Which Guardians lose at-bats when September call-ups arrive? (Podcast) (2024)

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Major League rosters expand by two on Sunday. Which Guardians prospects could be joining the club for the stretch run? And which players currently on the roster will be losing at-bats and innings once they arrive?

On Friday’s podcast, Paul Hoynes and Joe Noga look at how Stephen Vogt and his staff will figure out playing time for whoever arrives at the end of the week.

Listen and read along with an AI-generated transcript of the podcast below.

Read the automated transcript of today’s podcast below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it may contain errors and misspellings.

Joe Noga 0:04 Welcome back to the Cleveland Baseball Talk podcast. I’m Joe. Noga, joined by Paul Hoynes, noisy the Guardians off on Thursday, but managed to pick up a half game on the Royals in the race for the American League Central Division. The Royals losing their series opener at Houston 63, they scored three runs to take the lead in the 6th inning of leave and then an ending later. Or so they they gave up four runs. Uh, but that most damaging in that loss, not just uh, losing 1/2 game to the guardians in the in the conference or division standings. They also lost their starting first baseman Vinnie Paz. Contino, he’s going to be out six to eight weeks after breaking his thumb on a ground ball up the middle by younger Diaz that hit Lucas Erceg in the hand, arsik through into the runner at first base and the collision caused past continue to break his thumb. Just a pretty big loss for for Kansas City, especially heading into the big series against Cleveland at home on Monday.

Paul Hoynes 1:23 Yeah, definitely. You know, past Quintino of the Cleveland had done a great job against him until the last game of the series, when he what went four for five with a home run. So he was just heating up and to lose past contino after they basically lost them all last year. So that’s a big blow in Ursa got hurt as well, Joe, right?

Joe Noga 1:46 Yeah. Austin came out of the game as well the the ball that DS hit up the middle hit Herzig in the bare hand and is the probably why his throw wasn’t as accurate as it could have been. And in in the same play that passed, Mattino comes off the field. Then Erceg is is out of the game as well, and he had been, you know, up until. The the game on Wednesday, when he sort of gave away the the lead for for the Royals against Cleveland. He had been pretty lights out since joining the Royals.

Paul Hoynes 2:20 Yeah, that gave him, you know, kind of a 1-2 punch at at closer with James McArthur and and Nursig really helped their bullpen turn that bullpen into really a strong point for this club. So you know the the Royals have to keep their fingers crossed here that he’s OK. It’s bad enough losing past Quintino, but now if you lose ersek as well, that’s a that’s a double shot that you, you know, no team needs. Especially A-Team trying to catch the guardians. Uh, going down the stretch and and when a division?

Joe Noga 2:56 Yeah, past quintino’s uh, 97 RBI’s lead the Royals and ranked 4th in all of baseball behind Aaron Judge, Jose Ramirez and Marcel Ozuna. So you know a big reason why the Royals have been successful at scoring runs, and especially since the All-Star break. But you go back to earlier in that series the the Tuesday night game against Cleveland, the Guardians or the the Royals lose Michael Lorenzen as well. He’s on the the injured list with a a sore left hamstring. So, uh, some of the issues that have been biting the uh, the guardians throughout the season now seem to be popping up and and and biting the Royals as well.

Paul Hoynes 3:41 Yeah, especially, you know, Lorenzen and nursing are two, two deadline additions deadline the deadline trade additions. So you lose those guys right away as similar to Cleveland losing Alex Cobb with the fingernail. And really, having lane Thomas being non factor with the bat.

Joe Noga 4:04 Yeah, it’s uh. You know, one of the the big things that uh happened at that trade deadline when when the Guardians acquired lane Thomas, they thought, oh, well, this could be a, a, A guy who can, you know, produce an, you know, extend that lineup and hasn’t really happened. Hasn’t really turned out that way, but you know, all things being equal is sort of levels the playing field. All these trade deadline additions. Uh, you know, not being available now or not producing sort of makes it. You know you’re back to square one between the Royals and the Guardians, and and now the, you know, we’ll see who the best team is down the stretch. These last 28 games.

Paul Hoynes 4:44 Yeah, it’s, uh, you know, dance with. Who brought you? Right. You’re gonna go with the 26 guys and in the locker room like Chris Antonetti has said time after time.

Joe Noga 4:47 It’s.

Paul Hoynes 4:53 And you know, it’s going to be a. It’s. I’m. I’m excited to see how this thing unfolds, Joe. I mean, you know that those three games in Kansas City next at the start of next week are going to be huge and you know, both teams have kind of a little tough, tough stretch going down right now tough. Six game stretch. You know, Kansas City has is playing Houston right now. Then they got Cleveland. Then they get the twins and Cleveland, you know, as Pittsburgh this weekend. Then they go to Kansas City and then to the Dodgers. So nothing gets easier for these two clubs.

Joe Noga 5:32 No, and I think God don’t. The Royals play the the Yankees coming up as well. So you know, there’s a another couple of of games there that that could, you know, depending on how they go, could benefit the guardians. And in a number of ways. Uh, you wanna get ahead of ourselves a little bit, but you know, it doesn’t hurt to mention the magic numbers, the elimination number for Kansas City or for Cleveland. It’s the. It’s 163 minus the number of total wins for your team, minus the total number of losses for the team that you’re trying to, you know, put away here and the magic number right now with 28 games to play for, Cleveland is 27. I know it seems a little high right now, but you know, head-to-head matchups can make that number move. You know a lot. So it we’ll get three of those next week in Kansas City and as well you can also calculate the uh the number to clinch a playoff spot. Uh, the magic number to clinch a playoff spot between Cleveland and the team that’s closest to, but out of the wild card race right now. And that’s Boston. So the number of losses for Boston plus the number of wins for Cleveland -163 and that’s 21. So you’re looking at a magic number to clinch the postseason for Cleveland of 21, it seems like they’ll probably do that before if they, you know, if they’re getting close to the the division there. So you know it’s the time of year when you start looking at the scoreboards from the out of town games and we start writing them in the leads to our stories just because it’s important to know what the other teams are doing. And as we go into this weekend series against Pittsburgh, one eye is going to be on the game that’s in Houston tonight.

Paul Hoynes 7:33 Yeah. Scoreboard watching time Joe and the best time of the year. The most, uh kind of aggravating tension filled time of the year. It if you’re baseball fan, it keeps you on your toes. It keeps you up at night and it keep and it and it ruins your sleep because you’re getting up in the middle of the night to check the standings in the box scores.

Joe Noga 7:55 Well, and you know, we mentioned this the other day on the podcast. Uh, just it it’s been a while since we’ve had, you know, an every night sort of Pennant race back and forth like this. And when the Guardians have clinched a postseason spot, they’ve they’ve done so relatively early. I remember back was at the COVID year in 2020. It was pretty late in the year when Jose Ramirez hit that home running in Chicago. That that sort of flipped things and and and put Cleveland in the postseason. So, you know, exciting times like that will, uh, we’ll have those coming up here pretty, pretty shortly. Uh, what?

Paul Hoynes 8:32 Yeah, yeah, Joe. And just seek remember 1948, the last time they won the World Series, you know, they had to go to a, A, a playoff game to be the to a tiebreaker at the end of the season with Boston to decide who’s going to the World Series. There were no playoff rounds then.

Joe Noga 8:49 Yeah, the 163rd game, right, that, that, that, you know, there haven’t been too. Too many of those and and sadly, there will never be one of those again because of the changes that MLB made when they expanded the playoffs. Now if you know after 162 games, if you’re tied, there’s a series of tiebreakers that, you know, it’ll go to winning percentages or whatever down the line because they can’t play it because the time window is. So crunch now with the the, the playoff schedule, they they can’t afford to play a A 163rd game and and wait to start the playoffs. The playoff schedule is if for this year is even already set. So you know that’s a difference between, you know, 1948 and now I guess there will be no 163rd game no matter what.

Paul Hoynes 9:41 Yeah, it’s a coin flip. And let’s go, you know, and you can debate it all you want. Umm, you know the the the drama of the one game playoff versus you know, the three game, a wildcard arrangement I you know to me basically I I like the three the three game Wild card arrangement it gives you I think it’s more fair to a team that kind of fights you 162 games gets into the postseason but the Joe Joe what how would you have felt covering that 1948 gaming you you you in the regular season tide you gotta take a train to Boston and play at Fenway the Guardians I mean the Indians won it. Eight to three. They wanted going away, but wow. What? What? You know, he he couldn’t have gotten more more tense.

Joe Noga 10:36 Yeah, that you work all season to make it to the playoffs. You you would expect a, you know, like A at least a minimum. At least a two games that you know you’re gonna be out there or whatever it’s, you know, to go out there for one game. And if you’re Boston to get blown out and have your season end like that, I guess that’s kind of stinks. But I can’t imagine travelling by train that could you. Now, what a nightmare that would have been easy just to get out there, that the no, I not doing it. I already had my my Boston travel experience this year and it was it was rather made rather unpleasant by the Boston Marathon. So we’ll we’ll just skip on ahead of that. I want to remind our listeners, guardian subtext is the best way to get updates throughout this playoff run throughout this stretch run. As we get closer and and watching the scoreboard and getting updates that way, we we send text messages directly to our subscribers. They send us questions, they send us their thoughts on, you know what they think the roster should look like and and. And we have a nice nice exchange. The It’s 399 a month to subscribe and you can join by going to cleveland.com/subtext or sending a text message to 216-208-4346. Points to the Guardians are the the subvectors, the Subtextures all want to see Kyle Manzardo up in the IT with the Big league club. What’s the latest on manzardo and what’s what he’s doing down with AAA?

Paul Hoynes 12:13 Yeah, Joe Manzardo definitely was the People’s Choice. You know? I asked our subtext. Hers. You know who they’d like to see called up Sunday when the rosters expand by two players. Manzardo was named on almost every ballot cast. Uh, why? I shouldn’t say that. He he he, you know he received 1818 mentions on the 40 ballots passed a cast that should say Andrew Walters was next and Manzardo I don’t think he he knew about the subtanks Joe I don’t think he knew about this vote unless he’s subscribed and I don’t know but you know he went out and went three for five with two RBI’s and had two run Homer in the 9th inning last night they’ll be Gwinnett 5:00 to 4:00 so you know he’s on A roll that was his 20th home run. Umm he is. You know, we obviously he was up before, you know, in in May. Did you know we we really didn’t see that kind of power. He’s showing a AAA, so it it’ll be interesting to see, you know, if he’s one of the guys they call up Joe or or, you know, eventually gets another shot at sometime in September.

Joe Noga 13:18 Umm. Yeah. Who loses at bats when manzardo? When and if Manzardo does come up in September.

Paul Hoynes 13:33 But I think Fry would obviously lose some at bats. You know you would have to. Uh. I mean kind of, you know, the way we thought it would work when men’s out of first called up, we thought, you know, this would give, you know, Josh Naylor, a a break at at first he could DH, but it really didn’t work that way. You know, Naylor stated at first base and manzardo kind of rotated in at at at DH and I.

Joe Noga 14:00 You’re saying you’re you’re you’re saying it nicely. Josh Naylor wouldn’t let Kyle Manzardo play first base. Jeff Josh Naylor was the guy out there at first base and to keep Josh Naylor happy, they kept they. They never put Kyle Manzardo out there. I mean, you could say he was not ready to play their defensively, but to not even give him a chance. I mean that was kind of kind of crazy.

Paul Hoynes 14:22 Yeah, that was really. You know, I, you know, I I credit the Cleveland organization for the way they handle young players and bringing up young players and using them, but I thought they would. They missed the boat on a manzardo. I don’t think we got to see the real player when he was up here just because they never let him play first base and I think it’s really hard for a 23 year old kid to just DH strictly, you know, he’s he played a little first base at the end of some games, but that was about it.

Joe Noga 14:43 Yeah.

Paul Hoynes 14:52 And you know, we we really never got to look at him is can he play first base or can he Joe, I mean you know, I thought he did a pretty good job in spring training.

Joe Noga 14:58 Yeah.

Paul Hoynes 15:02 So you know, hopefully if he comes back up, if he gets another shot, they they let him play his position.

Joe Noga 15:08 Yeah. I’m just saying, uh, I I understand if you Josh Naylor, I understand you wanna be out there. You wanna be an everyday player and that’s your spot and and and that’s it and all that. But you know we we’ve seen what? Giving Josh Naylor a couple of days arrest can can do. We’ve seen him come out hot after a three day break against in that series and against Philadelphia. So you know, again a time off your feet can help you. That’s it’s always a a good thing. So if they can find a way down this stretch, run to to make sure everybody’s happy and healthy and rested up, that’s that. That’s pretty big hoynsie the you talked about manzardo. You talked about Andrew Walters, you know Chris Antonetti is said. They’re going to probably bring up or has sort of indicated I guess not has come out and said that they’re gonna bring up a position player and a pitcher. So that’s those would be two prime candidates. Uh, if, if, if Walters is in the bullpen, you know, where does he sort of slide in? Where do you think that they would, you know, maybe pitch him? Obviously not. You know, high leverage right out the gate.

Paul Hoynes 16:23 Yeah. You know, I think you you can go with the a 14 man staff after September 1st. You know one over the 13 man limit. So I think you could work him in Joe, like like you said, maybe give him a, you know, have him go into some non leverage situations. You know six 7th inning, maybe even, you know if a starter gets knocked out early, bring them in that way and just let them ease them in. You know he’s 6 for six and save situations, I think 198. The batting average against little. Some control issues, you know he’s, you know, he’s walked a few too many people, but he’s got great stuff. Joe, from talking to the Guardians pitching people, they like them and you know, I would not be surprised if he gets a chance, you know, just kind of make his MLB debut, going down the stretch here.

Joe Noga 17:15 Sunday would be the day of September 1st, when the the the rosters expand uh by two players. So we’ll see if those moves are made Sunday morning prior to the game. This weekend, the Guardians host Pittsburgh. No, no. Paul schemes we won’t be seeing the rookie phenom pitcher for the the Pirates, but again, this is a team that you can’t really sleep on. They’ve got some, some young, talented players all over the field and you know, you think about AI. I believe they’ve moved Oneil Cruz to to center field. He’s he’s played out there a little bit now and I saw a highlight of him. His first flyball? That he caught in center field. He he had them authenticate the ball. He took the ball out of play and had them authenticated because you wanted to save it. So you know this is a guy.

Paul Hoynes 18:06 What he was, was he surprised he caught it?

Joe Noga 18:08 I don’t know. No, you didn’t look surprised. He caught it. He was just like he he he was real eager for them to, to make sure that they got the ball and and had the authenticator put the sticker on it and all that. So he was a short star, is a short stop. You know, just an athlete that you can put all over the field and a guy who is dangerous at the plate. So what do you see from the Pirates and Derek Shelton as they come in?

Paul Hoynes 18:35 Yeah, LED la Cruz. That kind of reminds you know, O’Neill Cruz reminds me of LA de la Cruz. You know from the Reds. He’s he’s built along the same lines. He’s got a great arm. He can run like the wind, you know, an exciting player, for sure. Joe. It’ll be interesting to see how he takes to a senator field. You know, like you’re saying this is a. This is a classic trap series to me. You know, just coming off that tough series against the Royals, you know they’ve they’ve managed to keep their nose above water with one win out of out of four games, and now you’re you. You’ve gone through that really tough stretch sense. The All-Star break now you’re looking at the, you know, the last place pirates. And if they sleep on the pirates, Joe. Shame on them.

Joe Noga 19:22 Yeah, it it. It could be, uh, you know, an opportunity that you don’t wanna pass up right now. Ben Lively, Matthew Boyd and an open spot on Sunday to be determined. Uh, it could be Alex Cobb coming back off the 15 day injured list. Obviously some moves will be made Saturday. I’m. I’m sorry Sunday morning. So we’ll keep an eye on that. The Pirates will throw Bailey. Falter. Who’s six and seven, 425 ERA. He’s a lefty. Luis Ortiz, right hander five and four with a 336 ERA and Mitch Keller, 11 and eight with a 3.84 ERA. Those are the opposing pictures lined up for that series. Hey, before we go, just wanted a quick mention. Uh, the I gotta love this show hotani in the middle of, you know, a 4040 season 40. He’s he’s going for 5050. I mean this could be an all time record. I mean, he’s pretty much got the the National League MVP locked up. You know, judge going for 60 three home runs. Has the the American League MVP locked up? But did you see Shohei Otani’s dog throw out the first pitch at the Dodge? This is, you know, I’m going to LA, you know, this time next week, I’ll be in LA and what kind of wacky doodles are out there?

Paul Hoynes 20:46 That.

Joe Noga 20:50 They’ve got dogs throwing out the first pitch shaohao townies dog who, you know, when he was during the off season. You know, you know, waiting to to see where he would end up, where he would land, what team he would would sign his free agent contract with. They thought they had an indication with his his dog. What’s his dog’s name? It’s a decoy.

Paul Hoynes 21:11 The decoy decoy, yeah.

Joe Noga 21:12 Dog’s name is decoy and and he goes out there. I mean, LA people are just weird. Come on. The dog throwing out the first pitch points with your dog ever throw out a first pitch?

Paul Hoynes 21:22 My dog would, if that was my dog Ali, she would have just sat there on the mound and looked at me and said, where’s my treat? You know, I would have had to go out to her to get her the ball and then then lead her back to home plate.

Joe Noga 21:30 There you go.

Paul Hoynes 21:35 But you know, Tony did a great job with that dog. The dog, you know, he gave her a hand. Signal the dog picked up the ball, then try to write in and and gave him the ball, then gave him a high 5 and Joe before the game. There were thousands of people. You know how big the lot the parking lot is at Dodger Stadium?

Joe Noga 21:54 Mm-hmm.

Paul Hoynes 21:55 The the the parking lot was filled with people, you know, they had come there like hours early because they were trying to get a show. Hey Ohtani bobblehead with the holding the dog.

Joe Noga 22:05 Ohh my goodness.

Paul Hoynes 22:06 So yeah, what’s? It was quite a day for quite a day for Ohtani and decoy and the Dodgers, and I think Ohtani hit a home run his first at bat.

Joe Noga 22:16 Yeah, I I just La La people are just so weird. Kind of on and that’s just, that’s a bit much I you know, you know me. I’m not a dog person. I’m not, you know, the biggest the the cute ones that don’t smell are are alright, but the big but the big ones that drew on you are my favorite. So I I don’t know, I hoynsie maybe maybe if you wanted Ali to throw out the first pitch, you know? Milk. Bone underpants. I think that’s probably the the best way to go, but yeah, I just.

Paul Hoynes 22:43 Yeah.

Joe Noga 22:49 I thought it was kind of weird in the middle of your, you know, your going for a 5050 season, never been done before. Historic and and you got your dog out there throwing out the first pitch I.

Paul Hoynes 23:00 That was great though, though you think of that the dog did that in front of like there had to be 50,000 people in the stands.

Joe Noga 23:07 .7 hundred, $700 million can buy you the finest dog trainers in all the Kingdom. I I promise you that it’s nothing. That’s Ohio. Tony did. I’m. I’m I’m sure of it.

Paul Hoynes 23:18 But he gave her, you know, he had a train. He gave her a treat right after she did that or I don’t know if it’s a year.

Joe Noga 23:20 Uh, hang on cheese.

Paul Hoynes 23:24 She. But it was just that was cool.

Joe Noga 23:27 Yes, there you go. Alright, that’s gonna wrap up today’s edition of the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast. We will be back on. Well, let’s see. I got travel day on Monday to get to Kansas City. We’ll see if we can get a podcast in before the the 4:00 start there on Labor Day. Probably gonna have to wait until Tuesday, so we’ll check in from Kansas City next week. Lindsay, we’ll talk to you then.

Paul Hoynes 23:52 Good deal, Joe.

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