News and Notes: More Baseball?? In This Economy???

News and Notes for Tuesday, February 25th, 2025

It’s at the point where I’m just so delighted that there is a Guardians’ game practically every day from this point on for a good while. What a joy.

The Guardians play the Brewers at 3:05 PM EST today, where we will get a glimpse of Luis L. Ortiz in a Guardians’ uniform. In our first glimpse of Slade Cecconi, his fastball was sitting at his 2024 average of 94 mph (in his first outing of the year, too!) and he unveiled a new sinker and a slightly raised arm angle, as analyzed by Thomas Nestico @TJStats on Twitter, and potentially a new cutter as analyzed by @mlbfeeelit:

Cecconi is going to be a very interesting player to follow this year. Similarly, I am very interested to see what changes we may observe with Ortiz. Cantillo looked great in his first outing also. Tommy Mace hit 95 on the gun with his fastball and I had not seen that yet. Mace is a name I’d pay attention for this year. He dramatically cut his walk-rate last year; if he can do that and increase his K’s while maintaining an excellent groundball rate, the Guardians will really have something there, having slipped him through the Rule 5 draft.

I saw some discussion over what pitches Gabriel Arias and Kyle Manzardo homered on yesterday and the answer, for both players, were Zac Gallen changeups over the plate. However, given the Guardians’ past issues with changeups (not so much in 2024), I’ll take that off a very good pitcher. Arias has certainly been hitting the ball well so far, which can only help him in the second base competition.

Some rumors have been emerging about various camp situations. Apparently, Chase DeLauter is not hurt but potentially getting used to new routines and equipment to help prevent his injury and will hopefully get in games next week. Franco Aleman has a hernia; we wish him the best and wouldn’t expect to see him pitch in games for a while. Erik Sabrowski has an unspecified injury – this may open up a chance for Koby Allard, Parker Mushinski or Andrew Misaszek to make the roster as the second lefty in the bullpen, depending on how serious Sabrowski’s injury is. Let’s hope it’s something minor and he can get back on track.

So far, we have seen Gabriel Arias, Juan Brito and Angel Martinez get starts at second base. I’ll be curious to see if Tyler Freeman gets one today, or if those three are considered the primary candidates to win the job there. Such an exciting time of year with so much to figure out and you can do it while following games that are fun but the outcomes of which don’t matter. Enjoy, folks.

Here’s an article about how crucial Hedges was to a team winning a World Series. Read it and weep, Hedges-magic skeptics.

Condolences to the Dolan family, owners of the Guardians, on the passing of Larry Dolan who was 94 years old. He lived a long, full life and he did his part to keep the Guardians in Cleveland; for that, I am grateful.