Three Positives From the Week of June 9th

Another week full of positives for the Guardians and their affiliates.

A 3-2 week still had plenty of good notes for the Cleveland Guardians and their affiliates. Here are the three most positive moments from this week in Cleveland baseball.

Kwan Still On Fire

If I told you that Steven Kwan was hitting .398/.456/.545 you would think “Oh yeah that makes sense, it must be the first week of April”. Now what if I told you it was June 17th? You’d better believe it because it’s true. Kwan is currently leading the league in batting average and boasts a whopping 1.002 OPS. Even though he missed some time to injury, he picked up right where he left off and never missed a beat with his offense.

He’s the perfect kind of hitter to occupy the leadoff spot, and his return was greatly awaited by the team. His .456 on-base percentage all but guarantees he’ll get on base for the two and three-spot hitters. His 39 runs scored on the year have done a pretty good job of proving that.

Captains Make the Playoffs

With a victory over the Fort Wayne TinCaps on Saturday night, the Guardians’ High-A affiliate Lake County Captains clinched the Midwest League East First Half Division title. This was guaranteed shortly after the game when the Dayton Dragons defeated the second-place Great Lake Loons. The Captains are now guaranteed a playoff spot regardless of how they play the rest of the year.

The Captains, however, have no intentions of slowing down. With names like Matt Wilkinson throwing heat off the mound and Guy Lipscomb providing some power at the plate, the Guardians’ future is in good hands.

All-Star Update

MLB released its first update in All-Star Game fan voting this afternoon, and things are looking bright for Cleveland. Third baseman José Ramírez is leading at his position with 742,910 votes. Second-place Jordan Westburg of the Baltimore Orioles is at 366,670. I think it’s safe to say José has this one on lock.

First baseman Josh Naylor came in at third place with 404,389 votes, almost 300,000 behind second place Ryan Mountcastle. Designated hitter David Fry is in a tight race for second, just 28,000 votes behind Giancarlo Stanton. It also looks safe that Steven Kwan will earn the nod with 464,274 votes, 185,000 clear of the cutoff. Voting ends June 27th at 12:00 pm ET.