Cleveland Sports Forum

Time to give Jacob Junis a real shot to fill that vacancy in the starting rotation.

Officially, I'm starting to have my concerns.

My main concern was producing runs not giving them up.

We got a two pack going.

Once again, it the minor league guys putting most of the point on the board.

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Manzardo looks good. Rocchio looks good. Naylor looks good. Kwan looks good. Thomas looks good. Ramirez will be Ramirez. Santana will start slow and probably warm up with the weather. RF will be about what we expected. 2B will be about we expected, which offensively won't be much different than what we got from Giminez.
i think Freeman will hit well playing various positions and in the lineup at least 1/2 of the time.
Compared to last season there will be fewer homers without John. But made up for in part by a full season of Thomas. Bo may hit more homers than last year.
Compared with last season it looks similar overall.

Pitching: Bibee and Williams will be a very good top two. Lively would be better as Number 4 or 5 but is acceptable as Number 3. Allen might be able to return to his results from 2023. Ortiz might improve after awhile in Columbus. Cantillo might improve after awhile in Columbus. McKenzie does not look like he'll be back in shape again. It wouldn't hurt to stretch out Judis but the bullpen is a bit thin too without Walters and Enright and Sabrowski and Alleman.

McKenzie today. It's time for a good outing, we've been happy when he walked none and allowed 7 hits. It's time for Vogt to say something nice about a performance without having to stretch credulity for Triston [or for Ortiz or Cantillo. Not sure he even tries with Cecconi]

Except for Hedges, looks like the opening day lineup.

India leads off the game with a homer off of McKensie
Wow.

and as the innings went by lots of long doubles and another homerun. Regrettably, McKenzie is just not up to it.

Ortiz today. I would be very pleased to see a good game from him. He's started 4 with unsatisfactory results 3 of them:
1 1/3 6 hits 6 runs
3 inning 3 hits 1 run
2 2/3 3 hits 4 runs [reliever cleared the bases for him]
3 2/3 4 hits 4 runs, 2 homers.
Not an upward trajectory.

His spring training history is mixed:
2023 10.50 ERA 2.50 WHIP led to a regular season ERA 4.78 1.70 WHIP
2024 3.46 ERA 1.38 WHIP led to a regular season ERA 3.32 and 1.11 WHIP
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Another stinker for Ortiz; this time he walked 6. But see Articles; apparently it's all great.

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Well, that was exciting, Reds 13 Guards 2

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Ralphy Velasquez established that he's going to be an OF he's got a lot to learn. His "bad routes" made V Velasquez line less impressive than deserved and Allard's day worse than it should have.

Not a good start to the season.

KANSAS CITY -- Tanner Bibee was scratched from his scheduled Opening Day start against the Royals on Thursday due to acute gastroenteritis, the Guardians announced.

Ben Lively will take the ball for Cleveland in the season opener, which is set for 4:10 p.m. ET in Kansas City. Lively was slated to make his season debut next week, during the Guardians’ road series against the Padres.

See the Guardians in 2025: Single game tickets are on sale now!
Gavin Williams and Luis Ortiz were the Guardians’ original probable starters for Saturday and Sunday. Those are now TBD in wake of Bibee’s scratch on Thursday -- leaving open the possibility of him pitching this weekend if he’s well.

Thursday was set to be Bibee’s first career Opening Day start. The right-hander earned the nod after emerging as a lead arm in the Guardians’ rotation last season, after ace Shane Bieber underwent Tommy John surgery in April.

This promotion was possible less than 10 days since JRod's demotion.

Cleveland’s final decision was who would claim the final position player spot on the 26-man team. The Guardians recalled outfielder Johnathan Rodriguez from Triple-A Columbus on Thursday, six days after he was optioned there in a round of Spring Training roster reductions.

The Guardians’ roster came into focus on Monday. After acquiring outfielder Nolan Jones from the Rockies on Saturday, they optioned right fielder Will Brennan to Triple-A Columbus, along with reliever Andrew Walters. Lefty Joey Cantillo claimed the final bullpen spot.

Looks like it but I did not make that rule up. I still think that something like Rodriquez was told he was demoted but the procedure was not actually completed.