The curse of talking about other team's spending

Joc Pederson, Dallas Keuchel call out Cleveland Guardians for having low payroll
by Steve DiMatteo2 months ago Follow @steve_dimatteo
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Both Dallas Keuchel DFA'd)and Joc PedersonSlapped have called out the Cleveland Guardians for maintaining such a low payroll – but will it make a difference?


More so than in past years it seems, players around baseball are publicly voicing their opinions about the sorry state of some teams’ payrolls – including that of the Cleveland Guardians.

This week alone, White Sox pitcher Dallas Keuchel and newly signed Giants outfielder Joc Pederson have voiced their opinions on the low payrolls in baseball, singling out the Guardians as an example.

Keuchel, while complimenting Cleveland’s ability to stay competitive within the AL Central, expressed a desire for the team to ultimately spend more money. Though he plays for a division rival, his quote doesn’t come off as trying to antagonize the team or anything – he’s simply making a good point.


Pederson, on the other hand, was much more pointed in his criticism, saying he’s “embarrassed” for the fan bases of teams like the Guardians, Pirates, and Orioles, who currently have some of the lowest payrolls in the game.



Depending on who you believe, the Guardians may have been interested in signing Pederson this offseason. He ultimately signed a one-year, $6 million deal with San Francisco, which makes one wonder if Cleveland really did look to bring him in, because that is about as affordable as a player like Pederson can get on the open market.

And with the way he’s calling out these low-spending teams, there’s a good chance the Guardians were never really in the running to sign him. Either that or he just really doesn’t like Cleveland.


All that being said, it’s refreshing to see players offering their thoughts on payrolls like this. This lockout showed that baseball players connect with fans better than ever, and they deserve to hold more power not just in public perception, but in the actual inner workings of the game itself. Though it’s doubtful the Dolans care all that much in this case, it’s still a pretty embarrassing thing to be called out like this twice in the same week as the team continues to sit on its hands.

And with these types of opinions now becoming more public-facing, one wonders if this makes it that much harder for a team like the Guardians to sign a free agent. If the perception is that your team simply won’t do enough to put a winning team on the field, who will ever want to play here?


If there were ever a time for the Guardians to try and change that perception, this would be it, but don’t hold your breath. Not for now, at least.

Interesting to note this:

Pittsburgh should be able to give Chang more opportunities to get into a groove than he saw in Cleveland, as they have a number of position players currently on the injured list. Ben Gamel just went on the IL today, joining Roberto Perez, Jake Marisnick, Yoshi Tsutsugo, Daniel Vogelbach, Kevin Newman and Greg Allen among hitters currently out of action due to injury.

Lots of old Guards on the Bucco's!

Cherington and Antonetti are old friends and workmates.

Amazingly Brad Zimmer is still on the Blue Jays roster; he is used primarily as a defensive replacement and pinch runner. He's 6 for 52 with a 409 OPS

Quite a series for Giminez vs the O's. He's really putting up some highly impressive offensive numbers, among them are his 29 RBI. That ranks him 17th in the AL, which isn't bad to start with, but far more impressively his RBA's are about 21% of his hits and as far I can figure only Judge and Story [who rank 2nd and 3rd] roughly equal that.

Could he be on the way to becoming a Jose-type offensive threat. BTW, Ramirez' RBA rate is 29$ of his at bats Exactly the same as his batting average?
Unlike Ramirez he rarely walks and is less a base stealing threat. And of course has not sustained this level of play over a sustained time period

Jose re-takes major league in RBI with 59. Mets Pete Alonso went ahead but he's now 4 behind. Aaron Judge is next in the AL with 48. then Trevor Story 41. Old friend Francisco Lindor has 45

Owen Miller with his 7th sacrifice fly last night; that cannot just be random; like lots of these guys he knows how to deliver in particular circumstances.

Bat - to - ball guy. Will end up a great utility guy.

I have always cited Casey Blake as the model of a Modern League Average ballplayer, of which every team needs a lot, to fit in with a couple stars. We have one star and a growing number of MLAs. Miller is one, offensively at least. Rosario, too. Naylor probably, although still a little young to be sure. Giminez could be at least that good. Straw is well above average in part of his game, somewhat below at the plate.
We'll see what Kwan develops into.
George Valera is the highest ceiling guy nearing the top of the farm system and could just be at the star level.

Blitzer is here! Details in Articles.

Yeah, I read; more good news. This is a very good week for the Guardians.

civ - if you look below you'll see that my predicted season for Rosario isn't so outrageous after all. Basically I am seeing the the 2019 Amed is the real Amed Rosario. After that he got sidetracked on NY crap. He feel to simply replicate what he has already done before and we would love that!!

Meanwhile Lindor continues to produce LESS than either Rosario or Gimenez at an absurd $$ cost.



Amed Rosario
Rosario hit .287 with 15 HRs and 19 SBs as a 23-year-old for the Mets in 2019.

But he posted a very respectable .282/77/11/57/13 fantasy line in his first season with Cleveland in 2021, and has been heating up of late after a slow start to his 2022 campaign.

While it took until June 15 for Rosario to finally hit his first home run, he’s batting .377 with 13 runs and four steals in 14 games since May 31. Still just 26 years old and regularly perched in the second spot in the Guardians’ lineup,

Lindor has 49 RBI which is quite impressive and he's got his home run bat going again. And he's still a great defender. And a great personality and team leader.
But of course the cost is outrageous and it does not look like he's going to the offensive behemoth of his earlier years.

Giminez may be as impressive a defender, hits for power and could be the 300 hitter that Lindor is not any longer. He is not the "face of a franchise" kind of guy but I'll take all the rest of what he offers, gladly!

Team stats reveal a team that plays baseball the old fashioned way, which happens to be the way I like it

of the 30 big league clubs, the Guardians' offense is:
28th in home runs
7th in doubles
tied for 3rd in triples
right in the middle in runs scored
26th in grounding into DPs
last by a big margin in strikeouts
4th in sac flies

Do we get more than one All Star?

None of the starters probably although Bieber and McKenzie have been good but not great
Clase and of all people Morgan have good cases to make:

Clase 1.59 ERA 0.50 WHIP 30K/4 BB 1 home run 1 earned run allowed since April 23
Morgan 1.62 ERA 0.57 WHIP .119 batting average against 42K/6 BB Since April 24 1/3 IP 1 ER on 7 hits 31K/4 BB