Is there a path for Peyton Pallette to make the Guardians' opening day roster?

0:00America leads the world in medicine development. It matters. We get new medicines first nearly three years faster. Five million Americans go to work because we make medicines here at home and not relying on other countries keeps us safe. But China is racing to overtake us. Will we let them or will we choose to stay ahead? When America leads, America cures. Let's tell Washington to keep us in the lead. Learn how at americacures.com. Pay for by Farma. We're leaving today and entering a world of Mickey Mouse waving, princess meeting and greetings. Light saber clashing, exploits on tower of terror dropping! Banshee flying, space mountain launching, galaxy rewinding, what's the one that looks galaxy rewinding, fireworks igniting, world of other worlds, for whatever you love, infinite worlds away at the most magical place on earth. Walt Disney World Resort.

1:14Welcome back to the Cleveland baseball talk podcast. I'm Joe Novget joined by Paul Hoynes. The Guardians dropped to five and eight on the cactus league season, suffering a comeback loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers yesterday. At Good Your Ballpark Dodgers jumped in, you know, sorry, the Guardians jumped in front on a Kyle Manzardo brand slam in the first inning off Roki Sasaki. But the Dodgers scored five unanswered runs. They come back and win and really other than Manzardo, offensively, the Guardians didn't do much. I think they total four hits in the game, but the, you know, the pitching didn't look too bad. Joey Cantillo goes out there and works into the fourth inning, becomes the first Guardians picture to work into the fourth inning this spring. And we got to see some guys out of the bullpen, Sean Armstrong, Colin Holderman, and Peyton Palette made his Guardians debut. So all in all, not a terrible game, but some things

2:14that they really stood out, you know, in terms of a Kyle Manzardo, we had sort of been waiting for him to come around this spring. He only had one hit in six games, about 15 at bats, heading into the game. He comes up with the grand slam in the first inning. Would you like about that at bat from Kyle Manzardo? Yeah, it's just nice to see Manzardo get going. He's been pressing a little bit, just a slow start to the spring. You know, Joe, I was wondering if, you know, he gained weight, he gained 14, 15 pounds, you know, spent a lot of time in the, in the weight room over the winter. I wonder if that maybe had had affected his swing a little bit, or he had to adjust to his kind of new body, new swing, but whatever it was, that was a look like Kyle Manzardo on that swing. It was kind of the left center field, got out in front, you know, just kind of waited a little bit on that, on that pitch and drove it out of the ballpark. That was good to see. And hopefully, you know, he kind of looks like a veteran guy that knows

3:17he's on the ball club. And it's just working on some things with his swing. Yeah, you talk about, you know, the, the game, the extra muscle, gaining the, the 14, 15 pounds there. There might be some adjustments there physically, but also he might be trying to work on some new stuff with the, you know, just the way things feel at the, at the plate. And maybe that has something to do with what the results are. Pre-training results, guys like Stephen Vogue aren't necessarily looking at what they are for somebody like Kyle Manzardo. You know, Kyle Manzardo can hit the ball, 27 home runs, 90 RBI's last season. The ability is there. Now it's just, you know, getting the consistency. And he did what the Guardians wanted him to do in the off season was get stronger and get, you know, more, more, at least the appearance of being more durable and able to get through a 162 game season. So, so that's there. That particular at bat, we saw him fall behind in the count to Roki Sasaki. And once you get behind in the count to Roki Sasaki, you know that the pitch that's

4:18coming is, is the splitter. And the, the hardest thing in the world for a guy like Manzardo to do is lay off of that splitter in the dirt with two strikes on you when you're behind in the count. And that's exactly what he did. He got the count to even at, and he got a 98 mile an hour fastball on the outside corner. And like you said, he let that ball get a little deep on him. And you saw the result. He can drive the ball out of the ballpark to the opposite field as good as anybody on the roster. And that's exactly what happens. The Guardians score four runs early. You think everything's looking good. And then, you know, the Dodgers, as they do, you know, it wasn't necessarily the Dodgers full squad of all stars and MVP's. A lot of those guys are already away at the World Baseball Classic with their, their respective teams. But Andy Pahez, other guys on the roster who are, are in camp with the Dodgers. They were there. They chipped away at the lead. One thing I want to, you know, talk about here was Steven Kwan in, you know, at one point had a ball get hit

5:25to the wall in the right center field gap. And he made a, you know, took a bad route on it, took a bad angle. A ball gets passed him for a two run triple. And you could tell after that that, I believe it was the third inning. Steven Kwan was the fourth inning. I'm sorry. Fourth inning, and Steven Kwan was pretty frustrated after that just by looking at him that he thought that he should have made a better play on that ball. Yeah, Joe, this is going to take some time. This is, it all seemed easy when the Guardians were talking about it. And Kwan was talking about it, you know, making them move from left field to center field. But now you got to do it. Now, you do the nuts and bolts of it. And it's a tough, you know, good year ballpark is a tough sunfield to do that in. It's a tough time to do it in. I mean, it's the weather's beautiful, but there are too many clouds in the sky in Arizona. So it's just an adjustment for the Kwan.

6:26And he has got to find out if he can do it, you know, people said, you know, he might not have the speed to cover the gaps. I think, but I think like you were saying, Joe, that might be, that might have been just the wrong read. But I think Kwan's plenty fast enough to play center field. He gets good jumps, but that might have been just, you know, he got a bad read on that. Yeah. And, and that might be what they find out is that he doesn't have the, the elite speed of some of the centerfielders in the game, but his instincts and his, the jumps that he gets on balls that we always saw in left field. That still translates. That still carries over to center field and it can, you know, make up for whatever shortcomings he has in that department. I think on that particular play, it was just a bad read. It was a bad angle that he took. He sort of came across a little too flat instead of making sure that the ball didn't get past him to the wall because once the ball goes to the wall, that runner is going to be on third base in both of those runs scored. And he kind of knew that it was written on his face as soon as you saw the replay of that play. But then he comes back later at the end of the inning,

7:32a little, you know, with, with runners on base and the potential for the Dodgers to score more runs, a little soft flair into center field. He comes in and makes a tumbling catch and you saw that ability to sort of recover and make the play to end the inning and sort of save the runs there. You know, a nice defensive play and avoided getting into a collision with Juan Brito or Nolan Jones in the outfield there. So, you know, you got to sort of take the good with the bad. And I don't think Stephen vote is too concerned or too worried about things right now. He says they're going to keep running him out there because they've, they've got to find out every time he makes one of these mistakes, it's the first time and they don't expect him to make them the second time. Yeah, that's a, that's a great way of putting it. And, and Juan himself has said, you know, if this does, if this experiment doesn't work, we've got to find out as soon as possible. So we don't hurt the ball club here. I can go back to left field and they can insert somebody else in center field. So it really kind of an interesting situation. 13 games into camp. They've

8:37still got what 17 more games to play plenty of time to figure this out. And you're right, Joe, they've got to keep running them out there to find out. And who knows? I mean, this could happen even if he does open the season in center field. This is probably going to happen once or twice or three times, maybe more than that during the season because he's just not used to doing it. You know, it kind of opened your eyes to say, you know, he's, there's no, he doesn't have to do this. He's one four gold gloves in left field. He's gone to the all-star game the last two years. He says he's doing this to help the ball club. So it's just really an interesting situation to see what, how this all works out. The, uh, the 17 games remaining. We think what, maybe a dozen games he should go out there and start. If he plays in those, you think that's, uh, what they'll, they'll run them out with. Yeah, I would think so unless, you know, if they come to the conclusion eight, we're better off with Juan and left field than, uh, Angel Martinez or

9:39Nolan Jones or a cast of thousands in center field. Yeah, they're certainly are short on options behind Juan. And, and, you know, it's, it's sort of sparked something in some of the other guys. Like you said, on home Martinez has come out his last two games. He's hit a couple of home runs, a couple of doubles. And, uh, these are, you know, some of these guys who are competing for spots are really starting to put up the numbers. Well, doubt about it. They wanted competition. They've got competition. You know, you bring 14 outfielders into camp, either on the depth squad or spring training invites and, and on to 40, man, you're going to get a lot of people elbowing and jaslin for playing time. And, uh, that's what they've got it. You know, I'd like it a lot better when there was one state, at least one stable position in the outfield, Joe, where you could count on in left field and you only had to pay attention to center and, and right field. But now you've got all three, uh, it's a jump ball in all three positions in the outfield. Yeah, literally a three ring circus out there with the, you need to split your attention

10:42between three different spots. So, uh, lots to watch and lots to keep an eye on, for sure, lots to watch on the, on the mound, uh, the pitching side of things. Joey Cantillo goes three innings, a lot of us two hits, three runs earned, two walks, two strikeouts. But what, uh, what Steven votes said that he liked about the outing was, you know, he, he saw Joey Cantillo sort of flip into compete mode there in the, you know, in the, in the, the, the few innings he was out there. Just, you know, I think this is his, what it was his third start of the season of spring training. He's, he's out there knowing that it, you know, being able to lock up a spot in the rotation is, is right in front of him for him to just go out there and take and, uh, and he's, he's going out there and showing some stuff. Yeah, you know, in the first inning, uh, Ramirez makes an air at third. Oh, it's one outs. It puts a runner on and, you know, the next batter, uh, Cantillo works a double, five, four, three, double play gets out of that jam. And in the third inning, what he gives up a, three run homer to a rock house. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, two run homer to roll us and then comes back

11:47right back and, you know, retires the next two guys. So, you know, that's, that's a good sign. That's a good sign that, you know, you can gather yourself that you, you know, you're not going to get let a mistake behind you, upset you and that or one bad pitch upset you and that you're going to stay focused and keep throwing strikes. A lot of guys, a lot of people coming into camp, expected joint cantillata to sort of have a breakout spring, a breakout season. He's showing, he's giving us every indication that if you give him a chance, he can go out there and be a solid, uh, you know, back half of the rotation guy for you. So we'll, uh, we'll see how that continues to develop as far as the bullpen goes. Colin Holderman, kind of Braggden, Jake Miller, come out and they have clean innings. Sean Armstrong gave up a run. Again, you're seeing some of these guys Armstrong Holderman, Braggden. These are the guys who are going to be sort of the middle to late guys in the bullpen. It's good to see them get out there and get their work in. Yeah, these are the guys that they brought in on big league contracts to, uh, you know,

12:50just strengthen that bullpen and they did the job. You know, Armstrong has had a really good start to camp. Braggden has been okay. Holderman's been a little up and down. He's got great stuff, though, Joe. He throws really hard. I mean, yeah, you can, you can tell why they wanted him. Yeah, two strikeouts, uh, you know, he walked a guy, gave up a hit, but worked the scoreless inning. So yeah, that, that was good to see it. You know, those are the guys, you know, that are going to be right, you know, go down to the wire here. You know, as to who makes that eight man bullpen and who does it? And then, uh, late in the game, uh, Peyton Palette comes in in the, oh, is it the eighth of the ninth inning? Uh, and he comes in and he puts up a scoreless inning after walking the first man he faced and then allowing a base hit. He had a couple of runners in scoring position and, and then he, uh, struck out the, the next three guys, uh, in order, three consecutive strikeouts, a couple of really nasty sliders that he slept off, uh, and then a 98 mile an hour fastball

13:52over the outside corner, uh, to strike out the, uh, uh, the final batter of the afternoon, sure, uh, having the shoulder fatigue and the, uh, the soreness that, uh, sort of held him back at the start of camp, uh, to see Peyton Palette get out there, the rule five pick, you know, who knows, you know, it's, it's, it's now going to be a long shot for him to make this team, but, uh, you kind of got an indication as to, to what they, the, the, the scouts really liked about him, because he went out there and sort of once that, uh, you know, once, once he got into a situation where there were a couple of runners on base, uh, he, the adrenaline kind of kicked in. He was like, pop I, uh, eating the spinach, the switch flipped and, and he was lights out. Yeah, definitely. The first two strikeouts were, uh, strikeouts swinging. Then the last one, he got a call third strike and Joe, I didn't think this kid could swallow that hard. I mean, you talk to him. He's not like six. He's not like the rest of these, the reliever six, five, six, four, six, seven, he's, you know, just kind of a slightly built guy, but, uh, you know, he brought it

14:54and you can see why the Guardian's drafted him off the White Sox roster. Now all he has to do is, uh, you know, keep pitching like that and, and make a, make that, make that decision, put that tough decision on the front office at the end of camp as, as to whether they keep him or not. Yeah, one way or another, you know, he's, he's helping himself out by going out there and having a good showing and spring training because even if he does have to go back to the White Sox, they're going to be motivated to, to, to try and give him a longer look based on what he's doing, uh, what he's able to do in camp if he's, if he has a, you know, a nice spring training. And like you said, make that decision difficult for Cleveland. It's not just, hey, he makes the roster and, you know, we can keep him around for a little bit. Uh, they have to keep him for the entire season. Uh, they were able to do that and, and stash a guy like Trevor Stefan on the roster, you know, only pitch him in low leverage situations where, where there wasn't, you know, necessarily a game on the line, uh, in a lot of cases, um, you know, back in what 2021, I was 2021,

15:59when they did that. I, I guess it's just harder, I think, in this situation where you basically be giving up a roster spot to keep him all year. If that's the case, unless he shows you that he can go out there and get the job done. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. I mean, uh, you know, you've got your back in, guys, you've got Kate Smith, you've got, uh, you know, you've got Gattis, you've got maybe Heron or Armstrong. But, uh, so those are kind of your, you're, you're, you know, you're laying in in guys. And, uh, so you could still kind of protect pallette. But, uh, with the way, um, with the way Vogue uses the bullpen, you know, there's, you know, there's five, six guys pitching every night. So there's, there's not too many places to hide like you were saying. Yeah. And it's just that decision is going to have to come from, you know, Stephen Vogue and, and Chris antennae Mike turn off. Do they think they can go the whole season and, and protect this guy as opposed to, uh, it's, it's basically like pitching almost with a seven man bullpen, if you think about it, if not all eight guys out there are guys that

17:03you necessarily trust or want to put in a position of where you're, you're pushing them or testing them. And you've got to be careful with a guy like, uh, pallette, who's got a history of injuries and, and that sort of thing as well. So we'll see what the, uh, decision is going to be, but for the first step and the first, the, the debut outing there, I went pretty well for, for a guy like paid in colette. The guardians, uh, going to have an off day today for the first time, basically in three weeks, you know, they've had two split squad games. They've been going pretty hard for about three weeks and, and Stephen Vogue, you know, wasn't shy about saying they need this, uh, this day off. This is a long time coming and, you know, he told the guys to turn their brains off, you know, get away from baseball, just relax for a day, uh, as they're, they're not playing a game today out there in good year. Yeah, chill. I mean, and, you know, sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't. You can bet somebody's in the weight room right now or go ahead and for the weight room, the play catch or something. And, and, uh, Parker Messick is going to pitch today in a minor league game to a stay on, on, you know, stay on pat on course for the rest of spring

18:10and to a compete for one of the jobs in the rotation. So there's always action going on. But yeah, this is an off day in spring training is really to be a treasured if you're, if you're a player in big league camp, you got to, you get to sleep in. You don't have to set the alarm for 4am. You can, you know, have breakfast and kind of just, uh, take a deep breath. Yeah. And, uh, I think the way that the schedule lines up, they have off days, the next like two Thursdays or I'm sorry, two Wednesdays. So, you know, it kind of a unique situation for them, but where they're, they're not required to be at the spring training complex. They get a couple of off days here coming up. Tomorrow, Thursday, they come back. They play the white socks in Glendale and it's a 605 start out there, which means it's an 805 start here in Cleveland. So we get to see them basically in a night game. Yeah, you know, there's a couple of those games. It's a weird kind of a sea. And then so the off day gets stretched a little bit too. Yeah. Because then you don't, they don't have the

19:13players don't have to come into around noon. Uh, so, uh, yeah, that's, so that's kind of, uh, one and a half off days. So that's a, you know, I'm sure they, they're liking that right now. So the guys who, uh, do not have off days right now are, are the ones playing in the WBC. What we saw for the first time, a lot of these teams getting together and playing exhibition games yesterday against some of the, the major league teams in their spring training camps. We saw Team USA, uh, get out there and take on the San Francisco Giants. Uh, they won that game 15 to 1. Now it might have been a full roster of Giants, you know, AA players who knows, but Team Mexico beat the Arizona Diamondback 6 to 3. The Dominican Republic team beat the, uh, the Detroit Tigers, uh, 12 to 4. And the team from Puerto Rico handled the Boston Red Sox, five to three. I think Houston beat Venezuela, uh, team Italy actually knocked off, uh,

20:15team from the Cubs, uh, nine to fours. Uh, a lot of these, uh, exhibition games sort of thing, you know, other other team playing as well. Uh, the one that stood out to me was, uh, team great, team great Britain, uh, not expecting a lot out of team great Britain this year, but uh, seven to three, they beat the Milwaukee Brewers and, uh, Pat Murphy in, uh, in, uh, you know, classic Pat Murphy, uh, sort of response to that. Uh, he was, he was very frustrated with the, the effort and it was, uh, in sort of a, uh, not necessarily a mocking tone, but I don't think it was very seriously saying it was terrible. The, the way that his team played against a team great Britain, uh, kind of funny to watch, uh, Pat Murphy's reaction there to that loss, but just going back to team US, uh, 15 to one in that game against the giants big afternoons for a Bobby wit with a couple of hits, um, a Bryce Harper, drove in a pair of runs, got our Henderson drove in a pair of runs, uh, Aaron Judge with two RBI's and, uh, you know, Alex Braggman,

21:18Roman Anthony with home runs for the, uh, the Americans. So, uh, they're getting ready. It looks like they're going to be ready to go once a pool play opens up this week. Yeah, it sounds like all those, uh, the WBC teams have prepared early. A lot of the players, uh, came to big league camps early because they knew they had to be ready to, uh, join these other teams and it sounds like the early preparation. Probably, I just put them a little bit ahead of, uh, you know, the regular players. So it's going to be, you know, good, it's going to be a really an interesting tournament to watch, Joe, and, uh, we'll have to see how it goes. They've got, uh, what, what, do they, they have instant replay room? They're not going to have the ABS. If they're not going to have the challenge system. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It's not in the game. So yeah, I don't, I guess it's going to feel a lot like major league games and, and basically like an extension of the, the playoffs from last year, which if they get a, uh, if they get a tournament that looks anything like the, the MLB postseason from last year, it's it's going to be appointment viewing and must see TV.

22:22It's, uh, you know, this, this event is shaping up to be one of the best, uh, world-based wall classics ever. You've got basically the, the, the two powerhouse, uh, teams, Japan and the United States collision course, uh, hopefully in the, for, uh, you know, maybe the championship game, if everything goes according to plan, but you've got teams like the Dominican Republic and, uh, you know, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, uh, and, you know, teams that could really, uh, make some noise and, do some damage in the, the early knockout rounds, if everybody advances as you think so. So, so, be, uh, you know, definitely something to keep an eye on and watch with interest and, and we'll certainly be talking about what happens in those games because, uh, it's, it's important and then, you know, just watching, uh, just watching some of the highlights from the tournaments in the past, you know, you see some guys and you see some names that really stood out and, and now you, um, you see them coming back three, four years later and being ready to sort of perform in that way, again, as well. All right, boys, that's going to wrap up today's edition of the Cleveland

23:24Baseball Talk podcast. We'll check back in with you again tomorrow. Moistur energy. Everybody knows why monster zero ultra. That's the OG. It kicked off this whole zero-sugar energy drink thing. But ultra is a whole lineup now. You've got strawberry dreams, blue Hawaiian sunrise in Vaisquava, and they all bring the monster energy punch. So, if you've been living in the white can, branch out, ultra's got a flavor for every vibe, and every single one is zero sugar, tap the banner to learn more.