Tribe's been doing work.

paul hoynes ‏@hoynsie ·
Indians No.2 pick Grant Hocking signs for $1.1 million, whlle No.3 pick Bobby Bradley signs for $912,500.

Cleveland Indians ‏@Indians ·
#Indians have signed 23 picks after inking 2nd rd'er RHP Grant Hockin today (Damien HS/CA). 49th overall prospect in draft

Who hasn't signed?

Well, we drafted 42 guys and have 23 signed, so still work to do. Haven't seen a list yet of signees though so not sure who's missing. But we got the top guys.

Zimmer is headed to Mahoning Valley Wednesday, who are playing their home opener tonight.

sea only significant kid who hasn't signed is Papi the kid from Vir and he can't sign until Vir is out of the college WS. IF this is a good draft, then at least we will have signe dour players.....

Also unsigned are those two high school picks:

4th Round Sam Hentges LHP

Hentges, whose father played college baseball in the Land of 1,000 Lakes, stands out in a down year in Minnesota and is expected to join fellow Minnesotan Logan Shore, who was Florida’s ace as a freshman, in the Southeastern Conference next year. The Arkansas signee intrigues scouts this year for his size and the work he has done to improve his body. Previously listed as heavy at 248 pounds, Hentges is now closer to 220 with a sturdier 6-foot-6 frame. He has gradually improved his fastball velocity and usually sits in the 86-91 mph range with a peak of 93. Hentges’ curveball lacks power, though it has decent shape, and he’s still fairly raw on the mound. He also features plus raw power at the plate, with modest bat speed and a swing with some length.

8th round Micah Miniard RHP

Miniard is far and away the top high school prospect in Kentucky in a down year for prep talent in the state. He has an intriguing foundation with a gangly 6-foot-7, 210-pound body that offers considerable physical projection and has drawn comparisons to Doug Fister. He finished the fall strong by touching 94 mph, but his velocity has been down this spring. His fastball has sat 87-89 mph throughout his outings, touching 91 and 92 early before dropping to 85-87. His breaking ball has improved substantially and shows at least average potential, flashing better, while his changeup is in its nascent stages. There are some tweaks to be made with his arm action and delivery, but Miniard is athletic for his size and offers upside. The Western Kentucky commit is considered signable.

Teams generally sign about 25 draft picks and the last couple dozen rounds are usually just extras. If we sign the top 25 and no one else we'll have done a great job. But we know some of those will choose to go to college and wait for higher slots later.

2014 MLB Draft: Post-draft Q&A with John Mirabelli Part 2

By Tony Lastoria
June 18, 2014
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Yesterday I posted part one of my post-draft Q&A with Indians Director of Scouting John Mirabelli. In that piece he talked talk at length about a great many things pertaining to the Indians draft this year such as what they have learned from recent drafts, why they were sold on Bradley Zimmer and Justus Sheffield as their top picks, the advantage of having four first day picks, the focus on makeup with their picks this year, how they adjust to the flow of the draft with players coming off the board in front of them and much more.

Today, in part two, Mirabelli talks about the plans of players like Zimmer and Papi and what position the Indians plan to develop them at, their change in philosophy with drafting high school arms, how they manage the bonus pool while they are making picks and the difficulties that come with that, the importance of verbal commitments and getting players to stick to them, the team effort given to this draft by the entire organization and so much more.

Also, be sure to check out today’s signing update for news on all of the recent signings and a comprehensive listing of where the Indians stand with signing or not signing all 42 picks.

Q: You took two corner players in the first four rounds. In the previous five drafts 49 of 50 players in the top 10 rounds were either middle infielders, center fielders, catchers or pitchers. Is the small step away from the middle of the diamond approach with your top picks a change to your draft philosophy or was it just coincidence?

JM: I think it had a lot to do with the strength of the draft. I don’t think there was a lot of middle of the diamond players. I mean, we certainly believe that Zimmer is a middle of the diamond player, but I think this draft was particularly thin after you got by some of those guys at the top like Dee Gordon and Turner. This wasn’t really a deep middle of the diamond draft, so you can only take what is out there. So we evaluated some of these corner bats and like their upside and like their overall offensive potential. We think Papi is going to be an outfielder and not a first baseman, so as a corner option it gives him a little more versatility. I think it was just a function of what was available in the draft this year. There were not a lot of middle of the diamond players, and that is another reason why Zimmer was attractive to us.

Q: So Zimmer is going to be developed as a center fielder and you believe Michael Papi can be an outfielder?

JM: Absolutely. We saw Zimmer play center field all spring. He has great instincts and he can run. He has speed and is kind of a natural fly chaser out there. Papi has played left and right and is a really good athlete. He played first base at Virginia out of necessity, but we think he has enough athleticism to play left field and maybe even right field. But he brings some versatility. He can play all over the place and you can maybe even put him in center for short stints and he might be okay.

Q: You once again took a large amount of players out of California and Texas. Is this just the natural way the draft works with the top players coming from the warmer weather states and where the best talent falls?

JM: That is just a function of the draft. About 25% of Major Leaguers are from California and Texas is probably not that far behind. We don’t go in with any predetermined strategy to take guys from the sunbelt states. We took a couple of guys from Minnesota and Illinois in the first couple of rounds. You can find talent anywhere. That is not part of our process and more a function of the industry.

Q: The Sheffield and Grant Hockin picks are different than in years past because they are more advanced arms compared to the raw high school arms taken with some top picks in some very recent drafts. Is that a change in philosophy to go for more sure things out of high school?

JM: We did change some things with what we look for in pitching. We focused more on the delivery and arm action. I just think with the way they command the baseball and whether there are some secondary pitches in place now. Not necessarily completely finished products, but at least so they have some feel and some present now secondary pitches and an ability to throw the ball over the plate. I think we kind of got a little bit away from the arm strength throwers, particularly in the higher rounds, and looking for guys that give themselves a better chance to be a Major League starter. It comes down to delivery, arm action and secondary stuff. We still think there is some projection to them, particularly with Hockin. I think getting away from arm strength and looking more towards starter attributes is something we definitely made some adjustments with.

Q: Are you starting to feel comfortable with the new bonus pool system?

JM: I don’t know if we are totally comfortable with it because there are still a lot of gray areas that we have to navigate through. We ran into that last year when guys back out of commitments in the top 10 rounds as that makes things challenging for your overall strategy and what you want to do. We have some ideas that we have used to make sure a commitment is a commitment and we can count on that in the top 10 rounds because it does affect a lot of the things you are trying to do and what you want to do after the 10th round. It has just kind of been an ongoing process with this pool. I think as you have seen I think there were over 70 seniors taken in the top 10 rounds this year. That is a big jump from 18 or whatever was taken in the first year with the pool. I think there has been a lot of give and take and a lot of teams trying to figure this out on the fly and trying to take advantage of this system the best way they can and add talent. I don’t think we are completely comfortable yet. We are making adjustments year to year to offset some of the negatives and fill in the drafts how we can.

Q: But I am sure it adds a wrinkle to things having to constantly know what players are signing for as you go through the draft and what is left in the pool?

JM: Oh yes, it is extremely challenging. In fact we have one person who is totally dedicated to managing the pool as we go. Let me tell you, that might be the toughest job of anything we do on the scouting side. It is a sliding scale of you looking at a board and trying to take talent and then looking to the right and what your pool number is and what you can do with each round. It is a very challenging process. You have to have a lot of things clicking and a lot of people working together from the area scouts to the supervisors to the people that are helping us negotiate signing bonuses. Believe me, it is a very challenging part of the draft.

Q: Yes, even though you get verbals on deals a player can easily back out at any time which can throw a monkey wrench into your plans.

JM: That is exactly right. I am not sure anybody has the answer to that or how to definitively nail that down, but obviously it is a very important part of the whole component, especially if you want to do something overslot or go above the pick in the top 10 rounds. If you really want to have any chance of doing anything after the 10th round you really have to have those picks nailed down. But there are no guarantees as we saw last year. We have taken a lot of steps to try and ensure that, but nothing is ever going to be 100%.

Q: With the limitations on signing late round picks and the money you can throw at them, do you still look for upside guys in 11-40 rounds?

JM: Yeah, we do. It is kind of the same thing with how we took Plutko last year. But it is not the big aggressive way of the past. It is hard to accumulate $750K or $1M underneath your cap space to apply after the 10th round, but we do have a few out there where we think we can be aggressive. Maybe that player’s number comes down a little bit or maybe we can cut some deals a little under in some other places and have some money to spend. It is certainly part of the process, but it is difficult to get a big number late and stay within your pool.

Q: All of the picks are important, but the top picks are the most important and the history of the draft shows that to be the case. The fact you had those four day one picks, was there an extra special effort and focus by the organization to really nail those picks this year?

JM: That was very detailed and focused as we knew we had a chance to have an impact draft. We had a feeling a year ago that this was a potential outcome. The thing I am happy about the most with this draft was the process and the youth. How the players turn out we will see, but I don’t think we can second guess the process that we used. It was very detailed as there was a ton of data and a lot of information. We were really as prepared and as thorough in any of my 15 years here. Not that we were slacking off or dropping the ball in other drafts, but in this draft particularly I though the effort from top to bottom with the area scouts to the front office to everything behind the scenes I felt we were really systematically super-prepared for this draft.

Q: It really was a team effort as people like Paul Dolan, Mark Shapiro, Chris Antonetti, Ross Atkins and tons of people in the front office, baseball operations and player development were in the room assisting with the draft. You guys really seemed to be pooling together all of your resources and it was an organizational effort.

JM: Absolutely. We had a lot of people involved. Some of our coaches and instructors did some pre-draft day video analysis for us. Our area guys took a ton of videos and pictures of all sorts of pitchers and hitters, and we wanted to get some input from our player development staff on things. It was a complete team effort this year more so than any other year I can remember. We had pro scouts do some players and had a lot of different looks on a lot of different players.

Q: The signing deadline is July 18th. It is maybe not as early as you would like, but it is still better than the mid-August deadline from years past, right?

JM: I personally prefer it be July 1st but I haven’t been able to get that passed yet. Let’s get them out and playing. Most of the deals are already done for most teams in baseball. There are still a few guys playing, but let’s get them out as soon as we can to get their feet wet, get them acclimated and in a professional setting and get that out of the way. At least we are getting them out this year and getting time on the field which is important.

Q: Now the focus shifts to the International Signing Period, something you will be very involved with. What is going on there right now?

JM: You are just dotting all the I’s and crossing all the T’s during this dead period. There are still some guys who are still hanging around, but for the most part those things are done. Most of the elite premium players are already committed and ready to make a decision. This is just really a little final cleanup before the actual July 2nd signing date.

Q: With the International Signing Period coming, the trade deadline coming up and all the early work for the 2015 Draft getting underway with showcases and such, this is quite the busy time for you and your staff isn’t it?

JM: You know Tony, it never really stops. I guess there is sort of a lull in maybe September or November, but this time of the year it is June and they are playing baseball in every corner of the world be it amateur, professional, international or the Pacific Rim. It is just wall to wall baseball.

Q: So in the end you feel pretty confident about this draft?

JM: I have a different feeling this year. I have had a really positive sense of commitment from the whole organization and everybody involved. Like I told you, we strive to get better every year and to tighten up this process. I just walked away with this being the best process we have ever had. Now, will that translate into success? I don’t know, scouting is a tough deal. I can look at past drafts and kind of second guess myself, not on the players but on the process with why we took a player here or why we did that. It is going to be hard-pressed for me to be able to second guess our process on this draft. I feel really good about where we are.

Follow Tony and the Indians Baseball Insider on Twitter @TonyIBI. Also, his new book the 2014 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider which profiles the Indians' Top 100 Prospects and more is available for sale.

Bradley Zimmer (Photo: MLB.com)

2014 MLB Draft: June 18th signing update

By Tony Lastoria
June 18, 2014
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The Indians nailed down two more high draft picks on Tuesday getting them to put pen to paper and officially releasing their signings. Also, news came out later in the day that another top pick had agreed to terms and for a well over slot bonus.

Make sure you check out the previous signing updates as they were overfilled with information on several picks and the signing status of others not

Considering a great majority of the picks are now signed, this will probably be the last large signing update. There are still a small handful of guys the team is considering signing that are summer draft and follows, so I will continue to look for information, but after today the updates will be very less frequent if any at all.

- The Indians officially signed 1st round pick outfielder Bradley Zimmer on Tuesday. He received a $1.9 million signing bonus, which was $108,100 below the $2,008,100 slot value for the pick. He has been assigned to short season Single-A Mahoning Valley and should be in uniform tonight (Wednesday) though may not play right away.

- The Indians also officially signed 3rd round pick first baseman Bobby Bradley on Tuesday. MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo says that he signed for $912,500 which was $372,900 over the slot value for the pick. He will fly to Arizona today or Thursday where he will play for the rookie league team.

- 4th round pick left-handed pitcher Sam Hentges has agreed to terms with the Indians. He is expected to arrive in Cleveland on Thursday to tour the city and meet the team and then on Friday or Saturday will sign his contract and take a physical. After that he will fly to Arizona and begin his pro career there. He pitched his team to the Minnesota Class 3A state championship with a 9-0 win on Tuesday and shortly after the game he met his area scout and agreed to terms on his deal. He is expected to receive a $700,000 signing bonus, which is $299,800 above the $400,200 slot value for the pick. He also received $160,000 for tuition expenses as part of the deal, something that is added to most deals for players.

- The Indians have an $8,234,100 bonus pool. They have now signed or agreed to terms on all of their top 10 round picks except for one, Mike Papi, though they obviously have a verbal agreement on a deal with him and will sign him after he and his Virginia team are done playing in the College World Series. Their total spending on known signings is $6,960,700 which is $1,273,400 below their pool with two unknown signing amounts to go.

- The two unknown signing amounts are Papi and 9th round pick Alex Pantoja. Papi is slotted for $1,495,400 and Pantoja for $144,600. At the moment they have exceeded the slot value for known signings by $366,600, but as long as the Indians sign Papi and Pantoja for slot or below they do not run a risk of losing a first round pick as they will be less than 5% over their bonus pool.

- To be within that 5% window they cannot exceed their bonus pool by more than $411,705 so they still have some wiggle room, though again, Papi is expected to fall within that budget and Pantoja is also expected to be within that range. If the Indians spend between $1 and $411,705 above their bonus pool (0-5%) they are simply taxed 75% for the overage. If they go over their pool by 5% or more they would lose a pick (or picks).

Here is a comprehensive listing of where we stand with all of the Indians picks:

Follow Tony and the Indians Baseball Insider on Twitter @TonyIBI. Also, his new book the 2014 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider which profiles the Indians' Top 100 Prospects and more is available for sale.

Cody Jones (Photo: Reporter-News)

2014 MLB Draft: June 19th signing update

By Tony Lastoria

June 19, 2014

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It is amazing how much better the signing process is now that we have a bonus pool setup and the deadline is much earlier. No longer are we waiting until mid-August for the top picks to sign because of red tape surrounding the recommended slot amounts that MLB establishes and the well over slot amount the MLB teams ultimately used to sign picks. Now, an extremely high percentage of picks are signed within the first two weeks post-draft and they get to go out and play almost a full season of short season ball.

With a great majority of picks now signed, this may be the final signing update except for maybe one or two very small updates if the Indians are able to surprise and sign a few more picks that currently are not slated to sign.

- With 4th round pick left-handed pitcher Sam Hentges expected to sign today and 24th round pick outfielder Jodd Carter expected to have signed yesterday, it really only leaves Mike Papi and Juan Gomes as the two remaining unsigned picks that are expected to sign. There are some guys like Nick Hynes, Jake Morton, Cody Callaway and Cody Jones who are still on the signing radar and could still be picked up, but for various reasons there does not appear to be any momentum for a deal with any of them at this moment.

- I posted a comprehensive listing of the signing status for all 42 players in yesterday’s update, but to note once again, these are the players that have either 100% said they are not signing or are very much not expected to sign: 14th round pick right-handed pitcher Grayson Jones, 25th round pick catcher KJ Harrison, 32nd round pick left-handed pitcher Jared West, 33rd round pick infielder Peter Dolan and 36th round pick infielder Max Bartlett.

- 15th round pick right-handed pitcher Luke Eubank has signed with the Indians. This signing came completely out of nowhere as I was unable to get in contact with him nor has there been any news on him whatsoever. He is being assigned to short season Single-A Mahoning Valley and should be there today or Friday.

- I have included some scout comments below on some players. I recently provided a large listing of comments from scouts on several 2014 Draft picks, but I received responses from two other scouts over the past few days about the following players:

- On 19th round pick right-handed pitcher Argenis Angulo: “He is a big, physical right-handed pitcher who LOOKS the part, but has well below average command and struggles to throw enough strikes to compete. He sits 89-90 MPH and touches 93 MPH, but not much feel.”

- On 29th round pick infielder Drake Roberts: “Roberts is a little bitty (5'8", 150) middle infielder who is a solid ball player, but all of his tools are below average except fielding. The bat is weak.”

- On 32nd round pick left-handed pitcher Jared West: “He is a big, beautiful left-handed pitcher who absolutely LOOKS perfect! He does not throw enough strikes for them to trust him, so he very rarely saw the mound after the first four-five weeks of the spring season. He has big potential, but he must learn to throw strikes and command his stuff.”

- On 38th round pick outfielder Cody Jones: “He is a wiry 5'11" 180 pound switch-hitting center fielder who is a plus runner and solid in cent field. He does a good job of using his speed, especially left-handed, but struggles to catch up to velocity on the right-hand side. He is nothing spectacular, but is a solid player.”

Follow Tony and the Indians Baseball Insider on Twitter @TonyIBI. Also, his new book the 2014 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider which profiles the Indians' Top 100 Prospects and more is available for sale.

Movie career beckons:

He is a big, physical right-handed pitcher who LOOKS the part, but has well below average command and struggles to throw enough strikes to compete. He sits 89-90 MPH and touches 93 MPH, but not much feel.”

Oh well, that's what the minor leagues is for. Coach this kid up.

Just read that Sam Hentges is signed now. I think we read that he was signed last week but he really wasn't. But that's ok, he is now. We were just like 5 days smarter than the stuck up official people.

paul hoynes @hoynsie
Indians sign 4th round pick Sam Hentges for $700000, almost 300000 over slot.

Virginia beat Ole Miss 4-1 advancing to the finals. Mike Papi was 1-3 and walked one time.

Overall:

9g, .432ave, .568slg, .523obp, 37ab, 7r, 16h, 2dbl, 1hr, 9rbi, 7w, 2k, 2-2sb