Guardians Baseball Insider

Lake County is 3-4 over their last seven games, 2nd in division.

The Lake County Captains went 3-4 over their last seven games, and are 11-8 so far this season. The top four teams in the High-A Central-East are all within 1.5 games of one another, and it will be interesting to see how this young and talented Captains team competes throughout the season. With five of the top ten youngest players in all of High-A East

Day-by-Day

5/18: W 10-6 vs. Great Lakes; W: Enright (1-0); L: Gamboa (0-2); SV: Kelly (3)
5/19: W 3-2 vs. Great Lakes; W: Herrin (1-0); L: Fink (0-3); SV: Gallagher (2)
5/20: L 3-5 vs. Great Lakes; W: Percival (1-0); L: Burgos (0-1); SV: Jimenez (1)
5/21: L 2-8 vs. Great Lakes; W: Vargas (1-2); L: Burns (0-1)
5/22: L 1-12 vs. Great Lakes; W: Malisheski (1-0); L: Turner (0-2)
5/23: W 4-3 vs. Great Lakes; W: Hickman (1-1); L: Beeter (0-1); SV: Janczak (1)
5/25: L 3-4 vs. West Michigan; W: Kirby (1-1); L: Gaddis (1-2); SV: Garcia (3)

Player of the Week

OF Will Brennan: 7-17, 3 2B, 3 RBI, 4 R, 2 BB, 1.134 OPS

Will Brennan has been Lake County’s best hitter so far this season, and he went on a torrid stretch over the last week. Manager Greg DiCenzo putting Brennan in the first and second spots in the lineup for a large majority of his plate appearances has worked well so far this season, as Brennan is second on the team in runs scored and is first in hits, extra base hits, on-base %, wOBA, and wRC+. Brennan was drafted by Cleveland in the 8th round of the 2019 MLB Draft, and is another contact-oriented hitter with a great approach at the plate in a farm system that is full of them. Brennan’s walk rate so far in his professional career is 10.6%, and his strikeout rate is 8.3%.

Who’s Hot

SP Mason Hickman: 1 GS, 5 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 7 SO, 2 BB, W

Hickman has had a great start to the season so far and continued to that with another good start. Hickman is one part in a trio of college pitchers at Lake County who were selected in the 2020 MLB Draft, and they all will most likely move quickly through the system due to the dominance that they have displayed so far this season.

RP Nathan Ocker: 2 G, 7 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 10 SO, 4 BB

Nathan Ocker is one of the Captains long relievers, and he racked up Ks during this last week’s games. Ocker was drafted in the 29th round of the 2019 MLB Draft by the Indians, and so far has a 2.93 ERA this season in his first stint of full season ball. Despite the high K rate, Ocker has also allowed a few hits and walked a lot of opponents, hence the 1.30 WHIP. It’ll be interesting to see how he fares during the rest of the season.

1B Joe Naranjo: 4-14, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 2 SO, 2 BB

Naranjo is the youngest player in High-A East, and while he has struggled a bit so far he hit for contact and got on base over the last week.

Who’s Not

The entire Lake County position player group sans Will Brennan and Joe Naranjo

Over the last week the Lake County offense has averaged 3.7 runs a game. They scored four or more runs in a game twice, and has scored three or less in the other five. Will Brennan was the only hitter over the last week to have an OPS over .750. A lot of MiLB teams are struggling to pitch and/or hit due to the long layoff because of the pandemic in combination with it being early in the year. The Captains going 3-4 despite an inept offense is a testament to the pitching staff’s ability. The inexperienced yet talented youth on the Captains position player group may lead to some inconsistencies when it comes to offensive production during the season as well.

Coming Up

5/26: @ West Michigan, 6:35 p.m.

5/27: @ West Michigan, 6:35 p.m.

5/28: @ West Michigan, 6:35 p.m.

5/29: @ West Michigan, 6:35 p.m.

5/30: @ West Michigan, 2:00 p.m.