There was quite a bit of action between today’s two split-squad games, so I’ll try to walk you all through the highlights. The Guardians won both games, against the Reds and Brewers, respectively, to start 2-0 in the Spring.
The addition of the ABS Challenge System to Spring Training games has brought Statcast to every Spring Training game, so we’ll have more concrete stats from every game.
The Reds game featured a few notable Guardians’ pitchers: Logan Allen, Doug Nikhazy, and Colin Holderman.
Allen was decent, and his velocity was up across the board. His CSW% (Called Strikes + Whiffs) was 25%, which is below average. Usage-wise, he dropped the usage on his sinker and picked up the usages on his cutter and changeup. That’s all.
Holderman gave up a loud homer. Velocity was about the same as it was last year. Did a decent enough job of missing bats (outside of the homer).
Nikhazy pitched 2 scoreless innings, and notably, Nikhazy’s sliders were 4 mph faster than they were last year. (unless Statcast was misclassifying those pitches).
On the offensive side, neither Kwan nor Jose got on base. Naylor and Arias had back-to-back doubles to start the scoring. (Naylor’s double was 101 off the bat). Fry went 1/3 with a 96mph RBI double to left. Carter Kieboom (lol) whacked a center-cut fastball to drive in the game’s winning runs. We saw a little of Khalil Watson, Ralphy Velazquez, and Juan Brito, too. Only Watson got on base, however. Singled and walked. Not much to talk about in Ralphy’s performance, but Brito’s highlighted an issue I know many scouts have had with him — his arm. There were a few plays with the potential to turn two, and it seemed like he just wasn’t getting much zip on the ball on his throw to first. Something to monitor throughout Spring Training as we’ve seen the Guardians toy around with Brito both at 1B and in RF.
We got to see a very funky righty reliever in Cam Shuelke. He pitches from a Tyler Rogers-esque arm angle, and threw a 68 mph slider! He was very effective, though, striking out the only batter he faced with the bases loaded.
The Brewers game was much more exciting, and was unfortunately not the game being televised. The starting lineup featured Cantillo on the mound, and DeLauter, Manzardo, Valera, Halpin, and Bazzana. DeLauter went 2/3, with his out coming off a 107mph lineout to the pitcher. Aram Leighton was at the game, and captured videos from all of DeLauter’s 3 BBE’s. You can watch them here. We also got to see Genao, Chourio, Ingle, and Alfonsin Rosario. Ingle clobbered a 3-run homer in his only at-bat. Genao walked, Chourio went 0/2, and Rosario went 0/1.
Cantillo’s velocity was up, though he seemed to be a bit all over the place in the 1st. They took him out and brought him back in for the 2nd, and he gave up a moonshot to Brandon Lockridge. Connor Brogdon came in in the 3rd and struck out 2 Brewers.