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Re: GameTime!™

25369 by civ ollilavad
Just a reminder: Plesac was not very good last year; the "next wave" of young starters [Cody Morris, but he's hurt], Logan Allen Jr., Pilkington, Battenfield, ould threaten his spot.

PEORIA, Ariz. -- The fastball sets up the rest of a pitcher’s pitches. It has always been that way for almost all pitchers.

Zach Plesac knows where his fastball is. Now it’s just a matter of throwing it where he wants to throw it.

The problem with that is hitters, especially in spring training, hunt for fastballs like a hungry man hunts a steak. They know it’s coming and it’s just a matter of being ready for it.

The Guardians’ Zach Plesac started Sunday’s game against the Padres with two easy outs. Jake Cronenworth, hitting third, drove a first-pitch fastball over the left field fence. Plesac, unaffected, threw another first-pitch fastball to the next batter. Will Myers hit it over the wall in right field for a 2-0 lead that would eventually grow into a 5-1 victory.

“I felt good the whole first inning,” said Plesac. “They were ambushing heaters. I think guys in spring training are going to look for fastballs and really be on time with that pitch. I think that’s their main goal.
“When I throw that pitch early in the count or behind in the count, I’ve got to execute it. I was just trying to get ahead in the count.”

Plesac pitched 3 2/3 innings, allowing five runs, three earned, on six hits.

Lefty Alex Young ended the fourth for Plesac and then Triston McKenzie arrived. He threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings.

This is the second time Plesac and McKenzie have pitched in the same game this spring. McKenzie was supposed to start Sunday with Plesac relieving him. But Plesac has never pitched in relief so McKenzie volunteered to follow him.

It’s still unclear if Plesac and McKenzie will share innings in the same game when the regular season starts on April 7. It is one of the ideas manager Terry Francona and Cleveland’s pitching group is kicking around to compensate for the lockout-shortened spring.

“We’re still working through stuff,” said Francona, when asked about Plesac and McKenzie pitching in the same game. “Some of it may depend on how many pitchers we can carry. There’s a lot of stuff we need to talk about.”

McKenzie has yet to allow a run in 5 1/3 innings this spring. He’s struck out four, walked one and allowed one hit.

“Triston was good,” said Francona. “We actually sent him out for the eighth to give him another hitter so he could get another up-and-down. He has good life on his fastball. He’s mixing in that slider that comes out a 89. . .91. That’s a slider.

“He’s missing a lot of bats.”

Prospect Gabriel Arias started at shortstop and beat out an infield single in the sixth. Arias is hitting .571 (8-for-14) and has at least one hit in all seven of the games he’s appeared in this spring.

“He’s fun to watch,” said Francona. “He’s going to be a good player.”

Re: GameTime!™

25370 by civ ollilavad
Roster move: The Guardians sent six players to minor league camp on Sunday. Catcher Bo Naylor and lefty Kirk McCarty were re-assigned, while infielders Brayan Rocchio, Jose Tena, George Valera and Richie Palacios were optioned.

Next: RHP Adam Scott (1-0, 0.00) will make his second start of the spring Monday when he faces the Royals and Zach Grienke at Surprise, Arizona. Game time is 4:05 p.m. ET. REAL radio will carry the game.

Tobias Myers, Enyel De Los Santos, Trevor Stephan and Sam Hentges are also scheduled to pitch for the Guardians.

Re: GameTime!™

25371 by civ ollilavad
Naylor made his debut, playing RF, went 2-3.
Rosario in LF for the second time, with his 2nd homer; he shows his power only when he's in the outfield.
There are our corner OFs; and their backup or part-time starter Steven Kwan went 2-2 lifting his average to 500.

time to say farewell to Mr. Zimmer.
In fact I think the need to clear roster space to make room for Sandy Leon should work out well in this regard: someone needs to go, who more deserving than Zimmer.

Among the infielders, Giminez doubled and singled; Miller homered and walked

Bradley did not strike out even once and is hitting 167 with 0 homers, 0 RBI and an OPS this spring of 433. Bad omen: that's about as bad as Jake Bauers hit last spring which won him the 1st base job.

Quantrill wore out in is 3rd inning. My reliever of the not too distant future Mikolajchak with 2 perfect innings and 3 K.
Gose Clase and Shaw with scoreless innings,

Re: GameTime!™

25372 by civ ollilavad
What they're good at they're still good at

Plesac 3 shutout innings,
McKenzie 1 run in 3 and 6 strikeouts
the day before Civale dazzled
Bieber is Bieber
Quantrill can step back some from last year and still be quality

Unless these guys get hurt again the pitching should be top notch and produce a winning record.

Bullpen is more questionable but 3 each with a shutout inning yesterday:
Shaw, Stephan and the less reliable Hentges
The day before Sandlin debuted looking really sharp.
Clase is a top notch closer.
Gose has been solid although Tito has told him, a few off days shouldn't get you down.
Then come the depth guys, Eli Morgan, Logan Allen and Konnor Pilkington and/or Toby Myers. Most of them will be back in Columbus when the starters get stretched out and Karinchak rejoins the pen.

Re: GameTime!™

25373 by civ ollilavad
Rosario at SS for the with his 3rd homer of the week
Reyes with his 1st homer
Naylor in RF again doubled. If I were in charge he'd be out there opening day, don't know how he'd benefit from 10 days in the minors

on the other hand,
Mercado 0-3 drops below Zimmer in the race to the bottom of OFs, he's hitting 192 to Zimm's 227.
Most reports suggest that both bums will be on the opening day roster.
Humbly disagree noting:
1. Kwan appears to be real and they "want to look at the kids"
2. Rosario can play LF
3. Naylor is in good shape
OF of those 3 plus Straw sounds thin, but Reyes can play OF, Clement is getting on the job training and I'd much rather keep Miller, Clement, and Chang all on the roster than dump one behind for our failed outfielders.
In case of emergency there will undoubtedly be some other OF's DFA's as teams get down to 28 who are no worse than Mercado and Zimmer

Re: GameTime!™

25374 by joez
Image


Zach Plesac, Triston McKenzie impressive again in Cleveland Guardians 5-1 spring win against Arizona D-Backs

Zach Plesac tossed three scoreless innings Friday against Arizona.AP

Updated: Apr. 01, 2022, 11:51 p.m. | Published: Apr. 01, 2022, 11:39 p.m.

By Joe Noga, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio —

Zach Plesac and Triston McKenzie have pitched in the same game three times during Cleveland’s exhibition season, and the Guardians have won every time.

Not much changed Friday as Cleveland picked up a 5-1 Cactus League victory against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Goodyear Ballpark. Plesac teamed with McKenzie for another impressive outing, allowing just one run in six combined innings. The duo appears ready to piggyback in their first regular-season action once the club gets to Kansas City next week.

Plesac tossed three scoreless innings, allowing two hits and one walk with four strikeouts. McKenzie went three innings and allowed one run on two hits with six punchouts.

Cleveland jumped in front 2-0 on a Jose Ramirez RBI double in the first inning and a Franmil Reyes RBI single to center. Amed Rosario added a solo home run in the third off Diamondbacks lefty Tyler Gilbert, and Reyes followed with a two-run shot of his own to left.

Arizona broke through against McKenzie in the seventh with an RBI double by Jake Hager. It was the first run McKenzie allowed in 8 1/3 innings this spring.

Bryan Shaw, Trevor Stephan and Sam Hentges pitched scoreless relief innings for Cleveland. Guardians pitchers held Arizona to five hits and combined for 11 strikeouts with just three walks.

Next: The Guardians travel to Surprise Stadium to face Texas for a 9:05 p.m. first pitch Saturday. Shane Bieber will make his final exhibition start for Cleveland while righty Matt Bush heads to the mound for the Rangers. The game will air on WTAM 1100 AM.

Cleveland 5 - Arizona 1

https://www.mlb.com/gameday/d-backs-vs- ... ame=706982

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“Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's success or put its failures behind and start over again. That's the way life is, with a new game every day, and that's the way baseball is.”
-- Bob Feller
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