The Cleveland Guardians! Known for their dominant pitching staff, the Guards have always developed great talent on the mound. At the start of the 2023 all-star break, Cleveland had three rookies in their starting rotation. Tanner Bibee, Logan Allen, and Gavin Williams have all had their moments so far in the big leagues. Unfortunately for the Guardians, pitching is not their problem. It’s their offense that needs to shape up.
CLE Is A Pitching Team!
Cleveland has produced a lot of the most recent Cy Young Award winners. Cory Kluber won it twice in Cleveland, Trevor Bauer would win it in Cincinnati, as well as Shane Bieber that same year. It is Safe to Say Cleveland knows pitching. Why Can they not figure out the hitting though? They have not drafted a big-shot hitter since Fransico Lindor back in 2011.
“Pitching and hitting both have their challenges,” said Rob Cerfolio, Guardians director of player development. “Hitting is a different skill set. It’s reaction vs. the pitcher, who is starting the action.
“You look at the makeup of our team right now. It’s no secret that we’re really young at the major league level. We’re really young at most of the minor-league levels as well. “I think the number of reps, especially as young hitters get to the higher levels, is really important.” as reported by Cleveland.com.
Look at the Cleveland Guardians’ five-time all-star, Jose Ramirez. He was not the hitter he is today when he made his debut in the show. It took Ramirez about 500 to 1,000 plate appearances to make the adjustment he needed to. The Jump from AAA to the Major Leagues is the biggest in the sport!
“Very rarely do you see a guy come out of the gate and be an MVP as a rookie. It just takes that many more reps, that many more trips around the sun, for lack of a better term, to see top-level pitching as a hitter to be able to make that adjustment.
Selling What They Do Best
Hitting is just a completely different game. If The Cleveland Guardians can not develop hitters they need to be using these great pitching prospects to bring in hitters from other teams. Whether that is via the trade or a hitter realizing that Cleveland’s staff could use his run support. Cleveland needs to be a seller in order to get the talent they need to compete, ANd their selling point is their pitching!