GUARDIANS: Travis Bazzana’s WBC BLAST and Tanner Bibee’s Birthday GEM IGNITE Excitement

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The Cleveland Guardians hammered Chicago White Dogs yesterday, Travis Buzana, hammered

some baseballs in the World Baseball Classic.

Almost all the vibes coming out of Cleveland are feeling exceptional right now.

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On today's show, we're going to talk about the spring training game today, the good and

the ill of it, as well as just talking a little bit about the WBC, I currently have the

Australia game running in the background, just to see if any more fun can happen with

the Bazzmanian devil.

Then we are going to talk about kind of the danger of getting a little too excited about

spring training performances.

We're going to talk about some of the things to look out for, some of the caveats where

you need to pay attention a little deeper than just numbers and performance.

Then we will talk about the prospect breakout game.

They announced rosters today and we'll get into who was added on in particular.

We knew what the setup was going to be, Cleveland kind of had 10 wiggle spots, so we're going

to focus on those wiggle spots.

So let's, without further ado, let's just dive into it.

So let's start with Travis Posana.

Yesterday, if you missed it, go find the highlight clip.

He hammered a ball off of Chang Yi of Chinese Taipei, who it's kind of funny because he is

a guardian himself.

He's a Fuban guardian.

He is in the CPBL, the Chinese professional baseball league.

He had previously been in the Japanese professional baseball league, had some struggles there, moved

to the Chinese baseball league, where he played for the Fuban guardians.

A great swing, good velocity on it.

He really hit the ball hard.

It was an exciting moment to watch.

It's what you're looking for so far, and I'll say, the fun part is, we're all very focused

on Posana for obvious reasons.

He had two hard hit balls in that game, including the home run.

He was hitting lead off the other lead off hitter for Chinese Taipei, Stuart Fairchild.

It was a guardian leading off both sides, and Chinese Taipei had former guardian Yuchang

hitting cleanup.

There was a lot of fun tie-ins, and I would butcher his name, the former catcher, pinch

it in this one as well, if we're leaving a guy who, Kukang, Gil-Gi-Wu-Ha.

He had another name, decided to go to more of background family name.

He was there.

Cleveland used to go into Taipei.

There's a few guys in that Taipei that are familiar names to me, that I feel like players

that Cleveland had signed or had in the system at various points, they just didn't get any

success from it.

I think that was really Chinese Taipei, it was one of the last places in Asia.

We saw them consistently mine for a lot of years there.

They have really pulled back, though, because they just didn't get much out of it.

They never really had a guy step forward from it.

Seeing that Chinese Taipei team, I was like, oh, yeah, I remember him, and I remember him,

but the big story, of course, Buzana and his performance.

In the follow-up game today with the Czech Republic, I'll say this, he's swinging for all

the people who are worried about him being a little too passive, he had a first-pitch

line out.

He did have a walk in Squirtle Run, they pretty much pitched around him, they did not

want to face him, and then Curtis Mead hit a home run right after him.

Buzana, no hits today, but he's, you know, he made an impact by just, they were afraid

to throw to him, so they walked him, and the next guy hit a home run.

He is over two in the game today with a walk and a run scored.

The Guardians beat the White Sox 12 to three.

To me, we got to take a moment, and you know, the birthday boy.

Yesterday was Tanner by V's birthday, and he threw four innings, one hit baseball.

He was really on the ball for this one, you know, we saw, it was interesting in terms

of his usage.

Early in the game, he was extremely foreseeing, cutter-heavy, any kind of state that way.

He definitely focused on those two pitches, I don't know if he's slowly rolling out other

pitches, if he's just kind of working on those pitches in particular.

But he was, that was 76% of the pitches thrown, you know, during last season, that was

instead 49% of the pitches thrown.

You know, his foreseemer isn't always his strongest pitch in the past, but he was able

to use it effectively.

Nothing really stood out.

Things were kind of in line with everything else outside of the overall usage.

But he went out and shut down a, you know, not the best team, it's Chicago White Sox,

but still, anytime you're going to go out there and have four innings and give up one

hit, that's a solid performance, four strikeouts, no walks, and never really hit him hard.

The hardest exit Velo off of him, I believe, was 101, limiting the damage to himself.

Oh, I mean, he gave up one hit, what am I saying?

There's no limiting damage.

He was, he was, he was great against the White Sox, really solid performance.

You have to give him some shout outs, highest exit Velo in the game, Cody Huff on his double,

kind of talk more about that in a bit, CJ K.

Beside a Homer at 107, and on how Martinez also had a Homer at 107 is, it's a really interesting

thing too.

Because I talk a lot of times about stats for some people love or don't love.

But so CJ, K.

Beside on how Martinez basically hit a ball with the same amount of strength that exited

their bat at the same rate, K.

Bes came in at a lower pitch Velo, higher pitch Velo from Martinez.

One was a double the other home run.

What was the, the reason the difference?

Well, K.

Bes had literally twice the launch angle, Martinez at 19 is kind of, you know, 25 and up

is typically your home run launch angles.

He's at a 19.

This is at 38.

He really got himself fully extended under that one.

You also then once they got into the, the deep part of the bullpen, Tolentino, head of

home run.

I'm going to talk about him in a bit, Carter, Kaboom, head of home run.

One of the things that stood out throughout spring and something that I appreciate is we're

seeing Brian Brokio start to hit the ball with a little more authority, hit a one or three

eight, a double early in the game.

And Georgia Valera also had a double early in the game, and he is also a pretty consistent

high exit velocities.

Now we know that the exit velocities playing in Arizona, it's a kind of getting inflated

a bit by a few miles an hour.

But you know, these players are hitting at a, you know, a higher exit velocity degree

to begin with.

So you're not as worried about the regression there.

It's definitely positive steps.

And then you have to talk about Kate Smith's debut.

You know, he had a, I believe, a pinched nerve in his neck.

And he hadn't, you know, debuted yet in a game.

He went into this one inning, one strike out nine pitches, really solid debut.

He did give up one ball that was hard hit, but it resulted in an out, nice to see Kate

out there performing being, you know, I talked about this when we did a, I did a short

video that you'll eventually get to see on our top 100 players in baseball and Kate Smith

when his relative ranking.

Once Kate Smith is debuted, he has the best fit of any reliever in baseball.

He has, or maybe he has the second best, I don't know, I believe he has the best fit.

He has the highest war.

He has the second most innings, just a third of an inning behind, like an I'm always behind.

I think it might be a braille with Houston.

And then he's got like second, I believe, best, Kate, a walk ratio like he, I think sometimes

we underappreciate just how dominant Kate Smith has been.

So getting him out there, getting him a chance to perform, you're ready.

It's huge.

We still haven't seen Gattice yet.

And then I'm running a little on time, I'd be remiss.

Justin and I both thought Chase Delotta would be in this game, that with his health that

he was kind of taken off every other game, this was mostly a backups game for Cleveland

if we're being honest.

So maybe you could give that rationale, but with Delotta also already missing so many

games, it just seemed odd to have them miss three games in a row.

But they did.

Hopefully, that it's again, just the preponderance of caution and not that, you know, he's not

the soreness isn't improving at all, even with some time off.

But it's something to keep your eye on.

It's something to pay attention to.

It's definitely disappointing.

If I'm to go old squad this and give a three stars of the game, I'd have to give it to

Tanner and CJ Kephas, definitely stand out.

And I think I'd have to give it to on how Martinez who continues to have a toward spring.

Let me know if you want more of the three stars.

You know, comment below.

Some people love to the year ago so much that I made a document for it.

Do you want me to keep that up for this season as well, who actually checked on that document?

Let me know.

Give me some more info on if I should continue that.

We will come back from the break.

We're going to talk a little bit about who've been the spring kings of the past.

And also just give some general warnings about what we need to pay attention to and sometimes

when the stats are lying to our face.

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But Cleveland is given the same odds as the Pittsburgh pirates.

Yes, the Pittsburgh pirates team, I get it, they, they signed a free agent for, for the

first time in like a decade, but still the pirates, it's still a organization that has

struggled to do anything over the last lifetime of mine, essentially, I'm getting, I'm getting

closer to 50 than I am 40 and the pirates have been a dumpster fire for almost my entire

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And they give them the same odds as the Cleveland Guardians who somehow find a way every

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Play your game.

I want to take a moment and say check out the every day or club.

If you want even more content, more interactions, you want a chance to talk on the discord.

You know, I'll be honest, we check, I check the discord every day, I've discord on my

phone from back with some gaming.

So that's, it's a sure way that I will be checking and looking.

And you can go to supercast.gardians.com to get more information on that, you'd add

free episodes as well as access to all the discord's, not just the Cleveland Guardians

discord, but you know, if you wanted to check out the Cleveland Browns discord or the Cleveland

Cavs discord, Blue Jackets maybe.

I am, I am very conflicted about this upcoming trade deadline for them, but all of that is

over there as part of the every day or club.

I do have to pull up before I dive into the dangers of spring training and who have been

our past spring kings.

Casey missed it.

I thought this was a very interesting quote that we can't, you know, it's, I forgot where

Justin and sent him.

He didn't send it to me on Twitter.

He said it to me via my phone.

It's just, we can't ignore this quote.

In case you missed it, in term, MLBPA executive director Bruce Meyer said after meetings of

players this morning on a salary cap, salary cap certainly don't guarantee competitive

balance.

You're very much better off being a Cleveland Guardians fan over the last number of years

in the Cleveland Browns fan shots fired.

This would all be well and good except for you're pulling the team with the longest championship

drought and baseball as an example, and while Cleveland has been highly competitive and

the Guardians are more worth your money and your time than the Browns, there's no doubt.

The Browns, you know, with that organization set up now, I don't think it really matters

I'm going to be able to get anything together, but, you know, they don't bring up Kansas

City.

Why?

Because the Kansas State Chiefs have been successful, right?

Like they had to find an organization where it's a lower income team that has been not

as successful versus the team that, you know, it fits their narrative, but it doesn't.

Sorry for the awkward pause there for those who are not watching, you might want to go

watch as my cats and my man should knock the whole arm off my microphone there for a second

by and back, but just say they, you know, the player association was very direct in choosing

a team that had been successful versus that doesn't spend and then had to find, you know,

the right alternative team that has not been successful and it's, it's always easy to

kind of, you know, rag on the Browns and at the same time, the Guardians fit their spending

model.

It is also interesting that there was a thing in the athletic where they responded to the

polling data for, you know, if fans want a salary cap and tried to claim that the data

was shifting away from salary cap, even though then the athletic pointed out that their

own data shows a shift of fans wanting the salary cap more.

So it looks right now like the players association is trying to do a small degree of early gas

lighting, which is fair because so are the owners.

It's going to be interesting in time, but now let's get into the meat of this segment.

Let's get into why you're here.

I wanted to go back and look at, so there's some important things I have to talk about.

Like I have had a lot of people bring up this idea of like, hey, Mulan Tolentino's look

great.

Could he be this team starting shortstop?

You know, you're not talking about him or you're not talking about certain players.

And first off, I have to say this, if a player isn't starting, the level of competition

they're facing is pretty terrible.

So for instance, Mulan Tolentino who spent all of last year in AAA, his opponent quality

baseball reference has a really useful tool for this where you can go and look at the spring

trading data and then it quantifies the average level of their opponents that they faced.

Mulan Tolentino is a 6.5.

That means he is not even facing on average when he comes into games, double a level competition.

He's facing Aball competition.

Now Aball itself is a high A is a 5.

So he's between high A and double A. He's kind of an in-between number there, but that's

what happens.

You're going to see a lot of players release step up and perform well, especially those

who aren't starting.

We're coming in against the backups.

That's always something you have to be aware of and watch for.

And I've already talked about some of the inflation that can come with stats with some of

these parks.

But I wanted to point out who've been our past kings of spring and you're going to see

a pattern in this.

2022, top 10 hitters, minimum 20 played appearances by OPS, Ernie Clement, OK, fine.

Jimenez, OK, makes sense.

Stephen Cwan, you got Owen Miller, you Chen Cheng, Fran Mo Reyes, really worked out all

well for all three guys that year.

Oscar Gonzalez, Oscar Mercado, Jose, and then Miles Stra.

2023, your spring kings.

Number one, best hitter in spring, Miles Stra, followed by David Fry,

Micah Pries, then you have Jose, Roman Quinn, who I had completely forgotten about.

And so I like this up, Josh Naylor, meorbries, Valera, I can't even say his name, Valora,

who I had also forgotten about, Josh Bell, remember how excited we were there, Gabby Arias

and Stephen Cwan.

How about 2024?

You have chased a lotter on Hell Martinez.

So this now is something to point out where on Hell's had a few good springs, Austin

Hedges, Daniel Schneeman, Will Brennan, Kalman Zardo, David Fry, Miles Straugh for the

third time, Andreas Jimenez, Ty Freeman, last year, the best hitter, the king of spring

was Micah Pries, who they cut a month in the season, followed by Tyler Freeman, who they

traded away.

Then Manzardo, Cleo Watson, Lane Thomas, Stephen Cwan, John Kenzie Noel, Will Wilson, Brian

Roqueo, Juan Bredo, remember last year, how part of the talk was the reason Bredo did

not make the team out of campus, if he had a bad spring, turns out he didn't have that

bad spring.

He had a 700 something OPS, but so the idea is that high level spring performance, I mean

every year, Miles Straugh was the king of spring.

We didn't see it translate, and Ty Freeman, I was looking up him today for everyone out

there who just thinks he had a breakout year, he had a Ty Freeman year.

He came out hot, he cooled down, and I think the hardest part about Tyler Freeman is he

doesn't have a great splits by that, I mean that he doesn't murder lefties, like if you

have that guy who's maybe a platoon bat, and I think this is why Cleveland traded him,

it's like he's very even in his below average production, and it's that Cwan Alex Cole,

the Bren Donovan without the walk rate, it's like you need that one extra part to really

make it work.

So yeah, last year's list is really uninspiring when you get down to it, you know when Zardo

ended up keeping it together, but the rest of this group, pretty not there, but Juan and

Miles Straugh, always strong in spring, you got to look at who they're facing, you got

to look at the quality of competition, and that's why I do talk about things like hard

hit rate, I talk about some of the data we see with like swings and misses, some of

that stuff, because I think that is what we're going to see hold up and hold longer overall,

and it's going to provide more value than a lot of the other just pure data, you know,

it's spring, enjoy the games, have fun with it, don't take too much from it, don't shake

things up, like Juan Tolentino, great kid, but if you listen to podcasts, just nine, never

discussed them for the top 30 prospects, name never came up, you know, if you listen

every day, you trust us enough, maybe trust us in those situations as well, when we come

back from the break, by we, I guess it's a row, we, because it's just me, we got to talk

about the prospect breakout game, you know, we got some details, some interesting things

arising there, a few more thoughts on the spring situation based on a few questions in

our comments, and we'll be back in a moment with all of that fun.

I gotta be honest, I still can't believe that we are getting sponsored by MLB the show,

I was telling my students about this because a video game is sponsoring my podcast, how

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road to the show, and they've revamped road to the show, they're doing a lot more with

it this year, that career mode, I think, is going to be, I'm going to be checking that

one out, I am, the type of player I am in those games is the exact type of hitter you

will often hear me complain about, or not to be sure about, on this very podcast, just

because it is not a, I play differently than the players I evaluate, but I have so much

on with that, I have so much fun in franchise mode, getting to see all of the players you've

talked about, you never know how they're gonna develop, how they're gonna work, it is

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Okay, so just final thoughts on spring here, like I said, there is some good parts you

can take away, and if there is a player who is facing higher level competition, that is

always where it's interesting, that's what I would say is the thing you want to pay attention

to the most, but yeah, just don't fall into the pitfall, every year I feel like we sit

back and there's some player that we, people want to tell us like, oh, you know, he's turned

a corner and just it often doesn't work that way, you want to look at all of the information

available to you, and just like I said, look at who they're facing their performance level,

like Cleo Watson's one of the darlings of camp, we talked about Milano and Tino's at a 6.5

Cleo Watson's opponent quality is a 5.8, again, that's high a like guys are going to crush

that, yeah, he's not chasing because the stuff isn't as great, and a lot of people are

excited about tugboat, and it's great that he has those two innings against the Phillies

high a guys in the 8th and 9th inning, but he's topping out at 89, you got to look at stuff,

you got to look at stuff in performance, and that's why I like looking at things like

velocity, movement, looking at the pitch charts, looking at how hard they hit the ball, all

that stuff I think is really important before you go all in on any player based on spring,

it's spring. So let's talk about these spring breakout games since it's spring, so for those

who are not familiar, the spring breakout game Cleveland is going to face the angels on Thursday,

March 19th at 4.10 pm. Last year it was on TV, it was on the MLB app, I believe it's going to be

on the MLB app again this year. The first year you couldn't watch it, but the last two years you

could. So kind of the general thing for this is it's a guardians team made up of prospects. MLB

encourages the teams to start with the top 30. So whoever is on their top 30 prospects,

consider those players, and then pick 8 to 10 more, and then this is just the first release,

this is the 40 man pool, and then they've got to pair it down to a 23 to 27 man roster by the time

the game has played. So they have about two weeks to figure out who they're going to use, and

some of that just availability. You know, Parker Messick is pitching around there for the main team,

and he's got a chance to make this team. Then, you know, Parker Messick isn't going to be

available. Andrew Walters, like he's on the list, but he's not going to make it, he's been hurt.

So essentially every, like I said, every player in the top 30 is on this list. Now who was not on

the top 30, who made it? We've talked about Nick Mitchell a lot, he's on Justin Amin's top 30,

he's on blockchain guardians top 30, we're higher on him than the MLB, he is on this list, he has been

in camp, that's not a surprise. Well, Fredo Antunias, a player who has, you know, feels like

been around forever. He got the call as one of the options, another player who's in camp, Alex

Mooney got an option here. You know, I think it just came down to infield defense, giving him some more

short stops, some more up the middle players, Mulantone Tino, who we talked about a lot on today's

show, I feel bad at barrier to kid who, you know, always done his play well in camp and be a solid

human. So I hope you, you makes me, my words today, I really do. I wish that with every player,

because then that means it's another great talent for the Cleveland farm system. But he is on

there, and I think he has a real good chance of making that finalist, Jose Devers, a guy who

feels like once or twice a year, he gets hot as anyone on the team in the minors and has some

great production. I talked about tugboat rough year for tugboat a year ago, and this is what you

see. When you got a lefty in the, in low A with good command and a secondary offering,

they dominate. And then he moved up to high A, and he just, it was a different situation,

because guys could be a bit more selective. And, you know, guys hit his stuff a lot easier.

Rafe Slesinger, also a top 30 guy for Justin and myself. He did miss him time last year at

injury. That could be why he's not as high in the MLB list. Jackson Humphreys, another left

in a picture, a guy that gave a lot of mind to got hurt out of high school has really struggled

with this command since then. To me, the most quizzical guy to not be a top 30 prospect who made this

Yormon Gomez. I don't understand how he's not top 30. Justin and I both have him in the teens.

This is definitely the player that we are the most different on to the MLB. He was a helium guy a

year ago. He was a breakout guy who's not a guy who's on our list to start the year. And he has a

high reliever risk chance. But like, again, he's probably going to be in the top 15 for both for

Justin and myself composite list. Somehow isn't even in the top 30 on the MLB list.

Jagli Garcia started out really hot a year ago. He might be a reliever. I think he has an MLB

potentially an MLB future. Not like the best chance. The reason why we're going to talk about him

with the top 30, but I do think there's some slight chances of reliever. Caden favors is probably

the guy most surprised. Justin and I haven't discussed it all for our top 30. I feel like he's

in the 30 to 40 range. He's a major helium candidate for this year. There's just a lot of positive

traits, things people really like with him. So Caden favors fun player, not in our top 30 eye there,

but one of those guys that, you know, even mid season, we won't be talking about a lot more.

So outside of that, it's like I said, it's all of your top 30. So all of the guys who talked about

guys like, you know, George Valera is 29th. Again, probably not going to make it just because he's

going to be playing in the big game. Chase the lottery. I don't see them putting chase the lottery

in any extra games based on what we have seen so far this off season. So I don't think we'll see him

there, but it's fun. And in a year, they're going to change the format and make it a tournament style

because of course they are because in a year, minor leagueers can still go out and play and play

in a tournament style performance when the major leagueers can't due to a lockout. Like the

minor league players are not locked out. That is why they're setting themselves up for that situation.

Always follow the money in the money is the chance to, you know, see those performances and playing

in two weeks in that breakout game. It's a fun idea. I like that they, you know, even like this,

expanding it into a single elimination tournament format, I think that is fun.

I like that they are doing this. Even if I am a little bit cynical about why they're expanding

it even more. And you're going to have guys from low A to triple A. It's not a great evaluation

tool. It's more than it's a fun situation. It's something you can watch the players. See some

guys maybe that you haven't had a chance to see yet. Go out there and perform. So yeah, I would

definitely tune in and check it out. If you're like, hey, why didn't you talk about this prospect?

Again, if they're on the MLB top 30 list, then they are here. They made it, you know,

they're going to have a chance to compete and play in this game potentially. They do have to cut

13 players from the list, but it does feel at base value very easy based on the players who are

in contention for the roster players who I think will make the roster as well as, you know, just some

of the guys who are maybe a little scuffed up a little injured. While we're saying this and

talking about prospects, I do have to talk about MLB released their top 30 prospects as well as

their rankings. Cleveland came in, I believe, fifth rated minor league system overall. I'm sorry,

sixth rated minor league system overall. They have the most players in the top 100. They're tied

at six with, I believe, Milwaukee's got to be one of the teams that has six in there just with the

way it breaks down overall. Oh, it's a Cardinals and Mariners have six. I was wrong. But I think the

reason they're not higher is, you know, Basana is rated 20 because he was hurt last year, right? He

is not as healthy. And then you look at Detroit's got two guys in the top 10, you know, St. Louis has one

top 10 guy like all the progress. You know, there's two guys in the top 11 for the pirates. The Dodgers

don't have any in the top 10, but they have a guy at 15 and a guy at 27. Cleveland's only got one guy

in the top 30. And the Brewers have, you know, the number three overall prospect and then a whole

mess of highly rated like the Brewers are number one on every list for a reason. I think it's Cleveland

with Basana's injury a year ago and just how that kind of dinged him that a lot of their high-end

prospects are for the MLB side, you know, their rankings have them, you know, outside the top 50.

You've got the ladder and Basana in the top 50 and everyone else outside of it, even though they

had six players. It's surprising to me that Cooper Ingle made the list at 99 just because he didn't

come remotely close on any other lists. So that was kind of interesting. I get it because his

production was incredibly high. But, you know, the lack of hard hit is something we think is really

going to hold him back this year. But yeah, it's it's fun to see the MLB stuff. They're always kind

of a consensus listing is what it feels like in the end. I'm never going to say a bad thing about

Mayo and Calis. I've had a handful of interactions with both of them and they're both utterly fantastic,

you know, two of the the goats when it comes to prospect development and, you know, scouting

and guys who help set me on the path of what I like to do and what I like to talk about.

As I watch Robbie Glendon and then go walk and remember scouting him and Missouri back in the day.

So it's like, you know, it's people like that helped get people like Justin and I,

along with the great John Sickles, you know, always give credit there as well when I can because

John Sickles is a forgotten great in baseball scout writing history. That's our week. We'll be back

Monday discussing all the fun over the weekend. You can let me know why I'm wrong. Why I'm a wet

blanket. It's fine. I understand. I'm used to getting those statements, but like also,

let's have some fun. Like Pazana, that home run, you know, it got me juiced watching it happen.

You know, seeing some of these players come up and play well, like, what while we're worried

about, you know, the direct correspondence of production, here's what I do know. If a guy comes up

and is terrible, the chance of him being productive is not good. We need to at least clear the first

hurdle. I just am saying, let's not confuse clearing the first hurdle with the last hurdle.

That's all. Thank you all for joining us. Remember to read and review download daily. It helps.

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