Tag: patrick bailey

Thoughts On Game 2, Backs Against The Wall For The Guardians

The Cleveland Guardians haven’t done much easy all season long, so why should the playoffs be any different. Steven Vogt’s team has there back firmly against the wall after dropping Game 2 of the Division Series at Progressive Field by a score of 4-3.

They now have to win the rest of the games of the series, or they will watch the upstart White Sox celebrate in front of them, and then cleaning out their lockers.

The Guardians got off to a quick start with a hit by Steven Kwan, a walk to Jose Ramirez, and Chase DeLauter moved them over on a groundball. After they scored two runs on an error, they have runners on 1st and 3rd with one out. A chance to add on without getting a hit.

Instead, Angel Martinez and Travis Bazzana whiffed. Martinez HAS to put the ball in play there. If you aren’t going to hit the long ball, you have to take advantage and execute when opportunities are available. Time and time again this season, the Guardians have failed to move runners with outs.

In the last week of the season, Nathaniel Lowe had three sacrifice flies and was heralded for having a professional at bat. It’s called a “sacrifice” fly for a reason. The hitter is deliberately giving himself up to get the run home.

Another big play was Erik Sabrowski’s wild pitch in the sixth which moved two Chicago runners into scoring position, and they scored on Braden Montgomery’s double to right. Sabrowski threw a bad pitch, but it was a fastball, and Patrick Bailey didn’t/couldn’t block it.

We know Bailey has won multiple Gold Gloves, but frankly, we don’t see why? Is it because of his pitch framing? We see a lot of balls get past him. Perhaps we are spoiled by catchers like Sandy Alomar Jr., Yan Gomes, and Roberto Perez, but we don’t see that kind of defensive prowess.

Lastly, only three runs scored in the two games for Cleveland. The Guardians had the worst offense of any team qualifying for the post-season, and the second worst, Boston, was eliminated in the wild card round. Conversely, four of the top five teams in scoring runs made the playoffs, and although the Cubs (1st) were knocked out, the Brewers, White Sox, and Dodgers are still alive.

It is difficult to go far without being able to produce runs no matter how good your pitching and defense is.

As for the Guardians, it’s not impossible to win three straight in the Division Series after losing the first two, but to go on the road makes it more difficult. Cleveland did have a better record on the road (44-37) than they did at Progressive Field (41-40) this season.

Perhaps there is an omen there.

Trying To Make Sense Out Of Guardians’ Catching Moves

The Cleveland Guardians are not a team that makes a lot of trades, so it was certainly very surprising for them to announce they traded a compensatory draft pick and minor league pitcher Matt “Tugboat” Wilkerson to San Francisco for two-time Gold Glove winning catcher Patrick Bailey.

They also sent Bo Naylor back to AAA, although he is headed to the Goodyear facility before he reports to Columbus. More on that in a bit.

We have said for years in answering questions about the usual offensive ineptness of Cleveland catchers that the organization values defense first and foremost behind the plate. Blocking pitches and handling a pitching staff are the primary requirements of the job.

That’s why they have such a high regard for Austin Hedges, who they bring back year after year on one year deals. Getting Bailey is just another reminder of that.

Bailey can’t hit. His career OPS is 609 (keep in mind, the league average is usually around 700). His career batting average is .228, he gets on base only 28% of the time, and his career high in home runs is eight.

Again, the Guardians don’t care about that. However, we believe you need six or seven solid offensive players to have an effective major league offense and if you are punting on the catching position, that means pretty much everyone else in your lineup has to contribute offensively.

In Bailey’s debut with the Guards, he came up in a bases loaded, two out situation with Cleveland down 5-2 in the bottom of the fifth. He struck out.

The Guardians rank 10th in the AL in runs scored. Their starting pitching have struggled to provide Steven Vogt length in games. The bullpen has two, maybe three reliable arms right now.

The point is those are the areas that need help for the ’26 Guardians. Yet, the front office decided to make a deal for another defensive catcher who will likely provide nothing offensively.

As for Naylor, Vogt and the front office stressed how they haven’t given up on the former first round draft pick, but we would file that under the “BS” file. Where exactly would be the place for Naylor? The organization has pretty much handed the catching duties over to Bailey and Hedges, so where exactly does he fit in?

And at Columbus, they have one of their top ten prospects in Cooper Ingle, who is hitting .370 in AAA, albeit in 77 plate appearances. He’s a .287 hitter in four minor league seasons and is a Top 100 prospect according to MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus.

They also have Kody Huff down there, so it is difficult to see where Naylor is going to get at bats.

Perhaps they have something in the works to move Naylor pretty quick, so they didn’t want to disrupt the playing time in Columbus. We will see.

As for Ingle, we have read the reason he wasn’t a candidate to get called up is the organization wants him to work on things defensively. That’s organization speak for they just don’t want to call him up right now.

Remember when they told people James Karinchak, who was mowing down hitters in the minors, couldn’t get called up until he got better in his fielding? And that’s not the only time they discovered some weird reason for not calling someone up.

Hopefully, this works out for the Guardians. But making a deal where you use assets to improve something that wasn’t a glaring weakness seems like a waste.