Cleveland Sports Forum

I think it will be fascinating what the FO decides at SS. Arias as a utility player would be be my choice or hopefully someone wants to give up something for him. Super strong arm and right handed power at middle infield position. I would think if Arias played 500 at bats he would hit 20+ home runs even if he is batting .200.

Tito on Starksville podcast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-4uELV0bdY

rusty2 wrote: Tue Sep 26, 2023 5:18 pm I think it will be fascinating what the FO decides at SS. Arias as a utility player would be be my choice or hopefully someone wants to give up something for him. Super strong arm and right handed power at middle infield position. I would think if Arias played 500 at bats he would hit 20+ home runs even if he is batting .200.

rusty - I think Tito's comment about Arias as a "very talented defensive player" may have shown the brass's hand on this. He did not say shortstop.

Shoot - the way I look at it in a perfect world Rocchio runs with it, defensively and offensively and maybe even takes Amed's spot in the #2 slot.

never mind I got it backwards, he can't hit lefties.
Of course it didn't matter; he struck out twice and then left the game

I agree on Rocchio. Would love for him to be the permanent shortstop and let Arias fit in where he can.

rusty - your old buddy Naquin made his season debut for White Sox today after a full season in the minors.

He struck out, pinch hitting to make the last out of the game.

I guess with the G's 8-0 loss today cements the fact the G's will finish 3rd in the AL Central behind the (gulp) Tigers, even if they win tomorrow.

Sadness follows this team.

Ah, but we get a better draft position, maybe top 10.

No tanking allowed.

Excerpt from Paul Hoynes story today about benefits and challenges to be new manger of the Guardians;
he cites all the available pitching talent produced by the Cleveland Pitching Factory
and then adds:

When it comes to hitting and scoring, well, that’s where the new manager is going to have to earn his paycheck. Especially if the front office keeps trading hitters such as Nolan Jones, Yandy Diaz and prospect Junior Caminero.
They are famous for not developing hitters, but as Hoynes notes there are exceptions who are dumped for little value.
The return for Jones may turn out to be better than what we got for Yandy or Caminero but stil Jones is finishing his first full season in the majors with a 924 OPS. And it is NOT due to playing in Colorado; his home stats are 306/396/517 and away re 288/380/554. A Right Fielder like that that would be a great fit for the Guardians.
Cleveland gave him a total of 28 games at the major league level to prove himself.

Hoynes as most Guardians fans do only cries about the trades that did not work out. Nothing mentioned about Josh Naylor or Giminez.

Hoynes needs to stop writing lazy articles and retire. Any mention of Nolan Jones is just garbage without mentioning that he was traded for your minor league player of the year.

Joe Noga is taking on part of the Guardians coverage job; I assume it will be all his soon.

41 men on the 40 man roster. Bibee is the only guy on the 60 day IL.

Obvious deletions are Laureano, Calhoun and Giolito whose contracts all expired. Gallagher too .
Who else if is a Free Agent now who slips off the roster?
Seems unlikely they keep Kelly on the 40 man. Perfect candidate to sign to a minor league deal and invitation.
Gaddis was pretty bad this year, moreso in the minors than the majors, he could be DFA;d, but he's only 25 and might as well stay on the roster unless they need more places for Rule 5 protection purposes.

Haven't looked yet at who needs to be added to the roster. The immediately obvious name is J.Rodriguez.
Manzardo has 3 seasons in the minors, so he's safe on the AAA roster.
I don't see anyone else off the Clippers roster

Daniel Espino only has 33 games of experience, but he's eligible now so he gets the promotion.
Aaron Bracho had good power in Akron after several lousy years, I assume he's not protected.
Cleveland's minorleague pitcher of the year Will Dion has only had 3 years; and Akron phenom reliiever Franco Aleman two.

From Lake County:
too soon to protect Jake Fox
Dayan Frias has 5 years. Joe likes him, but he's yet another IF and he's years away.

There's always some hard thrower with only modest stats to show for it who could be taken; like Enright [returned] and the other Kelly [kept in the majors all year and pitched well for Tampa Bay.

Doesn't look likley they'll be a lot of need for roster movements this year

talking about Bad Trades and Good Trades, I can't think of one better than Clevinger for 6 guys.
Mike was and is a very good pitcher, when he is healthy enough to pitch. Which is not very often. The Padres got approximately no value from him.
On the no pressure WhiteSox he did pretty well.
Who knows if he'll ever give a team 200 innings in a season, or close.

Even up trade for Quantrill we win. Q is only a back of the rotation starter but he's given us much more value than Clevinger has

Clevinger for threesome of Miller, Arias and Hedges we win. Miller is a marginal player, AAAA career. Arias is likely to have a decent major league career whether everyday at AA or as a backup, whether with CLE or elsewhere. Hedges gave us some excellent defense and a little bit of offense. Overall we got more than we gave.

Which leaves Clevinger [plus Greg Allen, who was part of the deal, too] for Josh Naylor. Not even close on that one. Josh was among the top 5 in batting average, in OPS, nearly 100 RBI even missing a month. Learning to be a competent 1B. Hope they can sign him to contract this winter to give us Jose and Josh as the middle of the otherwise anemic lineup for years to come.

That was a super steal and AJ Preller (Padres) is paying the price for that and others like it. He may pay with his job.