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00:00As a 15-year guest of the show, a longtime friend of the show,
00:05back to our days when we were doing pregame for the Indians,
00:09and we absolutely love having him on the show.
00:11He knows baseball, and that's why we enjoy talking to him.
00:14He is the pride of Northeast Ohio.
00:16He's Anthony Kastrovitz from MLB.com,
00:20and right now he's on the Make It Right.
00:21Call Kyle Wright.
00:23Hotline!
00:23Anthony, what's up, man?
00:25Hi, Anthony.
00:26I'm glad you have this program so we can catch up from time to time.
00:30That's true.
00:31You guys never call anymore, so it's good you have this show to talk.
00:34We're really bad friends.
00:35We're just needy, and so when we need more baseball insight, we're like,
00:38hey, Jeff's like, who should we call?
00:39And I'm like, oh, Anthony, right?
00:41That's right.
00:42I'm happy to do this for you.
00:43No, we love having you on the show.
00:44For your charge, too.
00:45That's the beauty of the whole thing.
00:47We've noticed.
00:48We are going to double our current payroll for you, so that's good, too.
00:51All right.
00:53Here's my question.
00:54We're sitting here, before we get into nuts and bolts of the Guardians,
00:57we're sitting here talking about the season, and we're both pretty excited.
01:01All three of us are excited about the season,
01:02but are we going to spend the whole year worrying about labor strife
01:06at the end of the year?
01:09That's up to you.
01:11That's up to the individual beholder.
01:13I choose to just enjoy the season for what it is, but obviously, you know,
01:17it is a CBA year at the end, and there will be repercussions from that.
01:22But, you know, I'm kind of an optimist when it comes to labor stuff just because
01:26I do think there's a lot of competing interests, but at the end of the day,
01:29you know, the game's in a really good place.
01:31There are media rights deals to negotiate in a couple years that I think are some overhead.
01:36So, you know, it's been a brave new world in some respects.
01:42You know, the media landscape has changed so much, even since the last CBA,
01:45you know, with a lot of regional networks going defunct and everything changing in terms of that.
01:52And then, obviously, the Dodgers have really, you know, made this system work for them
01:58to a great degree with deferrals.
02:00And so there's just a lot of big stuff that needs to be addressed.
02:04There's no question about it, but, you know, there's also a lot of reason to be excited
02:07about the momentum that the league has achieved, you know, with the new rules in the last few years
02:12and just kind of taking it from there.
02:16All right.
02:16I have one thing that I think is a lock for this season.
02:21You ready?
02:23Steven Vogt will not win manager of the year.
02:26Yeah.
02:26I mean, I probably would have said that a year ago, which is crazy,
02:29because you guys just don't win that award in back-to-back years.
02:32And lo and behold, it happened in both leagues last year where it was two defending division champions
02:39that, you know, were not highly regarded going into the year.
02:43It's kind of a strange circumstance.
02:45I don't know.
02:46If they win the division again, he might have a shot at it again, because I don't know.
02:49I don't see too many people picking the Guardians to defend their title, their two titles,
02:54to go for the three-peat and the central.
02:56I don't know what you guys have seen, but I'm not seeing a lot of that.
02:59I'm seeing a lot of Tigers, some Royals.
03:01I'm not seeing a lot of guards, so he might have a shot at it.
03:05With that thought in mind, though, and, you know, fingers are crossed here,
03:09if Chase DeLauter stays relatively healthy and on the field for 120 to 140 games,
03:17which isn't setting the bar too high,
03:19and if Reese Hoskins can do what he has done for most of his career,
03:26this is a different lineup, isn't it, Anthony?
03:29It is, yeah.
03:30I mean, these are big ifs, because they have guys who are, you know,
03:35highly capable of changing the trajectory of this lineup.
03:38Chase DeLauter is chief among them.
03:40Travis Bazzana before long.
03:42You know, C.J. Capis, we saw nice things from him down the stretch last season.
03:45So it could look a lot different than did last year.
03:48And, again, yeah, to your point, particularly if Reese Hoskins has a bounce-back year,
03:52that adds a lot of thump to the picture.
03:55And also, you know, Stephen Kwan playing some or maybe a lot of center field
04:00is not to be overlooked because it just makes this lineup, this roster, function better.
04:05It just makes a lot more sense when he's in center field, to my eyes anyway.
04:10Yep, I agree.
04:11But these are huge ifs.
04:13I mean, Chase DeLauter is, to me, no pressure on a kid who's, what is he, 24,
04:19and he's played about 100 games in the minor leagues.
04:22But I just can't help but feel like so much of the season hinges on him
04:26and his development and mostly his health.
04:28I mean, this guy, when he's on the field, and this has been the case for a couple years now,
04:33going back, you know, when he was in spring training with them two years ago
04:37and not even a part of big league camp formally, and yet playing, like, it felt like every day.
04:43I mean, there were several games I was at where Chase DeLauter is on the field
04:47and was the best player on the field.
04:48He just has that real natural hit tool, that shortened swing, and just a lot of good attributes.
04:55But, you know, health has not been one of them.
04:57So, if he's healthy and he can make the adjustment quickly to big league pitching,
05:03you know, that definitely changes his lineup in a hurry.
05:06The one thing about that, too, to me, if he doesn't, well, you're rolling back the same offense
05:12that was basically bottom two in Major League Baseball in just about every category that matters.
05:19So, he better, and Reese Hoskins better be pretty solid.
05:23Otherwise, it's the same offense that you struggled with.
05:27Yeah, I mean, and Hoskins, it depends on, you know, what you're getting from David Fry,
05:31from Kyle Manzardo.
05:32You know, I mean, there's a world where Hoskins is a bust,
05:35and this is still a functional, good, young, predominantly young lineup.
05:40So, to me, he's not as big of a linchpin as DeLauter and Bazana,
05:44who I think, you know, you might see Bazana in the first, you know,
05:48within the first six to ten weeks of the season.
05:52But, you know, again, it's very nice if Reese Hoskins comes through for them, for sure.
05:59Where do we ultimately think Kwon's going to stick for the entire season?
06:03Is this still an experiment with him in center field,
06:06or do you think that they're like, okay, we're good with it?
06:08I think from everything I've heard, he's good with it, they're good with it.
06:12It's interesting from his perspective because, you know, this guy's won, what,
06:16four gold gloves, I believe, in left field and would be, you know,
06:20penciled in for another one if he's an everyday left fielder.
06:22But he's, you know, he's risking that hardware, that personal achievement
06:28for the betterment of the team.
06:29Or for a better contract in free agency because he's playing great defense
06:35in center field?
06:36Yeah, I mean, I think that can only benefit him, you know.
06:40Like, I don't think another gold glove in left field does anything for him
06:42in eventual free agency.
06:44But I think showing that, yeah, that he can ably handle center field,
06:48which is a really tough position to fill in the big leagues right now,
06:51and the Guardians are an example of that, yeah, that only augments his value.
06:54So in the net, you know, in the long run, this could be great for him.
06:58But in the short run, he is, you know, taking somewhat of a risk
07:01for the good of the team.
07:03But again, I just think it makes so much sense, you know,
07:05when you have, you know, a clog of corner outfielders
07:09and no obvious center fielder.
07:11I mean, you know, maybe you're robbing yourself defensively a little bit.
07:15But I think Stephen Kwan, he's an elite among the elite in left field,
07:19and there's no reason to believe he can't make an able, you know,
07:21a really good transition to a really good center fielder as well.
07:25So, you know, do you want to go through the rotation for a second
07:29a little bit more here for me and just kind of, you know, your feelings on that?
07:32I know you said that, and I agree with you, like, I can't find anywhere
07:35that everyone's saying, well, the Guardians can do this,
07:38the Guardians can do this.
07:39And maybe the fact they don't have a whole lot of respect going into the season
07:43is just another reason why they do what they've done for the last couple years.
07:47They're a pain in the you-know-what to the rest of the Central,
07:49and then all of a sudden, boom, they end up in first place
07:51the last game of the season.
07:53Obviously, this is going to be guided by the rotation.
07:56Yeah, because that's what the rise is guided by.
07:59Now, they were like a league average offensive club for the last month
08:02or six weeks or whatever it was last year, and that augmented them overall.
08:06But it was really the starting pitching just went to another level, you know,
08:10from the time the bullpen had to shake up, bullpen and the rotation had to shake up
08:14with the gambling and careers and whatnot.
08:16So they went with the sixth man.
08:18Again, they don't need to do that from the start of this season.
08:22But, you know, so Logan Allen's the odd man out for now.
08:25But, you know, Bybee, Williams, Ciccone, Cantillo, Messek is your starting five
08:30going into the year.
08:31And all of them showed reason to be excited last year.
08:34I think Cantillo has been widely identified as a breakout candidate this year.
08:39I'm a big believer in him.
08:41But I do wonder about the depth.
08:43You know, there's not a lot there beyond this group and beyond Logan Allen.
08:47You know, when you get into the AAA level, you know,
08:51the organization just doesn't have the depth it once did.
08:53So that is a concern if injury rears its ugly head.
08:57But, you know, those guys really stepped up down the stretch.
08:59I thought Gavin Williams really started to put together from a, you know,
09:02controlled command standpoint, started to look like the guy he was intended to be.
09:06You know, Bybee kicked it into gear and gets his first opening day start.
09:11So that's cool.
09:12But, yeah, to me, Cantillo is kind of an interesting X factor in that group.
09:18Is there a guy that you think, because Logan Allen is your depth and that's about it.
09:27Do you see anybody on the horizon who might be the next Tanner Bybee,
09:32Gavin Williams, in this organization, and how far away might they be?
09:37I don't know.
09:38That's tough.
09:39You know, it's hard to know what to make of, you know,
09:44Daniel Espino with the injuries he's had.
09:46It's hard not to be excited about the stuff and the fact that, you know,
09:51he's upright again.
09:52But you don't want to put any pressure on him because, you know,
09:55the injury history is pretty extreme there.
09:57So it's hard to get too excited.
09:58But he is still, you know, in that, on the periphery.
10:03So, or I should say he's back on the periphery.
10:05But their system is really oriented towards bats right now,
10:10which is a strange thing to say for an organization that, you know,
10:13has had trouble churning those out in the recent last couple decades, really.
10:20So, you know, it's hard for me to target a guy who's like, you know,
10:24those are special arms.
10:25You know, when you're, they were churning out for a while there, you know,
10:27the, you bring in Shane Bieber and he becomes a Cy Young under the tutelage
10:33of Corey Kluber, who was, you know, acquired in a trade and nowhere,
10:37no one was identifying him as what he became.
10:40They turned him into that and they can still do great things with arms.
10:44They have the ability to draft and develop arms like nobody's business.
10:47But it's just interesting that we've kind of reached this point where the
10:51system is more skewed towards position players right now.
10:54Um, so if, if there is a need mid season, it might have to come externally.
10:58Like that's something we haven't seen here in a long time where, you know,
11:02if they were in contention and, you know, things are popping at the trade
11:05deadline, I mean, they, they might be a club that who knows how the season
11:09develops.
11:09Yeah.
11:10If they stay healthy, they have a very good rotation,
11:12but we all know the attrition rate in this game.
11:15And so that's, that's probably, um, it's weird to say, cause their offense was
11:21bottom of the barrel last year, but that is a concern going into the season is
11:25maybe the biggest concern is just the death.
11:27You know, is it going to be there if, if, uh, if that attrition rate hold
11:31through, I don't know.
11:32Uh, Anthony, I thought it was interesting.
11:33Cause I was looking through the MLB.com media guide and you're listed at six,
11:39four when I know you're like five, nine and a half, right?
11:41Why did you make yourself taller in this day of ABS?
11:45Uh, I wore the, uh, the, um, what are the, uh, the lifts?
11:50Yeah.
11:50They, uh, Mickey, Mickey from Seinfeld.
11:52Uh, I was lifting.
11:53That's what I'm trying to call it.
11:54Yeah.
11:54I was lifting.
11:55Um, no, it's, it's interesting that, um, you know, with ABS for fans who don't
12:01know, uh, it's the player's strike zone is based on his height and not his
12:06stance, like his, his height, you know, standing straight up, uh, without shoes
12:11against the wall.
12:12Like they have very strict protocols.
12:13They even got it down to time of day.
12:16They have to be measured between 10 AM and noon because you can technically
12:19shrink over the course of a day and they want as much accuracy as possible.
12:24So as a result, a lot of players have now, uh, had their heights in media
12:31guides or on MLB.com are now more accurate.
12:35And a lot of guys shrunk right before our eyes, because as we all know for
12:38decades, it has been tradition for guys' heights to be exaggerated, uh, in those
12:44circles.
12:44So, but it's, it's funny thing about the whole thing is that Shohei Otani got an
12:48inch taller.
12:49So this guy doesn't have enough going on for him now, you know, back to back
12:54champion, greatest player ever, blah, blah, blah, blah.
12:56And Oh, by the way, it turns out he's an inch taller than initially listed.
13:00So good for him.
13:01Are you, is this going to work?
13:03Yeah, I mean, I've seen enough of it to love it.
13:06Uh, I've seen enough of it in the minor leagues.
13:08It's kind of been, um, you know, this and the pitch clock in the last five, six
13:11years have been, I've written a lot, a lot about, um, and, and, you know, seen
13:16all the data and all that stuff.
13:17And this, I'm less, uh, like this is less necessary to me than the pitch clock.
13:23The pitch clock was like addressing a really existential question of, you know,
13:27where are we headed when, when games are routinely taking three and a half hours to
13:31play nine innings?
13:32Like that is not good for the product.
13:33So that was necessary.
13:35This, this is more nuanced and, you know, there is nuance within the system.
13:39Like there's nothing that's a hundred percent accurate.
13:42Right.
13:42And there is some margin for error, uh, with the technology, but you know, it's pretty
13:48much 99% right and worth doing for, for the biggest calls.
13:52I like that, you know, it's put in the hands of the teams to decide when to employ it.
13:57I love the strategic element of that.
13:58And having seen a lot of games with it in the minor leagues, uh, it's pretty seamless.
14:04Like, um, it's quick, you know, it's fun.
14:08And, um, again, I, I just like the strategy of it.
14:11I will warn you.
14:12I think we're going to have some situations, especially early in the year where teams just
14:16run out of challenges and it becomes, well, why don't we just have full robot umps or why
14:21don't teams have more challenges or whatever?
14:23But just know that they have studied this from every which way and by far what was preferred
14:29was the challenge system versus the full robot ops.
14:32The full robot ops actually really slowed down the game a lot more walks.
14:36Um, and this was just kind of seen as a happy medium and even they, and they tried three
14:40challenges and now it's two.
14:41Um, they thought three bogged down the game a bit too much.
14:44So, so they're down to two.
14:46So, um, we've done a lot of polling and, and, you know, player polling, fan polling, et
14:50cetera.
14:50And this is what they've come up with.
14:52So I'm pretty excited about it.
14:53I want to go back to Travis Bazzana for a second.
14:56Obviously all of us so anxious to see him and played college ball has that experience
15:03and everything from folks you've talked to.
15:06How close to major league ready is he?
15:09You know, it's interesting cause he missed a couple months of development last year,
15:15you know, with, with injury, um, and then was off not for a long time, but he was off
15:19on the other side of the world, you know, in the WBC, um, in Japan with, with team Australia.
15:24So there've probably been some, you know, hindrances, I guess, to, to being where he could
15:30be or should be.
15:31But I mean, generally speaking, there's a really smart player, a really talented player, a college
15:35player, you know, those guys matriculate to the big leagues faster than
15:38ever nowadays.
15:39Um, so, you know, you never know until, you know, until you see it, but, um, he's a really
15:46adaptable guy.
15:47And so I do think that when they do deem him ready, I do think it will be for good
15:53reason.
15:53Like, I think they'll feel like he's in a really good place to adapt to the big leagues quickly.
15:57Um, when that exactly will happen.
16:00I don't know, but I do think that just knowing the complexion of the middle infield, um, you
16:06know, it would not shock me at all.
16:08If, if he's up here by Memorial day or, or sooner, um, we all know the service time implications
16:13and all that stuff, but he wasn't held back because of service time.
16:16He was held back to the reasons I said, you know, he missed a couple of months last year
16:19and he was off at the WBC, you know, those, those things, um, you know, can impact your
16:24readiness.
16:25All right.
16:25What do you got cooking on MLB.com?
16:28Oh, all kinds of stuff.
16:29So we've got a deep dive, uh, it's called going deep, uh, a recurring segment on MLB's
16:35YouTube page.
16:36Uh, where I'm just doing essays throughout the course of the season on, on key topics.
16:40And right now there's a 30 team preview up there.
16:42It's kind of fun.
16:43And, uh, we also have the morning lineup podcast you can check out where it's like, it's 10
16:48minutes or less every morning, recapping, uh, the, the previous day's events and MLB.
16:54So that's a great way for, for fans to catch up on things quickly.
16:57Anthony, awesome stuff.
16:58You know, we love talking to you all the time.
17:00Keep up the great work at MLB.com.
17:01My friend.
17:02Thanks, buddy.
17:02All right, guys.
17:03Great to hear from you.
17:04All right.
17:04He is Anthony Castrovitz, MLB.com pride of Northeast Ohio.
17:07He's on the make it right.
17:08Call Kyle, right.
17:09Hotline.
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