- 2 days ago
Jeff and Dan talk about how much they like the addition of Rhys Hoskins to the Guardians' roster and how they think it makes the lineup much better.
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00:00I didn't set the bar high enough, Dano.
00:03What do you mean?
00:05Free agency started in baseball rather than say, you know what?
00:12I'd really like to win the Powerball.
00:16I'd really like to win the Powerball.
00:18It would be nice.
00:19Omega Williams would be fine.
00:20Rolling cash.
00:22It all helps.
00:23I didn't ask for any of that.
00:24No.
00:25All I asked for was...
00:27Pete Alonzo.
00:28Well, he was my original choice, but we knew that one was kind of out of question
00:33because you figured Pete was going to get big money.
00:35Kyle Tucker.
00:37And I didn't even go there.
00:39But remember, we were going to do the Let's Recruit Pete Alonzo campaigns,
00:43and we thought it was such a futile thing, we stopped it after like two tries.
00:47Well, that's actually partially because the Orioles pounced really early on Pete Alonzo.
00:51They really did.
00:51Yeah, we didn't even have time to get it going.
00:53We didn't have time today.
00:53But then I said, and you were right there along with me,
00:57we're like, hey, Reese Hoskins isn't going to cost you a whole lot of money.
01:04And though he's injured now, he has a history of producing,
01:10and you could get him cheap, and you need right-handed hitting.
01:13And we just kept saying and kept saying and kept saying,
01:17Reese Hoskins.
01:18Reese Hoskins.
01:20It's right there.
01:21Reese Hoskins.
01:21Go get him.
01:22And guess what?
01:23Yes?
01:23The Guardians did.
01:25Yeah, baby.
01:26Isn't that fabulous?
01:27Beautiful thing.
01:28That's fabulous.
01:29Here's what you want.
01:30Let's be honest here.
01:32He has to go in.
01:33He has to show that he's healthy.
01:35And he has to win a spot.
01:38But this is a guy who the Brewers did not pick up his option for $18 million.
01:43He had made, what, $17 million?
01:47The Guardians are getting him for $1.5 million.
01:50Yep.
01:51There's got to be incentives in there, I would think.
01:54But you have a motivated baseball player who needs to show that he can still do it,
02:01was doing it when he was healthy.
02:03Yeah.
02:03He was really good in the first half of the season for the Brewers.
02:05That's the thing I think that you have to remember here.
02:08When he was healthy, he was playing really well.
02:11You could say, well, he's 33 years old.
02:13He's getting up there.
02:15Well, he's not as old as Jose Ramirez.
02:19They just gave Jose a contract.
02:21So it's not like Reese is an old guy.
02:23He's turning 32 in March, or 33 in March.
02:28And he's got a track record of productivity that this team sorely needs,
02:34especially out of a right-handed bat.
02:35He's a first baseman, designated hitter.
02:38And it screams to me, Dan, okay.
02:42Today, Manzardo's at first today.
02:45Now Manzardo's a DH.
02:48And Hoskins is at first base, and then Hoskins is a DH.
02:52I would hope that they both stay healthy and both get 500 at-bats this year.
02:58I think that would be a really good thing.
03:00Hoskins, Manzardo, Jose in the middle of the lineup, go hit the ball.
03:08I want you to be right.
03:10I want that to be exactly what happens.
03:12You just throw those guys out there, and you just let all of them hit.
03:16I partially wonder if they're going to put Hoskins in a platoon.
03:19In a platoon with what?
03:21Well, CJ Cephas would be the one you'd circle.
03:23At DH?
03:24Yeah, maybe DH.
03:26Maybe you play one at first base, and then one plays right field,
03:28and it turns into a multi-position platoon.
03:31Hoskins has played the outfield, but not a ton of it.
03:34He's played left field mainly.
03:36You probably don't want to do that.
03:38That's not ideal.
03:39Reese Hoskins can hit the cover off the ball.
03:41He walks, and he's an A-plus teammate.
03:44And he's a guy with a—
03:46You hear great things about him as a teammate,
03:47so that screams Steven Vogt type of player.
03:50And he is a guy who has an OPS in his career over 720.
03:54And you don't have many of those guys.
03:57In fact, last year you had two.
03:59And mind you, that 720 number I keep throwing out,
04:02yes, we heard it a lot when it came to spins,
04:05when it came to snowboarding and skiing and all that fun stuff in the Olympics.
04:08That's league average as a hitter.
04:11You had two.
04:12Now you have three.
04:13If anyone has a problem with this signing, I don't know what to tell you.
04:17I don't know how you could have a problem with this signing
04:19because it's not even costing you any money.
04:21Right.
04:23So in seasons, and he's played eight seasons,
04:26he's had some injury issues.
04:28I'll explain those in a second.
04:30But he's played at least 107 games in five of his eight seasons.
04:35At least 107 in five seasons.
04:39In those five seasons, he averaged 29 home runs and 82 runs batted in.
04:44I did the math.
04:45Now, his injury issues are real, but they're not chronic.
04:51And by that, I mean it's not as if the guy has like a bad elbow all the time
04:57or, you know, he's always got calf injuries or always has a hammy.
05:02He was out two months last season, and he was playing really well.
05:06What happened was he made a tag play at first base,
05:08had to come off the bag and tag the guy, and the guy jammed his thumb,
05:12and he had a UCL tear or sprain in his left thumb.
05:17So he's out.
05:19When he was out, Andrew Vaughn came up, hit like crazy from Milwaukee.
05:24Yeah, he fixed something in a swing.
05:25And Pat Murphy has said, hey, we're going to play the hot guy.
05:29Well, Andrew Vaughn was the hot guy, and Jake Bowers,
05:31former Indian, was there as well.
05:34So Hoskins was not on their postseason roster.
05:37But was in the dugout throughout the entire run.
05:39Going nuts as a great teammate.
05:41Exactly.
05:41And was there throughout the entire thing.
05:43They loved him in Milwaukee.
05:45Milwaukee, it's just a similar situation the Guardians find themselves in,
05:48which is they lost their local TV revenue.
05:50They don't have the ability to turn around and pick up that option,
05:53nor do they kind of want to because Andrew Vaughn gave them exactly what they
05:57wanted after they fixed a swing.
05:58At a fraction of the price.
05:59Exactly.
06:01In 2023, in spring training, late in spring training,
06:05Hoskins tore his ACL.
06:07So he missed the entire 2023 season.
06:10Those aren't chronic injuries.
06:12Boy, that's a big injury.
06:13You're hurt.
06:13And he did it while he was out on the field, playing at first base.
06:17And then he tore the UCL in his left elbow.
06:21And he's a right-handed thrower.
06:23So he tore the UCL in his opposite, not throwing arm, in a collision at first base.
06:30So his two big injuries happened in collisions at first base,
06:34and the other happened while playing first base.
06:35So he missed the end of the 2020 season and then part of 2021.
06:41If he's healthy, then he's going to hit.
06:45I mean, that's what he's done in his career.
06:47That's what his career will tell you.
06:48If he is healthy, he hits.
06:50And you're not making a major investment, and you're not setting back your gargantuan youth movement
06:55that you have going as well, or putting up any kind of roadblocks of anyone else
06:59that you would be interested in watching play baseball for this team at those positions.
07:04Kyle Manzardo is still going to get his 500 at-bats.
07:06Fantastic.
07:06Yes, he is.
07:07Kyle's going to get them.
07:08CJ Kavis is probably going to find his way to 300 to 350 at-bats,
07:11if not more if he catches fire.
07:13Fantastic.
07:14This only adds in one more guy into this lineup if he makes the ball club out of spring training
07:20that can, A, hit the ball hard, B, draw walks, and C, have a leadership role inside of that locker
07:26room,
07:26and it means less David Fry, which we all love David Fry as a human being.
07:31He's a delight.
07:32I was just going to bring up David.
07:34But I don't thoroughly enjoy watching him play baseball,
07:36and I know some of it came back to the fact that, well, you know, he had the torn UCL
07:40last year.
07:40He had a DH.
07:41He couldn't, you know, be able to play the field and be as valuable as he was as a third
07:45catcher,
07:45and that's fine.
07:46I'll listen to that argument, but I've watched him hit enough to know that this isn't going to improve a
07:51whole bunch.
07:52He had the really, really great start two years ago and made the All-Star team,
07:59but didn't really follow it up in the second half and had the injury last year and everything else,
08:04and that's the best stretch of hitting that David has done in his career.
08:07And I, again, good player, good teammate, everything else.
08:12If you were counting on David to be your right-handed DH, you were doing it with your fingers crossed
08:18because he just doesn't have a great track record of being a big-time productive hitter.
08:23And, you know, again, as you said, good guy, extremely versatile.
08:29We'll see where his throwing arm is.
08:30You know, could he help you at catcher?
08:32Maybe.
08:33You're going to have a limited number of bench spots.
08:36Yep.
08:37And Reese Hoskins is not taking one of them.
08:40He will be, I would think, in the starting lineup.
08:43What does that do?
08:44Please give him 500 at-bats.
08:45Well, it takes the at-bats away from David Fry completely.
08:50I mean, that's where most of those come from.
08:53And then if you look around, let's just, for the sake of argument right now, put Hoskins just a DH.
08:58So, you know who's around the infield unless something changes, and that's Manzardo, Rocchio, Arias, and Jose.
09:07Jose Ramirez.
09:09Yeah, Bo Naylor at catcher.
09:10In the outfield, let's just say some combination of at least a start somewhere, Stephen Kwan, Chase DeLauter, and George
09:22Valera.
09:23Now, you've got two big question marks there, and they both involve mainly health.
09:29Can DeLauter stay healthy?
09:30If so, you want to give him as many at-bats as you can.
09:34And George Valera, I don't think, has as long of a look as Chase DeLauter.
09:39I think George might have to produce pretty quickly.
09:42And if George doesn't, you could see CJ Cephas out there.
09:46There's another guy we're forgetting about, and they brought him back, and I would assume they brought him back for
09:51a reason.
09:52Austin Hedges?
09:53That's Nolan Jones.
09:58I haven't given up on Nolan Jones, and I thought they would.
10:01To be honest, I thought they would.
10:03They can't quit Nolan Jones, and they can't quit Gabriel Arias.
10:05They just can't quit these guys.
10:07There's another guy that we haven't mentioned.
10:09Juan Brito.
10:11Does Juan Brito hit enough in spring training to make the team?
10:14We could also throw in the Jonathan Rodriguez, Angel Martinez, CJ Cephas, Daniel Schneeman.
10:23All those guys are out there, too.
10:25Unfortunately, you just mentioned four or five guys who you, again, have your fingers crossed on.
10:32And think, well, okay, and where would you play them?
10:35Well, okay, we can play Martinez at second or even at shorter, and certainly in the outfield.
10:40That's great.
10:40And Cephas can play first in the outfield.
10:43Only thing for Cephas, now he has two guys ahead of him for the exact same spot, really.
10:51Although I don't see Hoskins in the outfield too much.
10:53Yeah, I don't think they'll put Reese Hoskins in the outfield.
10:55I wouldn't think so, but you never know.
10:57I can't see that.
10:58He's played some left field, but it's been a while.
11:00He played some for Philly.
11:01Right.
11:01Earlier in his career.
11:02But I don't see that.
11:05But that guy's in my lineup every day.
11:07Yes.
11:08And Manzardo's in my lineup every day.
11:11Yes, please.
11:12And Jose Ramirez is in your lineup every single day.
11:15Yeah.
11:15If the Manzardo and Hoskins are healthy, 150 games each.
11:21You'll give them the occasional day off, but they've got to play 150.
11:24Because that gives you some oomph.
11:27It just gives you a little bit of pop.
11:28Again, the dude has averaged 29 homers and 82 runs batted in in the five seasons where
11:35he's played at least 107 games.
11:36And I explain the injuries to you.
11:39And it's not like he chronically has a bad shoulder or something like that.
11:44These were big-time injuries that happened by colliding with people, basically.
11:48Nobody on the team last year other than Jose Ramirez hit 29 homers and nobody drove in 82
11:53runs.
11:54And this guy's averaged that over five years.
11:56Yeah.
11:57So, please be healthy.
12:00And Steven Vogt, please put him on the field and leave him alone.
12:05Yes.
12:06By the way, his splits, lefty-righty, they're pretty comparable.
12:09Yep.
12:09His batting average OPS down a little bit against right-handed pitching.
12:14But again, it's the major leagues.
12:16You're going to see mostly right-handed pitching.
12:19There are lefties, and he's done a little better against lefties.
12:24Yeah.
12:24But he's hit right-handers real well.
12:25It's not drastic enough that you're taking a bath by throwing him out there against righties.
12:29You wouldn't even, I wouldn't even think you would even consider platooning him based
12:32on his past of hitting right-handed pitching and hitting it well.
12:36This is a great move.
12:38It's the reason why we've been screaming, this is the move that you need to make for
12:41three months.
12:41It's, this is a great move.
12:43This is a perfect move.
12:45It's a perfect Guardians move.
12:46Just put him out there and let him go, and then start making decisions at other positions
12:52so that you can set up a position where Kyle Manzardo gets 500 plate appearances,
12:58Reese Hoskins gets 500 plate appearances, Jose Ramirez gets 500 plate appearances, and let's
13:03go.
13:03So, and, and everywhere else you can figure out as you go, but at least those three guys
13:08need to be out there for that amount of time.
13:09Folks, it seems like you have a middle of the batting order right now.
13:13You got guys, you can hit, you know, three, four, and five.
13:17You didn't have that last year.
13:19Can you give the Guardians credit for making what looks like an absolutely no-brainer move?
13:24I certainly can, and we have 216-474-0092.
13:29It's.
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