etched in stone for next season:

Jose Ramirez 3B
Josh Naylor 1B
Steven Kwan OF
Andres Gimenez MI
Bo Naylor C

That means they have to fill four spots to improve the offense. We list Kwan as an outfielder, because although he’s a great defensive leftfielder, we could see him move to centerfield next season.

And we list Gimenez as a middle infielder because frankly, he could wind up at either second base or shortstop next season.

Most people thought moving Rosario would cause the shortstop position to be better, and no doubt it has defensively, but right now (and we stress right now), the offense out of the spot has declined.

Rosario had a 675 OPS. Since August 1st, Gabriel Arias has a 568 OPS and Brayan Rocchio’s is 662. The only option with a better number than the player who was dealt is Jose Tena, who has just eight at bats.

The organization probably hoped someone would step up and seize some of the open spots in the everyday lineup, but that hasn’t happened. And there is an old baseball adage that tells us not to be fooled by what happens in April or September.

We know about Kyle Manzardo, who came over from Tampa in the Aaron Civale deal, but right now he’s hurt and his numbers in AAA were down quite a bit from last season at lower levels. Maybe he shows he’s ready in the spring, but right now, the Guardians can’t count on him if they want to contend.

We feel the same way about George Valera, Jhonkensy Noel, or any of the minor leaguers touted by the organization. If you think of yourself as a contender, you cannot have four “hope they work out” guys in your lineup.

One problem that has arisen is the middle infield prospects on the top of the organization’s list of young players haven’t looked very good at the big league level, meaning they have probably lowered their trade value.

So, how do the Guardians get some bats they are insert into next year’s lineup? Seems like a tough job for the front office.

Because it will be tough to win in 2024 unless somehow this club figures out a way to score more.

Memories Of Manny On Going Into The Cleveland Hall Of Fame

We happened to be in Minnesota on September 2, 1993 when a 21-year-old outfielder drafted just two years earlier made his major league debut.

Manny Ramirez, the Indians’ first round pick that year, arrived in the big leagues after hitting .333 with 31 HR and 115 RBIs at Canton-Akron (AA) and Charlotte (AAA). Ramirez, batting sixth, ahead of another young player, Jim Thome, went 0 for 4.

Thome, of course is in the Hall of Fame, something Ramirez will never do because of his ties to PEDs, but tonight, the Cleveland baseball team put Ramirez into their Hall of Fame, and the memories we have of him are plentiful.

Ramirez opened the season and then Jacobs Field in Cleveland in ’94 and had a game tying hit in late in the season opener. He hit 17 home runs and knocked in 60 in the strike shortened season in 91 games.

In 1995, he emerged as one of the game’s top sluggers, hitting .308 with 31 dingers and 107 ribbies, starting a stretch where he drove in 100 or more runs 12 times in 14 years.

He was an RBI guy. Granted, he spent a good period of time hitting behind Kenny Lofton, Omar Vizquel, and Roberto Alomar in the batting order, but he seemed to understand that hitting a groundball to second with a man on 3rd in the first inning got a run home. He didn’t try to hit one 400 feet.

He also would take the single to right-center to score runners. Playing with good hitters and having that mindset is how you have five seasons where you drive in 125 or more runs.

We were in attendance in 1999 when Ramirez homered to knock in his 163rd run of the season, breaking Hal Trosky’s club record of 162 which had stood since 1936. He finished the season with 165.

The last time anyone in baseball history had knocked in more than that was 1938, when Jimmie Foxx drove in 175 runners. Sammy Sosa came closest to that figure in 2001, collecting 160 RBI.

We were also there on a July day in 1995 (July 16th to be exact) when Ramirez hit a game winning homer against Oakland, off of Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley (also a former Indian). Eckersley was videoed saying “wow” when the ball reached the seats. He couldn’t believe someone had hit that pitch out of the park.

We watched a game in Yankee Stadium when Ramirez hit a line drive that we think the second baseman had a bead on but sailed over the fence in right-center. It was like he took out a driver and hit a golf ball.

We were also there on October 1, 2000, when pending free agent Ramirez, in what turned out to be his last at-bat as an Indian, homered off Blue Jay reliever John Frascatore. He received a curtain, and with new owner Larry Dolan in attendance, fans were yelling to his suite to keep the slugger in Cleveland.

To be fair, Dolan put together a great offer, and we went to bed on a Sunday night (we think it was Sunday) during the Winter Meetings hearing the great Peter Gammons report that it looked like Ramirez was going to stay in Cleveland.

Of course, the Red Sox swooped in at the last minute was signed him.

It was always reported that when Boston visited here during the regular season, Ramirez would remark that it was good to be home.

That’s the player the Indians/Guardians are honoring tonight. To our eyes, he’s the best right-handed hitter we’ve ever seen. Combining power and average.

In his eight seasons in Cleveland, he batted .313 with 236 home runs and a 998 OPS. That latter figure is a club record. He’s third all-time in home runs (Thome and Albert Belle) and eighth in runs batted in.

We know what happened later in his career, starting with the whole “Manny being Manny” stuff. But what a hitter. It was great to witness some great moments in his career.

Guards Need Bullpen To Be Reliable Now

Lies, damn lies, and statistics. That’s the story of the Cleveland Guardians’ bullpen this season.

On first glance, the Guardians bullpen has good numbers. They rank 6th in the major leagues in ERA at 3.60. They haven’t thrown a ton of innings either, despite claims they have been overworked.

They are 23rd in innings pitched, but even though it seems they’ve allowed a ton of homers this season, they rank 24th in that category.

Now, we understand that teams using “openers” skew numbers a bit.

However, since July 1st it has been a different story. Let’s look at the statistics since that date–

Sam Hentges: 12.1 IP, 13 ER, 9.49 ERA, 5 BB, 13 SO
Eli Morgan: 15.2 IP, 11 ER, 6.32 ERA, 9 BB, 20 SO
Nick Sandlin: 15.1 IP, 8 ER, 4.70 ERA, 6 BB, 22Ks, and 4 home runs allowed
Enyel De Los Santos: 17.1 IP, 6 ER, 3.12 ERA, 6 BB, 16 Ks
Trevor Stephan: 17.1 IP, 7 ER, 3.63 ERA, 4 BB, 17Ks
Emmanuel Clase: 15.2 IP, 8 ER, 4.60 ERA, 3 BB, 16 Ks

De Los Santos has been the best of the group, but he has had two appearances since the first of August where he gave up two runs each.

Stephan’s numbers are pretty good, but he hasn’t been the same guy he was last season when he fanned 82 hitters in 63.2 innings. This year, those numbers are down to 56 punch outs in 52.1 frames.

And if Earl Weaver were still around, Stephan would likely be the new “full pack”, the terms he used to describe reliever Don Stanhouse, who seemed always to be in trouble. Stephan falls behind hitters too often and seems to be working out of trouble constantly.

Until Saturday’s meltdown in Toronto, Clase has been pretty good, although not the dominant pitcher he was a year ago. Before that, he had a 2.10 ERA in 25.2 innings with 30 strikeouts.

Overall though, his number aren’t what they were a year ago. He allowed just 43 hits in 72.2 innings. This season, he’s already given up 52 hits in just 54.1 frames.

One of our tenets of relief pitching is they can’t give up walks and they have to keep the ball in the park.

In the numbers listed above, Morgan and Sandlin have allowed the most walks and Sandlin has the double whammy of not being able to keep the ball in the yard.

During this season, Guardians’ relievers have seemed prone to the home run. Here are the leaders–

Sandlin 8
Stephan 6
Morgan 6
Karinchak 6

Which is why we like Clase in the closer role besides his 100 MPH cutter. He’s allowed just 2 home runs and has only walked 13 hitters.

The walk/home run combo is probably why the Guards haven’t tried Morgan as a late inning reliever, preferring to keep him in the 6th or 7th innings. Same for Sandlin.

Hentges has been the disappointment because the lefty has dominant stuff. He had an ERA of 2.91 after his appearance against the Cubs, when he came in a struck out two in a 1-2-3 10th inning.

He then gave up seven runs in the next three appearances, covering 1.2 innings, and later in the month had a two-game implosion giving up six runs in an inning and a third.

He’s been better lately and the Guardians need him to be.

There is no doubt the Guardians need better hitting, but without a good bullpen, the great job by the starting pitchers goes to waste way too many times.

Guards Make Contact, But Need To Know Strike Zone

The Cleveland Guardians have been known over the past two seasons as a team that emphasizes contact, putting the ball in play.

It’s a sound theory. Teams that do not strikeout much tend to be good offensive clubs. After the Guardians, the team in the American League with the least whiffs are Houston (4th in the AL in runs/game), Boston (5th), Toronto (8th), and New York (10th).

The Twins lead the league in striking out, and they are 9th, while Seattle is next and they rank 7th.

We have made note since the season started that making contact is not the same as having plate discipline. The league leader in walks in the AL is Texas, and they lead the league in runs scored.

The next three teams in drawing walks are the Twins, Astros, and Angels (6th in runs).

The Guardians do make a lot of contact, but they are a very young team and very few of them now how to work counts and take advantage of the fact that they can make contact.

Jose Ramirez, who does chase a bit because he understands he is the main man in the batting order, still walks more than he strikes out, with 53 walks and 51 whiffs. And Steven Kwan also is very close to having as many walks as strikeouts (49 BB, 57 Ks).

Here are players currently on the big-league roster with over 100 at bats who have struck out three times as much as they have walked: Andres Gimenez (84:27), Will Brennan (45:11), Gabriel Arias (72:24), Oscar Gonzalez (26:5).

And that speaks to awareness of the strike zone. Hitters always look at the screen when they get back to the dugout, so they see their at bats instantly.

Two players, Gimenez and Bo Naylor, simply can’t lay off the high fastball. Pitchers know that and until something changes, they will continue to exploit it.

And that’s why strike zone judgment is important. If pitchers know a batter will chase pitches, they will continue to throw that pitch until a hitter demonstrates either they can handle it or lay off it.

We were always taught they if a hitter gets ahead in the count, especially 2-0 or 3-1, they should zone in for a particular pitch in a particular area so they can drive it. We watch many of the Guardians’ hitters and there just doesn’t seem to be a plan.

And our guess is that hitting coach Chris Valaika is telling them when to be selective. He certainly isn’t telling them to make weak contact.

We also see a lot of Guardians swinging at first pitches which is fine if the guy on the mound is trying to get ahead of a hitter. If the pitch is out over the plate, fine. But not to pick on Brennan, but we’ve seen him swing at first pitches that are off the inside corner.

That seems like just swinging at it just to swing, not looking for a particular pitch.

As we said before, the Guardians are a very young team and mastering the strike zone can be gained from experience. But making contact doesn’t make you a good hitting team unless you can be selective as well.

Why do we like walks? They aren’t outs. And that’s a good thing.

Talking About The Glut At 2B/SS For The Guardians

The Cleveland Guardians have been collecting middle infield prospects for the past few seasons. They either signed or drafted Tyler Freeman, Brayan Rocchio, Jose Tena, Angel Martinez, and Milan Tolentino.

They traded for Andres Gimenez, Gabriel Arias, and Juan Brito. And this is all in the six or seven years.

Plus, they acquired Amed Rosario in the Francisco Lindor trade.

The theory is sound. Middle infielders are usually great athletes and in high school the best player is usually the shortstop unless he throws left-handed. Because they are great athletes, they are equipped to move around the diamond and play other positions.

For example, we have seen Cleveland move Arias to first base and to right field, when help was needed at both spots.

The problem for the organization is the last time we checked, you can only play two people in a game at the middle infield spots, one at second base and one at shortstop.

So, decisions have to be made, but so far, they haven’t.

After the trade of Rosario to Los Angeles, the Guardians called up Rocchio from AAA, giving them Arias, Rocchio, Freeman, as well as Gimenez, the starting second baseman, on the big league roster.

As we noted, they have used Arias at 1B and RF, and Rocchio has played third as well as shortstop, and Freeman has been used at 2B, SS, and 3B, the latter position usually manned by the team’s resident superstar, Jose Ramirez.

We believe the organization feels (again, opinion) Rocchio is the heir apparent at some point, perhaps next season. He’s probably the best mix or glove and bat.

So, that leads us to ask what should be done with the others? There is no question the Guardians need hitting. They rank 12th in the American League in runs scored.

Freeman, who just turned 24, can hit. He’s a .311 hitter in the minor leagues with a 813 OPS, and at AAA, he batted .289 with a 782 OPS. In the big leagues on a limited basis, he’s batted .267 in 181 plate appearances.

That may not be great, but outside of Ramirez, Josh Naylor, and Steven Kwan, no one else on the current roster is doing it.

Why do we like him? To quote Peter Brand in “Moneyball”, he gets on base.

Brito, who will soon be 22 and he has shown to be a very good hitter in the minor leagues, batting .286 with an 877 OPS last season in the Rockies’ organization and batting .293 with an 847 OPS between Lake County and Akron this year.

Our question is why not find spots for these two to play? The Guardians have a gaping hole in the outfield, and they already tried Arias there, so why not Freeman and Brito?

Add in the organization’s philosophy of finding hitters who have good contact rates and teaching them to drive the ball. Both Freeman and Brito put the ball in play.

Robin Yount was an excellent SS who moved to CF later in his career. Rick Manning started as a SS and became a Gold Glove centerfielder. Why not start using Freeman out there to get his bat in the lineup.

As for Brito, we have read scouting reports that say he’s limited to 2B defensively, so why not start moving him to the outfield.

The minor league people will say the players lose value once you move them off the dirt, but are the Guardians trying to have the “most valuable” farm system, or is their goal to win games?

Besides, they have plenty of middle infielders capable of playing the positions at the AAA and AA levels.

Hopefully, when Freeman comes off the IL this week, his name is in the lineup on a daily basis. The organization needs to see if his bat can play at the major league level.

And if Brito is as good a hitter as scouts think, the Guardians need to figure out a way to find him a place to play in Cleveland.

Browns Keeping A Low Profile Right Now

The Cleveland Browns started training camp a couple of weeks ago, and have already played an exhibition game last Thursday, but it just doesn’t feel like there is any buzz right now.

Perhaps that will change this weekend when the Browns play their only pre-season game at home against the Washington Commanders, but the starting lineup is pretty much set on both sides of the football, so everything seems to be anticlimactic until the orange and brown take the field for real on September 10th against the Bengals.

We continue to say the Browns’ fortunes rest mostly on how Deshaun Watson plays. If he plays like the guy who completed 67.8% of his throws with Houston from 2017-2020, the Browns figure to be in the mix for a playoff spot, Kevin Stefanski keeps his job and GM Andrew Berry solidifies his position in the front office.

If Watson plays like he did when he returned from a year and a half layoff at the end of last season, then the franchise has a rather large problem considering how much draft capital was spent.

One area that should be much improved is the defense, particularly against the run. The Browns hired highly decorated defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. Cleveland allowed 150 or more rushing yards seven times a year ago. They went 1-6 in those games.

By the way, the league average in yards allowed on the ground in 2022 was 121.6.

Schwartz’ defenses have ranked in the top half of the league in ten of his 19 seasons where he was either head coach or defensive coordinator.

We expect the defense will be much better both in stopping the run, where really, they couldn’t get much worse, and in pass defense. Schwartz likes to have depth on the defensive line, so he can keep people fresh, and the defensive backs are already talking about how playing more man-to-man coverage plays into their strength.

The only news that can come out of this year’s training camp is bad, and that would be injuries. Already, we have seen two defensive linemen go down and will miss the opener but should be back early in the season.

And to that point, although some of the starters, most notably Watson, probably need to be on the field a bit during pre-season play, there are a few who shouldn’t see any action until week one.

In particular, we are talking about Myles Garrett, Nick Chubb, and Joel Bitonio. We don’t live in fear of injuries, they can happen without contact, but we don’t need to see this trio until Cincinnati visits for the first regular season game.

After Friday’s game, the Browns will have a controlled scrimmage against the
Eagles next week, so the starters will play in that and not the game.

It’s very likely fans here won’t see the true Browns squad after Friday
until the season opener. And that explains why there isn’t the usual buzz
around the camp.

But maybe there should be. This might be the most important season the
Cleveland Browns have had in many years.