Guardians Baseball Insider

Image: TCP Photography/Courtesy Lake County Captains

About three weeks in and the most consistent thing about the Lake County Captains is that they are averaging a rainout and a double-header per week. The Captains pitching staff, as expected, has managed to keep them in most games. There have been rare games where the pitching has made it tough. The young offense has run hot and cold. Hot starts by Petey Halpin and Gabriel Rodriguez have cooled, but Jhonkensy Noel is hitting for power and walking, and Joe Naranjo remains hot. The defense also ended up being the source of five unearned runs the past week at Great Lakes as well. Now the Captains are back at home to finish the month out against Lansing.

Day-by-Day

4/19/22: L – Great Lakes Loons 3, Lake County Captains 1
4/20/22: W – Lake County Captains 7, Great Lakes Loons 0
4/21/22: L – Great Lakes Loons 9, Lake County Captains 3
4/22/22: PPD
4/23/22: Game 1 – L – Great Lakes Loons 1, Lake County Captains 0; Game 2 – W – Lake County Captains 5, Great Lakes Loons 2
4/24/22: W – Lake County Captains 9, Great Lakes Loons 6
4/26/22: L – Lansing Lugnuts 3, Lake County Captains 1

Player of the Week

1B Joe Naranjo

5-18, 2 2B, HR, 6 RBI, 5BB/5K – .278/.458/.556

The most consistent hitter in the Captains lineup has been Naranjo. He’s moved to the top of the order with Petey Halpin and Christian Cairo handling those duties early on. He’s walking and hitting for power, so it’s a good, but interesting choice. He also scored a team high five runs last week, so four times he got on base and someone drove him in. He got on base 10 times throughout the week, so that was a good thing for this offense in a 3-4 week.

Who’s Hot

LHP Matt Turner

2G, 5IP, 2H, 2BB, 4K 

Turner continues to pitch some bulk innings in relief and he’s throwing strikes and keeping guys off the basepaths. His arm angle is pretty funky, so it seems to be hard to pick up his release and it makes his fastball play above its velocity.

RHP Gavin Williams

5IP, 2H, ER, 3BB, 7K

Williams only allowed a run in his lone start last week but took the loss because the Captains didn’t score. Still, he’s overpowering hitters with his fastball but also dropping in a nasty hook along with it. Who knows if there will be innings for him in Akron, but he surely could pitch there now and should soon, really.

3B Jhonkensy Noel

4-22, 3 HR, 6 RBI, 3BB/8K

Noel only hit .182 this week, but slugged .581, so that kind of qualifies as ‘hot’ at the dish. He’s walking more this year, and was striking out less, until this week. Still, he’s going to have to hit better than .182 most weeks. And his defense at third is a different story entirely.

Who’s Not

OF Petey Halpin

3-24, 2BB/8K, R, 2 SB/2SBA

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Halpin was going to hit some struggles. It’s probably one of the first or few times in his life that’s he’s playing in some cold weather and he is one of the youngest players in the league. You’d like to see the strikeouts get limited given his profile, but he did manage to swipe two bags in the few times he was on base.

RHP Tommy Mace

3.1IP, 6H, 6ER, HRA, HBP, 2BB, 2K

Mace started the season off with a rough start, then bounced back for a good one, and then struggled in his next start. Again, expected early inconsistencies for first time pros and Mace had his ups and downs in college. The stuff is good when he locates and is on. He just has missed spots and surrendered control issues.

Transactions

04/21/22: C Seth Caddell assigned to Lake County Captains from Akron RubberDucks
04/25/22: LHP Jaime Arias-Bautista assigned to Lake County Captains from Columbus Clippers
04/25/22: C Zac Fascia assigned to Lake County Captains from Columbus Clippers
04/26/22: C Seth Caddell assigned to Akron RubberDucks from Lake County Captains

On Deck

4/27: HOME vs. Lansing – 6:35
4/28: HOME vs. Lansing – 6:35
4/29: HOME vs. Lansing – 6:35
4/30: HOME vs. Lansing: 1
5/1: HOME vs. Lansing: 1

5/3-5/8 AWAY at Dayton