Cleveland Sports Forum

Today's lineup from 5 to 9 is quite impressive

Arias 3B
Rodriguez RF
Florial LF
Hedges C
Rocchio SS
Top avg among them is Arias' 220 Top OPS is Florial's 642

#5 hitter Arias has zero rbi in his last 15 games, just what you're looking for in the middle of the order. Over that time span he is 5 for 37 with one walk 17 strikeouts. On the positive side vs Lefty pitching he's 8 for 24 with only 8 strikeouts and he's in there against a lefty

Manzardo is starting to be the doubles machine he has always been. Manzardo has 5.

Once again great work by the bullpen: 4 shutout innings, Gaddis gets the win; Smith the save

Clutch RBI hits by JRod: the goahead run on his first big league hit; Manzardo another rbi double, that seems to be a speciality.
and can't forget the 3 run homer by Giminez that tied it up after McKenzie allowed 3 solo shots.

Swept the Mets
Everyone either scored a run or batted one in with the exception of Florial, who drew 2 walks; and Rocchio and of course Arias who did nothing at all

33-17. I'm sure they won't continue to win 2/3 of their games, but there's no reason to except a major collapse; the bullpen is deep; the rotation is fragile but doing better; the offense is much more varied than in past years with new things like 3 run homers added to the mix.

Team offensive stats:

Battting average has dropped to 9th
but on base pct is 5th
slugging average is 8th
OPS 8th
4th least strikeouts
10th in walks
7th in doubles
5th in triples
8th in homeruns
and most important: 3rd in runs scored --before today's game; at the moment they're number 1 before other teams play later;

Guardians rally for 6-3 win as Austin Hedges’ bunt sparks comeback against Mets

Updated: May. 22, 2024, 5:44 p.m.|Published: May. 22, 2024, 3:55 p.m.

By Joe Noga, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — A rally has to start somewhere. Austin Hedges figured Wednesday’s comeback might as well start with him.

Hedges laid down a perfect bunt along the third base line for a surprise base hit against New York starter Jose Quintana after Quintana had dominated the Guardians, holding them scoreless through 5 1/3 innings.

The bunt sparked Cleveland’s offense, and when all was said and done, Hedges and his teammates emerged with a 6-3 victory and a series sweep at Progressive Field, their first against the Mets.

Hedges said he noticed third baseman Mark Vientos playing back, but did not fully convince himself that he was going to bunt until Quintana was halfway into his windup.

“I was like, if I just get this ball past Quintana, let’s just find a way to get on base and flip the lineup over,” Hedges said. “Anytime I see that, and then ideally I get the third baseman to move in a little bit and then maybe sneak a ground ball by him eventually.”

Manager Stephen Vogt said Hedges’ bunt woke up Cleveland’s dugout.

“(Hedges) finds a way to get the boys going,” Vogt said. “No matter if it’s behind the plate, in the dugout, in the clubhouse, it’s just what he does. He’s the heart and soul and that bunt meant the world for us. That’s probably the biggest factor that led to the comeback.”

The Guardians moved to 33-17 and remained atop the American League Central Division, going a perfect 6-0 on their homestand against New York and Minnesota.

Rookie outfielder Johnathan Rodriguez delivered an RBI single in the seventh off Mets reliever Reed Garrett (5-1) for his first big league hit. The line drive to right scored David Fry with the go-ahead run, and the Guardians added a pair of runs in the eighth before handing things over to their bullpen.

Vogt said he was happy to see Rodriguez come through in the clutch.

“Getting your first hit in the major leagues is a celebration in itself, but to have a late inning, go-ahead single in a huge spot is definitely a moment he will never forget and neither will anybody else,” Vogt said. “It’s a really, really cool thing.”

Cleveland relievers locked things down behind Hunter Gaddis and Sam Hentges with closer Emmanuel Clase unavailable after pitching three straight days. Gaddis (3-1) picked up the win with three strikeouts in 1 1/3 innings and Hentges struck out Jeff McNeil with the tying run in scoring position in the eighth before Cade Smith closed out the Mets in the ninth.

Smith retired Harrison Bader on a soft liner to the mound and struck out Tyrone Taylor before Francisco Lindor doubled off the wall in center. But Smith whiffed Pete Alonso for the final out to earn his first career save. Vogt said Smith’s ninth inning performance was his best of the season.

“That was electric,” Vogt said. “Every time we test Cade, all of these guys that are new to the bullpen, they just answer and then some. So that was pretty special to watch today.”

Rodriguez, who was minutes away from boarding a flight to Omaha with Triple-A Columbus at the start of the week, instead capped the homestand in grand fashion. But not before Andrés Giménez handed out a parting gift to the team that originally signed him in 2015. Giménez’s three-run blast off Quintana in the sixth inning tied the score at 3 and set the stage for Rodriguez’s heroics.

Giménez, acquired from the Mets as part of a trade for Francisco Lindor after the 2020 season, sent a 3-1 fastball from Quintana into the seats in right center for his fourth home run, snapping an 0 for 19 skid against his former club.

Vogt said it always feels good to make a difference when facing your ex-team, and that he was happy Gimenez made good adjustments after struggling in his first two at-bats against Quintana.

“He chased some spin his first two times up and then he laid off it in that third one and got himself into a good count,” Vogt said. “He didn’t miss the fastball when he got it.”

Cleveland added two runs against Mets righty Adam Ottavino in the eighth on RBI doubles by José Ramírez and Kyle Manzardo.

Quintana, making his first start in Cleveland since 2017, was seeking his fourth win in 10 career outings at Progressive Field. The left-hander entered with the lowest career ERA by a visiting pitcher with at least 50 innings in the ballpark’s history (1.71) and stymied Cleveland’s lineup through 5 1/3 innings before the Guardians broke through.

Fry ripped a first-pitch single off Quintana in the second to give him six hits on the homestand. But after a Gabriel Arias strikeout, McNeil snagged a smash up the middle by Rodriguez, stepped on second and threw to first to complete an inning-ending double play.

Cleveland did not collect another base hit until the sixth when Hedges dropped down a perfect bunt that died along the third base line with one out. He moved to third on Tyler Freeman’s double with two out before Giménez homered for his first hit of the series, snapping an 0 for 12 skid and making him the third Guardians player with at least 30 RBI.

Guardians starter Triston McKenzie labored in the first, throwing 11 pitches to Lindor before finally getting him on a fly ball to center. But Pete Alonso sent the first pitch he saw from McKenzie into the seats for his 11th home run, and singles by Brandon Nimmo and DJ Stewart put two runners on before McKenzie got Mark Vientos to pop out and end the inning.

Vogt credited McKenzie for getting through five innings after Lindor’s at-bat seemed to drain the life from his pitch arsenal early.

“His stuff started to pick back up around the third, the life started to come back to his stuff and he threw some pretty good pitches and he threw a lot of strikes,” Vogt said.

Alonso’s blast was McKenzie’s seventh home run allowed this season and the fourth in his last five starts, but it was not the last one he would allow.

McNeil opened the second with a solo home run to right, his second of the series. McKenzie hit Harrison Bader in the back with his next pitch, and Bader expressed his displeasure as he made his way to first base. But cooler heads prevailed as Bader was headed off by home plate umpire Emil Jimenez.

The officiating crew got together near the mound as Bader took his base, but did not issue a warning at that time.

Vogt said he was not surprised by Bader’s reaction, but credited Mets manager Carlos Mendoza for helping calm things down.

“(Mendoza) did a great job of coming out and diffusing the situation right away,” Vogt said. “Those things can get away from us, and it didn’t.”

Bader got his revenge in the fourth when he homered to deep left on a 1-1 curveball for his second extra-base hit of the series. Bader, who torched Cleveland with three home runs and a 1.256 OPS in five games as a member of the Yankees in the 2022 AL Division Series, entered the game with just one regular season home run against the Guardians.

Next:

The Guardians are off Thursday before starting a six-game road trip to Los Angeles and Colorado. First pitch Friday from Angels Stadium is set for 9:38 p.m. The game will air on Bally Sports Great Lakes, WTAM 1100 AM, WMMS 100.7 FM and the Guardians Radio Network.


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RODRIGUEZ FIRST MAJOR LEAGUE HIT BATS IN THE GO-AHEAD RUN

https://www.mlb.com/video/reed-garrett- ... st-popular



GIMENEZ 3-RUN HOMER

https://www.mlb.com/video/andres-gimene ... st-popular



CONDENSED GAME

https://www.mlb.com/video/condensed-gam ... nsed-games

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What more does Schneemann have to do to get a promotion. Crap! Drop Arias from the 40 man roster and bump up Schneemann. The guy's on a tear right now. Be nice to have him available for this road trip.

To Schneemann or Not To Schneemann, That is the Question

When will the 27 year old crack the Guardians roster? Should he?

By Quincy Wheeler May 22, 2024, 1:34pm EDT

Daniel Schneemann (Columbus, 3B): 4-5, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1 K - Schneemann’s four hits and eight total bases were both season-highs, which is saying something given that his OPS for the season in question is 1.085. His May has been even better, with his OPS for the month now standing at 1.172. It seems that his presence in Columbus is more about the lack of an opening in Cleveland than anything he needs to prove in the Capital.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1793100083120017764

Guardians fans online are clamoring for Daniel Schneemann to be promoted to Cleveland. Are they right to do so?

I have been a Daniel Schneemann skeptic. Not because I don’t like Schneemann; how can you not?

No, it’s just because I have seen too many players pass 25 years old in the minors, find a second gear at which they hammer Triple-A pitching, only to wash out quickly when facing big league pitching. At some point, even a major league replacement level hitter will solve the quandries provided by most Triple-A pitching. The question becomes: which players are experiencing a late career breakout and which are showing themselves to be Quad-A guys?

I have reminded folks that, prior to this season, Schneemann was a 90 wRC+ hitter in the minors. I have remarked that after a strong start in 2023, he ended up around league average, overall. But, conversely, folks could point out to me that if you look at April-June 2023 Schneemann and April-May 2024 Schneemann, that’s an 155 wRC+ hitter. Who knows if Schneemann was dealing with a nagging injury or simply going through some natural growing pains as a hitter, but this is a solid period of excellence, anyway you look at it. Maybe Schneemann deserves an extra look.

It’s so important to remember that as a 27 year old player, Schneemann SHOULD be dominating Triple-A. But, doing what he SHOULD do isn’t a bad thing. It means he probably needs to be challenged by major league pitching to see if his numbers are just telling us that he is better than Triple-A or if they are telling us he is good enough for MLB.

There are some numbers under the surface this season that are encouraging. In 2024, so far, Schneeman has an average exit velocity of 91.4 mph, he has a 9.4% barrel rate (Josh Naylor has 11% for comparison), and his hard-hit rate is at 53.8%. He has lowered his groundball rate by over 12% from last year and seen small gains in fly ball rate and modest gains in line-drive rate. He’s not a pull hitter, but instead a guy who hits to all fields about an equal amount. Personally, pull hitters are what I look for in hitting prospects, especially for a lefty trying to hit it in that short right-field porch in Cleveland, but, if a guy can get to the barrel consistently, it doesn’t matter as much where he is hitting the ball. Schneeman’s 11.5% swinging strike rate and 21/14 K/BB% indicate that there is some chase/whiff to his game, but not a particularly worrisome amount if he can maintain some level of consistency in hitting the ball hard when he connects as he makes the transition to the bigs.

One additional concern is that over the past three seasons, Schneemann has only a .327 wOBA vs. LHP and a .398 wOBA vs. RHP. For comparison, Tyler Freeman has a the seventh best wOBA for the Guardians vs LHP this year at .337 wOBA, but Cleveland has only a .297 wOBA against LHP, overall, since opening day 2023. So, I don’t think Schneemann should be seen as hopeless against LHP, but he probably also would see most of his bench days when southpaws are on the mound while breaking into playing time on the Guardians.

It is impossible to glean any information about Schneemann as a fielder from the fielding numbers publicly available at Triple-A. Over the past two seasons, Schneemann has started 17 games at second-base, 74 games at third base, 45 games at shortstop, and 13 games in the outfield, and 3 games at DH. So, out of 152 starts, Schneemann has had less than a third of those starts at shortstop. For me, that would indicate the team does not see his primary value as a defensive asset at shortstop. That doesn’t mean Schneemann wouldn’t be able to play there, just that he’s probably not a player you bring up to be a defensive plus in the middle infield. For comparison, Jose Tena has had 15 starts at second base, 11 starts at third base, 29 starts at shortstop, and 2 starts at DH, over 50% of his starts coming at short and over 66% of his starts coming at either second base or short.

When you look at Tena, you can see the team believes he is a middle-infielder, whereas Schneemann’s value is primarily being indicated to be in versatility in multiple positions. This, combined with observation, leads me to conclude the team may not see Schneemann as a simple upgrade over Gabriel Arias for the position of utility infielder. I have no inside knowledge on this, however’ I’m making a conclusion based on the evidence that I have at my disposal and what my eyes are able to offer as amateur analysis.

With the designating of Ramon Laureano for assignment and the promotion of Johnathan Rodriguez, who was already on the 40-man, I think there is roster space right now to add Schneemann to the 40-man without limiting the team in needed flexibility for the future. I continue to wonder if the team sees a player who is likely not a weapon against left-handed pitching and may not be seen as a plus defensively in the middle-infield positions as a good substitute for the role in which they have placed Gabriel Arias (whether or not Arias, himself, is fit for that role), so I am interested to see if the Guardians may view Schneemann as a better fit for the role Estevan Florial currently plays on the team. Continued opportunities in the outfield at Columbus will be a tell-tale indication to me that the Schneemann-for-Florial musings are likely true.

I don’t think the Guardians will move on from Florial unless they have a trade for a lower level prospect in place for the big outfielder with another team. It wouldn’t surprise me to see a deal like that take place in the coming couple weeks, and Schneemann take that fifth outfielder spot with the additional value of having some utility on the infield coming with him. However, I also would not be shocked (or disappointed) if the leash on Arias is short and Schneemann replaces Arias in a simple demotion-promotion move. The presence of David Fry and Johnathan Rodriguez ensures that the team still has some thump against left-handed pitching in this event.

From the moment that Stephen Vogt went out of his way to praise Daniel Schneemann in Spring Training and mention him as a player who can help the team in 2024, I’ve been convinced that we will see Schneemann’s debut this season.

ou can also see, if you watch clips from 2023 and see Schneemann now that he has added significant muscle mass, so he’s clearly worked hard to put himself in this position. I believe the roster churn is reaching the point where that debut is nigh, and Schneemann’s performance has been screaming someone who, regardless of age, deserves a chance to prove he belongs in the big leagues. I am ready to join Schneeman’s Demons and root for him to be the next late bloomer to help Cleveland compete for a division title in 2024.

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Yes I'd like to see him get a look. But I'm not sure why we're devoting more time to the question fo the 26th man on the roster than the success the other 25 are having.

Manzardo with doubles 4 games in a row; first time since for a player his age on CLE since Lindor in 2017.

JRod game winning hit.

Cade Smith with his first big league save

Two back to back sweeps.

During the 6 game win them all homestand:

Starters' ERA 2.04
34 strikeouts 8 walks
Fry was 7 for 11 with 6 RBI/ 2 homers a steal
Ramirez 8 for 25 with 3 doubles 3 homers and 8 RBI
Won all 6 without Kwan and with JoshN totaling 2 hits and no rbi

over the 6 games, cumulative total for

Top 3 in the order; 71-17-23-19
Middle of the order: 58-12-15-13
Bottom 3 composite 55--6--8--3

Quincy Wheeler and Tommy Wild are just bloggers who have no connection to the Guardians. No different if we started a blog.

Love the city connect uniforms. Very classy and good looking.

Love those Uni’s as well.