Brooms at the Ready, Down Goes Minnesota!

Here we are ladies and gents. Middle of May and I’m still fired up. The first place Cleveland Guardians have absolutely embarrassed the Minnesota Twins. Cylouie and all his minions have been 110% silenced. It has been a blast to watch and if you haven’t been watching, lemme give you the run down.

Game 1 was a nail biter I wont lie. Sticks gave up just 2 hits in 6.2 innings pitched. The Guards bullpen (shocking, Scott Barlow) gave up the tying run in the top of the 8^th. The city connect jerseys making their debut, at the risk of being soiled forever by a loss to the twins. I sat in my living room as Jose Ramirez came up to the plate. I’m not shitting you, I thought to myself, “How poetic would it be if he went yard right now.” Cylouie’s 2022 tweet echoing in the deep, dark, depths of my brain.

Our lord and savior, Jose Fucking Ramirez, hits an inside breaking ball with the absolute barrel of his bat. As the ball travels toward the right field wall, he turns to his teammates in the dugout, pounds his chest, and says “This is my house.” The ball lands about 5 rows up in the stands and the first sold out May crowd chants  “Jose, Jose, Jose, Jose” and it echoes throughout Downtown Cleveland. And just like that, the City Connect Uniforms we have waited so long for have their own signature moment.

Game 2 was proof of what we all hoped. The Minnesota Twins are boys amongst Men in the Best in the Majors, American League Central. Tyler Freeman, Andres Gimenez, and Jose Fucking Ramirez combine for 8 RBIs. Logan Allen, Nick Sandlin, and Sam Hentges shoves it up the Twins’ ass for 8 innings. Josh Naylor, Will Brennan, and Beautiful Human, Kyle Manzardo tack on some more and the Guards win DECIDEDLY, 11-4.

Many teams would take a day off, give a gentleman’s win, and move on to the next series. Not the Guardiac Kids. They proceed to blow a lead in Bad News Bears fashion where, point blank period, they didn’t deserve to win. Then suddenly they realize Carlos Correa is on the other team and Chill Will comes through with an ICONIC walk off blast, yet again, in the City Connects.

If you aren’t having fun, what the FUCK are you doing? The boys are hot and the Twins are not. What more can you ask for? Go Guardians. Fuck the Twins.

Fisher loses Ownership Rights Of A’s to The Cleveland Guardians.

Welp, as you probably predicted, the Guardians are 16-6 and the winningest team in the Majors. Stephen Vogt has made an absolute mess of his previous employer this year, winning the season series 6 to 1. Josh Naylor is just as psychotic as expected, hitting the shit out of baseballs and his own noggin. Steven Kwan records four hits in one game. The Kinderguardians are firing on all cylinders and have been for 4 weeks. Is this ACTUALLY sustainable?

MOTY Vogt-ing

We obviously didn’t know what to expect on the managing front. I think we were all excited but curious what could happen when replacing a hall of fame manager with a rookie manager that retired just two years ago. The lineup construction, match-up mentality, and fire in the dugout has proven to me that the front office made the best choice. Vogt does everything that Tito wouldn’t do. I have ZERO bad to say about Tito, but the guy was loyal to a fault. Miles Straw was gone immediately, Vogt developed a lineup for lefties and righties and has been implementing them flawlessly. The “one day at a time” mentality when crafting the lineup card has proven to be extremely effective so far and with Manzardo starting to get hot in the minors, I can only imagine the excitement of adding that name to the card relatively soon.

Josh Naylor is an Absolute Unit

Every day that goes by, the people of Cleveland wake up and look themselves in the eye in the bathroom mirror. We stare at ourselves with utter disgust and ask “Why did we not lock him down this offseason?” It’s a simple answer really. Because it costs money. But holy shit is this guy taking the league by storm. Over three games against Oakland, Josh Naylor tallied 7 RBIs and 2 bing bongs. The guy steps to the plate with so much attitude it buzzes through my body like the static on a shitty tv. Every cut he takes causes his helmet to seemingly jump out of the way and on to the ground, scared to get any piece of the force he is putting into the ball. His blood runs ice-cold and no moment is too big. He has officially played way too well to spend more than his guaranteed time in Cleveland. Does that mean I won’t be begging every god I can think of for an extension? Absolutely not.

King Kwan Reigns Supreme

If I was granted three wishes by a genie, I am embarrassed to tell you that two of those wishes would involve extending Guardians players. Kwan is the other one of them. Over the 3 games in Oakland, Kwan hit 3 doubles and had a four hit game in the 6-3 win on Saturday. The electricity that runs through the top of this lineup is beautiful and considering we are 28^th in the league in runs contribute by the long ball, we have finally figured out how to score runs consistently with base hits. Kwan has purchased property on 2^nd base and more often then not, he comes home before trotting to the dugout. Kwan is second in the league in hits and average, just one hit behind Ohtani. His new found aggressiveness has paid off immensely and of course his defense in left field has remained gold glove caliber.

The Guardians come away with a series sweep at home and you can’t help but start to think… is this the Vogt era? Is this just the new Guardians? I know, its not even May. But this is one of the best starts this team has had since 1948. Remember what happened in 1948? Me neither because my grandparents weren’t born yet. But rumor has it.. the boys won a World Series. Stay tuned for my blog post in October titled “Hang the Banner.”

Guardians Storm the “Hah-buh” during a Boston “C” Party

The green monster loomed in left field, it was cold as shit, and the rain came and went and then came again. The Guards come into Boston hot, but with two of the scheduled starters set to be making their 2024 debut, a series split seemed sufficient.

Game one, we see Xzavion Curry, hereby referred to as X, actually pitch a gem…on paper. The box score shows that he went 5.1 innings, giving up just 2 hits and no runs. HOWEVER, if you watched the game, it felt like just about every put out was on a batted ball going 105 mph straight to a defender. I hesitate to call it luck, but I would imagine if the Guards defense wasn’t as good as it was, the numbers would change a bit. Regardless of the decent start, X is now playing in AAA Columbus as the club had to make room for Ben Lively.

On the hitting side of things, Gabby stayed hot with 6 total bases, Will Brennan hit himself a 2 run Bing bong and the good guys score 2 runs in each of the last 3 innings. Tim Herrin gets the win and Guards win game 1, 6-0. Another shut piece.

In Game 2, Tanner pitches fine *insert shoulder shrug here* and gets through 5 innings surrendering one Home Run and a handful of hits. The boys are able to help Tanner out and give him a 5-1 cushion when he hands the ball to Tyler Beede. Beede proceeds to get crushed for a few line drives and Cade Smith takes the mound. Cade smith then proceeds to finish blowing the lead by giving up two WHITE HOT doubles. The guardians come out of the inning down 6-5.

Luckily, Kenley Jansen is pitching in the 9^th and the Guardians are able to tie it with the “Cleveland Classic.” That’s what it’s called when you hit the ball 3 times to score 1 run. Why score more runs when few runs do trick?

THEN, in the bottom of 10, Emmanuel Clase gets a groundout and a fly out, BUT, since the extra-innings base runner was on, this is actually a blown save so that’s cool. Luckily Jose and Flo hit a couple singles in the 11^thand the Guardians win 10-7.

Game three is when it appears the boys in blue were okay with a series split as well because Tanner Houck would pitch a complete game shutout in less than 2 hours. I like to think this was as good as a day off because the offense was just completely asleep. Without a completely bullshit Balk call, it could have been a scoreless 9 innings for both clubs, but the Guardos lose this one 2-0.

AND, the series finale. Cookie gets off to slow start, walking 2 and giving up a pair of hits to go down 1-0 early. It looked like Cookie was going to break the 6 inning barrier that has plagued Cleveland Starters but Vogt decides to put Cade Smith in after 5.2 innings. Cade says fuck it and shits the bed for the second time in three days.

Cleveland comes out of that experience with a narrow 5-4 lead and somehow, someway, Tim Herrin, Hunter Gaddis, and Emmanuel Clase sit down 9 straight to win 5-4.

Honestly, going home from Boston and taking the series is a huge surprise. I know Boston isn’t great, but I would rate our rotation a solid 3 out of 10. And our otherwise great bullpen was pretty shitty this week. So honestly, the fact that we won 3 of the 4 is a small miracle and just shows the heart these guys have. I really don’t know many teams scrappier and more exciting than this one. Back to Cleveland to play the Sacramento Athletics. Another series win hopefully in the works.

I keep waiting for it to come crashing down and the train just keeps chugging. I know, we are starting to sputter a little, but after 3 weeks, the boys are 7 games over .500. I’ll fucking take it.

Blame It On The Rain

We finally lost our first series. Luckily, it was to one of the hottest teams in baseball, but also the spawn of satan in the baseball world, the New York Yankees. I’m gonna take a page out of the book of the 2016 World Series and blame the rain. I mean we had to play the yankees lineup twice on Saturday. Juan Soto and Aaron Judge were batting back to back. That’s just fucked.

But no, seriously, I wasn’t upset about the series lost. Anytime the Yankees win, it sucks, but they are playing phenomenal baseball right now and I just didn’t truly see us winning that series. Starting pitching is becoming a massive concern for Cleveland. It’s a time bomb, ticking away, and I think we can expect an implosion sooner rather than later. As a collective unit, the only thing our starting pitching is not missing is bats. We are giving up wayyy too many walks and there is not much swing and miss to be spoken of.

The sad part about a struggling rotation is that 99% of the time, that leads to a bruised and beaten bullpen. When it comes to bullpen usage, we are one of the most active bullpens in the league and we all knew that was going to be an issue. Logan Allen is the last starter to throw 6 innings and that was in Seattle. I am sad to say, I don’t know who can throw 6 right now. Maybe Tanner if he can capture the magic in a bottle he found last year but he is one of the most disappointing guys in the rotation right now.

That all being said, the bats are still pretty hot. Kwan is still a menace at the plate, Josh is batting .368, and Estevan Florial came into this series with REVENGE on his mind. If it wasn’t for the slap-hitting shit goblins that his team is, we would have a very different start to the year.

My main takeaways from this series are that the Yankees are pretty good right now, our pitching in general looks like a beer truck with no brakes, but we are just scrappy enough to squeak out the dubs we need and stay, oh yeah, at the top of the majors as far as win percentage goes. The future is uncertain, to say the least, but if theres one thing we can depend on, we are NEVER out of a ball game.

Heading on the road to Boston, I am crossing my fingers for some decent turn-out from some key guys on the mound. We need Xzavion Curry and Ben Lively to put in work, we need the bullpen guys to throw two innings occasionally, and we HAVE to give them some run support because they are going to give up some runs. I would be surprised if Boston was held to a couple runs in any of the four-game set.

Super Smash Bros LEVEL ONE

The 1-8 White Sux come to The Land for a Divisional Matchup. The Guardians truly experience the absence of Shane Bieber and the starting rotation gets shakey. BUT, that being said, the bats stay hot, they don’t skip the small stuff, and the boys find some pop to bring the necessary amount of runs across. I think there are a few take aways from the first COMPLETE divisional series of the year but I was able to narrow it down to three; A Bieber-less rotation, Kwan establishing residency on-base, and the arrival of the Super Smash Bros.

1.     Things get a bit DICEY in the rotation category.

I know, I know. Bieber only would have pitched in the first game, which we won in a shutout. But give me a break, I’m still sad and I would like to write about missing him. Triston looked much better in his start and although he had virtually no swing-and-miss (only 2 Ks), he was able to get through 5.1 innings and give up 3 hits and no runs.

However, after that, it got real shitty. Logan Allen gave up 5 runs in the first inning in Game 2 and Bibee couldn’t command his fast ball or his slider, resulting in 2 runs before the Guardians came to bat in Game 3. Granted, this team has zero quit in attendance and it doesn’t really matter to them how big a hole they are digging out of, we can’t do that all year. I am curious to see how things get shaken up when Gavin gets healthy. Triston has no choice but to take the role of Ace, even if his arm is currently attached at the joint with masking tape. In a normal world where the front office knew we were allowed to take players from other teams, we may be able to supplement this rotation and get some help for Manzardo. But I think in all honesty, we just see Curry and Lively split starts as a partner car. I don’t know, we will see.

2.     Steven Kwan cannot miss.

Steven Kwan is an absolute menace to pitchers around the league. The dude went 7-14 this weekend with another BING BONG. The man is going to have to swap out the batting gloves for oven mitts because bats honestly do not get much hotter than his. He is just a treat to watch at the plate. At the conclusion of this series, where he hit Chicago pitchers all over the yard, he leads the league in hits, followed by 4, yes 4, Los Angeles Dodgers.

King Kwan is as confident as you can be at the plate and although his strikeout numbers are up a bit compared to what’s typical, I’m ok with the aggressive approach because, well, it’s fuckin working. If Kwan can keep even a fraction of these numbers trending in an upward direction, he is going to be a MASSIVE difference maker in this question mark of a season. Hopefully, when we draft Bazzana, the OSU Beaver energy will be absolutely electric for years to come.

3.     The Smash Bros are C-Sticking and I love it.

Happy National Sibling Day to those who celebrate, in particular, the Naylor Brothers who party. Hard. I knew this would happen eventually. I didn’t think it would be this soon and I didn’t know it would be story-book enough to land on National Sibling Day, but we knew it would happen. In Game 3, Josh Naylor figured out Mike Saroka and smashed a BING BONG to right center. Sure, that’s badass on it’s own, but whats even more badass? His kid brother, Bo, gets in the box and smashes a liner over the dead center wall to make them just the fourth pair of brothers ever to homer in the same inning.

AND IM NOT DONE YET. The game eventually goes into the 10th, Guardos down 5-6. Josh has ice in his veins and shoots a double into Center Field bringing across the tying run. The can’t quit kids are in full effect. Bo comes to bat with the opportunity to walk it off. Bo grabs that opportunity by the throat and choke slams a gapper into right center and proceeds to pop the chain, touch first, and the boys celebrate an extra-inning win, a series win, and they send the White Socks packing for the first time in the 2024 campaign.

Life is good still. The Guards are still playing great ball, Kwan is an absolute hit machine, and the pen is holding it together. However, the Bronx Bombers are on their way to northeast Ohio and I can’t help but bite my nails. A positive thinker would salivate at the thought that both teams are yet to lose a series and if we steal two games, we could outlast the Bankees on that front after all. We will have to wait and see…

T-WINless at Home

The Guardians went to Minneapolis 5-2, still waiting for their first day off, and fresh off a flight from the West Coast. The Twins were rolling out their Home Opener Ace, Pablo Lopez. The Twins Twitters appeared REAL confident considering they were opening their first home stand against one of the hottest teams in baseball.

It was a cold spring day in April. Minnesotans were flooding through the opening gates of Target Field. Well, I lied, it was a bit more of a trickle. Guardians Radio-Man, Tom Hamilton, found it particularly hilarious that the Twins couldn’t sell out a home opener, mentioning it 4 times during the broadcast and twice more during the postgame. Pablo Lopez took the mound against Tanner Bibee who had a rocky start to the year.

The Guards racked 6 hits and 3 runs off their highly acclaimed number 1 guy, sitting him down after just 5.2 innings. Steven Kwan hit 2 singles and a double, while Pablo Lopez took a plot next to Luis Castillo and George Kirby in the Opposing Starting Pitchers Graveyard in Cleveland, Ohio. The Guards would go on to win 4-2, sending, the few fans that were there, on a long, sad, drive home through the Twin Cities.

I don’t usually do single game recaps, but when the Twins Home Opener results in sadness for Minnesotans at the hands of the Disgusting Guardians, I literally cannot help myself. Sure, we may lose the next two, but I just love that the drive home from the first home game of the year was probably silent, aside from the occasional “Ope” and “Oof” when recalling Steven Kwan stepping into the box. Go Guards and Fuck the Twins.

TRIDENTS DOWN

The MLB Twitter admin released a power rankings for the starting rotations at the beginning of the year. Seattle sat atop at number one and in reading the article, the decision was not very difficult for them to come to. As always, it was Ohio Against the World coming to the PNW. The Guardians did what they do best, chopped the head off the snake, came out on top, and made the MLB Admin eat their words, resulting in the Guards appearing on MLB’s Twitter Timeline every day for a week, quite possibly for the first time ever.

Game 1: Triston Mckenzie vs. Emerson Hancock

This game frustrated me a bit, I won’t lie. I felt like if the Guardians were going to win a certain game this series, it was this one, being that Emerson Hancock is the only pitcher we were facing who would likely not be in the running for CY votes. I was wrong. Very wrong.

The guards went down 5-2 in an unexpectedly tough outing by Sticks. They battled back and ended up losing a 5-4 game, which made it sting a little less because we got to see the kids scrap back and give themselves a shot. But this game kept me up at night for one main reason; is Triston ok?

Triston’s velocity on his fastball dipped down to 89mph. His slider was 88 mph. This simply is not going to work. I think it was this separation that made him easy to hit. It also seemed like every time he missed, it was high and over the plate. Both of these things are telltale signs of an injury, especially on a pitcher who was supposed to be 100% to start the season. I noticed these glaring details in his last spring start, but everyone on Twitter told me to stop worrying. So I did. Now, he had a very similar outing in his first regular-season start, and you can now color me concerned.

Game 2: Shane Bieber vs. Luis Castillo

Lemme just start by saying, Shane Bieber is back man. Every time I see him pitch in person, it gives me goosebumps. He went 6 innings, with 9 strikeouts, and no walks. Over his first two starts, he has not allowed a run and has recorded 20 punch-outs. It’s just gross, man.

You could say I have come to expect a great outing from Bieber. I cannot say I expected us to knock around Luis Castillo. The Guardians hit Luis Castillo 10 times and Bo Naylor took him deep to right center. Eli Morgan, who still kind of sucks, came in and blew the shutout. But Barlow, Beede, and Clase finished the job with two baserunners, a walk from Beede, and a hit on Clase.

Game 3: Logan Allen vs. George Kirby

Again, I don’t think a lot of people would look at this matchup on paper and guess the outcome. George Kirby has been a very sneaky top pitcher in the majors the last two years with a career WHIP of 1.1 and 3.3 ERA. Kirby has historically shut down the Guards, allowing just two runs in 9 innings. Logan was coming off a pretty “Eh” start to his 2024 campaign against a very bad Oakland team, giving up two HRs in 5 innings. The stars just didn’t seem to align for us here.

UNTIL THEY DID. With the help of a Kwan Single, a Jose Double, and a Will Brennan Single, the Guardians were up 3-0 before Logan Allen even took the bump. Rocchio, Kwan, and Gime kept on hitting and the Guards kept on scoring, up 5-0 before the bottom of the 2^nd. Fast Forward to the 4^th and Kwan, Gimenez, Jose, and Brennan all record another hit to bring the grand total to 8 runs. Yes, the Guardians had 10 hits and 8 runs on George Kirby.

After George Kirby took a seat in the dugout, my girlfriend and I looked up and couldn’t believe it. About 100 birds were circling the dead carcass of the Mariner’s starting rotation.

Ultimately, Logan Allen would throw a 6.2-inning GEM. Giving up just 4 hits and sitting down 6 on strikes, he would hand the Mariners their second shutout loss so far this year. The best pitcher of the game for Seattle would end up being Josh Rojas… yes, the Mariner’s part-time third baseman, who closed the game out and did not give up a knock. Every time he threw the ball, the T-Mobile Radar Gun would read “Curveball” which is funny because it didn’t curve much. It had just never displayed “65mph Fastball” before.

So basically, the Guardians came to Seattle, starting their season on the road, and faced two pitchers competing for the Ace spot on one of the best starting rotations in baseball. The Guardians proceeded to knock the living shit out of them for 20 hits and 12 runs. Our boys lead the league in run differential (+28) and have started the Vogt Era at a cool 5-2. Heading to Minnesota to play our first divisional series, here’s to the bats staying hot and the beer cold. Go Guards.

We are SOOOOOOO Back!

Well, the first stand is in the books! The Guards departed the Bay Area with 3 in the win column and one tough loss. Bieber made another heroic opening day start and we got an inside look at the type of manager Stephen may be. Here are my three takeaways from the first series of 2024. 

1. THE BATS ARE ALIVE!

Holy moly! I think we can all agree that one of our biggest concerns this year is whether we can hit enough to score runs. Sure, we played the worst team in baseball, but they were major-league pitchers nonetheless and we had no trouble scoring. Believe it or not, Cleveland leads the majors in run differential at +18. 

Another aspect worth mentioning, in game 1 the Guardians scored 6 runs with zero help from the top 3 of the order (Kwan, Jose, and Gime). Kwan and Jose woke up in the 9th to tack on some more, but my point stands, the rest of the boys are hitting. 

2.     Bieber is still that guy

Bieber looked as good as he ever has on Opening Day. He gave up 0 runs, 1 walk, punched out 11, and gave up 4 hits, two of them pretty cheap bloops. Perhaps even more exciting, he was hitting 94-95 on the gun. I see Bieber having a CY Young-worthy first half before I cry myself to sleep because we traded him for another shortstop. He just looked like young Biebs again. It was a blast to watch and if somehow you missed it, watch the game on MLB.tv because his outing was *Chef’s Kiss*.

3.     Vogt will mix things up

There was a different lineup every game. Vogt mentioned he wanted to use the first series to give everyone a chance to play, so that may have played a part in it. But he also said his goal with every lineup is to beat the starting pitcher. So far, I’m impressed and intrigued. These lineups have made me scratch my head a few times but nothing as bad as Miles Straw starting almost every game last year. I’m a big fan of mixing it up and I feel like Vogt has some tricks up his sleeve this year. He put on a safety squeeze that didn’t end up panning out, but I’m about it. The Guardians lead the league in steals with 8 too so I think we are in for another year of Disgusting Baseball which is glorious. 

BONUS: THE VIBES ARE IMMACULATE

I can’t tell if it’s the return of Hedgie and Cookie, if it’s the youth in our new manager, or just excitement for the new season, but the vibes are wild. Over the 4 game set, 3 of which were in a rain storm, the entire dugout was on the top step yelling and cheering the whole game. There is a new “star of the game” tradition going on in the clubhouse where the stand-out Guardian of the day dons a gaudy WWE Guardians belt. Freeman went ballistic when he reached second on the first RBI hit of the year. I don’t know man, call me crazy, but this feels like a scrappy squad. We lost the fire last year, but it feels to me like in the infancy of 2024, the fire is burning white hot. 

RESULTS:

Guardians win the first 3 with a run diff of +19. They lost the last game on an implosion by Scott Barlow and Eli Morgan, however, they did come back to tie it 3-3 late in the game. 

I hit on the over 5.5 steals (8), and the under on 1.5 errors (1). I did NOT have Steven Kwan hitting a bomb at the Coliseum on my bingo card so I dropped the ball on that one. 

Bay Area Beginnings

It’s beginning to feel a lot like springtime. I can feel a crisp Coors Light on my lips, I can hear Hammy’s voice in my ears, and I can just feel the disappointment of a late-inning blown lead already. I don’t know how, but I still get excited every single year.

The Guardians are opening the season in Oakland this year, which let’s be honest, is pretty depressing. It’s the only ball club I have the balls to feel bad for nowadays. Not really the fans, just the people who have to play there. As you can tell in the picture above, on my trip to see the Guardians play there in 2022, the tickets were pretty easy to come by.

Bieber has been named the opening-day starter ONCE AGAIN, and with a few extra MPH in his pocket, I see a start to this year’s season with a tally in the win column. Bieber will be facing off against Alex Wood, who is making his first OD start in his career. Wood is going to throw strikes as he only walked one batter this spring while sitting down 13. I think Wood is a good example of the A’s push to throw strikes and force teams to hit this year, but unfortunately for them, that’s kind of what we do.

The Friday game will likely be McKenzie going toe to toe with Paul Blackburn. Blackburn gives up 10 hits per 9 which seems enticing to me, however unfortunately, those will probably all be singles and I see us losing this game 3 to 1 or some shit like that. This one is a toss-up for me, being that this will still only be Sticks' 6th regular-season start since rehab in 2023.

Saturday afternoon is when I anticipate we see Bibee make his 2024 debut against JP Sears. Something of note, Sears was experimenting this offseason with a new sinker that he has developed. Sears debuted this pitch, funnily enough, against the Guardians in March which resulted in a struggling young lineup that went down 6 in a row, with no hits. That sinker may be something to look for on Saturday.

Finally, on Sunday afternoon I assume we see Logan Allen against Ross Stripling. Stripling pitched 22 times and started 11 games for SF last year, remaining winless throughout. Stripling ranks about average in every metric I checked out. I think this game could ultimately come down to the bullpen as I wouldn’t be surprised if it was tied at 4 runs a piece in the 5th.

My non-professional and way too specific predictions:

Cleveland Guardians (2-2), 5 or more steals, 2 or less errors, One Naylor HR

I think the Guardians win two out of these first four games, and I don’t foresee an opening-day loss with Bieber on the mound against this lineup. I'm taking the over on 5 steals in the series with Sean Murphy no longer behind the plate. I’ll confidently take the under on 2 errors simply because if we don’t have defense, we don’t have much. Considering Cleveland is a scrappy, single-slapping squad, in one of the most pitcher-friendly stadiums in the AL… I can’t see the Guards putting up more than one home run, but that one will likely come off the bat of someone with NAYLOR written across his back.

Sunday night, the boys can depart the dark and dreary Bay Area, hopefully with a 2-2 record, so we can head up to Seattle with our heads held high. Here's to a '24 season with a sprinkle of excitement now and then. We can absolutely take a bad AL Central!

With high hopes and low expectations,

TGK

P.S. Miles Straw was placed on waivers today, opening a roster spot for SOMEONE who knows how to hit a baseball. If Miles Straw was our starting center fielder on opening day, there was a good chance I would be writing this blog from a looney bin.

Don’t Jump! There’s something to be excited about.

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Coming into 2024, there is obviously some major concerns looming over the ol’ Guardos. The fact that we still don’t have a set outfield, a full time short stop, or any trade rumors even in the foreseeable future.

But I was sitting here, staring at a wall, and was able to rack my brain and think up some breaks in the clouds. A sliver of light at the end of the tunnel. Another zynachino in the corner of the puck. Below I have outlined a few things that can keep you sane and looking forward to another opening day.

1.         City Connect Jerseys

FINALLY, we have been granted access to the not-so-exclusive group of ball clubs with fancy alternate uniforms. Sure, if I see a single reference to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, this has great potential to be a fumble of the bag. But I think there are some good opportunities here. A “Believeland” or “The Land” theme would be extremely well received and I think the creative opportunities are endless. Hopefully they aren’t printed on these Fanatics uniforms, as the long anticipated arrival of an alternate uniform could be soiled by the outline of Josh Naylor’s jock strap being entirely too visible through the pants.

2.         Young Guns Starting Rotation

Honestly, there are a lot of baseball fans out there who peer through the games and look for the best pitching match-ups like they are delving into an MMA or Boxing card. If this is you, there is some great potential for some viewing pleasure this year. If you like to watch young arms prove themselves on the big stage, I don’t think there will be a shortage of that. Bieber is throwing 4 mph faster than he was, Tanner, Gavin, and Logan have a lot to prove in their first couple seasons, and Sticks is off an injury with the potential of a continuance from his 2022 campaign.

3.         Stress-Free Environment

Here we are again with very tame expectations. The nice thing about being a Cleveland Fan is that the most memorable seasons have come out of nowhere. If you told me the Tribe was going to make a run into the World Series a few weeks before the 2016 season, I would have told you to lighten up on the crystal meth. If you would have told me the following season, they would break the records for consecutive wins, I would have told you to check into a rehab facility. We never REALLY know what’s going to happen with this squad and if we go in with low expectations, we usually come out on the other side with at least our dignity.

So, there ya have it. It’s not all gloom and doom, even if our exciting offseason move was paying way too much money for Austin Hedges. At the very least, we will have a new uni, some promising young talent on the mound, and a worry-free environment to enjoy it in. Turn that frown upside down, it’s almost time for Guardian’s Baseball.

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Vogt for Pedro

The end of an era was upon us when the great Tito Francona took his last walk out of the Cleveland Dugout and received a well deserved standing ovation. The people of Cleveland owe a lot to that guy. With what the Dolans provided him, he did what he could and gave us a few seasons there where I felt like we had a real shot.

It’s a little odd to write a reaction to someone at the beginning of their managerial career because frankly, from the skipper standpoint, we don’t know anything about the guy. The cookie cutter comments by players like “he has a good mind for baseball and loves the game” only go so far. I can’t imagine going to a job interview for a job you have no experience in whatsoever. I picture Stephen Vogt excitedly showing the Cleveland Front Office all of his World Series titles on his Diamond Dynasty in MLB The Show.

He’s coming in as the captain of a rickety old ship with some very young crew members, and let me tell ya, the seas are rough. I think there are some things we should be excited about and maybe some things to keep an eye on.

For one thing, Tito was on the back end of a great career but the man started to make decisions that, for the first time, I couldn’t get behind. Miles Straw had 518 at bats last year where he inked a whopping .238 and 20 non-singles. If there is a world where Miles Straw is a starting center fielder, take me the fuck out of it because that is atrocious.

I cannot tell you how many games were close in the 8th or 9th inning and Miles Straw came up to bat. I begged every god I could remember the name of to allow Tito to give the bat boy the nod. Instead, Miles Straw would hack and miss at two curveballs and hit the 3rd pitch 150 feet in the air to the pitcher. It is my hope that Stephen Vogt came in on his first day, put a bobblehead of himself on his desk, and told Miles Straw to get used to the view from the dugout. I don’t know what kind of blackmail Miles had on Tito, but I would assume Stephen is less inclined to watch his center fielder hit pop flies.

I was watching one of the first spring games this year and Andre Knott was interviewing Sticks McKenzie about the managerial change. Andre asked Sticks what the differences were between Tito and Vogt and Sticks almost appeared to giggle and said “Well, Tito was so laid back.” This immediately gave me the vibe that Vogt may have come in guns blazing. Which I actually don’t hate. This is the youngest squad in the league and last year, they were younger than every AAA club too, at an average age of 26.

At 26 myself, I know structure is important for a group of tall children. I think if Stephen wants to have any chance at a successful first season, he needs to understand that the group he is leading into battle, just learned how to walk. If Stephen can ignite the spark and the guys can feel as close as they did in 2022, there’s a good chance for them to punch this horrendous division in the mouth. Oh come on, let’s call a spade a spade, the AL Central is an ugly step-child.

I like the idea of Vogt coming in at a pivotal time in our young catcher’s development as well. I’m sure Bo was excited when he heard the news, and then we went and got Austin Hedges which I assume was also thought of as a piece to help Bo move along the road to stardom. At least I hope that’s what it was because if it was any other outlandish thought that he would contribute anything besides vibes and a backstop, we are even sillier than I thought.

All things considering, I’m intrigued and optimistic. I think he looks good in the uniform and he just finished playing the game himself so he should be in the right mindset. I’m sure it wont be without hiccups, but I think it could work out really well. I will proudly wear my Tito jersey that my girlfriend got me custom made, but I am open to seeing how a fresh mind would run this team. But mark my words, if Miles Straw takes another at bat in the 9th inning, you WILL be seeing a “Fire Stephen Vogt” blog.