Jhonkensy Noel personally ended the Cleveland Guardians slump with some heroics against the Rangers

Little Guardians for a set guys in today's Guardian segment is brought to us by fan. You've heard us talk a lot about Fanduel in the past. Well, it's America's number one sports book and we have something a little different for you guys right now. Starting today through September 22nd. All fanduel customers can bet $5 and get a three week free trial of NFL Sunday ticket from you youtube and youtube TV. Then with a youtube TV, base plan, you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon, out of market game. All you need is a Google account and a current form of payment and you can cancel anytime you want, just visit fanduel.com/u CS S and download America's number one sports book. The Guardians took two of three from the Rangers. Thanks in large part to John Kenzie Noel's power surge guys. He may not be perfect, but I would vote Jay H for president. I'm just telling you that right now. He would have my vote today. He's the most fun player to watch in the Guardians right now. And I know that's high praise because they have Jose and some other guys, but every time he's at the plate, it is. Must see. Did you see Saturday night when he scored easily? But he slid head first in the home plate because he's the best. I literally thought he was gonna start doing snow angels. He, he's just a kid playing a kid's game. It's great. They found them something about time. They found a power hitter. I used to tell people all the time, how can y'all find pitchers growing off trees? How can you find middle infielders? You got 96 of them. You can't find me a power right handed bat and they then slipped up and caught one of them by the way, let's not be talking about the man's batting average like he ain't back 268. That ain't like that ain't light. I'm still worried about him long term because he, his chase rate is crazy. And if he doesn't fix that in the off-season or over the next two off seasons, then he's gonna be in the brand, Neil Reyes and Oscar Gonzalez. I, I don't know why any pitcher would throw him a strike. I would not throw him a strike. If Jay was pitching, he'd be throwing it off the outside corner trying to get him to chase, but he's got prolific power. If you make a mistake to him, forget it. Saturday night pitcher made a mistake. His launch angle was like 35 or 36%. I mean, he's strong as an, they need it because they're not getting much power from anybody else these days. Although they did. Saturday was a, was a good sign. Um, you know, I, it was interesting, Ramirez and Naylor hit back to back bombs off a pitcher they had just brought into the game. He was a sidewinder. I can't remember who it was. He's been called up and sent down seven times this year. Who was it? I can't remember his name. Maybe something Hispanic, I can't remember, but he clearly isn't a major league pitcher. You know, they're bringing him up because they need to stretch innings and the Rangers are, you know, having an interesting season, Grant Anderson. Uh, no, I don't think it was Anderson, maybe seventh inning, eighth inning. Walter Pennington. I can't even map. Fester Dane Dunning, Jose leclerc. I can't even remember. He gave up the two home runs back with an Anderson Anderson and he threw two cookies and, and, and what do good hitters do they take cookies into the, into the stands? And so, you know, I was glad to see that we scored all the runs, but clearly, um, you're doing it against a AAA pitcher on, on those two counts. But gosh, J Kensey Noel II, I just hope he doesn't turn into the latest iteration of Oscar Mercado and Oscar Gonzalez and Fran Mil Reyes because it's a game of adjustments and his chase rate is ridiculous. And that's something he's gonna have to adjust in the off season. And if he does, he'll stick around. If he doesn't, he's here for a minute. He doesn't listen, he's always gonna be a guy who strikes out. That's, he's a big power hitter. But if he can get his chase rate down where it's at a reasonable level, he could become a special player. I don't think there's any doubt about it. There's some very impressive raw talent there. It was a good weekend. They needed to win this series against a Texas team that's not played particularly well. You increased your lead, you're up three. So it's exactly 32 games left in the season. The Royals, the Guardians of the Twins all have exactly 32 games left. They'll play 32 games in 35 days starting today. Obviously, it won't stay even because, uh, the Guardians and the Royals have a double header today where the twins play one game against the Braves. Look at the White Sox 44.5 lost 100 games. So the worst record in the history of modern history was the 62 Mets. They finished 4120. They only played 100 and 60 games. This team will break that record. Yeah, I don't think they can win 10 more games. I don't, they, they, they're about as hideous as it gets, but I, I Zach Misel, Zach Misel and I did our Guardian show this morning. I said if the Guardians play 500 exactly the rest of the way they'd finish 91 and 71. Uh, would they win the division? He said, no, he don't think, and I don't think they will either. So, they probably got to win 95 games to win the division, which means going 2012, that should not be unreasonable for them. But today I'm a little nervous about this doubleheader because I don't like what they got going on pitching wise. I don't either. They're not set up. Well, no, uh, they, they're gonna have Nick Sandlin. His numbers are misleading because he's a relief pitcher. It's gonna be a bullpen game on it. Well, what they're doing is they're, they're gonna have, they're gonna call Joey Cantillo and Logan Allen today. So Nick Sandlin is gonna pitch the first inning. Remember Joey Cant is a lefty. They don't want him to face. They, they're gonna have Sandlin start. So he gets to face Salvador Perez and Bobby Witt Junior, uh, because that's their two best players. So you're gonna skip. So you're gonna bring in Cant in the second inning after you've already passed a delayed start. So in theory, he only has to face them maybe once, maybe twice, depending on how well he pitches and then the second game is gonna be Logan Allen who's been terrible. Now, the Royals have Cole Reagan's in the first game. He's been fantastic. Although his last start is, is not, been, was not good, but overall this year he's been very, very good. Yeah, he's excellent. And their second starter. Are you sure about that? Er, a on Alec Marsh? That seems low. Earl made it. I'll double check. I don't think that's his, er, a, I, I could have sworn it was in the forest but I could be wrong. I think, I don't think those are his numbers but, uh, you are missing two of the three best Royals pitchers in this series. Uh, uh Seth Lugo pitched yesterday. Those numbers are incorrect. Are those Brady Singer's numbers? No, they were Cole Reagan's. He changed the name and did not change it. Got it. So you're missing two of their three best starters in Lugo and singer who won't pitch in this series but will pitch against the Guardians next week in Kansas City. But you just got to split this doubleheader today. I want both. You gotta have both. If they win both, they're in great shape. Got the pitching edge the next two days, even though by and Williams are both coming off bad starts. Williams has been a huge disappointment. Let's face it. So, and I don't want, it's not, you know, for a while, I was like, it's still spring training for him but you know what? He's been pitching two months now, you know, something, something's not right. Uh, he was totally unable to duplicate what he was able to do last year. Uh which is tough, man. I gotta tell you, I was in the last month actually a little more than that before the trade deadline. I said this is, this is your opportunity. You know, you don't go big every year. You look at where you are and how your team's playing and you go big and they didn't go big and I, I haven't done in eight years. Well, they haven't, they haven't. And I hate to say this definitively, but I asked myself yesterday Saturday when I was looking at the lineup, is this a, is this a deep playoff run lineup? And the fact of it is, it's not, it's not the six, the 789 hitters are all hovering around 200. You can't make a deep playoff run with three bats in the bottom of your lineup that are hitting 200. You can't do it. You saw, you saw the Yankees, one thing I was in San Diego, they were showing all the Yankees games. I don't know what I'm like, they're Global or something. They just on TV. But you saw when, when the Yankees and the Guardians played well, you got a, there's no relief in the bottom of their lineup stinks too. They don't have three guys that are hitting 200. They got, they got three dudes and if they are, they at least have power, they got judging soto the lineup is not special. You don't want really if you look at it the difference. I mean, obviously Judge is having an unbelievable season but, and, you know, Stanton's not bad. He runs, he's got 50 home runs. I think Naylor and Ramirez are a good 12 power punch. They really are. And if Noel is now kind of had he played the whole season, Noel would have over 20 home runs right now. So, I mean, they're ok there but bull, when, when, when this, when you get to the seven hole in our lineup, it's a lost in. And if you, and, and it's almost like it's like you're playing six innings of offense because you're losing three innings with the bottom of your lineup. Let me just give you the bottom of the Yankee lineup just to be fair. Ok, six through nine in yesterday's game. And these guys play quite our start. Anthony Volpe is batting six for them. He's batting 247 with a 682 ops. Not good. No, but 247 is the league average this year. All right. Uh, uh, the seven, the seven hitter, Trevino is hitting 233 with a 697 ops. That's bad. It's bad, but it's better than 199. It's not their starting catcher anymore though. They've been going back and forth. They used two guys. Ok. Uh, Alex Verdugo batting 229 with a 650 ops. That's terrible. It is. But compared to what we've got DJ Leah, he 196 with a 522 ops now he has, he's been hurt for. That's the reality is their lineup is not that much better than the Guardian. But when you, when you got three guys, 200 our last three guys are at like 201. When you got guys that is hit, like they're hitting two. Aaron Judge can literally hit three home runs in it. You can't even pitch to the dude. I understand. You can't tell right now. I just saying the bottom of the line up is not, I, I think it can be if everything else is right because I don't think the other teams, the Guardians are lucky. You're right. They should have gone all in. You're right. They didn't do enough to improve this team, shame on the front office who rarely takes any blame and shame on ownership that they did not really go ownership. I think most of the office would have loved to make, but you gotta have the checkbook behind you. But the reality is that none of the other teams in the American League are without flaws. The Yankee lineup is not that good. Now, listen, soto and Judge are so good that it makes up for a lot, but the reality. Yeah. OK. They're not as quite as bad. I'm not saying it's as, as the Guardians, but the bottom of their lineup. Verdugo has been terrible. Volpe had a great start. He's been terrible since the middle of the season. Their bottom of the lineup is not that good. It was better than the Guardians. I mean, the Guardians the other day against the Yankees got a leadoff hit and then I, I, they didn't get a hit for the next nine inning, but, but I think it's more right now with the Guardians outside of the last two days that their good players are not playing well. You could survive 78 and nine being bad if one through six is doing great, but Jose has been in a slump. Josh Naylor has been terrible. Uh Stephen Kwan's batting averages dropped 80 points since his four. Now the question is, can he hit 300? Not remember when we were out nuts we were talking about, um I, I'm glad you brought that up because I wanted to figure out just how bad it's been. So this was before yesterday, I believe Cleveland's 123 punch Naylor Ramirez Kwan over the last seven games. Ramirez or Naylor 0 87 Ramirez 0 95 Juan, 0 83. That's, you know, you can't, it's impossible to win that way you can do. And you know what the problem is. I think when you look at the lineup, you're like, we're good. We've got three really good bats. Well, if they all go on strike at the same time and that's where they've been the last week, minus Saturday and yesterday when they all go on strike at the same time, who else in that lineup is gonna pick it up? That's right. That's the problem. Now, I, I've been screaming, they gotta call guys up, they're not gonna do it. They'll call somebody up when they expand the rosters on September 1st. But, uh, yeah, I mean, it, it, it's because you have a weakness at the back of your lineup. The, the front's gotta be great if the 1st 56 hitters play great in the playoffs. Yes. I think the Guardians can make a deep run because they have an advantage that no other team does. They have by far the best bullpen in baseball and it's way better than the Yankees. It's way better than the, or it's better than all these people. I think it's, I think it's the best bullpen, no doubt, no doubt, Houston's got a good bullpen, but the Guardians is head and shoulders and here's an amazing thing about what Emmanuel Clase and right now I got him. I, I almost would never vote for a closer and if I had a vote, I would consider voting for him, so he's gonna finish second because school ball, I, I don't hold the team being bad. School will have 12 this season. I think I looked last week he had 12, I think according to ESPN, which I'm gonna assume is right. Scoble has 15 wins. I don't personally care about wins but, but he's got 15, he's got a 260 a, he's gonna strike out over 200 batters in this inning by his next game. Uh, so I would still vote for him. But if he has got to be perfect the rest of the season, if he doesn't give up a run the rest of the season and if Scuba has any setback, he's got a chance to win. Here's a crazy stat though. Uh, this tells you how nasty a pitcher Emmanuel clase is. We usually think about strikeouts showing how nasty you are. And Gavin Williams is all strikeouts. If you look at everybody on the Guardians that has pitched at least one inning this year, he is 16th on the team in strikeout rate. It's not even one per, it's not even seven per nine innings change. You know what? He's been getting a lot of this year. Ground balls, he, a lot of ground balls we contact every time Mariano Rivera he struck out his share of guys, but he didn't have a crazy strikeout total. He just, he just put the pitch where he wanted and that's what, that's what class is doing. It's all about location. So I'm gonna vote, I would, if I had a vote, I think he, if he goes perfect. Certainly the rest of the way. Now look, does he have an, er, a under 0 50. If he doesn't give up another run, it's really hard to do that in the month of September. You know, you're tired, of course, you, you know, you, you're exhausted and so he's not gonna pitch in both games today. So we better have, you know, a, a sizable lead in one of them. But you, but you are counting on two guys at the top of your rotation that were in AAA last year. Like you're counting on Gavin Williams and Bobby, they're, they're young pitchers like we're like, oh Gavin Williams, he got pitch better, but like they're, they're, they're second year guys, like pitching is a mess. And so, and so when you get to the playoffs, it's like, ok, are you really gonna say? All right, well, you gotta go to Yankee Stadium and I need you to put up six innings of one run ball with three hits. Can you do that? Yeah, I mean, that's certainly a challenge. That's a challenge. The Yankees have veteran starters. They have no, they have nobody pitching lights out for him when he has the lead single. It's done. He hasn't been great this year since coming back from it. He was great the other day. He looked great the other day. Uh, the Orioles have mostly young pitchers besides Corbin Burns who hasn't pitched well lately. I'm just saying the other teams are flawed. I'm not, I know the Guardians have played mostly poor baseball for the last couple of weeks. And if, if the top of the lineup doesn't hit in the playoffs, they got no shot, none whatsoever because unlike some other teams like Baltimore, like Houston, they can't make it up with the back end of their lineup because those guys are not good enough. But I, I'm not completely writing off the Guardians in the playoffs if they can right the ship, if they can get the top of the lineup going and they can get enough starting pitching bullpen is a big advantage percent chance. They, they make it to the World Series right now if you had to bet percentage low, but I don't have that. There's no team. I would give a high percentage is more than 20. No, no, no, no, I'd say I'd say 10 10% and that would, I could probably easily go below 10, but I wouldn't give anybody. I don't know. There's, there's a single team, I could say that that I'm that confident going. Nobody's having that kind of view. I mean, I think the Guardians are still G two from the best record in the American League. Let me ask you a question on the Guardians and then we'll wrap up, go to some more brown stuff. Matthew Boyd again. Pitched another, are you guys starting to believe Matthew Boyd might actually stretch here maybe like you get lightning in a bottle with him for a half a season, would be good and Ben lively after having two bad starts has bounced back with two. The graphic they showed of Ben lively and I think it was in the pregame the other night. Um with his location, his location chart looks just like Greg Maddux. I mean, I always used to study Maddox location and Smoltz too. Glavine, all those guys but Maddox location chart was, there was nothing in the heart of the zone, Nothing and the edges were littered with pitches and the, the, the middle. And that's what Ben Lively is doing this year. And I know that we, we said, how long can Ben Lively do this? Um, smoke and mirrors act. Well, sometimes players have an epiphany and usually it can, it can be later in their career. I'm just wondering, I'd love to talk to Lively about what he's changed last season to this. But when you look at his location chart to me that explains everything. Well, a couple, couple of things on that Jay, first of all, there's so few pitchers like him and major baseball because if you don't throw a velocity, it's like you don't even get a chance. You got Kyle Hendricks and there's a few guys, but that's how Greg Maddux survived. Those guys can take time to develop. What's fascinating you bring up Greg Maddux. I was watching a video with him and Randy Johnson yesterday. It was really interesting. I can't even remember where I found it. But Maddox said in high school, he was throwing mid nineties and he couldn't throw the ball over the plate and he had just learned how to be, I gotta be pinpoint, the velocity doesn't matter. I gotta be. Randy Johnson was very similar too. I mean, he was throwing 100 but you know where it was going.