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, this is Guardians Weekly. Shimros in house along with you from Wrigley
Field in Chicago where the Guardians are taking on the Cubs this weekend in a
three game series. Coming up a little bit later on in our show,
we will have a full farm report dealing with the Lake County Captains, the
single a entry for the Guardians in their farm system with Director of Player Development
Rob Sorfolio. We'll also talk hitting with Guardians hitting coach Chris Felka, as
the team put together a much better month of June than they did the first
two months of the season as things started to click offensively. Ham will also
check in with Will Brennan, who had an opportunity to return home and play
in front of a lot of hometown fans when the team was in Kansas City
earlier this week. But first I look back at the weekend review and we
mentioned that series in KC and quite a series it turned out to be for
Cleveland, as the opener on Tuesday night featured a two to one win,
but it was difficult to get there. Now good pictures. Duel shaped up
early as Brady Singer for Kansas City had it going, and so did Guardians
rookie right hander Gavin Williams, who looked outstanding in his second major league start.
Two ounce nominy on base, no score, bottom of the seventh Gavin
Williams pitch number ninety two is a curveball hit in the air. Routine left
center. Stephen Quan is there. And if this is it for Gavin Williams,
how about this night? Seven shutout innings of one hit baseball. He
just dominated the strike zone and we go to the eighth scoreless. Kansas City
broke through for the game's first run in the eighth inning, and it could
have been much more, but bow Naylor shut down the threat with a spectacular
play from behind the plate. Now they sent now the pitch to Freddie Fermin.
The runner takes off high throw on a pitch out throw to second by
Nailer. He still got him. WHOA what a play by Nailer. He
called a pitch out. Stephen didn't throw a pitch out, He just threw
it high over the plate. Naylor had to lunch back to grab it,
spin around, throw to second, and throughout the runner. You may never
see a better throwout than the one we just saw from Bull Nailer. So
the Guardians had one more chance to win it in the ninth or at least
tie it. And Josh Nailor got things started with a single, then a
one out walked to Andreas Jimenez put two men aboard for the hometown kid,
Will Brennan. The pitts. Brennan rips one down the right field, life
fairball and into the corner that'll score. Arius Jimenez is being waved around.
No throw to the plate. Will Brennon with a two run double into the
right field corner and the Guardians have a two to one lead in the ninth
and Barlow went back to another breaking ball and Brennan was all over it and
a three hit game for Will Brennan is thirteenth double, giving him twenty three
rbiys and Cleveland has a two to one lead with two here in the ninth
on to protect the lead. In the bottom half of the ninth inning,
closer Manuel classe Clause's ready here it comes a swing in a chomper the short
charged by Rosario Gloves throws the first ball game and the Guardians get a two
run double in the top of the ninth from Will Brennan and stun the Kansas
City Royals two to one. So a real nice win for the Guardians,
pulling one out of the hat late and winning it by a score of two
to one on Tuesday, and that brought them to Wednesday and a rarity in
this season, a game where the Guardians could put it on cruise control about
midway through and really enjoy a lopsided win. The big day started in the
third inning. A single in two walks loaded the basis for one of baseball's
hottest hitters, Jose Ramirez. Royal's infield double play depth the pitch and he
swings in lines one to deep left field. This ball is gone. It's
a line drive grand slam home run. The Cleveland bullpen in left and a
Jose Ramirez when the first grand slam of the year for Cleveland, his fifth
career grand slam, and Austin Cox pays the ultimate price, walking people ahead
of a Jose Ramirez in the fifth with a runner on, Josh Bell stepped
in. Here comes the old one. Swung on, and that's lifted high
and deep to right center. Oh, look out in the fountains and it
is a splashdown. Josh Bell goes deep into the fountains in right center.
Two more on the board for Cleveland and it's now six nothing. Oh my,
a majestic blast for Josh Bell as he hits home run number eight on
the season. Then in the sixth the Guardians removed any doubt. Miles Straw
got it started with a base hit. Then bon Nailer came to the plate.
The set the pitch and it swung on, hit pretty well to left
center. Long run for water. Still going back, this ball is gone.
Boonenailer with his first major league home run, a two run. The
home run the opposite way to left center, and the Guardians, in a
rare breakout of home run derby, lead the Royals eight to nothing, with
all eight runs coming on three home runs. Tonight, Stephen Quan followed with
a single. Then Ahmed Rosario came through. Now the two old pitch swung
on, ripped a right field base hit near the line. Melndez has to
dive cuts it off on the warning track. Now the ball sports free around
third coming for home is Quon. He'll score Rosario keeps motoring to third,
and that'll be an RBI triple from Ed Rosario. And it's a nine nothing
Cleveland lead. Great effort in that right field corner by Melendez trying to cut
the ball off. He dove after it on the warning track and started to
smother it and then had squirted free of him and rolled toward the wall.
And in this ballpark mentioned it at the outset. I mean, you have
a boatload of triples and even inside the park home runs in this place,
and I'm d Rosario now has gone back on top of the league in triples
with five. After a walk to Jose Ramirez, Josh Naylor kept the rally
going again. The payoff pitch swung on roped into right field of a sit
near the line. It'll go to the wall. That is going to score
Rosario. Ramire is flying into third, stops there and chugging into second with
another RBI double as Josh Naylor and the Guardians have hit for the cycle.
Here in the sixth inning, Naylor has made it a ten nothing ball game
with his second double, his fifty eighth RBI, and then Josh Bell's big
day continued. The pitch hit on the ground toward third, it's a fair
ball base hit down the left field line. In the score are both Premiers
and Nailer head first slide and a two run double for Josh Bell. And
Bell has knocked in four and he inside out of that ball inside the bag
down the third base line, and it ends up being one of those innings
where anything Cleveland is hitting is finding a hole. And the Guardians have added
six runs to their lead twelve nothing Cleveland. Will Brennan added an RBI on
a ground out to cap off the seven run sixth inning, and the Guardians
were on top thirteen nothing. One more run came in the seventh again courtesy
of jose Ramirez. If you include tonight. In the last eighteen games,
Jose is batting over four hundred with thirteen extra base hits and twenty armies.
Now the one old swung at in rope to write down the line and goes
fareball. It'll ricochet and roll around in that right field corner, hitting third
and coming home is Nailer. Josey will put the brakes on a second and
it is fourteen to noth in Cleveland. Ramirez with a two out BB down
the right field line. He has knocked in five and that is double number
twenty one. And right now Ramirez is as hot as we have seen really
since last year before he tore that ligament into his thumb. Kansas City did
get a run in the bottom half of the seventh to break up the shutout
bid, and then in the night Tim Herron was on to finish things up.
Harron's ready. The big lefty cents and the payoff pitch swang in a
mess ball game, and the Guardians have won a series and we'll look for
a sweep tomorrow. Cleveland, with its most lop sided win of the campaign,
banners to Kansas City Royals tonight fourteen no one. So the Guardians had
their largest run output of the season in a game and also a single inning
with the fourteen runs in the ball game and the seven run inning as the
offense was really clicking on Wednesday. Then on Thursday, a memorable game to
be sure, a loss though for the Guardians as they fell four to three
to Kansas City in ten innings. It was a good battle that went to
extra innings, tied at two, and in the top half of the tenth
inning. Jose Ramirez was the runner that started at second base. He got
to third on a ground out, and then his chapman got a strikeout for
the second out in the inning. Andre Simenez was the batter. And you
can't believe what happened next with Ramirez at third base the two strength pitch.
Here comes Ramires throw to the plate, high head first, slide out at
the plate. Jose waves to the dugout says, challenge it. How about
that Jose Ramirez trying to steal whole plate? He says he got the hand
in before the tang of Perez. And he here comes acting manager Tomorrow o'haile
and Josie, as daring and as smart a base runner as there is in
the game. And now we await the critical decision from the replay crew in
New York. Here it comes after you calling the field is overturned. How
about that Jose Amiraz has stolen home plate. He knew it and he has
stolen the home with two outs and two strengths on Andre Simenez and Cleveland has
a three to two lead here in the tenth inning. Incredible, Why it
seemed like that might be enough with Emmanuel class coming on to try and close
it out, but in the bottom of the tenth, the Royals put a
couple of runners on base, and Freddie for mean pinch hitting, walked it
off with an RBI two run double to give Kansas City the four to three
win. On Friday, the opener of the series here in Chicago, all
Cubs ten to one, a loss for the Guardians to open the three games
set. Stay with us when we come back. We'll hear from outfielder Will
Brennan. That's after this time out on the Cleveland Clinic. Guardians Radio Network
and Progressive we love sports and saving your money, so we bundled them together.
The final horse now in the and they're off. They're shutting off with
a double turloo jump, leaving a difficult seven ten splint. It says,
moving on the inside rail only nine pin center them. Now is the head
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the last frame. Here comes the ancial jump. They bundled their home at
Auto insurance with Progressive. When strikes savings goal Progressive Casual teen Insurance Company affiliates
another insurance just counting not available in all stage or situations. Jim Rose announced
back with You It's Guardians Weekly from Wrigley Field in Chicago, where the Guardians
are taking on the Cubs this weekend at ten to one Cubs victory on Friday.
The series continuing on Saturday night with a seven fifteen first pitch Cleveland time,
and then it closes on Sunday a two twenty first pitch here at Rigley
to close out the road swing. Will Brennan had a memorable reap turn home
to the Kansas City area in Kansas City, the Guardians are playing. He's
from Stillwell, Kansas, which is about about thirty minutes or so outside of
Kansas City, but a lot of great memories growing up for most of his
childhood in that area, and on Tuesday picked up the game winning base hit
in front of his hometown friends and family. We caught up with him before
that game and he told us a little bit about his upbringing and the hometown
of Stillwell, Kansas. You know, really a nice town. The people
are the best. That's the only thing that really stands out to me is
the people. It's any other sub suburbian town, but just the people are
the best. You know. I went to a really good group of schools
and just met some really incredible people along the way that have helped turn me
in the person I am today. How did you turn into the ballplayer you
are? What were the programs like growing up to get you going? Here's
a lot of a lot of work from my stepdad that it was kind of
just me and him along journey. You know, we would go to mac
and sits and hit hours on end after school and use the batting cages.
And then I played for Building Champions growing up through high school, and so
they kind of taught me the name of the game of you know, how
to create a baseball iq really and play hard and kind of the things that
people don't really look at. And so, you know, I'm really grateful
for those people and for those facilities, and for my stepdad. Really.
Rob. Yeah, first major league game here, What do you remember about
it? Yeah? So I played three games in high school here, and
then I played against Arkansas and college here, and so I don't know,
it's gonna be pretty exciting. It's a big leagues. I know, it's
huge. It's like a football field out there in the outfield, so that'll
be fun to track down some balls, but just a special environment, the
fountains. It's just really cool. Giant JumboTron. So be cool. You
canna be able to hold it together, you think, Yeah, absolutely.
You know, I don't know the quote of you know you've played in once,
you played in them all, but this one will be really special.
With the amount of family and friends I have coming here, it'll be really
cool. Will Brennan is joining us coming home as you grew up about thirty
minutes from here. He went to Kansas State, and Will, you're back
at it and you've been playing good baseballs as the team comes in here.
I know you had a little hiccup with the minor injury, but as good
a time to come here as any Yeah, absolutely, you know, any
time that we can try and come here and get a sweep. You know,
I know the roles aren't doing that great right now, so it'll be
a big momentum for us moving forward. Any time that we can do that
and get some wins in a great city, that's that's what we do.
You had to miss a couple of games because of a tremendous defensive play in
and we talked so much about your hitting, how much pride did you take
in the catch that you've made last week? Oh, it took a ton
of pride. You know, it's a lot of hard work and it's not
as easy as people think it is. So anytime that you know you can
make a great play like that, you got to soak it in. But
that's why baseball is beautiful, because the next thing you got to move on,
or even the next play, and so that's Yeah, take a lot
of pride in it and work really hard. Any concerns that that you would
be able to pick up where you left off after No, I mean just
kind of facing Corbyn Burns on Sundays always a great test to see where you're
at. Cy Young Award winner, But um, you know, we just
keep rolling a business as usual while we're here in Kansas City. Any recommendations
for places to eat from the Will Brennan Rolodex. Yeah, I would say
if you want to barbecue, it's just a little sneaky barbecue spot. You
go to Slaps. It's over in the West Bottom's a great spot. Um
what what sets out apart from the other ones? I don't know. It's
just not it's not like chained yet you know like there's not there's a ton
of Jack Sacks. There's a ton of Joe's, you know, and they're
great, but there's only one slaps fair enough and there's only one. Will
Brennan, thanks for coming by. Awesome, Thanks, Rosie, appreciate you.
That's Guardians outfielder Will Brennan, who's had a really nice season. Another
home run in Friday's game against the Cubs in a losing effort, but his
fifth home run of the season, and he continues to swing a hot back.
Stay tuned when we come back, we'll talk hitting with Chris falaka the
Guardians hitting coach. That's next on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network. Jim
Rose and nounced back with you on Guardians Weekly from Wrigley Field in Chicago,
where the Guardians are taking on the Cubs this weekend and Cleveland stymied on Friday
in the series opener by Justin Steele as they were limited to just one run.
But for the most part, the month of June was a real positive
month offensively, as the Guardians, who struggled mightily through the first two months
of the season, started to click a little bit, averaging close to five
runs it's a game for the month, and that was good to be in
the upper echelon of teams offensively in the American League. The hitting coaches Chris
Felaka, we caught up with him after a fourteen run output on Wednesday night
in Kansas City and we asked him if there was a specific turning point for
the club offensively as they headed into the month of June. Yeah, you
know, we we We've been, you know, trying to stay as consistent
as possible with the guys. You know, that Saint Louis series has been
kind of the turning point I think for us, you know, kind of
flipping the script. I think the narrative against US has always been, you
know, aggressive with fastballs, you know, knowing we make a lot of
contact. The slug hasn't always been there, So, you know, I
think trying to flip that script and embrace that and you know, continue to
look to be aggressive even though we're not, you know, hitting the ball
out of the ballpark. We can hit the ball hard and you know,
create a little bit more damage and traffic. On the basis you mentioned flipping
the script. Is it hard to do that when when you established an identity
to work so well a season ago. Sure, Yeah, you know,
I don't think we get away from you know, what we do well.
We we know we make a ton of contact, but you know, you
don't want that to be your achilles heel either and end at bats early just
because you can make contacts. So, you know, I think you know,
by experience, and the more at bats these guys get, they're gonna
know, you know, when to take a chance, look to impact the
ball, even though they do know how to make contact deeper in account.
You know, let's let's use some of that early to to to look to
you know, add a little bit of slug to our lineup that experience factory.
How much does that kick in and at what point and how many players
here are still in that lineup with really very little experience. Yeah, I
think, you know, all of us have to continue just to check ourselves.
I think, you know, having the year that that that played out
last year and having some guys get some experience. You know, just because
they have a year in the big leagues doesn't make them a veteran yet.
But I think them growing every day, um, you know, is going
to make them them better players and you know, they have to go through
the ebbs and the flows of the season, and you know they're learning,
you know, pitches they can handle, pitches they can't handle, you know,
history experience with other other pitchers. So you know, I think as
they continue to grow, we're going to keep seeing these guys evolving to better
and better players. But you know, each day we're growing. So it's
not like we have the most veteran lineup that we're running out there every day.
Chris. You look at at how the team has performed of late,
about a month of really good production Offensively, Jose Ramirez has been doing it
for years and he's starting to do it again here this season. Josh Naylor,
though, seems to have made a real nice breakthrough it. And what's
he doing that's allowed him to be so effective. He went into this offseason
really putting in the work. Um, you know, I think the highlight
was him hitting off lefties, and what we've seen him do this year off
lefties has been outstanding. You know, He's always been a high contact guy.
You know, he has the power. We saw him hit twenty plus
home runs last year, so really just you know, leaning into what he
does well you know, looking for times to impact the ball. But him,
you know, driving in close to sixty runs right now before the All
Star breaks. Outstanding and you know, especially with Josh Bell hitting behind him,
Hosey and front of him, and I think that's a pretty powerful three
or four or five combination that we have. And Will Brennan in that younger
player category, But it seems very steady for him. He saw a glimpse
of it last year. What's he done to take another step forward? This
year? He's been He's been great, you know, him him coming in
and taking over that position in right field. You know, it's been incredible
for us to watch him just you know, evolve into the big league that
he's being in the confidence that that he's growing into. Um, you know,
I think there's always work to be done, but some of the things
that he's worked on, you know, control on the top of the strike
zone, looking to impact the ball, like we've talked about with with all
these guys. You see those power numbers, but he's just he puts up
a trust trusting at bat every time. You know, when he walks to
the play, you know you're gonna get a good at bat out of him,
and you know, of late, really good things have been happening.
So today Zack Granky's on a mound for Kansas City and it's not off in
the hitting coach actually face the pitcher who's pitching. You did. How can
that help your hitters today? I don't think they want to hear about how
I faced Zak Grinky. I think he's got more strike out and I have
hits off him, so well, we'll do not what the hitting coach did
against him. We'll keep an eye on that today. Chris, thanks a
lot for coming by. Appreciate ros. That's hitting coach. Chris Valleco has
done some real good work and he seems to have that good balance of wanting
to make some adjustments and encouraging hitters to try and find those ways to be
more effective at the plate, but also being patient. That's the hard part,
but he has a real good feel for when to do both and it
has worked out well and his two see our second season now as the hitting
coach for the Guardians. Stay tuned when we come back. We'll fill you
in on some of the young prospects at Lake County, the single a club
for the Guardians with Rob Sortfolio, the director of player Development. That's next.
Progressive knows we're all trying to save right now. Hey, at least
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Progressive offers you seatings without sacrifice, So save big one you buddle Holm
and Auto for there's a casualty intrance company affiliates and other introvers Welcome back to
Guardians Weekly. Jim Rosenhouse back with you for our final segment from Wrigley Field
in Chicago. Each week we try and catch up with Rob Sortfolio, the
director of player development for the Guardians, and give you an update on one
of the teams in the farm system, and this week we focus in on
Lake County, the high A team for Cleveland, and Rob was explaining the
difference in terms of the level that these kids are playing at and when it
comes to development and finding out where players stand Rob says that at the single
A level, the high A level, that is a dynamic where you really
start to get a good read on play arison whether they can continue in the
system or perhaps it's the end of the line in terms of their careers.
Yeah, so yeah, you know, I think for you know, maybe
some of the fans that don't get a chance to see the lengthy rule books
that have Major League Baseball sends our way. Over the last couple of years,
they've put in a couple of new rules that limit the total number of
players you can have within your organization on the minor league side, so you
think about domestic rosters, it's Triple A all the way down to your rookie
ball team, whether that's Arizona for US or Florida for some of the other
teams across the league. And essentially, you know, five years ago,
you could have as many players as your organization wanted to, and now they've
kind of leveled the playing field a little bit and put in some new rules
that caps the number of players that you can have from Triple A to rookie
ball, which is good in some sense and creates some challenges in others.
And I think you know, as you noted Rosie, the the high A
level in particular has become a little bit of a you know, upper level
triple A, double A. Guys that are a little bit older where Pia
is. You know, a lot of young prospects that are running into good
players for the first time in their career, and guys are the average age
of some of these levels has gotten younger and younger, So you have players
with less experience that are facing you know, tough competition for really the first
time in their career. And you know, especially having the makeup of our
team currently is a lot of former high schoolers on especially on the position player
side, or you know, former international picks, and so these guys are
oftentimes the best player in their whole state or you know, one of the
best players in the country they're coming from, and they're being challenge right now
and maybe different than the major league level, where adversity can result in losses.
You know, a lot of good comes out of facing adversity and better
competition in the minor leagues. And so for this level in particular, you
know, we've got some guys that have gotten off to slower starts than maybe
they were hoping too, but you know, we're really trying to make this
a learning opportunity and find ways for these guys to make adjustments. So just
you know, kind of speaking to the global dynamics of what high a baseball
has become. I think those are some of the things that you know,
we're seeing across all of minor league baseball, but then specific to our team
in particular in Lake County. Well, let's start right there then with the
position player wise, And I know a young man that the organization's very high
on is Jake Fox, and he's coming off a good year a season ago,
but it looks like it's been a real challenging year this year. And
what are you seeing from him as he goes through that, maybe for the
first time in his pro career. Yeah, you know, Jake comes from
a baseball family. His dad played, so he knows a little bit and
expects some of these challenges to come, but when you experience for the first
time, it is humbling. And I think one of the things that you
know, we're really proud about Jake and how he's just handled this from the
mental side of especially when you struggle early on out of the gates like he
did offensively. That can spiral quick, and we've seen him rebound a little
bit over the last month or so, which has been super encouraging. His
work has been fantastic with Jordan Beckers or hitting coach there, and there's just
the rest of the hitting group that supported him through trying to make some of
those adjustments. We talked about being a young kid, still twenty years old,
one of the youngest kids in the whole league. Despite getting off to
that slow start, he didn't shy away from that. He was real with
some of the results and was eager to try and find ways to improve.
And you know, I think we're starting to see some of that show through
here in the last month. And a guy that we're still really excited about
with how he can impact the baseball. He's learned how to play outfield,
playing a lot of center field for us last year and then almost exclusively this
year, and has really done a nice on the defensive side making that transition.
So a young kid that you know, we're excited to have another three
hundred plate appearance is coming his way, and you know we're going to keep
getting our hands dirty. Nate Ferman is someone who was putting up some real
good numbers at Lynchburg and now he's made the jump up to the high A
level, and what are some of the things that he's seeing that he's trying
to work on as he moves up the ladder. Yeah, you know,
I think Nate candidly really dominated the low A level and has, like we
talked about, face the tougher challenge in HIA so far, which is which
is great. Again, another guy that really does some things well in the
batter's box when it comes to limiting chase, putting the bat on the ball,
and we're trying to emphasize some of hitting balls at the right angles and
impacting the baseball a little bit more frequently than you know, what he's been
accustomed to as a college player, where you have different philosophies, and again,
you know, similar to Foxy firm is a tremendous worker, comes to
the ballpark every day with a purpose plan of what he's trying to get better
at, is really eager for coaching and feedback. And you know, again
a kid in his first year in pro ball that we're excited to have three
or more plate appearances coming his way through the second half, which will be
which will be fantastic. Christian Cairo is one who's putting up some solid numbers.
Looks like I know he's had to battle at times to get that good,
steady playing time. And what are you seeing from him as the season
moves alot? Yeah, just that. So you know, Christian's a guy
that got a taste of this level last year. He had a little bit
of an injury bug which limited some of his plate appearances in twenty twenty two,
but he has not let that slow him down this year. And is
you know, really posting some impressive numbers across the board that comes to walk,
strikeouts and hitting for some power this year as well. So, you
know, being one of the older guys on that team, even though he's
only twenty two years old, it's been an impressive start of the year for
him on both sides of the ball. He's played third, he's jumped in
at shortstop, and we needed them to played a lot of second base.
So a guy that continues to earn opportunities in the batter's box and all over
the field on defense. And we talked about Joe Lampy before because we saw
him a little bit at Major League spring training, filling in at the back
end of games. And I know he's had a real good month with a
Player of the Month award and they the Midwest League. But when you look
at what he's going through the ebbs and flows of that long full season,
what are you seeing there on how he's handling that just that it's you know,
it's it's not too dissimilar from we talked about with Fermana. You know,
this is a guy that we challenge going straight to high A. He
comes obviously from a good college background, being an ASU, so playing in
the Pac twelve, you know, you get good competition. And we thought
that Joe was up to the challenge, and he came out guns of blazing.
And and again, like we talked about all these guys the league,
you adjust the league, the league adjust back and facing some better competition for
the first time as a pro, he's scuffle a little bit. I think
Joe be the first to tell you that. And so we're trying to find
ways to continue to have the end in mind of trying to make him an
impact major leaguer. And you know, oftentimes some adversity in the minor leagues
can be helpful for us, and so figuring out what's our biggest north star
with Joe on the offensive side and even physically some of the things and how
those two domains are connected to help support him and make this a great learning
experience that he'll be better for you in the future. Rob Serfolio is joining
us. He's the director of player development for the Cleveland Guardians. We're talking
minor leagues and in this case High A Lake County and we'll switch to the
pitching side of things and in their bullpen. I know, a young arm
you're really impressed with so far is Tyler Thornton. And what's he's showing as
the season moves along. Yeah, Tyler's had a really great year and you
know, maybe a guy that's a little bit of a sleeper in some sense.
You look at what he did last year year and it was also equally
impressive and can really miss bats. Just learning how to be you know,
becoming a professional reliever is is a lot of work when it comes to maintaining
your body and being physically able to go out there and pitch two three times
a week, and you know, those are some of the challenges that that
Tyler's really taken on this year in twenty twenty three, and so far he's
met that and continued to perform at a high level, which which has been
really encouraging. So you know, he's got some unique characteristics to his fastball
that that makes it really difficult to square up and has continued to develop his
secondary as well, and I think that's that's really led to some of the
you know, really impressive strikeout numbers that this guy's put together so far.
And we're not a finished product, you know, there's still some things when
it comes to attacking the zone and and secondary refinement that we want to that
we want to have in mind. But it's pretty impressive with Tyler's done so
far to start the year and in the rotation. I know you're working through
some things to keep him going from a health standpoint, But what have you
seen from Ryan Webb so far as as maybe a more experienced pitcher at that
level. Yeah, So you know, Webb comes to us from University of
Georgia, a guy that had Tommy John when we drafted him. So you
know, even though he's a little bit older and a college guy, his
just the reps as a pro under his belt are a little bit lighter,
and so it's been great to get him back into a rotation healthy to start
the year. You know, he's battling a little bit of a you know,
a minor oblique injury right now, but we expect him to be back
and we're really encouraged with some of the steps he's made in the progress after
you know, like some of the hitters not getting off to a great start
the first month. His second month, he's really started to pick it up
and show some of the the stuff characteristics that we saw in the draft that
was really enticing, and you know, we're excited to get him back out
there and healthy soon. And circling back to where we started the conversation a
little while back in regards to the numbers situation at the minor league level with
some new rule changes from Major League Baseball because of the situation with Cleveland at
the major league level having to fill three spots in the rotation with pitching,
how has that filtered down to the minor league level And are there times where
you're just trying to find some healthy arms to get through and really keep it
going as a positive season for all involved. Yeah, there's certainly some of
that, and you know, I think just having less players makes by default
forces us to challenge more guys than maybe we would have historically. But you
know, anytime ROSA you can put guys like gav And and Buyby and La
up in the big leagues is always a really exciting year for us. And
on the player development side, I mean, you know, that's that's the
ultimate goal, is to help us win games in Cleveland and do that with
guys that we drafted and worked with with day one. And you know,
I think that's been a huge motivator for all of our staff on the minor
league side. Is um you know, just validating in some sense of the
work that we're doing with these guys and obviously they're not a finished product and
those guys are still young pitchers that are developing. You could say the same
even about some of the rookies we talked about last year with Will Brennan and
Kuwanny and all those guys that are you know, just getting experience under their
belt. But well, that does you know, require us to maybe challenge
more players than we historically would have. It's it's really exciting for for our
entire player development group, and I think just speaks volumes to the type of
guys that we've acquired in the draft and and just to the work their coaches
have done to help support these guys on achieving their goal of being a major
leaguer. Oh, Rob, I know a lot on your playton The draft
is coming up, so they'll be even more fun things to do from the
development standpoint. But as always, we appreciate the time and we'll catch up
with you soon. Likewise, Rosie, thanks for having me and looking forward
to chatting soon. That's Rob Sortfolio, the director of player Development for the
Guardians. Our weekly farm Report is part of Guardians Weekly. That's going to
do it for this week's show. Thanks so much to Brian Matzai as always
for putting together our show each week back at Command Center until next week when
we join you from back home at Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland. This is
Jim Rosenhouse reminding you that you've been listening to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Clinic
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