Five Big Wins For Guardians This Year

It was an improbable road to the Central Division championship for the Cleveland Guardians. Most folks thought Terry Francona’s squad would be around the .500 mark, yet here they are, poised to begin the playoffs Friday at Progressive Field.

All the victories, and it appears they will win more than 90 games, are important, but to us, some were more relevant than others.

Here are our five most impactful triumphs for the Guardians this season.

Game 3, April 10th: Cleveland 17, Kansas City 3

After scoring one run in the first two games, the Guardians exploded for six runs in the first and four in the second, highlighted by Oscar Mercado’s grand slam home run. Owen Miller started at first for Bobby Bradley, who started the first two games, and Steven Kwan went five for five in a portent of things to come.

Miller had three hits and four RBIs and became a fixture in the lineup for a while. Bradley never got back in the lineup, and this was the first step toward a more contact-oriented approach for the Guards’ offense.

By the end of that week, Yu Chang came down with COVID, and he never got his job back either, as Andres Gimenez became a fixture.

Cleveland scored 27 runs over the next three games.

Game 29, May 9th: Cleveland 12 Chicago 9, 11 innings

This was the Josh Naylor game. After losing 7 in a row to the Yankees and Angels, Cleveland won 7 of 9, going into Chicago.

The Guardians trailed 8-2 going into the ninth, but got two back on a Gimenez home run and an error. With two outs, Miller singled to load the bases, and Josh Naylor hit a grand slam off All-Star closer Liam Hendricks to tie it, and hit a three-run shot off Ryan Burr to give the Guards a 12-9 lead in the 11th.

Cleveland lost the next two, but this one demonstrated the Guardians never thought they were out of a game.

Game 61, June 19th: Cleveland 5, Los Angeles Dodgers 3

Francona’s club started a key nine game trek to Colorado, LA, and Minnesota by sweeping the Rockies and splitting the first two with the mighty Dodgers. Jose Ramirez missed the last two games of the series, including this one.

Trailing 3-2 going into the top of the 8th, the Guards tied it on a pinch-hit double by Richie Palacios, and then scored two off LA closer Craig Kimbrel on a Gimenez single and a sacrifice fly by Ernie Clement, subbing for Ramirez.

Emmanuel Clase pitched a 1-2-3 ninth, and the Guardians wound up 7-2 on the trip.

Game 101, July 31st: Cleveland 5, Tampa Bay 3

The Guardians were going with a bullpen game because Aaron Civale was hurt, while the Rays started All-Star Game starter Shane McClanahan.

The Guards worked the southpaw hard, making him throw 96 pitches in 4-1/3 innings, scoring three in the 2nd and two in the 5th. Myles Straw had a two-run single in the second, and Austin Hedges had the single in the fifth to provide the cushion.

Unsung hero Kirk McCarty threw 3-1/3 frames allowing one run, before Eli Morgan, Trevor Stephan, and Clase finished off Tampa.

Game 136, September 9th: Cleveland 7, Minnesota 6

Cleveland took the division lead on August 10th and had a four-game edge on August 25th before a disastrous stretch against Seattle and Baltimore, where they lost 8 of 10.

Heading into Target Field with a two-game advantage, the Guards took an early lead on a Naylor single and a three-run homer by Oscar Gonzalez. That lead stretched to 7-0 after four and a half before the Twins rallied with two runs in the 5th, 6th, and 8th innings.

The 8th inning was highlighted by Twins’ skipper Rocco Baldelli checking James Karinchak’s hair for sticky materials.

Clase finished it in the 9th and the Guards swept Minnesota, practically ending Minnesota’s hopes.

All wins were important to be sure, but to us, these had deeper meanings for the 2022 Guardians. Hopefully, more important ones are still on the horizon.

Guards Have A Lot Of Rookies, But They’ve Contributed Greatly

Part of the charm of baseball is it seems simple enough to the average fan, so it is easy to think they know more than the manager of their favorite team, in this case, Terry Francona.

We do it too, so we aren’t going to get on a soapbox and proclaim Francona doesn’t know what he’s doing, but on the other hand, we have said this before, Tito is not the Pope, he is not infallible.

For example, the Guardians use Owen Miller kind of as a platoon player when he has not demonstrated much success against southpaws, hitting .214 against them with a 606 OPS.

When Cleveland faced three lefties vs. the Angels earlier this week, Miller was in the lineup all three games, going 5 for 10. Of course, he did!

And while fans like us can sit there and say the Guardians need to go 5-4 in this stretch of nine games (they are currently 3-1) which will probably decide the AL Central, the reality is Francona’s philosophy has been just win the game you are playing today, because really, that’s all you can control.

He talks to his team, in fact, the entire 40-man roster in spring training telling them they are all part of this, and the team will probably need contributions from each player during the long 162 game season.

Although we advocated for Oscar Gonzalez late last season (and Steven Kwan as well, not enough patting ourselves on the back), he wasn’t even on the 40-man roster when the team gathered in Goodyear in March, but what a contribution has he made to this team.

Kirk McCarty looked to be an “organizational arm” coming into the year, but he’s put together several solid outings in long relief to help the team. He doesn’t seem to have outstanding stuff, but he’s been an unsung part of the 2022 Guardians.

Cody Morris has always been a highly regarded prospect, but he’s been called upon to make four starts (including today) in September in a pennant race. He hasn’t been great, but in his last two starts, he’s given the Guards a chance to win.

Richie Palacios has been up and down several times this season, but he’s contributed some huge pinch hits, a tough role for the young player. It will be interesting to see what his role will be in 2023.

Nolan Jones ultimately struggled to make contact at the big-league level, but when he first was called up, he gave the offense a much-needed jolt, which was needed at the time. No doubt he will complete for a permanent job next season, but the organization couldn’t afford patience while in the middle of a division race.

Tyler Freeman provided a big hit this past week, Will Benson made a fine catch at Target Field. Most of the young players who had received an opportunity this season have contributed.

That says a lot about Cleveland’s player development system, and that these guys are prepared when they arrive in the Guardians’ clubhouse.

So yes, Steven Kwan gets a lot of attention and rightly so, he should finish in the top three of the AL Rookie of the Year voting, but there have been a number of rookies who have contributed to the success of this team.

It’s not just having 15 MLB debuts, they have made an impact as well.

Nine Games To Settle The Central.

In about a week we should have a pretty good idea about whether or not the Cleveland Guardians will win the American League Central Division and qualify for the post season.

Starting with tonight’s make up game with the White Sox, the Guards will play nine straight contests against Chicago and Minnesota, the two teams battling them for the division title.

The magic number going into the single game against the Pale Hose is 18, as Cleveland leads Chicago by three and the Twins by five. The Guardians and Twins have 21 games left, while the Sox have 19.

Also important is their no longer is a tie breaking game to qualify for the playoffs. If their is a tie in the standings, the season series is the determining factor and Terry Francona’s squad needs just one victory against each of these two teams to get that edge.

After a 10 game stretch against Seattle and Baltimore where the club went 2-8 and tallied just 16 runs, the Guardians have roared back by winning eight of nine, including a huge sweep of Minnesota at Target Field.

The starting pitching and the back end of the bullpen have been tremendous in this stretch, with the rotation providing 51-2/3 innings allowing just 13 earned runs, a 2.26 ERA, and that includes rookie Konnor Pilkington allowing four runs in five frames on Monday against the Angels.

Remember, Pilkington is filling in for injured starters Zach Plesac and Aaron Civale.

The bullpen, led by Emmanuel Clase (Death. Taxes. Clase), James Karinchak, and Trevor Stephan have simply dominated opponents in this stretch, and really we should also include southpaw Sam Hentges in this group as well.

Clase had a rare bad outing against KC in the last game there, walking three hitters (one intentionally) and Karinchak allowed a two run homer after his hair products were called into question by Twins’ skipper Rocco Baldelli in Minneapolis.

Stephan has allowed four earned runs since August 1st, and overall this year, has struck out 72 batters in 56-2/3 innings, and has given up just three home runs. Hentges has given up just one runs since the end of July and he’s allowed three dingers on the season as well.

Overall, Cleveland relievers have pitched 467-1/3 innings with a 3.14 ERA and 47 home runs allowed. We hate to pick on Bryan Shaw, but if you remove his numbers from these statistics, the ERA drops to 2.81 and the long ball total is 39.

If this trend can continue, the balance of the schedule would seem to be in good hands.

Offensively, it would be nice if Jose Ramirez got on one of his hot streaks, but until then, rookie Oscar Gonzalez has been doing the job.

Gonzalez has hit four homers in September, slugging .596 and even walking four times this month (he’s only walked 12 times since his call up). His three run homer in the first inning in Minnesota got Cleveland off to a good start, and another homer Tuesday vs. Los Angeles was the difference in the game.

Remember, since they have the division lead, going 4-5 or 5-4 in these nine games is perfectly fine, it just takes the nine games off the schedule.

Let’s hope the pitching continues as it has over the last week or so and the hitting provides just enough runs.

Guards In An Old Fashioned Pennant Race.

When the Cleveland Indians dominated the American League Central Division from 1995-2001, winning six titles in seven seasons. They usually won by a pretty good margin:

1995: 30 games
1996: 14.5
1997: 6
1998: 9.5
1999: 21.5
2000: lost by 5 games
2001: won by 6

Even in the Terry Francona era, when the team won by 8 games in 2016, 17 games in 2017, and 13 games in 2018.

So there haven’t been a lot of “pennant races” in the recent past. Perhaps the closest thing fans experienced is the race to get to the wild card game in 2013 when the Tribe overcame a 4-1/2 game deficit on September 1st, going 21-6 in that month and qualifying for the playoffs on the last day of the season.

Well, the Guardians are in a race right now.

They lead the Central Division by a game and a half over Chicago and 3-1/2 over Minnesota today and play the Twins six more times and the White Sox four before the season ends with a nine game homestand vs. Tampa Bay (3) and Kansas City (6).

If you ever longed for “meaningful baseball” as a fan or media person, here you are. It is very likely there will be high stakes each and every time the Guardians take the field for the rest of this season.

And by the way, Minnesota and Chicago also have six games between them remaining including a three-game set to close the year in the Windy City. The Pale Hose seem to have the easiest path, schedule wise, as outside of the games versus the other contenders, the only likely playoff team they will play is San Diego.

Cleveland has the three against Tampa, and both the Twins and Guards have the Angels, who have a bad record, but also have Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani.

As for Francona’s squad, they have to cobble together 2/5ths of a starting rotation going forward, losing Aaron Civale and Zach Plesac to injuries. When Cleveland comes home on Monday to start a nine game stretch at Progressive Field, they are probably looking at the first two contests where the bullpen will have to play a significant role.

And the back end of that ‘pen has been worked hard recently, and could use a couple of blow out victories.

Emmanuel Clase pitched in three straight games last week, had one day off, and uncharacteristically blew a save at Kansas City. After last night’s save, he’s pitched on six of the last eight days.

James Karinchak has done the same, and he struggled a bit Friday night, giving up his first home run of the season after Twins’ manager Rocco Baldelli had the umpire run his fingers through the relievers’ locks.

Francona certainly has his pecking order when his team has the lead, but going forward he will need Enyel De Los Santos, Bryan Shaw, Nick Sandlin, and Sam Hentges to pitch in during close games to keep Clase, Karinchak, and Trevor Stephan fresh.

That’s the downside to the plan, when the Guardians are on a winning streak, the primary trio gets overused, and particularly this season where wins by five runs (just 15) are not plentiful.

And Monday and Tuesday, he will also need the inexperienced Cody Morris, Konnor Pilkington, and Kirk McCarty to step up and give the team quality innings.

It will be a challenge for sure and should be fun for the fans. A real pennant race, with tension filled games, scoreboard watching, etc.

We also ask the front office to do whatever they have to do to get people in the seats. This team deserves that.

In the meantime, have fun!

Analyzing The Guards’ Offensive Woes.

The Cleveland Guardians raised their record to 66-56 on August 24th when they beat San Diego 7-0. Since then, it has not been pretty for Terry Francona’s squad and ugly for the offense.

Cleveland has lost 8 of 11 since that win, scoring more than three runs in a game just three times (all of the wins) and being shutout four times in that span.

Seven of those contests were against Seattle, with the Mariners taking six, but we would not say the Guardians were dominated, but their hitters were. Two of the games went to extra innings, and in three others, Mariners’ hitters could muster only three runs in each game.

They’ve had more than one extra base hit in just four of the last 11, winning three of the four. And they have just three home runs, all coming in wins–Jose Ramirez connected in the 4-3 win at Seattle, and Josh Naylor hit one in the 5-1 win over the Orioles, and another in last night’s win over Kansas City

The Guardians don’t walk much (enough) as a team any way, ranking 12th in the American League, but the base on balls have hard to come by too. They’ve drawn more than three walks in just two games, but Sunday night’s game was one, as they drew five, but two of those were intentional in the 10th inning.

They’ve had nine hits in half of the games, but without mixing in some doubles, triples, and homers, it’s very difficult to score unless you string hits together, which currently they are not doing.

The Guardians don’t hit the long ball but are 6th in the AL in doubles and 3rd in triples, so they have extra base hit ability, but it has disappeared as of late.

It doesn’t seem like any more help will be coming from the farm system either. Despite the offensive issues, when the rosters expanded to 28 on September 1st, the Guards brought up Ernie Clement, who was hitting .238 in AAA, and was sent to the minors because he hit .203 with the big club.

Clement seems to be superfluous on a roster that already has Owen Miller and Tyler Freeman on it, especially when the latter has problem getting at bats.

Nolan Jones and/or Will Brennan (.360 OBP/801 OPS) would seem to be better fits, particularly with Oscar Gonzalez in a bit of a slump and Myles Straw in a massive one.

We’ve all seen the numbers on Straw. He’s hit .159 (382 OPS) since the All-Star break, and we’ve said this repeatedly over the years, it doesn’t matter how good you are defensively (and Straw is very, very good), if you can’t hit, you can’t play regularly in the major leagues.

Apparently, unless you play for Cleveland.

We aren’t sure if Will Benson can succeed in the bigs, but he’s received just 42 plate appearances over the last month, so it’s not like he’s received a real big chance.

We also know about the offensive issues at the catcher’s spot, except for Luke Maile’s hot August nights (nod to Neil Diamond), so the 8th and 9th spots in the batting order have become designated outs for opposing pitchers.

The frustration for fans is the lack of activity by the manager or the front office. We respect and acknowledge Francona’s impact on this team, but we’ve also said his biggest weakness is his patience can turn into stubbornness.

Despite all this, the Guardians are still tied for first in the Central. If they can start scoring runs again, they can still be playing in October.

Evaluating Minor Leaguers Isn’t An Exact Science

The late, great Cleveland sports talk host Pete Franklin used to say something similar to this about minor league baseball players–until proven otherwise, prospects should be considered suspects.

The meaning being no matter how good a player performs in the minors, the big leagues are different.

Former Rockies’ and Pirates’ manager Clint Hurdle was on the cover of Sports Illustrated as baseball’s newest phenom after hitting .328 with 16 homers (978 OPS) at AAA in 1977. He wound up playing just 515 games in the majors, hitting .259 with 32 dingers (745 OPS).

Gregg Jefferies was another phenom after hitting .367 in AA with 20 homers in the Mets’ organization (1021 OPS). He wound up playing parts of 14 years in the majors, and made two All Star teams, but he never became the superstar he was projected to be.

More recently, the top prospect in baseball in 2013 was Texas’ Jurickson Profar after he hit .281 (820 OPS) at age 19 in AA as a shortstop. Profar is still in the big leagues, but has a career .237 batting average (709 OPS) and is currently a LF for the Padres.

No doubt the ranking of minor league prospects has become more sophisticated in recent years. Among the current players who were named the sports’ best are Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Adley Rutchman, Wander Franco, and Bobby Witt Jr.

However, here are two players who were considered top five prospects in all of baseball who are struggling. They may get everything to click at some point, but right now, they haven’t fulfilled what others thought they could accomplish.

Detroit took Spencer Torkelson with the first pick in the 2020 draft, and to date, in 264 at bats, he’s hit five homers and batted .197. He’s back in AAA with a .228 batting average and coincidentally, five long balls.

The Angels’ Jo Adell was a consensus top five prospect after hitting .289 with 23 home runs in AAA at age 22. To date, the majors have been a much bigger challenge, with a .215 batting average and 13 dingers in almost 500 plate appearances.

Why do we bring this up? Because he see various comments from Guardians’ fans pining for the youngest team in the sport to bring up even more rookies.

Complicating the matter is the Guards being in contention for the playoffs. If they were on pace to lose 90+ games, it would be a no-brainer to bring guys up and play them. So when Nolan Jones goes two weeks doing nothing at the plate, Terry Francona can’t afford to be patient.

And nothing causes a manager to lose the trust of his players than putting someone out on the field who doesn’t deserve to be there.

Also, just because someone is highly touted as a prospect doesn’t mean they will be better players at the big league level than the person currently at that spot.

For example, we think Brayan Rocchio is going to be a very good big league shortstop. However, to say he is better than Amed Rosario right now is crazy. He might be, but no one should be stating that as a fact.

We are sure Tigers’ and Angels’ supporters were saying the same thing about Torkelson and Adell not so long ago.

Guardians Among The Best At Their Positions

We are a big fan of the website, baseball-reference.com, and we look at it at least once a day, qualifying us, we guess, as a baseball nerd.

In their version of WAR (wins above replacement), the Cleveland Guardians rank in the top three in the American League in four positions: Second base, shortstop, leftfield, and third base.

It is probably shocking that the hot corner is the spot they are third, behind Boston (Rafael Devers) and Houston (Alec Bregman), because Cleveland’s best player, Jose Ramirez mans that position.

It would probably also surprise you that the Guardians leader in WAR is not Ramirez, but Andres Gimenez.

Disclaimer alert here: One of our problems with WAR is that it is weighted to middle of the diamond players. Still, it is something to use in comparing players and their importance to a team.

When the Guardians acquired Gimenez in the trade that sent Francisco Lindor to the Mets, we felt he was the key to the deal. He was a top prospect and came to the big leagues at age 21, hitting .263 with a 732 OPS in 49 games of the COVID shortened season.

We did not anticipate this kind of season though. Now 23, he made the All Star in his first full big league season and should get Gold Glove consideration at second base.

All this after he hit .218 (633 OPS) a year ago.

His on base percentage (.375) has been propped up by becoming a magnet for pitched balls (16 HBP), but after having a strikeout to walk ratio of 31:4 in April and May, since then it is 51:19, still not great, but an improvement.

Amed Rosario seemingly doesn’t get on base enough (.320) to hit second, and doesn’t have a lot of pop either (.409 slugging percentage with just 36 extra base hits), but he has been a huge factor in the Guardians’ rise to first place to date in the AL Central.

Last season, he was frankly below average defensively at short, the most important position in the infield, but he has improved to the point he makes the routine plays. With the Guardians’ glut of middle infield prospects, we don’t know how long Rosario will play his current position, or even remain with the Guardians, but he has made a big impact on this team.

We discussed bringing up Steven Kwan at the end of last year (with Oscar Gonzalez), but he was in the lineup on Opening Day, with only Terry Francona seemingly being surprised, and hasn’t let go of the job.

He has done what we thought he could do, that is make contact and get on base. He has a .372 on base percentage and has walked more than he has struck out. And he has a respectable .393 slugging percentage. He’s been a perfect table setter for this lineup.

And of course, you have the remarkable Ramirez, who probably will finish in the top three of the MVP voting for the fourth time in the last six years.

He leads the AL in doubles, is second in RBIs, tied for sixth in triples, and second in extra base hits. And let’s not forget, he is the undisputed leader in the clubhouse. The way he plays the game rubs off on everyone on the roster.

These four players have had tremendous seasons. Looking at them in no way minimizes the contributions of others, but this quartet have been among the best in the AL at their respective positions.

Let’s Talk Some Baseball And Hoops. Please?

We have said throughout the years we were an anomaly in northeast Ohio. This is football country, but our favorite sports are baseball and basketball.

Make no mistake, we are fans of the Browns and watch each and every game, but our passion rests more with baseball and hoops. We’ve had season tickets to both the Indians and Cavaliers over the years, but never the Browns.

The reason is mostly because we feel football is better watched on television rather than in person, and sitting out on a cold day in November and December has a lot to do with that, we aren’t going to lie.

The reason we bring this up again right now (we’ve done it before) is the play of the Guardians and the amount of discussion in the area about them. They’ve been very surprising to be sure, contending for the division title and post-season berth despite most folks predicting (including us) around a .500 finish for Terry Francona’s squad.

Listening to sports talk radio around town, the Guardians are largely ignored. In fact, everything besides the Browns is largely ignored, something the football team generated when they made both sports talk radio stations the “Home Of The Browns”.

Very smart on their part for sure.

At one time, Cleveland was one of the largest cities in America. Now it’s one of the smaller cities to have three major league sports franchises. This area ranks 34th in terms of metropolitan areas by population.

The areas in the same class (30-40th) that have professional sports are as follows (using the big four sports (baseball, football, basketball, hockey as the model. Sorry, soccer enthusiasts):

30. Cincinnati (Reds, Bengals)
31. Kansas City (Chiefs, Royals)
32. Columbus (Blue Jackets)
33. Indianapolis (Colts, Pacers)
34. Cleveland (Browns, Guardians, Cavaliers)
35. Nashville (Titans, Predators)
36. San Jose (Sharks)
37. Virginia Beach/Norfolk
38. Providence
39. Jacksonville (Jaguars)
40. Milwaukee/Green Bay (Bucks, Brewers, Packers)

We are taking liberties with the last one because Milwaukee and Green Bay are about as far apart as Cleveland and Columbus.

The point is we should be privileged to have three pro sports teams, and all three should be hold interest for sports fans in the area. However, at times we get the feeling Browns’ fans could care less if either the Guards or Cavs or both moved elsewhere.

We understand that some of the issues the baseball team has are self-inflicted. They don’t do a good job of marketing and the game day experience at Progressive Field isn’t high on the fun meter.

And while the whole “Mustard losing in the hot dog race” is meant to be fun, it would be nice if the Guardians’ staff put that much energy in hyping up their first place baseball team.

Back to sports talk radio, they should offer more balance. The Cavs and Guardians aren’t in season much at the same time, but there are things to talk about in the off-season for both, especially right after the season ends.

And it would seem to us, talking some baseball and hoops might just be more entertaining than discussing the punter situation or fourth wide receiver for the Browns.

It’s a three sports town and we should be thankful and appreciative. At times, we treat two of the teams like a necessary evil.

Guardians In The Mix, Not Unusual Really.

Last season, the Cleveland Indians finished under .500 for the first time in manager Terry Francona’s 10 years at the helm. They finished 80-82, the worst mark since the 2015 team went 81-80.

When you think about it, since the team moved out of Municipal Stadium, they have had a very good record for success. The most games the franchise has lost was 97 in Eric Wedge’s last season as manager in 2009.

They’ve lost over 90 games just three times since 1993, and that was done three times in a four-year span: 2009, 2010, and 2012. The last of those seasons led to the firing of Manny Acta and bringing Francona aboard.

Cleveland has had just three men heading up baseball operations in this timespan: John Hart, Mark Shapiro, and Chris Antonetti. And as you can see by the records, they have never had to tank to get back into contention.

They have made 12 post-season appearances, three of them resulting in World Series appearances. We have said many times that in our youth, when publications did the composite World Series records, Cleveland sat at 2-1 since 1954.

They are now 2-4, but the 1990 version of us never thought the 2-1 would change. But this team has been in as many Fall Classics in the last 27 years than they were in the first 54 seasons they played.

Hopefully, there will never be a 41 year drought between American League pennants again.

Because the Cubs and Astros bottomed out and quickly won a World Championship, that became the way for other teams to be competitive again. Really though, how has that worked for other franchises?

The Tigers haven’t made the playoffs since 2014, and have had just one winning season (2016). And it doesn’t appear they are closer to being over .500. Pittsburgh made the post-season in 2015, they’ve been over .500 just once since then.

It’s not limited to just smaller markets either. The Los Angeles Angels have played three post-season games since 2009, and haven’t reached the break even point since 2015, despite having the best player in the game in Mike Trout.

Our point is that it’s real easy to do what the Cleveland baseball organization has done in the Jacobs/Progressive Field era. And they’ve evolved in how they built the team over team.

In the ’90’s, they were a hitting machine with players like Albert Belle, Hall of Famer Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, Kenny Lofton and Omar Vizquel.

When the Dolan family bought the team, they wanted to build around pitching, and in the Francona era, they’ve done just that. There are been four Cy Young Awards since 2007 for organization, starting with C.C. Sabathia and Cliff Lee in back-to-back years, and two more in the teens for Corey Kluber.

Offensively, it appears they have shifted to players who make contact and put the ball in play. They have struck out the least amount of times in the American League. And at least this season, it has worked because the Guardians are leading the division, something no one predicted at the beginning of the year.

Can they win the Central? They have a chance, and that’s something fans could have said pretty much every season since the new park opened on the corner of Carnegie and Ontario.

A lot of other fans bases would love to have that consistency.

Analyzing The Guardians’ Recent Moves

While the Cleveland Guardians did not make any trades at the August 2nd deadline, they certainly made a number of roster moves.

Will Benson, the team’s first round pick in 2016 was elevated to the big leagues on August 1st, replacing Alex Call. Call has been subsequently DFA’d and was picked up by the Washington Nationals.

The club then called up infielder Tyler Freeman to take Ernie Clement’s roster spot, and then in a shocking move, they cut ties with slugger Franmil Reyes last Saturday. Reyes was picked up by the Cubs a couple of days ago.

And we can’t forget Hunter Gaddis getting the call up to face Houston last Friday night. Although it didn’t work out in that game, we are sure we will see Gaddis again soon.

The Guardians continue to get younger and also keep playing good baseball, moving into a tie for first place in the AL Central with Minnesota on Tuesday.

Bringing up top prospects is a double edged sword because while it’s great to have them on a roster, it does not do them much good if there is no playing time. If you got better by watching, then we’d have a bust in Cooperstown right now.

So Terry Francona has to balance getting these recent additions some at bats and at the same time, continuing to win. At least that’s what we fans hope. The front office may care more about player development than making the post-season.

Freeman seems the easiest fit. Clement wasn’t contributing much at the plate (491 OPS) and the skipper seemed intent playing him vs. left-handed pitching even though he hasn’t had any discernable success against them.

Freeman can take those at bats, and if he can be in the lineup three or four times a week, he should be fine. He’s played in three games to date, going 2 for 8 with two walks.

Benson’s promotion was a little more curious. At the time, it was thought he was going to get some time at first base, and that might still be the plan, but he hasn’t played there yet. And as an outfielder, if he plays, he would seem to take away playing time from Nolan Jones.

Maybe he plays some in center, giving Myles Straw some time off, but the organization loves Straw’s defense, so that’s difficult to see.

And Jones fits in the same category. He needs to be in the lineup at least three or four days per week. Right now, Benson looks a little overmatched, striking out in half of his 12 plate appearances.

The roster might be better served with say, a third catcher, right now.

The Reyes release was a stunner. He had a poor season to date and with the Guards in the race, it was tough to put him in a lineup. He was supposed to bring some pop, but he was slugging just .350, less than Owen Miller.

With Josh Naylor’s leg injury, he needs to get at bats at the DH spot, and using Jose Ramirez at that spot also helps him get a partial day off too.

We agreed with sending Reyes to AAA because his power potential is something the Guardians need. They are 14th in the AL in home runs. The theory would be get him fixed in the minors and have him ready for 2023.

Obviously, there were other things involved that led to Cleveland just cutting ties with the big man right away.

There is a reason teams don’t just bring up every prospect as soon as they have success at AAA. There has to be a fit on big league roster because for most young players, to doesn’t do their career any good to come up and sit on the bench.

Let’s see if Terry Francona can find the delicate balance for Freeman, Jones, and Benson.