This Cleveland Media Personality Didn't Hold Back His Thoughts On The Guardians
The city of Cleveland is known as a football town, and the Cleveland Browns are usually the topic of conversation. If you tune into any sports radio station or show in Cleveland you listen to mostly Browns talk, but from time to time you will get some Cleveland Guardians discussion.
On Sunday, Cleveland sports talk show host Adam The Bull went on Twitter to talk about the recent roster construction of the Guardians.
Adam The Bull was the afternoon drive talk show host on 92.3 the Fan for about a decade before he moved over to the Ultimate Cleveland Sports show, which you can see every weekday from 11:00 am to 1:00 on YouTube.
The Cleveland Outfield
Not many people will talk about baseball in Cleveland, but Bull is one of the best at breaking down the game so when he talks you better listen.
Bull had many tweets about the Guardians players and one that was very eye-opening is "In 820 plate appearances this year Kwan, Brennan, and Straw (combined) have 6 homers and 58 RBI's."
Kwan, Brennan, and Straw are the everyday outfielders for the Guardians ,and when you look at each of their stat lines you will want to vomit.
Of course, Straw is one of the worst hitters in the MLB, and I have no idea why he plays every single day. We all know he is a great defensive center fielder, but according to the Fielding Bible Straw doesn't have a defensive run saved all season.
Straw has had 248 at-bats this season and is hitting .234, with a .308 OPB, .302 SLG, and a .610 OPS, and of course zero home runs.
He is below average in every single category and he was worse last season and continues to find his way in the lineup every single day.
Straw should be the fourth outfielder at this point and should be used for pinch-running and defensive substitution. His bat should not be close to this lineup, and it has to stop or this team will not win anything.
Kwan is the everyday left fielder, and his 2022 rookie season was very fun to watch, but 2023 has not gone exactly as planned.
Kwan is the lead off hitter and is all about contact, but so far this season his contact has not been there.
Kwan is batting .259, with a .359 OPB, a .350 SLG, and .685 OPS, and two home runs. He will not hit for power, and that is not his role, but only hitting .259 is terrible.
Kwan should be a .300 hitter and at the moment it just isn't happening. If Kwan can get back to his 2022 self then he will be part of this team's future, but you can not live with the way Kwan has been hitting the ball this season.
Brennan is the third outfielder in this mix and only a rookie so he is battling the ups and downs of his first season and has shown signs that he can be an everyday major leaguer for years to come.
Brennan is hitting .266 and has a horrible OPB of .297, but he is almost slugging .400 ,which is acceptable.
Brennan has hit four home runs this season and is the power hitter in the outfield for the Guardians.
The team can't continue to run Straw, Brennan, and Kwan every day. They must put Straw on the bench, and move Brennan or Kwan to center field and figure out a power hitter in one of the corner outfield spots.
They could recall Oscar Gonzalez up from Triple-A and put him in the outfield. Gonzalez is still very young and still has issues at the plate, but he has the potential to hit the ball out of the park, and that is what the team needs now.
Unless they can trade starting pitcher Shane Bieber next month for a corner outfield MLB-ready player, which will be very difficult to do, they can only work with what they have in the farm system, and Gonzalez might be the best they have.
The 2024 Team
Bull also brought up what he would like to see the team do for the 2024 season "For next year, I want to see Gimenez at 2B, Rocchio or Arias at SS and Ramirez at 3B, Naylor at DH and either Kwan or Brennan in CF and Bo Naylor at catcher and then go get legit starters at 1B, LF and RF.....have Straw and either Kwan or Brennan on the bench."
There should be no argument here with what Bull said about how he wants to see the roster for 2024. He is right about wanting to add legit starters, and he doesn't mean more prospects but proven MLB hitters at 1B, LF, and RF.
The Guardians tried to add legit first basemen this season by adding Josh Bell, but it hasn't gotten off to the best start. Bell is on a two-year contract and has a player option for next season where he can opt out, but at the moment Bell will most likely be opting into his almost 17 million dollar deal next season.
Adding two legit starters in the outfield is a must, and if that means two out of the three in Kwan, Brennan, and Straw have to go then it is what it is.
Bull also mentioned how bad Straw's contract is for the upcoming years "Myles Straw is guaranteed 19 million from 24-26...no one on earth would want to pay him that...Guards are stuck with that horrid contract."
Again Bull is spot on, and who in the world would want anything to do with this contract? Straw will most likely remain on the team because of this deal which is not good.
Payroll Needs To Be Higher
The last thing I'll bring up from Bull's epic Twitter night is the payroll rankings. "WS champs..opening day payroll rank.... 2022-8 2021-10 2020-1 2019-3 2018-1 2017-12 2016-4 2015-12 2014-10 2013-3 Yeah, doesn't matter at all..... the 2003 Marlins are the only team lower than 15th in payroll to win a World Series since at least 1995."
The Guardians currently have the 26th highest payroll, and that's an issue because there are only 30 teams.The baseball team is usually always towards the bottom due to their owner Paul Dolan and his unwillingness to spend money.
Bull made so many great points about the current and future state of the Guardians, and he was not wrong on any of them. Fans are just sick of watching a team who has not won a World Series in 75 years and continues to not spend money and throw out a lineup that couldn't hit the ball off a tee.
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