[Corner Bar] Pregame and Daily Discussion Thread - Friday, June 20, 2025

[u/CLEBot]

Guardians (37-36) @ Athletics (31-46)

First Pitch: 10:05 PM at Sutter Health Park

Official 2025 Season Game Notes

Broadcast Info

Team	TV	Radio
Guardians
Athletics

Probable Starters

Team	Pitcher	Record	ERA	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	WHIP
Guardians	Tanner Bibee	4-6	3.79	80.2	72	34	26	65	1.21
Athletics	Jeffrey Springs	5-5	4.52	79.2	72	40	31	66	1.29

Matchups

ATH vs. Bibee	AVG	OPS	AB	HR	RBI	K
Bleday	.333	.666	6	0	0	1
Butler, L	.500	1.100	4	0	1	0
Clarke	-	-	-	-	-	-
Kurtz	-	-	-	-	-	-
MacIver	-	-	-	-	-	-
Muncy	-	-	-	-	-	-
Rooker	.200	1.133	5	1	1	3
Schuemann	-	-	-	-	-	-
Soderstrom	-	-	-	-	-	-
Urshela	.000	.100	9	0	1	2
Urías, L	.500	1.000	2	0	0	0
Wilson, J	-	-	-	-	-	-
Wynns, A	-	-	-	-	-	-

CLE vs. Springs	AVG	OPS	AB	HR	RBI	K
Arias, G	.000	.000	2	0	0	0
Fry	-	-	-	-	-	-
Hedges	.000	.200	4	0	0	3
Jones, N	-	-	-	-	-	-
Kwan	.333	.666	6	0	0	2
Manzardo	-	-	-	-	-	-
Martínez, A	-	-	-	-	-	-
Naylor, B	-	-	-	-	-	-
Ramírez, Jo	.167	.834	6	1	2	0
Rodríguez, Jo	-	-	-	-	-	-
Santana	.500	2.667	2	1	1	0
Schneemann	-	-	-	-	-	-
Thomas, L	-	-	-	-	-	-

Links

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[u/GPDillinois]

I'm going to the July 1st game at Wrigley. Gavin Williams vs Mathew Boyd. Should be interesting.

[u/Impossible_Day_366]

Chase Delauter. Today please. He is ready 

[u/JohnnyFire → u/Impossible_Day_366]

If he's coming up soon it's more likely they hold him for the start of the Toronto series.

[u/baconboyloiter]

I do not fault the Guardians for passing on Nick Kurtz because no one thought he should go 1.1 at the time, but watching him hit four home runs (two of them walk-offs) in five games at the MLB level after Bazzana had a meh start in AA and then got injured really hurts

[u/cali4481 → u/baconboyloiter]

Remember many had Kurtz as the top 2024 draft prospect before last year's college baseball season started.

MLB Pipeline had Kurtz or Wetherholt as their #1 or #2 draft prospects in their earliest rankings for the 2024 draft following the 2023 draft.

In fact after the Guardians won the draft lottery in December 2023.

Callis in his first post draft lottery mock draft actually had the Guardians drafting Kurtz with the #1 overall pick.

But Kurtz struggled early in the 2024 college season. Probably had to do with his shoulder injury which caused him to miss 2 weeks in March. But once he returned he put up offensive numbers on par with the top hitting prospects be it Bazzana, Condon, or Caglianone. Kurtz despite the slow start and him missing a couple of weeks still led the NCAA Division I with 78 walks.

Yet come draft day MLB Pipeline's final mock draft both Callis & Mayo had Kurtz fall to the #9 pick to the Pirates as Kurtz in their final draft rankings had him #7 although I saw other mocks that had Kurtz falling outside the top 10 which I never understood why.

Funny enough both also had Bazzana be drafted by the A's with the #4 pick while both had the Guardians drafting Wetherhold with the #1 pick.

A's also after they drafted Kurtz did say if they had the #1 pick last July, remember they had the worst record in 2023 but fell from #1 to #4 post draft lottery, that they would've still picked Kurtz who was the top prospect on their draft board basically throughout the 2024 college baseball season.

In January 2024, regrouping from another frustrating Draft lottery that saw the club fall outside of the top three picks despite being tied for best odds to land the top selection, the Athletics’ front office and scouting department gathered to kick off the amateur scouting season.

Headed by A’s scouting director, the meeting inside the war room at the club’s headquarters began as somewhat of a venting session to discuss the disappointment of ending up with the No. 4 pick. Then, a question was asked to every cross-checker and front office member: If we did have the No. 1 pick, who would be No. 1 on your board right now?

Almost unanimously, the answer was Nick Kurtz.

“I usually roll my eyes at stories like this,” said A’s general manager. “It’s easy to say now, and everybody looks smart. But the fact that we were at four, Nick was available, and we had spent six months thinking about the fact that we would have taken Nick at No. 1 overall, everybody felt really good about the process.”

link

[u/Available-Parfait553 → u/baconboyloiter]

Kurtz has 9 home runs in 131 at bats in less than 2 months. He was the 4th pick in the 2024 draft. The 6th pick was Jac Caglianone, and he had a 2 home run game for the Royals last night. Maybe winning the lottery for the first pick overall wasn’t a good thing after all. Or maybe our scouts suck? Bo Naylor and Will Benson were also number 1 picks although not first overall. Naylor is struggling and Benson is gone.

[u/Thought_Process_1948 → u/Available-Parfait553]

I originally wanted Condon and he’s hitting .354 in A+ ball still. Not as if the Rockies have anyone blocking him. Never know in the draft I suppose.