OK, it's April 22nd and the Guardians are 16-6.  That means they only have to go 46-94 the rest of the way to beat my pre-season prediction of a 61-101 finish.   With that in mind, let's take stock of where this team and its players currently are and where we can expect everyone and everything to go if the season progresses to its natural conclusion. Team Almost everything has gone right so far this season.   Teams we are playing are playing their worst against us.  Important injuries on other teams have seemed to coincide with when we play them. Our reli ..read more

Part two on the history of the draft slots that the Guardians have in 2024.  Today we will look at the history of the slots (up through 2019) that the Guardians will pick in the 3rd, 4th and 5th rounds of this draft. #113 17 of 55 picks at this slot (through the 2019 draft) since the draft began in 1965 have made the majors.   The only major leaguer of real note among those 17 is Yadier Molina. Paul Byrd is the only player Cleveland ever drafted at that slot. #146 15 of 55 picks at this slot since the draft began in 1965 have made the majors The only major leaguer of note dr ..read more

 As we continue to move towards the 2024 draft, I wanted to look back at the history of each of the 21 slots the Guardians will draft at this year.  Although it would be obvious to start with their 1st pick at 1-1, I am going, instead, to finish with that pick and start with the Guardians' second pick of the 2024 draft, at slot 36 and included information on slots #48 and #84, as well.  While I recognize that who is picked at each slot in the draft is a complex mixture of teams drafting for need, drafting to save money, drafting to spend excess money and, of course, the ubiquito ..read more

 OK, we are now halfway through April.  College teams have been playing games for 2 months now and the usual suspects are now over 150 plate appearances or approaching 50 IP. I am thinking that it is almost 100% certain that we are going with a college bat at 1-1. Sowith that in mind, here are how the players at the top of my draft board are doing. Travis Bazzana - Travis just continues to steam along.  There have been a few cracks in the armor, a 2-error game, a game where he got picked off TWICE, only 8 stolen bases so far after 36 last year.  But, for the most part, the ..read more

 55-98.  That's all the Guardians have to go the rest of the year to beat my prediction of 61-101.  On the very top two atomic layers of the surface, the Guardians' start is very encouraging.   Vogt's managing has been REALLY good.   The starting pitching has given us just what we need to be successful, a chance to win every game Our bullpen, with the exception of Barlow and Morgan, has been outstanding and these 2 have good enough track records to be hopeful that they will turn things around. Our hitting, like our startng pitching, has given us just enoug ..read more

  OK, all the full-season minor leagues have opened (Lake County was weathered out...) so, with those in mind and with updated injury and release news, here is the first version of the 2024 in-season prospect list for the Guardians.  The players I noted in the last version, Rocchio, Gaddis, Herrin and Fry all made the opening day ML roster and so should exhaust their rookie status in short order and De Los Santos (who might be as high as 11th on this list) was returned to Arizona 1. Chase DeLauter 2. Jaison Chourio 3. Juan Brito 4. Kyle Manzardo 5. Angel Martinez 6. Alex Clemmey 7 ..read more

 Hi from a rainy San Diego on a Saturday morning.  Lots to unpack so let's go: GUARDIANS ARE 2-0 Oakland is struggling.  13,000+ on opening night, 3,000+ the second game.  It's almost like playing in 2020.  I feel for the diehard A's fans.  I saw the angst in Cleveland when the Browns left.  I saw it in St. Louis when the Rams left.  At least in those cases it was not so drawn out.  Their roster is built to lose and even trades they have made to infuse prospects (e.g., Muller, Ruiz) that looked light at the time have gone way past 'light', approac ..read more

 61-101 It's in the title and in big, bold letters in the first line of this post. Looking back at old MS word documents, I have been blogging and writing about Cleveland's ML baseball team for almost 30 years now.  every year I make predictions, including the record of the ML team.  At no time in the past have I ever suggested the Guardians would lose 100 games.  In fact, in club history, only 5 times have they ever lost 100 or more games in a season: 1991 (105 losses), 1987 (101), 1985 (102), 1971 (102), 1914 (102) have they ever lost 100 games in a season.   Y ..read more

 Lots to unpack about the final roster.  So here goes. Devison De Los Santos was returned to the Diamondbacks.  On paper he was never likely to make this team and the thought process may have been, in part, that if DeLauter wasn't going to make the team with limited experience how could De Los Santos.  In addition, Antonetti apparently said 'for now' in regards to him being returned to Arizona.  A salient point here is that if we made a trade for him BEFORE we returned him to Arizona he would have had to stay on the 40-man.  The only way to be able to keep him N ..read more

 The look from the top is VERY interesting.  I have found myself with a totally different perspective than I thought I would have.  I have become very picky, very petty, very conspiracy-theory.   Any little thing sets me off and makes me want to switch allegiances to another guy to draft at 1-1.   This draft is top heavy in college players and many have performed at a high level so far.  Still, we are entering college play and now is when I start paying a lot of attention to performances and what is behind them.   So that is what this post is a ..read more