José Ramírez ELECTRIFIES Cleveland Guardians with Baserunning Masterclass Against Milwaukee Brewers

José Ramírez ELECTRIFIES Cleveland Guardians with Baserunning Masterclass Against Milwaukee Brewers

Just when you think you’ve seen everything from Joseé Ramirez, he does something new that surprises you and causes you to run out of words to describe him. Once again, we’ve been saying all year he hasn’t gotten out of heater yet. After Monday night’s performance, it’s about to happen. You are Locked On Guardians, your daily podcast on the Cleveland Guardians, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. It’s a running wild Tuesday morning Tuesday edition of Locked On Guardians, your daily podcast on the Cleveland Guardians. It’s our favorite half hour of the day. Welcome your Cleveland Guardians every day. Part of Locked on Podcast Network, your team, your Cleveland Guardians every day. We cover the Guardians to the majors to the minors in the draft and everything in between and all things Jose Ramirez related. I’m Justin LA. I have been watching the Cleveland Guardians baseball my entire life. I have been writing about the minor league system since 2007. You can find my minor league analysis on the Guardians at the News Herald, the Morning Journal next year in Cleveland.substack.com and here five days a week with my friend and co-host Jeff Ellis. Had to unmute first there. Uh, I am Jeff Ellis, one of your two co-hosts here. One of the original co-hosts that locked on for some reason reached out to when they wanted to expand into baseball. One of the first 10 people they brought in. Uh, I think we passed 1500 episodes and a million views on YouTube later and uh, still going strong. Before that, I was a nationally recognized uh analyst at Scoutton 247, focused on prospects in the draft, you know, uh got to work some big names in the field back in the day and get to work with the biggest name in the field now with with Justin here. Um and I don’t know, it’s it it’s always easier to do the show and more fun when you get a game like this. Let’s let’s be like we always enjoy doing the show, but it’s more fun after this. Before we dive into everything else, I got to say big shout out. Thank you to all of our everydayers and thank you for making today’s episode your first listen. Uh, you know, you have a lot of places you can listen, but thanks for making it your first listen today and every day wherever it is you get podcast. Um, thank you. Yes. Uh, shout out to Mike McCarthy who I ran into the at the game on on Monday at the stadium. Uh, stopped me and we were talking a little bit before and uh, listens every day. So, we appreciate the shout out and he wanted a shout out on the show and happy to give it to him. Happy to give it to any of our everydayers here on Lockdown Guardians. On today’s show, the Guardians made a move at shortstop. We’ll talk about whether or not that is the final move for the year and then we’ll talk about the move the Guardians made to send Brian Rochio down. Team resilience shows up again. Ben Lively comes out in this one. The Guardians get a bunch of heroes out of the bullpen. They get enough offense. They continue to show a lot of resilience. But we’ll start today’s episode off with Jose Ramirez doing something that, you know, I think is kind of surprising uh that he hasn’t done in quite a while, but also just doing playing baseball in ways that that might shock you and especially the way he did it on on Monday night. I’ll say before we get into all that, today’s episode of Lockdown Guardians is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, if you’re a new customer, you can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So, go check that out. Three steals by Jose. I mean, could have had a fourth if they uh they called it, I think, a wild pitch or a pass ball. I’m not sure. I think what’s most amazing about the Guardians performance on Monday, stealing bases, Jose three times. They pulled off a double steal late in the game. Jose stole third base twice. Twice. Hard to do, especially with the lefty up behind you. And he did it off William Contrarus, who was throwing out 41% of base Steelers. The league average is 23%. He is d almost almost doubling throwing out runners in baseball. It’s hard. It is so much harder now for catchers to throw runners out because of the new rules, the pitch clock and and the the pickoff moves. And Jose stole third base twice on him with a lefty up and he also stole second ones. I mean, they they ran wild on him. I don’t know how the Guardians ran wild on him. They must have had they must have picked something up on him because then it must be something nobody else has because that guy throws everybody out. And that’s just amazing for Jose who, you know, you keep worrying about him slowing down as he gets older and not wanting to run as much because of the fear of injury. You know, he he had the injury earlier this year where he had the awkward slide and he was out for a couple days with a wrist. He keeps running. Now he’s got 12 steals and he’s also has I believe he now has like not that this matters for steals uh for Jose because he’s never needed a late speed, but Jeff his his uh sprint speed this year it’s as high as it’s ever been. It’s as fast as it’s ever been at age 32. Well, we’ll see how it goes. I feel like his his numbers slow down as the year goes on. He definitely starts at a high mark and the speed ticks down a little. So, I’ll be curious to see if it sustains, but he doesn’t need it as you said, like he is a player who gets by on guile. They definitely saw something specifically with Peralta that’s that could stand out in terms of uh stealing bases. I think my favorite was just the you got Santana up and you know this is the upside of Santana hitting behind him, right? Is the patience like steal second and then I think it was pitches next pitch he steals third and then Santana walked after that I believe, right? Like he got to third, Santana walked and then you had um depends on which one. Yeah, I’m trying to remember but I feel like after the double steel was then when they loaded the bases for for Gabby where uh Santana it was late in the game. Double steel was late in the game, was it? Okay. Um, but he, you know, he was going through and just, he’s also been the, uh, four straight games one of the three stars. So, we are starting to see that here. We are starting to see a pickup for him. He’s tied Quan for the team lead for most um, most three star performances so far this year for me. Uh, you know, he’s he’s turning on. He’s he’s being Jose. And that’s why, you know, there were people in the comments being like, “Oh, maybe he’s cooked.” And I’m like, “Listen, I was worried about that last year. I learned my lesson. Now I’m just going to shut the hell up.” Uh, I think he’s that player you don’t you’re just going to lose when you have that thought process. Um, so I I think that like you just kind of you let it all go. No. So it was Yeah, he did. I So it was he stole second, stole third, Santana walked, Men’s strike out, Naylor walked, Gabby double. So that set up that one. So that was, you know, that was a big moment in the game that he helped set up there and maybe help make Peralta shaky um with with with those two. But yeah, you just don’t doubt Jose. Like he’s going to go down as one of the greatest Cleveland Guardians players of my lifetime. Big chunk of that is because he stayed. Like let’s be honest, like most guys don’t choose to stay. That alone should elevate him. Like he chose to stay. And you know, then you have to add everything else in. But what a game for him. I mean, the heart of the order actually did a nice job in this game for, you know, everyone was kind of freaking out in the comments and maybe I’m jumping ahead a bit, but like about oh the bad weekend, the bad weekend. They just crushed the Nationals. They did pretty well the week before that hitting wise, you know, this game they they they scored a lot of runs. Heart of the order, everyone reached base twice. Maybe it was just facing a tough Phillies team. Maybe Zach Wheeler’s just really good. like maybe there’s like but this is why we talk about like being a little more patient and you know kind of seeing how things go because offense rebounded pretty well after you know now it’s four the last five games they’ve scored you know five or more runs. I’ll I’ll take that. Um actually Peralta is no no slouch himself. I mean he’s got he’s really good. Yeah. He’s off to one of the best starts of his career so far. Everything on his Savon profile is red. He’s striking out plenty of dudes. He’s not walking as much as he did a year ago. Yeah. Yeah. He’s a really good pitcher. And the Guardians ran on him and they ran on William Contrarus. They work some walks against Peralta who will walk some guys. But that’s the key for the Guardians. When they draw walks, they can do good things. But they didn’t get like like Gabby got the big hit in this game. You know, the double that I I will say he scorched that ball to center field. But I will say the wind probably gave him a little bit of a benefit there. That was a very uh windb blown ball. Uh the wind was very wild at Progressive Field tonight. Cheurio who’s normally normally gets to something like that. I thought he was going to catch that and it just kept carrying. So, I will say the wind might have helped him out a little bit there, but they set that up for bases loaded. You know, the walks, the steals, that’s how this offense goes. And when you can’t score runs the way you wanted to, and they hit they hit a couple home runs Friday off of Aaron Nola, then the offense went silent. They had no opportunities uh over the weekend. They really didn’t generate any opportunities themselves. So that’s why it was good for them to come out and steal bases the way they did, which again, I’m just saying it’s very bold they were able to do it against William Contrarus. Like it’s one thing to say, okay, we’re not we’re not getting as many hits. We’re not hitting the home runs. We’ve got to run the bases. We’ve got to steal bases and make things happen for ourselves when we get on base. That’s all well and good, but it’s easy to do when you can exploit the catcher who’s not very good. That isn’t the case with with uh William Contreres. That’s why it was it was so impressive what a Jose did and b the Guardians just did overall. I I’m guessing Sandy Alamar had something on him because Sandy Alamar is usually the one that usually it’s on pitchers but I don’t know how maybe it was Peralta maybe it was Peralta’s fault and not Contraras’s fault but either way like that’s still I I haven’t seen you know Peralta’s home to first or pitch time to home but maybe that maybe that was where Alamar saw the exploitation maybe with with uh Peralta on the mound Contrus doesn’t throw as many runners out because he’s slow. I don’t know, but he’s a good pitcher and they hit him uh just enough and they ran just enough which was good. And I think the bat for Jose like we were saying that Jose has not been on a heater yet this year. He has not really like he’s been solid, right? He’s been okay. He’s he’s not been bad. Um I mean we grade Jose I think differently than we grade any other hitters. He had a a 128 WRC plus coming into into Monday night I think and he’s now at a 131 and okay 28% above league average. Great. We’ll take that from anybody. But when you’re Jose Ramirez, everyone’s expecting what 40 50, right? Like it’s it’s a different grading scale for Jose Ramirez. So he hasn’t quite had the Jose Ramirez hot streak yet this year. I think one is coming. Jeff, he had an at bat tonight on Monday night against Freddy Peralta where he was down 02. He took a change up for a called strike. He swung at a bad breaking ball out of the zone. And after that, he took a couple pitches that weren’t very good. And he saw one, two, three, four change ups of Freddy Peralt in that at bat that he took for balls or he fouled off. And we know the change up is a pitch that eats up Jose Ramirez, right? He ended up working a walk in that at bat. When you have Jose Ramirez having nine pitch at bats, when he’s walking, when he’s spoiling pitches, when he’s not, you know, diving and missing at the change up and he’s running the bases, that’s how you know Jos Ramirez is about to get hot. So, I think we’re about to see a really good extended hot stretch from Jose Mirez for the first time this year based off of that. Uh yeah, and and I got to throw one more quick nugget of fun just how about the fact that this is uh the the two highest uh cut ceiling percentage catchers in the American and the National League. Now, Naylor is fifth in baseball, but he’s first in the American League, and there were eight stolen bases in this game. Of course, when the when the two best in each league come together, that’s what you expect is a stolen base party. Yeah, the Guardians, they don’t make sense. A lot of things they’ve done this year don’t make sense. If you if you feel like you figured this team out, I I challenge you to think again because we don’t have this team figured out. They they do weird stuff every single night, every single week. I swear. Uh and part of that is due to being a very resilient team. Ben Lively had to leave the start before the fourth inning. The Guardians could have crumbled. They did not. We’ll talk about who stepped up for the Guardians in the wake of that. What might happen next for the Guardians at pitch at starting pitcher for Ben Lively spot as well as shortstop later on today’s episode of Lockdown Guardians. The NBA playoffs, they are in full full swing. Weird things are happening in the NBA playoffs. Every night delivers highlight worthy performances. Momentum shifts. You got that. Can’t miss moments. Yes. Check. Whether it’s a game-winning shot, a breakout player, there’s never been a better time to get in on the action at FanDuel. It makes it easy to stay in the game before tip off and live with player props, performance trends, standame parlays. Fans have more ways like you to play smart and win big. Let’s go over to baseball for tomorrow. Let’s just start with the Guardians cuz I got to be honest, I don’t know if I can think about betting on the Cavs down three to one and all the guys that are injured for them. I just don’t have it in me to bet with my heart and and not make a smart one. But the Guardians on Tuesday night are favored by one and a half. They have Quinn Pester going for the Brewers. Logan Allen for the Guardians. The overunder is nine runs. Now, the Brewers offense has not been great this year. The Guardians are streaky, but Quinn Prester has not been good this year. Logan Allen has had some struggles this year. So, normally I would say take the under on nine, but I don’t know. I’m feeling a little froggy and I think we might see 10 runs in this game. I think we might. Just the way the pitchers have been lately. So, check that out for yourself. If you are new to FanDuel, it is the perfect time to sign up. Head to fandal.com, place your first $5 bet. If it wins, you are going to get $200 in bonus bets. make every moment more. FanDuel, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. I could not believe, Jeff, that uh I saw Ben Lively, he was pitching okay, you know, he was doing pretty good in that game. I looked up for I was at the game, I looked up and all of a sudden Ben Lively’s walking off of the trainer and I was like, “All right, that’s weird.” Like he wasn’t like wasn’t showing any signs during the game of of uh Russ like he walked two guys. There were some command issues at points, but nothing that really stood out. The velocity was fine. I I just didn’t see anything that really struck me as odd and then all of a sudden he’s walking off the mound. Um, you know, and come to find out like the reason he came out against Washington last week um after 65 pitches is he’s been dealing with some forearm inflammation and then it just didn’t go well for him tonight. He couldn’t shake it. Um, no, it’s not not ideal. Not what you want. Forearm, anything. forearm. I mean, anything for your arm, pitching arm, right? Forearm, elbow, shoulder, those are all all bad things. Yeah. All of that’s bad. It’s all bad. Yeah. Uh, so hopefully Ben Lively is okay because he has been the steady yeti in this rotation. He was pitching fine in this game. You know, he he was it was 00 to three innings. Um, and he came out for the third inning, warmed up was out of the game. That could have easily crumbled the Guardians. Like, this is a team that has had starting pitching issues. The bullpen hasn’t been as great this year as it was a year ago. It’s been okay, but it’s been good. just, you know, not I’m not the same level as a year ago, but the starting pitcher has not been good and you’re putting a lot of pressure on that bullpen. Uh thank goodness over the weekend, Tanner and and Luis Ortiz on Saturday and Sunday were really good because the bullpen had a little time to relax. Um this could have easily crushed the Guardians. Like a lot of teams have guys come, you know, relievers come in after injuries. They’re not warmed up and they’re sprinting into action. Jacob Junis came in, you know, gave up a walk and and two hits, but worked his way out of it over an inning. And then Kobe Allard. I was gonna say he’s the the sp him out three times now. Like I mean just give him that long man role and forget about it at this point. Yeah. He is he this year’s Praa. Like that might be what he is this year. Like AA wasn’t this good in that role. Like let’s be honest too. And fair I think a struck more guys out. He did but like he wasn’t like consistently like three innings no earned runs. Like I think like Yeah, they never asked him to go that long. He was mostly two. I know, but it’s it’s Yeah, I’m not I’m I’m not saying that to ding a all of Major League Baseball dinged him because no one thought he was worth playing in the big league, so he ended up over in Asia. But uh you know, Allard has been a revelation to me. Like he has just come in and done his job. And it it almost makes me wonder I I know one of our listeners brought this up. It’s like is there a world where Kobe Allard and Ben Lively could be a natural like Allard is a opener, Lively is a follower. you go lefty righty match up and maybe you could get seven out of those two combined every time save your bullpen on the day you know it’s like he’s he’s and then maybe have him pitch one other day two other days a week you know may maybe type situation depending on how you use him but like I don’t know he’s he is one of the I don’t want to say he’s the most pleasant surprise but he’s got to be one of the most pleasant surprises this year because the ex you and I both thought oh maybe he’ll make this team out of camp as a long man and we just didn’t have any like he is he’s there to be there while guys are hurt and he didn’t make the team, but once he got up, he’s he’s done everything that’s been asked of him and more. Yeah. And he’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Like remember after the start that against Boston, he came in and saved them in the blowout of the second half the double header and they were like, we don’t want to DFA him because, you know, he did a good job for us. And I was like, well, that’s not right. And I was like, well, that’s not a great way to look at it because you got to do what’s best for the team, not what’s best for the player. I understand you want to reward the player, but turns out good decision because he’s really pulled their fat out of the fryer a couple times uh with pitching. I’m I’m just stunned because like I’m looking at his numbers right now. His fastball was putrid last year. I mean, it got destroyed. It was one of the worst pitches in baseball last year. He hasn’t throwing any harder this year, but the numbers are fantastic. Expected numbers, the actual numbers, nobody’s hitting his fast ball. same velocity. Uh less spin this year. Very very minimal increased extension on it. Not getting a lot. He was getting a lot of whips. It’s It’s not Yeah, it’s point It’s 02. It’s not It’s not a It’s barely over an inch. Um Yeah, it’s the cutter. Like I’m looking at the cutter. Yeah, last year he threw a cutter 17% of the time. This year it’s 28% of the time. And his cutter, everybody on the Guardians throws a cutter, right? 091 batting average, 281 expected batting average. So, no one’s hitting the cutter, but they expect it’s that stink on the cutter, but no one’s hitting it. So, or he’s just getting lucky off it. I don’t know. The curve balls are pretty good. I don’t know what they’re doing with him. This is some devil magic with Kobe Allard, but he has been the MVP of that bullpen. Like, he is he has bailed him out multiple times. And I I I can’t tell you how important that is for like the clubhouse and all that kind of stuff that you have guys that do that that do the dirty work like Kobe Allard. Like, those are the the unsexy jobs of on the roster, right? It’s it’s the Will Wilsons or the Awesome Hedges or the the Kobe Allard role. Like, it’s not a it’s not a high-profile role, but it’s so important to the clubhouse and that that people like that and finding roles like that and rewarding guys like that even even when it might not be the best team decision. It is the best team decision. That’s how I think the Guardians are so good at overcoming challenges. Like every time I think something’s not going to work for them, it does. They are team resilience. They really are. This is and this is the kind of guy I think that shows you their team resilience is Kobe Allard and and Jacob Junis jumping into action there and and holding the game tight and giving them a chance to win on a night they’re facing an ace and their number four number three is knocked out of the game with an an injury and and uh you’re bringing in the the sixth and seventh guy in the bullpen. Yeah, I think you know something I mentioned before with like uh Gabiari supplies here with Kobe Allard which is like I think we get so used to looking at like big improvements and the thing with Allard is it’s like okay so he’s got a little bit more extension he’s got a slight change in arm angle like it’s a lot of small things and it’s it’s a bunch of incremental changes increasing the cutter right like you can see that there’s all these small little changes from this year to last and I think that’s where the team is doing really well it’s like talk about Gabby Arias Um, you know, his his defense continues to look spectacular. I haven’t dive in the numbers, but I feel like every game he impresses me more and more defensively. Um, and he had, you know, the biggest hit of the game. Let’s be very honest about that. Uh, but like there’s no huge breakout in terms of the advanced statistical profile, but there’s a lot of small improvements. And I feel like that might be the way that this team can find a little bit more is finding the guys like, oh, we see five different ways we can make them just a little bit better. And then those five small things become a big thing. Now again, I don’t think Kobe Allard’s gonna maintain a 1.2 ERA and is going to, you know, become, you know, the single greatest long man in the history of baseball, but can he be a major leager? I loved him coming out of high school. I This was He was one of my early draft crushes. He was someone I I absolutely wanted the Guardians draft in his draft year. I thought he should have been a top 10 pick. He just didn’t develop properly. You know, injuries really affected him. Um coming up, he just he got way laid by them. Was never the pitcher I thought he was going to be due to that. But, uh, yeah, it it’s fun to watch and you have to give him all of his roses because he’s he’s been spectacular. Fun fact, Colobby Allard played high school baseball against, uh, one Tanner By. They were in the same area. They were, I think, I think Tanner, I heard from a friend that uh, Tanner was a sophomore and Allard was a senior. They played against each other in high school. So, they drafted Tanner and 21, right? Yes, 21. I don’t know how I guess I because Allard was a high school kid in 15. I I just don’t know how that would have I don’t know. I heard I heard from a friend that Tanner was a sophomore in college, I guess. Yeah, that would make sense because four Tanner essentially pitched four years in college. It takes him back to 17. Yeah, never mind. That makes sense. Math and math. Yeah, usually I’m the one that’s that’s out on math here. All right. Uh we got to talk more about Gabi Arius in the next segment. We got to talk about shortstop. The Guardians made a move to send Brian Rochio down. Gablarius assumes the short stop and he celebrates with a big hit in this game. We’ll talk about if Shortstop is settled for the year and this move and the implications of that and what they’re going to do with Will Brennan in the meantime. So stick around for that and the rest of today’s Lockown Guardians. Thanks for making Lockdown Guardians your first listen every day and wherever you get podcasts. We’re on YouTube. Make sure you hit the bell. Never miss a reaction video. Never miss an episode. auto download on Spotify, Apple, uh, Overcast, all those fun places you get podcast. Never miss an episode on your feed. And if you like what you’re hearing, check out the MLB Squad Show. It’s where our hosts around the league around the Lockdown Podcast Network from baseball get together and they just yap about the teams. We do power rankings, different storylines. We’re all poking fun at each other and bringing our hottest takes. Uh, it’s a good time. So, make sure every Tuesday you are downloading automatically on audio or video to make sure you get the MLB locked on Octlb Squad show in your feed every Tuesday. Also, check out our insiders group too. Become an insider. Joinsubtex.com/lockdownguardians. Uh, you heard first about the Brian Rochio will Brennan swap on Monday. I texted all of our insiders about that first. Um, same with the Ben Lively issue as well. Um, as well as some bonus content, mailbags and uh written content. Jeff’s got draft data in there. I’ve got my 90 page prospect handbook out there for our insiders, all that kind of fun stuff. So, check that out as well. All right, Gavarius celebrated uh winning I guess I guess we’ll call it winning the shortstop job. Like he he persevered. He’s the shortstop now. He came into camp battling for second base and he wound up being shortstop. Uh which is where he wanted to be all along, truthfully. Yeah. Um because Brian Rochio is going to triple AAA. The Guardians said uh in a nice way. Brian Rochio’s got to work on everything. He’s got to work on his hitting, his defense, his base running. He he literally said everything. I don’t think that’s a I don’t think that’s a stretch that Yeah. Any of our everydayers probably are like, “Yeah, that makes sense.” He talked about they say nothing is working for you. That’s that’s that’s pretty darning. Yeah. Yeah. They were saying he’s got to work through some things and there was just no atbass for him to do it. So, they decided to send him down. So, he’ll play every day in TripleA shortstop and work on things. But, credit to Gabby. I mean, a lot of a lot of maturity and growth from him this year on and off the field, working really hard. Not that he wasn’t a hard worker before, but I think he took it to a new level this year. Um, you know, obviously out of options and that could have been a scary thing for him and, you know, that’s a that’s a big inflection point in your career as as a baseball player. Um, went out and he earned the second base job. I mean, Juan Breurto didn’t have a great spring and Arius was out of options, so he I don’t want to say he won it by default, but he definitely had he had the leg up, I would say. And now Breto’s hurt. But Gabby’s played well. Like, you know, we said the second base competition would probably extend into the regular season, and it turns out it really didn’t. It was the shortstop competition that extended on. So, yeah, Gabby’s been great at defensively at short. I I don’t know if Gabby’s going to keep this up the whole year in terms of offense. I’m not The defense, I think we know, will be fine. Um, he may or may not. He might always be a streaky hitter as a short stop as a hitter. Um, there are good things in there. We’re seeing the good things right now. There’s going to be es and flows. I’m going to say though, Gabby Arius sends the year shortstop for them. I don’t see Rokio coming back just because I don’t believe that that the change any change he’s going to make is going to work or whatever changes he can make, I don’t think they’re going to be impactful enough. So, I’m I would not be surprised if we are sitting here on September 12th and Gabby Arius has been the shortstop all year. There are 11 shorts stops in baseball with a WRC plus over 100 and a positive defensive metric. Uh, and Gabby is one of those. As everyone expected, the highest WRC plus for a short stop is Josh Smith of Texas. Um, Rald Pump somewhere in there. Predom’s fifth. But uh the other interesting thing too is if you go look at the numbers, the shorts stop Gabby Arius most resembles statistically right now is Gunnar Henderson. Go look at the lines, they are near identical lines in terms of walk rate, in terms of K rate, in terms of bat pip, in terms of home runs, in terms of batting average. Um Henderson’s got a little bit more overall slug, but those two are, you know, very close. Now Henderson’s got a 120 to Gabby’s 110 WRC plus, but I think that’s also, you know, like I said, a little more power, but uh he’s that’s the guy he’s most closely resembling. That’s Did we ever think we’d say those words? No. And that’s partially because Henderson’s had for four years ago. Yeah. But I don’t even think I would have said that four years ago. I was I I I liked Gabby a lot, don’t get me wrong, but I was always a Henderson guy. But yeah, it just, you know, just for for those who are curious, Smith, Lindor, Wit, Wilson, Paradommo, Crawford, Pñena, Betts, Henderson, Turner, Vulp, Arius, Swanson, Bashette, Sweeney. Those are the guys over 100 WRC plus. That’s not a lot, you know. I’m not talking Xander Bogarts. I’m not talking Ellie de Cruz. I’m not talking Willie Adams. Like, it’s a group that, you know, it to have someone performing at that level is is a big help. And I always see in the comments, this team only has three hitters. And yeah, he’s streaky, but like let’s not discount the guys who are performing well. And Gabby is performing well. Um, like I said, there’s there’s some question marks in that profile, but like I mean I I always said defense never slumps, but then Rokio maybe was trying to prove me wrong, but I don’t know. And Gabby runs better. Was never good. I don’t know. Like the metrics loved Roio a year ago, and it’s it’s going to be hard for Rokio because there’s not a plus trait outside of like the defensive metrics. So I I don’t see a pathway for him back. I know a lot of people have said, “Oh, well, they should trade him.” I mean, I don’t know what the value is in a guy who’s showed nothing. Like literally when the GM says that he has to work at every says hitting, fielding, running, basically all facets. Like I think he said all facets after that or you know some equivalency. Not an exact quote, but like when that is being said, that’s that’s bad. That’s really bad. So it’s Gabby’s and then uh you know, we’ll see like will get his opportunity at second eventually. I think Juan Burrito will get an opportunity. I think unhelp there’s a world where, you know, finally chase the ladder gets healthy and maybe nails down right field. We can all dream, right? Uh ML, side note, MLB.com just dropped him massively in the ranks due to health. But, you know, if if that’s the case, then maybe Anel can play second. Like, they still have a lot of options, a lot of depth. I’m not freaking out. Um I did like that Will Brennan, the most positive thing they said is, “Oh, the guys like having him here.” Well, yeah. Let’s talk about Will Bren before we get out of here on this episode. The move there was very confusing because I was like, “All right, so you’ve got Quan, you’ve got Martinez, you’ve got Noel Jones, you know, Sheaman plays outfield, you’ve got just a ton of outfielders.” And I’m like, “All right, how is this going to work?” Because he’s a lefty, Jones is a lefty. You’ve already got a lot of left-handed hitters. She’s a lefty. It’s very, very weird. So, they said Brennan’s going to play against, you know, they’re going to have Jones and Brennan out there. That’s less at bats for John Kenzie Noel. Uh he’ll he’ll only get left bats against uh righties or lefties and you know Martinez is going to have to work in at second with Sheaman I guess and they use Will Wilson as a pinch hitter. Like they’re just going to maximize their bench I suppose. And I don’t know where the at bats come from and I to me I don’t think Will Brennan’s made any changes. Like Steven V said that um oh Will Brennan’s hitting the ball to the pull side more in the minors. He has the exact same pull percentage this year as he did a year ago. Um, so I don’t really know. It’s it’s it’s I’m sorry. It’s a Yeah, it’s the same pole percentage as a year ago. It’s actually down. So I I don’t know where that comes from. I don’t really know where that’s coming from. Uh he’s not hitting more fly balls. Like it’s it’s like uh I’m sorry. It’s a 4% increase in in fly balls. So maybe maybe it’s incremental improvements. Like you said, maybe it’s incremental improvements. I don’t know. We’ll see. I’ve always been a big Will Brennan guy, but you know, Stephen V said he’s got to work on swing decisions. He’s got to lay off the junk. He’s got to hit the fast ball, and that’s been the problem for Will Brenon his career. So, I don’t I don’t know where the at bats come from. I don’t know how they’re going to play it out, but um you know, I I will say, well, Brennan definitely a better offensive defensive base running um asset to your team than Brian Rokio was. So, it’s an upgrade no matter what. It’s just it’s a weird fit. So, um, on the pitching side of things, so if if anybody’s wondering, if Ben Lively can’t make his next start, which would be scheduled for Saturday right now, the Guardians do have an off day Thursday, so they could just kind of push everybody up and and just skip that spot in rotation. If not, Slate Sakone pitched on Sunday, so he would be on six days rest for Saturday. He’s on the 40man roster. That seems like the most obvious move there. Um, I mean, you could put Kobe Allard in his spot if you really wanted to. I think he’s stretched out enough to go four or five innings if you wanted to go that route. I wouldn’t just because he’s been too valuable in that role. Um the other option after that is Parker Messik. He pitches Friday. He pitched last Saturday, so he’d be on a week of rest by then. Um but he’s not on the 40man roster and I don’t know how they create a spot at this point. So Cody Bolton would probably be the most likely guy. Uh your your roster fodder or essentially it’s uh Bolton, Zack Kent, and Will Wilson are your three most likely roster fods. That’s fair. I I if if if Lively can’t go and they don’t want to skip this, they don’t want to skip the spot in the rotation on Saturday, I would probably bet on Sakone. He pitched I think he threw 68 pitches on Sunday. So, he’s and he got four or five innings. So, he’s about stretch out enough where they could go five innings with him. And I would keep Allard in the in the long relief roll just because he saved them too many times. I understand like might want to reward him. Um and what are they who do they have Saturday coming in? Who are they playing? Uh are they going out? Aren’t they on the road? Isn’t that the Yeah, they’re on the road. I’m sorry. I haven’t looked on the 10 game road uh road. That’s the Reds. That’s the Reds. That’s right. On Saturday at Cincinnati. Yeah, I’d probably go Sakone. That’d be my guess because it’s what it’s it’s Reds into Twins. I knew Twins was next. I forgot about the Reds. Reds having a rough year. Um but yeah, it’s uh yeah, I think Sakone makes the most sense, I gotta be honest. Um, Messi though, you know, like I said, Cody Bolton, I’m not sure some, you know, it’d be be fun. Yeah. I mean, either way, it’s it’s a better it’s a good option to have. I think they’re both options. I think it’s one of those things, too, like I I’d have to really do a deep dive, see what the Reds are, if they have a definitive split advantage you could pull, then that’s probably the separator there. Yeah, I mean, Sakone’s got major league experience, so that’s always going to help, too. So, we’ll see. The Guardians will get more results on Ben Lively today, so we’ll hear more news. Uh, we didn’t get a chance to talk about the Guardians weird defensive season overall. Might get less weird now with Gabby playing short. Uh, but we want to get into that. So, if there’s not any more big news from the Guardians, roster moves, injuries, we’ll get into that on Tuesday’s show or Wednesday’s show, I should say, and Guardians Brewers game two. So, come back for that tomorrow. And thank you for joining us. Remember to rate and review, download daily, hit the bell, you know the drill. Thank you all.

José Ramírez’s electrifying base-stealing led the Cleveland Guardians against the Milwaukee Brewers. Is he about to go on a hot streak? Explore the team’s resilience as they navigate pitching challenges, including Ben Lively’s unexpected exit and Kolby Allard saving them again. Discover how Will Brennan’s call-up reshapes the outfield dynamics and what it means for the roster. Justin Lada and Jeff Ellis dissect potential pitching strategies, weighing options like Slade Cecconi and Parker Messick for upcoming games in place of Lively.

0:00 José Ramírez surprises with stellar performance
5:31 Guardians offense rebounds after tough weekend
10:26 Ben Lively exits early with forearm inflammation
15:50 Kolby Allard impresses in long relief role
20:59 Gabriel Arias takes over shortstop position
26:55 Will Brennan called up, roster implications
32:20 Outro: Upcoming pitching plans and next show

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