Welcome to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Guardians Radio Network. Guardians Weekly is brought
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everyone, welcome to Guardians Weekly. Jim Rosen House along with you from
Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland, where the Guardians are in the middle a new
home stand. I opened it on Friday night against the Oakland Athletics with a
ten to two victory. We'll hear more about that game, as well as
the week in review and a tremendous series at Fenway Park in Boston earlier this
week for the Guardians. We'll also visit with Guardians outfielder Will Brennan and relief
pitcher Tim Herron, and we'll get a full report on double a Akron from
the Guardians Director of player Development, Rob Serfolio. So a lot to come
as we get rolling with Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
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course. Jim Rosen, how's back with you from Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland,
where the Guardians started taking on the Oakland Athletics this weekend, a six
' ten first pitch on Saturday night, and then Sunday afternoon the series finale
at one. It's been a good week so far for Cleveland as they headed
out on the road on Monday for the annual morning game at Fenway Park on
Patriots Day and Boston Marathon Day, the Guardians were up early for an eleven
o'clock start and they played well in a six to nothing win. Xavion Curry
was making his first start of the season and he was sharp early in this
one. Now the two to two pitch swung on a one Hoppert short bank
end of Irochio and he'll throw out Veldez. So Xavian Curry not a lot
of pinches through two innings. That's huge. No score Cleveland and Boston going
to the third. Meanwhile, Cutter Crawford was the Boston starter and he was
locked into the game. Remained scoreless until the seventh inning. That's when Will
Brennan stepped in with a man aboard. Now the payoff pitch swung on,
hit high, deep to right down the line. It goes. It is
a fair ball and a two run home run for Will Brennan, right over
the top of the pesky pole three hundred two feet down the line. But
he hit it deep into that lower deck and Will Brennan with a pinch hit
two run home run, his first tomer of the season, and it is
two nothing Cleveland here in the seventh inning. The Guardians were looking for more.
In the eighth inning, two men on and Jose Ramirez at the plate.
Now the one too, swung on, grounded why to first off the
glove of the diving Cossus trickles into right field for a base hit. Rochio
will score Kwan to third, to second, Ramirez ball got away on the
throat a second coming home to scorees Kwon. Ramirez stays at second and the
Guardians get two and the booze rain down from the Fenway faithful. Four nothing
Cleveland and with no leads safe at Fenway Park, they keep the pressure on
in the top of the ninth thanks to gabriel Arius Anderson from the set.
I look at second. The pitch swung on hit a ton deep left field
down the line. It goes high off the Green Monster into score is Brennan
throat a second slide tag Baul got away from Valdez and RBI double for gabriel
Arius and it's five nothing Cleveland as he hit that more than a halfway up
the Green Monster down the left field line. What a day for Arius.
A triple double single RBI number five for Gabrielius, and then Brian Rochio delivered
another run, five nothing Cleveland, runner at third, two down ninth,
Henning. Here's the pitch, a swing and a line dright base hit in
the left field. There's where the stolen base comes into play. Arius scores
if he's still at second. He cannot score on that base hit because the
outfielder and left is so shallow due to the Green Monster. So Brian Rochio
gets his third RBI on a two out RBI single the left and it is
six nothing Cleveland and thirty three thousand and eight starting to wish they had watched
more of the Marathon Man. In the bottom half of the ninth, thenning
to finish things up, it was Eli Morgan swung on, lifted high in
the air the left, not deep toward the line of Kwan. He's going
to make the catch. Ball game and the Guardians shut out the Red Sox
at on just three hits. The quartete of Curry, Herron, Sandlin and
Morgan get it done Will Brennan with a massive pinch hit, two run homer
in the seventh, and Cleveland starts this four game series with a six to
nothing win at Fenway on to Tuesday. One of the wild games of the
season, to be sure, and what has been a short stretch here with
several back and forth games, this one would go eleven innings at Fenway Park
on Tuesday night. The Guardians got the scoring started in the second inning with
a big two out hit from Will Brennan. Brennan with a drive to deep
bright down the line. It goes, takes a bounce and jumps off the
wall into third. Loriento. He is being waved home thro out of the
place. He's in sliding and in the second with an RBI double is Will
Brennan. Man The next batter, Gabrielarius kept the two out rally going the
pitch swung on, yank to left down the line. It goes the ball
into the corner that'll score Brennan on his way to second as Arius and he
stays sizzling hot, and the Guardians laid a two to nothing on back to
back guarby doubles by Brennan and Arius Arius his third double his sixth arby.
I Boston cut the lead to two to one with a run in the fourth,
but in the fifth the Guardians offense was rolling again, starting with Tyler
Freeman. Here's the one one swung on and there's a high fly ball deep
left. The monster will not hold this one. It cleared the monster.
Tyler Freeman goes deep and the Guardians have a three to one lead. Later
on in the inning, Jose Ramirez his sack fly made at four to one
Cleveland, and then Josh Naylor drove home another run. Josh Naylor steps in
and lines one to right. That's a base hit, rounding second heading for
thirty Simenez. The ball's bobbled out there in right field. Jimenez being waved
around. Here's the throw he slides. How that home play. Good recovery
by the right fielder. Bray you to get that ball in close play at
the plate. We'll see what the Guardians want to do if it holds the
innings over as he Menez tried that slide, and Steven Vote says, hey,
let's try and go two for two on replays. Already one's been overturned,
and they want to look at this. After we threw the calls overturned,
there was bucking up the plates. The runner is safe. We've retain
their challenge and the runner will remain at second base. But in the sixth,
the rare hiccup for the Guardian's bullpen this season, Boston scored five times
to take a six to five lead, a lead they would keep until the
ninth, and in that ninth inning, Tyler Freeman doubled. Stephen Kwan followed
with a single, and then Andre si Menez stepped in to try and keep
the game live. He fires and it swung out line drive base hit center
field. Game is tied, scoring is Freeman, Kwan stops at second,
hemn Is with his ninth Arbi and ken Leigh Janssen with his first blown save
in twenty twenty four, and the Guardians again refused to roll over. Hunter
Gatis kept Boston off the board in the bottom of the ninth and on the
extra innings we went. In the top of the tenth, the Guardians loaded
the bases for the hot hitting Gabrielarius. The set the pitch swung on looping
liner base hit center field. That'll score Rokio Naylor will stop at third,
and the Guardians take the lead seven to six on a broken bat flare to
center. But Boston scored in the bottom half of the tenth to tie the
game again, this time at seventh and onto the eleventh inning, we went
with a runner starting at second base. Andre se Menez walked to put two
men aboard for Jose Ramirez down the set and the next delivery swung on smash
stepped the middle, a base hit hitting third is Kwani's being waved home.
Here's the throw by Rafaela to the plate. It's high sliding in his Kuan
dives back after missing the plate, slaps the plate and the Guardians take the
lead, and a couple of hitters later Askedevan Floriols late inning heroics continued.
The bitch swung on, drilled in the right field. That's a base hit,
he meant, us scores. Ramirez coming home a bray you throw out
of the plate, not in time. He met us scores with a slide
and Estevan flori Al's big week continues. He rips a two run single to
right hits a three run eleventh inning and the Guardians laided ten to seven,
and that would be enough, as Scott Barlow was on to finish off the
Red Sox in the bottom half of the eleventh inning. The last time Cleveland
started a season and two on the road, how's this for an omen They
won it all in nineteen forty eight. Now the two to two pitch swinging
in a miss ball game. He went in with a sinker, then he
went away with a curveball and a dramatic win for the Guardians. They tied
it in the ninth, took the lead in the tenth, lost the lead,
and then won it in the eleventh, ten to seven. On Wednesday
night, tanner Houck was terrific in a two to nothing shut out victory for
the Red Sox, and the Guardians were looking to bounce back on Thursday and
take a series win. It was Day baseball at Fenway. Boston scored a
run in the first to take the early lead, but the Guardians came right
back in the third inning with a runner in scoring position for Andres Jimenez.
Jimenez awaiting the one to two pitch from Chris Wall. Here it comes swung
on, looping liner, base it left center. That'll tie it up in
the gamp Duran cut sot off Fumenez going for two. Duran spins, throws
head first, slide tag out at second, but the run counts. In
the fourth, again with a runner in scoring position, this time Josh Naylor
delivered. Here's the pitch, swung on line drive, base hit right field.
And there's a hitter who performs well all the time. He's off to
a slower start this year at men in scoring position, but he gets the
job done right there. Josh Naylor with an RBI single playing David Frye,
and the Guardians take the lead two to one. The Guardians were looking for
more in the fifth inning with two men on, and once again Andres Jimenez
came through. Jake's is ready. Here's his pitch. There goes Rochio and
the pitch is chopped on the left side on through base hit in the left
field. That'll score Loreano. And another run batted in for m Menez.
Boy and that right there, just taking the ball the other way, and
he's done that twice here today and the Guardians now I don't have a three
to one lead. And then Jose Ramirez added to his team leading RBI total.
Here's the two to one swung on cround ball to third, Horayus with
it to second for one, Valdez to first, safe at first basis Ramirez.
He stays out of the double play that allows Rochio to score from third
and the Guardians ad another run. It's now four to one. Cleveland.
Boston got right back into it with a three run sixth that cut the Guardians
lead to one at five to four, but the Guardian's bullpen combo of Tim
Herron and Hunter Gaddis kept the Red Sox off the board in the seventh and
eighth innings before they turned it over to a manual Class A in the ninth.
Two outs nobody on Cleveland five, Boston four. We're in the bottom
of the ninth from a soggy Fenway Park. Now the two to two A
swing and a miss ball game got him with the cutter clause strengths out.
Kassa standon and Cleveland comes to beantown and takes three out of four. The
final today Cleveland five and Boston four. So the Guardians win another series,
taking three out of four at Fenway. They headed home and open up a
new home stand. On Friday night against Oakland, the Athletics jumped in front
early. A home run leading off the game by Abraham Toro put them in
front one nothing, but in the second Tyler Freeman answered with a long ball
of his own. Here's the one. Two runner goes Pitt swung on hit
pretty well to right, Butler going back still back track walker Tyler Freeman with
a fistbump and another fistbump coming around second, an opposite field two run home
run to right, and he's put the Guardians on top two to one with
his third home run of the year. In the fifth, the Guardians off
really got going. Bass Is loaded with one out and Stephen Kuan at the
plate and it's swung online right field, fair ball into the corner. It
goes one run is in right behind Naylor's flooriall holding it. Third is Rochio.
It's a two run double for Stephen Kuan and the Guardians have opened it
up. It's now four to one and the next man up, Andre Semenez,
swung on in line right center. He gets down for a base hit.
Padd'll score two more. Jimenez holds it first with a two run single.
Rochio in Quan come in and it's a biginning now for the Guardians.
Four runs on the board this inning and they lead it six to one.
And then Jose Ramirez capped off the beginning, swung on and that's line to
left, sinking fast base hit, burrounding third heading Homus Himenez. He will
score Honda. Second goes Ramirez and he's out at second base. Oh,
nice play by Seth Brown to get it in quickly and Ramirez tried to take
that extra base as he always does. It was still seven to one Cleveland
in the eighth inning when Josh Naylor stepped in the pitch and Naylor with a
line drive deep bright down the line. Go on and it's ain't to one
Cleveland. Wow did that get out of here to hurry? Two iron down
the right field line and Josh Naylor as a team high five home runs.
The Guardians made it nine to one on an Oakland error, and then Estevan
Florio's hot hitting continued with his third hit on the night. The pitch swung
and ripped in the right that's of ase hit Coe, Naylor's being waved home.
Rookers up with it. He'll throw the second ten to one Cleveland.
Flory all a three hit game and his fifth RBI. And this club stays
relentless. And the thing you like about this club, once again, as
we saw the last eleven years under Tito, it's continuing under Steven Vote.
They just don't give at bance away. Meanwhile, on the mound, Tristan
mackenzie turned in a solid five innings before turning it over to the bullpen trio
of Tim Herron, Tyler Beattie, and Scott Barlow, who was on the
ninth to finish things up. The pitch, a swing and a pop up.
This is behind the plate, should do it? Catch your bone?
Nailer makes the catch ball game and the Guardians keep rolling. They start the
homestand with a demolition of Oakland ten to two. So what a week it's
been for the Guardians as they opened the homestand impressively after taking three out of
four at Fenway Park. Stay with us when we come back. We'll hear
outfielder Will Brennan and relief pitcher Tim Herron. That's next on the Cleveland Clinic
Guardians Radio Network. All the little things Cleveland has done to this point are
why they're sitting here in first place. Welcome back to Guardians Weekly. Jim
Rosenhouse back with you a progressive field in downtown Cleveland where the Guardians will head
into play on Saturday night. With Major League Baseball's best record at fourteen and
six. Will Brennan has been a big part of that, swinging a hot
bat, especially early in the week at Fenway Park. His big pinch hit
to run home run in Monday series opener was a huge key, and we
talked to him about staying ready in a difficult job. Pinch hitting in a
game you know, well, you're going stretch in the fifth or sixth inning
and then swing the bat a little bit. But I think last year had
a huge impact on being able to be prepared and be ready for those certain
situations. Are pinched out a ton last year, and there's something that I've
never done before, So it's definitely something different to get your mind back in
the game after you know, kind of just chilling there for five six innings
and kind of just get thrown in the fire and see what you can do.
And at certain ballparks I'm sure are easy to prepare in another's how about
here at Fenway, How difficult was it to find a good spot to get
ready? No, I mean it's this is the best park in America.
It's not hard to kind of get up for this place. You know,
the fans are unbelievable with the Atmosphere's second, it's just you know, just
being able to go out there and know that you're being put in that position
for a reason and try and just take advantage of it, whether you succeed
or fail. You know that you're prepared and just go out there and have
fun with it. When you hit one here to write, you're dealing with
Pesky's pull. It's hard to see if it's fair or fout. Did you
think you had it straight enough to stay fair? Yeah, I knew it
right away. I think last year was a little little sketchy because I hit
lower this year the trajectory of Pandela. Better to see it when I was
running the first So and for fans who don't know your background, why is
it special for these things to happen for you here? Just a huge Red
Sox man growing up. You know the Coca Cola sign out there in left
field, Like that's where my stepdad and I said when I watched my first
game here when I was twelve years old. So it's just something that you
know is near and dear to me and grew up watching Red Sox game.
So anytime that you compeat at this atmosphere, you know at Fenway, it's
it's precious. Will Brennan joining us and a huge pinch hit home run in
Monday's game, another win for the Guardians. I can tested game. What's
going on with this team? It seems like there's a lot of really good
things happening. I mean, again, our pitchers are are doing. I
think we have four shoutouts in fifteen games, is really really good. Obviously,
I think I said it a million times in the offseason. You know,
those four top guys in our lineup go and we can get a couple
of guys to help behind them, Like this seems gonna be really dangerous.
And so right now you kind of see that clicking with Gabriel, Arius and
Nastamont, Floriall and Freeman and Ire and Fry, we're all starting to just
trying to piece it together and you know, prepare the right way and go
out there and you know, back those guys up, those top four guys
now line up and it doesn't seem like any lead is in or any deficit
is insurmountable. And how how important is that early in a season to get
that feeling going. Yeah, it's a great feeling, especially when you know
that we can hit the long ball now, I mean we have that in
our bag of tricks. So you know we're always gonna run the bass hard
and put the ball in play and you know, not punch out as much
as you know, maybe in the past, but it's just go. We
have a ton of tools in our tool bag that we're able to use to
fight back in the games. It's always that resiliency has always been in our
DNA. So it's just it's fun. It's a good clubhouse, it's a
good environment, and we're just playing. You mentioned that good clubhouse, good
environment, togetherness, all that kind of good stuff. Morning game on Patriots
Day, and yet in here it just seemed like a another fun day at
the office. Guys playing games things like that. Is that the key?
That's the key. You know, it's really hard to show up to the
ballpark when you don't enjoy, you know, the people that you're own.
And thank goodness that we have a clubhouse here that is really cohesive and everyone
cares about one another and cares about other people's success rather than their own.
And I think there's you know, baseball's in the ego sport a little bit,
but you know that's been knocked down in this clubhouse, and you can
tell by the success that we've had early on in the season. Nice going
on Monday. Thank you, I appreciate you. Rod. That's Guardians outfielder
Will Brennan talking about some of his early season successes at the plate. Left
Hander Tim Herron has been a big key out of that Guardian's bullpen, as
the pen continues to be one of the best in baseball so far this season.
On Monday, pitched two scoreless innings to pick up the win in the
Guardians six nothing shut out. He also pitched later on in this series and
worked a scoreless inning on Friday night. We talked to him earlier in the
week about the experience of pitching at Fenway Park on Patriots Day. Yeah,
it was definitely a very cool experience getting to pitch at Fenway Park on Patriots
Day. It's a very special day here in Boston, so it's a lot
of fun to be here and experience that. Going in and beyond the pitch
was great, felt really good out there. Getting the win was huge for
the team just in general. Some big hits by like Will Brennan, Gaby
had a huge day at the play. But yeah, it was a lot
of fun and one of the innings you came off the mount I understand you
were pretty animated when you got back to the dugout, and is that just
part of kind of what makes this team right now click a little bit.
Yeah, I mean it's just it's a lot of fun. We have a
lot of a really good clubhouse, a lot of competitive guys. It brings
the best out of all of us. And yeah, I mean just this
situation we were in zero zero ball game after the sixth, Will Burnan hits
the home run and then being able to go out for a second inning the
seventh and kind of keeping that zero on the board was huge and coming fired
up. Guardians reliever Tim Herron joining us, and Tim, you look at
your start and consistency has been extremely important for you, and what do you
attribute that to, especially after last year where you're trying to find that on
a regular basis. Yeah, I just think it's the confidence factor going out
there attacking his zone with my stuff, just letting not beating myself. I
guess it's to say last year where I got in trouble was usually the walks
kind of piled up and then kind of leaving a breaking ball middle of zone
gets hit. So this year I'm really just trying to attack the zone with
my stuff and distrusting it. And you look at last year and I know
it has to be difficult when you go up and back several times. But
from a silver lining standpoint, what did you take away from that and learn
from Yeah, I mean, obviously the the up and down, it's a
lot. But every time I got optioned back down to Columbus, I try
to take something I learned up here and kind of work on it down in
Triple A. And I was able to get a lot of good work in
with the coaches down there, and I think that kind of helped me a
lot, kind of grow a little bit as a picture. But yeah,
you know, just got to take don't have much of a choice of it,
but you gotta stay positive throughout part of it, and you know,
hopefully to stick around as long as possible. You mentioned confidence, and I
think everybody would say, hey, you know, just throw strikes, trust
your stuff. Yeah. How hard is that though, especially as a young
picture in the major leagues. Yeah, I mean it's a lot easier said
than done. I mean everybody talks about you want to attack the track toonne,
you want to have confidence. But yeah, a young picture in the
big leagues, you're trying to make an impression, and sometimes you try to
do too much and that's think that's more of what it was last year to
me, trying to do too much instead of staying within myself. But yeah,
you just got to go out there and compete. That's the biggest thing.
You're part of a bullpen that has been lights out really since the start
of the season. What's happening down there that's allowing everybody to have this good
success? And do you feed off each other? Yeah, I mean,
I think it's a part of it's definitely we're really close knit group. All
the guys in the bullpen get along really well. We really bring the best
have each other to competitive bullpen. We take pride in putting up zeros no
matter of the situation in the game, whether we're up, down, whatever
it may be. We know every time we get our name called and we're
supposed to go out there and put a zero up and help our team win.
So yeah, we just take a lot of pride in the hut and
we try to do that. And you always hear about bullpens that have defined
roles for many of the different relievers, but it doesn't seem like that's the
case here. Is that? Okay? I mean, yeah, I think
we kind of embraced the whole. Anybody can get kind of thrown in in
those big time situations, and I think honestly it helps everyone grow as a
picture being able to be put in those situations instead of always being the guy
that goes in the middle of the game when it's kind of not close.
But I think it's kind of built built everyone's confidence, and yeah, I
just think it's really helped a nice fieing yesterday. Tim, thanks a lot
for coming back. Thank you. It's Tim Herron part of one of the
best bullpens in baseball in the early going of this season and he has been
a huge part of that. Stay with us. When we come back,
we'll hear from Rocks, the director of player development, and get an inside
look at some of the key players right now at the Double A level at
akro and we come back with more on the Cleveland Clinic. Guardians Radio Network,
Progressive Nose. Finding your new home was a dream come true. You
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Insurance company affiliates and other insurance not available in all states. Jim Rosenow's back
with you from Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland. It's our final segment of this
week's edition of Guardians Weekly, and as often as possible, we try and
catch up with Rob's sortfolio. The Guardian's director of player Development, Rob has
been taking in some games down at Double A Akron, and when we caught
up with him earlier this week, he talked about one of the top hitting
prospects in the system, Outfielder Chased the latter, who was coming off a
great spring. The peripheral numbers show a slower start to his minor league season.
The Rob said, he's settling in now, and sometimes the most common
stats don't tell the full story. Yeah, you know, this is not
uncommon for guys that you know, come out of the gates in spring training,
and it almost you know, felt like he couldn't he couldn't get out
in spring training, which was awesome and just fun to watch Chase really elevate
his game when he got opportunities with with the major league team in spring training.
And honestly, Rosie, know, I think this is this is one
of those cases where you know, some of the some of the numbers behind
those surface level, you know, batting average type things are are still really
impressive. You know, Chase is doing an awesome job of controlling the strike
zone, putting the putting the barrel on the baseball, and then like hitting
the ball pretty pretty hard like like he normally does when when he puts it
in place. So you know, despite maybe some of those scoreboard numbers,
we've been really excited with how Chase has gotten off the blocks. And you
know, we've challenged him with playing multiple positions in the outfield including center field,
right field, and even left here and there, and and he's done
a great job, you know, impacting impacting the game on both sides of
the ball and and continuing to you know, develop as a base runner and
a base steeler. So you know, despite maybe some of those surface level
numbers, we're we're really excited with how Chase has gotten gotten out of the
block so far. And Akron and been a staple at the top of their
lineup so far. Is that how the game's changed a little bit. When
you have a certain player who those scoreboard numbers, is he kind of reference
them or surface numbers that you now can show him some other things that indicate,
hey, you're just fuye. Absolutely. You know, I think that's
really one of the advantages that that baseball has relative to to most other sports.
I think that's development in other sports certainly as well. But you know,
we can we can just quantify so many elements of the game, only
so much as under the player's control, whether you're a pitcher or a hitter,
And you know, trying to set our sights on what are those controllable
elements and how can we you know, kind of have repeatable, sustained success.
And you know, we're pretty honest with our players on that, and
we want them to have as clear of a picture of what good looks like,
just as our coaches do. And so we're all kind of trying to
read off the same sheet of music, and you know, we try and
really you know, center our sites for our players on the things that we
think are going to help them have success over the long haul. And then
ultimately when they get to Cleveland to help us win games with with the major
league team. Another outfielder who's been impressive is p D. Halpin. We
saw him spring training on the major league side, and it seems like things
have gone very smoothly for him to start the year. Yeah, well said,
I mean p D's you know, just like Chase. Obviously having both
those guys on the same roster, you know, two guys that can play
center fields. So trying to continue to push them to develop the skills that
are needed to impact the game defensively in the center, but also challenging Pete
to to play multiple other positions defensively has been great. And him and Chase
that have really, you know, kind of have a good rapport going pushing
each other and kind of you know, whether that's in game or in training,
which has been fun to watch. And Pete kind of picked right up
where he did in spring training, and you know, a guy that played
all season at this level last year, so he you know, kind of
came into the season with some good experience of knowing what those road cities and
ballparks are like and kind of that comfort of being an accro in and kind
of knowing what competition to expect, and we've seen him elevate his game.
You know, he put a lot of work in in the offseason with our
hitting group of trying to you know, get in positions just from a swing
standpoint that allow him to to do damage more frequently, and we've seen that
out of the get go, which has been awesome. Khalil Watson, I
know, is an interesting name, acquired via trade last summer, first season
at the Double A level. How's he doing out of the gate? Yeah,
So you know this is this is a fun one young, really talented,
lot of big tools. Again, you know, Khalil is is in
that bucket of guys that's getting exposed to multiple positions. He's playing outfield,
center, left, he's playing multiple positions in the infield. So you know,
I really appreciate how he has attacked his work to be versatile defensively.
You know, when we brought him over from Miami last year, that really
wasn't something he had as a tool on his tool belt at that point.
So you know a lot of credit goes to Khalil and how he has attacked
that work to to try and have as many options as possible to get on
the field and then the lineup because we just never know where those might come,
especially as guys get to double A, triple A, and and then
offensively, you know, he's adapting to a new level. And and I
think that that jump pitching wise, from from a ball to double A is
a real thing. You know, you see velocity in a ball, but
in double A you see guys with velocity that have multiple pitches that can really
control the strike zone. And and so this is gonna be a fun year
for Khalil. You know, he's one of the younger players in that entire
league, and we're excited for that challenge that that he's gonna have in front
of him. Rob Let's transition to the Mound. Ryan Webb seems to be
off to a good start. And I know he was really getting on the
radar last season at a lower level, but it seems like he's picked up
where he left off. Yeah, he is. And you know this is
a guy that you know, we challenged in the Fall League as well in
the offseason. He missed about a month or six weeks last year due to
an oblique injury, but has has come back and and really hit the ground
run and since then through the ball really well in the Fall League last year
and has come into Akron and done the same, which is fantastic. So,
you know, here's a guy with four pitches that really attacks the zone.
He throws a lot of strikes. You know, we've really tried to
push the needle on his fastball in some of the velocity elements, but as
has a really deep mix on the secondary side and and has used that to
his advantage so far out of the gates. Doug mccasey is another interesting name
in that it seems like he's taken a big time step forward in his limited
starts so far this season. What are the improvements there for him? Yeah,
So you know, Doug, Doug similar to Pet. You know,
he was at this level last year, which you know, when when performance
doesn't go guys way or the way that they want it to, like,
you know, we we have a great opportunity on on our end on the
coaching side to you know, try and unearth, Okay, what happened,
what are the what are the next steps you need to take with this player,
uh to for him to have success. And obviously the player's voice is
a huge part of that and really understanding like what they see, what they
feel like they need to work on it. And this was a really fun
one in the offseason with Doug. You know, I know he's bound them
a little bit of just like a precautious minor injury right now and you know,
might miss the next start or two, but really excited with how Doug
threw the ball in spring training. Again, a guy that threw in the
breakout series and you know, was sitting mid nineties from the left side,
and we saw that early and out of the gates and acron as well,
and just a really you know, nice jump in the strike throwing bucket as
well, which is what we were hoping for. So, you know,
a lot of work left, but exciting to see Doug kind of take those
strides and just attack that work. He's a really incredible, fiery competitor and
it doesn't waste any reps, which is you know, part of the reason
why we love working with him. And we'll finish up with another young man
that we saw in Major league camp for a little while, Jack left Witch
and it sounds like he saw to a good start with Akron. Yeah,
he is you know I think fans got a taste of Jack and a little
bit more of a traditional reliever role, especially in spring training, and that's
something we talked a lot about over the off season, and you know,
as we were thinking about Jack's build up and usage during during the months of
March when we were all out in Arizona, and you know, last year,
he was kind of doing a little bit of a hybrid starter and ultimately
we just wanted to find a way for him to show his best stuff consistently.
And we've been We've been pleased with with what we've seen so far in
a reliever role and and him just get into some of his better velocity and
his you know, you know, trying to simplify his mix on the secondary
side as well. I think it has been really advantageous. And and Jack's
you know, also just one of those great competitors, and and just watching
how how his stuff and mindset has played pitching and leverage moments and in a
game and late has been really fun. And uh, you know, we're
hoping to continue to build on that as the season gets going. No,
Rob is always great stuff at the Double A level. This week, thanks
a lot for checking in and we will catch up with you again real soon.
I appreciate it, really looking forward to the rest of the season and
thanks again for having me. That's Rob Sortfolio, the Guardian's director of player
development, with a good update there on some of the top prospects at Double
a Acron. That's going to do it for our show this week. Thanks
as always to Brian Motse for putting together our show each and every week until
next week when we join you from Atlanta, Georgia. The Guardians starting a
new road trip next weekend against the Braves. This is Jim Rosenhause reminding you
that you've been listening to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
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