News and Notes: Guardians Return Triumphant with Bazzana Spoils

News and Notes for Saturday, July 20th, 2024

The Guardians returned to action with a 7-0 shutout victory over the Padres, Friday night, in front of another sell-out crowd.

Tanner Bibee had to shake off some rust but went 5 and 2/3rds scoreless, walking three but only allowing two hits and striking out three. Meanwhile, the Guardians offense struggled to do much until Daniel Schneemann singled home David Fry in the fifth and then the pent up flood released in a six-run 8th inning started by a two-run José single and another two-run single from Brayan Rocchio later on.

It was great to see Fry go 3 for 3 with a walk and Guardians hitters generally hitting the ball hard. To follow up a note from yesterday's article on needed second-half adjusments, the Padres had to throw 157 pitches, 14 pitches more than the number the Guardians see in an average game this year.

Earlier in the day, MLB pipeline announced that number one draft pick Travis Bazzana would sign for $8.9M (about $1.6M below slot value), and the Guardians proceeded to have a press conference with Bazzana. You can view it here:

Bazzana said he really wanted to be in the Guardians organization and the number he accepted to do so seems to indicate some truth behind that PR statement. John Kampf of the News Herald offered some great takeaways from the press conference in his article.

Apparently, Bazzana will start at Lake County sometime next week. He will also take batting practice with the Guardians tomorrow, according to the Athletic's Zack Meisel.

You can follow draft signings for the Guardians via this link.

Around MLB:

The Tigers and Royals won.

The Twins somehow got another day off before they begin play again tomorrow against the Brewers