Exploring Cleveland Guardians' 2025 Strategy & Impact

SportsGrid

Watch Exploring Cleveland Guardians' 2025 Strategy & Impact - SportsGrid on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00That's the American League Central. I think the American

00:02League Central is that aisle in the supermarket, where it just

00:04kind of smells a little not a bad way. It's just kind of

00:07weird food. It's organic. It's whatever you can make fun of it.

00:10Uh huh. At the end of the day, this stuff's good for you. And

00:13yeah, I understand the supermarket stuff's a little

00:16higher price, but here it's not. When you're playing fantasy

00:18baseball, you're wagering. The American League Central is like

00:21this forgotten wasteland. I just think it's wonderful. Let's talk

00:24with the Cleveland Guardians. The big problem with them is they

00:28had no one around Jose Ramirez last year. Well, now you're

00:31getting a full season of Lane Thomas and Stephen Kwan

00:34maturing. And I think, I think if Bazzana and Manzardo and

00:38these guys can start to contribute along with his

00:41pitching staff, who's going to beat this team in the Central,

00:44Joe? Look, on paper, certainly the bullpen is incredible.

00:48Emmanuel Classe coming off an all-world season, you know,

00:52little struggles in the playoffs, you know, but that's

00:55what made Mariano so special, right? He was so good in the

00:57playoffs in those bigger moments. So, you know, saving

00:59games in May and June is one thing, saving them in October

01:02is another, but if you look at this lineup, you know, it's

01:06pretty good. I think what they need is a step forward from a

01:08player and I'm going to talk about Kyle Manzardo who's

01:10having a phenomenal spring right now. This was a player in the

01:13Cubs system and got moved to the Guardians system and now he

01:18is going to be either the everyday DH or first baseman.

01:20One of those two things are going to happen there. So,

01:22Carlos Santana brought back in, but Stephen Kwan, a guy that

01:25upped his home runs year over year, really made a conscious

01:28effort to improve that power and he did. Went from being a

01:31guy in single-digit home runs to fourteen home runs last

01:35season. Lane Thomas, a player with some power, some speed. The

01:39bottom half of this lineup is a little concerning. You know,

01:41you lose Josh Naylor in this lineup. It's not as deep. You

01:44still have Jose Ramirez who is all-world MVP caliber guy. The

01:48rotation with Gavin Williams, if he can take that step forward

01:51along with Tanner Bybee. I expect Williams to be more like

01:54the two, but I still think it's a little thin. What you're

01:56hoping is you're getting Shane Bieber back at some point this

01:59season towards the end of the year and he really becomes that

02:02guy at the trade deadline you add for the stretch run and if

02:05Bieber comes back and he is healthy and he can be anything

02:09close to what he was before the injury. That's another ace. So

02:13the Guardians are the favorites in this division. I think for a

02:16reason and they should be because that bullpen is so good

02:19and the game has changed, right? You don't need dominant

02:21starting pitching. You need starting pitching. They can get

02:23you five six innings turn around to the bullpen and hand

02:27it off to them and let them be dominant. Now. The one thing I

02:29will say is year to year. Sometimes bullpens can go from

02:32being dominant to being less than dominant. They are one of

02:35the tougher things in baseball to be consistently good year

02:38over year, but if any team can do it, I think the Guardians

02:41can Matt. What do you make of this lineup to to me? Manzardo

02:44is the key. If he takes that step forward, if he shows you

02:47what he is giving you in spring training as this is the new

02:50Kyle Manzardo with 3090 kind of player, then I think they're

02:53okay. If they don't get that the offense does concern me

02:57just a bit. Yeah, because then you move Santana up and you try

03:01to protect Ramirez. Otherwise, it's pitch around Ramirez, but

03:04that's what we're talking about is this team had no help aside

03:06from Ramirez. Well now they do and they have some things

03:08coming in the pipeline and we're talking about so I grew

03:12up Cardinal baseball. If anyone remembers that, you know kind

03:15of mid 80s, you score a couple of runs and then you just

03:17tighten the screws and that's the end of it. That's what

03:19this Guardians team is going to be. They're not going to be

03:21exciting, but from a wagering perspective, look at run lines,

03:25look at unders look at that just that good fundamental kind

03:29of kind of baseball. I guess in football is at the NFC Central

03:33is at that smash mouth kind of way. This is what it's going to

03:36be here and it really is going to be five six innings of gray

03:41dreary baseball. Turn it over to the bullpen. You got yourself

03:45a win. I don't care what it looks like. Let's go down now

03:47and have a little fight. Alright, let's have some fun.

03:49Kansas City Royals. That's the next thing we're going to talk

03:51about here. This lineup is Jonathan India, Bobby Witt,

03:55Pasquantino Perez, Massey, Renfro, Melendez. Is that

03:59Michael Garcia, Kyle Isbell? Joe, you take Bobby Witt out of

04:03this lineup. No Jack Caliglione right now. You take Bobby Witt

04:06out of this lineup and this team is is NG bro. This team's

04:10not good. After Reagans, you have Lugo, Waka, Lorenz and

04:13Bubich and Estevez. Come on. Come on. Fight me on this,

04:17man. I feel like you're not a fan of the Royals. That's what

04:20I'm getting. Is that true? I don't see it. I just don't see

04:24it though. If Pasquantino doesn't hit, you pitch around

04:29Witt. Perez is great but getting old and then what? MJ

04:34Melendez? Look, I think that what you want. Look, Reagans is

04:41the best pitcher in this division. So, you've got that

04:43going for you along with Scuba. Like, those are the two guys

04:46that, you know, are are right there neck and neck at the top.

04:49So, if Lugo and Waka can give you what they even close like

04:5485% of what they gave you last year, that gives you a little

04:57bit more depth and potentially some of these other rotations

05:00too. Uh as much as I love the rotation of the twins in

05:03theory, it's still a little theoretical. Uh the Tigers

05:07rotation still again a little bit more theoretical whereas

05:10I've seen it with Lugo. I've seen it with Waka. I know how

05:12steady they can be. So, I like the rotation more than you. The

05:16back of the rotation definitely has problems. We can talk about

05:18that but you you can fix those problems. If you have the means

05:21to the end and you wanna move some prospects and finally

05:24start to cash in, you can't. The middle of this order though,

05:27Pasquantino, Sal Perez, I think that's enough as long as

05:31they're on the field. Bobby Wood Junior is, well, Bobby Wood

05:35Junior is the the top of the board for MVP right now with

05:39Aaron Judge, right? Those are the guys neck and neck at the

05:41top and I think with good reason. When you have a player

05:43this special, if a Jack Caglione can come in and play

05:48first base, the problem is again, the position he plays,

05:51right? Does he start to take some balls in the outfield? You

05:55know, that way you can keep Pasquantino at first and keep

05:58Perez at DH and have somebody else catch. Maybe you want

06:01Perez to be catching more this year. Like, they have

06:03flexibility there but Caglione is having a phenomenal spring

06:07training and he was the player that last year when I was doing

06:10research going into the the draft, Caglione's what they

06:14look like. Travis Bazzana was my number one overall guy but

06:17Caglione was my number two and I think he is going to come

06:21quickly here to the major leagues. Uh we mentioned how

06:24good he's, what is it? The 1800 OPS in spring. Now, it's only

06:27spring training. That's fine but monitor this guy. Maybe

06:30he's not worth drafting, right? Cuz you're in a twelve team

06:33league but he should be on your watch list and if he's starting

06:36to hit in April and May and AA and AAA and hang on where they

06:39start him off. Caglione's gonna come quickly and I think he's

06:42going to eventually get to the big leagues probably sometime

06:44in July and if he does and he hits, that's a difference

06:49maker for this Royals team. So, I understand your reservations.

06:52I'm gonna take the other side of this which is I still think

06:54they can be competitive for this division because I think

06:56they're pitching depth at starter could be better than

07:00the Guardians. The bullpen's not as good but they did bring

07:03in Estevez along with Erceg so they have two guys at the back

07:06of that bullpen now. We'll see how it shakes out but man,

07:08having Bobby Witt, arguably the best player in the American

07:10League, that certainly helps.

Category

Transcript

Recommended