Cleveland Sports Forum

Guardians Prospective
@CleGuardPro
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#Guardians 22yr old prospect Bo Naylor currently leads all (catchers) in minor league baseball in wRC+, OBP & BB amongst qualified players.

1) wRC+ 157
1) OBP .436
1) BB 61
2) BB/SO 0.92
3) BB% 20.0%
3) SB 13
6) OPS .930
13) ISO .213
14) SLG .494
16) AVG .281

Here some additional info on Bo

Parents push Bo to take advantage of the 2020 shutdown without older brother Josh around to train with

“[Staying ready] during the shutdown started with my parents. Once the year shut down and we were back home, I didn’t have Josh with me at home because he was staying in Arizona. I had [Myles], my mother, and my dad there, and they were on me every single day, pushing me, telling me to get my work and reps in. [They were telling me] this was not the time to sit around and get lazy, this is the time you can be putting in to get extra work and keep yourself ready and motivated for any opportunity that could come up. I can’t thank them enough for preparing me mentally and helping me stay ready through that whole process.”

Bo Naylor

The strong turnaround has not been by accident as the youthful prospect has been working to fix some issues at the plate and becoming more consistent in his mechanics. Overall, he feels like this has been a great chance for him to tackle adversity head-on and improve his mindset as well.

“[Struggles] are a part of the game. That’s the biggest thing I have taken away from it. It was just a mechanical thing for me, and I’ve definitely been working through that, in game and in practice, keeping my mechanics as consistent as possible. That’s something I have been working through and will continue to work through,” Naylor remarked, “Ultimately, I feel like this was a really good opportunity for me to learn the mental side of the game. I’ve been better at understanding how you should go about [struggling]. The guys around me and the coaches around me have been really supportive and they really make you feel like they have your back. That’s another thing I’ve taken away from this experience, but I’m just on the field every day, ready to attack the day and get one percent better if I can.”

Defensively, the glove has been strong all season for the RubberDuck backstop as he has thrown out 12 of 30 potential base stealers and has provided a steadying presence for the array of arms on the mound for Akron. He has also allowed only three passed balls in 39 games of play.

More info here

https://guardiansbaseballinsider.com/20 ... um=twitter

He's not on the 40 man roster so they could wait until next spring to bring Bo to Cleveland. He might be ready already

can't locate the story to copy but Baseball America reported this week on kids who have made the biggest moves forward and backward among prospects the first half of this year.

Tanner Bibee made the UP list; I think he was the only one of ours [maybe Gavin Williams, too, but he was already well rated before the season but not in the top 50-75 as he is now]

Gabriel Arias: he's striking out far too often; and Tyler Freeman on the way down.

sometimes there's player movement after the All Star game but i don't see any; of course, there's been a lot already especially among pitchers

for Columbus,
3 hits apiece by Freeman, Benson and Mercado
Benson is now hitting 270 and his OPS is 932. He leads the IL in on base pct with a ton of walks, he is 4th in OPS. He has 17 doubles, 16 homers, 16 steals in 18 attempts. His strikeout ratio is the lowest in his career. He's always been considered a capable CF or RF. Another LF hitter as are Kwan, Jones and Palacios and Will Brennan. He's finally achieving all 5 of his skills; and I like to add patience at the plate so he has all 6,

Nick Mickalojachek 2 1 0 0 0 1 in relief

Walk off win for Akron;
Bibee 4 2/3 3 1 1 0 4 1.72 after his promotion.
solo homer for Lavastida

9-6 win for Low A Lynchburg

fox 2 singles
Burgos single and 3 walks
Greene single and double
Valdes ditto

not quite the 28 runs scored by Toronto last night, but 18 by Lake County is pretty impressive. Some great individual lines:

Aaron Bracho, maybe he's back to life?? 5 1 3 5 7th double 6th homer For July he's 258/348/645
His K/bb by month: April 10/1; May 24/2; June 15/6; July 5/6
Gabriel Rodriguez 5 4 4 2 11th double

An old favorite of mine:
Johnathan Rodriguez signed at age 17, now 22 and ready to reach AA
4 5 4 1 and 2 walks 11th homer Now hitting 280 with 853 OPS.
already set career high in homers with six weeks to go
April OPS 669 May 621 June 859 July 1313 with 6 doubles and 5 homers this month

Tolentino 5 1 4 1 2 doubles
After a great start in Lynchburg and a slow period after promotion he's doing fine again in LC his line is now 274/386/411

Ray Boone still not doing so well after his promotion 2 2/3 6 6 4 2 2
Tommy Mace in relief 4 1-hit shutout innings.

Jim Bowden did some rankings for the Futures Game. We got one.

Most impressive raw power during BP: Jhonkensy Noel (Guardians) and Elly de La Cruz (Reds)

Noel clubbed two more homers Saturday, that makes 8 for Akron in 0nly 69 plate appearances; for the season he totals 27. Does that still lead the minors?

I will recall Russell Branyan's 40 homers but those were all in Low A at age 20, the same age Noel is when he started in High A and moved up to AA.
He added 39 the next year when he split the season between the 2 levels Noel is playing at this season.
Branyan's strikeout totals those two years were 166 and 150. Noel is at 97 after 79 games, he will come close to Branyan's totals; but interestingly his K rate is lower for Akron than Lake County, a bit below 1 in 4 AB.

also for Akron yesterday:

Valera who has been quiet of late with his 14th homer; Rocchio his 11th and 5th in July; and 2 walks.

Although I wonder if the wind helped out with this blasts; Tanner Burns pitching allowed 4 himself in 4 2/3 innings. Box score says wind 13MPH out to left.

only thing of note in Lynchburg box is promotion of CF Wuilfredo Antunez, 20 year old, from Arizona league; in his first start he 2 walked 3 times. In Arizona he had 4 homers and 11 steals in 21 games

Lake County was dumped 7-1 beyond ineffective Aaron Davenport
Petey Halpin singled and doubled, avg up to 255; hitting 417/517/542 in July

Another debut on the mound in Columbus: Hunter Gaddes went 4 scoreless, 1 hit, 3 walks, 6 strikeouts.
Will Benson's 17th homer and a single;
Tyler Freeman 5ht homer and 2 singles;
Will Brennan double and 2 singles
Speedy Bo Naylor with his first 2 AAA triples, 4 total for the year; he hit 10 in 2019; also note: season walk total 61, strikeout total 68.
Anyone looking for a catcher with some offensive talents?

Bobby Bradley remember him? with his 6th homer, htting 181 OPS 633

The always inconsistant Doug Nikhazy matched his 4 strikeouts with 4 walks in 3 1/3 innings today. His ERA is a decent 3.27 but his WHIP is a poor 1.37
JRod and GRod each with a double for the Captains through 8 innings.

Gavin Williams also being hit for long balls today, 2 of them lead to 3 runs in 5 1/3; he's still out there, 2 walks 3 K.

Tyler Freeman on a post all-star break roll. 3 hits Friday, 3hits Saturday, 2-2 to start the day today.
he hits right handed, well designed to replace Clement.