Reacting to Brayan Rocchio, Guardians Walk-Off Win Over Royals

0:00four o'clock out on afternoon drop. John Fanta. John Fanta coming up in just about 20 minutes here. NBC sports Cleveland's own. See if he was watching the guardos get a nice walkoff win against the royals. I was nice after last night, which kind of a frustrating night of the office. I know today was frustrating because it was colder than hell and I know people get frustrated because the team moved it up out of weather and then the weather still sucked at one o'clock. Yeah. I'm sorry. I like I I law teams for trying to do this. You're trying to play baseball games in early April in Cleveland. I all and all today was ended up being just what you needed because you got back at the wind column and you got the walkoff, the bullpen kind of showed up. This is there's a very nice win for the guardians today. I mean, incredible win. Gavin Williams was absolutely electric. The roles had one hit all game. So the bullpen didn't it didn't allow a single hit. Gavin Williams had a one hitter himself through five and two thirds and you end up with a walkoff hit like

1:02you can't and then one burrito. Can we talk about burrito for a second? Yes. I don't think people understand. And maybe I just as somebody that doesn't do well without a lot of sleep. Like maybe maybe this is just me just making too much of this. But like the idea that last night he was playing PlayStation MLB the show gets the call that all of a sudden he's got to go out and he's going to make his debut in the big leagues today. So he goes the airport at four o'clock in the morning and then turns around and goes two for four of the play today. Yeah. And the double down the line. It's a single by the way. That's insane. Yeah. I don't know why I just have so much respect for that type of thing. And again, this is all dealing with the idea that me without sweep is not good. And so I assume everybody does that. Maybe you just function better on no sweep. But like to like it's not like there. Oh, yeah, we'll see in the morning and then you'll take a plane. No, four in the morning. You're out there at the airport taking a plane ride to go here and then play a game that starts seven hours later. And then it'd be good. That's insane. I think you needed a night like this or a day like this, a game like this from the bullpen. I think

2:03the Kate Smith stuff is a little overblown, but it's fair because remember when he first took over for class a last year, it was a bumpy month before he caught his groove at the end. But to me, like the bigger concern is the lack of depth in the bullpen. So even though, like you mentioned the the hit side of things Armstrong did walk to guys. I actually thought he did a really good job of working out of it. There was a pitch that I thought was supposed to be called a strike three that was then called back. I thought he didn't get rattled by that. So like, you needed a night where maybe Gavin or maybe one of your starters didn't go as deep as you'd like. And then you needed the bullpen to show up. You still got to answer this question about a hundred and some more times. But that was you needed you needed this kind of game from the bullpen where they could show up and give you, you know, three and a third, I think innings quality work. I mean, this was a throwback game of sorts. But one, we've just become accustomed to with this Guardian's team though. They they themselves don't have that much offense. But the starting pitching was really good. The bullpen was really good. And you get out of there with the

3:04two one victory. Yeah. And I do think like it's funny. You know, we've talked a lot about the offense. And tonight the offense actually had eight hits. They only only got two runs though. So they did. It's kind of the typical guard's ball, right? Yeah, you're getting on base. But are you driving them home? I think at some point, something's going to have to give us this Guardian's team. It's early. It's only what are we now 12 games and 11 games. I think it's 11 games in the season. Now there's seven and five. So 12 games into the season. At some point, this team is going to either have to start hitting more, which is possible. So it warms up or the bullpen's going to have to find itself. But right now, neither things happening incredibly often. And you're still winning these games. I think there's something to be said about a team that hasn't quite found itself or found the thing that like every manager needs. I always thought, like I always felt this with Tito is soon as Terry Franco and I found out what he could trust be at the top of the rotation, the bullpen, the, you know, the quality of the lineup or a certain part

4:06of his lineup. Once he figured out what his strength was, he was unstoppable as a manager. And I think you're seeing that with Stephen vote. Like when Stephen vote has something elite or really high level of what is the strength here? What do you mean? Well, that's what I mean. I think right now, I think the rotation could be your strength. But I already got concerns about Bobby's health and, you know, the depth overall, you're going to need some strength to showcase itself. And as of right now, you don't have it. You're still winning games. That's what that's about me. Yeah. He doesn't have that and he hasn't figured that out, but they aren't winning games. And they threw a really tough part of the schedule. But also, I mean, this is one, I don't want to give the front office too much credit. But it seems like there's just, it's a different approach this year, Nick. Like they're calling up these players. And even the idea that Bredo got to call up after the Aureus injury years ago, we wouldn't have seen that years ago. We would have watched Bredo just hit in AAA and just not ever seen him come up. And so like the idea that they're getting these guys up and they're letting them play like that's, that's what this year's supposed to be all about. I did think that was the funny result of the Bredo

5:07Bosana conversation. It's people acted like you just, you brought Will Wilson back over Travis Bosana. I was like, no, guys, they love Juan Bredo. And they always kind of told us that Bredo was ahead of Bosana in this, in this little lineup that they were trying to do. And so it shouldn't have been a surprise to anybody. But I mean, I think listen, we always have to do the sample size conversation this early in the season, especially when it's somebody debuting. If if if Roqueo can just be clutch and play quality defense or for career walkoff, let's go Roqueo and and play off Roqueo as back, baby. And Bredo can just hit for a little average and a little bit of pop. Like, like you need some things to go your way. So far, the Lauders healthy and the Lauders going your way, even today at a nice walk in the eighth inning is a pinch hit that then was all for not because Kalman Zardo struck out. I think looking, I was actually, we're actually in segment, but it was a bad strikeout, whatever it was. And then but like the Lauder, that's that's pushing towards this is a really good situation.

6:10And being if you can get something up the middle, you just don't have to sweat about like when Juan starts slow or Hosey start a little bit slow. Like you. And by the way, I actually do think the offense is going to be better than this. And I think the offense is going to be better than expected. But Bredo coming up and being able to give you something up the middle offensively, it's a significant part of that. It's just this is the plan. It's what we're supposed to see. We're supposed to see guys like Bredo come up in the past. We wouldn't have seen it. And so I'm just happy that we are. It's just a weird, weird game. All things consider it. Well, and here's the thing like it with with Juan De Lauder and and Hosey atop your lineup. Yeah. That's actually a pretty formidable one through three. Even when you go beyond that with Manzo, Hoskins and in Bonaylor as you're four through six on any given night. We got Hoskins carrying the refrigerator down the first base line. I've never seen a man so slow. You see that play last night? Yeah. You've seen me run. Yeah. I don't think I have seen you run. You said play last night.

7:10It was a five six four three double play. Yeah. It was one of the worst plays that I've seen. You could literally run get a hot dog and walk back to your seat before you got to first. I'm now going to offer my services because this Reese Hoskins slowness take this will not stand. I'm offering if you need me to run next to Reese Hoskins every time he runs. So he looks like like Usain Bolt. I will do that for my love of the Guardians. I mean, it was I love to see your timed 40 versus Hoskins in that stretch there. My timed 40 is literally 40 minutes. It goes off car. See his hand and then you're like, all right, third baseman misses it. That's fine. That's going to be maybe maybe they'll pick it up and then the shortstop will throw it is that India there shortstop and he's going to throw it over. And sorry, it's probably a junior, of course. Is there a third base last night? No, that's right. It's like Garcia at third and then Bobby went obviously a short and then India was at second. India was at second. Way too way convoluted for this conversation. Yeah. It's getting very who's on first. The point is Reese Hoskins slow it baseball. All right. And by the way, to get back to it. One other comment on this on this weird note. Hoskins slow it baseball. Lane Thomas in trying to like make the final throw to the

8:17plate to actually save the game for the royals. Carpage. Yeah. Carpage. Well, he put so much of his effort into it to like seven hopped that final attempt there. Yeah, that would right field. We I know there's a reason why he was best served in left field and in Washington before they made the switch because they put a caguillon is typically out in right field for the royals and they moved him to first in a defensive change to try to give themselves a little bit of an advantage there. And Lane Thomas just had no mustard on that. But sad to see it. I think you have a chance to be a good one through six. But for this lineup to be better than expected. You like I really do think like part of quans second half stench, right? Party. Part of even hosys kind of up and down stuff where he can get really streaky. Part of the reason why I think enthrased hymenes went from being a guy that looked like a, you know, 15 to 20 home run, 260 270 hitter to being stank. Part of it I do think is these guys at the top of the lineup have consistently put so much pressure

9:22on themselves because they know they're not getting support anywhere else in lineup. And so there is if you can do one through six, that's good enough for a lot of nights in baseball. If you can bring this out to just one through nine, that you're just, you don't have any obvious outs every time up to the plate like we've had in previous years. Yeah. It's going to be a breath of fresh air this year. And I do think again, Brito coming up and hitting the law, they're doing what he's doing. Even kathas is flashed little power here like or even some. I mean, much better cave is that bats in the past couple days than what we saw in the early stretches of this season. It's just, it's hard because I, I understand what you're saying and I get all the ifs attached to all this, but I mean, cave is as much better in the past couple games. The water is obviously off to a great start, but there's a lot of players struggling right now. Well, and, but this comes all the way back to this is as good of a start as you could have had. Right? They've gotten ahead of weather now twice doing the double header on Sunday and obviously moving today's game up. So you're not behind the eight ball and trying to make up games already.

10:26It's, it's early. We got time. They, this can get behind the eight ball very quickly. But I do think nothing's really where it needs to be outside of maybe Gavin Williams right now. And if you can just win when that happens, that's how you at some point catch fire and you end up running away with the division. Like right now, I expect them to be very competitive in this division. I still actually give the royals the best chance to win it because I just, as I really don't buy a lot into where Detroit is going with this. And I think the guardians need to prove they can do this for 162 as constructed. But like you, when you're winning, when nothing really is hitting on all cylinders, that is such a good sign, especially early in the season before the weather hits and offense can take a turn that like all of a sudden, hey, man, you eaked out five more wins than you should have. That's crucial when it comes time to the trade deadline and when you're going down the stretch. I see what you're saying. But like the starting rotation has been working in many respects. And but like Gavin, like they have their things working. I think we've just become a custom to the idea that a day like today is expected, which is odd because it's a, it's a one hitter

11:29against the royals. Like that can't be what the expectation is. Gavin's been unreal in what we've seen on his outings this year. But I think Bobby has been a little touchy. Messick has been phenomenal. I've been shorting Messick. He has been awesome. Yeah, legitimately. I don't know what other way to describe it. And so like, and in part of everyone's like, oh, well, what happened for the final you know, a couple months of last year? Well, how do they erase the 15 and a half point deficit to then win the division and do all that? Well, a lot of that came with a lot of the guys that we're talking about in this rotation right now. That's slayed pitching as good as he was. That's Contillo being a lights out for the five outing sea pitch last year. Like like they just it's a, it's hard to make that the assumption because they've been so dynamic. And I got to see it continue. Matt, in a car, real quick, buddy, what you got for us? Hey, guys, so, so you know, the biggest thing, you know, I know everyone is, you know, claiming for Madonna, but my issue right now is, you know, as usual is the catcher situation. Like why? I arguably, arguably right now, I think we have two catchers and Columbus that are better than what we got right now. Like, like, like, and like,

12:35what are we doing in Valera? Like, like, maybe I missed the boat on that. I know he's been a little banged up again, but, but like, at what point, I think the thing of frustrates a lot of guardians fans is that they, like, refuse to give up on some of these guys that just cannot do anything, or, you know, someone get like one scrape up and then they won't call them back up again. Or, you know, those drag out these, you know, these guys forever, like to sit in the minor leagues. Like, I just let the guys come up at this point. Like, I'm, like, you know, I get it with Madonna, maybe, but like, at what point do you do something about this catcher situation? But, like, like, able to hit the tar out of ball, like, just, it would be nice to have a catcher for once I can actually hit. Matt, we appreciate you, buddy. Two things. One, Valera is still on rehab assignment. And he is tearing the cover off the ball at Columbus. So I would be surprised if another week goes by the offense, still struggles from the outfield and Valera is not back up. When it comes to catchers, like, I understand, Ingalls is hitting like 353s, got two home runs

13:37already in like seven games. But the guardians have always, like, a fair amount of baseball, have always aired on the side of defense over offense. As long as Bow is doing well enough defensively, they're going to be patient with his back. Yeah. What's your name is Cal Raleigh? You're not just expecting that much from the catching position. And if you look and see what he's done, it's not having a good year so far. Oh, he's miserable so far to start. But like, even last year, last year, many people consider a down year offensively for him. He was 15th in baseball. Like, as far as catchers are concerned offensively, like, there's enough there that'll keep them coming back. But it's, I mean, it's not a bad thing to point out because you can't hit his bad as he's head. It's just, but I always tell people with baseball 30 days in is when you can really start to actually nitpick and get after a lot of what the hitters are and where their expectations can be. It's just too tiny of a sample size for this part of the season. John Fanta NBC sports will talk Michigan winning the natty Ohio State's missed opportunity. Lovita Cams talk a little bit of Guardians talk as well in five minutes with Cleveland's own. John Fanta on 92 three. The fan.