News and Notes: Down the Home Stretch to Opening Day They Come

News and Notes for Thursday, March 21st, 2024

The Guardians had an off-day Wednesday as they prepare their team for the last week of Spring Training before Opening Day in Oakland. They will face off against the Athletics’ Alex Wood, so expect the lefty-mashing lineup. Do we have one of those??

MLB.com’s Mandy Bell published a great story chronicling the game in which Guardians manager Stephen Vogt and pitcher Triston McKenzie faced off three times. Both showed a lot of humor and gave a lot of insight into how pitchers and hitters prepare to battle.

Did the split-fingered fastball injure Trevor Stephan’s elbow? Zack Meisel and other writers wrote about the pitch’s increase in use for the Athletic.

Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com offered a story on how Vogt and bench coach Craig Albernaz are preparing for the season.

In his podcast, Cleveland.com’s Terry Pluto said Deyvison De Los Santos will make the Opening Day roster. That’s probably my biggest open question about the roster currently, so it was interesting to hear his thoughts.

The Guardians will play the Rangers at 4:05 EST today, and Carlos Carrasco will get the start.

Meanwhile in MLB, a crazy story is unfolding with Shohei Ohtani and his interepreter, as apparently his interpreter had a four million dollar gambling debt that Ohtani either paid off or his interpreter stole money from him to pay off. Let’s just say few people are buying the “stole the money” story.

In other news, the Minnesota Twins are dealing with a rash of Spring Training injuries.

If you haven’t followed FanGraphs’ series on pitching and hitting visual primers, it is well worth your time.

Let’s hope we see some more sequences like this in the remaining Spring Training games: