Hunter Gaddis (RP): IP, BB, K – This was Gaddis\u2019 first appearance since early in spring training with the forearm issue. He only got up to 93.8 and threw a lot more sliders and fastballs than his changeup (1) which was an issue for him late last season. The velocity right now isn\u2019t a worry since it\u2019s a rehab appearance and Iowa (51 degrees) is certainly colder than Arizona. But worth paying attention to his pitch mix over the next 2-3 appearances to see how he feels about what has been his best pitch historically. <\/p>\n
Travis Bazzana (2B): 2-4, 3B, RBI, BB – The triple by Bazzana was 386 to about dead center and almost 99 off the bat. His single was 100.8 early in the game. Bazzana is showing solid exit velos so far and did a good job working a walk as well. He\u2019s off to a solid start through two games. <\/p>\n
Petey Halpin (CF): 2-5, 2B, HR, RBI – Halpin is also off to a good start as well, going 374 feet for a homer and 102.3 off the bat, and 346 feet for a double that was to the opposite field. I\u2019ve been skeptical about Halpin\u2019s bat over the past two years, but it\u2019s definitely worth watching the batted ball quality with this latest swing change if he finally unlocked something since CF will continue to be an open question. <\/p>\n
Juan Brito (3B): 2-4, 2B, RBI – Brito continues to hit the ball well early this minor league season with two hits over 100 in this one. He was off to a great start last season before the thumb injury. He\u2019s only played third base so far and has looked OK. Not that it matters, because he wouldn\u2019t be playing third in the majors. I would be more interested to see if he gets time in the outfield, but with Halpin, Watson, Fairchild, Jones and possibly Rodriguez, if he clears waivers, makes that hard. It\u2019s also a good way of establishing the pecking order too, because where Brito plays means a lot about his path to the majors and how soon that could come. <\/p>\n
Nolan Jones (RF): 1-4, HR, RBI, BB, 2K – Jones blasted a 436 foot homer to the opposite field, 106.8 off the bat. He worked a walk and struck out. He also had a 107.9 lineout that went 337 feet. Maybe the confidence will return in Triple-A, something he lacked this spring which led to his removal from the 40 man roster. <\/p>\n
Daniel Espino (RP): IP – Great to see an early season performance from Espino. He topped out at 96.7 and averaged almost 96. His inning was extremely effortless – 7 pitches. He didn\u2019t record a strikeout but he induced very mediocre contact in all three batters faced. The next thing to look for will be Espino\u2019s workload. Will he wait 5 days to pitch again, or will he throw in say, 2-3 days? That will give us a look into the planning for his role. If he pitches every fifth day, Cleveland may still be leaving the option open to build him up as the season goes along. If he\u2019s throwing every two or three days, that makes it easier to believe they will go the relief route. <\/p>\n
Kahlil Watson (LF): 1-3, 2 BB, K – Rare to see two walks from Watson and he had a 100.4 single, so he\u2019s off to a solid start as well. <\/p>\n
Milan Tolentino (SS): 1-3, 2B, BB, SB – A meagerly hit double was his only hit, but Tolentino continues to add value with defense and speed, which keeps him as a utility candidate here or somewhere else. <\/p>\n
Will Dion (RP): 3IP, 2H, 5K – Came out of the pen but worked three innings and somehow got 4 whiffs on a 90.3 MPH fastball. 61 of his 41 pitches were fastballs and he was very effective, which continues to baffle me. It\u2019s a high IVB (20 inches) fastball and has some carry and spin, which helps. It just seems so odd to rely on it so much. He\u2019s clearly still looked at as a starter\/piggyback role given his 41 pitches. <\/p>\n
Jake Miller (RP): IP, BB – Miller got the save in this one, but his fastball only averaged 91.2. He was mid-90s last year, so we\u2019ll see if that can build back up as things get warmer. That\u2019s a little concerning if it doesn\u2019t. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hunter Gaddis (RP): IP, BB, K – This was Gaddis\u2019 first appearance since early in spring training with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2380],"tags":[5,135,51,2565,538,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-650500","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-guardians","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-guardians","11":"tag-clevelandguardians","12":"tag-guardians","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116312766201829073","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}