Can’t slow down Ramirez

By Tony Lastoria

April 11, 2013

A lot of buzz was created last week when the Indians announced that infielder Jose Ramirez would completely skip High-A Carolina and open the season at Double-A Akron. I had received word prior to spring training that the Indians were strongly considering it, but even I myself was not sure they would go through with it considering how important a level High-A is for young hitters.

So far, Ramirez is proving the Indians’ gamble a good one as he is hitting .417 with 0 HR, 2 RBI and .878 OPS in his first six games. He has yet to get an extra base hit, but that’s not his game. His game is predicated on playing excellent defense, being a catalyst on the basepaths with his energy and speed, and consistently getting on base.

Ramirez, who will play the entire season at 20-years of age, is a switch hitter that just knows how to hit. He is not very big and strong, but he has such good hand-eye coordination where he consistently makes solid, hard contact. With his plus speed it allows him to leg out some hits, but he has the strength to pull balls with some authority and pound the gaps. Probably most impressive about him is his approach and unbelievable ability to limit strikeouts even though he is aggressive with his swing on pitches in the strike zone. Even playing at a higher level for the first time – and in cold weather for the first time - he has just one strikeout in 24 at bats, which is nothing new as he had just 43 strikeouts in 482 career at bats coming into the season.

What has been nice to see so far out of Ramirez is how he has maintained his good approach and performance in the early going even though the Indians were aggressive in pushing him to a higher level. Most players will press and try to do too much in order to prove they belong at a level after a promotion, but he has not done that. Last year he stepped right in with ease at Low-A Lake County after he was quickly promoted from short season Single-A Mahoning Valley, so he is proving to be a cool customer and someone that handles pressure well.

That is something Ramirez showed in the offseason, is the ability to handle pressure and challenges. He went to the Dominican Winter League and ended up hitting .303 with 2 HR, 30 RBI and .765 OPS in 60 games, a league loaded with Major League and Triple-A quality pitching. That impressive performance really solidified his prospect status and was enough for the Indians to feel comfortable with having him skip High-A because they believe the quality of work he put in for the 60 games in winter ball was equal to or better than a half season in High-A.

Ramirez will also play a good amount of shortstop this season. He primarily has played second base coming up through the system, but he has the skills to be a solid defensive shortstop in addition to a very good defensive second baseman. That versatility to handle a premium defensive position will only increase his value, and if he continues to hit, the sky is the limit as to whether he becomes an everyday Major League player or a utility infielder.

Minor Happenings: The Lindor Show impresses at Carolina

Francisco Lindor (Photo: IBI)By Tony Lastoria

April 11, 2013 ShareThis

"Minor Happenings" is a bi-weekly column which recaps the important developments and news in the Indians farm system. Information in this report is compiled from my own research and through discussions with industry personnel inside and outside the Cleveland Indians organization. Unless otherwise noted, the intellectual property contained in this report is owned by IndiansProspectInsider.com LLC, and any unauthorized reproduction of the information is prohibited.

Welcome to the first full in-season edition of Minor Happenings of the year. I posted a quick edition of the Happenings last weekend that had all kinds of injury updates and more, so be sure to check that out if you missed it. As a reminder, Minor Happenings will post twice a week every Tuesday and Thursday (or on occasion Wednesday and Friday) from here on out until the end of September.

I still have several player features that I need to get out and will start to do that over the next few weeks, so be sure to look out for them here at IBI or at FoxSportsOhio.com. I have a feature piece on shortstop Francisco Lindor scheduled to go up at some point today at Fox Sports Ohio.

Next week I will have a full slate of IBI premium features with the first edition of the IBI Hot List on Monday, another Happenings piece on Tuesday, a Coach’s Corner piece with High-A Carolina manager Dave Wallace on Wednesday, and another Happenings piece on Thursday. I may also have a Radar Report for Friday.

Anyway, onto the Happenings…

IBI Minor League Hitter of the Week
Francisco Lindor (Shortstop, Carolina)
.458 AVG (11-for-24), 5 R, 1 2B, 2 3B, 0 HR, 3 RBI, 3 BB, 1 K, 5 SB, 1.185 OPS

The Lindor Show pulled up into Zebulon, North Carolina and debuted in High-A Carolina this past week, and what a debut he had.

Lindor, 19, displayed his entire game playing exceptional defense, stealing bases, and producing offensively. The defense is without question his greatest skill and something he could handle in the big leagues right now if called upon. He is a Gold Glove caliber defender who has the potential to go down as one of the all-time great shortstops in the game if he can manages to stay healthy and do enough offensively to stay in the game long enough. He made one play in particular on Saturday night for the last out of the game where he dove into the shortstop and third base hole and from deep in the infield and on the outfield grass he popped up and fired a strike to first base for the final out in the game and help preserve a 4-3 win. It was a play that few shortstops can make, and showed why he is such a special defender.

Offensively, Lindor has done it all. He’s shown the ability to go the other way, and really showed some good opposite field power in the game on Sunday smoking a double down the left field line. He has shown the fundamentals by bunting a few times already either for a hit or in an attempt to sacrifice a runner over. He has shown the bat-to-ball as he is off to a blistering start racking up 11 hits in his first 24 at bats of the season. His approach has been outstanding with just 1 strikeout in 24 at bats, and also the patience to work counts to get a good pitch to hit or just take the walk. He has also shown more power, something that can be attributed to his maturing and being a year older, but also due to the 10 pounds of muscle he added in the offseason. He has really turned on a few good fastballs, and smashed one off the bottom of the right center field wall on Friday night.

Beyond the defense and offense, Lindor has been excelling on the bases in the early going. He has been creating havoc on the bases pretty much stealing any chance he gets and has already racked up five stolen bases, which leads the Carolina League. He has been so quick with his jumps that his steals have come quite easily. He had 27 stolen bases last season, but some think with his speed, quickness, and smarts on the basepaths that he can become an annual 30-40 stolen base or more a year player as he gains more experience and gets better with his jumps.

This is exactly what the Indians want to see out of their top prospect. A player that is off to a hot start right out of the gates in all phases of the game, but one who is also a tireless worker and exceptional leader on the field. There is not a player on the team that shows more excitement over a win than Lindor does, and that energy rubs off on the rest of the team. Last year the Indians wanted him to play the entire year at Low-A Lake County to ease him into things, but this season, if he keeps playing at this rate, they will have to move him up and challenge him at Double-A Akron. Because of the presence of two other high profile middle infield prospects in Ronny Rodriguez and Jose Ramirez there, they would have to get creative in how they do it, though those problems often work themselves out over time with injuries and performance related reasons.

In any case, Lindor will be on a much quicker pace this season and if he continues to perform and develop as he has to date, he could be up in Akron by July or August for the stretch run and set him up for a possible assignment to Akron or even Triple-A Columbus at the start of the 2014 season. That is not meant to get too far ahead of things as there is still a long way to go this season, but the excitement with his showing in spring training and now the first week of the season is making for a lot of fun possibilities.

Honorable Mentions:

BA's first weekly Hot Sheet of the season out today. Lindor is on it, naturally. At No. 13 which could be higher. But since this list is not based on prospect status but stats, power hitters and power hitters will usually ride the top ranks here.


13. Francisco Lindor ss, Indians
Francisco Lindor

Francisco Lindor

Team: high Class A Carolina (Carolina)

Age: 19

Why He’s Here: .458/.519/.667 (11-for-24), 5 R, 1 2B, 2 3B, 3 RBIs, 3 BB, 1 K, 5-for-5 SBs

The Scoop: The second-youngest player in the Carolina League, Lindor has already given glimpses of his many talents in the first week of the season. He’s shown off his gap power with a pair of triples. He’s only struck out once in 24 at-bats and he’s flashed his plus range with a couple of highlight plays at shortstop. Even as he faces much older players, Lindor usually looks like one of the most experienced players on the field. He’s Cleveland’s star of the future, and he’s moving up the ladder quickly.

Naquin is hitting something like 350 with a double triple and even a homer. But he has 8 strikeouts and no steals. No one's sure if he's really a center fielder. Nowhere near the class of Lindor.

Not many are in the class of Lindor nor should anyone expect him to be. Seems like many here thought Naquin was a bad draft choice.

We'll see how Naquin develops. But he only has two plus skills: If he fulfills his own best expectations, he will hit 300 or above. His other plus skill is his arm.

I guess he's supposed to be something of a basestealer, but he's only been successful in 4 of 8 attempts in his first 43 professional games.

He does not have home run power. We can hope he can develop into 40-10-10 XB hit bat.

He didn't play CF in college so he's probably going to wind up in RF which means we'd like to see more power than he is likely to deliver.

The range of his career possibilities extend from Trevor Crowe on the low end to maybe Brian Giles on the high end, but that would mean lots more power development.

Last night in the minors:

Pitching:

None of the starters were impressive:

Dice K 2 1/3 3 3 3 5 4
Packer 5 1/3 3 3 3 0 0
Jacob Lee 5 5 4 4 2 7 2 homers
Merritt 4 5 4 1 2 3

Relievers:

Bryson 2 0 0 0 0 3
Guilmet 1 0 0 0 0 2
Barnes 1 1 1 1 1 1
Flores 2 3 0 0 0 2
Sterling 1 0 0 0 0 1

Offense of note:

AAA: Diaz and Perez 2 hits apiece
AA: Chen, Aguillar 2 hits and 3 rbi each. Lavisky 2 hits and a walk, he's 4-13.
High A: Sabourin 4 hits, 2 bi. Myles Grand Slam. Wendle, Naquin 2 hits, Wolters 3, Lindor 1

Defense of note:

Low A: Jose Martinez 4th error of the year as a LF! Team had 4 hits and 4 errors

We won 3 lost 1.

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.js ... d=20130412

Bauer rebounds in Clippers debut
Indians No. 2 prospect fans nine, allows one run in six innings


The start to Trevor Bauer's 2013 season has been a balancing act.


There's been the transition to a new organization. There's been the process that he described as trying to "overwrite eight to 10 years of neuromuscular programming in four or five weeks." There have been the game to game adjustments that occupy the time of every professional pitcher who takes the mound.

Bauer seemed to have everything in check in his debut for Triple-A Columbus on Saturday afternoon.

The Indians' No. 2 prospect allowed a run on four hits and three walks while striking out nine over six innings as the Clippers edged Indianapolis, 2-1, in the first game of a doubleheader.

The nine punchouts were the 22-year-old right-hander's highest total in a Major or Minor League game since Aug. 22, when he fanned nine for Triple-A Reno.

Indianapolis' lone run came on Brett Carroll's second-inning homer. Bauer (1-0) escaped from a bases-loaded jam in the fourth when Brandon Inge was thrown out at the plate by right fielder Jeremy Hermida while trying to score on Matt Hague's single. He worked around a double by Felix Pie and a hit batter in the sixth by striking out Inge and Hague to conclude his outing after 98 pitches, 53 for strikes.

Bauer, who was sent from the D-backs to the Indians as part of a three-team trade involving the Reds last December, struggled in his Cleveland debut a week ago, allowing three earned runs on two hits and a career-high seven walks over five innings in a 6-0 loss to the Rays.

Aside from the level of competition between the Majors and Triple-A, the difference between that first outing and Saturday's was just one pitch, according to MLB.com's No. 17 overall prospect.

"I decided yesterday I was going to throw a good curveball and, thankfully, it was there today," Bauer said. "I watched video from last year to find out what was working best then and it seemed like I should work on permeating my curveball more. I've been focusing on a lot of other stuff lately, but I spent about 15 minutes visualizing my pitches, with most of that going to the curveball, and it seemed to work."

The increase in both quality and quantity of the breaking pitch explained the success in the extreme short term. But perhaps moreso than any other Minor Leaguer, Bauer has kept his focus on the long-term solutions that will help him find consistent success at the game's highest level.

Right now, that means a lot of mechanical work, or the aforementioned "neuromuscular programming" override. Among the fixes are keeping his front leg closed for a longer period of time during each pitch, trying to straighten his spine, working on the tilt of his body before and after, his landing spot and a host of other minor alterations.

"It's basically a bunch of small changes that on the whole ends up being a pretty big change," he said.

Bauer's biggest goal through the changes has been to retain two things -- his health and his command.

The 22-year-old right-hander injured his groin with the D-backs last June and still had issues in the offseason that kept him from working on his mechanics.

"All I wanted to do was get biomechanically efficient in my lower half and get really healthy," Bauer said. "It's tough to get work done in the offseason when you're hurt and I needed to take steps from making sure that never happens again."

Then there are the command issues that plagued him during his brief stay in the Major Leagues.

The third overall pick in the 2011 Draft was 1-2 with a 6.06 ERA in four starts for the D-backs, no thanks to the 13 walks he issued in 16 1/3 innings. The command troubles returned last weekend, but Bauer, who is likely to spend the immediate future honing his skills in Columbus, took the struggles in stride.

"It's just another day in the process of improving," he said. "You try to learn something and pick something up from it. I'm always trying to just get .0238 percent better every day. Yeah, it was on a bigger stage, and there are more people paying attention and more people telling me I [stink] on Twitter. But for me, I know it's just another day and go from there."

Bauer got support Saturday from Matt Carson, whose two-run homer in the sixth inning put the Clippers ahead.

Most of what Bauer says makes sense and a lot of is not unique but he uses more high faluting, usually scientific, terminology to explain what he is working on. But occasional sentences are just a bit weird:

"it seemed like I should work on permeating my curveball more"

Definition of PERMEATE
intransitive verb
: to diffuse through or penetrate something
transitive verb
1
: to spread or diffuse through <a room permeated with tobacco smoke>
2
: to pass through the pores or interstices of

All of Saturday's box scores:

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.js ... d=20130413

It was a doubleheader for the Clippers. They lost the second when David Huff was tagged for 4 runs in 1 inning and our guys managed onehit. Guilmet with his 3rd save in the opener. Soto 1 scorelss in the 2nd. Matt McDade had 2 hits in the first game, he's hitting 222.

Aeros lost 7-6. Of note by prospects: Quincy Latimore (perhaps a prospect) single, double, 2nd homer, 3 rbi. Jesus Aguillar 1-3 with a walk and 2 rbi Aguillar has only 1 double and 1 homer but has accumulated 13 RBI in 9 games. Shawn Armstrong in relief: 1-1-0-0-0-2

1 run by the Captains and 4 by the opposition. Shawn Morimando often has control issues 4-3-2-2-4-2 last night. Joe Wendle with 2 doubles and a single, is batting 452; he's a 2b-3b Division II college kid from last year's draft with a low projected ceiling, but he can hit in A ball at least.
Lindor drew 2 walks and suffered 2 strikeouts: for the season he has 5 BB vs 3 K.
Naquin singled and struck out once. He has 2 BB for the year vs. 9 k.

Captains with their 2nd win of the season as 2nd round pick Mitch Brown was far better than his season debut. 1st time out he retired 2 and allowed 4 runs on six hits. This time he retired 12 and allowed 4 runs in his 4 innings only 2 hits but both were homers. He fanned 4. He has a lot of work to do.

Jorge Martinez with 3 doubles. Eric Haase 2 singles. Luigi Rodriguez 2 walks. ErikGonzalez 4 hits, but I don't think we care about him. Ditto Logan Vick with 2 hits. But any of these kids could emerge.
Lugii Rodriguez is rated among our Top 10 prospects.

As usual, Levon Washington is out with injury. He made through one game this year. Last year he had a great opening week before shut down with surgery. Not sure what;s up this time. Joe will have to check it out with Tony Lastoria's crew.

Any chance that Matt Bauer is a reincarnation of Slip Mahony?

Yesterday's notable lines.

CLE AA Rodriguez, Ronny SS 4 0 2 2 .242 CS (1)
CLE AA Urshela, Giovanny 3B 5 0 2 0 .235
CLE HiA Naquin, Tyler CF 2 0 1 1 .351 2B (3)

CLE LoA Baker, Dylan 4 7 4 3 0 3 7.00 L (0-1) [He has 10 K to 1 walk so far despite high era]

As usual, Levon Washington is out with injury. He made through one game this year. Last year he had a great opening week before shut down with surgery. Not sure what;s up this time. Joe will have to check it out with Tony Lastoria's crew.

Unless you have a later update, this is the only information I have Civ.

LAKE COUNTY

April 9

OF LeVon Washington assigned to Mahoning Valley Scrappers (paper move)

Yesterday's noted lines:

CLE AAA Diaz, Juan SS 3 1 1 3 .175 HR (1), BB (2)
CLE HiA Naquin, Tyler CF 5 1 3 1 .381 SB (1)
CLE AA Salazar, Danny 5 7 4 4 2 5 6.39 L (0-3) [lousy start to the season by one of our very very few starting pitching prospects]