News and Notes: The Two Most Terrifying Words in Baseball - Elbow Discomfort

News and Notes for Monday, March 11th, 2024

Gavin Williams was throwing a weighted ball and experienced a twinge in the old throwing elbow. This is, of course, terrifying, but some of the Guardians Twitter folks who have worked with weighted ball programs aren’t alarmed, so take heart.

And cross your fingers.

The Guardians lost another Spring Training game, which, again, is meaningless. I will note that they’ve mostly looked like the same team that has to string singles together to score runs, so far, but it’s hard to say how indicative that is of their future performance. I’d generally say “It’s just Spring Training,” but that’s basically who they’ve been since Opening Day of 2021. Angel Martinez got another hit and a walk, this time against pitchers who will be on a major league roster. Gabriel Arias was sick (some nasty virus has nabbed Straw, David Fry and now Arias at Guardians camp) and didn’t play and Brayan Rocchio, again, did nothing. Myles Straw got an infield hit and then committed a TOOTBLAN to end all TOOTBLANs after Bo Naylor got a hard hit in the outfield. Straw rounded second and simply stood in the basepath like a nincompoop until he was tagged out. So, the plan to make him a baserunning weapon is going GREAT.

I don’t read much into 20 or so at-bats for anyone. But, it’s been disappointing to watch Arias, Rocchio and Straw. All three just seem like guys who think they have roster spots in hand and are going through the motions at the plate and running the bases. I hope, whether or not it actually affects the final decision, that they all three are feeling legitimate pressue from Martinez, Jose Tena, Juan Brito, Tyler Freeman and Estevan Florial. Florial went 0 for 3, again, but he is at least putting up better at-bats than he was at the beginning of camp.

Mandy Bell wrote about the Deyvison De Los Santos question for MLB.com. I’ve seen enough (not based on results but just observation) to know he’s not really ready to impact a major league team. I am a firm believer they need to return him to Arizona (if a trade to acquire his full rights isn’t possible). Jhonkensy Noel hit a double in yesterday’s game, and I just feel like we “already have De Los Santos at home” in Noel. The only difference is that De Los Santos can play third... and the Guardians don’t really need that.

Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com wrote about how Franco Aleman impressed the Guardians in his recent Spring Training save, and talks a little about roster battles here.

In case you missed it over the weekend, I reviewed the Guardians’ promotional events this coming season.

Triston McKenzie and Carlos Carrasco will pitch in the Guardians’ game today which are annoyingly pushed later to 4:05 PM EST because Arizona doesn’t do Daylight Savings Time (I like the 3:05 starts).