Al Pawlowski | Cleveland Guardians Insider, Bally Sports Great Lakes

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Download Thumbtack and start a project today. We're pleased to welcome Al Polowski who covers the Guardians and has Guardians live to his credit. This is on Valley Sports Great Lakes.

He's also the TV sports anchor for channel three in Cleveland. Yeah, right now this team is surging and they're setting the pace as we hit the summer. What's gotten into these Guardians?

Well, that's a great question that so many people back in March were telling me like this is never going to happen. This team can't win more than 80-85 games if they're lucky but basically everything has gone right for Cleveland this year that could go right. The only thing that's maybe a little bit of a negative is the starting pitching. They're not getting as deep as you know they would like but that's it. Bullpens the best in baseball by just about any metric you look at.

ERA, whips, strikeouts, etc, etc. The offense is coming up with key hits. They're hitting for power. Cleveland was going to need to find power in the offseason.

Turns out the power was here. Jose Ramirez, Josh Naylor on pace to go even further you know with the home runs and what they had before. Now some of the young guys that power is developing so really everything that that can go right for Cleveland for the most part has gone right.

Bo Naylor ends up a home run shy of the cycle. He was all over the base paths on Tuesday evening as the Guardians beat the Orioles and I saw a quote from him that I thought was interesting wanted to ask you about it. He says he thinks the club is just good at adjusting to any situation that they face. What makes them so good at any situation?

I think that's a great question. I think it sums them up well too. Whatever their role might be they fulfilled that well and then to build on that quote that you had from Bo just you know a day or two ago after the game it was they were talking to the pitchers in the bullpen you know our guys and saying hey what you know why has the bullpen been so good? Well each guy has a role but on top of that they might not be in that role that night. For example Nick Sandlin before he went on the injured list he was a guy that you know Stephen Vogt could use in the fifth inning he could use him in the eighth inning he could use them to save a game once. So Nick Sandlin was kind of his swiss army knife. We're going to put you in whenever there's a high leverage situation but sometimes you might wind up pitching the eighth or ninth inning. Kade Smith is another guy like that. He's become a high leverage guy since Sandlin has gone on the IL so he could appear in any situation.

So I think that's a big part of it. Guys know their roles they fulfill their roles but then when Stephen Vogt puts them in a different role they fulfill that too which is why they're you know 25 games over 500 right now and we're not even in July. Couple years ago they were the youngest team in baseball kind of took a blip in 23 but back on the rise now in 24. We're spending a few minutes with Al Polowski who is host of Guardians Live on Valley Sports Great Lakes.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. Now with some perspective Al looking back to last season how would you describe what happened in 23? So many people thought that 2022 was the anomaly. It turns out Amy that 2023 looks like it was the anomaly that you know this team that you said a couple of years ago youngest in baseball still you know one of the youngest teams last year um they just kept developing and 2023 was that blip. So if you look back at 2022 when they won 92 games they went to the postseason they got eliminated by the Yankees in the second round of the playoffs they took them to a game five to do it. Those teams won a lot of one-run games they got a lot of key hits.

Last year the opposite happened. They were in a lot of close games again but they weren't getting the key hits they were the ones that were falling a runner too short here and there. This year now the player development has continued so you know again guys like Naylor and you know Ramirez is already a superstar but their power continues to go up.

Stephen Kwon has right now become the best hitter on the planet when it comes to hitting for average so his development has taken a huge leap forward and he was already a good hitter. So all that has continued the development has continued and now they're once again getting those key hits but they're not playing in quite as many close games they're still playing in a lot of them but now they're with the long ball they're starting to to build that lead to where fifth inning sixth and they might be up by a run or two but then the bullpen comes in and again it's the best at baseball so they're able to hold the other team then Cleveland adds another run or two and now by the time you get to the ninth inning if you're up by three runs or even four runs and here comes the manual classe yet so far you basically have no chance against them now I don't know if that's going to continue the whole season but they've got the best closer in the game and when he's got any sort of a cushion at all I mean one run is usually enough but if you give them two three or four I mean forget it you don't have a chance. Well I'm glad you said that because it does take a lot of pressure off pitchers when they have a lead obviously they're not always pitching in situations where even a walk or a base runner can make a big difference so what do the pitching staff has to say about an offense that provides so much support and so much cushion? Yeah that makes it easier to pitch exactly what you're saying because let's say the game is tied in the in the fifth or sixth inning you know the bullpen knows that the offense because of the way it's going this year they're going to still score runs late and they generally get the better of the other team's bullpen so if you're the guys pitching let's say inning six through eight whether you're Kate Smith, Scott Barlow, Hunter Gaddis, Tim Herron, Sam Hentges I mean these guys know that if they just do their job for their three outs or four outs or two outs whatever it might be that they're probably going to win and then when you've got a guy like Classe sitting there in the ninth inning I mean that's all you really need to do is get the ball to him and the game's over. Yeah when you have that cushion and you have a history now this year the I mean for the first three months so this is this is more than just a blip or a small sample size this is a trend you've got a team that can score a lot they can score late they score in clutch situations so again it's just confidence building on confidence I mean this team if you look at their record and what they've done you can go back to the 90s and those powerful Indians teams with guys like Bell, Ramirez, Tomi etc etc I mean those teams would just beat up on teams but they also had really strong bullpen there are similarities the offense isn't as powerful as it was I don't think you'll ever see another lineup like the 95 Indians but what you're seeing here in 2024 with the Guardians with the bullpen it's even better than those mid 90s bullpens and it still has some semblance of power and it has guys that hit for average so you've got a lot of ingredients that are just all working together really well. Al Belowski is with us in the wake of the Guardians victory to start this series of Baltimore on the road at Camden Yards it's after hours with Amy Lawrence if you didn't bring up Stephen Kwan I was going to because he's become appointment tv or appointment radio whenever he's at the plate batting what roughly 385 what's the secret to this meteoric rise? Well a couple of things and yeah he's fun to watch he's a throwback because he's a hitter that will take what the pitcher gives him so excellent play coverage understands the strike zone I think as good as any hitter in all of baseball doesn't swing at bad pitches if he's taking a pitch he's like Kyle Swarber talking with scout about Swarber a couple of months ago almost every pitch Kyle Swarber takes is a ball same thing with Stephen Kwan if he's taking a pitch and you're an umpire you better be darn sure unless it's right down the middle it's probably a ball so he doesn't swing at bad pitches and now what's making him more dangerous is he's developing that power his hands were always quick I think they've gotten a little quicker if you try to beat him on the inside with the fastball he could turn on that and take you out to right field he's already got a career high seven home runs for this season he's on pace to hit about 15 this is a lead-off hitter that hits for average and now he's showing some power he's driving and runs ultimately too I mean this is a guy who is I mean he's highly intelligent he's at the peak of his athletic career he loves the game of baseball his hobby is chess and he pretty much destroys anybody that tries to play him in chess so this is what you're dealing with at the plate you're dealing with not just somebody who's a good ball player with a lot of athleticism you're dealing with a highly intelligent guy that understands his swing understands what the opponents are trying to do to him and he can counter back as good as anybody right now in baseball shades of potentially an ichiro who never met a pitch he couldn't hit somewhere exactly and and Stephen Kwan will tell you that that's one of the guys that he idolized growing up wow you see some of that in his it's a little different but you do see some of that ad with what ichiro does Stephen Kwan does some of that too which hey if you want to imitate ichiro that's fine by me that guy had a lot of success I actually didn't know that so that's kind of funny you're talking about his ability to hit and just knowing what he does to pitchers and the kind of angst and stress well what about jose ramirez how are you seeing teams try to pitch around him or maybe tiptoe be careful around a guy who's got as much power as he does yeah jose ramirez is one of those guys that isn't in a lot of slumps occasionally he goes into one but when he is on a heater and he's been on you know a pretty good heater now of late he had a couple others earlier in the season he'll expand his strike zone a little bit but it's for the better if you remember back in the 90s again i'll use carlos bayerga excellent bad ball hitter so you could throw him anywhere near the plate he was going to go out there and get it jose can do that too so if you are going to try to pitch around him you've got to really pitch around him because if you get it anywhere near his hot zones even if you're a little bit off the plate doesn't matter he could still beat you that way he too has incredibly quick hands he understands the game plan against him i think you know as well as anybody in baseball another highly intelligent hitter spends a lot of time in the video room and just has you know that that next level of athleticism as a hitter i mean there's some guys that you look at and they put a ton of time in and they just made themselves into all-stars well jose does that but on top of it he's just got great ability again he's got a pretty good eye if he's got one fault it's that he will go chasing a little bit because he wants to hit so badly he's like that you know that player that was your teammate in little league when you're like 12 years old and it's like i don't want to walk i'm going to go up there i'm hitting that's kind of jose ramirez he wants to hit so not pitching around him he's showing you it's it's a mistake if you're going to pitch to him in key situations but here's the thing amy you've got josh nailer behind him and when josh is rolling if you put jose ramirez on base and let's say there's already somebody at second now you got him at first and second or you load the bases you know josh nailer's the guy too that man when he is hot and he's a little more hot and cold than jose is but when he's hot he's as dangerous as anybody too and he's got power he's got 20 home runs this season so it's kind of dark if you do darn if you don't you pitch to jose ramirez probably a mistake but if you put him on and josh nailer's behind him and he's hot now you got to pitch to him with runners on base and that's not funny either long time cleveland fans of course remember manny ramirez even though he i guess made more of a name for himself manny being manny when he was with the red sox but he obviously was in cleveland before that he's from the dr jose ramirez also dominican does he pay any attention to the all-time home run list and the fact that he just passed up manny ramirez i think he does i think every player pays attention to those lists more than they'll ever let on right but he he kind of acts like you know whatever it's just i'm going to go out here and play baseball and i love to play and there is that element to him where he just loves to play we've seen guys come through here like that um the difference is obviously jose a switch hitter good defender i mean he's regressed a touch in the field from what he was three four years ago maybe but still a very good defender at third base manny was just that pure right-handed hitter who could just mash with any sort of bat at all wasn't a good defender had a great arm wasn't a good outfielder though wasn't a switch hitter maybe the best pure right-handed hitter that i've ever seen in my lifetime but in some ways jose can be a little bit more dangerous because he's a switch hitter but of course manny had probably a little bit more power too but it's the comparison is is interesting and yeah i i think you know i think that that jose probably pays a little bit of attention to what he's doing historically with the club as well al polowski is with us to talk about this guardians team that now has a nine game lead over the next closest team in the al central and best winning percentage in the american league what might they do at the trade deadline great question what they need is what you know a lot of teams always seem to need a starting pitcher and this is really the first time that cleveland's needed it because they've always had an abundance of it but with shane bieber going down after just two starts this year and after those two starts it looked like you know he was on pace to contend for a psi young award again like you want in 2020 but him going down mackenzie you know having some struggles as well for cleveland logan allen even though cleveland won tonight they outflugged baltimore 10 to 8 but logan allen he gave up six runs in three innings so you're seeing a starting pitching staff that's a little bit thin tanner bybee on his way to becoming an ace great kid his slurve is developing now it's fantastic uh ben lively has exceeded expectations that was a guy in cleveland now basically got for free in the off season and he's really working out well but after those two the consistency is just not there so they need a starting pitcher that's not going to come cheap by way of prospect cost they could also use another bat but that's a lot less important now because some of the young hitters that have come up have done really well daniel schneeman has has really had a great month of june since he came up on june 2nd you're seeing tyler freeman develop uh arias had some hits tonight as well so you're seeing some of these young hitters develop which is opposite of what cleveland typically has been in the past typically cleveland is bringing up pitchers left and right and whoever they bring up whatever role they put them in they're succeeding they didn't have a lot of young hitters recently that they were developing this year it's kind of the opposite you're seeing these young hitters develop now and the bullpen too pitching wise fine but you need a starter maybe even two but again that's gonna right now at least that would come at a very high prospect cost so we'll see how it develops obviously devastating to lose shane bieber so early in the season any update on him after surgery so everything's going well um and he's out for the rest of the year his contract is up after this year too you know love to find a way to to have him back in cleveland next year he's been a great guy in the clubhouse he's performed well on the field overall good guys teammates love him so right now on track to pitch somewhere next year at some point in mlb probably not at the start of the year but uh the update we got from him we just had him on our show about i don't know a week or so ago and you know he said everything's going well feeling pretty good occasionally shows up hangs out with the team puts the uni on hangs out in the dugout so it's good to see him but yeah unfortunately we won't see him anymore this year and that's a shame it really is how much fun are the fans having feels like i'm hearing from a lot more of them on my show yeah a ton attendance is up a part of that is because the refurbishments have been right on track with progressive field i mean you've got a lot of cool places to hang out and watch a game so it's it's easy to watch a game in cleveland right now on top of that you got a winner uh you know and cleveland fans have always supported a winner they've had six sellouts now seven sellouts it's between six and seven i got to look back at my numbers there but but it's already more sellout at this point in the year than they've had in over a decade uh they had their first sellout in may this past year that they've had since 2011 so they're showing up they're watching baseball they're loving it hey it's an exciting team they're fun to watch when you can do a little bit of everything you know they're not playing a bunch of two to one games occasionally they'll be one mixed in they're not playing a lot of you know 12 to 10 games a couple occasionally a couple mixed in but you've just got good strong entertaining baseball right now so yeah they're having a lot of fun and you know the cabs went out early the browns are always a big question mark but this this guardians baseball team is one that consistently it started with tito it's continued now steven vote they can be a playoff contender year in year out they've done it for over a decade so you know the fan base is they've responded no question still though i miss tito tito guided this team to the point at which it could be a contender yes and the toughest thing is to amy so i mean hall of fame man it's no doubt about it great guy to be around just you know wonderful guy everybody loves tito so you've got to try to replace him right somehow steven vote you're never going to replace tito but somehow steven vote has been able to succeed coming after a hall of fame manager that is something pretty special too now again we're not even at the midway point this year injuries happen you know baseball's a long season so many things can go wrong i get it but so far you know steven vote he's pulled all the right strings the front office has done a great job it's been a lot of fun to see him build on what tito has done certainly is a ton of momentum 51 and 26 a seven game win streak after taking out baltimore on tuesday night you can find al palowski on twitter at al palowski p-a-w-l-o-w-s-k-i guardians live on valley sports great lakes it's always good to talk cleveland sports especially since my mom's whole side of the family is from youngstown they're always really proud of me thank you so much for your time you got it amy anytime tune in is the audio platform with something for everyone news in order to secure convictions in a court of law it is 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