Spring Training games underway out here in Arizona.

I didn't understand the headline "Dodgers hang a snowman on the Padres" until I read the article. I guess a snowman is an 8.

Dodgers lead the Padres 14-1 bottom of the 8th.

If an 8 is a snowman, what is the 6 they put up in the 6th.

Snowman = golf term

Carrasco gets the first inning on the mound today. Probably just 1 inning.

Lineup is largely last year's

Kwan LF
Giminez 2B
Ramirez 3B
Naylor 1B
Laureano rF
De los Santos DH
Naylor C
Rocchio SS
Straw CF

In a hardly surprising development, former top prospect George Valera has again strained his hamstring during pop up drills he "took a misstep" Manager reports "it'll be at least a few weeks" for recovery. Knowing Valera's recovery history I am confident it will be quite a bit more than "a few weeks

Half seasons with declining production is dropping Valera way down the prospect list. He is still only 23 and does have a full season's worth of experience in AAA so he's not necessarily behind a standard development path, but he needs to both get on the field a lot more and produce much better results.

2023: 79 games 746 OPS
2022: 132 games 816 OPS
2021 86 games 910 OPS
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First spring game and the G's are in midseason form already. Kwan with 2 singles, Laureano, Rocchio and Straw with one each and the offense is humming along
Power prospect De Los Santos did not strike one in one of his at bats. 9 pitchers have combined to limit the Reds to 2 runs but 5 walks and 2 hit batters have got in the way

Making Sense of the Deyvison De Los Santos on the Guardians

The Big Kid is Here. Is he here to Stay?

By Quincy Wheeler Feb 24, 2024, 5:00pm EST

Since the Guardians chose Deyvison De Los Santos in MLB's Rule 5 Draft in December, I've been puzzling over his fit on Cleveland’s roster in the 2024 season and what his addition means for the franchise.

De Los Santos will turn 21 years old on June 21st. As a 20 year old, after making some swing adjustments in a developmental league, he put up a 131 wRC+ with a .274 ISO for the Arizona Diamondbacks' Double-A team. As Covering the Corner’s Brian Hemminger recently pointed out, De Los Santos also put up a 1.120 OPS in the postseason for the Sod Poodles, helping lead them to a Double-A championship. All of these numbers are impressive, especially given De Los Santos’s age. So, if Cleveland can snag a guy like that, they have to do it, right?

Alas, the news is not all great with De Los Santos’s minor league numbers. He’s consistently had a swinging strike percentage of 17-19% and a groundball rate consistently around 50%. His minor league BB rate of 6.6% isn’t great and has declined as he’s advanced, while his minor league K rate of 26%, overall, isn’t exactly what you want. But, again, he is only 20 years old. Some of these issues aren’t particularly surprising and he has time to change and grow as a hitter... but he’ll be asked to do so on a major league roster this year, as things currently stand.

Cleveland’s current situation is also a factor in the De Los Santos enigma. The Guardians have a chance to make the playoffs in 2024, given a 32.7% chance to do so by FanGraphs, as well as a 21.3% chance to win the AL Central division. With superstar José Ramírez likely only set, at best, for another year or two of his peak performance and with a young rotation and bullpen primed to make a run, Cleveland would not seem to be the ideal place to be running developmental projects on their major league roster.

“Well, it's only the 26th man,” you say. “Rosters used to be only 25 guys, and the Guardians carried the worst qualified hitter in baseball AND Austin Hedges on their roster in 2022 and won the division.” Funny that you'd mention Myles Straw and Austin Hedges as they are actually both on the 2024 Guardians, meaning that, assuming De Los Santos isn't being slotted in as a full-time starter, three of the Guardians' four bench spots will be occupied by hitters who will be projected for wRC+'s under 80. If you average out the four main projection systems provided by FanGraphs, De Los Santos is set to have a 77 wRC+. And for a 21 year old hitter who would be skipping Triple-A, a 77 wRC+ isn't bad. But, when you accompany it with a 70 wRC+ for Straw and a 45 wRC+ for Hedges, it makes for a bench seriously lacking in thump on a team that was notably thumpless, overall, in 2023.

“Well, we can send Myles Straw to Columbus or DFA him.” I agree with you, there. I'd be fine doing either one of those things. However, with around $20 million still due to Straw, I cannot feasibly imagine the Guardians not trying to see if he can be that pinch runner/defensive specialist that at one point he seemed born to be. At least, it's hard not to believe they'll try it for another half a season before admitting their mistake and moving on.

So, De Los Santos is hard to justify burying on the bench in Cleveland if the Guardians think they can make the playoffs. They've likely, then, just brought him to camp to give an extended look to a young kid and give him a chance to impress them, surprise them and force them to find a way to best utilize him. If not, as is most likely the case, they'll expose him to waivers and he'll likely find his way back to Arizona by Opening Day, or by May after Kyle Manzardo has had a chance to “work on his defense” in Columbus for a month.

This scenario is the Occam's Razor option in my humble opinion. I very much doubt the team believes De Los Santos is ready to help the major league team and it strains credulity to believe they will put new manager Steven Vogt in enough a bind that his bench options are Tyler Freeman (fine and good), Straw, Hedges and a 21 year old who needs to be at Columbus... not staring down Jhoan Duran in the bottom of the ninth in Minneapolis in August. If there is a plan to either demote or trade Straw, then carrying De Los Santos makes perfect sense, but with Straw starting game one of the Spring, that remote possibility seems even more unlikely than ever.

I went back and looked at past MLB Rule 5 draft picks since 2016 and I could not find an apt parallel for Cleveland’s choice of De Los Santos. I was looking for a player who was 20-21 years old, primarily a 1B/3B option, and selected by a team that was at least on the fringes of the playoff conversation. Competitive teams made selections who were 1B/3B-types, some stuck, some were returned, but none were anywhere NEAR as young and inexperienced as De Los Santos is. Part of the reason may be that 20 year olds who have put up 131 wRC+’s in Double-A for an extended period of time with 70 grade power are rarely available, but it is notable that the choice by the Guardians doesn’t have a lot of past precedent (and is probably why the Diamondbacks felt safe making De Los Santos available).

The other confusing element to me is that the Guardians have a player who is a 1B/3B/OF who put up a 123 wRC+ with a .246 ISO and a 22.7/10.8 K/BB% in Double-A in Jhonkensy Noel. Noel’s raw power is also 70 grade and has the additional asset of having played more professional innings in the outfield and not requiring a major league roster spot to be in the organization. Is the addition of De Los Santos a sign the team doesn’t believe in Noel? If he is, then why does Noel still have a spot on the 40-man roster? Now, for his career, De Los Santos’ splits against RHP and LHP are fairly evenly, while Noel has hit lefties better at a pretty pronounced rate, and struggled against RHP. Additionally, the team has already seen Noel struggle, while still young for the level, at Triple-A with a 77 wRC+ and De Los Santos has yet to be tested at that level, so there is potentially more unknown and, thus, more ceiling with De Los Santos. Additionally, De Los Santos has been scouted to be viable at third base, while Noel seems now to be a 1B/RF-only player. Even though Jose Ramirez is the Guardians’ third baseman, there is obviously a lot of inherent value in having a potential power hitter who can play third base competently.

I know, I know... I have spent too much time trying to solve a conundrum that will likely be answered by De Los Santos being returned to Arizona this season. Or, maybe the solution is that Cleveland finds a way to pull off the rare trade to acquire the full rights of a Rule 5 pick (my guess is these deals are rare because leverage is messy in these situations). But, in any case, I will be watching and following De Los Santos plate appearances this Spring trying to determine what the team may be looking at in the young player. In observing the opening game, I can see already that he doesn’t appear to be as much of a free swinger as I expected, taking some borderline pitches and working a long at-bat.

As mentioned on the Bally Sports broadcast today, De Los Santos is being mentored by fellow Dominican and Guardians superstar veteran Jose Ramirez in camp. You can’t ask for a better person to help a young player understand how to make it in the big leagues when the odds are stacked against you. I also certainly can’t argue with the overall perspective of adding more power when I’ve begged the team to find some over the past two years. I’m hoping the Guardians and De Los Santos reveal the answers to this mystery to us all before the calendar turns to April and it results in an exciting, young talent being added to the organization without sacrificing the ability to compete in 2024 in any significant manner.

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Carlos Carrasco Overcome With Emotions In First Start Back With Guardians

Carlos Carrasco says he was "so, so, so nervous" to take the mound for the Cleveland Guardians.

TOMMY WILD Feb 24, 2024 2 HOURS AGO

Carlos Carrasco spent over a decade with Cleveland before being traded to the New York Mets. The Guardians signed him to a minor league contract with a path to the majors over the offseason.

Cookie took the mound and pitched the inning of the Guardians' first spring training of the 2024 season. MLB.com's Mandy Bell got the chance to talk with Carrasco after the outing and he was clearly overcome with emotions pitching back in a Cleveland uniform.

"As soon as I got to the mound, I had a lot of feelings," said Carrasco. "I pitched here for 11 years. ... I was so nervous I couldn’t feel the ball. I’ve been playing baseball for a long time, but I was so, so, so nervous going out to the mound."

Carrasco being so nervous to be back pitching for this team is just a testament to how much the city and organization mean to him.

That feeling is more than reciprocated as fans have rallied around him in the past and President of Baseball Operations Chris Antonetti also mentioned earlier in spring training how great it is to have him back with the club.

Carrasco said "it was a really simple" decision for him to return to the Guardians and it's clear to see why.

His first outing of the spring lasted just one inning as Carrasco issued one walk, gave up one hit, and recorded zero strikeouts, and no runs. He got out of a one-out jam thanks to a tremendous defensive stop made by Andres Gimenez and Brayan Rocchio who turned the double play.

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carlos walked one allowed one hit in his one inning; way too early to judge his command, his velocity, etc.

But the team was certainly in mid=season form, belting 7 singles and scoring no runs. de Los Santos did not strike out one of 3 at bats.
Oh, the pitchers walked 8 and hit 2 batters, but most of them are minor leaguers who'll never see Progressive Field.
Our "hitters" didn't bother taking walks but did strike out 10 times.
All in all, it's a fine debut for the Vogt-led-Guardians.

Ptooey !!!

What a way to show us things will be different.

The singles squad treated onlookers to goose eggs in the runs department.......again.

Maybe Antonetti will wake up and get some players that can score runs.

Wonder if happy-go-lucky Vogt is blowing smoke telling the guys what a great job today.

What would Tito do?

OK, today's a new day. No more bitching about yesterday's game.

Bats will be smokin' today.

9 different starters today

Florial CF
Freeman 3B
Brennan RF
Arias SS
Hedges C
Fry DH
Manzardo 1B
Noel LF
Tena 2B
Some fellow named Tyler Beede pitches the first inning; a 30 year old RH, major league career 7-16 5.34 ERA 2-5 5.14 in 2022; must have been in Korea or somewhere last year. He's a former 1st round draft pick of the Giants; they don't all succeed.

Cleveland Guardians Spring Training Prospect Report 2/24/24

ARTHUR KINNEY

FEB 25

Game 1 - Cincinnati Reds 4, Cleveland Guardians 0

STARTERS

Deyvison De Los Santos (DH): 0-3, 2 K - Not the way you want to see a Rule 5 pick start camp in a must-roster year, but it is still extremely early.

Brayan Rocchio (SS): 1-2 - The other starter to have not exceeded rookie limits had one of the Guardians’ seven hits on a rough Spring Training Opening Day for the Cleveland offense.

RESERVES WHO ALSO GOT A HIT

Micah Pries (LF): 1-2

Jose Tena (SS): 1-1

OTHER NOTABLE RESERVE

Johnathan Rodriguez (RF): 0-2, 1 K, 1 Outfield Assist - While much of Saturday’s position player performances could be described as a relatively nondescript session of getting game reps in, J-Rod’s outfield assist stood out as a singularly notable achievement.

ALSO PLAYED

Angel Martinez (2B): 0-2, 1 K

Juan Brito (3B): 0-2, 1 K -

Jhonkensy Noel (1B): 0-2, 1 K

Petey Halpin (PR-CF): 0-1, 1 K

Bryan Lavastida (PH): 0-1 - Lavastida lined out to right to end the game while pinch hitting for De Los Santos.

RELIEVERS

Hunter Gaddis: 1 IP, perfect, 1 K - While the Guardians lineup struggled mightily in the Spring lid lifter, the Cleveland pitching staff had several good efforts, including Gaddis’ three-up, three-down start to 2024.

Tim Herrin: 1 IP. 1 BB, 1 HBP - While Herrin struggled with some control issues early in the third, he got Elly De La Cruz and Jeimer Candelario to ground out back-to-back to end the frame unscathed.

Randy Labaut: 0.1 IP, perfect, 1 K - Labaut struck out Austin Wynns swinging to mercifully end a fourth that saw veteran invitee Adam Oller make a negative first impression.

Cade Smith: 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R (earned), 1 K - Smith recorded three outs in a row to limit the damage after starting the sixth with a double and a single. Unsurprisingly, Cade still has some work to do before he delivers on the potential he displayed in dominating the Eastern League, but there’s no reason to think he won’t finish the job.

Mason Hickman: 1 IP, 1 BB, 1 HBP - Hickman’s seventh was a near-carbon copy of Herrin's third.

Nic Enright: 1 IP, 1 H, 2 R (both earned), 1 BB, 1 K, 1 HR allowed - This man is literally pitching with cancer. His presence in camp is about what he will be capable of when fully healthy. Any performance now is a bonus. Additionally, him and starter Carlos Carrasco bookending the non-Depth Camp part of the pitching staff’s day is also worth noting.

Trey Benton: 1 IP, 2 BB - The lone Depth Camp hurler to pitch a full inning on Opening Day was able to make sure that a pair of back-to-back two-out walks ultimately amounted to nothing.

DRESSED BUT DID NOT PLAY

C Micael Ramirez

IFs Christian Cairo and Dayan Frias

OF Chase DeLauter

Ps John Doxakis, Jordan Jones, and Juan Zapata

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Guardians Do Funniest Thing; Get Immediately Shut Out Following Inexcusable Offseason

Morning news and notes for Feb 25, 2024

By westbrook Feb 25, 2024, 7:00am EST

Reds 4, Guardians 0

The good:

Carlos “Cookie” Carrasco leads MLB with a 0.00 ERA. He was nervous.

Steven Kwan had 2 hits.

Stephen Vogt now has managerial experience.

The bad:

George Valera is injured again.

Guardian hitters not named Kwan were 5-for-31 with 10 strikeouts.

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SPORTS

Guardians taking spring training 90 feet at a time: Crowquill

Updated: Feb. 25, 2024, 5:11 a.m.|Published: Feb. 25, 2024, 5:00 a.m.

By Ted Crow, Special to cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland Guardians, led by new manager Stephen Vogt, play their second game of spring training today versus the Seattle Mariners. It will give them a chance to further test their new mantra for winning, ‘90 feet at a time,’ essentially another way of saying, ‘one game at a time.’

Vogt figures that since the Guardians played a lot of close games last season and that the roster this season will likely be similar. Meaning they’ll be young, steal a lot of bases, have good pitching, but home runs will likely be scarce and the team’s best chance of winning will come with a focus on the details of baseball. Thus, the new mantra.

Hopefully the starting rotation remains more intact this season and that some young players emerge to join the Naylor brothers and Jose Ramirez as home run hitters.




‘90 feet at a time’ is the rallying cry for 2024: Guardians spring training breakfast

Updated: Feb. 22, 2024, 4:07 p.m.|Published: Feb. 22, 2024, 9:17 a.m.

By Paul Hoynes, cleveland.com

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — The Guardians didn’t do a whole lot to improve their offense over the winter. Instead they’re relying on their young roster to play a better brand of baseball as it matures in the big leagues.

Until that maturation blooms, it’s safe to say they’re going to be involved in a lot of close, low-scoring games...

( Subscribers can read the rest of the article on cleveland Dot Com )

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2024 Guardians Spring Training Players Of The Game: Game 1

Cleveland's Steven Kwan, Brayan Rocchio, Hunter Gaddis, and Randy Labaut all fared well in the team's 2024 Cactus League opener against the Cincinnati Reds.

LOGAN POTOSKY Feb25, 2024 16 HOURS AGO

The Cleveland Guardians began their 2024 Cactus League schedule with a 4-0 defeat to the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday afternoon.

With 90 players representing the Guardians during spring training (40-man roster, 22 non-roster invitees, and 28 depth camp players), each game’s roster will vary.

Based on Cleveland’s roster for Saturday’s game and their performances in the contest, here are four Players of the Game.

Steven Kwan, LF

Cleveland’s mainstay leadoff hitter picked up where he left off from last season, going 2-for-2 with a pair of singles in his two plate appearances.

He was the only Guardians player with multiple hits on the day.

Brayan Rocchio, SS

The Guardians’ second-ranked prospect according to Baseball America fared well both offensively and defensively.

He went 1-for-2 at the plate, recording a single in the bottom of the second inning. But before his lone hit of the day, the 23-year-old helped turn an inning-ending double play in the top of the first inning.

https://www.mlb.com/guardians/video/gua ... efault-vtp

Hunter Gaddis, RHP

The 25-year-old, who made 11 appearances (seven starts) for Cleveland last season, entered the game in relief to begin the second inning.

The right-hander had an efficient outing, pitching a perfect inning with a strikeout, a groundout, and a flyout.

Randy Labaut, LHP

A member of the Guardians’ Depth Camp, the 27-year-old made 33 combined appearances (one start) across Double-A Akron and Triple-A Columbus last season.

After inheriting runners on first and second with two outs in the top of the fourth inning, the left-hander struck out the only batter he faced to end the frame.

Up next, Cleveland will face the Seattle Mariners on Sunday afternoon at 3:10 p.m. EST.

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