News and Notes: Guardians Are Officially Slumping

News and Notes for Saturday, July 13th, 2024

Taj Bradley, Colin Poche and Jason Adam struck out 13 Guardians and allowed only five hits and two walks as the Guardians 2-0.

On the brightside, Carlos Carrasco allowed one earned run in five innings of work, and remains a solid #5 option for a playoff contender. The problem, of course, is that the Guardians’ #1 option has been slumping, their #2 option is working his way back from an elbow injury and maybe had to turn his slider into a cutter as a result(??), and Ben Lively is probably a decent #4, and Spencer Howard, Logan Allen and Triston McKenzie have sauntered to the pitching mound with gas cans to splash with and matches to ignite. That’s a recipe for something unsustainable when your team is 20-some games over .500.

The Guardians’ offense and bullpen managed to compensate for those issues through June 25th. Since June 26th, the Guardians offense has been 25th in MLB with a 94 wRC+ (Minnesota has been first in the same time period with a 139 wRC+) and the Guardians’ bullpen has been 23rd in MLB with a 4.52 FIP (Minnesota’s pen has been fourth with a 2.92 FIP). And, so, the Guardians should probably feel lucky to still be four games up in the loss column on the Twins.

It was probably unrealistic to expect David Fry to continue to be the right-handed Barry Bonds or Angel Martinez to never take a step back on his path toward becoming the next Jose Ramirez. I realize that fears are no doubt taking hold of the Guardians’ fanbase, but I am confident this is a good team and they will figure it out soon. Thankfully, a reset with the All-Star break is coming, but manager Stephen Vogt needs to find a way to get his squad to finish strong rather than limp their way through these final two games in Tampa. The afternoon start today is coming up quickly.

Sam Hentges went to the IL with shoulder inflammation, which is less than ideal. At least Xzavion Curry, who was called up in his place, pitched in two clutch innings for the Guardians last night, striking out three.

Jim Callis of MLB Pipeline and Carlos Collazo of Baseball America released latest mock drafts and with Callis giving the slight edge to Travis Bazzana and Collazo having JJ Wetherholt going to Cleveland #1. But, everyone has been clear that Cleveland has likely still not indicated to any player their decision and may not have made that decision yet. The Guardians are hoping the last minute phone call will buy them a little leverage to get the best player possible at the best price possible. They’ll make their first pick at 7pm EST tomorrow, Sunday, July 14th.

Here’s hoping for a better news and notes to give you tomorrow!