MadThinker88

For some background on this: Amed's defensive numbers really tanked this year with the rule change against shifting and CLE finally started removing Amed late in games for a better defender over the past week. Unlike the past few years Amed's bat is not making up for the limited D he provides at SS. At this point there are already 3 better defensive SS on the CLE 26 man roster (Andres Gimenez, Gabrial Arias (mold of Carlos Correa) & Tyler Freeman). Another option made is MLB debut earlier this year in Brayan Rocchio (mold of Lindor) & he is in his 2nd year at AAA. Over the past few years all of Arias, Freeman & Rocchio have been on multiple top 100 prospect lists. This trade is a net zero impact on the payroll with the money LAD kicked in as Thor has a more expensive contract this year than Amed.. Since Amed was a FA after the season, CLE is utilizing the last few months to see which of the 3 (Arias, Freeman, Rocchio) is grabbing the position for going forward. I find it interesting that LAD has traded for multiple guys this week (Kiki H & Amed) to help at SS that have major limitations playing SS defensively.

Did MKE trade away is Competitive Balance pick in 2020?? I know they had done that a couple of times. I'm trying to understand why MKE made only 5 picks that year instead of 6.

You flipping between timing of a deal. You started your 1st post and ended your last post focusing on the now. Weak AL Central. CLE under .500. Looking for the Crew to make a splash and be instant WS threat. JRam would be a great fit and has exactly what the Crew needs. In the middle you note how plenty of players with NTC get dealt and if CLE needs a rebuild in the future JRam might want to get dealt. Well JRam has not requested a trade. In his signing of an extension he left anywhere from 80M to 100M on the table & it encouraged others (Clase, Straw at start of 2022 & Gimenez at start of 2023) to sign multi year extensions. So others feels he is sticking in CLE. You suggested if there was a rebuild during his current contract (which runs 5 more years after this season) might trigger a trade request. I don't see that as a possibility as CLE is doing a reload on the fly. Last year 16 players made their MLB debut as CLE won the AL Central with the youngest team in baseball. This year another 6 players have already made their debut. The entire starting rotation for CLE from the beginning of spring training has either fallen apart (Plesac) or spent time or is currently on the injured list (Beiber, McKenzie, Civale, Quantril). In their place 3 of the young guns have stepped up (LT Allen, Bibee, Williams). I fail to see where a rebuild would be taking place in that 5 year time frame. I'll make you a deal: If JRam gets dealt (to any team) during his current contract, I will stop posting on this site. I will be gone. If he does not get dealt during this current contract, you write me an apology,

FYI, with the changes rules the signing deadline is during this upcoming week. IIRC its 7/26/23. Once the draft got shortened from 40 to 20 rounds, CLE has signed every pick each year until this one. The 2020 pandemic year was 5 rounds but some teams like CLE & MKE still had Competitive balance pick so they drafted 6 players.

Anyone got the full signing list for MKE?? Fingers crossed MKE gets the entire draft class signed (or as many as they really want).. CLE has basically wrapped up its draft class signing 19 of the 21 selections. Prep pitchers taken in rounds 16 & 20 very unlikely to sign at this point, CLE has under $2300 remaining in its bonus pool (including the overage). 1st time since 2019 draft CLE has not signed its full draft class.

Are you guys including the overage that a team could exceed its draft bonus pool without penalty?? Teams that exceed their bonus pool by 5% lose a pick in the next draft but a team could go 4.999999995% over without any penalty. For years CLE has been to within a couple of bucks of its line to sign everyone it drafts. ------------------------------------------------------------ On another item ICYMI MLB changed the signing rules this year. Any player signed must be added to the domestic player development group within 15 days of being signed. That group has a 180 player limit.

There is no chance of a trade. Jose insisted on a full complete NO TRADE CLAUSE in the extension he signed before last season. Whatever CLE does going forward, its building its team around Jose Ramirez..

Here is what I have been able to find.. https://twitter.com/i/status/1677146340453756932

Valera has missed most of the season with multiple injuries and has had multiple hamate injuries over the past few years. He is definitely trying to get back into a good productive place & has had limited success this season. A fan at the game tweeted a 45 second video of the brawl but nothing indicated what had started it. Thanks for the info..

Any idea what set off the brawl with Valera during the 3rd inning??? BTW the Clippers are an average offense at this point with Bo Naylor (& others up) with the big league club. They just happened to get on a roll this week.

Multiple AL All-Stars are on the injured list (Judge, Yordis the position guy from Houston & Shane M the pitcher from Tampa) so Franco will get named on as a replacement. With the multiple replacements they do not need to do 1 for 1 sub by position.

You might want to take a closer look at the Bieber start vs the D'backs. The CLE bullpen was toast by the end of that went coast road trip where the longest start had been into the 4th inning. Bieber pitched well outside of a 2 run homer thru 7 innings. His pitch count was in the 80s so he went out for the 8th inning and he fully imploded. With a normal bullpen setup it is likely Tito goes to the pen in the 8th & then its back to back starts where it appears like the Cy Bieber has returned.

To bring this to a close: Mandy Bell (CLE beat reporter) @MandyBell02 · Follow Zach Plesac cleared waivers and was outrighted to Columbus. 4:14 PM · Jun 11, 2023

It appears the deal to acquire Owen Miller was for cash. This from Fangraphs: The Milwaukee Brewers made a shrewd move when they acquired Owen Miller from the Cleveland Guardians last December in exchange for cash (thanks to The Athletic’s Zack Meisel for confirming that it was a cash transaction with no PTBNL involved).

I doubt Texas would call CLE or try to deal fro Bieber.. The last time CLE traded a SP to Texas it was Corey Kluber to Texas for Delino DeShields Jr & a young RH reliever pitcher named Emmanuel Clase. Kluber lasted only 1 IP for Teas before getting injured and then departing as a FA after that season (going to NY Yankees if my memory is correct)..

Thanks for the compliment but CLE still has its share of mistakes. The one thing that cannot be controlled by the CLE FO (or any FO) is how the player accepts/ responds to coaching. There are always players that resist/ move to a different drummer. Sometimes it takes a change of scenery (or 2 or 3) before a player wakes up/ accepts/ adjusts. Sometimes the player never changes. Look at MadBum. He went to his own drum & for a while earlier in his career it worked. Then by this season in Arizona he was so bad & such a problem behind the scenes, they just dropped him. After reading what was going on, I doubt any other club doing its due diligence would give him another chance. Remember: Zach was the same guy that broke COVID protocols for a night out in Chicago with Mike Clevinger during the 2020 season & he had a teammate in the clubhouse that had been fighting leukemia the year before (Carassco).. Zach has missed time each of the last 2 season for injuries. In 2021 it was from aggressively removing his shirt in the clubhouse & injuring his hand, In 2022 he broke his hand punching the mound on the field after a play was not made behind him. There are reasons for another team to give Plesac a chance & to try to acquire him. There are also reasons to pass & look for another option.

Considering MKE still owes CLE a PTBNL/ cash for the Owen Miller trade in Dec '22, MKE could upgrade the return and make it a 2 for 1 deal (with MKE getting the 2 pieces over an extended timeframe)... Plesac still has a very good pickoff move to 1st & many fans on CLE chat boards were surprised Plesac was never really given a chance in a relief role (as limiting his pitch mix & expected limiting of pitches to be thrown should help his fastball play up). He also has options available & multiple years of team control. Personally I feel he needs a change of scenery & new coaching voices might make a positive difference for him. Make an offer. Worst that happens is it is turned down.

"Right the Ship"??? I am no sailor but I have heard over the years there were complements given to the Capt of the battleship USS Nevada when he ran the ship aground instead of letting the Japanese sink the Nevada in the entrance to Pearl Harbor during the 12/7/41 attack.. Perhaps something similar here will keep the Brewers afloat and not list too much to one side or the other... Just a thought....

Reyes was willing to learn & play 1B a couple of years back but his agent put a stop to it unless Reyes got a big contract. CLE wasn't willing to match the desired contract and since then Reyes has been doing worse & worse. Maybe he is willing to do learn/ play 1B now (without needing a big contract).. He needs to do something different to get another chance in the league.

Thank you for chiming in & sharing the insights regarding the spring training situation.

IF MLB expands after the situations are resolved with the A's & Rays, not only are 2 sites needed for the 2 expansion teams, but also 8 other sites for the full season minor league clubs for those 2 expansion clubs. So 2 more locations for AAA, 2 more for AA, 2 more for High A & 2 more for Low A. There is also the question of spring training / complex sites.. I suggest taking a good look at the locations that recently lost minor league teams. While a number of those locations lost clubs for good reason, I am sure a few of those cities will start pulling out all the stops in order to regain a full season minor team..

Be carefully with that. If your feeling that way then the A's items would revert back to Philly (they were the Philly A's before KC or Oakland) and the Braves history would revert to Boston (they were Boston prior to MKE or Atlanta).

Interesting that you note the "Clevinger style" trade since MKE now has 1 of those 6 players from the deal (Owen Miller). That deal between CLE & SD had 9 players in total being moved: CLE sent 3 (2 MLB players in Clevinger & Greg Allen) & a PTBNL (milb pitcher Matt Waldon) to SD for 6 players back (3 MLB players in Josh Naylor, Cal Quantril & Austin Hedges) & 3 prospects (SS Gabriel Arias, LHP Joey Cantillo & INF Owen Miller).

Just placing this here for future reference... Jensen Lewis @JLEWFifty Mar 28 Crazy to think for the price of Francisco Lindor’s Mets contract ($341M), the #Guardians spent almost that on the following extensions/FA currently on the roster: $141M/7yr: JRAM $106.5M/7yr: Gimenez $33M/2yr: J.Bell $25M/5yr: Straw $20M/5yr: Clase $6M: Zunino $331.5M total ---------------------------------------------------------- & that was before this news broke on Weds evening https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/03/guardians-trevor-stephan-extension.html Note: No deals above were made to someone before their MLB debut... Not every deal is for mega dollars or going great (that Straw deal looks bad for the team at the moment), but a good front office (& I feel most believe MKE has a good FO) can effectively operate within a set of reasonable parameters.

Good post & explanations there Mass Haas, Nice Job