News and Notes: “Tomorrow is a New Day With No Mistakes in it...Yet.” - Anne of Green Gables

I don’t know about you, but I’d mostly like to forget yesterday’s double-header against the Yankees.

There were some bright spots - Josh Naylor took THREE walks and has a 192 wRC+, David Fry still looks like a hitter with a 182 wRC+, Steven Kwan is at 174 wRC+, Andres Gimenez at 167 wRC+ and the oft-maligned Ramon Laureano is at 134 wRC+, with Bo Naylor adding a couple walks and hanging in at 114 wRC+. Each of these gentlemen did enough to help contribute to their team potentially winning a game. Estevan Florial SHOULD have had two walks in the opener (an egregious strike three was called on him with one-out and one on in the bottom of the ninth) and did have a walk and his first home run as a Guardian in the finale.

Unfortunately, Brayan Rocchio is 3 for his last 22, Jose Ramirez is 0 for his last 13, Tyler Freeman is 3 for his last 24, and Will Brennan is 2 for his last 19. A person named Cody Poteet held the Guardians in check and Triston McKenzie is still desperately searching for some kind of consistency. Manager Stephen Vogt spoke after the game of how the team sees the good curveball, the sharp slider and the strong 92-93 mph fastball from McKenzie at times but he’s re-learning how to throw and throw consistently after his injury last season. The jury is obviously out as to whether he will be successful, but I know we’re all rooting for him and willing to ride out non-competitive outings like yesterday.

It was also disappointing to see Tyler Beede roughed up a bit out of the pen for the first time this season, but I tell myself it was bound to happen so it might as well have happened when the Guardians were down five runs.

Juan Soto kinda shoved Josh Naylor who may have been sticking his foot out where it didn’t need to be.

Essentially the umps just let this whole play stand, a “let ‘em play” philosophy of which I approve. But, there were some lusty boos for Juan Soto in the night-cap... until he hit a three-run homer to take the starch out of the crowd. Personally, I wouldn’t want beef with Josh Naylor, but it didn’t hurt the Yankees at all who looked confident and in control from the first pitch at 7:10PM EST. I still like Juan Soto as a player (not a Yankee) but, buddy, don’t go pushing our first baseman anymore, please and thank you.

If it weren’t for one 93 mph fastball Nick Sandlin tried to pump just over the zone to Oswaldo Cabrera resulting in a patented Sandlin Gopherball, I think we’d be feeling much differently about yesterday and even hoping for a series win today. (There’s some thunderstorms in the area, but I think they’ll get it in). As it is, we’ll be hoping the Guardians somehow manage to solve Nestor Cortes who has often befuddled them and that Jose Ramirez manages to escape his early season funk.

The main issue is figuring out the starting pitching in some manner because no team is going to survive the kind of starting pitching issues the Guardians have been dealing with lately for very long.

In other positive news, reports of Kyle Manzardo’s demise may have been greatly exaggerated as he went 3 for 4 in Columbus and hit balls 98 mph, 104.6 mph and 108.6 mph. He has a 122 wRC+ over the past week after a very slow start his first week. Hopefully, he continues the recent turnaround and forces the Guardians’ hand as far as calling him up because as much as I’m interested in seeing Estevan Florial get some run in right field, I am not interested in seeing Florial, Laureano or Gabriel Arias start at DH when a Manzardo who is seeing the ball well could be up getting those reps and getting his big league lumps in early this season.

Also, I don’t know how much longer Jhonkensy Noel will be keeping a roster spot warm, but while he’s here, let’s enjoy a Noel Nuke to help us feel a little better.

Charlie Condon hit another home run for Georgia:

People on my Twitter timeline keep saying it’s 100% Travis Bazzana or 100% Charlie Condon. I just don’t see why we have to be certain with another six weeks guaranteed of baseball to play. Let’s just root both guys on to amazing finishes. Also, though I didn’t include him in my top four, I’ll include him in next week’s update because pitcher-outfielder Jac Caglianone of the Florida Gators hit his 19th homer yesterday also:

And don’t forget Braden Montgomery:

Let’s salvage this series finale, Guardians, and leave all the Yankees fans who’ve infested Progressive Field with a bad taste in their mouth before they head back to Cleveland suburbs to root the Lakers on in the playoffs and read mock drafts for the Cowboys.