Guardians Baseball Insider

Quality of Opposition (QoO) numbers per Baseball Reference

ATHLETICS PITCHERS (PROJECTIONS PER FanGraphs)

Chris Bassitt (1st-part of 4th innings): MLB ace
Reymin Guduan (finished 4th inning): Triple-A reliever
Yusmeiro Petit (5th inning): MLB middle reliever
Adam kolarek (6th inning): MLB middle reliever
Matt Blackham (7th inning): Triple-A reliever
Nik Turley (8th inning): MLB middle reliever

STARTERS

Jake Bauers (1B): 1-3, 1 R, 1 2B,1 K – Bauers’ line drive double to right, his second of the spring, in the second inning was the highlight of his afternoon as he continues to fight Bobby Bradley for the starting first baseman job.

Oscar Mercado (CF): 1-3, 1 2B, 1 K – Mercado doubled off of Bassitt to lead off the bottom of the third in his last game before the center field battle is joined by Amed Rosario. The erstwhile shortstop is expected to play the position for the first time in an “A” game today versus the Angels in Tempe.

RESERVES

Owen Miller (2B): 0-1 – Miller’s spring OPS is now down to .364 against 4.5 QoO pitching after lining out to left for the middle out of the eighth.

Harold Ramirez (LF): 0-2 – Ramirez’s Indians career-opening hitless streak has extended to five at-bats.

Yu Chang (3B): 0-1, 1 K, 1 E – A rough day both at the plate and in the field for Chang.

Daniel Johnson (RF): 0-0, 1 R, 1 BB – Johnson. whose 1.246 OPS includes a .538 ISO and has come against Triple-A pitching on average (7.9), didn’t have an official at-bat on Monday, but did score his fourth run in 15 plate appearances this spring after being walked by Turley.

Tyler Freeman (PR-SS): 1-1, 1 R – Freeman followed Johnson in the eighth and singled to load the bases. Tyler, like Johnson, has an impressive OPS (1.278), but has done it with more contact (.444 AVG) and against a lesser caliber of pitchers (5.9 – between Double-A and High-A). He did prove he can hit MLB pitchers as well with yesterday’s base hit, however.

Connor Marabell (1B): 1-1, 2 RBI – Marabell has struggled (.489 OPS) against Single-A pitching (4.6 on average), but got a clutch single off of Turley to give the Tribe a pair of insurance runs.

PITCHERS

Kyle Nelson: H (2), 0.1 IP, perfect. 1 K – Nelson, whose Monday outing counts towards official preseason statistics unlike his previous mop-up effort on Saturday, got the Indians out of another inning gone horribly wrong. This time by striking out Oakland pinch hitter Austin Allen (projected Triple-A catcher) swinging to end the seventh after veteran invitee D.J. Johnson walked the bases loaded. Yes, there were umpires present this time.

Trevor Stephan: H (1), 1 IP, perfect, 2 K – While it was against a trio of Triple-A projectees, Stephan’s perfect eight can only help push the Indians towards keeping him in the Cleveland bullpen rather than offering him back to the Yankees.