Welcome to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Guardians Radio network. Guardians Weekly is brought
to you by Progressive helping Guardians fans save hundreds on car insurance hiver wand welcome
to Gardian's Weekly. Jim Rosenhouse along with you from Chicago this weekend as the
Guardians are playing the White Sox in a four game weekend series that continues Saturday
evening at seven to ten Cleveland time and then concludes on Sunday afternoon with a
two to ten first pitch before the Guardians are off to Texas to take on
the Rangers for a three game series starting Monday night. Coming up a little
bit later on on this week's show, we will hear from shortstop Brian Rochio
and utility man David Frye, along with rookie first baseman Kyle Manzardo made his
major league debut earlier this week, and veteran catcher Austin Hedges will also stop
by, and we'll hear from Rob Sorfolio a minor league report from the director
of player Development. But first our weekend review and it begins with a series
against the Tigers on Monday night. First visit of the season to Cleveland by
Detroit, and the Tigers jumped on top. In that ballgame one nothing,
Riley Green with a home run on the first pitch of the game from Tristan
McKenzie, and the Guardians answered in the bottom half of the first inning when
Estevan Florioll got things started with a double and then Will Brennan delivered to tie
the game. And he sends a line drive to right field base shit up
with it as carpenter, he'll throw toward third in with a slide feet first,
is Nailer out a third? Flori All scores well. Will Brennan made
the Tigers pay a two out RBI single to right that scored flori All.
Naylor tried to go first to third and was out by ten feet to third.
After that first inning home run, mackenzie was absolutely dialed in on the
mound the payoff pitch on its way breaking ball called strike three at the top
of the zone. Kenna can't believe it, and he asked some words with
Ramon dea Heyeseus before he heads back to the dugout. Well, that may
be a by out of two of some pitches earlier in the at bat that
he was not happy with curveball caught the upper fringe of the strike zone.
So another strikeout for Mackenzie. That's his sixth. And in the sixth inning
it was Jose Ramirez with another classic ten pitch at bat one one game,
bottom of the sixth. One mistake may decide this game. Here's the pitch,
a swing in the drive to the brightfield, away back and right down
the line. Jose Ramrez makes it on tut one Cleveland Lane, and just
like yesterday, Jose Ramirez delivers a go ahead home run. And like yesterday,
it comes in the sixth inning. Now look out, Now this guy
may get red hot. Seven home runs for Ras. Then the Guardian's bullpen
took over. Sam Henches returned from the injury list. He pitched two thirds
of a scoreless inning before he turned it over to Nick sandlan. Now the
wind an one two, swung out, a chopper to third handled by Ramirez,
sets froze. Good job by Nick Sandlin, man, he has just
been lights out. It's strench time at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario.
With a score Cleveland two and Detroit one. And then Hunter Gaddis was on
forty eighth inning here's the two swim struck out Perez. What a job by
Gaddis. That's gotta be a huge shot in the arm for Hunter Gaddis.
And in the ninth who else but closer a Manuel Classe. Tigers came in
here struggling to score runs all season, and a dominant pitching performance by Cleveland
this evening. The next delivery swung, I'm spanked in the ground to first,
Naylor has it goes to the bang himself ballgame and the Guardians make it
three string and in their first speeding with Detroit this season, stop the Tigers
two to one. So a nice win on Monday night for the Guardians.
The Tigers return the favor on Tuesday, winning eleven to seven, setting up
a rubber match on Wednesday afternoon. A beautiful day in downtown Cleveland, and
what a ballgame the Guardians got. The scoring started in the second inning Austin
Hedges batting with the bases loaded. Here's the pitch swung on ground ball left
side had prove base hit. One run is in, it's Nailer Fry is
right behind him. He scores as well, and Hedges comes through with a
two run single and the Guardians take the lead to nothing, but four runs
for the Tigers in the fourth, and just like that, Detroit in front
four to two. Onto the seventh inning, we went Manager Steven Vote called
on Kyle Manzardo to pinch hit. With Manzardo still looking for his first major
league hit, two outs, bases empty, the old one swung online drive
to left green, tracking it can't make a play. Mansarto has his first
major league base hit, an opposite field single, pinch hitting here in the
seventh. Great moment for the young slugger. But the Tigers got out of
the inning still leading four to two. So we went to the eighth and
Brian Rochio got it started with a base hit stole second and that brought Andre
Simenez to the plate. Here's the one, one up and in and it's
a check swing roller in play, picked up by A Bonyes and he throws
him out at first base. Nice play by the second basement at Bonyes on
an awkward looking swing by Jimenez, but the ball was in play on the
ground on the right side. The run scored from third on the play.
Rochio down the line and then in the ninth thenning, the Guardians were running
out of time, but David Fry stepped in with one out, here's the
old one swung on and here's a high fly ball to aright, this is
hit well, it's carrying toward the corner. Carpenter looks up home run.
Fry tie game at four. On two extra innings, we went a manual
classe A on for the Guardians, trying to keep things tied in the tenth.
Here's the one to one swung on ground ball to third, dug out
by Tyler Freeman. Throws across in time for the out, and classe A
keeps it tied at four as we head to the bottom half of inning number
ten. Then in the bottom half of the tenth, Thenning Ramon Loriano was
the runner starting at second base, Tyler Freeman sack bunt moved him up to
third, and then Brian Rochio stepped in. Lang delivers swung online drive base
hit center field, scoring is Loriano and it's a walk off winner for the
Guardians, five four, Cleveland with runs in the eighth, ninth and tenth
innings. First walk off winner of Brian Rochio's major league career, and what
a ballgame for the Guardians On Wednesday, so it was on to Chicago to
open a series against the last place but improving White Sox. And it's been
a tough go so far here in Chicago. Thursday night a three to two
win for the Socks over the Guardians, and then on Friday night a frustrating
six to three defeat for Cleveland against the White Sox as well. And again
on the weekend, the Guardians and Socks play seven to ten Saturday night and
two ten on Sunday afternoon. With us we'll hear from a bunch of players
and rob Sortfolio two that's coming up as we continue with Guardians weekly on the
Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network. Home Ownership Progressive, we know it's part of
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future and a couple of affliates other injuries not builpmental States. Welcome back to
Guardians Weekly, Jim Rosenhouse along with you from Chicago, and don't forget a
lot of different ways you can hear our show, including on the Guardians Radio
Network on the flagship station in Cleveland that means seven am on Saturday mornings.
Skitch you up with some Guardians Weekly for breakfast, and of course you can
always listen to our show when it's downloaded in podcast form wherever you like to
download your favorite podcast. It was a nice week for Brian Rokio, the
Guardian's rookie shortstop, had the game winning base hit in the bottom of the
tenth inning at home in the win over Detroit on Wednesday. When we heard
the highlight of that in our last segment, and we talked to him the
following day about his mindset heading into that what proved out to be the game
winning at bat. So when I got to the play, I saw the
Manayer, the Detroit Manayer coming to the tour with the umpire, so what
what the what are you doing? And him bring the center field to cover
like a little hole between Troy and second, And they said, that's new
for me. So now you had to thinking more to the middle. And
he just to the middle because you know nobody's there. And he told me
the first pitch to the middle, and I hit to the middle. So
you look at that and there's there's five in fielders, just the two outfielders
and then you obviously were able to come through and hit it where they weren't.
Uh. After your round first base, tell us what happened out there
and what that was like for you. Well, a lot of emotion.
See my, my, my, My team is running to me and everybody
happy that feel me, feel me more, more good, more confident because
they trusted me. That's that helped me a lot. When you look earlier
in the game, defense was a huge key. You made an outstanding play
on the diving stop and long throw the first How much can you actually practice
that play before you put it in a play in a game? To be
honest, I brought this a lot. The not the diving play. I
practiced more the long hot throw because I don't have a close arm. I
have the Albert hum and I and I tried to go to the tone,
help me to get more out of first base and in those play and then
an extra innings heads up play with Hobby Bias caught off the bag at second
base. How did that develop it? And how did you notice so quickly
that he might be in trouble if you went to second So I saw the
rum bole, uh, and see how he's the hit take is bigger,
and I think in my mind I have changed second bay, and really immediately
I told the second bay and we got Brian Rokio joining us, coming off
a tremendous game on Wednesday back home, and Brian, it seems like at
the plate things are coming along for you. Are you sensing some improvement there?
And if so, what is it? Yeah? I mean I'm trying
to get patient at time when I go to the play. I tried to
get my best be every time, tried to get on base any anyway and
help the team. You know, when I get on base, iry to
mad my f in the base to to to give that room about it coming
behind me. And there's no question you're on base percentages up the walks or
up. Is that the most difficult thing as a hitter a young hitter in
the major leagues to balance patients with being aggressive. Still, yeah, yeah,
it's it's a little bit harder because we want to be we want to
do more than than than the everybody snow and we had to control that and
be patient and the thing's gonna happen. Well, it has been going really
well on a great day on Wednesday, for sure, thanks a lot for
coming by. Thank you, and hey, tip of the cap to Brian
Rokio and spring training. He would not have done that interview without interpreter Augi
Rivero. But his English seemingly getting better by the day and he did real
nice work right there, and a tip of the cap to him. He
continues to work at it and really starting to get smooth with the English language.
Good for him. That's not an easy thing to do. David Fry
a good veteran player for the Guardians and he was a big key to that
win on Wednesday as well as Rokio had the walk off winner, but it
would not have been possible without Fry's ninth inning home run that sent the game
into extra innings. We caught up with David Fry the following day in Chicago
and he said while he hit the ball well, well, it was a
windy day in downtown Cleveland. That might have helped it aloud a little bit.
Yeah, I think that was a lot of the wind. I hit
it decent, but I was just kind of hoping it would like lay down
the line for a double or something, or maybe even push out of play,
but kind of kept carrying and luckily went over the fence. And in
that type of game, the way it was going, what is the feeling
in that dugout in the ninth inning as the team tries to come back.
Yeah, obviously. I mean with the team we have, we're always like
we just feel like, no matter what scores like, we're probably gonna win.
That's just kind of the vibe we have right now. I think it
was one of those deals we got. We got ahead early and then they
got the lead, and I think it was the fourth and we were just
kind of in a lull there for a little bit. But Manzo getting his
first hit, I think kind of got the dugout going, got the energy
up, and I think as much as we had seen their bullpen Threats series,
we just knew at some point we were going to get to them and
it seems like that's been a strong suit for this team really since the season
began, and it's not like that every season, Kenned. Is it something
that goes back to spring training or just maybe something that happens early in the
season and then you can continue it. Yeah. I think especially early in
the year, like going to Oakland and getting off to a good start,
I mean, just built confidence with the guys, and just like how well
our guys have thrown for us. Our pitchers have done so well keeping us
in ball games, and we just always have that feeling like we're going to
stay in the game and probably end up coming back and winning. David Fry
is joining us, and David you're as versatile as they come here and left
field and the series opener against the White Sox you were out there on Wednesday
and then some catching late in the game. Is it something you enjoy the
ability to do that? Yeah. Absolutely. I love being able to be
an option whatever they need me to get in the lineup, and I think
it's kind of one of the strengths of our team, Like we have a
bunch of guys. Freeman went from outfield to third the other day. Arius
has played so many different positions. We have so many guys who play all
over the field. That gives voting our staff just a lot of flexibility to
put guys in different spots and give us the best chance to win. And
the fact that you can catch seems to even bring your versatility to a higher
level. From the outside, it seems like something really hard to do,
but it seems like you've done that throughout your career. Is it easier because
you're in it and you do it all the time? Yeah? I think
so. It's like you said, something I've done throughout my career, so
I don't think about it as much, but I always kind of try to
main focus catching and do everything else. But like, our staff just does
such a great job of communicating and getting this at each position, so we
have an idea of hey, you're going to be playing more outfield at this
time, maybe more catching here, and again it's prepared for those situations.
And at the plate, it seems like you've really made some great progress to
become a real solid major league hitter. What's been the key for you?
If you can boil it down, it's been a lot of our hitting staff
has helped me just being more prepared and coming up with game plans for all
of my bats. And I think our team has done a really good job
of that of not like, hey, my goal is to get a hit
here. No, it's like you have a game plan if I execute my
game plan, but don't care about the results. It's about more about the
process. And you mentioned that, and sometimes you hear people say, well,
you don't want to think too much when you're hitting because it happens fast.
How do you balance that? I think it's part of preparation before the
game to where you've done it so much, you've thought about the bats so
much that once you're in it, you can just go play and react.
And I think that's kind of freed up our guys this year and why we've
had some success offense. All Right, David, thanks a lot for the
visit. Yeah, appreciate it. That's David Fry, always with some real
good perspectives on different facets of the game, and he's having quite a season
for the Guardians. Stay with us when we come back. We'll visit with
a rookie and a veteran, Kyle Mansarto and Austin Hedges as Guardians Weekly rolls
on after this time out on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network, Jim Rosen,
how's back with you from Chicago. It's Guardians Weekly. Great to have
you with us this weekend as we talked baseball on the radio, and a
big week it was for Kyle Manzardo, the highly regarded young prospect who I
guess when you make it to the major leagues, you're no longer the prospects.
He is now a rookie in the major leagues, making his debut on
Monday night against the Tigers. Picked up his first hit in Wednesday's game when
he singled as a pinch hitter in the seventh inning. We talked to him
prior to his debut on Monday, and he says it was special seeing his
name penciled in as the designated hitter in a big league lineup for the first
time. That sounds good to me. Tell us about this twenty four hour
period. How crazy has it been to you just what you've gone through to
get here and then just realizing the dream. Yeah, I mean it's been
it's been a whirlwind, of course, but I'm just I'm super excited right
now to you know, just go be myself out there. Can you give
us an Andy Tracy impression of how he messed with you before telling you that
you're going to the major leagues? Yeah? So, I mean I was
pulled out of the lineup that morning and kind of told that maybe it might
happen, but they're not quite sure yet. And then after the game he
called me in and told me that they were going to go in a different
direction in so I was I was sitting there like geez man, and that's
kind of kind of cold. And then then he let me know, you
know, shortly after. He didn't he didn't let it go too long,
but he had me going for a while. For some players it is a
flat out surprise. But you had been going well, right, And just
yesterday morning, Chris anton Edi said, I if there's a spot, he's
doing what he needs to to be that person to be called up. Did
you feel that in your inside? Yeah? Yeah, I mean I just
I was just focused on, uh, I don't know, playing as good
as I could and at least putting myself in a position to where, you
know, those conversations are had. But it did it? Did you know
come as kind of a surprise. I wasn't you know, sitting around waiting
for it. You know, I was just trying to trying to play well
every day, and I kind of figure whenever, whenever it was supposed to
happen, it would. And in today's day and age, or there's no
secrets anymore for for prospers and their social media. How difficult is it to
navigate that when you're this close to the major leagues. I don't know,
it's I mean, I try to stay away from it as much as I
can. I don't know. I'm sure everybody says that, but I don't
know. I really try not to put too much energy into, you know,
reading all that stuff on there. Kind of just focused on, you
know, trying to be where my feet are and playing as well as I
can. Kyle Manzardo joining us, He's in the lineup tonight, designated hitter,
major league debut. And to get here, obviously you need to do
some good things. And you were putting up the numbers, especially as a
left handed hitter against left handed pitching. How did you grow in that area?
What did you do to get better? Yeah? I mean I I've
spent a lot of you know, time and energy into trying to find different
ways to be successful against the left handed pitchers. Struggled last year, been
doing a lot better this year. And I would like to think it's has
a lot to do with just my the tweaks and stuff I've made to my
caj routines and uh, you know, different machine work and stuff like that.
And defensively first base, what do you do to try and get better
there and smooth some things out so that you can be a viable option up
here? Yeah, just trying to uh stay, stay quick, get quicker,
you know, really play the position and not just you know, be
a body that's kind of standing out there filling a void. I mean I've
I've you know, spent a lot of time trying to just get better at
at moving around the base and stuff like that. You were in major league
camp for a while. How beneficial was that for you? I mean it
was it was great. I had a great chance to meet, you know,
all the players and stuff and and get to know, uh, some
of the guys that I'll be playing with tonight. Obviously beneficial when you know
there's a great player on the team that that plays the same position that I
could kind of learn from. And pick pick his brain. Josh being around
him with super beneficial for me all spring. And when you first walk in
and you see some of those guys, you see your manager, Steven Vote,
what are some of the things that they say to at least try and
help you feel comfortable on a night where I'm sure that's hard. You know,
all the advice I've kind of been given, you could kind of boil
it down to everybody's told me to just be myself, that I belong here.
So I'm gonna try my best to just go be myself, enjoy the
heck out of it. Thanks for coming by. Thank you, nice young
man. Kyle Mansarto and seems to have a real good perspective and good hat
on his shoulders, and we'll see if he can settle in. It's been
a tough go in his first week in terms of picking up his base hits,
but again sometimes it takes a little bit to make that adjustment to major
league pitching, and then he'll get that opportunity here with Cleveland. Well,
we go from a rookie to a veteran. Austin Hedges, the veteran catcher
for the Guardians, has swung the bat well of late, had a big
home run on the last home stand against the Angels that helped the Guardians win
a ball game, and to run base hit against the Tigers, and Wednesday's
game a victory for the Guardians over Detroit. And we talked to him about
staying sharp at the plate as a backup catcher who does not get very much
playing time early in this season. How does he do it when at bats
are sporadic. Yeah, it's not the easiest thing in the world, but
you know, you know, that's what that's what the works for. That's
what the cage is for. And great hitting coaches that that keep you know,
they work their butts off to keep me ready. And so we do
a lot of challenging work to you know, speed my eyes up. You
know, when you're not playing a lot, you got the most challenging thing
is to is to keep timing. So the work is a little bit more
intense than it would be if I was playing every day, But you know,
just getting off those those fastball and breaking ball machines and doing anything I
can to stay ready. So that's hitting. How about catching? Is it
Is it the same thing where it's it's difficult to stay sharp or is it
a a little bit easier defensively. It's a little it's a little easier for
me behind the plate. So I got a good idea of what I'm doing
back there, and you know, I always feel like I'm ready there,
but I tend to spend a little bit more time on the offensive side preparing.
Austin Hedges joining us, And you have the corner locker in the clubhouse
for their guardians, and it's really two lockers. How does that dynamic work?
Number One? You're away from the team for a year, but you
come back and you get is this primo real estate? It' it's it's pretty
premiere primo real estate, it is. But I got I got my other
catchers over here with Bo and David, and it's just nice to have our
little corner where, you know, we're just we're always talking. We're always
just you know, game plan and figuring out, you know, how we
can help each other out, how we can you know, help these pitchers
out, you know. So you know, when I came back here and
and they you know, gave me this locker. It's it's it's an honor
to be to be put in the position to you know, we're guys are
gonna lean on you a little bit. So it's definitely an honor to be
over here and strategic placement, and that to get to the other areas of
the clubhouse, they have to walk past your locker pretty much? Is that
by design? Yeah? Yeah, I mean it's just ideally guys are walking
by me, so I can, you know, shovel a love when they
come in or talk a little trash if I need to every now and then,
just to keep them on their toes. And you have a new guy,
Kyle Mansardo gets called up. How do you make someone new to the
team, get them right into it and involved and feeling good about where they're
at. Just you treat them like everybody else. You know, in our
eyes, I don't care if you have zero days of service time or you
know, ten years of service time. Everybody's here to help us win.
And so you know, Manzo's gonna be treated exactly like everybody else. There's
gonna be a time and place on a team bus where he might get picked
on a little bit, but when we're in the clubhouse, when we're on
the field, he's just another guard that's ready to help a team win,
and we're gonna treat him accordingly and that fun factor. You hear almost everyone
talking about this year's club. One of the reasons they're doing well is because
it has been a lot of fun. You've been in this game a long
time. What are the he's to to too much? Not enough? Just
right? It seems like you hit on that pretty well. It's just an
everyday thing. You know. It's really really hard to show up every single
day and be the same guy, and you're not treat to not treat you
know, any day differently than another, because every day is the most important
day you have. You know, it's it's a day to go win,
and you know, yesterday doesn't matter. Tomorrow it doesn't matter. And if
you know, having some fun, keeping it loose and you know, keeping
the guys motivated is a part of a winning culture, then that's something has
to happen every day. So, you know, I feel like it's part
of my job to make sure everyone's you know, in good spirits and everyone's
having fun and you know, appreciating and enjoying the big leagues. It's a
you know, it's an honor to be here and it's a blessing to be
able to go out and try and win a ballgame for each other, for
a city, for an organization, and you know, so we're just trying
and keep it on a day to day thing of always enjoying it. Good
stuff as always, Thank you, Thank you is catch your Austin Hedges talking
about some of the fun stuff that keeps this team loose, and they'll need
some of that on this road trip, which is off to a slow start
with back to back defeats here in Chicago against the White Sox. What's going
on down at Triple A Columbus. We'll find out from Rob's Orfolio, the
director of player development when we return with our final segment after this time out
on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network at Progressive. We know money can buy
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or something close to it. Progressive Casualty Insurance Comany Affiliates, another insurance not
available on states. Welcome back at Guardians Weekly, our final segment from Chicago,
and each week we try to catch up with Rob Sortfolio, the director
of player development for the Guardians, and weigh in on one of the teams
in the minor league system for Cleveland. This week we went to Triple A
Columbus, where Rob has been checking in on the Clippers, and we start
on the position player's side with a familiar name if you watched or listened to
the Guardians this spring, utility man Daniel Schneemann. Rob fills us in on
how he's done so far about a month in to the Triple A season.
Yeah, this is a fun one. You know. These are some of
the stories the guys that are taken later in the draft that aren't the heralded
prospects, you know, when they're young and just continue to find a way
to try and get better. And that's exactly what Schnee has done since really
the minute we got him, and I think there was an inflection point one
of the years where he struggled and we challenged him to get bigger, stronger,
faster to be able to hack the ball and play upper level baseball at
a high level. And you know, he obviously did a tremendous job the
last couple of years and showcase what he could do in spring training and has
gotten off to an awesome start. I mean, you know, he's leading
their team in a lot of different categories offensively with some really strong peripherals behind
those you know, scoreboard numbers. So just continues to get better offensively,
finds a way to just improve on some of the skill sets we've seen from
him from the day we got him. Of a lot of line drives and
a lot of contact, and he's really learned how to impact the baseball and
we're seeing some some personal records on the things he's doing on that side,
so all while playing really good defense, playing outfield, he can play short,
he can play anywhere on the dirt. So just a really fun developmental
story and exciting to see Schnee get off to a great start, because that's
not always easy after you guys do that, you know in spring training.
Jonathan Rodriguez another name we've talked about a lot the last couple of years.
We saw him in major league camp for a little while. Power guy,
and how has he progressed with some of the things you need him to do
to make that last step. Yeah, So, you know, Jay Rod
started last year in Akron and now he's really getting a chance to to be
in Triple A for a full season and and face some of those those upper
level pitchers and and own his approach and and find a way to consistently get
on base and and impact the baseball. Like we know that he's got top
end exit lilo. That's something that Jarrod's always had in his back pocket.
And now it's like really refining his skill set, knowing the pitches where he
does the most damage and executing an approach versus you know, really good stuff
at the Triple A levels. So still a really young player that you know
has continued to impact the baseball and do a lot of damage from a power
standpoint. Uh. And and he's doing a good job of challenging himself in
his work pre game as well to continue to become the best player that he
can and on the other side of the spectrum of player who's trying to get
back big surprise at the end of spring training Miles Straws and to Triple A
Columbus and what are you seeing from him in terms of improvements maybe from the
off season that he's trying to implement and how has that gone so far?
Yeah, you know, this is a I think fans on the outside obviously
know how difficult a just from the player lens, how difficult an assignment that
is. And I think a lot of credit goes to Miles. You know,
I haven't had a chance to work with him in the past as a
guy that we acquired through trade and was already at the major league level,
but just being around him a couple of days last week, you know,
I think a lot of credit goes to him for how he has, you
know, really embraced the opportunity and challenge that he has in front of him.
A lot of guys could take that and you know, maybe come to
the ballpark with a sour attitude or not really put in the work to try
and get better. And that's just not what's happening with him, which which
is awesome because we have you know, a lot of young players there that
are on the forty man that look to guys with experience for for how to
go about their business. So you know, Miles is he's working on some
of the things offensively that you know can help him take the next step.
And you know, I really appreciate just his mentality and how he's gone about
that with the with his other teammates there and the coaching staff as well.
Rob Sorfolio joining us. He's the director of player development for the Guardians.
And we're talking Triple A Columbus this week and Rob starting rotation wise, Ideally
at Triple A, you'd love to have a five starters and you know that
top of the rotation would be available to step in a moment's notice. But
already two starting pitchers from the big league rotation are down, and it seems
like it's really tested the starting pitching depth and what is the state of the
rotation in terms of availability if there's a need up here at the big league
level. Yeah, he emailed it, and obviously you know Joey can Tillo,
guy that you know we expected to open up the season in Triple A
also battle an injury right in the spring training, so kind of just one
of those scenarios where, you know, the unfortunate scenario. You have some
injuries at the major league level, you have some injuries at the Triple A
level, and all of a sudden you're you know, you're trying to piece
things together, and that's kind of still where we are. And in some
respect, you know, we have a handful of guys there, you know,
will die on Connor Gillespie, you know, Hunter Stanley, guys that
have taken pretty consistent turns in that five day rotation. But you know,
very much a group like you said that, we're still ironing things out and
hoping to get guys healthy here in the short term. And I know a
familiar name, uh who could be an option as Exavion Curran And how is
he handled being at that level after getting opportunity up here earlier in the season.
Yeah, Zay is the same guy as he was in Lynchburg a couple
of years ago, which I think is awesome, just you know, a
great teammate. Every day at the yard is trying to find something to work
on it and the way that he goes about his preparation and his work before
the game again has really been a model for some of our young players.
You know, Will be on name I just mentioned, you know, started
that hadn't pitched in Triple A at this point, like being in there last
week. Our pitching coach Owen du trying to have those two guys, you
know, spend some time around each other so Will could see how Zay goes
about his work and some of the things he's watching in game and days before
he's starting or days after. So he's been just a great model teammate and
obviously using his experience in the major leagues to not just impact himself but others.
And then he's obviously working on some of the things that you know allowed
him to stick in the big leagues last year. We're all also pitching in
a little bit longer stints, so you know, hopefully a guy that can
provide us some depth of the big league level should we need it. And
in the bullpen, I know you're really excited another arm that we saw in
the spring, Franco Alaman, seems like he's off to a good start and
is he getting to a point where you're starting to feel real comfortable with him.
Yeah, I mean some of the some of the things we saw from
Franco last year in Acoring. I don't think he gave up a run for
like two months, and he wasn't getting lucky. He was just straight up
dominating the level. You know, early early on in the year, we're
not seeing his v lows quite at that mark we were last year and acturing
towards the end of the summer where he was pretty much sitting ninety eight to
one hundred. But he's he's still doing a really good job. He's he's
not giving up free bases, he's striking a lot of guys out and so
you know, a lot of the work with him has really just been pushing
him to get back to the best delivery, the best velocity range that we've
seen from him in the past, because when he's at his best, man,
he's really tough to hit. Potential to be you know, special arm
in the bullpen for us, and one last arm we'll touch on this week.
Anthony goes, how's he doing as he comes back from the Tommy John,
Yes, you know this this guy is this guy is such a pleasure
to be around again. You know, another tremendous worker. He's obviously one
of the older guys on that team, but you know, he really comes
to the ballpark with a mindset of trying to find ways to help his teammates
as well. And obviously he had the TJ last year and missed the whole
season and and we're kind of seeing him work back into things, right.
You know, this is a guy that we all know how hard he can
throw and how he can miss bats when when he's going right, and again
trying to continue to have him be aggressive in zone and limit some of the
walks. But it's been really encouraging to see some of his velocity and other
stuff. Markers, you know, continue to put him right back in a
spot to where you know he could pitch in the big leagues and hopefully be
an option for Voter and Chris and Mike, and you know, that's kind
of the the goal for us in Triple A is to have multiple guys that
can that can contribute and be ready to help our major league team win games
should we need him. Rob is always thanks for stopping by. Great to
have you on. I appreciate it. Rosie. That's Rob Sorfolio, the
director of player development for the Guardians, and that's going to do it for
this week's edition of Guardians Weekly. As always, thanks to Brian Matse for
helping to put together our show each week. You Next week, when the
team's back home to take on the Minnesota Twins, should be a great series
between two teams that are off to good starts in the twenty twenty four season.
Until then, this is Jim rosen House reminding you that you've been listening
to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network. Guardians Weekly has been
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