CONFUSION: Why Ty France Isn’t the ANSWER for Cleveland Guardians—Target RANDAL GRICHUK Instead

33 comments

1. No matter who it is, they are a longshot. We will not sign anyone else.

2. Enjoyed today's show! I hear you on Tyler O'Neill. If, by some miracle, the O's would could pick up some of his salary, I would love to see him here on the oft chance that he could play more than 120 games.

3. Agree on the defensive argument. Arias stays at SS, and luckily for those of us who don't want to tempt fate with the D, the Guardians' staff seems to agree.
   It would be one thing if there were a stud hitter available but Brito and Bazzana haven't shown themselves to be studs up to this point. Leave Rocchio at 2nd where he played well, and leave Gabby alone. For all we know he ends up having a career year at the plate after all this discussion. Worry about the outfield and right handed power if at all possible to deal with Detroit's rotation. We need the defense up the middle, that's how they came back last season.

4. I’m so grateful you guys are more positive about guardians than literally everybody on the covering the corner website and everyone on there is still crying about signing right handed bat when I largely agree with the analysis that we need to just play our prospects

5. Great show Jeff. I like you want no part of a 1st baseman unless the significantly hit better than what we have. Ty France is not better than David Fry and if you give Kayfus the whole year I think Ty France is the floor for him. In this time of desperation, I honestly would look at Starling Marte. Yes he is old, but in the last 4 years he's only made 4 errors in the outfield (yes last year was only 12 games), had a 112 WRC+ last year, and is Jose Ramirez's buddy. Wouldn't cost you a prospect would give you that right handed platoon stick and steal a base now and then. He can't be that expensive. I'd much rather Marte than Nolan Jones.

6. I just don't really care for the arm strength debate because it doesn't take into account how quickly the player actually gets rid of the ball. Strong SS arm ≠ more putouts. Throws from SS to 1B are anywhere from 70-130+ feet. If Arias throws 91 and Rocchio throws 84, and both are both 85 feet from 1B, their throws will take 0.637 seconds and 0.690 seconds. A 90th percentile runner gains roughly 1 foot between each of their throws. But Arias takes more time to release the ball than Rocchio, despite that not being a measured stat. That's part of what makes Masyn Winn so good is his unreal release times on TOP of his arm strength. Lindor, Turner, Story, Betts, Bichette, Montgomery, Iglesias, Gimenez, etc. all have even lower arm rankings than Rocchio. Considering the difference in the fastest and slowest SS throws is less than 0.100 seconds, and footwork + transfer times can MORE than compensate for that difference during a play that takes 3.5-4.5 seconds, I just don't see how you can decide to nitpick arm strength. We don't have enough data to prove that a stronger arm is quicker at delivering the ball from SS to 1B without taking the other variables into consideration.

7. Goldschmidt > Grichuk i know grichuk plays CF but if we are bringing in a RH bat, get the guy that has the higher ceiling vs LHP.

8. Thanks LoG! Appreciate the deep dive into the infield today!

   By the way, are the Tigers going to be able to shell out all this money? Yikes!

9. I can’t believe it, but you’ve actually convinced me that Gabby Arias needs to play shortstop

10. I am with you Jeff. Keep Arias at SS. Defense and Pitching got us going last year. You move Rocchio to SS and Brito to 2B you are weaker defensively at the both positions. Suddenly pitching is not as good. Thanks for dive into infield. I would love to get Wynn from Cards. He is a building block for them , don't see it. I had forgot about R Grichuk. I also like Hosking or Goldschmidt., I expect Goldy go back to Yanks. I love idea of T Oneil or J Soler and both should be cheap to get. Prospects, not even top 30 for probably. Excellent show.

11. Anybody who can bat over .250 is a win 😂 i hope we stop the platooning this year ftlog

12. Another great show and discussion. While we hope they do pickup another bat that can help we will cheer on who is in camp and see who does stand out, great analysis of the current infield makeup.

13. Great show Jeff!

14. I would hate to see gabriel arias go.

15. It feels like Juan Brito is a switch hitting, younger version of Romy Gonzalez. 2B/1B type who is bat first and a bit of a butcher in the field.

16. Is there still a chance that Gabby breaks out or have we seen enough ?

17. Give Luis Rengifo's platoon splits a look. He had a down year last year so he probably wont get more than $3 million. But he is essentially a way better version of Angel Martinez.

18. I was surprised to hear your concern about SS depth. But when I looked, I get you. What about Gabrielle Rodriguez, Dauri Fernandez. Are they too young and risky?

19. Sounding like we need to get used to Arias. Maybe play him first half and Rochhio second half since they can’t seem to hit the other half

20. To your point Jeff… In super mega baseball 4 (great game) you can construct rosters with different types of players, but you soon realize that there is a massive payoff to having fast+rangy defenders at SS and 2B, and solid arms at 3B, CF and RF. The amount of ground balls you get up the middle is enormous, and you'll usually do better with strong defenders at SS/2B who can't hit, than solid hitters who are slow and can't defend.

21. I just want a veteran hitter. Not even picky about it anymore. Some competent who can protect Jose. His only good stat can be hitting with RISP so if they walk Jose, he makes them pay.

    Find me that guy for $10-$15 mil on a 1 year deal. So mad they didn't sign Eugenio Suarez.

22. It’s Bargain bin season for the Guard Dogs 😂
    I would love to see what this front office could do with more free agent dollars!

23. Soler = a modern day Jobu?!! Another great show, Jeff!!

24. Why would we be looking at a FirstBase player? Dont we have Kayfus and Manzardo? Or am I higher than I thought?

25. Eotd, I’d rather see Manzo or even Kayfus getting ABs at 1B over a Ty France. I think they’d be just as productive or even moreso. I could get on board with Grichuk- always been an underrated dude.

26. Jeff I couldn’t be more on your side when it comes to this infield discussion. No way in HELL that a guy who has range as horrific as Brito (or a glove as bad) is going to get regular starts on a team that is SO dependent on ground ball outs. I mean, you’ll literally be giving away 2-3 outs a game on the right side of the infield and lefties are going to go out of their way to pull hard ground balls knowing they’re likely to get through. Brito only has a future with this team as a DH, and with Kayfus, Manzardo, Fry, JRam, etc already in the fold, there’s no point in even rostering him. Justin is only saying this because Bazz is starting the year in Columbus and he know you’ve gotta do something with Brito while he’s there (I’m guessing he plays 1B). That’s literally the only reason to think he could make the MLb roster out of camp. Even his solid OPS is propped up largely with a super high walk rate, which doesn’t typically transfer to MLb. It’ll be Arias and Rocchio until Bazz is promoted.

27. Not worried about chase’s “arm bar”. For years Bregman had a similar path with his hands and he won a lot of awards. The arm bar keeps the bat in the zone longer and increases contact rate. The downside is that it saps some power, but Chase isn’t concerned with that as he’s big and strong enough that he’s got plenty of power to spare. His exit velos aren’t exactly suffering.

28. Gotta stop bringing up Yandy. He had three seasons at or below replacement in Cleveland. Fans were already getting sick of him pounding the ball into the dirt. He went on to have two additional years of mediocre to poor play in Tampa. It wasn’t until year 6 that he baecame a 4 war player. You really think fans of this team would’ve given him another chance to play a corner If spot after 5 years of struggling to play average? Hint- they would’ve revolted. He never makes it to year 5 if he’d stayed here. Yeah, after he completed arbitration he’d have been a nice fit, but they could’ve signed him or made another trade with Tampa at that point. Cleveland traded two bad years and 1 4 WAR year of Yandy, and in return they got (sort of indirectly) an all star season and career best year from Santana when they had a playoff caliber roster.

29. My number 1 ask is to replace Rodriguez with an upgrade right handed hitter.
    My 2nd ask is a replacement for Arias at second base until Bazzana is ready.

30. None of the players discussed gets my heart pumping. Maybe Hoskins or Goldschmidt if they’ll platoon and could be had for $10M or less?…

31. No thanks on Tyler O’Neill, unless they want to pay $16.5M to add to the IL.

32. Rocchio is NOT a major league shortstop. At least 1 glove error per series and 1 mental error as well. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE not Rocchio at short.

33. I agree with you on the infield defense. You can't move Arias. I also wished they would have moved Bazanna to the OF already.
    As for the middle infield depth, what do you think of the college SS (Becker or Bell)?