Welcome to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Guardians Radio network. Guardians Weekly is brought to you by Progressive helping Guardians fans save hundreds on car insurance. Hi, everyone, welcome to Guardians Weekly. Jim Rosen House along with you from Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. This weekend, the Guardian's taking on the Phillies in Philadelphia for the first time since the twenty sixteen season. It has been a while and it
gets started on an upbeat note on Friday night. More on that in a moment, but just to let you know. Coming up on our show this week, Rob Serfolio will join us. He's the director of player development for the Guardians. We'll talk about Travis Bozana's professional debut. It came on Friday night as The Guardian's Farm Club Lake County was
in Michigan and Bazana got his pro career started. And robill Phillis in on the run up to that as highly anticipated the first overall pick in the draft, getting it going. Kate Smith will stop by as well. Outstanding reliever for the Guardians, Kai Correa, who is the field coordinator for the Guardians, part of that major league coaching staff. He is a defensive specialist who has really helped the Guardians step up their game defensively. He'll talk defense with
us and he always fun. Austin Hedges will swing by as well. We'll talk to him about a squeeze bunt that he put down in a gamer this week against the Tigers. But first our weekend review. The Tigers were in town starting on Monday night and it was an
eight to two lost to Detroit. The Guardians had dropped three out of four coming out of the All Star Break, looking to turn things around on Tuesday night, and they got the scoring started in the third inning with Stephen Kwan leading things off the pitch a swing in a drive high and deep to right back toward the wall. Perez, It is gone and Steven Kwan has put Cleveland on top one nothing. He got into a hitters count at three and one and he got a fastball middle in.
And that's the new approach, and it's been that way from the get go this season. Get in a hitters count, look to get a pitch and try to do damage. And Stephen Kwan, who had six home runs last year, hits his tenth Detroit respawnded in the top half of the fourth with a two run home run that gave them a two to one lead, but in the bottom of the inning, John Kenzie Noel tied things up. The right hander delivers in Noel Sky's one high and deep
to left. If it's fair, it's way on out of here, and it is indeed a fair ball mammoth home run off the bat of John Kenzie Noel. Oh my, that ball was hit a ton As he crosses home plate and the game is tied to two? Is there ever a doubt when John Kenzie Noel hits one? My goodness? And in the fifth, the home run barrage continued with Jose Ramirez. Here comes the one two pitch swung on and that's lifted high and deep left field. How Rod Jose Ramirez two. The Guardians are in front, three to two.
Jose Ramirez with home run number twenty four on the season, and he snaps the two all tie here in the fifth. The Guardians made it forty two in the sixth inning on a sack fly from on Hew Martinez, and then Jose Ramirez continued to add to his team leading RBI total on the two to one swing on line drive Pase hitting all right, feeling by Perez, throw to the plate steaming is sliding in safely thrown a second pit, first slide safest Ramiez. Guardians lead it five to two.
Tigers pitched to Jose. Tigers get burned again and the Guardians get a huge two out Army I single by Jose Ramirez. He's knocked in a pair tonight, eighty two on the year. But Detroit would not go quiet. They scored two in the seventh that made it a one run game, five to four. Scott Barlow shut down the Tigers in the eighth, and then Emmanuel Classe was on to try and save it. In the ninth. The sent the pitch swinging a high fly ball fairly deep bright
no well in front of the track. Makes the Cats Bowl game and the Guardians get a much needed win five to four over the Detroit Tigers. As he manual Class A for the third year in a row has at least thirty saves, and the Guardians no at a minimum they'll have a four game lead when they wake up tomorrow morning. Five to four. Cleveland subdues Detroit here tonight, how the Guardians were back on the winning track, looking to make it too straight on Wednesday night against Detroit.
Good pitching matchup in this one, and it lived up to the advanced bill John Flaherty for the Tigers. For the Guardians, it was Tanner Biby and Detroit jumped on top with a solo home run in the first inning by Matt Erling, but Bibby brushed that off and he was locked in after that. The kick and delivery and he sends one toward the gamp in Life Center on the line. Kuan reaches up and snags the line drive. Kwan made the play on every ball hit in the
air well. Tanner Biby had an eight pitch second inning, a nine pitch third inning, thirty one pitches for Tanner Biby in the first three innings tonight. It stayed one nothing Detroit until the fifth. That's when the Guardians got it going with a two out base hit from bow Naylor. He moved up to second on a pass ball, and then Stephen Kwan delivered to tie the game. Here's the two to one swung on line drive base It left field,
rounding third, heading for home is Nailer. He will score and the ball that gets past the catcher cut comes up big as the Guardians are able to tie the game on the base it from Stephen Kuan Naylor moved up on what was called a wild pitch and he was in scoring position for Kwan, who's been up well over three hundred with men in scoring position all season long,
and he comes through again to tie the game. Meanwhile, Biby was cruising, giving up just the one run through five innings, but he had to leave prior to the start of the sixth. He had some cramping in his legs, so that was it. But the Guardians were able to turn it over to baseball's best bullpen. Scott Barlow and Tim Herron combined to shut down the Tigers in the sixth and seventh, and then it was Hunter Gaddis in the eighth. The two to two get him swinging in
a hundred. Gaddis continues this dominant bullpen's performance, strangs out
the side. We go to the bottom of the eighth, We've got a one one game, and in the bottom of the eighth inning, bo Naylor worked to lead off walk stole second, moved up to third on a ground out by on Hell Martinez, and then with two outs his brother Josh was trying to put the Guardians in front one one in the eighth Guardians at the corners, two down the three to zero pitch to Nailor, a swing and a chopper up the middle to his right cheeth, can't get it, balls off his club, ticks in the
right center in the scores. Nailer on his way to third, Ramirez and the Guardians half the lead two to one. He bounced one back up the middle that Colt Keith, the second maseman, moved toward the bag, tried the backhand and Keith had to go off the tip of his glove and it's an Army I single for Nailor. Once again, it was a Manuel Classe in the ninth innning, looking to add to his league leading save total. The pitch swung out, chopper to short Rochio, backhands, thrust, second bulging
and the Guardians win a tough one. Again tonight against Detroit, Boy, what a season series this has been between these two ball clubs. The final the night Cleveland two Detroit one has been unbelievable. And more on his week in a moment. Thursday, though, an afternoon game against the Tigers had progressive field big crowd, but the Guardians couldn't get anything going and the Tigers
won it by a three to nothing final. So it was on to Philadelphia to start a challenging road trip against the team with the best record in all of baseball. The Philadelphia Phillies and the Guardians got things started in the first inning, taking advantage of a Phillies defensive miscue that put on hell Martinez in scoring position for David Fry.
Now the set they'll look back at second. The bitch swung on lined up the middle basin in the center, that is going to score Martinez, and the Guardians tank the on the David Fry two out RBI single to center, and this inning that should have been a one two three inning if you count the pickoff that wasn't handled, now ends up being one nothing. Cleveland on the mound. Ben Lively was sharp early. Ben Lively from the set.
Here it comes swung on and another little lazy pop up shallow center and the shortstop Parochio puts it away. Boy Lively has really done a great job keeping people off balance and hitting off that front foot. Then in the fourth, more sloppy defense from Philadelphia set the Guardians up with one out and runners on the corners for Bow Naylor. Naylor shows bunt and he bunts it out to the first base side. Here comes h Menez, head first slide and he's in there.
Uh.
Bow Naylor got the bunt down on the squeeze and the Guardians lead it to nothing. I've seen that a couple of times recently, and Naylor did great work to get it down. How about that Later in the inning, two men out, on hell Martinez delivered a clutch base hit. Here's the one one and Martinez rips it to left that gets down for a base hit, rounding third, heading
for home and scoring. Standing up is Rochio. It's an RBI single for on Hell Martinez and the Guardians take a three nothing lead, and that young man is now two for two and continues to impress on hell Martinez. The Phillies got on the board on a solo home run, and that was in the fifth inning to make it three to one. But Lively's impressive out and continued after that. The pitch swinging a chopper in the whole right side,
snagging it in shallow right. Jumana spins throws in the second basement with another nifty play to get Brandon Marsh. Philly has to be flustered. They just can't get a ball by andrac Is at second base. And Cleveland through six, not only do they have a three to one lead over Philly, they got six innings out of Ben Lively against this juggernaut of a lineup. And in the ninth, Class A came on once again to try and seal
another win. Class A brings the hands up, chin high, lets it fly swing in a miss ball game, and the Guardians start off a five game road trip before the trade deadline with an impressive three to one win here in Philadelphia. So it turns out to be a pretty good week for the Guardians heading into Saturday nights game in Philadelphia a six zero five first pitch, and Sunday the series in Philly concludes with a one thirty five start. Stay with us when we come back, we'll
hear from veteran catcher Austin Hedges. That's next as we continue on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
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Driving Austin Hedges batting one forty one with a Homer nine rby eyes the pits, he bunts at third Bay side, the beauty charge by Barely Clothes has no play a fut single well the faces loaded two down. Talk about an intelligent play and what a butt by Hedges. Welcome back to Guardian Weekly. Jim rosen House along with you. We're in Philadelphia this weekend as the Guardians take on the Phillies, the team with the best record in all of baseball, but coming out of the All Star Break,
Guardians looking for a spark. They've struggled a little bit as they dropped the series against the Padres, and then Monday, an eight to two series opening loss to the Tigers made it a rare three game losing streak for a Cleveland They rebounded though, winning the next two against the Tigers, and they wound up splitting that four game series. So, along with the Phillies, the Guardians are the only team in baseball now to still have not lost four games
in a row this season. Austin Hedges has provided that much needed veteran leadership in that backup catcher's role, and we caught up with him following Monday's loss to the Tigers and he talked about how the team has been able to stay positive even during some of the tough times.
Yeah, I mean it's obviously it's a long season, and it's really easy to make more out of something that when it when it really isn't you know, the adjustments in this game are not big adjustments. There's not some big complicated way to you know, win more games or not. And when you think about it too, like it's not really a it's not a team sport. When it's all
said and done, there's a team. There's team aspects to it, and there's a group that comes together, but it's up to each individual person in each moment to you know, no one's helping you in the batter's box, no one's helping you throw strikes on the mount, no one's helping you catch a ball on defense. But it's the special groups that are all being challenged at the same time that figure out a way to respond and then take ownership of it individually and make that adjustment themselves. And
that adjustment isn't necessarily a physical adjustment. It's a mental adjustment of accepting this is what happens in this game. It's a game of so many uncontrollable things, and I'm just going to focus on what I can control. And if I do that, and then my teammate does that, and my other teammates do that, we're going to be in our best position to win. And you know what, if you don't win, you still up tomorrow. There's a
reason we play one sixty two. But also like it's one sixty two with the intention of making the playoffs. Doesn't matter how you get to the playoffs. It might be when a division, maybe a wild card, none of that matters. He's got to get there, and it's really all about who gets hot at the right time, and it just doesn't matter if you're hot or cold in July.
So on the field last night, you had an opportunity and you came through a bunt base hit with two outs in the bases loaded. You never see that in Major League baseball. But does that kind of get back to your point of doing what you can do to help to help the team win, even if it might seem odd at the time.
Yeah, I mean, we just needed to push a run across in that situation. And I mean most of the time when the when the third basem's playing pretty far back, especially if I'm facing a good arm like obviously Scooble is one of the best arms in the league, and I just need to find a way to get on base and turn the lineup over back to Kwan.
So as this team looks ahead now and not a game tonight, you mentioned that the games keep coming regardless of how it goes tonight. What allows you to look at this team and say, hey, they're going to be just fine because they'll figure it out.
Because we're talking about it every day. This is you know, it's not like we talked about something yesterday or the day before. That's different. Every game that we lose, every game that doesn't go our way, we talk about it, you know, make ourselves aware of how we could have done better, and then really awareness is all you can have so that when that moment presents itself again, you can go, oh, I've been here before. This is the
response I need to have. This is how I can continue to go and not react in some crazy way that's gonna throw me off and then make me try and either do too much or too little instead of
just doing what's asked of me. And we're just going to continue to have those conversations, you know, before and after games and you know, you win, that's what you're trying to do, and if you lose, it's like, okay, another opportunity to learn from it, so that when October comes around, you know we're prepared to and win the ultimate test.
Always good to have you on. Great perspective, Thank you, thank you always. Great to have that good veteran perspective from Austin Hedges and great to have him on our show once again this week. Stay with us when we come back, we'll hear from reliever Cade Smith and coach Kayi Carrea. That's next on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
Welcome back to Guardians Weekly, Jim Rosenhouse, So long we do from Philadelphia this weekend where the Guardians are taking on the Phillies, and one of the keys to the series figures to be and it certainly was on Friday night. The work of the Guardian's bullpen the best in baseball ERA wise, and they've been getting it done with several key rookies, including Kate Smith, who is five and one on the year and after more shut out baseball on Friday Night, is era approaching two runs a game. He's
been lights out all year. We caught up with him earlier in the week and he says his rookie season has gone about it as well as he could have expected.
No, I think you can't speak enough to what the team's done. It's incredible to be a part of this team and be in the position we are and to be playing the caliber baseball that we have been, and especially to see you know, guys kind of buckle down, continue to grind and working away through a bit of a tough stretch, but have confidence that what we do day in and day out is going to keep us posision we are and you know, continue to bode well for us.
You don't really have a frame of reference on what the other side of it would be. But how has it helped you to be a part of a team that is playing winning baseball and doing all those things? You said?
Yeah, absolutely, I'm trying to soak in every minute of it and learn from the guys who've been here before and you know, enjoy what's special about the culture in the clubhouse here and really just soak it in, like there's you know, we don't want to take it for granted in any regard, but just you know, really have fun being a part of it.
You battle through spring training to make this club and you found out on the very last day that you could that you had made it. Has it been different than maybe you expected after having such a you know, up and down spring to try and get here and all that kind of stuff to finally get here, And has it been different at all?
I think you know, it goes for taking nothing for granted, right, Like I didn't expect to make the team out of camp, but just wanting to take things one day at a time. That's continued to be my mindset here is to take things one day at a time. What can we do today to win the game? How can I contribute to that? If my name is called, make sure I'm ready to go and do what I can whatever's asked of me.
Pitch quality. Have things improved over the course of the season noticeable to you and especially maybe compared to this time a year ago.
Well, it's certainly been a learning process a couple of years long since getting to the organization and learning to develop my slider, my splitter, and to get familiar with them and use them and always be you know, tinkering with them. So as part of a you know, a year long journey, and I'm hoping that that journey is going to continue.
What are some of the keys now in the second half is as I think everybody hitters, pictures alike, start to get a little more tired and the season wears on them a little bit.
Yeah, well, I think that, you know, seeing the importance of consistency just day in and day out, like showing up the field, get my work done, doing quality work, and knowing that what I do is, you know, what I can rely on in times of need, and then when I go out and compete, it's just operating at a subconscious level of you know what I've trained myself to do, that's what I can tap into.
And when you look at at the situations you're used in a lot of times, especially recently, it seems you've been coming on mid inning with men on base and doing some great work. There is there a key to that coming in and in key spots, not necessarily starting a clean inning.
No, I think it just goes as like what I said before, of being ready whenever my name is called, like doing whatever I can and make sure I'm ready at any situation, and when my name is called, to be ready to compete. That's what it comes out to like just to go out there compete, not worry about the situation, not worry about anything else, but just know that this is an opportunity. And you know I'm not gonna take for granted that I was giving this opportunity. How can I compete and helps team.
With teammates in the pen. Obviously it's a young ball club, but you have a Scott Barlow, you have an a manual class say, even though he's young, he's been around the block a little bit. Can you tap into them and are they helpful for you? For sure?
Each guy brings a unique personality to the bullpen and helps make it what it is and makes it what's so special about it. So all those guys are it's just a blast down there, like you know, the accountable, making sure like laugh, also like keeping the light, but also you know, creating a culture of doing good work where anybody's ready for when the name's called and making sure that we are ready to go, and you know, make sure that the bullpen is ready for when the dugout calls down and needs us.
Something we see every night in the game notes the Guardians have the top bullpen in baseball in terms of right do you guys notice that? And is that something that's talked about at all?
I think it's not something that guys are obsessing over at all. I don't think we're ignorant of it. But I think it goes to show that, like we have confidence in the way we do things, and we're going to continue to do things the way that we have done because we trust it.
It's been tremendous so far, for sure, Kate. Thanks Tom, for coming by, appreciate it, thank you. That's Kate Smith, a rookie on paper, but boy, you listen to him talking, it sounds like he's been in the league for a while and that's a big key when he's in those pressure spots late in games. Well, a big key for
the Guardians all year long has been tremendous defense. They have been at or near the top in team defense and most of the mets used to measure that sometimes not easy, but certainly it's well regarded that the Guardians
have played the good defense. Their field coordinator is Kai Korea, part of the Major League coaching staff, and he is a big reason why Young Ball Club is at or near the top in so many defensive categories with a lot of the drills that he has implemented for this team dating back to spring training, and he says he's extremely pleased with what the players have done to take to a new system.
Yeah, as a group, we're really really happy with the progress and all the credit ghosts of the guys in their buy in to kind of individually either improve certain areas that they needed to improve or expose themselves to the new position. So we're really really happy with what we've seen so far.
You mentioned buy in, and obviously you bring certain drills to the table that might be different from what they're used to and unusual to have that buy in, or just based on what you know of the players in this organization before we even returned, was it not surprising at all?
You know, I don't think it's as unusual as people think. Maybe it's unusual to what had been done at the major league level in this organization, but in actuality, these guys have been outsourcing their development since they were young players, Like the modern player is going to facilities and being screened and using technology and using information to aid their development.
And so all we've done here on the defensive side of the baseball is kind of uptick their exposure that those types of activities and evaluations that are defensive specific.
You lay that base in spring training, but then the season comes and I think in a lot of cases teams put that on the back burner for a variety of reasons, some I'm sure legitimate. But you've managed to keep it at least some form of it going. And how important is that during the course of a long season.
Yeah, you know, I think We're a firm believer in that room that oftentimes coaches at every level, whether they're coaching Lit league or you're coaching in the major leagues, you find yourself pulling your hair out after the game on a team related play and something that wasn't specific to the individual mechanics of a player, but awareness game state rose in responsibilities when multiple players touch the ball, and we here in Cleveland prescribe to the idea that
we don't want to be left complaining afterwards. We don't want to be reactionary. We want to kind of review those things ahead of time and give ourselves the best shot to be consistent throughout the course of a long season. And so that's why we're stuck with that work.
Versatility a big key for so many of your players. How much does that add to the complexity of everything When you have a Tyler Freeman played second on Monday night and he's been a center fielder most of the season, Where does that come into play?
Well, I think that's the big credit goes to the player development system that these guys are a product of. Although they haven't played some of these positions at the major league level this year, they've accumulated reps and reps and hours and tons of time with our player development staff through the course of their upper minor league careers, playing multiple positions, and so it's less unfamiliar when they're tasked to do that.
Here, Kay Correa joining us, and he has done great work on the defensive end as part of the Major league coaching staff, returning to the organization after some time in player development not too many seasons ago, and Kay, you have a great background as a defensive specialist in various venues. Travis Bisana picked first overall and was in town over the weekend and beyond working with you already, how did that work? Did he reach out to you, you reach out to him? How does that all evolve?
And what have you seen so far?
Yeah? Coincidentally enough, he called me within forty five minutes of getting picked to say, Hey, I'm ready to go.
To work, Like, let's go to work.
And so that's been so such a testament to his thought process and desire to get better. He's got the pedigree of a first overall pick, but he's got the drive of a late round pick. So it's been awesome to help with his onboarding and hand them off to our really quality instructors in player development.
And obviously his debut, we have no idea when that's coming. But this year's club trying to nail down a postseason birth and then there's still some work to do. What have you seen as they go through really their first difficult stretch one loss wise of the season.
Yeah, you know, I think one hundred and sixty two games is such a huge sample size, and so you're going to go through periods of difficulty, You're going to go through periods of extreme success, and none of them are really representative of what you are as a club. You are, you know, your body of work after the entire season, and so what I'm observing is whether we abort, whether we make drastic changes, whether we suddenly shift routines.
And the thing that I'm most proud of walking around the clubhouse every day is I see people preparing in the same way, preparing in the ways they did during hot streaks now during a little bit of a down, rougher stretch. And so that gives me confidence that who we've been over the course of four months is who we are and not who we've been over the course of two weeks.
Great stuff. Thanks a lot for coming by, appreciate.
It, Thank you for having me.
That's Kayi, Korea, Guardian's field coordinator, major League coaching staff for him after some time earlier in his career in player development for Cleveland. Stay with us when we come back. We'll talk player development at Lake County with Robsortfolio. He's the director of player development for the Guardians. And we'll hear from robnexton the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
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Welcome back to Guardian's Weekly Jim Rosenhause back with you for our final segment from Philadelphia, and while the team is here along with Director of player Development Rock Sortfolio, the Lake County Captains were in Michigan this weekend and on Friday night that meant the debut of number one pick in this year's draft, Travis Bizana. He got it going on Friday night, went zero for three, but drove in a run. Playing second base, he let off and picked up an RBI with a ground out, So a
pretty good debut for him. And Rob talked about what it means to be able to get Bizana's pro career started in a very short period of time after being drafted and then signed.
Yeah, well, first off, we've never had the one one before an organizational history, so in a lot of ways, that's that makes for a pretty cool moment. I hope we're not picking one one in the near future as well, But I think a huge credit goes to Travis. Right after Oregon State loss in the Super Regionals, he did everything he possibly could to stay game ready. That was
a thing that was really important for him. So he was, you know, really training hard up in Seattle at drive line, both physically, but then you know, especially on the offensive side, to be able to handle this transition quickly, that was a big goal of his. And you know, the last thing we want to do is put a player out there too early and you know, put injury risk higher than than we'd like. And so a huge credit goes
to him for coming in prepared. But you know, obviously, anytime you add a first round er right into the mix, it's it's really exciting. And obviously Travis's performance in his college career speaks for itself. And I think we're even more excited for the type of person and worker and teammate that he is and already has shown in Lake County to be able to to kind of integrate with that group really well the last week, and you know, we're certainly excited for tonight.
His first workouts were at Progressive Field. Why was that important you think to have him experience that.
Yeah, you know, I think the first one just even meeting some people in the organization, everyone from vote to hopefully some teammates that he'll have in the future, of guys already up here playing for our major league team. And then the other big emphasis there was, you know, like we were talking about, the signing processes is long, and these guys go through a lot of medical work and have their families in so really is just trying to take advantage of getting him ready to go play today.
And that started a week to ten days ago, and we didn't want to have him sitting around without doing baseball activity for multiple days. So it was just trying to take advantage of that time while he was in Cleveland going through a lot of the logistical things that need to be done for or someone making the transition in the draft.
So he debuts to what's the plan as he gets deeper into this thing? How much can you play him? And feel comfortable doing that.
Yeah, we're gonna you know, use all of our people on the ground and you know, the smart group that we have in our physical department, our sports science group to you know, really assess and adjust as we go.
We know, we feel pretty good he's gonna play seven innings tonight and in some capacity again on Sunday, and then we'll use all that information during the game during practice from a workload standpoint to make sure that we're progressing him intelligently in the next week, and so hopefully in general that looks like a little bit more gameplay as we get into early August, and then hopefully eventually up to a normal workload like any other player on that team.
Robs or Polio's joining us. We're talking Lake County. There's some others there too that are having good seasons. And on the position player front. Yeah, but catcher not too deep into his pro career, but making some noise Cooper Ingle tell us about him.
Yeah, you know, Coop's done an awesome job as a first year or in his first season, I should say so. Kid. We took at a Clemson last year and it's first off.
It's tough being a catcher, I think, you know, we've talked about that with with Bo and just you know, the developmental pace of that position oftentime is a little bit slower than others other positions on the field, with how much work they do to support the pitching and the amount of preparation that goes into that, and so really, you know, integrating Coop into all of those things that really matter to be successful at the highest level has been a huge emphasis of our work and his continued
you know, just refinement behind the plate with receiving, throwing, blocking, and and then he's done a tremendous job offensively for that team, been one of their best producers. And you know, we're excited to continue challenging him as the year goes on.
And a kid that we've talked about a couple of times this summer and he's still rolling. It sounds like Angel Henal an infielder that moves around a little bit.
Yeah, just a really talented young hitter here. Switch hitter has taken care of business from both sides of the plate, really has put in the work defensively. I think that's where you've seen some of his biggest growth over the last year is just how he's really attacked his routine and challenged himself to work on some of the gaps that holes that we saw in his game last year and start to really close those to hopefully be a
major league infielder one day. And he's continuing to grow and mature, Like just the amount of strength he's put on over the last one or two years has been really impressive for him to maintain his athleticism in that time and be able to impact both sides of the.
Ball on the mound early in the season we talked to you about he kind of took the nation by his storm a little bit, maybe because of his nickname, Matt tug Boat Wilkinson. And he got moved up pretty quick from Lynchburg to Lake County and now has settled into the grind, so to speak. And how's he handled this the High A transition and now deeper into the season.
Yeah, I mean, first off, just the biggest workload he's ever had in his career here over the longest period of time. So any first year starting pitcher kind of
goes through that physical battle throughout the year. And I think the cool thing with tug Boat is, you know, obviously he was dominating Low A and we were able to when he made that transition, really try and challenge him towards, Okay, the foundational elements of delivery and strike throwing he was doing at a high clip and now it's secondary and strike throwing across his whole arsenal and really commanding those pitches against a slightly better hitter and
high A while still managing that hard workload jump that goes from college player to first year professional as a starting pitcher, and he's continued to do a great job. You know, his fastball plays at an awesome clip and we're continuing to refine the rest of his pitches behind that.
And a young man who was working in relief at Lake County has since been bumped up to double a acron very recently, Magnus Ellerts. And how did he get that promotion? What did he do?
Yeah, you know, this is maybe a name that isn't on the top thirty prospects of Baseball America MLB, but you know, a guy that definitely deserves a shout out for just the performance that he's been able to put up the last two years. You know, last year in Lynchburg and Lake County and now Lake County and Akron.
You know, he made his debut earlier. I was actually there in person on Tuesday and throw the ball really well and just kind of has that mentality to pitch, you know, at the back end of games and really
go out there and compete and challenge hitters. And we're still continuing to try and push mag to you know, develop some of the soft skills around that of really preparing for hitters and taking care of his body and so that we can see some of those ninety seven ninety eight show up more frequently, because you know, when he's in the upper nineties, he's really a tough at bat.
That's Rapsortfolio, the director of player development for the Guardians, and that's going to do it for our show this week. Thanks as always to Brian Matse for helping to put together the show each and every week. We will join you next weekend from back home when the Guardians are taking on the Baltimore Orioles at Progressive Field. And until then, this is Jim Rosenhouse reminding you that you've been listening to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
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