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,
Well, I'll come to Guardians Weekly. Jim Rosenhaus along with you from
Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland, where the Guardians are taking on the Baltimore Orioles
this weekend in a four game series. Said has gone quite well for Cleveland
so far, with a pair of rousing late inning victories for the Guardians,
including on Friday night the walk off winner from David Fry in the bottom half
of the ninth and in capping a seesaw nine to eight battle that went the
Guardians way in the end and set the stage for what could be a fun
weekend too, as they'll take on the Orioles on Saturday night at six ten
and then Sunday afternoon to wrap up the series at one forty. Coming up
a little bit later on in our show, we will visit with pitching coach
Carl Willison talk to him about the season that was for the Guardians pitching staff.
With a lot of injuries to deal with, they still have come through
with a solid effort throughout the season, and we'll also talk to Carl about
his future with the ball club. We'll hear from Cal Quantrell and Sam hand
Justis both a part of that pitching staff. And we'll also visit with Luke
Carlin, who is The Guardian's minor league catching coordinator, who has some great
thoughts on the progress and the major league abilities of bow Naylor as the young
catcher has performed quite well down the stretch for Cleveland. But first, as
we begin our show, we hear from closer Emanuel Class as always, with
some good help from Aggie Rivero, the team interpreter. Class eclipse the forty
save mark. Recently last night a blown save in the end, but ended
up getting the win in that comeback victory. And it's been that kind of
year for Emmanuel Class, the first Cleveland closer with a pair of forty save
seasons in franchise history. How about that? And he talked about how he
views this season in terms of his progress and the goals that he had hoped
to accomplish. And I am blago and thank God for the opportunity for this
season, but you know, I feel this is a season with a lot
of challenges and a lot of things and open down like you mentioned. But
most importantly, I was able to improve my personal goal which I have every
year, which is get more saved on the previous year. So I'm still
confiding with a few games that we have left that we're able. I wouldn't
be able to surpass the number of saved that I had last year. And
when you look at at the year you've had, you've had to bounce back
on a lot of nights. And we talk all the time about closers have
to have no memory whatsoever, good or bad. And have you managed to
kind of work along those lines to get better at that part of it?
And again momento, Yeah, the way how I do what I try to
Like when after the game back in the hotel, I try to chap the
video and see what actually happened, you know, sometimes it's bad locked sometimes
it's my bad performance, and obviously seeing what happens to make sure it doesn't
happen the next day. And then after that I just take the positive and
the next day I just focus on executing the good thing and just forget the
bad things. But Manual class A joining Guardians Closer with translation help from Agi
Ribero. You are the first and only player in Cleveland franchise history to have
two forty safe seasons. What does that mean to you? Even though you're
still very young in your career and alan, but really pretty proud of myself
and the word that I'll be able to put in, but also, you
know, very thankful for the organization gave me the opportunity because it's an important
achievement for my career, for my personal career, but most importantly also for
the organization. So it's something that I take a lot of pride on and
I'm really happy I've been giving me the opportunity to do that here and there's
been some really good closers here down through the years. Are you surprised you're
the first to go back to back forty plus safe seasons and and build Build
It's weird because in reality, the way how I see it, like,
if I've been able to achieve it in the past, I know I'm going
to put my effort to do it again, and I know I will do
it, so I know it's a difficult thing to do, but I'm I'm
pretty happy that I was able to improve the number of saved that I did
last year, and you let all the major League baseball a year ago and
saves could happen again. How important is that to you? As we get
into the last couple of weeks of the season here, oh Claudis will eat
I mean, these are very important games and regardless of the situation. I
love the QUOTEO Pedro Martiniz this is the time in the season that I praised
the kids from the grown up man and and for me, that's what it
is like. Kind of give the best out of the best for the end
of the season and hopefully we get the good results and along those lines,
the team wise, obviously it's been a step back this year compared to a
year ago, but a lot of the same talent is here. What has
you excited for next season just based on what you've seen the last two years
here, when you've been such a big part out of it, A good
bowesome. I believe this is a you know, this is part of baseball.
Sometimes you may have these expectations it's not going to happen. But I
have a lot of trusty in these guys for next year because I believe we've
improved. We've improving a lower areas. I gave you the confidence that we're
going to be clearly contending for the playoff spot next year and hopefully for our
title as well. And one of your teammates an All Star teammate two years
in a row. I know you didn't have a chance to go this year,
but Jose Ramirez and you are in the record books for Cleveland, and
he's every day. It seems like we're looking up something new for him in
terms of all time franchise leaders. What has it been like to and meant
to you to be able to play on the same team as him the last
two seasons. El Bami on leader and we'll on leader. It's really great
to have him here. You know, he's clearly a leader in this clubhouse.
I mean not only for the way how he plays the game, but
how he talked to all of us, to the players to keep the positive
vive and also keep our head up. So I feel it's important way he
contributes on the field, but also where he contributes to the organization, to
defense and to us as players. It's really important to have us in our
team. I'm annual. Thanks for the time, appreciate it. Thank you.
I'll get thank you, Thank you, guys. That's closer, Emmanuel
Claus say. And when we come back, we'll hear from another of the
relievers, Sam Henchus, as well as starting pitcher Cal Quantrill. But first
we take a time out. Now we'll have more after this. Those are
sports sounds and people of sports so much it makes them pay attention when I
say, drivers who switch and save with Progressive could save hundreds. And we
all know how sports fans feel about big saves. See what I did there.
Save is also a sports word, So save big when you switch to
Progressive. Oh that's a golf club, Progressive Casualty insurance company and affiliates.
Potential savings will vary. The three two is chopped to the third basement.
Ramirez up with it, fires to first end time for the out and a
third straight three up, three down inning recorded by Cal Quantrill. Here's the
payoff. Pitch swung and banged up the middle off the glove of Quantrill,
knocked the glove off. He picks it up, bear hands it bat Candid
flipped to first for the out. The club is still laying on the pitcher's
mount. Quatrall had to retrieve that ball. On the grass area behind the
Mount and showed his athleticism. There's the old one swung on groundball to the
second baseman, amens to the back for one. Arius fires to first end
time for the out and the double play ends the inning and another low pitch
inning for cal Quantrill. Jim Rosenhouse back with you from Progressive Field in downtown
Cleveland. It's Guardians Weekly. Great to have you along this weekend as the
Guardians are playing the Orioles here and what has been an entertaining four game series
so far two games in, with Game three of the series on Saturday night
at Well. Cal Quantrell will be on the Mount on Saturday night and he
has made four starts since returning from his second stint on the injured list and
has pitched extremely well since returning from that injury list. We caught up with
him over in Kansas City after his most recent appearance and he talked about why
it's been so important for him to get back on track before the off season.
You know, I feel like I wanted to prove, you know,
to myself again and to my teammates, and you know, I'm I still
got it. I just I was going through some stuff earlier in the year,
and you know, I think I've got it handled and I feel like
I'm back to my regular whist. And you were saying earlier, first time
in your pro career, even dating back to the minor league days, where
you've had to battle some things injury wise, how top was that mentally,
especially coming back once and then having to go back on the injured list.
Yes, it sucked. I feel like big part of my identity as a
baseball player is, you know, I take the rock every fifth day and
I think, you know what you're gonna get out of me, And when
that gets taken away for a little while, it kind of sinks stuff sitting
there watching your team compete without you. So, uh yeah, it was
tough, But you know, I think it's something most athletes go through at
some point in their career. Part of it and now we're back. I'm
not sure if they're related at all, but I know in your game on
Monday in Kansas City, there were maybe a different repertoire than than we usually
see from you. And is that a result of coming back differently after the
injury or is it just something that that happened to fall into place that day.
No, I think I've always had the ability to throw five, six,
seven different pitches. I just haven't had to or haven't really wanted to
in the past. And I feel like, you know, where I'm at
right now and the way my arm's working, I feel like my office speed
pitches are as good as they've been. And it was a good, you
know, good team to showcase it against and and you know, show that
I have multiple ways of getting people out. Cal you look at at the
year, it's been obviously frustrating for you, and I'm for the team as
well. And when you look at it a year like this and then look
to the future at some positives you can take out of it for where this
team stands going into next season. Yeah, I mean, obviously we had
we had high hopes coming into the season. You always should think. Injuries
got us pretty good, and you know, and we didn't play our best
baseball. But I still think the core of this team's intact, and I
still think that we're talented and we know how to win. We just you
know, we thought it a little bit this year. So you know,
we're going to finish strong, and you know, some guys are going to
prove that they belong here next year and and you know we'll be right back
at it, ready to compete and go for a title next year. I
know, talking to occasionally, you talk about the talent here, especially the
young talent, and what has you excited. What do you see and the
young players that says, hey, this could be something. Yeah, I
mean I think that pretty much every player on the roster is showing flashes of
what they're capable of. I think, you know, the goal is towards
the end of the season is to prove that you can be consistent, you
know, day in day out. Can we need to be able to rely
on people for one hundred and sixty two games and you know, some guys
are getting some shots to play more more important, you know, game games
than they were earlier in the season. You know, just look to go
out there and show that they belong and that we can count on them next
year. And personally, obviously you've come back, you've gotten your starts in.
What do you need to do you think in the off season and how
much are you looking forward to attacking the off season in a certain way to
make sure you're ready to go next spring? Yeah, I feel good.
I feel good about my offseason routine, and I think it's shown throughout my
career. I'll be ready to roll next year just like I was this year.
And you know, obviously, well we'll keep some things we've learned this
year in mind to make sure we try and avoid some of the same mistakes.
But it'll be a good off season. Be ready to go. Cal
always great to be on Thank you all right. That's Cal Quantrill, a
fifteen game winner a season ago, and obviously this season did not go like
that, but very encouraging down the stretch for him. Now in the bullpen,
you talk about a picture on a roll after starting this season on the
injured that's left hand or Sam Henches, who was a dominant factor in the
bullpen a year ago down the stretch and on into the postseason, and we
are seeing that again. How about this. The last time Henches allowed an
earned run was late July, and heading into play on Saturday night, he
had a twenty five appearance streak without allowing an earned run. The only run
he had allowed was in extra innings. When runs that come in with that
runner at second base to start an ending, they don't count as an earned
run. So that's been it for Henches. He's been just tremendous, and
he explained some of the keys to his success down the stretch here in the
second half. I mean, I think just kind of putting my head down
and keeping on putting in the work every day and just understanding that the results
will come, and results. He can't always control the results of what you
do, but you've got to control everything that you can control and go out
and stay aggressive in the zone and just just keep yourself available every day.
And nights like last night where you probably know that it's going to take a
lot of arms from that bullpen to get the job done. It or it
was kind of fun to know that all you guys together are going to have
to contribute, definitely, especially when you've got a guy who's who's coming up
making a spot start on short rest. We were all kind of ready to
go down there, and Eli did a really good job early in the in
the fourth and fifth in and they kind of shift the momentum in our direction
of that game, and then the rest of us came in and kind of
just slammed the door from there. But no, it was definitely good and
cool to see Eli go out there and do that. And when you look
at at the bullpen as a whole this season, obviously you concentrate on your
own pitching and success. Well, when you look at things this season and
how it has turned out for the bullpen, how have you looked at it
and seen it as the season has gone along. I mean, I think
we've been playing a ton of really close game and that over the course of
the season that can get very difficult, and then the statistics I think of
our bullpen as a whole can be skewed a little bit because of those close
games. But I think everybody's been doing a doing a pretty good job of
working hard every day and I think as a bullpen guy, making yourself available
to pitch every night is everybody in the bullpens main objective and that the results
will come. And we've put together some good stretches as a bullpen and we've
we've taken our lumps as well, and that's just the part of one hundred
and sixty two game season. But just continuing to putting the work and finishing
strong, I think is is very important to us and will help give us
some momentum going into the next year. And you mentioned next season and every
player would like to have a season like a year ago when it was,
you know, preparing for the playoffs. At this point, how do you
look at this season? What do you take away from it, even though
there's some disappointment and not making the postseason. I mean, you got to
take away the positives that you got to learn from the negatives, and over
the course of the season you kind of make adjustments. And it's a constant
game of adjustments, especially as a pitcher's coming in to throw fifteen pitches and
we'll face guys multiple times in a series. So just making adjustments, continuing
to learn from the negatives and take the positives and think about them as much
as you can and roll with that into the offseason. Sam Hench is joining
US Guardian's relief pitcher and Sam we talked baseball before the break. Now the
important stuff. It's team photo Day and this is something that every team goes
through every year. What's the key to good success on team photo Day?
What's most important to you? I think communication is number one because it's a
lot of bodies out there. You've got a lot of people moving around,
so kind of having a leader. I don't know who that's going to be
today, but just kind of having that communication to get everybody in the right
spot for the right time, to make it go as swiftly as possible.
I'm not sure if you're that guy, but is there a player in that
room who maybe takes personal appearance and how they look in the team photo a
little more seriously than others? Definitely don't. I don't know why you would
because it's from about five hundred feet away, but definitely there's some guys in
there that will get nice and loot up with gel or whatever they got to
put on and make themselves look good. Want to name names, No,
I do not. And you are one of the taller players on this team,
which means you're in the back row every time. Is that something you'd
like to see change at some point in time? I mean, maybe at
some point, Yeah, that would be fun to be towards the front,
or maybe sitting on a bench or something upfront would be cool. But I've
been standing in the back of photos of my whole life. I'm pretty used
to it, and I think I'm pretty good at at this point. If
there's things to be good at. That's a good thing to be good at.
Sam, thanks a lot, nice season this year again, and I
appreciate you coming by at. Sam hench is a key part of the bullpen
and certainly having a tremendously strong finish to his season. Stay with us when
we came back. We'll hear from pitching coach Carl Willis. That's next on
the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network. Probably the one thing we talked about more
than everything is we, you know, togetherness. It's not that we're not
going to struggle, but when we do, we're gonna do it together.
We're gonna learn together, we're gonna we're gonna win together, we're gonna compete
together. We're never gonna back down from a challenge together. And that's the
idea. It's it sounds. You know, everybody's going to talk about it.
We have to find a way to do it better than all other twenty
nine teams. That's hard to do because, as we've noticed, there's only
one team that can be left standing at the end of the year. We
haven't been fortunate enough yet to be that team. We keep knocking on the
door. We'll figure it out. Welcome back to Guardians Weekly. Jim Rosenhouse
along with you from Progressive Field this weekend, and it's great to have you
with us as the Guardians are winding down their home schedule that concludes on Wednesday
night, the second of a two game series against the Cincinnati Reds, and
don't forget that's a night where the Guardians will honor their manager, Terry Francona
with thank you t shirts. Thank You Tito t shirts being handed out to
the first twenty thousand fans on hand, all tickets in the upper deck during
this last homestand are eleven dollars. You can go to CLI Guardians dot com
and pick'em up right there. But there'll be a tribute video for Tito,
as he has said many many times now over the last couple of months
that this will be his last season as a manager for Cleveland, and his
pitching coach for a good portion of that time has been Carl Willis, and
he has overseen a pitching staff, especially a starting rotation that has undergone tremendous
change since spring training, as all five projected starters coming out of spring training
have either spent time on the injured list, been traded or spent time in
the minor leagues. It has been that kind of year. And we asked
Carl if he's been surprised at how well the staff came together this season,
even with all the challenges. Not that there wasn't confidence in the guys who've
stepped up, but you know, just knowing where they're at in their careers,
you know how young they are, their experience at upper levels. You
know, I think it's it's a big ask, but I am so so
proud of those guys. I mean, they have done a tremendous job,
as you said, given us a chance to win most nights out and and
quite frankly, a lot of credits go to the bullpen as well, because
you know, I know they're you know, saying their nights. You know
that things can fall upon art and that that happens, you know, with
any club, the best of the best clubs. But if you look at
our bullpen, they've been very resilient. I mean, the guys that made
our club out of camp have certainly pitched the bulk of the bullpen innings.
I think if you look at it, probably more so than maybe any other
club, you know, in the Major League so so those guys, you
know, have gotten a lot of work in and and just the staff as
a whole really really proud of what they've accomplished. And I think they experienced
that they've all gamed, but certainly the young starters just speaks a lot for
a bright future. Here is there a common thread among the three that's allowed
them to navigate that rookie season and pitch so well so often, you know,
I do think they compete with each other, but I also think they
really like each other, and you know that that makes things kind of seamless
from from day to day because they support each other. There's never any you
know, animosity. But I think on the mound, you know, I've
I've said this, you know for a long long time. You know,
our player development system does a really good job of you know, preaching strike
throwing, and and then once we have strike throwing, it's commanding the strike
zone. Our guys have stuff and and all of them seemingly have a secondary
pitch that you know is plus and so they're just they get here with a
lot of confidence, and that goes a long way. I think when when
you're asking young guys to do what we've asked him to do this year.
Personally, as the season winds down, there's some uncertainty for the first time
in a while with with Terry Francona indicating that that he will stop managing this
ball club at the end of the season. How about for you, How
does that impact you and what are your thoughts as the season starts to wind
down here? Well, you know, first, I can't you know,
voice enough how much I have enjoyed working with Tito and how honored I have
been to work, you know, alongside him. I think he's a Hall
of Fame manager. You know, he lets his coaches coach. The players
love him, the coaches love him. I'm sure the fans do as well.
I'm just very apprecitive of that. In terms of the future, I'm
certain that you know, a new manager and rightfully so, it's gonna come
in and he's gonna want some of his people on the staff. You know,
maybe there's you know, some some rumor consideration to keep some Listen,
I've done this for a long time. I'm I'm thankful, I'm blessed,
I'm appreciative of my time, and hopefully I've been able to make a possive
impact here and there on on some young pictures and older pictures. So you
know, we'll see, I have a contract. We're gonna keep it open
minded, and we'll see what happens. And when you look back at you
were get pitched in the major leagues, but not everybody can then go and
and be a good coach. But you've been doing this long enough to where
certainly it's acknowledged that that you've done great work with so many pictures. What's
the enjoyment level for you? What what keeps you coming back year after year?
And has it something that you enjoy doing well? I think you know,
there's a couple of things. I well, First, I love the
game. I've always loved the game since I was a little boy. It's
kind of instilled in me from my dad who loved it. But I love
the competition. You know, the competition just it keeps you motivated. It
it keeps you energetic even as you get older. You know, maybe maybe
you crash harder after games than you're used to, but during the game and
in the preparations for the game, you know that that really motivates me.
And and and the other thing is just just seeing the probably the smiles and
the you know, sense of accomplishment from the players and in my case,
particularly the pitchers when they do go out and perform, you know, at
a really high level and do a really good job and you know, make
a great pitch or get out of a tough jam, or just go out
and dominate. I mean, to see them, you know, I didn't
have many of those nights as a player. I had a few, not
many, but but just to see them and know how that feels and what
that means, it's really a blessing to be a small part of that.
And I enjoy that so much. And you've been a part of Young Award
winners with three different teams, And do you get as much enjoyment out of
out of that overseeing that process as you do say a young kid trying to
hang on it and just stay in the major leagues as long as they can.
I honestly, they're all equal, I mean, and you know,
in terms of the SIA youngs, that's that's you know, in some case,
I feel like it's being in the right place at the right time.
I you know, I don't know, but I know that I'm extremely happy
for those guys who have have won that award, it's a great, great
honor for them and a great accomplishment. But as you mentioned, you know
guys who you know, maybe are struggling and they've been in the league eight
nine years and trying to, you know, refine themselves, and sometimes they
do. And guys that do kind of come out of nowhere and make a
place for themselves and go on and have a lengthy career. Yeah, there's
there's pride and joy in all of those situations. Everybody has their own story
and when that story can be a happy one, We're all excited. Carl,
Towy's fun visiting with you. Thanks so much for your help this season,
all right, Rosie enjoyed it, and uh see the fans again soon.
I have some good stuff there from Carl Willis and that remains to be
seen what his role will be next season, but as you can tell us,
still very much enthusiastic about being in this game and spreading some of that
great knowledge that he brings to the table. Stay with us when we come
back. We'll visit with a young coach in the Guardians minor league system.
He oversees the catchers that's Luke Carland, stay with US Sporting come after this
and Progressive. We love sports and sending your money, so we'd bundled them
together. The final horse now in the gate and they're off first, shutting
off of a double turloop jump, leaving a difficult seven time split as there's
moving on the inside rail. Only nine pinsent for them. Now it's the
head of the final quarter of misle. Their neck and neck. It's down
to the last frame. Here comes the actual jump. They bundled their home
at Auto Insurance with Progressive. It wins Strike Sending's gold. Progressive Casual Teensurance
Company affiliates another insurance discount not available in all states or situations. From the
set, Hernandez the pitch, and Nailer with a high drive, deep right
field, back goes Velasquez, backtrack ball gone Bone Nailer, a solo home
run to write. That's home run number nine for Nailer, four of them
off Kansas City pitching this year. And a towering blast to write for Bone
Nailer and I mentioned earlier tonight. Nailer with an ops of over a thousand
the last twenty two games. Welcome back to Guardian's weekly. Jim Rosenhouse back
with you for our final segment, and we've had a chance to visit recently
with Luke Carlin, who spent a short period of his major league career with
the Cleveland Indians back in the twenty twelve season, the last time he played
with Cleveland. He has been a part of the coaching staff in the minor
leagues for quite some time, and this season the third for him as the
organizational catching instructor and coordinator. He worked a lot with Bow Naylor in the
minor leagues before Bowl got the call up earlier this season, and Luke fills
us in on that progress that Naylor made not only during his time in the
minors, but also as his major league season has progressed. Yeah, I
mean, there's so many of us that are excited for Bow and just you
know, him finding a little bit of you know, his step and a
little bit more comfort here. And you know, you can see he's been
trending up recently too in a lot of areas, so you know, from
hitting to catching to you know, mental skills, life skills, the physical
aspect of it. I think from a player development standpoint, you know,
we really tried to put our best foot forward with him, as with every
player, but he did the work and that's really a credit to him and
his family and his parents and stuff like that, because his maturity and his
work ethic and his perspective really helped, you know, him move as quickly
as he did. And you know, the cool story about Bow and I
talked to him about this, is you know, he struggled his first year
in double A quite a bit, but the organization believed that he could handle
it mentally and that he had to go through that and come out the other
side so that he could see himself, you know, have that success because
that's when you earn that confidence as a player. It helps you at this
level because at this level, everybody's really good and if you can't handle failure,
you kind of sink or swim. And so Bow has been really good
with that. I think that's one of his biggest strengths. What has he
done defensively in terms of progress that's really impressed you as someone who caught in
the big leagues for a while and certainly was good defensively too. Yeah,
the first thing that stands out for Bows his athleticism. I think what the
average fan wouldn't see. Is just the preparation and communication that goes into the
game calling and the picture catcher communication and talking with Carl, Rigo and Joe
and everybody getting on the same page. I mean, you know, that's
a difficult learning curve for a lot of catchers. There's just so much and
there's so much information and they have to be able to see it in the
moment, you know, get all of that info and apply it or at
least know how that works with the picture. And it is really tricky and
it's makes a huge impact on the game. And just watching him go through
the plan of attack meetings, you know, with Geo a few days ago,
and just how he's communicating with Carl and how he's preparing in his notes,
and then what it looks like when he's on the bench between innings and
he's not you know, he's not worried about his at bat. He's you
know, he's got the iPad out and he's looking at his notes and he's
watching previous at bats. I mean, it's a level of maturity and preparation.
And you know, Gallagher has been really in fluential here for him too.
Gallagher has got a great process for that, and he's very open and
he's been very helpful. So and that just goes back to, you know,
the culture here and you know Sandy carl and the rest of the pitching
group, obviously Tito at the top, but you know, they've been able
to embrace their kind of roles and help each other. So I think that's
the Obviously, there's the receiving. The throwing still it's coming like bow can
throw. So you know, his pop times look good. His caught stealings
numbers aren't quite where we'd like them right now, but receiving, blocking,
game calling, they're all trending in the right direction. And obviously it's nice
that he's been hitting a little bit more as well. So Luke Carlin's joining
us. He oversees the catching instruction and the minor league system for the Guardians.
And Luke, your last played here in twenty twelve. Your last major
league experience was was with Cleveland. What's it been like to be back in
the organization as an instructor and really having an impact. Yeah, you know,
playing for eight different organizations throughout my career, you could really feel the
difference here and a lot has changed since you know, my first year in
twenty ten here at the same time, I felt like it's grown. And
one thing that's always been consistent has been just the care and concern for our
people, and we do that differently and it shows up. So, you
know, being able to come back as a coach as a privilege something as
a catcher, as a coach that you know you're trying to help and you
want to make an impact and you want to help other players succeed, and
so the Guardians have been a really good place to give us the autonomy and
freedom to explore and grow and make an impact and just as long as we're
communicating and all pulling in the same direction. So it's been very fulfilling since
I stopped playing to come back and do the coaching side. And when you
look at obviously, I'm sure you'd like to name every catcher in the system
as someone who you know, keep an eye on that type of thing,
but just a couple. Bryan Lavestito, we saw him last year. He
made the club out of spring training and then took a step back, but
it looks like he's made some progress this year. What are you saying from
him? Yeah, the work that he's put in and it's difficult to go
through. You know, he got here and admit he will admit he's like,
oh wow, I am not prepared for this level. And you know
that's nobody's fault. It's really hard to play here. But then you've got
a choice. You can kind of like spiral down into this, you know,
self pity or despair, or you can get to work. And and
Lavestita got to work and he's done a great job with just maturing his daily
routines, life skills, preparation. He's been the first one of the field,
kind of the last one to leave, staying on top and really taking
a professional approach and perspective to his game. And that's really what it takes
at this level, is that sort of ownership and preparedness. Those habits have
helped him grow over the season and he's seen some fruit because of it.
Then we'll go all the way down to the bottom for a kid who was
drafted this June, the first round draft pick for the Cleveland Guardians is a
catcher. Tell us about him and and where it might lead maybe maybe or
maybe not. Yeah, So Ralphie was our first rounder this year. And
he didn't have a lot of catching experience, and so our scouting group,
you know, really dug in and talk to him and figured out what he
wanted to do. You know, for the fans that don't know, I
mean, he can hit, and we think that he's going to continue to
hit. Obviously he's not major league ready right now, but all signs point
to it could be really exciting bat. And this is Ralphi Vlaska, this
is Ralphi Vlaska's yep. And you know, without a lot of catching experience,
catching the rookie ball level is probably one of the most difficult things to
do from a skill standpoint, because we have a lot of young talented pitchers
who are still learning how to command their pitches, and even just the consistency
of the pitches. Their sliders might break three different ways right now, So
it is very difficult to catch at that level. And so Ralph he's got
his work, as all catchers and rookie ball have their work cut out for
us. But because he doesn't have a lot of playing time back there,
he's gonna have to learn fast and hopefully it stays up to speed with his
bat. So he you know, in the two weeks that I've spent time
with him, there's a lot to like. He's a good kid, comes
from a good family, and he wants to do it. He wants to
learn. So yeah, we're gonna we're gonna put our he's gonna put his
work in and we're gonna see where it goes. But it's very exciting.
Yeah, Luke, great to see you, good stuff. Thanks for coming
by. Always great to see Rosie. Thanks for having me. It's Luke
Carlin, the minorly catching coordinator for the Guardians and a lot of good stuff
there from Luke as he oversees all the catchers in the system. That's going
to do it for our show. This week is always thanks to Brian Matsay
for helping to put it together each and every week. We'll catch up in
the next weekend from Detroit, the final weekend of the regular season, and
that's where Guardians Weekly will come to you next. Until then, this is
Jim Rosenhouse thanking you for listening to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio
Network. Guardians Weekly has been brought to you by Progressive, helping Guardians fans
save hundreds on car insurance