Minor league features

[gotribe31]

I'm going to try and do something a little different this year with the minors coverage, and do some in-depth scouting features on some guys throughout the season. This will be in addition to the around the farm daily posts and other usual articles.

Use this thread to let me know who you guys are interested in, and I'll try and focus on those guys. Already planning Lindor, Ronnie Rodriguez, Dillon Howard and a few others, but wanted to be able to figure out who you all were interested in to help drive coverage.

[peeker643]

I'm going to try and do something a little different this year with the minors coverage, and do some in-depth scouting features on some guys throughout the season. This will be in addition to the around the farm daily posts and other usual articles.

Use this thread to let me know who you guys are interested in, and I'll try and focus on those guys. Already planning Lindor, Ronnie Rodriguez, Dillon Howard and a few others, but wanted to be able to figure out who you all were interested in to help drive coverage.

As we talked bout in another thread, I'd love to hear from Cord Phelps how he handled last season's call-up, difficulties and being sent back only to see Kipnis settle in at 2b.

I'd love to hear your thoughts whether his confidence is still there, lower, higher, etc. Can he recover and did it it motivate him somehow or help him see what he needs to do?

[Prosecutor]

Knapp. Is he done? Is he Adam Miller? Or is there still something left to salvage?

[bookelly]

#WASHTIME.

[gotribe31]

#WASHTIME goes without saying. Knapp and Phelps are interesting as well. What I'm leaning towards is more of a full-on scouting piece, with pics, video, swing/delivery analyzation etc. I mean, if you guys care what position the kid played on his HS hoops team, I'm happy to ask and report that as well, but something tells me you'd rather have more in-depth scouting, yes?

Also, what are everyone's thoughts on the "Around the Farm" posts on hitting the fan? Valuable? Useless? First you've ever heard of them? I like them a lot because it's a great snapshot on what happened throughout the farm system yesterday, but if no one is reading them then I won't keep posting them purely for my health.

[motherscratcher]

Nick Weglarz

Been hearing about him and his big stick forever. Will he ever make the jump?

[rebelwithoutaclue]

Also, what are everyone's thoughts on the "Around the Farm" posts on hitting the fan?

Keep em' coming. Maybe make them more structured like, say weekly or bi-weekly. They just seemed pretty random last year (though they may not have been).

[Believeland]

Also, what are everyone's thoughts on the "Around the Farm" posts on hitting the fan? Valuable? Useless? First you've ever heard of them? I like them a lot because it's a great snapshot on what happened throughout the farm system yesterday, but if no one is reading them then I won't keep posting them purely for my health.

I read them daily and enjoyed the info but perhaps you could scale back if it's a strain. Possibly only include a set group of players to follow. Whether that's the top 20 or 50 tribe prospects, your targeted guys for in depth analysis, etc.

[gotribe31]

Running them daily, or at least every weekday, is something I'm happy to do because I think it provides good bang for the buck, so to speak. I'm not looking to scale back or anything, but just wanted to make sure that everyone else was enjoying and reading them as well.

[Mr. X]

Also, what are everyone's thoughts on the "Around the Farm" posts on hitting the fan? Valuable? Useless? First you've ever heard of them? I like them a lot because it's a great snapshot on what happened throughout the farm system yesterday, but if no one is reading them then I won't keep posting them purely for my health.

Read every one. They're great.

[peeker643]

Also, what are everyone's thoughts on the "Around the Farm" posts on hitting the fan? Valuable? Useless? First you've ever heard of them? I like them a lot because it's a great snapshot on what happened throughout the farm system yesterday, but if no one is reading them then I won't keep posting them purely for my health.

Read every one. They're great.

Oh fer fucksake. Someone tell him he's pretty!!!!!

[bookelly]

I like the posts. And I also like Tony's site for MiLB info too. It's nice to have two sets of eyes and ears tho...keep 'em coming.

[Dnthateonthepronk]

Austin Adams and Chun Chen appeal to me as well as Knapp and Wash.

[ArtGold]

Kyle Blair, what happened to him and can he get back to being a plus prospect again?

Mike Rayl, is he one of those guys who has AAAA stuff, only capable of winning in the minors?

Elvis Araujo and Felix Sterling, anything to get excited about here or are we looking at Kelvin DLC rewinds?

Danny Salazar, what made him worth protecting on the 40 when his body of work has been so minimal and pedestrian?

Cody Allen, with such a great IP/K and BB/K rate is he a potential contributor to the bullpen, or just another gimmick pitcher destined for the minors?

[gotribe31]

Kyle Blair, what happened to him and can he get back to being a plus prospect again?

Mike Rayl, is he one of those guys who has AAAA stuff, only capable of winning in the minors?

Elvis Araujo and Felix Sterling, anything to get excited about here or are we looking at Kelvin DLC rewinds?

Danny Salazar, what made him worth protecting on the 40 when his body of work has been so minimal and pedestrian?

Cody Allen, with such a great IP/K and BB/K rate is he a potential contributor to the bullpen, or just another gimmick pitcher destined for the minors?

As always, great questions Art. Hopefully Blair's knee is healed and he can get back to his old self. I like Araujo and Sterling a lot, but like you point out with the DLC comp, there's a lot that can happen between Lake County and Cleveland.

[ArtGold]

Thanks, I'm trying to come up with guys you may want to research and who aren't generally discussed, but might have impact on the Indians future.

Those were all pitchers, position players are a bit tougher after all the promotions.

Obviously a lot of focus has gone towards Francisco Lindor, with the hope that he turns into our next major superstar. Also Tony Wolters has gotten some recent attention, having a solid season his first year in the minors.

So, how about a couple of guys who seem to be overlooked so far, but play the same position? The Indians signed Dorssys Paulino to a $1 million + contract this past summer, how does he compare to Lindor and Wolters? They must have really seen something there to spend that much money after being repeatedly burned in their Dominican signings. Is he a better bat or fielding prospect?

Also, what about Robel Garcia? Here is an infielder who was only 18 years old last season playing at Arizona, and he put up some very good power stats in that league. I know offense is somewhat inflated due to the thin dry air, but looking at his extra base hits, and good walk rate, he seems to be someone at least worth discussing as a potential future Indian. His slugging average was 8th in the league, and this is for an 18 year old infielder who also has a decent batting eye. How does he compare to Lindor, Wolters and Paulino?

[gotribe31]

Thanks, I'm trying to come up with guys you may want to research and who aren't generally discussed, but might have impact on the Indians future.

Those were all pitchers, position players are a bit tougher after all the promotions.

Obviously a lot of focus has gone towards Francisco Lindor, with the hope that he turns into our next major superstar. Also Tony Wolters has gotten some recent attention, having a solid season his first year in the minors.

So, how about a couple of guys who seem to be overlooked so far, but play the same position? The Indians signed Dorssys Paulino to a $1 million + contract this past summer, how does he compare to Lindor and Wolters? They must have really seen something there to spend that much money after being repeatedly burned in their Dominican signings. Is he a better bat or fielding prospect?

Also, what about Robel Garcia? Here is an infielder who was only 18 years old last season playing at Arizona, and he put up some very good power stats in that league. I know offense is somewhat inflated due to the thin dry air, but looking at his extra base hits, and good walk rate, he seems to be someone at least worth discussing as a potential future Indian. His slugging average was 8th in the league, and this is for an 18 year old infielder who also has a decent batting eye. How does he compare to Lindor, Wolters and Paulino?

I like where your head is at. I think Robel and Dorssys likely both end up at corner inf spots, but that's purely from what I've read about them. Cannot wait to see them in action this year in AZ. Actually, with Wolters' injury last spring and the fact that I didn't make it to AZ in the fall, I've never actually SEEN any of those guys play baseball. So I'm really looking forward to this year's spring training trip because there will just be so many guys I'm getting eyes on for the 1st time.

[ArtGold]

OK, in trying to see who may turn out to be really interesting to write about this season, I've come up with Jake Lowery as someone who may also be a surprise prospect.

The obvious reasons he could legitimately be ignored is that he was a 4th round pick last season out of college, so he isn't one of our teenagers with higher growth potential. He also had some pretty modest numbers in his half season of work with Mahoning Valley, hitting only .245 with 6 HRs.

But, he was the Johnny Bench award winner this past season at James Madison, and led all of college baseball in runs scored, RBI's and total bases last season, and finished second in slugging average. In winning the Bench award, the story I had read mentioned that he threw out over 40% of the runners trying to steal bases.

In following him at Mahoning Valley, though his HR total and BA were pretty modest he did have some secondary numbers that caught my attention. For example, he had 23 doubles in only 69 games played (less than half a season equivalent), and had 54 walks with only 253 at bats. Normally, I'd expect this to mean he strikes out a lot, leading to the low batting average, but that really wasn't true. He actually had an excellent BB/K ratio of 54/56.

Add in that he threw out 35% of the runners trying to steal, and it seems like his arm may be major league quality too.

So, he may be someone else you may want to take a closer look at this coming season.

[peeker643]

OK, in trying to see who may turn out to be really interesting to write about this season, I've come up with Jake Lowery as someone who may also be a surprise prospect.

The obvious reasons he could legitimately be ignored is that he was a 4th round pick last season out of college, so he isn't one of our teenagers with higher growth potential. He also had some pretty modest numbers in his half season of work with Mahoning Valley, hitting only .245 with 6 HRs.

But, he was the Johnny Bench award winner this past season at James Madison, and led all of college baseball in runs scored, RBI's and total bases last season, and finished second in slugging average. In winning the Bench award, the story I had read mentioned that he threw out over 40% of the runners trying to steal bases.

In following him at Mahoning Valley, though his HR total and BA were pretty modest he did have some secondary numbers that caught my attention. For example, he had 23 doubles in only 69 games played (less than half a season equivalent), and had 54 walks with only 253 at bats. Normally, I'd expect this to mean he strikes out a lot, leading to the low batting average, but that really wasn't true. He actually had an excellent BB/K ratio of 54/56.

Add in that he threw out 35% of the runners trying to steal, and it seems like his arm may be major league quality too.

So, he may be someone else you may want to take a closer look at this coming season.

Ha! Good to hear from ya Art. And you know asking Al to focus on catchers is like asking a hungry lion to eat all his wildebeest. It's gonna happen

[gotribe31]

I was just about to reply that I am already planning on doing in-depth features on every catcher in the system, including Lowrey. Spoiler alert: I like him.

[ArtGold]

Yeah Peeker, I dropped out of the site for a bit due to the lack of interesting activity by the Tribe this past offseason.

Hopefully they'll have some decent player development in the majors and become interesting again, I look forward to participating in some positive Tribe discussions.

[gotribe31]

So the prospect countdown is just over halfway through; what do you guys think so far? Answering most of your questions about the kids?

My spring training trip starts wends, so if there's anything else in particular you're looking to know, ask now.

[skatingtripods]

You gotta interview Cole Cook. That kid's blog is hilarious.

[Erie Warrior]

I know you're a Backstop Homer, but I'm surprised you've got that kid from St. Ed's ranked so high.

Are people that high on him defensively?

[gotribe31]

I know you're a Backstop Homer, but I'm surprised you've got that kid from St. Ed's ranked so high.

Are people that high on him defensively?

I am (admittedly), but yeah. He's got a really good arm, moves extremely well behind the plate and is an oustanding recevier. He caught Stetson Allie in high school, and Allie touched triple digits, has a nasty slider and not all that much control. That alone got him ready to catch professional stuff, and I think it gave him a leg up behind the plate that most prep players don't have coming out of HS.

As far as his offensive #'s go, they were really, really bad last year. But he's a kid that went right from high school to a full-season league that's known to be tough on hitters. Most catchers drafted out of HS stick around in extended spring training, have some time to get used to wood bats, then make their debut in the short-season leagues, if they get out of the complex leagues at all. So I'm not going to hold a poor 1st season against him too much. If his K/BB ratio doesn't improve though, that's obviously a bad sign.

Bottom line is that I ranked him highly last year based on his tools. The tools are still there, bad season or no. So I can't very well drop him too far because the underlying tools are there, even if the performance was not last season.

[gotribe31]

In addition to the Indians, the Clippers, Aeros and Captains open their seasons today. Mudcats (formerly Kinston Indians) open tomorrow.

One nice thing going for the affiliates is that they really have some of the nicest stadiums in their respective leagues. Columbus and Lake County are brand new, Carolina used to be a AA stadium and is in another world from most Carolina League facilities, and Akron's Canal Park is still really nice, even though it's not brand new.

[ArtGold]

Good job on your prospect writeups, I look forward to reading your observations about the prospects as the games pile up in the minors.

[gotribe31]

Thanks Art, appreciate it!

The first Around the Farm of the season is up:
http://www.theclevelandfan.com/hitting- ... rm-april-5

[gotribe31]

Just put a scouting notebook up on Hitting the Fan...let me know what you think. Not overly extensive, but I think it's interesting. Will try and drop a few of those this season.

[peeker643]

Just put a scouting notebook up on Hitting the Fan...let me know what you think. Not overly extensive, but I think it's interesting. Will try and drop a few of those this season.

Excellent.

And it has to be for me to compliment you on anything.