Guardians Baseball Insider

Image: MiLB.com

\Quality of Opposition (QoO) numbers per Baseball Reference

ANGELS PITCHERS (PROJECTIONS PER FanGraphs)

Griffin Canning (1st-4th innings): MLB #5 starter
Jesse Chavez (started 5th inning): Triple-A reliever – did not record any outs yesterday
Ben Rowen (finished 5th inning): Triple-A reliever
Alex Claudio (6th inning): MLB middle reliever
Chris Rodriguez (7th inning): Double-A starter
Kyle Keller (8th-9th innings): Triple-A reliever

STARTERS

Amed Rosario (CF): 2-3, 1 R,1 K, 3 E – Rosario can hit, but if his fielding is going to be this bad (three errors leading to eight unearned runs), then he is going to have to start the season in Columbus to continue his adjustment to the outfield.

Bradley Zimmer (RF-CF): 1-3, 1 2B, 2 R, 1 BB, Picked Off 1 time – Zimmer entered yesterday with a .353/.421/.353 slash line against 8.2 (Triple-A) pitching and added his first extra-base hit of the spring off of another Triple-A hurler (Chavez) in the fifth.

Bobby Bradley (1B): 1-2, 1 R, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 SF – Bradley continued the parade of extra-base hits (seven in 21 plate appearances – one literally every three times at the plate) while keeping the strikeout rate down (three in 20 at-bats and only one in 13 AB in his last five games played).

Yu Chang (3B): 1-4, 1 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI – Chang’s homer (off of Chavez) was his fourth of the spring in 23 at-bats. Over half of his 1.213 OPS is his .636 ISO.

Owen Miller (2B): 2-4, 1 K – Miller’s first multi-hit game of the spring included singles against Canning and Rodriguez.

Tyler Freeman (SS): 2-3, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 BB – Freeman remained hot at the plate after entering yesterday with a 1.278 (now 1.405) OPS against 5.9 pitching.

RESERVES

Daniel Johnson (PH-RF): 0-2, 2 K – Johnson has now struck out five times in 17 plate appearances this spring.

Steven Kwan (CF): 0-1, 1 K – The “0-1” statline is becoming all too common for Kwan in the Valley of the Sun.

Connor Marabell (PH-DH): 0-1 – Marabell, who was hitting .125 against 4.6 pitching through Monday, flied out to center off of Keller.

Tyler Krieger (3B): 0-1,1 K – Krieger continues to see limited action as his strikeout yesterday came in only his seventh plate appearance in Arizona this March.

Alex Call (PR-LF): 0-1 – Call grounded out 4-3 to end the game and make it three 0-for-1 efforts in a row.

The following reserves did not make a plate appearance in yesterday’s game:

Richard Palacios (PR-2B): Did not post any stats as a pinch runner for Miller in the seventh. Made his major league spring debut yesterday.

Brayan Rocchio (SS): 2 E – Not a great day in the field for Rocchio as he committed his first two errors of the spring in his third game of the Cactus Campaign, all as a defensive replacement.

Bo Naylor (C): Bo’s 1.222 OPS against 6.3 pitching remained unchanged as all the Cactus-League action he saw yesterday was from behind the plate.

PITCHERS

Robert Broom: 0.2 IP, 1 H, 1 K, 1 HBP – Broom, in only his second outing of this spring and his third ever in a big league practice contest, came in to get the Indians out of a seventh marred by bad defense and a rough day on the mound for veteran invitee Blake Parker, who was facing one of his former teams.

Nick Sandlin: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 K – Despite giving up his first major league spring training hit to Triple-A projectee Kean Wong to lead off the bottom of the eighth, stop 3 of the Nick Sandlin Comeback Tour was another success in his first season of big league Cactusball.