with Giminez and/or Clement at 2nd; Rosario at SS. And Bradley on the Pirates.

Yes, exactly. Or eventually of course Arias in that mix.

As for the series this weekend - this is a sobering reality that hits home.

Truly I think if our Guardians end up .500 or better it's been a successful season while we mix in and audition kids.

The Giants, on the other hand, won 107 games last season. Their pitching is next level - it has to be to do what they did/do in the Dodgers' division.

As for the hitting - veteran guys like Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt (God what a bitch that guy is to pitch to) have won it all and can still play.

This is the top level of the game.

For the Guardees - if the Blitzer thing becomes a reality I do believe the plan is to take a fully auditioned (and cheap) team into the Blitzer era. That way he gets to start from scratch. This is standard practice.

Once you know who your young keepers are then you - with new money - can then add on.

With all my heart I do believe this is what is going on behind the scenes. Seems evident.

Hedges with a Hit! and an RBI!

only down 7

Looks like we got equal value for Zimmer; he can't hit, Castro can't pitch

Yeah well likely we were going to cut Zimmer anyways. Now we can cut Castro instead.

Pilkington looks like a good mopup reliever. Although could be more useful to develop as a starter.
They can DFA Castro and add someone else from the Clippers as long as it's not Alex Young. Or some free agent looking for a job.
I forgot that the roster shrinks in 2 weeks anyway so no replacement needed.

I think Castro still has an option left.

yes he does, so he's easy to send out, but not to replace because we only have one other pitcher available to recall: Tobias Myers. Of course we can hope to have Karinchak back soon off the DL.

forecast is 42 and foggy tonight, so I guess they'll play.
37 and snow in Youngstown. Aren't the rest of you glad you moved away?

nope; postponed, will try for 2 games tomorrow
7 innings or 9?

Offense off to a better start today. First inning first two guys safe on infield errors. after one out Reyes walks to load the bases and Rosario force play drives in a run. Looking good!

Well Naylor leaves them there but that was quite a start by the Guardians.

things start the same, with another error by Anderson, but proceed differently with singles by Mercado, red-hot Hedges, Straw, and Clement and a grand slam by the majorleague RBI leader. So it's 7-0 , two more singles follow, and now Naylor on an infield grounder which may or not be scored another error

followed by Anderson's 3rd error and we are up 9-0 and a Mercado single and it's 10-0 and still no one out. And Keuchel is at last replaced. Might want to consider a new SS too

Kind of a cakewalk for Bieber. 66 pitches in 5 innings. Let him stay out as long as it helps build up his arm strength
And then let the new guys from Columbus get lowest pressure possible debuts.

Ernie Clement with the start in left, threw out a runner at 2nd base. Ernie has a chance to win the 6th man award.