News and Notes for Tuesday, July 9th, 2024
Well... Gavin Williams looked good.
The Guardians are officially in a bit of a bad stretch after losing 1-0 to the Tigers. Over the past 10 games, Jose Ramirez has a wRC+ of 60 and David Fry has a wRC+ of 40. Not abnormal, but they are having trouble with both of those bats absent.
We discovered that Williams' slider is now registering as a cutter. He used his fastball, cut-slider and curve mix to limit the Tigers to four hits, one walk and no runs in five and a third, striking out five. The bullpen was fine with Sam Hentges, Nick Sandlin and Tim Herrin shutting Detroit down and Scott Barlow almost getting out of a hairy inning with a double-play ball... more on that later.
Tigers' starter Keider Montero looked very good for six and a third and then the Tigers threw a lefty reliever out there to neutralize the Guardians like every team does. It was Tyler Holton this time. It'll be some other faceless lefty tomorrow. Please return to us, lefty crushing David Fry.
It's time for the team to gird their loins and find a way to finish these last six games on the road strong. It would be shame to limp their way into the All-Star break after such a great start. And I'm confident they'll break out of it.
Angel Martinez is doing his best, accruing two of the Guardians' three hits and making a nice catch in center, crashing into the wall. Brayan Rocchio missed a grounder to allow the only run, seemingly taking his eye off the spinning ball in considering where he was going with the throw (looked like a double-play was possible if it was fielded cleanly). Andres Gimenez, on the other hand, made some sensational plays at second and has 8 OAA. Steven Kwan also made a great play in left. Ho hum!
I appreciated this Call Up podcast going through a potential mock draft. The hosts do a good job describing why Bazzana is the majority choice among baseball folks and also why the Guardians might go underslot with Wetherholt.
Around MLB:
The Twins beat the White Sox in extras and the Royals had an off day
