News and Notes: Cleveland Goes Bazzanas

News and Notes for Monday, July 15, 2024

The Cleveland Guardians selected Travis Bazzana with the number one pick in the MLB draft last night.

There was also a baseball game earlier in the day. No one told the Guardians’ hitters, however, so they were shut out. Ben Lively finished a strong first half with another excellent start, but I guess the Guardians offense needed a reset because other than Angel Martinez, no one seemed particularly locked in as the Rays needed only 121 pitches to dispatch the Guardians 2-0. The Twins and Royals both lost, however, so that’s good. Detroit finished on a real hot stretch, however, taking a series from the Dodgers.

But, thankfully, there were happier times for Guardians’ fans ahead as Cleveland made the #1, #36, and #48 picks in the MLB Draft.

First, after some intrigue revolving around negotiating Bazzana’s price down by flirting with JJ Wetherholt, the Guardians’ selected the Oregon State second baseman from Australia. Here’s President of Baseball Operations Chris Antonetti on Bazzana:

You can read our Brian Hemminger on Bazzana here, and don’t miss this great piece on him here from Jeff Passan at ESPN and here from Brian Hamilton at the Athletic.

The Guardians then selected right-handed prep starter Braylon Doughty at #36 and North Carolina State catcher Jacob Cozart at #48. Brian has us covered here writing about Doughty here and Cozart here.

The draft will resume at 2PM EST today and we will have a draft day thread and analysis from Brian in the comments here on Covering the Corner. You can watch it for free on MLB.com or the MLB GameDay app. There are a lot of good players left, so let’s hope the Guardians have something fun planned for the day starting with pick 84,

The home run derby, featuring our own Jose Ramirez, will be tonight at 8pm EST.