Cleveland Guardians, Detroit Tigers Set for SHOWDOWN That Could Decide the AL Central | Series Keys

Cleveland Guardians, Detroit Tigers Set for SHOWDOWN That Could Decide the AL Central | Series Keys

It all comes down to this. This one’s for all the marbles. Not quite all the marbles, but close enough. By the time the Tigers leave Cleveland this week, we’ll know likely who the AL Central champs will be. But it may not be the last match up of 2025 between these two teams. [Music] You are Locked On Guardians, your daily podcast on the Cleveland Guardians, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Welcome on in to this episode of Locked On Guardians. It’s a Tuesday and we are getting ready for the biggest series of the year. Three of 162 on the calendar, but it’s a big one. And this is Locked On Guardians, proud part of the lockdown podcast. I’m with your team, your Cleveland Guardians, every single day covering the Guardians from the majors, the minors, the draft, and everything in between. We’ll have a couple of those things on today’s show. I’m Justin LA, and I have been this co-host of this podcast with my friend and co-host Jeff Ellis since October of 2022. That’s three years. And I keep saying October, it’s September of 2022. And I spent 18 years covering the Guardians My League farm system, top to bottom. I’m Jeff Ellis. I wandered in off the street today. Um, in all seriousness, uh, it’s my sixth year here at Locked On. Before that, I was a national writer focused on prospects in the draft at Scoten 24/7 where I was the first piece in person to talk about the great steal that was Ter Tariq Scooble, uh, the first person to go on record during his junior and senior year about him being one of the more underrated pitchers in the draft and being just utterly confused by where he landed in both those drafts. Uh, I want to thank everyone, each and every person out there joining us, making us making today’s episode your first listen today and every day wherever it is you get podcast. Want to give a big shout out to all of our everydayers who are joining us each and every day, including Rally Dino, who’s laying down on the job right now. But, uh, big thank you to all of you out there joining us. Uh, we hit 5K, so that’s a big thank you to everyone. Again, that’s a great number to hit. I mean, we all like round numbers, right? That’s just something about our our human brain. So, thank you to each and every one of us. I remember when I was struggling to get a 100 downloads an episode when I started this podcast and now we have 5,000 subscribers. Not something I thought would ever happen if I’m very honest at the very start. So, thank you. Yes. Awesome. Appreciate everybody out there who tunes in and subscribes. On today’s show, we’ll talk about how manager of the year awards are voted on and if Stephen Vote is going to be in that conversation or if he’ll win his second one. We’ll talk about the return of the best, former best prospect in the system, Daniel Espino, and what’s next for him. We’ll start off today’s episode, of course, talking about the Guardians and Tigers, the big series ahead this week. Before we get into all of it, today’s episode of Lockdown Guardians brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the app today. All right, this is it, Jeff. Right. This is the only games that matter this season. These are the ones that it comes down to. Um I got to say I know it’s been I want to expectations are what what do I say? Expectations are a thief of joy. Yes, expectations a thief of joy. Last year, I don’t think anybody saw what the Guardians did coming. And then, of course, you come into this year and you think, okay, well, they’re going to be division contenders again this year because that’s how it works and things are not linear ever in sports or mostly in life sometimes. Things are not always linear. Um, things unfolded in a very unfortunate and frustrating way for the Guardians this season, but somehow someway they are back in the playoff race and they are back in serious division contention. Whoever wins the series pretty much has the driver’s seat unlock for the division. We can go through some of the scenarios. I think most people listening probably have a good idea of them, but we can go through them a little bit. Might as well. Um, might as well. Yes. But again, I just want to say like it’s been a very fun month and I know coming into the year and the thinking about the off seasonason that the expectation was yes, this is where they should be, but given everything that’s unfolded, man, it’s just been a lot of fun and a gratifying way to end the year that that these three games against the Tigers are in Cleveland and they pretty much get to decide uh the division winner. I think that’s a lot of fun. That’s what you want ultimately as a baseball fan and a sports fan. And then of course there’s championships, but as far as regular season’s concerned, I I don’t know how this can’t be a good thing. But you also have to pair it with the context of what’s happened this year. You do 100%. It’s like listen, even if we want to sit back and make, okay, you can’t you can’t really get upset about Chase because he hasn’t been healthy from the moment he was born. Uh you can still look at like Breto at per well as far as that as long as I’ve known him, which which I don’t know him personally, but you know, through college and the pros, he’s never been healthy. Like that’s just so if we just put him to the side, it’s one burrito was healthy his whole career, he got hurt. Travis Bazan we thought could maybe help the team this year. He’s been healthy his whole career, he got hurt. Um, you know, and then it’s, you know, it’s obviously the suspensions as well, and it’s just like to overcome. They’re not suspensions. They are not on nondisciplinary paid leave. Okay. It’s nondisciplinary. How dare you? They’re they’re out there gambling on anything they can find. Um, you know, Yeah. Yeah. That’s one of those things that we have heard that they were they they liked to to engage in that. These are two players with sounds like allegedly kind of some compulsive uh yeah let’s just move on attitudes but uh yeah it’s just they’ve overcome so much and like bottom line right now is this has been a ton of fun. It’s one of the most funs I’ve ever had since it was September in baseball. Um yes I would have loved better health. Yes, I would have loved no suspensions, but like for them to get where they are, I would love to have had access to those players and, you know, or or the ability to, you know, at least, you know, have them pitch. Yes. And Okay. But it it’s just a situation now where it’s like this has been fun. I I am really enjoying the ride. If you haven’t if you’re not enjoying the ride, if you’re still sitting there and being koginly about this, that or the other, I don’t know what to tell you. at least like we’re getting playoff baseball right now. And go look at like the Mets that are collapsing. Go look at the Angels who have spent a ton of money and wasted a generational talent. They had two generational talent two couldn’t win. There’s so many teams that you know that don’t don’t find success. I mean, even for all the talk of the Rays, the Rays are now what three years in a row of of not being postseason bound. Like nothing is, you know, is guaranteed. And um you know, they put together intergenerational talent doing these days. H anyway, speaking of speaking of discipline. Anyway, um so let’s quickly run through the scenario. So if the Tigers, let’s start the top one is if the Tigers somehow sweep this series, which I don’t think they will, they are division champs. It’s over. Then they will have uh the tiebreaker over Cleveland. So they cannot come back. They don’t get to celebrate it on the field. It just it gets to be they get they essentially get to lock it up but then they would have to wait till the like it it essentially go to the end of the year like they kind of need one more to officially No, the Tigers if they sweep it’s over. It’s over. It’s completely over. I I thought they could not find success at Cleveland’s field. If if the Tigers sweep it’s over because they’ll be up by three games and with three to go they’d have the tiebreaker so Cleveland couldn’t catch them. Yeah. You technically don’t you don’t get your magic number down to zero at that point. So I think they Yes, you do. Yes, you do. It’s over. If they win three, it’s over. Cleveland the best they would have they would have the tiebreaker and Cleveland uh could not win more than could not do more than tie them if they get swept. So that’s So yes, it’s I guess it is because it’s five for them. Yes, it’s Yes. Five for them and five for Cleveland. Yes. However, if Cleveland sweeps, they don’t win the division on home field on Thursday. they would have to have a win against Texas or a loss by the Tigers um to end that. Um interesting because the the playoff status.com has them both at five games. That would put them both at sweeping get you the division. Cleveland if if Cleveland wins Cleveland sweeps, they Detroit leaves town back two games with three to play. So if Cleveland wins two of three, the Tigers have to sweep. Um, so there’s still some some grounding made up there. If Cleveland if Detroit wins two of three, they essentially need Detroit to get swept by Boston and Cleveland’s got to sweep the Rangers. So they become very dire. So Oh, I think five is for both teams to kind of lock up the wild card and six is to win the division for the Tigers and it might be seven for the division for the Guardians. That’s what I was misunderstanding. Yep. Yeah. So the Tigers could clinch on home on on enemy territory. The Guardians can’t clinch, but they can essentially that’s why I said whoever wins this series, whoever wins two out of three is essentially in the driver’s seat for the Central. It would take a a sweep over the weekend by the other team and then the other team to at least lose um one of three for him to come back. So, it’s it’s pretty good odds to to clinch the division if you win two of three this week. Um so, we’ll see what it comes down to. We’ll talk about what we think is going to decide the series. We’ll talk about key matchups. We’ll talk about Daniel Spino. But we’ll talk about manager of the year, how much that really does matter. Coming up on the rest of today’s Lockdown Guardians. 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So, if you want to see thicker, stronger hair with less shedding in just three to six months with Neutrifull for a limited time. Neutrfull is offering locked on MLB listeners $10 off their first month subscription and free shipping when you go to neutrfll.com and enter the promo code locked on MLB. That’s neutrfull.com promo code locked on MLB. Hey, shout out. So, we’ve said this before. Shout out to all the Everydayers. Thanks for helping us get to 5K uh and subscribers on YouTube. So, if you’re new to the channel, hit the bell on YouTube because you get every episode. You get alerted by that. You get alerted to every reaction video, every video we do for any sort of breaking news item, plus the Only Squad Show, which will be back this week. And of course, auto download on audio so you never miss an episode wherever you listen to podcast as well. All right, so we kind of set things up. We talked about the implications of who wins what and what where that happens. We’ve got Terrick Scooble and Gavin Williams. So the Guardians once again when they flipped Williams and Bobby last week, they set up Williams to pitch twice against the Tigers and he also is lined up to pitch on Sunday against the Rangers. So, he is going to start the final game of the season, whereas Terrick Scubel can also do the same thing. He can also pitch on Sunday if that matters. And I’ll get to why that might be important before we end this segment. I promise you that the Guardians did beat Ter School. They didn’t beat him, but they they beat the Tigers on a day he pitched last week. That might be hard to do twice in a row. We’ll see. They didn’t I thought they beat him. I thought that weren’t the home runs off of him. Or is it only No Wells? It was only NoS. Yeah, the other home runs came off the the bullpen after him. So, they technically won, but Jose had the other one, the two-run shot after that, and they won on that. Yeah. Yeah. Off of Troy Melton. So, that’s right. That’s right. What I think this this game, this this series comes down to, obviously, it’s going to be pitching. We know it’s going to be pitching. And I like Williams to be able to at least go toe-to-toe with Scooball. I’m not saying he’s as good as Scooble, but for one game, I think he can keep them in it. And then you got Tanner Bbeby and Jack Flity. I’ll take Tanner. The way things have gone this year, Flity has gone in the wrong direction. Tanner’s finally gone in the right direction. And then we have no idea who’s pitching for the Tigers on Thursday, but it’s Parker Messik. And the thing is, we know the Tigers, talking about this last week, the Tigers do hit better against lefties. Y which is surprising given that Green and Carpenter are the two best hitters because they have a Banz also have to better. Yeah. Wel Perez and Clberator Torres is better against lefties, but the Guardians bullpen is in much better shape. I can’t tell you. I know they lost on Sunday, but I can’t tell you how important it is that Kade Smith didn’t pitch three days in a row. He has not pitched the he I I looked it up earlier today. He had a stretch there at the beginning of the middle of the month where he didn’t pitch for three days in a row. That was August. Um and he’s got a 270 RA with a fit below one since the last time he had three days off in a row. he might be able to pitch all three games of the series because of those three days off. That’s massively important for a bullpen that’s a little bit thin in terms of uh who you really trust. They are going to have the more rested bullpen. I know the they had the off days, but the Tigers bullpen is really not in good shape. I think the Guardians obviously they got hit with two outs. The Guardians have a much better um case right now with runners and scoring position than the Tigers in the second half or at least the month of September. That’s got to continue. Like I It’s going to have to be the same formula it’s been. It’s going to be can the Guardians. Can they can they stop Riley Green and Carrie Carpenter? Now Riley Green’s not been good since August, but they also have to be able to get their lefties in there and get them out too, which is Messi. And you’re going to have to use Sowski. You might have to use Haron because you just got to use everybody in that bullpen. So it’s going to come down to how much that that’s been the Guardians formula has also been to limit how much their bullpen needs to pitch. The Guardian starters have the most innings in the second half in the month of September by their starting rotation. The Tigers have the what the fifth worst erra by their bullpen and they lead baseball in innings pitched in the month of September which is why they’re so bad. Their bullpen has been overused. The Guardians has been little used. So to me that’s what it comes down to I think in this one. Yeah. And like if we just look at second half data, Cleveland’s 91st in WRC plus tied with Houston. It’s not great. seventh worst. But Detroit’s down to a 96. And we talked about like where they were. They were number one in the early half of the year. And you know, specifically, if I go over here and look at the second half pitching data and look at relievers, I believe they have a negative war. Like you have to get into their pen because it’s it’s a it’s just it’s it’s really bad for them. Yep. It’s a negative -2 which is tied with Minnesota. Uh negative.2 I should say. So the whole thing is going to be getting in the pen. Listen, I’m And the FIP is the fourth worst in uh amongst bullpen in in baseball. Only Miami, Atlanta, and Colorado are worse. And let’s be honest, Colorado is a triple AAA team. Um I mean, I’m not really that’s not really a I think we all agree to that. Like ColoradoA team. Let’s be real. I know. Just saying it out loud, it’s like baseball needs relegation. They kind of do. Um, but more to the point with this, you know, not to just completely bury Colorado, uh, who Cleveland dropped a game they shouldn’t have dropped. So, that’s that’s kind of extra annoying this year when you go back and you’re looking at the grand scheme of things. Um, but they the first game I’m not going to get up and down on. I’m not going to sit there and be like, “Oh, no, the season’s over.” Yeah, Scubble’s a hard matchup and no matter what happens in that one, you are sending Gavin Williams. This is not the uh um this is not the uh the g not gameplay. Well, I took the darn class and now I can’t even get it right theory. This isn’t the game theory uh approach to throw your ace against their ace. But the reason you’re doing this is because whoever pitches this game will also pitch the last game of the season. Like this is your last chance to get two starts. So there’s a reason to do that. Um after that though, you know, flarity has not been strong this year or flattery for our uh every day out there. Um, but you know, and then Keer Monterero got lit up and that’s I mean the Tigers, you and I were talking off air, like they are a team where their pitching in general, it’s it’s a mess. And you know, if you’re not paying attention at home, guess what? Scooble is a free agent after next season. So, the Tigers are kind of in this weird situation where like their best window to win is probably this year and next year because after that, Derek Scubble is going to get 400 million or more in the open market. So, it’s a really interesting situation when you’re looking big picture at this Tigers team because no matter how good that next group is coming up, like it is hard to get that locked down. A lock down lefty gives you such an advantage too. Like Clooper was great and he won. As much as people like to rag against when things went sideways, it was a little bit due to overuse, but like when you have that elite pitcher and they’re also a lefty, it just it really gives you an advantage. and he did everything he could last postseason to to help the Tigers win. Uh it was definitely not his fault. So when I’m looking at the big picture of this with this team, no matter what happens in game one, the import more important games to me are game two and three because again you can’t scubble. He is just he’s the best pitcher in baseball for my money. And then after that you got you got to take those next two. That that’s where you got to make your money. That’s where you got to make your hay no matter what happens. Game two, game three. Yeah. Yeah. And the Guardians only need to win one to clinch the season series. So having that tiebreaker, I would still feel better with two, let’s be honest. Absolutely. Absolutely. It would it would feel better with two, but you take one, you still force the Tigers to have to finish a game better than you. You could still finish the year tied. And they have to play the Red Sox. And Cleveland gets to play the Rangers who are essentially toast. I know. The Red Sox might be trying, but they’ve been trying for a week and it hasn’t done any saves Tigers. I understand. And the reason that TK school pitching on Tuesday and possibly Sunday is important, we’ll tell you when we come back here in just a second. And we’ll talk Daniel Spieler. We’ll talk manager of the year. All kinds of fun stuff still to come on this episode of Lockdown Guardians. NFL season, it is here and it is wild. The Browns even won. That’s how wild this NFL season is. Uh, FanDuel is making sure you are ready for kickoff with a can’t miss offer. Right now, if you’re a new customer, if you want to be a new customer, all you got to do is join and bet $5. And if your bet wins, you’re going to get $300 in bonus bets from FanDuel to use across the app. We’ve seen offers of 150, 250. I’ve never seen 300 before. This is the most I’ve ever seen them offer for that first $5 bet. Uh, let’s talk Guardians Tigers game one. Uh, the overunder in that game is six and a half. That’s going to be interesting because that might be close. That might be very close. I was going to come out here and say no matter what, smash the under because school versus the Guardians, Tigers offense has not been good. Guardians pitching has been great. I would have said smash the under, but I could see a four to three game. I’m thinking more three to two. So, I I’m probably going to say it’s an under. That’s going to be very very dicey. Then the Guardians somehow are f or the Tigers are favored by one and a half runs, too. So, that’s going to be also a fun bet to look at. So, if you’re ready to play, download the FanDuel app now and visit fanal.com to get started. That’s fandal.com to place your first $5 bet. Quick shout out to all of our insiders. We had a fun chat before recording this podcast on Monday night. We talked uh all things reliever who will not be named, starting pitcher, who will not be named. Uh we talked Colorado Rockies. That’s why I was saying that we talked Jack Flattery. Uh, what else is you talk about? Tyler Freeman’s implosion for the Rockies after all the concernation. Someone Someone did bring up Tyler Freeman. We were talking about he’s down to a 90 with really bad defensive ratings. So, yikes. Yeah. A trade that nobody won for now. Yeah, we’ll see. Um, all kinds of fun stuff we talked about and we do that, you know, once in a while. We’ve done that’s the fourth one we’ve done this year, I think. If you want to be part of that, it’s joinex.comlockdownguardians. We do that. We have some bonus content like that. And we also have uh chats during the game through texting, some inside info when we get it, access to all of our written content, which is like prospect rankings, Jeff’s draft stuff, my ebook on prospects, which I’ll update over the offseason. So that’s joints.comgardians. You could find that link in the episode description as well. Well, it might be a fun time to get in on that as the playoffs come closer and the Guardians could be in. So, the reason TKO pitching on Sunday is potentially big is because if that game does matter for the Tigers, he pitches Sunday to pitch him into the playoffs. They are playing in the first round no matter what. The Tigers are not going to get a first round buy. I feel pretty strongly about that. Terrick school if he pitches on Sunday Jeff he cannot pitch in the wildard series. The wild card series is Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. So unless they would go to him on short rest. So he would have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday off. He would have to pitch on three days rest in game three, which I’ll admit they probably would do. But they have to get to game three with him or try to win in the first two without him to set him up for the LDS. So if you’re the Guardians, this may not be the last match up with the Tigers. The Guardians and Tigers very well this time next week. could be playing the wild card series and it might be at Detroit or it might be at Cleveland. But if the Guardians are playing the Tigers in the first round of the playoffs, the wild card series, there’s a good chance they won’t have to see TKO because he’s going to probably have to pitch on Sunday to to um to do that. Now he now they could if the gu if the Tigers somehow sweep this week, he probably doesn’t pitch Sunday because that’s it. That’s the the season’s over for Cleveland as far as the division’s concerned. So if you beat the Tigers once this week, you probably force Terrick Scubel to pitch on Sunday. And if you play him in the playoffs next week, you might not see Scooble until game three. And that even then it’s on short rest. So that’s a very important distinction for them. Say, and now the same could be said with Gavin Williams, too. So you’d be Tanner Bbey and um Messi or Cantillo or Sakone. But I got to be honest, I feel kind of better about them than I do the rest of the Tigers rotation. Don’t you potentially? Yeah. Um bias, but yeah, you know, it’s I do. Yeah, I would. And that’s and that’s a debate. Well, if they make the postseason, that’s going to be our first show is like, who is starter three? That’s another thing. Two things I spent some time thinking about today on my planning periods. Um because we have tomorrow off here. Uh was, you know, what what winds scubble up and how’s that going to affect the Tigers and what might that contract look like? And the second one was like, who’s our game three starter? So, that’s definitely something if things go right, we will have to be looking into the future. But, I do feel better because I mean the Tigers, the one thing we know about these playoff starters is, you know, there’s a tendency to have that hook a lot quicker, but the Tigers don’t have the ability to do that with just what a mess their pen has become. Yeah. All right. One of those guys who will not be pitching in October for Cleveland. He’ll be down in Arizona is Daniel Spino. He made his debut uh last week in Columbus, his trip AAA debut. the first game he’s pitched in over I think it was 1,700 days or something crazy he had he had missed. Um really glad to see him come back first and foremost be come back healthy and pitch well and um and I say pitch well. I know some people really pointed out the box score and I’m like guys the box score doesn’t matter. If he went out there and threw 89 mph fast balls that would not be good but that’s not the case. He was throwing 96 to 98. He almost hit 99. The slider was there. He threw a couple change ups that look really good and he’s healthy. He came off that feeling really good. So my question to you now, Jeff, is I dropped Espino way down in my rankings, but I still ranked him. You basically acted like Daniel Espino didn’t exist. How far up? I had him in the top 20. Oh, you did? Really? I thought you didn’t rank him. I kept him in the top 20. I’m sorry. I It was Valera. It was Valera. Valera. I didn’t rank. Yes, that’s right. Yeah. Okay. So, you know what? Egg on my face because I had Daniel Spino way down my list. You were up higher. Does Daniel Spino vault into your top 10 after the Arizona Fall League? No. And the reason for that is because I don’t think he’s going to be a starter long term. And I never value relievers as high as I value um uh you know, other positions. But I mean, I had him like 20 and even after the first year of his injury, I had him um in the teens or like early teens. Like I’ve been kind of like holding off on the drop because the stuff is so good. Like he had the Deg Grom starter kit, right? So it’s like when I’m looking at him and I’m looking at what he can do the bigger question for me I guess is more um you know it’s like okay so it’s like right now the 11 it’s the big debate probably around 11 and 12 for me honestly where it’s like Rosario and him are kind of probably in that like and Austin Peterson in that grouping of guys. I mean so Ralphie is ahead of him, Travis is ahead of him. Uh, so I’m gonna keep Hano ahead of him. Yeah, let’s talk names. So, Bazana definitely not over Espino there. Yeah, Hano. Um, Burrito, uh, not Burrito, I’m sorry. Velasquez obviously not. Yes. Uh, Dowy obviously not. There’s a chance that Cas and Messik both graduate, so you got to think about that. Uh, you’re not putting him above Rosario, you said. No, he’s in the debate range. Like, that’s where I start. All right. But like, I’m not going to put him ahead of Chase at this point. I probably wouldn’t put him ahead of Breurto at this point either just because of the Not Engle. Yeah. Not Engle. Not Engle. Yeah. So, it’s like Yeah. Oh, here’s a good question for you. Would you put him above Jay Lavlet? Yes. I mean, yes. That is a wild answer. Not Not that I’m saying that’s is wrong. I’m just saying I I’m not high on Lavallet. I mean, my my mid-season rankings, Espino was 22 and Lavallet was 16. So like for me that’s not that big of a I mean I’m probably going to move Oki ahead of Lavalad. I had Oki at 20 at my mid-season. Yeah, agreed. I had Oki way down too. Like here’s the thing. Oki and Espino right now at at the mid-season rankings my 10th was Rosario, Ralphie 11th, Hurdle 12 and then I had Peterson at 13 and then there was Walters who’s hurt. So it’s like honestly Oki and Espino are kind of moving into that 13 14 15. they could shoot up somewhere from like nine to 15 is really a good debate point for me. So we him and Oki honestly are like moving into that range because also I don’t think Oaki’s gonna be a starter. Like I think he is probably a reliever as well. Um fair enough. So I’m probably going to have Espino ahead of Oki closer in spite of the health better overall stuff. Not say that Okei stuff isn’t fantastic, but Espino was listed as having the best fast ball and what the best slider in baseball at the time in the minor league baseball. Was it the best? He had the two be two of the best pitches in baseball. He was the owner of the you know uh that fast ball is considered the best pitch in minor league baseball at the time. So like he he’s going to be higher. But also for all my complaining about all the injuries this year, how nice is it that we’re talking about a top 16 where like you know Hardle Lavallet that’s that’s the tier of it right now. That’s where this system is. Yeah. Given the injuries too for sure. Yeah. It’s nice. I mean, it’s just funny that a speedo comes back, but the lauder stays hurt and then Bazan and Burrito go down. It’s like couldn’t have it all. One of them had to fall for the other one to to come back. I don’t want to say, you know, had to die for someone come back because no one died, but you know, it’s just crazy that the natural electrician. It’s like, you know, we talked about all the years before Zibbon and Campbell and guys like that and just all I mean Justin Campbell might might end up never pitching for Cleveland, you know, because he he didn’t pitch at all this year. The minor league season’s officially over. So, and he’s not on the AFL roster either because he’s never thrown a pitch in a game that actually cracked publicly. Yeah. And he’s rule five eligible. Yeah, that’s at least Jacob Simmon came back before that happened for him. Um, the other thing too that was really exciting was Espino came back and what the triple AAA so you got some obviously double A was over but you got some data on him. So we got to see some public data and we saw that his extension shocking is really good. That’s only going to help his fast ball, right? Um, everything I it was just so exciting to see all that. He threw strikes too. That’s the other thing, too. He threw strikes. He threw 21 pitches, 15 for strikes. Like again, guys, the box score doesn’t matter. There were two blue pits. I’m sorry. There was one blue pit and the other one was a ball that Christian Cairo tried to get to but couldn’t. He couldn’t come up the throw. It wasn’t an error, but it was one of those hard to to make plays. And then Tanner Burns came in, allowed a home run that allowed Espino’s runs to cross the plate. So that box score does not matter. The only thing that mattered was did Espino come back? Did he look like he used to? Yes, he looked like a guy who with some more reps, with more consistency is is close to the guy he was before. Will he ever be 100% of what he was before? Probably not. That’s That’s a lot to ask. We’ll see what happens in the Arizona Fall League, but we got to see pretty much what we everything we were looking for in that outing, and he came away, I think, looking as exciting as ever. I I’m I’m with you. I’m pretty sure he’s going to be a reliever long term. But hey, if Daniel Spino is in your bullpen next season in Cleveland, I will take that because that means he’s healthy, the stuff is good, and he could be your future closer because they might need one next year or, you know, someone to set up Kate Smith at least. Yeah, I’m willing to, you know, figure out that whole situation, but arms like that just don’t come around. So, it’s Yeah, he’s a special talent. And the best part is you’re gonna you’re going to get the options back on him, too, because he’s missed so much time. you don’t have to worry about the options. He’s going to get he’s going to get him back, so at least one. So, that’s always a good thing. I’ll be curious what they do with him. I don’t I they haven’t said what what his role in Arizona is going to be, but it’s hard to imagine him pitching more than two innings at a time. Um, especially moving into the offseason, but we’ll see what happens come spring training. We’ll worry about that next year because we still have a lot to talk about when it comes to this year’s team. The playoffs are essentially here. The Guardians are in a series with the Tigers this week for all the marbles. I’ll be there Wednesday. Hope to see you all there. Hope the ballpark is packed. Of course, Jeff, we did not get to the manager of the year conversation today like we knew he wouldn’t. Yeah, touch on that later this week. We also got to talk Guardians Tigers game one tomorrow. We got to talk more about Josh Hardle. We still haven’t talked about uh one of the Guardians assistant GMs being up for another job. So, we’ve still got a lot of things to talk about all week long starting with this series. It’s going to be fun. Buckle in. Every night’s going to be tense. It’s It’s playoffs. Let’s be very honest. It’s playoffs every day here with this team. So, uh, buckle in, enjoy, and, you know, again, enjoy them. Stay locked on. Just just locked in and enjoy them. Uh, oh god, no, don’t say that. Enjoy them. Uh, thank you all for joining us. Remember to rate and review, download daily. It helps. Comment below with uh when you gave up on the season and when you jump back in. Thank you all for joining us and go Guardians. Go beat Jack Flattery and Tariq scoo scubble.

AL Central showdown: Guardians and Tigers clash in season-defining series. Can Cleveland finish the comeback? Justin Lada and Jeff Ellis break down the high-stakes three-game set between Cleveland and Detroit. They analyze crucial pitching matchups, including Tarik Skubal vs. Gavin Williams and Tanner Bibee vs. Jack Flaherty. The show dives into various playoff scenarios, bullpen strategies, and the potential impact on the division race. We also discusst Daniel Espino’s return to the mound and Ellis debate Espino’s future role and his place in Cleveland’s farm system rankings.
Tune in for expert insights on the Guardians’ path to October and the future of their pitching staff.

0:00 Intro: Guardians-Tigers series preview
10:09 Playoff scenarios for Guardians and Tigers
15:07 Analyzing Tigers’ bullpen struggles
25:19 Daniel Espino’s return and prospect ranking
30:11 Espino’s impressive AAA debut performance

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