Cleveland Sports Forum

Outfield help in the minors?

Valera rated among our top 1-5 prospects is now and is usually injured.
DeLauter last year's No 1 pick who looks too much like zimmer for my comfort, has been sidelined all year with the same injury he had in college last year\
Noes is probably not an OF defensively. He's far too young in AAA for his offense to be fairly evaluated. He's had a decent number of doubles and homers and a barely 200 average
Richie Palacios? Might be worth a swap with Brennan while Will improves his RF skills
Petey Halpin is a young CF in Akron who for his age is performing well. But he doesn't yet hit homers of steal a lot of bases either. good defense. lots of walks.
Johnnathan Rodrigues in Akron has a good RF arm, HRs tend to come on with the warmer weather. Never makes prospect lists
Joe Lampe 3rd round 2022, in Lake County, has 4 homers, 7 steals, 24 walks, Possible
Justin Boyd 1.5 round acquired from Reds for Benson, has just played his first 2 games of the season for the Captains. College teammate of and offensively similar to Kwan.
Far away in LYnchburg, all 5 OFs are LH hitters. The best may be W. Antunez with 810 OPS but no homers; or Guy Lipscomb with 32 steals and same lack of homers.

That is why Oscar should be brought up and given a chance. Big power hitting RH right fielder with a strong arm.

Brennen is not a corner outfielder. Arias is not a corner outfielder.

Oscar is a better RF and can be a good power RH bat, which we sorely need. Whether he's a major league power hitter for the long haul is to be determined. He certainly was last year.
It was reported that he was not showing power in spring training this year and his regular season stats were unimpressive; 1 homer 1 triple 1 homers in 75 plate appearances. His hard hit % and his pull % were both way down.
I'm sure they hoped sending him to Columbus would be an opportunity to refine his swing. Stats are not too impressive: 4 doubles and 3 homers in 91 total AB. Slugging avg pretty good at 384. Still not talking walks so his on base pct is 253. I don't see the "advanced stats" for his minorleague games.
Whenever he's "ready" I'm happy to have him back!

The way I see it Arias could still be the utility infielder and Brennen could still be the utility OF. Just have to send Freeman or Fry down.

As it looks now Oscar is just an add on to a trade in the future. Hey if you bring him up and he does not produce so be it. Right now he does not look like he is in the plans of this FO.

Guardians Prospective
@CleGuardPro
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52m
Enright has cleared waivers and the #Guardians have accepted him back from the Marlins.

The Guardians will not have to add him to their 40-man roster.

Enright, 26, was a 20th round selection of Cleveland in the 2019 draft. He got a brief professional debut in rookie ball that year before the minor leagues were wiped out by the pandemic in 2020. He then split his 2021 between High-A and Double-A, tossing 58 relief innings between those two levels with a 3.41 ERA. He struck out 38.4% of batters faced while walking just 5.7%. Last year was split between Double-A and Triple-A, as Enright finished the season with a combined 2.88 ERA at those two levels, striking out 33.7% of opponents against a 5.4% walk rate.

The Marlins decided it was worth taking a shot on him and nabbed him in the Rule 5 draft in December. Shortly after that, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, relaying the news himself in February. He began the season on the 15-day injured list and was transferred to the 60-day version in early April. He began a rehab assignment about a month ago but it seems the Marlins weren’t going to be able to find room for him on their roster.

Kevin Kelly was a pickup by the Super Rays; did we carry the atrocious Jason Bilous o the roster instead of this guy?

Kevin Kelly, RHP, Rays (from Guardians)
Since last update: 16 1/3 innings, 23 hits, 0 HR, 4 BB, 12 K
Overall 2023 numbers: 22 1/3 innings, 4.84 ERA, 17.8% strikeout rate, 4% walk rate, 42.1% ground-ball rate

Kelly, 25, has looked sharp in most of his appearances but has been tagged for multiple earned runs three times — including a pair of three-run clunkers. For a short reliever, that’s… less than optimal. The Rays have felt comfortable using him in plenty of leverage spots, however, evidenced by a quartet of holds, a save and another blown save.

Kelly’s 4% walk rate gives the air of pinpoint command, but he’s also plunked three hitters and has a below-average 58.4% rate of throwing a first-pitch strike. He hasn’t allowed a home run, in part because he hasn’t allowed a single barreled ball this year. Kelly has avoided hard contact better than the average pitcher, eschewed walks and generally pitched better than his near-5.00 ERA might otherwise indicate. With the Rays firmly in contention, he’ll need to avoid a prolonged slump to stick on the roster, but it’s clear they believe he can be a solid reliever even with below-average velocity (92 mph average fastball) and strikeout abilities.

not to beat a very dead horse, but Bilous with 3 walks in an inning yesterday has now reached 18 1/3 innings and 24 walks.

on Thursday Bo hit his 11th double and drew a walk. On Friday he hit his 10th homer batted in 3 runs [total of 40 is tied with his brother] and drew 3 walks [season total is 43, tied for 2nd for second in the International League.
Too bad Bo's path to the major is blocked by the 2 1/2 high achieving catchers do the job so successfully in Cleveland.

Iowa Cub pitchers had a bit of control trouble, issuing a total of 16 walks including 2 to Oscar Gonzalez, of all people

Gavin Williams and his Clipper mound-mates walked 8 themselves; perhaps the umpire had a tiny strikezone? Williams' line: 5 2 2 2 4 9 and one homer

for Akron Tanner Burns 5 5 3 3 2 6
Jose Tena 7th double an a walk and an error
Johnnathan Rodriguez 3 singles

for Lake County, Joe's hoped-for breakout candidate Dayan Frias hit his 2nd homer and singles; stats are good 309 avg 840 ops. Joe hoped for more power
Nate Furman with a double and a single; after 27 steals in Lynchburg in 40 games, he has none in high A in his first 6
first big bump in the road for Ethan Hankins' comeback is more like a mountain in the road: 1 1/3 6 8 8 3 3 a homer

very nice work by Parker Messick in Lynchburg and it's abut time he moves up to Lake County 6 3 1 1 1 5
Offense for the Hillcats as usual consisted of singles [only 3 of them] and steals [5] and walks [5].

2 run double, his 12th for Naylor. Just under 1/2 of his hits are for extra bases. He is no longer stealing bases [20 last year, 0 this] We can live without steals from our catcher. Some hitting would be an interesting change of pace.
Oscar with a triple
Palacios average drops to 218

Toussaint 3 2/3 2 1 1 2 6 If they actually wanted to add a reliever, he'd be a more likely candidate than Kelly, who they will DFA today and don't care that much about not getting back, I imagine.

The normally quiet Akron bats erupt for 15 runs.
The struggling all year RH Jack Leftwich pitches 6 no hit innings for the Ducks. 1 walk 4 K.
Brito single double homer 393 avg 1092 ops since his promotion. 4 bi Maybe he is worth giving Nolan Jones away for
Tena 2 singles double triple up 30 points to 197
Martinez 2 singles 3 rbi. A very slow April,182/281/325 Much better since 270/344/394
lavastida 2 singles and a walk
J. Rodriguez 4 singles, that makes 9 hits in his 3 games in June
Planez season debuts with 2 hits

Ryan Webb also had the game of his life yesterday for Lake County 7 4 0 0 2 8. He's been doing OK all along, but not this well. For the season the 24 year old [too old for High A!] a 4th round 2021 pick, Lefty, has a 3.45 ERA I k per IP 1.43 WHIP. At his age in he should be in Akron, and is a longshot prospect at this point.

Updated the 2021 draft:

No. 1 Gavin Williams, at AAA, ready for Cleveland; ranked as high as the top 20 of all minor league prospects
No. 2 Doug Nikhazy AA 24 year old lefty 3.82 ERA 1.73 WHIP far too many walks
No. 2.5 Tommy Mace still puttering around in Lake County 6-6 RH 4.31 ERA 1.38 WHIP
No. 3 Jake Fox he's only 20 and not a pitcher: CF/@B in Lake County 206 586 WHIP but picking it up lately and is young for the level
No. 4 Ryan Webb as noted above
No. 5 Tanner Bibee Hes another 6-6 righy, developing a bit faster than Mace
No. 6 Aaron Davenport 22 year old righy, return appearance in lake County is worse than his debut 4.91 ERA and K ratio has decreased
No. 7 jack Leftwich, noted in prior post, was agressively posted in Akron this year; made team's top 10 per Keith Law but no one else; had an ERA of just about 9 prior to yesterday's near perfect 6 innings. 6-4 RH age 25
No. 8 Rodney Boone, Lefty from UC Santa Barbara has not bloomed like Beiber or Bibee, in fact has regressed in his return to lake County 6.21 ERA
No. 9 Will Dion 5-10 lefty who puts up excellent Class A stats but obviously doesn't impress since he doesn't get promoted 1.87 ERA 1.01 WHIP in Lake County

Want offense? Our teenagers deliver:

There is nothing like Opening Day, and the Rookie-level Guardians Blue had one for the ages in the Dominican Summer League on Monday.

Cleveland’s DSL affiliate came out of the gate swinging in its inter-organizational opener against the DSL Guardians Red … and swinging, and swinging and swinging. When they finally stopped, Blue had bashed 24 hits and used a 13-run sixth inning to claim a lopsided 28-5 win in the kind of slugfest only Rookie-ball seems to provide.

Shortstop Welbyn Francisca homered and tripled as part of a five-hit, five-run day, second baseman Yaikel Mijares cracked a game-breaking grand slam and right fielder Mason Bolivar scored four runs and drove in three runs as part of his own four-hit afternoon. But they were far from the only contributors.

Seven of Blue’s nine starters tallied multi-hit games, eight drove in at least two runs, and every starter scored at least twice. The team went a whopping 17-for-25 with runners in scoring position. On the day.

That’s not only some way to start a season, but how about to begin a career? For Francisca, Mijares, Bolivar and many other participants, Monday marked their pro debut. They enjoyed it in style, jumping out to a big lead and nearly batting around twice in their 13-run sixth inning, during which Blue made Red burn through four pitchers and sent 16 men to the plate.

Offensive outbursts like this are not common in Rookie-level ball, but they do happen. The DSL Yankees scored 38 runs in a win over the Twins on July 3, 2019, and 32 runs in a victory over Pittsburgh on June 27, 2022. The Guardians' Red squad plated 28 runs in a seven-inning contest on Sept. 24, 2021, and last season a DSL team scored 21+ runs in a game 10 separate times.