Welcome to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Guardians Radio network. Guardians Weekly is front
to you by Progressive helping Guardians fans save hundreds on car insurance. Hi,
everyone, welcome to Guardians Weekly. Him Rose in house along with you from
Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland. Worth Guardians are taking on the race this weekend
as we get into the month of September. The Guardians within shouting distance of
first place in the American League Central Division as the Twins remain on top by
five games after Friday night's results, heading into play on Saturday night. Good
show lined up for you today and just a little bit, we'll hear from
Cole Calhoun, who had quite the road trip with a pair of extra inning
game winning bassits, including a home run in the tenth inning in the big
game on Wednesday out in Minneapolis, allowing the Guardians to come from behind and
win the series against the Twins. We will also hear from Chris Antonetti,
who met with the media after the Guardians acquired three players in waiver claims on
Thursday, changing the complexion certainly of the bullpen and the starting rotation too.
And we'll also have a farm report with Drop sorfolio. He'll update us on
single A Lynchburg what's been going on down there as they get closer to the
end of their season. But first I'll look back at the weekend review,
and we start on Tuesday night. After a tough loss on Monday night in
Minneapolis against the first place Twins, a loss that dropped the Guardians seven games
back of Minnesota, and certainly things were looking dire in terms of chances to
win the division. It's still an uphill climb, but a lot changed on
Tuesday night as the Guardians got the scoring started in the second inning thanks to
a big blast from bone Nailer. Now the wind up, now the oh
one pitch, swinging a high drive deep right field. This bull's got a
chance, go on, Bone Nailer, onto the concourse beyond the seats and
right and he has homered three times on this road trip, and back to
back home runs here at Target Field, a towering blast to right field,
onto the concourse area beyond the right field bleacher seats, and that home run
came a ninety four mile an hour fastball Boe Nailer's seventh home run one nothing
Cleveland, and for Nailor, that was his third home run in three starts,
the youngest to do that since Manny Ramirez back in nineteen ninety five.
So it was one nothing Cleveland. They made a two nothing in the third
when Jose Ramirez scored on a wild pitch, and then looking for more in
the fourth, Cole Calhoun came through with the bases loaded. Here it comes
swung on a chopper to the right side, scooped up by the first baseman.
Gallo flips to the picture covering Lopez is there for the out, but
that does get the run home from third as Gabrielarius comes down the line and
scores, and it's now three nothing. Cleveland give Calhoun his twelfth run,
driven in on the ground out to first. The Twins got a run back
in the bottom of the fourth, ending on a solo home run off the
bat of hot hitting royce Lewis that made the score three to one Cleveland.
Then in the seventh, the Guardians went back to work with a couple of
men on and Will Brennan standing in the two two a swinging a little floater
towards center. It gets down for a hit and the steel pays off Himenoz
around third. Will slide in head first and score the fourth run. So
Andre Simenoz where that key stolen base scores on the two out single to center
by Will Brennan and the Guardians keep terrorizing Emilio Pagan. It is four to
one Cleveland and give Will Brennan his thirty fifth run banned in. In the
ninth Emmanuel closse was on. He did give up a solo home run to
Michael Taylor, allowing the Twins to pull to within two runs, but then
closse I was able to lock back in and finish the job. Now the
two one delivery swing and a little pop up behind the plate nailers there makes
the catch bull game and the Guardians even the series and the wins here a
few more booze final to night Cleveland four, Minnesota two. So a nice
win caught the deficit to six games with Minnesota still in first place heading to
the rubber match of the series on Wednesday afternoon, and what a game.
It turned out to be scoreless until the fifth inning. Tanner Bibi and Sunny
Gray locked up in an outstanding pitchers duel. Minnesota did strike for two runs
in that inning as they took the lead and looked to be in control as
Gray gave the Twins seven scoreless innings. However, he turned it over to
the bullpen in the eighth. The Guardians were able to get it going with
a double from Gabriel Arius, and then Stephen Quan came through in the plutch
with two outs. Theress won two swung on line base hit left field.
Quan comes through as Arius scores and the Guardians cut the lead in half.
It's now Minnesota two, Cleveland one on Stephen Kwan's two out RBIs single.
Forty five runs driven in for Quon and again he he got down O two
in the count, but battled and didn't try and do too much. The
pitch was on the outside part of the plate and he just kind of flicked
the wrists and slapped it in the left field for a bass hit. Then
in the night, the Guardians had a couple of men on base with two
outs two strikes. Twins closer Joan Duran was trying to end it with bow
Naylor at the plate. Duran one strike away from ending it. The big
right hander lets it fly inside, It goes back to the screen down the
line comes Himenez. He scores the tying run or did he Rocko Baldelli comes
out right. Now, it's a wild pitch. I wonder if they want
to look at this to see if it hit Nailer, who started to back
in with that pitch actually went behind him, and a question will be did
it hit him? The call on the field is confirmed he was not hit
by the pits. Minnesota will lose their talents. So the run scores from
third. We're tied to two here in the ninth inning, and the bottom
of the ninth inning, Trevor Stephen was on, trying to send the game
to extra innings. Now the O two cold strike three on the inside corner.
Jeffers caught looking. We'll see if he's around for extra innings as he
really. Let's Jose Navis hear about it on his way back to the dugout.
But Stephen comes on, strikes out the side, and we have extra
innings today in Minneapolis. Your score after nine the Guardians two, the Twins
two. So on to the tenth we went tied at two. Bow Naylor
was the runner at second base to start the inning. An intentional walk to
Jose Ramirez put two men on for the hot hitting Cole Calhoun. Here's the
three oh he swings and tribes one high in the air, deep bright center
field. It's on out of here, home run cold Calhoun and the Guardians
are in front, a three run blast on a three ZH pitch for Cole
Calhoun. Cleveland has taken the lead five to two. How many more big
hits can Coal Calhoun come up with since joining this ball club? I mean,
it's way more than just a veteran presence at this point. And the
Guardians have taken their first lead on the day, and then it was a
manual class to try and close it out again, this time in the bottom
half of the tenth inning. Now the one two from the manual class.
Here it is swing and I miss strike three. And the Guardians have done
it, coming from behind to win and extra innings in a game they had
to have your I'll score today in ten from target field, Cleveland five,
Minnesota two. So that cut the Twins lead to five games in the division
heading into the homestand opener on Friday night, And again we'll hear from Chris
Antonetti about the three acquisitions the Guardians made with a ton of roster moves to
follow that was on Thursday's off day, but first to look ahead to Friday
night, the opener of the homestand in the series with Tampa Bay. The
Rays jumped out to a two nothing lead, scoring a run in each of
the first two innings, but in the third, the Guardians got one back
thanks to a sack fly by Cole Calhoun that made it a two to one
Rays lead. Cal quantroll back on the mound for the Guardians shook off some
rust early on and then it really settled in as the game went along.
The three two is chopped to the third baseman, Ramirez up with it,
fires to first end time for the out and a third straight three up,
three down inning recorded by cal quantroll we'll head the bottom of the fifth,
it's still Tampa Bay two the Guardians one. Then in the seventh, the
Guardians offense came alive as Andre Semennez singled stole second to move into scoring position
with gabriel Arius coming to the plate, Here comes the pitch and it swung
on line face hit left field that will score him and as with the tying
run, and gabriel Aius comes through two two ball game, and then it
was bow Nailer, who's developed that clutch Jeane. He tried to put the
Guardians in front. And there's a swing in a line drive headed to the
Alien Rights Center. It splits the gap all the way to the wall.
On his way to third is Arius. He's being waved around. He will
store and the Guardians take the lead. Boe Nailer comes up big with an
RBI double three to two. Cleveland Nailer with his ninth double twenty batted in
now for Bow Nailer and he's coming off a solid road trip at the plate
and he comes up huge here in the seventh and in the ninth Immanuel closs
A was on to secure the victory. Here comes the two one swung on
a tapper out to the mount. Closse's on. It spins fires post play
got it at first and the Guardians take game one of this three game series.
They do it and come from behind fashion by a final score of three
to two. Stay with us well that more after this. So a nice
start to the homestand for the Guardians Friday night, they're back at it at
six ten on Saturday night, Emmanuel class a bobblehead night and then the series
finale Sunday late afternoon. The ball game will begin at four ten at Progressive
Field. We'll take a time out and then come back and hear from Cole
Calhoun. That's next on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network. These basketball,
pickleball, those are sports, and people love sports. If you love sports,
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Progressive. Those sports teams, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings
will vary. Jim Rosen House back with you. It's Guardians Weekly from Progressive
Field in downtown Cleveland. Great Dabby with us says, the Guardians open a
new homestand not only Tampa Bay here for the weekend, but then the Twins
come in Labor Day Monday evening a six ten first pitch and Minnesota's also here
at six ten on Tuesday night, and then a one ten series finale Wednesday
afternoon. Well, the Guardians would not still have playoff hopes had it not
been for the acquisition of Cole Calhoun in early August, as he was signed
to a contract after spending his season at the Triple A level in both the
Yankees and the Dodgers organization, and since getting his chance, he has provided
a steady influence in the clubhouse and some clutch hitting on the field. And
we caught up with Calhoun earlier in the week before he hit the three run
home run in the tenth inning of Wednesday's win in Minnesota. He had had
a big hit Sunday in Toronto in eleventh inning, go ahead double in the
win over the Blue Jays, and he says so far his Guardians experience has
gone as well as he could have imagined. I'm just going out and playing
having fun, you know. I kind of talked about the adjustments that I've
made in the off season and wanted to get back to the player that I
used to be. And it's been a lot of fun playing baseball, you
know, and had success kind of every stop that I've made this here,
and so I'm gonna say that I expected it, but it was what I
was planning on coming up here and doing it. You never know how it's
going to go I mean, small sample size and a lot of good players
that I mean a sample size like that can go a lot of different ways,
you know. And so just happy with the success and happy being out
here playing and having fun. Has the opportunity that you've gotten. Has that
been a surprise at all? Not knowing coming in what it would be?
Yeah, I didn't know. Uh, I didn't know what to expect.
I was I was sitting in triple A and waiting for thirty teams, you
know, to give me a shot. So this one came up, and
the shot was at first base and go out and see what you can do
with bat. And it's went pretty well, you know. And haven't played
a lot of first base, but starting to get a little comfortable over there.
And you mentioned that, and I see out there before the game every
day, no matter it's a day game, night game, doesn't matter.
You and Mike's are while working on things. But the play in the night
thenning yesterday, I'm guessing that's not one you can really work on a whole
lot. And where does that come from? The the ability to make that
play on it just a split second decision. Yeah, I don't know.
I think everything for me over at first base has kind of been reactionary.
And uh, I don't know. I was supposed to be in on a
on a bump play came right to me, felt felt right to throw a
third that I had time, and I don't know. We got the guy
out, and I mean ended up ended up changing the game. You know,
you never know what happens. Guy on third, lesson two, So
we get him out at third and next guy grounds in double playing where ally
inn. He ended up winning that ball game. So I don't know,
It's just a ball came to me, made a play. That's all all
I could say about that. And you mentioned the adjustments at the plate that
you made in the offseason. It seems whether you've gotten results or not,
you've had good at bats. And is that the key in an eleventh inning
when you come up with it with a chance to do some damage. Yeah,
I think just kind of overall, I wanted the ability to come into
each day and be able to compete. I think there was a lot of
times last year and in previous years that you know, it was kind of
feast or famine, it was going to be a really good day, or
it was going to be really bad, and I was trying to kind of
limit those highs and lows. And I feel like I've been able to be
a little bit more consistent this year, and so I'm trying to have good
at bats no matter what situation. You know that I'm in. So we'll
see how it goes. Man putting one foot in front of the other and
living it day by day. And it's been fun. Cold it Cleveland.
It is close enough where this is a big series. And when you look
at that, how exciting is that, especially for a veteran player with the
season that you've had trying to find that good spot at the major league level
to be in these types of games now the next couple of weeks. Yeah,
this is awesome. This is whatever baseball player wants, you know,
having meaningful games as you get into September, and this is fun. We've
got a great opportunity right in front of us. These are the guys that
were chasing, so we got to play these guys tough, and I'm excited
about it. I mean, it's gonna be a great atmosphere. This is
a big game. Every pitch is going to be important, and so it's
gonna be fun to go out and play. And you're one of the veteran
players here with a lot of young players on this team, what do you
see in that clubhouse? So that gives you confidence that they'll be able to
play to the best of their abilities in these big games. Yeah, I
think I think they're they're just relaxed. They they're taking it day by day,
game by game and not making the moment I think bigger than what it
is. You start looking at the at the big picture and looking down the
road and where we're at, I think gets a little bit harder. Once
you can focus on kind of just that day to day, you kind of
simplify things. And so just out here playing baseball, and we want to
play good baseball, you know, and so that's going to happen tonight.
We can't worry about tomorrow. We can't worry about what happened before, you
know, I think if we get on a hot streak, you never know
what can happen. Good stuff, Cole, thanks for coming back, appreciate
it. Thank you. What an impact Cole Calhoun has made on this ball
club is you just get the feeling he is having the time of his life.
Getting that second chance to continue his career in the major leagues after spending
all season until August at the Triple A level. On the other side of
the break, it's Chris Antonetti talking about all the moves that the Guardians made
on Thursday to bolster this team for the stretch run that's next on the Cleveland
Clinic Guardians Radio Network. Welcome Mac to Guardians Weekly. Jim Rosenhouse along with
you as we join you from Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland. And there were
several roster additions for the Guardians heading into play on Friday night, as on
Thursday they made waiver claims. Three now former Los Angeles Angels joined in the
ball club, starting pitcher Lucas Giolito and then relief pitchers Rainaldo Lopez and Matt
Moore. President of Baseball Operations, Chris Antonetti filled us in on Thursday about
the moves, what they mean, and a variety of other subjects as he
met with the Cleveland media. Starting with Lucas Giolito has been a really effective
and durable major league starter for most of his career, and we're excited to
have him join our rotation to help stabilize that and provide us some competitive innings
moving forward. And then in Matt Moore and Ronaldo Lopez, we feel like
we've added two arms to our bullpen that will both improve our depth, guys
that have experienced pitching late in the games, and should give Tito and Carlson
more options for us to match up as we move forward. Chris, how
quickly did you put together a strategy for these waiver claims once you learned who
would be made available by the Angels and the other teams. We started discussions
right away, Joe, at least the internal discussions, and you know,
as we know, there were a number of players on waivers, not just
these three. But in the end, we felt these three were the three
that made the most sense for us, and you know, we were fortunate
to be able to put in claims and be awarded the claims. Chris,
what does this mean for the rotation with Cheolito. We're in the process of
working through that. Zach, he'll obviously slot in. We're trying to coordinate
travel and when he'll get here and when it makes sense to slide him in,
but he'll want more to come on that probably tomorrow. Any developments with
Gavin Williams or just the rookies in general and what you guys want to do
with them. Nothing. You Gavin did have a good day to day,
came into the ballpark, was feeling better, got some treatment, but seems
to be progressing pretty well. We'll continue to have more information on him each
day as we move along, but as of right now, it's like we've
avoided the worst case. How do you fit these guys on the roster?
So we have to make the immediate moves for the forty man, which we
designated Eric Hoss and Peyton Battenfield and those That's how we created the two forty
man spots. We don't have to make corresponding moves until on the twenty six
man, until they report. Chris, you called it a unique opportunity.
I'm just from your vantage point of when this uh came down in the last
few days. It's obviously unusual for you know, for a team to put
this many players on waivers and this this many experienced players, that sort of
thing. Just what was your your your take on seeing that develop because it
is so unusual. Yeah, well, these weren't the only three guys on
waivers. There were other teams that place players on waivers in similar situations.
But we looked at it as an opportunity to improve our team, and it's
rare that you have the ability to improve the team during a season, especially
the quality players like this, when it doesn't require trading wipe good players.
I mean, I think if you look at the return, you know a
number of these players were traded for a month ago to be able to acquire
them for a meaningful amount of cash, but but no player capital. I
think it was a move that made a lot of sense and one that doesn't
happen at offense. Chris, would you have if you didn't go for and
two on this last road trip? Would you have done this? No?
I'm not sure if Paul, It's hard to deal with hypotheticals. I'm glad
we went forward too on the road trip and we had this opportunity. Chris,
how hard is it to integrate, especially on the pitching side, guys
you know this late in the season, you know, and coaches working with
them, that sort of thing. Well, the good news is, especially
with Lucas and Ronaldo, we have a lot of familiarity with both guys,
having having faced them for a number of years within the division, so we'll
start that process as quickly as we can. Obviously, we'll look to build
on what they've done successfully in the past and try to help them assimilate into
our teams as quickly and as smoothly as possible. Of course, I don't
mean to sound well, I didn't. I'm probably something's going to sound stupid
here. But how does this process work? I mean, we're it's like
these guys just fell in your lap. Well, the way the process works
is, you know, if a players on waivers on our right waivers,
any team could submit a claim, and the team of all of the teams
that submit claims, the only team that's eligible for them is a team with
the worst record among that group. So in this case, in particular,
we submitted claims, and I'm guessing a number of other teams submitted claims on
these three guys, and we were the team with the worst record, so
we were awarded the claim. Chris, knowing that teams behind you in that
order might have also been interested in some of these guys, did that motivate
you any more to to make any of these claims. Our primary motivation was
trying to improve our team and find ways to get better. But obviously there's
a secondary benefit of teams that you know we're chasing in Minnesota, you know,
don't have the opportunity to get these guys, and you know hopefully that
that's a dual benefit for us. So were you guys surprised you got all
three? Given you no idea? I assume you've found out at the same
time, Yeah, we didn't really have any idea. You know, if
our record was better, our chances of getting them have been worse. So
we had a pretty good understanding of where we were and where we felt in
the competitive standings, and we weren't sure if we get one, two,
or three of them. But we're happy we were able to get all three.
Did you put in any claims I'm anyone you didn't get. I can't
talk about what happened what might have happened otherwise. But you could actually probably
piece that together, Paul and see where players ended up and where they didn't
end up. But I'll leave that to your detective work to figure that out.
We're in trouble, then maybe phone a friend, Paul if you need
help on that one. So, Chris, this is just like I mean,
it's not like you know, the August thirty first, where you could
you know, you could make trades before, you know, the when there
was two trade deadlines. But it's kind of like the same thing, isn't
it. It is. The difference though in that case is that the waivers
trade waivers. What were trade waivers in the past. Those waivers were revocable,
so if a team placed players on wa verse, another team claimed them.
If the teams couldn't work out player value, you know, the other
team could revoke those waivers and choose to keep them. The change now is
once players are placed on waivers, if another team submits a claim like we
did there, you don't have to negotiate a trade. We just get those
players for the waiver price. Does that makes sense, fault? I'm happy
to take explain more offline if you have interest. No, No, that
makes sense. Yeah? Yeah. Was there any hesitation of taking the remaining
salaries of these guys? Yeah? I give I give our ownership a ton
of credit, you know, and I think it's a consistent team. Every
you know, every opportunity that we've had to improve the team. The limitation
hasn't been finances and whether that this year or years past, we've been really
fortunate to have finances available to try to do that. When we haven't made
moves, it's mostly been because the player value we would have to give up
exceeded what we thought made sense. And in this case, as I said,
there was no player value. It was really financial considerations and then how
we could fit them on the roster. And you know, both of those
things made sense. And like I said, I think we are grateful for
the support from ownership to try to make this improvement. Did this, being
perhaps Tito's last season as manager, did that I have any impetus impetus between
behind these acquisitions? I mean, we're obviously cognizant of that, Paul,
But I think our focus is how do we you know, we came off
a good road trip, and how do we try to continue to build on
that momentum and give ourselves the best chance to compete for the postseason. And
like I said before, whether or not that will be good enough and whether
or not we can close the gap that's in front of us, we don't
know, but we wanted us right. Thank you, Chris, appreciate it,
Thank you everyone appreciate the time. That's Chris Antonetti explaining the moves that
the Guardians have made heading into the final month of the season. Stay with
us when we come back. We'll hear from robster Folio a firm report.
Next on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network score pass out of bounds. Those
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with Progressive. Now, I'm really dune Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates.
Potential savings will vary. Welcome back to Guardians Weekly, Jim Rosenhouse along with
you from Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland. Time for our final segment, and
just a reminder, several different ways you can hear our show each week on
any participating Cleveland Guardians Radio Network station. They pick it up and air it
usually on Saturday late afternoon prior to that day's ball game that the Guardians will
be playing. You can also check it out online at cle Guardians dot com.
On the website, all the archived editions are there, and you can
also hear it in podcast form wherever you download your favorite podcasts. Rob Sorfolio
is the director of player development for the Guardians and he joins us on a
regular basis to give us an update on the farm system, and we focused
in this week on the Guardians Low single a ball club, their first full
season minor league affiliate on the Minor League Ladder in Lynchburg, Virginia, part
of the Carolina League. Rob is down there the last week or so.
Their season is starting to wind down and come to a close. Record wise,
they're right around the five hundred mark, still within shouting distance of a
postseason Berth and Rob filled us in on how they evaluate the season as a
whole at the lower levels of the farm system. There's so many levels to
that answer, which it's the way the draft works in the middle of the
season. With baseball, you almost change your entire roster in the middle of
the summer, which is a unique challenge that this level faces. That many
of our other levels do not. And you add that on top of the
fact that these are really young players getting their first taste of what it's like
to go through one hundred and forty games, live, some of the challenges
of travel, and because of that, it just creates such a unique learning
environment for these guys. And it's been really encouraging to see these young eighteen
nineteen twenty year olds really get better as the season has gone on. We
started out the season just okay, but you've seen some of these guys that
are in their first full season pretty impressively kind of have better second halfs than
they have first halfs, which is which is always awesome to see. And
I think a credit to just our staff that's on ground, you know,
Jordan Smith and the rest of his team doing a great job and getting these
guys ready to play every day and continuing to learn and try and get better
and also win some ball games while doing that. All right, let's talk
about some of those young players, and we'll start with an eighteen year old
who was just assigned to Lynchburg has spent most of his summer out in Arizona.
But tell us about Jason Churio, And what has you so excited about
this young outfielder. Yeah, you use the word right there, exciting,
I think is a great word. And obviously Jason's older brother, Jackson is
is doing some pretty impressive things in the minor leagues for for Milwaukee, and
we're pretty excited and lucky to have Jason, you know, as as a
member of our farm system with the Guards, and this is a guy that
has a chance to impact the game on all sides of the ball, base
running, defense at the plate, switch hitter, can handle the bat from
both sides of the dish, and just does some of the some of the
things that you know, we expect to see it really growth around his offensive
game. You know, he's a guy that makes contact from both sides of
the plate and he's learning how to impact the baseball and you know, just
as an eighteen year old, for him to be able to have, you
know, some of the continual growth on the power and impact side of the
ball is really impressive. And you know, I think maybe the most exciting
thing about him is just how he goes about his work. He's very professional,
shows up, works hard, cares about the little things on and off
the field, So you know, hopefully a guy that the Guardians fans are
gonna be able to expect big things of moving forward. And again, in
case you missed it, fans at eighteen years old, which he said that
a couple of times, and that's exciting. Hey, shortstop Jose Devers a
familiar name in baseball circles and the Devers that the Guardians have in their farm
system. Looks like he's had a good year. He has, and this
is a guy that can really play defense up the middle, just is impressive
with the glove, has a really strong arm, super athletic, can play
third, second. We even had to put him in the outfield one night
and he did that with some pretty impressive cletticism, having never played out there
in his entire life. And again, you know, Jose is a guy
that's young, getting his first taste of one hundred and forty games and has
gotten stronger as the year has gone on. And for a guy that plays
up the middle to be hitting for as much power as he has while also
just putting together consistent at bats to night in and night out, has has
been really exciting for the staff in Lynchburg and why he's been a staple in
their lineup night and night out. And I know a difference this year as
opposed to to recent seasons for a lot of different factors. But you've had
some of your twenty twenty three drafted players sent out to play with a full
season affiliate and tell us about the position side of things. Who's shown up
late in the season here at Lynchburg. Yeah, you know, Rosie,
were trying to take that year by year, and like we've talked about on
the show for a couple of weeks now of the draft happening middle of the
year, some of the new rules and Minor League Baseball about new drafted players
entering, you know, this one hundred and eighty player calf that we now
have. We had a couple of guys in Cjkfis and Alex Mooney that had
played deep into the college season and hadn't had, you know, a huge
layoff from actually being in games, and we thought we could take advantage of
that. And these are you know, two talented young players, a third
and a sixth rounder that we felt like, one we're ready for the competition
quality and two we're just ready to go out there from a physical standpoint and
a readiness standpoint and go out there and compete. And you know, we've
had a lot of our new draftees get into gameplay, whether it's these two
guys in Lynchburg or some of the pitchers as well that have made their way
over to Lowe as well as the group that's remained in Arizona and are currently
part of our instructive group out in Arizona now on the pitching side. I
know you're excited about Jackson Humphries, how come. Yeah, you know,
I think there's some parallels to what we were just talking about the cherio here
of a guy that spent most of the summer in Arizona as part of our
rookieball group and and really did a great job as a as a high school
draftee last year to be able to develop how he is currently and a lot
of that's some of the stuff away from the field of becoming a professional with
his routines that's in the training room, in the weight room, kind of
connecting some of the dots with what he's doing physically and during his bullpends between
outings to make himself better and better for when he is in game, and
Jackson has done just that and pitched the other night for us and did a
great job attacking the strike zone despite having some early hurdles. And I think
that's just what we're seeing from him is an exciting young lefty that is learning
what it takes to be consistent night end, night out, but is doing
that with a pretty impressive arsenal for an eighteen nineteen year old kid that can
run his fastball up to ninety five, can really spend two breaking balls and
a slider and a curveball that's made him effective both against rights and lefties out
of the gate. So a pretty impressive foundation that our pitching group and our
whole team in Arizona just at a tremendous job continuing to push him to become
more and more of a professional with some of the little things. And I
think that that speaks to to why we've seen him go out there and have
success over the most innings he's ever thrown in his life this year. And
on the pitching side, we talked about it. On the position players side,
twenty twenty three drafted players heading out to play for a full season club,
and on that pitching side, who's gotten that opportunity so far, and
how impressed have you been with them? Yeah, we've you know, we've
had a couple of guys that have gone out in relief roles Jasic Morehouse Driver
or a couple of the new guys that have made their way over to Lynchburg,
and all three of those guys have come in thrown strikes. Again.
Our Arizona group did such a great job kind of putting them through our progression
of bullpen Live VP, make sure that they're feeling healthy and ready to go,
and they've gone out there and contributed meaningful innings to Lynchburg's you know,
push to get into the playoffs here in the second half. So you know,
all three of those guys offer some unique attributes of whether it's Jasick with
strike throwing and like a really impressive college performance line or Moorehouse and Driver,
two guys that can run it up in the mid nineties and have come out
of the bullpen and late inning situations and already made a mark for the Hillcats.
So, you know, a couple of guys that are college performers that
we're hoping to see some continued success down the home stretch here and see what
opportunities they have looking ahead to twenty twenty four. B Rob has always great
stuff on the farm system. Thanks a lot for coming by. We'll talk
to you soon. I appreciate it, Rosie. Hopefully the construction in the
background wasn't too much of a distraction for everybody, So thanks for having me
on. And as we record this, the Blue Angels are going by the
fault practicing for the air. So if you weren't in one of those jets
coming back from Lynchburgh, were you, I wish I would, though it
made a home a lot quicker than I did. This Morded. It's Rob
sortfolio that Guardians director of Player Development with an update on single A Lynchburg.
Some good things happening down there for the Hillcats as they get ready for postseason.
Potentially to have some work to do, but about a week to go
in their season before it wraps up. Well, that's going to do it
for this edition of Guardians Weekly. As always, thanks to Brian Matzay for
helping to put together our show each week until next week when we join you
from Anaheim, California, the Guardians out West on their coming road trip.
This is Jim Rosenhouse reminding you that you've been listening to Guardians Weekly on the
Cleveland Clinic. Guardians Rady you don't at work. Guardians Weekly has been brought
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