The Wrath of Kwan

 

Today, folks, the unthinkable happened. Steven Kwan played an entire game without getting a hit. 

Kwan has been, rightfully taking the league by storm this week with his insane contact abilities. Through six games he is hitting .526 with 10 hits and 4 RBIs. For a guy nobody had heard of until last week, that is some insane shit.

And then you've got to frame it like this: this is the first week ever of Guardians baseball. The team has been making it clear that they're starting a new chapter of their baseball legend, and are trying to reestablish themselves as much as possible. So the very first week of Guardians baseball history, and the hero is someone entirely new. The future of guardians baseball is being forged by Steven Kwan. That's pretty cool, honestly.

As a matter of fact, the true standouts so far for this team have been the ones you'd never heard of. Owen Miller has lapped Bobby Bradley as the starting 1st baseman and is hitting .524 with 11 hits, 6 RBIs and 2 home runs. Last season he was struggling to make it to a good enough average, and now he's power-hitting, contact-hitting and playing great baseball. Eli Morgan has been stellar as a long-man, picking up the win yesterday against the Reds and even outshining Triston McKenzie and his strikeouts.

Yet, at the same time, you have the foundations of these Guardians teams, like Jose Ramirez, Shane Bieber and Emmanuel Clase, doing well, providing structure, and making sure the new kids aren't completely lost. Also, it took a season, but Andres Gimenez has finally started hitting to his Mets levels again, giving the Guardians some infield security they could have used last year. So a lot is actually working with this Guardians team.

But...compared to the Tigers, Twins and White Sox, this is a much lower-budget team, a much smaller-scale team, and unlike the Rays, there aren't a ton of depth upsides to propel them. So unless things really turn around, this team is gearing towards a lower-level placing. I'd love to see them outweigh the big dogs, but the contact-heavy strategy is only going to go so far for them. 

Coming Tomorrow- My favorite player, suiting up for a new team.