Parker Messick's brilliant debut and how the Guardians will handle Tanner Bibee's next start

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1:00Welcome back to the Cleveland baseball talk podcast. I'm Joe Nogat, joined by Paul Hoynes. Hoynesy, the Guardians get it done in the opener of their series against the Dodgers. They win four to two and get an outstanding performance from Parker Messick in his season debut. Parker goes six shut out innings and really put them in a position to win the game in a spot where they needed a good outing from a starting picture. A no doubt about it to six strong innings, four hits, five strikeouts. He didn't walk a batter and he only threw 76 pitches. Joe, if it was a little later in the season, I'm sure he would have went out for at least the seventh inning. But he was averaging just under 13 pitches and inning. He was in control from the first pitch to his last. Really just an excellent outing by Messick, you know, against, you know, probably the best one of the best lineups in baseball. In a in a hostile environment and in front of 50 over 50,000 at Dodger Stadium. And the bullpen came in, did the job behind him, took out the last three innings.

2:02Sean Armstrong, Eric Sbrowski, Kate Smith Smith gave up a couple of runs there in the ninth. Got a little hairy. He threw probably more pitches than you would like to see Kate Smith throw in an outing to pick up. He didn't pick up a save because it was a four run lead, but he did get through the outing. He allowed two runs on a couple of hits, but bullpen sort of locked it down after, you know, the end of the ninth with the lead. And you can see, you know, why the Dodgers are so effective, you know, even with a four run lead going into that ninth inning, nobody really felt safe. Crowd was into it. And, you know, if you're Kate Smith, you've got a face tile, Tucker, Mookie, Beds, Gaskar Hernandez, you know, Freddie Freeman. And, you know, that's a tough lineup to go through. Plus, you know, his control wasn't the best. He threw two wild pitches, you know, really kind of set up those runs with the wild pitches. And, you know, Kate Smith is kind of been, you know, in his three outing so far. He's kind of been in and out a little bit, three runs, four hits, three innings.

3:05He had a, you know, blown save and a win. He's got to save. I think he's just settling in, but last night it looked like he was overthrown. I saw the return of guards ball there offensively, a little bit of everything. We saw bumps. We saw stolen bases, know home runs and just, you know, a good aggressive offense that really sort of kept the Dodgers on their toes. Yeah, no, like you said, two doubles, seven singles among their nine hits. They steal three bases in three attempts and go four for 12 with runners in scoring position. So they really, you know, they made the most of their hits. And, you know, a couple of key plays in there in the seventh inning when they kind of, you know, they gave themselves some breathing room with the three run inning. Reese Hoskins really came through with the big bases loaded, played appearance. He goes from 02 to draw on a walk to force home a run. And then Daniel Schneeman comes back with a two run double files out with the two run double to the gap and left center.

4:08I'm really kind of, you know, gave, gave the bullpen and gave the guardians some room to work with. Yeah, and that was a Hoskins pinch hitting in that situation. Are he a pinch hit for, um, uh, comments? Earlier again, he had pinch hit for him earlier in the games, you know, just, uh, you're really good to see those, those quality at bats. And that's the reason why you pick up a, uh, a guy like Reese Hoskins is for a veteran at bat in that situation. Guy doesn't panic when he falls behind 0 and 2 in a big situation there where you know, you need those sort of insurance runs and those extra runs. And it turned out that they really did need the runs because the Dodgers scored the night thinning. So just a big game there for Reese Hoskins. We talked about the guards ball. Guards ball also includes playing good defense and playing defense behind Parker Messick. Messick actually helped them out with a situation to keep the Dodgers off the scoreboard. When Los Angeles had been set up for a situation where they could maybe have scored a run off of him.

5:12He comes up with a big pick off at second base. He gets the second baseman, Rojas picks him off on second base on a play that Tony Arnerich, the bench coach helped set up. Yeah, it was the third inning, Joe. Rojas opens with a lead off double. Then Dalton rushing the catcher bounce and, um, you know, there's a confusion there. I mean, Messick and Jose Ramirez almost collide. You know, Jose should have, I mean, he had a clear path to the ball, but Messick dove and, you know, caused Jose to a jump over him. I mean, the ball fell and the ball fell for a single, but, you know, Rojas couldn't move advanced because he thought the ball was going to get caught. So, you know, then right away they put the pick off play on. And Messick makes a great throw and Gabriel Areas slaps the tag on Rojas. He was originally called safe. They challenged. The call was overturned.

6:12He was out and really kind of took the, uh, took the steam out of that inning for the Dodgers. So, uh, a couple of things about that play. Uh, looked like the second base umpire didn't have really a great view of things. Uh, that was a Quinn Wolcott was the second base umpire. And he sort of got screened out by Areas' body, I think, on the throw. And he wasn't in great position to see. And he called him safe originally on the dive back to the bag. So it was a really good challenge by the guardians to get the out call there. And also something that Rick Manning picked up on on the TV broadcast. And he noticed after rushing had bunted to, to, you know, get on base, I believe Otani was the next batter up. He was the batter at the plate when the pick off play happened. The video, the TV replay showed a shot of Rojas on second base, uh, gesturing over to his third base coach, asking kind of jokingly asking if Otani was going to bunt. He sort of made the bunting gesture.

7:13Manning said, you know, that little sliver of distraction, that little, you know, moment of not having yourself locked into the game and paying attention might have cost Rojas there and, you know, getting too far off the bag and not getting back and getting picked off there. So he said, you know, when you're on base, you have to stay locked in. And even, even just the, the little bit of a, you know, a gesture, a joke to your teammates and your coaches, might have cost Rojas in that situation. You know, it turns out the Guardians needed that. It needed the moment needed that defense. They got a couple of double plays in the game, one on a line drive to come in Zardo at first base and another one where Jose Ramirez and Brian Roqueo turned a double play. You know, Parker Messick efficient and help using his defense and helping himself in different situations. Yeah, he really was locked in. He said after the game, he had a long time to prepare for this start. You know, he didn't pitch in Seattle obviously in a four game series.

8:15So he had, you know, he had, he had some time to work on the Dodgers lineup. I don't know how long. Even if you have a long time to work on that lineup, Joe, I'm not sure how much good it does you, unless you pitch like Parker Messick did. I mean, he just did a great job. And, you know, after the pickoff, it's second base. He gets Otani on a liner to center and strikes out Tucker. I mean, he was just in control the whole game. It was, it was really a fun to watch. And, you know, just to, you know, that kind of silence that big crowd. And, you know, it's, you know, you can't help, but, you know, do the, you know, the little guy versus the big guy, you know, scenario that Dodgers with the 300 million dollar payroll and the Guardians with the 70 million dollar payroll. And the little guys came out on top. Yes, last night. Yeah, Parker Messick. You know, very first in his Bible, I'm sure he would remind you that it's David and Goliath.

9:15Those are the big guys. For sure. Messick with the five strikeouts, including one anywhere he struck out, a shoyotani and Kyle Tucker back to back. I believe that was at the sixth inning where he did that. Oh, that's sick. Back to it to end the sixth. So, you know, that's, that's a pretty nice way to end your, you're outing there, striking out Otani and Tucker back to back. That's, you know, what? It's a lot of money. As you say, 800 million dollars worth of strikeouts there. You know, pretty good for him. You know, we talked about Messick. We talked about, you know, Gartsball sort of coming through before the game. Our favorite subject of the last, you know, chased a lot of it, named American League player of the week for his efforts in Seattle over the weekend. Guardians first four games, you know, he didn't have a, a great game on Monday in the series opener. He was the designated hitter in the game. Went over four, I believe, and, and really sort of,

10:16he had one strikeout, one walk. I hit one ball that I thought had a chance to get a, get down for a single, but that's short stock caught the ball. Just, but what you would expect from a rookie against a team like the Dodgers in his first game in LA. So still, I really nice that he got recognized, because there were a lot of really good performances in that first weekend of the season for De Lauder to get sort of the nod there. Overall, them as player of the week was kind of special. Yeah, definitely. He earned it, Joe. He hit, you know, in that four game series against the Mariners, 353, six for 17, four homers, five RBIs, an OPS off the charts became the first Cleveland, you know, the first Cleveland player to hit two home runs in his first official big, you know, regular season game. And he's been on a tear ever since. He kind of cooled off a little bit last night, Joe, as you said. He did line out to the shortstop in the seventh inning there,

11:16where they loaded the bases. And it looked like the Dodgers were going to escape, get off the hook. But Huskins picked them up with the bases loaded walk and Schnee followed with the double. For De Lauder, I think, you know, it's, it's night. He's what the first Cleveland player to win the weekly award in the first week of the season since Albert Bell back in 1995. And he's the first Cleveland rookie to win the award at any point during the season since Stephen Kwan did so in September of 2022. So, you know, a lot of, a lot of nice distinctions are for De Lauder. But one of the nicest distinctions of the night, I think it was behind the plate, Austin Hedges, new sort of coming into the ballpark that day. It was a special day for him. It's a special time. Anybody gets to 10 years of major league service. We've talked about this in the past a couple of times. Usually, in this situation, it's a Hedgy, you know,

12:17having a pregame or a postgame ceremony presenting the player, the veteran player with some sort of, you know, token or award from the team. And then he goes out and has a pretty nice day. Two for four at the plate scored two runs, not insignificant that he, you know, he contributed to the win. That's going to make him feel really good, especially for a guy who's known a lot more for his glove than anything else. But 10 years of service to time for Austin Hedges, it's a special thing for anybody. It just feels more special when it's sort of the mouthpiece and the voice and the leader in that clubhouse like Austin Hedges is. Joe, over 23,000 players have played in the big leagues. Only 10 percent, you know, reach 10 years of service time. So you not only have to be durable, you have to be talented enough where teams watch you. To watch, you know, you sign and you keep bringing you back because as we both know, this is a young player's game.

13:18Young players make less money. That's why teams, you know, have been forcing young players through their farm systems to get to the big leagues faster. And if you're a guy that hangs around for 10 years, a place for 10 full seasons in the big leagues, you've accomplished something and, you know, that's why the players recognize Hedges before the game and after the game. Yeah, they, you know, 10 year service time to max out on the other leagues. Pension, it's, it's really a status thing that, you know, a lot of guys talk about and a lot of guys achieve. Guys have been in the game for a while. They want to get to that point. You get your 10 and five rights, you know, it's not like Austin Hedges is in a position to really sort of use those or anything like that. You basically get a full no trade clause in that situation. He can see, he can say, if they want to trade him, he can say, no, if he doesn't want to go anywhere. It's a, it's a major, you know, status sort of thing. When you, you've done that, you know,

14:18how did they, how did they mark that in the, the Guardians Clubhouse for, for Hedges? I think usually it's celebrated with, you know, a nice bottle of scotch or something like that. And maybe, you know, a toaster too. Yeah, they had before the game, there was, there was like a, you know, a feat, a urine of his number that they put into locker number 27 to were blinking lights all over it. You know, he had a couple bottles of wine from his friends. And there was, there was another thing nailed to the top of his locker, Joe. It was a catcher's athletic supporter, spray painted gold. I think Hedges liked that the most of all. And Jared Jones, the traveling secretary for the Guardians, did it. He was, he was the man behind that gift. And I said, he's spray painted it during spring training. And the Hedges, he just loved it. And then after the game, they had a champagne toast to him. And it was a cool moment for sure. Yeah, I was remembering back to 2019 when a Tyler Clipper got his,

15:21you know, 10 year service time sort of recognition there. They were in Los Angeles when it happened. And it's still a really cool moment. You got a really nice bottle of scotch. I think it was one of the things that they gave him. So he was real happy with that. And just, you know, just the rarity, like you said, how, how that comes about that, you know, play reaches 10 years. That's enough to celebrate. And certainly, Hedges, the, the guy that, the, the Guardians, like celebrating whenever he does anything for him to come out that night and have a big game. I think Stephen Votes said it best afterwards. Like, of course, he had to start that game. That was his night. Yeah. And, you know, Votes said, this is our leader, you know, on the field in the clubhouse. And, you know, he, you know, he really kind of sets the tone for the whole team. And, you know, you hear that a lot about players veteran guys. But, you know, Hedges, Hedges is a real deal. He takes it to heart. And that's a big part of his job.

16:22And he recognizes that. You know, it's, it's a, it's a good thing to see. And he's, you know, he's always, I think, leading in the right direction, Joe. Yeah. And you think about it. This is a guy who, you know, his offensive skills, his skills at the plate. Don't really, you know, justify him being in the lineup every day. But what he brings besides that really does sort of make up for. And he's the, it's the reason why he's on the roster is he is elite defensively. We've seen that a lot. And he sort of led the charge with this, this ABS learning curve with the, the Guardians catchers and really the whole team. There's, there's a lot of value in having Austin Hedges around. And, you know, it's just nice that every once in a while, he gets in a game. And the offensive side of things sort of catches up to it. So, you know, a lot of people question why they, they keep bringing him back on a $4 million contract every year. This, this is one of those reasons why and. And it goes beyond just two hits in a game. But certainly nice to, to be able to point to and I like that.

17:23A four guy like, had you. All right. Before the game, Guardians did make a roster move. As, as we're getting into game two of this series and looking forward to, to that. Tanner Bobby, still a bit of a question right now as to whether or not he'll start Tuesday nights. A second game of the series against Shoei Otani and the Dodgers. But the Guardians have Bobby listed as the starter. I guess the student vote said that they would wait to find out how he comes in in the morning and how he's feeling in the morning before they. They make that firm decision. Bobby, of course, came out of the season opening game in Seattle with soreness in his right shoulder. I did pitch a bullpen on Saturday and recorded feeling good on Sunday. So all systems are pointing towards go in terms of Bobby. But they, they wanted to make sure that, you know, they have a contingency plan there. And that contingency looks like it's Colby Allard. Yeah, Joe. He brought Allard up yesterday, added him to the 40 man.

18:24He was pitching in good year before, you know, he was scheduled to join Columbus. But this call came instead. And he told me he's been stretched out probably to three to four innings. So if they need him to start tonight, he can do that. If they need him to a backup. Bobby, if Bobby runs into some early problems tonight, you know, based on him starting. You know, Allard could pick him up and, and relieve him. So, you know, just, you know, solid guy to have. We saw him a lot last year. We saw the value he brings. He can pitch in any situation. He can, he can start. He can pitch long. He can pitch in leveraged situations at the end of the game. So a valuable guy to have as, you know, whether or not he pitches tonight. Yeah. And, and really, like you said, that, that versatility and the ability to just take the ball and go and go for as long as he can and get as many outs as you can. He's also effective in that role. I mean, it's not like you're just putting him out there and he's trying his best.

19:25It's, this is a guy who can go out there and get you outs and, and eat up innings. And that's what we said when they decided to sort of bring him back and reassign him to a minor league contract in the offseason. You never know when you're going to need a guy like this and, and he provides that sort of reassurance there. In order to get Allard on the 40 man roster, they had to designate Doug McKasey for assignment. So he's been removed from the 40 man in order to put him on the 26 man. They had to option Colin Holderman down to Columbus. So those are the moves to get Allard on the roster. You know, let's start with the Casey. This is a guy who we saw him twice last year, once in a start. And then once he came up and pitched in relief. And really, I don't think, I don't know in terms of giving a guy a fair shot. I think, you know, making your big league debut, I believe it was against the Yankees. Boston always pushed Boston. Okay. Yeah. Big league debut against Boston gave up some, some runs. I believe he gave up like six runs and, you know, just, you know, a tough way to go for a guy who had been as high as what like in the 20s in terms of their,

20:35their top ring prospect. Yeah. It was the second round pick in 2021, Joe, just a highly thought of a pitcher. You know, he two years ago, he had a great spring went down to the end of camp before they optioned him. But he was, you know, legit had a legitimate chance to make the rotation or help him in a bullpen. And, you know, then he got called up though twice following that, you know, the good spring in 2025. As you said, he kind of struggled, struggled in, you know, in a spot start and struggled in a relief appearance. I think, you know, they just, he felt he was, you know, having trouble throwing strikes. You know, they've looked at the roster and he really didn't pitch that much in spring training this year. You know, optioned out early. So, you know, this was, you know, this was the guy that they decided they could part with. And I think they'd love to keep him, Joe, if they could, if he, you know, they've got seven days now to trade or put him on release waivers or outright waivers.

21:38So, we'll have to see how that goes. But if they don't trade him, if he doesn't get claimed, I think that, you know, they would love to outright him back to Columbus and try to get him straightened out. Because I'm pretty good arm right there for left-handed. I think it would work. But, you know, we'll have to see right now because there's probably a good chance they'll be able to trade him, I would imagine. Yeah, it would probably be interest there as well. Con Holderman, after giving up a, you know, a couple of runs in Seattle. It looks like he might be a candidate for the guy who sort of bounces back and forth between Columbus and Cleveland when when needed this season. The $1.5 million contract he was signed to in the off season after pitching in Pittsburgh. You know, Holderman, you know, got a couple of appearances in Seattle. Looks like he's going to be sort of an option that they bring back and forth between Columbus and Cleveland. Yeah, he did a nice job Sunday and had eight to nothing loss. You know, he closed out the game with two winnings, gave up a run, two strikeouts, one walk.

22:39So, that's a tough part about this game, Joe. You do your job, you pitch pretty well, and you still get options. Yeah. When you've got options, you know, when you have options left, I don't think options. You're kind of, you're the guy. Sometimes you're the designated, you know, elevator guy. You're on the shuttle, you're going, you bounce back and forth, but at least they've, they've set a rule now that it can only happen to you five times. Five times. Yeah. And after that, you have to be placed on waivers. Yeah. And, you know, that, that, that is the situation there. It might have been that, you know, because he did, you know, give them a couple of innings and, and through enough pitches where he wasn't going to be available for a couple of days. That's what made him the candidate that was on the 26 man roster to, to go down just because of, you know, just that the usage there that might have been a factor as well. Looking ahead to tonight, Tanner Bible, getting a chance to sort of go out there and maybe redeem himself after a rough outing in Seattle.

23:40But really the most important aspect of it, I think, is is going to be how deep can he go? How long will they go with him if the, if the shoulder is still a concern there? I'm sure pitching in the warmer temperatures will probably be a lot better for him. Everybody getting out of Seattle and the, the 50 degrees and rainy and, and kind of yucky. He'll get back to, you know, something on the mount tonight that, you know, maybe feels a little bit better for him. But he'll be facing a show a Otani. This is, you know, obviously the, the NL MVP. He wants to go out there and, and, and pitch. And, and now he's going to be what this will be his, well, this will be his debut on the mount. This is the first start of the season for Otani. The last time he pitched against Cleveland was all the way back in 2022, April of 2022 when he was pitching for the angels. In a game that Los Angeles one nine to five. Oh, Tony went five innings. I gave up two runs. I think he struck out for did give up a first inning home run to Jose Ramirez in that game.

24:43So something to keep an eye on there. What do you think of the idea of the prospect of having to go from facing Rocky Sasaki? Yeah, and, you know, those, they're really the Dodgers have lined up three really good starters against Cleveland. You know, Sasaki, Otani tonight and Yamamoto tomorrow. Just, you know, they're going to, you know, vote was talking about facing the three Japanese pitchers and said, you know, they're, they really throw similar pitches. And so, but it doesn't, you know, but they're still very, very good pitchers and the guardians have their work cut out for them. Joe, the thing what you said about Ramirez hitting the home run off. Oh, Tony, it made me smile because didn't know Tony say it. One of the all-star games that Ramirez is one of his favorite player. Yeah, they look like a semi colon, they look like a semi colon, standing next to each other. Yeah. Thompson before and Hosey now is listed at five foot eight because of the, the, you know, everybody sort of lost an inch on their, their height because of the remeasures for the ABS system.

25:51Hosey Ramirez now listed at what five foot eight. So when he stands next to Shohei Otani, that's an interesting picture there for the two of them. But yeah, Tony said that the all-star game couple years back that he was there to watch Hosey Ramirez because Hosey Ramirez is his favorite player, kind of, kind of interesting. The, you know, the face of baseball says that about Hosey. All right, Hosey, that's going to wrap up today's edition of the Cleveland baseball talk podcast. We'll be back tomorrow to wrap up game two and see how the other Guardians do against the National League MVP. Good deal, Joe. Should be fun. You