Get hyped for Travis Bazzana; Josh Naylor threw me a ball

An incredible two days of baseball happened on Wednesday and Thursday. I retrieved a foul ball from the parking lot of the Lake County Captains in Eastlake, Ohio as well as a Josh Naylor ball. He threw the ball to me after playing catch with the Cleveland Guardians infield players. I rarely get a ball so two balls in two days was kind of crazy, even if one was from the minor league. I missed Friday’s epic win but watched it on TV as I was home with my son. We keep winning.

Even better than catching a ball was seeing Travis Bazzana hit his first home run, a grand slam. We were able to snag a video of this from the best seat in the house. Bazzana was the Cleveland Guardians #1 draft pick of 2024. The hype is real. He can hit, but while we sat by the Captains dugout I heard him asking a lot of good questions about the game. Questions no other player is asking. “How does he hit? What’s his tendencies?” Bazzana is a competitor, hitter and stathead. Video credits to Nicholas Dracon.

It was a double-header win of two games for the Captains on Wednesday, and a Guardians win on Thursday. I’ve seen nothing but wins from the Cleveland teams. A good question is in the value of Matthew Boyd, who might be a sneaky player hidden in Cleveland’s triple-A team. They were also staying hot. Boyd would make an amazing 4th or 5th pitcher in the Guardians rotation, whose fate rests in starters making it through 5 innings where the bullpen then cleans it up. The truth is that the bullpen runs the show. Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis, Tim Herrin and Emmanuel Clase continue to dominate the sport.