The pennant race is one! September 1st is right around the corner and in a couple of days, August will be in the rearview mirror. That couldn’t be better news for the Guardians. Going into the month of August, the Guards were 66-42 with a six-game lead over Kansas City. Today, the Guardians have been 11-16 in the month of August heading into into a weekend series with the Pittsburgh Pirates at Progressive Field. The once six-game lead is down to just one after losing three of four to the Royals. So what is next going into the final month of the regular season? September call-ups are not what they used to be as they can only add two players to the active roster. What two players do they need and what are some other ideas that could help this team?
In terms of players that could be an option for this team, two names come to mind, one pitcher and one position player. Reliever Andrew Walters and 1B/DH Kyle Manzardo.
Andrew Walters, while just his first year of professional baseball, starting at AA Akron and moving to the Clippers has gone a combined 4-0 with a 2.53 ERA in 46 minor league games. He’s got eight saves and struck out 74 strikeouts in 46 1/3 innings of work. Clearly the Guards don’t need bullpen help, however, they have taxed that pen with five pitches who have appeared in 60 games or more. Hunter Gaddis, Cade Smith and Tim Herrin are all rookies and have never seen the work they have experienced this year. An additional arm such as Walters may help this bullpen out.
Triston McKenzie, Logan Allen and Joe Cantillo have all been options as pitchers this season with the Guard but all have struggled. Will Dion, Doug Nikhazy, and Ryan Webb may be some new options that the Guards could look at with starters. They would have to get them on the 40-man roster but at this point, starters have struggled and there needs to be some sort of moves that help this club out. Alex Cobb is coming off a fingernail issue but has pitched decent. Matthew Boyd has come out and been solid for the club so there may be some sort of stability with them in the rotation but they will need help if they want to make the playoffs.
Manzardo has been up with the club already with 82 at-bats driving in seven runs and hitting just .207. In Columbus, Manzardo is hitting .265 with 19 home runs and 47 RBI. What does not go in Manzardo’s favor is that he only has two positions, 1B and DH. Other options from the Clippers such as Gabriel Arias. Chase Delauter, Angel Martinez, Johnathan Rodriguez, and George Valera have more versatility than Manzardo does. DeLauter and Valera have not seen any service time in the bigs while Arias has revamped his swing and approached the line of a .330 average with five homers and 16 RBI in just 112 at-bats with the Clippers. Martinez should have glimpses of stardom with the Guards but slowed down and eventually lost at-bats and his numbers in Columbus are not much better. He’s hitting .238 with Columbus in 168 ABs and just .236 with Cleveland with 110 ABs. Rodriguez struggled offensively with MLB pitching with a 4 for 31 clip with just five RBI.
The catching position has struggled as well which is something we have not had to focus as much on as the pitching staff had done its job in years past. Shane Bieber and former Guardians pitchers Aaron Civale, Zach Plesac, and others had solid outings and the lack of offense from the catchers could be overlooked. Now we are starting to see that maybe a free agent catcher such as Elias Diaz, the former Rockies all-star, may not be a bad options for a team that has struggled at the position.
These are the options for players that could fill out the roster, but what about Stephen Vogt? What could he do differently that could help with this team? There were some issues in some close games throughout the month of August that saw Vogt throw in the towel in some close games bringing in a struggling Nick Sandlin or Pedro Avila and the once close games got out of hand. Lineup choices have also haunted Vogt with Schneeman, Freeman, and Brennen all being in the lineup and struggling mightily. Maybe its time for Vogt to rely on guys on his staff like Carl Willis, Sandy Alomar, Craig Albernaz and others to make some better decisions when it comes to pitching and hitting rotations.
We really didn’t know what we truly had in Tito Francona until we saw him ride off into the sunset on his scooter and for the first time since Eric Wedge, we are dealing with the inexperience of a rookie manager. Tito brought a sense of calmness to the team, and while last year was a struggle, Tito always gave you a team that you thought may be able to find a way. We had that early in the season but now as we get down the stretch we can see Vogt may be starting to struggle with his decision making. Should we give up on him? No, it’s not time for that and the Dolans are not the type to just give up on someone. There are changes and better decision-making that need to take place with this team and coaching staff.
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