More from Tony:
Erratic Chisenhall: Third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall made two throwing errors with high throws which pulled first baseman Wes Hodges off the bag during the B-game. Part of the reason he was sent down to minor league camp on Monday was to control his clock and future cost, but while he is pretty close to big league ready with the bat his defense still needs polish which was the main reason he was sent out so that he could continue to work on his defense at third base. His throwing has always been one of the few knocks against him in the minors. Not his arm strength as it is very good, just the accuracy of his throws. This is surely something he will hone in on at Columbus in the early going this year.
Chun! Chun! Chun!: Boy, what a game catcher Chun Chen had in the B-game on Wednesday. Before I left in the fifth inning he was 2-for-2 at the plate with a bases loaded two-run single to left and an RBI double that was a bomb to dead center field that just missed being a 3-run homer after it dented the top of the wall. On top of that he threw out a runner attempting to steal second on a hit and run, and he also picked off a runner at first.
Miller Update: I ventured over to minor league camp halfway through the B-game so I could go see right-hander Adam Miller make his first appearance on a mound this spring throwing live batting practice. He looked good and most importantly felt good and joked “I haven’t been so excited to throw live batting practice.” It is another small step for him and it looks like he will be out in a live game setting on Saturday or Sunday in a minor league spring game.
Re: Minor Matters
62Maybe Chisenhall should throw to someone other than Wes Hodges. The throws Tony describes sound like Hodges when he tried to play third.
Re: Minor Matters
63Lots from Tony:
On Austin Adams: “He has four pitches so we are starting him because he has starting stuff and he has not proven he can’t start. I think the scouting department thought he would be a bullpen guy, but he has a four pitch mix, he commands his fastball, and he keeps the ball down. So we are going to start him and plan on starting him as long as he is successful. The thing with him is his velocity got better as the season went on last year. Last year he was restricted somewhat because he did not pitch a lot in college, but this year he should be up to a normal workload of 145-150 innings.”
On Adam Miller: “We will have to see [how he is at the end of camp]. All of his bullpens have been good. He is throwing strikes and he is not having any issues. He is playing catch every day, and [Saturday] there will be a hitter in there. He pitched that inning in Instructional League and was up to 94 MPH. He is going to get some minor league games in spring training and depending on how he does there is a chance that he could possibly pitch in a major league game by the end of camp if everything goes well. Everything looks good so far, so we will see what happens.”
On Elvis Araujo: “Yeah he is fine. More than likely he will probably stay down here in extended spring. He is just a huge kid at 6’7”, throws hard, and has a good slider. We are trying to work on his delivery to get him to stay back a little bit more. But man, he has big upside as he has two plus pitches right now. It’s just about getting him reps off the mound with his delivery and being able to repeat his delivery so it allows him to throw consistent strikes. Even after he had Tommy John surgery it did not even look like it as he was free and easy. He has come back really, really well. He did not pitch last year, but we have time and we will see how he does in extended. Obviously we want to build him up a little bit because he missed time last year.”
On Matt Packer: “He will start and more than likely will be in Akron. We were real happy with what he did last year. It’s funny when you look at the organizational leaders last year, the same guys showed up in every category [and he was one of them]. He has a fastball, slider, change, and has added a curveball to his mix that will kind of help him early in the count. He is a durable guy who gets strikes and gets groundballs.”
On Bryce Stowell: “He just needs reps. It was his first big league camp and he probably was feeling a little pressure. But he threw a good bullpen the other day. It is his third full season and he got up to Triple-A pretty quick. He’s fine and throwing hard. It is just a matter now that he is a reliever to get in a routine and making sure he gets reps. Guys who are relievers only throw one or two innings and don’t get a lot of bullpens and don’t throw a lot of pitches, so they need to make sure they have a good routine and maintain their delivery.”
On Felix Sterling: “He is a projectable kid who throws 90+ now and there might be some more in there. He is a big bodied kid with a chance to be a starter with his feel for a plus changeup right now. His breaking ball has to get a little more consistent. He had a lot of success last year in Arizona, so he has a shot to pitch in Lake County this year, especially with how he commands his fastball and changeup. He is able to throw his changeup to both righties and lefties.”
On Tony Dischler and Michael Goodnight: “It is possible that at Lake County [we will be doing some piggybacking]. It depends how we come out of camp as you always have some injuries and oblique [injuries] which set guys back. But we plan on starting all those guys [from last year’s draft] like Dischler, Goodnight, and Cole Cook. Dischler has good stuff, and Goodnight has a nice delivery and a couple of good pitches. All of those guys have good arms and good deliveries, it is just a matter of seeing how they react to getting on a five day routine.”
On Steven Wright: “Yeah, [his knuckleball] is good. We’ll see. He used it a little bit last year in Akron and he had some decent results with it. He worked hard over the winter time with it, so it will be interesting to see how hitters react to it this spring. Hopefully it is a swing and miss pitch for him. He is not strictly a knuckleballer as he is still throwing into the low 90s and throwing hard. It is just something to add to his repertoire to add some swing and miss to it.”
On Nick Hagadone: “We are going to start him in spring training and make a decision at the end. He can definitely get better commanding his fastball arm side, but he is commanding it better and his breaking ball and changeup are fine.”
On Alex White: “He looks good, is throwing hard, and his slider is getting better. The consistency of his slider is just a matter of getting more games and reps. His splitter looks better, and he puts the ball on the ground with his fastball.”
On Zach McAllister: “He is a young kid who kind of went level by level with the Yankees. He is a big kid with a good slider and good sinker who will be in our Triple-A rotation. He is an interesting kid who is athletic and has a chance to haul some innings.”
(Photo: Tony Lastoria)
Hagadone role still up in the air
Left-handed pitcher Nick Hagadone is still waiting to find out what role he will pitch in this season.
“I don’t know,” said Hagadone. “As of right now I am preparing as a starter. Whenever the decision is made we will just go from there. By preparing as a starter I can go either way, whereas if I prepare as a reliever I can’t.”
The Indians have not set a timetable on when they will make a decision on whether Hagadone starts or relieves to open the season, likely at Double-A Akron. Considering his arm and talent, it appears likely that Hagadone will continue to pitch in a piggyback role in order to continue to develop his command and pitches.
Whether he pitches out of the bullpen or in the starting rotation, it does not matter to Hagadone. He just wants the chance to pitch at the big league level. He got a chance to show off his talents to the big league staff early in camp before being sent down to minor league camp over the weekend, and he believes he made a positive impression.
“I feel pretty good and I thought I had a pretty good camp,” said Hagadone. “I knew there was no chance I would make the team out of spring training, but my goal was to just leave a good impression. I felt like I did that, but you don’t really know. It was a good experience and it definitely makes me want to be up there even more than I already did.”
Hagadone had a pretty disappointing season last year. He battled through command issues all season and his velocity was inconsistent. He spent some time in the offseason fine tuning his mechanics and watching video, and believes he has made the necessary corrections which should show some improvement in his velocity and command this year.
“I think everything is back to how it was,” said Hagadone. “My mechanics kind of got twisted up last year. Nothing was how it was before, and I went to Instructs and watched a lot of video and made some adjustments and I feel like everything is back to how it was. It had nothing to do with my arm not being healthy. It was just that my mechanics were off. I wasn’t using my lower half the way I needed to and my direction toward the plate was not how it should be. But I feel like it is fixed and not an issue anymore.”
Right now Hagadone is pretty much working with his very nice fastball-slider mix. He still throws the changeup, but the pitch remains inconsistent for him, which is a big reason why he may end up in the bullpen full time. But he is a hard worker, so he will continue to develop the changeup and work hard to develop as a pitcher.
“I just want to start off and have a solid year all the way through,” said Hagadone about the upcoming season. “Just stay healthy and just keep getting better all year. I have never been satisfied with where I am at.”
Notebook:
Wolters out: Shortstop Tony Wolters had surgery on Wednesday to remove the hamate bone from his right hand. Dr. Tom Graham performed the procedure at the Cleveland Clinic, and he is expected to be out of game action for about five weeks. It remains to be seen how he will bounce back from the injury as it can affect everyone differently. Catcher Carlos Santana suffered the same injury last offseason and was able to come back 100% by the start of last season, but outfielder Nick Weglarz suffered the same injury in June of 2006 and missed the rest of the season. Phillies outfielder Dominic Brown has also reportedly suffered the same injury this spring and is expected to be sidelined for about five weeks.
Pomeranz impressive: Left-handed pitcher Drew Pomeranz continues to impress this spring. He really had a good showing in big league camp and made a name for himself to the big league staff, and in the week he has been in minor league camp he has not skipped a beat. He pitched in a game like situation yesterday during an inter-squad game and aside from one mistake to catcher Chun Chen he pitched well. He averaged 94 MPH with his fastball and was touching 96 MPH.
Stowell, Kluber continue to struggle: Right-handed pitchers Corey Kluber and Bryce Stowell did not have very good showing in big league camp, and their struggles have so far carried over into minor league camp. Yesterday Kluber pitched two innings and allowed three runs on four hits and two walks. He averaged 90 MPH with his fastball and topped out at 92 MPH. Stowell pitched two innings and allowed one run on one hit and three walks, and averaged only 90 MPH with his fastball and touched 94 MPH.
Staying hot: After his big day both at the plate and behind it on Wednesday, catcher Chun Chen was at it again with another big day on Thursday. He made only one plate appearance, but in that lone at bat he hit a three run bomb off top pitching prospect Drew Pomeranz. Chen really broke in as a prospect last year and may be on the verge of a real breakthrough as one of the minor leagues best hitting prospects this season.
Lavisky shows the power: Catcher Alex Lavisky muscled up on a Clayton Cook offering yesterday and deposited it deep into left center for a mammoth home run. The drive ended up hitting the light pole setup about five or six feet behind the fence and about three quarters of the way up. Let’s hope we see a lot more shots like this in Lake County this year.
Soto dinged up: Left-handed pitcher Giovanni Soto has been temporarily sidelined with what is being tabbed as a minor oblique injury. He hurt himself in his second bullpen late last week. The organization is being extremely cautious and he is about a week behind the other pitchers but expected to be back throwing very soon.
Released: The Indians released left-handed pitcher Ryan Morris on Thursday. As is the case with most players who wash out of the system, the injury bug ruined his career. He was always an IPI favorite, and I wish him well in his pursuit to continue to play the game or whatever he ends up doing.
Today: Minor league spring games officially kickoff with Triple-A Columbus and Double-A Akron going to Glendale to play the White Sox, and High-A Kinston and Low-A Lake County in Goodyear to play the White Sox. Some notable pitchers expected to throw are Alex White (Columbus), Nick Hagadone (Columbus), Joe Gardner (Akron), and Kyle Blair (Kinston).
On Austin Adams: “He has four pitches so we are starting him because he has starting stuff and he has not proven he can’t start. I think the scouting department thought he would be a bullpen guy, but he has a four pitch mix, he commands his fastball, and he keeps the ball down. So we are going to start him and plan on starting him as long as he is successful. The thing with him is his velocity got better as the season went on last year. Last year he was restricted somewhat because he did not pitch a lot in college, but this year he should be up to a normal workload of 145-150 innings.”
On Adam Miller: “We will have to see [how he is at the end of camp]. All of his bullpens have been good. He is throwing strikes and he is not having any issues. He is playing catch every day, and [Saturday] there will be a hitter in there. He pitched that inning in Instructional League and was up to 94 MPH. He is going to get some minor league games in spring training and depending on how he does there is a chance that he could possibly pitch in a major league game by the end of camp if everything goes well. Everything looks good so far, so we will see what happens.”
On Elvis Araujo: “Yeah he is fine. More than likely he will probably stay down here in extended spring. He is just a huge kid at 6’7”, throws hard, and has a good slider. We are trying to work on his delivery to get him to stay back a little bit more. But man, he has big upside as he has two plus pitches right now. It’s just about getting him reps off the mound with his delivery and being able to repeat his delivery so it allows him to throw consistent strikes. Even after he had Tommy John surgery it did not even look like it as he was free and easy. He has come back really, really well. He did not pitch last year, but we have time and we will see how he does in extended. Obviously we want to build him up a little bit because he missed time last year.”
On Matt Packer: “He will start and more than likely will be in Akron. We were real happy with what he did last year. It’s funny when you look at the organizational leaders last year, the same guys showed up in every category [and he was one of them]. He has a fastball, slider, change, and has added a curveball to his mix that will kind of help him early in the count. He is a durable guy who gets strikes and gets groundballs.”
On Bryce Stowell: “He just needs reps. It was his first big league camp and he probably was feeling a little pressure. But he threw a good bullpen the other day. It is his third full season and he got up to Triple-A pretty quick. He’s fine and throwing hard. It is just a matter now that he is a reliever to get in a routine and making sure he gets reps. Guys who are relievers only throw one or two innings and don’t get a lot of bullpens and don’t throw a lot of pitches, so they need to make sure they have a good routine and maintain their delivery.”
On Felix Sterling: “He is a projectable kid who throws 90+ now and there might be some more in there. He is a big bodied kid with a chance to be a starter with his feel for a plus changeup right now. His breaking ball has to get a little more consistent. He had a lot of success last year in Arizona, so he has a shot to pitch in Lake County this year, especially with how he commands his fastball and changeup. He is able to throw his changeup to both righties and lefties.”
On Tony Dischler and Michael Goodnight: “It is possible that at Lake County [we will be doing some piggybacking]. It depends how we come out of camp as you always have some injuries and oblique [injuries] which set guys back. But we plan on starting all those guys [from last year’s draft] like Dischler, Goodnight, and Cole Cook. Dischler has good stuff, and Goodnight has a nice delivery and a couple of good pitches. All of those guys have good arms and good deliveries, it is just a matter of seeing how they react to getting on a five day routine.”
On Steven Wright: “Yeah, [his knuckleball] is good. We’ll see. He used it a little bit last year in Akron and he had some decent results with it. He worked hard over the winter time with it, so it will be interesting to see how hitters react to it this spring. Hopefully it is a swing and miss pitch for him. He is not strictly a knuckleballer as he is still throwing into the low 90s and throwing hard. It is just something to add to his repertoire to add some swing and miss to it.”
On Nick Hagadone: “We are going to start him in spring training and make a decision at the end. He can definitely get better commanding his fastball arm side, but he is commanding it better and his breaking ball and changeup are fine.”
On Alex White: “He looks good, is throwing hard, and his slider is getting better. The consistency of his slider is just a matter of getting more games and reps. His splitter looks better, and he puts the ball on the ground with his fastball.”
On Zach McAllister: “He is a young kid who kind of went level by level with the Yankees. He is a big kid with a good slider and good sinker who will be in our Triple-A rotation. He is an interesting kid who is athletic and has a chance to haul some innings.”
(Photo: Tony Lastoria)
Hagadone role still up in the air
Left-handed pitcher Nick Hagadone is still waiting to find out what role he will pitch in this season.
“I don’t know,” said Hagadone. “As of right now I am preparing as a starter. Whenever the decision is made we will just go from there. By preparing as a starter I can go either way, whereas if I prepare as a reliever I can’t.”
The Indians have not set a timetable on when they will make a decision on whether Hagadone starts or relieves to open the season, likely at Double-A Akron. Considering his arm and talent, it appears likely that Hagadone will continue to pitch in a piggyback role in order to continue to develop his command and pitches.
Whether he pitches out of the bullpen or in the starting rotation, it does not matter to Hagadone. He just wants the chance to pitch at the big league level. He got a chance to show off his talents to the big league staff early in camp before being sent down to minor league camp over the weekend, and he believes he made a positive impression.
“I feel pretty good and I thought I had a pretty good camp,” said Hagadone. “I knew there was no chance I would make the team out of spring training, but my goal was to just leave a good impression. I felt like I did that, but you don’t really know. It was a good experience and it definitely makes me want to be up there even more than I already did.”
Hagadone had a pretty disappointing season last year. He battled through command issues all season and his velocity was inconsistent. He spent some time in the offseason fine tuning his mechanics and watching video, and believes he has made the necessary corrections which should show some improvement in his velocity and command this year.
“I think everything is back to how it was,” said Hagadone. “My mechanics kind of got twisted up last year. Nothing was how it was before, and I went to Instructs and watched a lot of video and made some adjustments and I feel like everything is back to how it was. It had nothing to do with my arm not being healthy. It was just that my mechanics were off. I wasn’t using my lower half the way I needed to and my direction toward the plate was not how it should be. But I feel like it is fixed and not an issue anymore.”
Right now Hagadone is pretty much working with his very nice fastball-slider mix. He still throws the changeup, but the pitch remains inconsistent for him, which is a big reason why he may end up in the bullpen full time. But he is a hard worker, so he will continue to develop the changeup and work hard to develop as a pitcher.
“I just want to start off and have a solid year all the way through,” said Hagadone about the upcoming season. “Just stay healthy and just keep getting better all year. I have never been satisfied with where I am at.”
Notebook:
Wolters out: Shortstop Tony Wolters had surgery on Wednesday to remove the hamate bone from his right hand. Dr. Tom Graham performed the procedure at the Cleveland Clinic, and he is expected to be out of game action for about five weeks. It remains to be seen how he will bounce back from the injury as it can affect everyone differently. Catcher Carlos Santana suffered the same injury last offseason and was able to come back 100% by the start of last season, but outfielder Nick Weglarz suffered the same injury in June of 2006 and missed the rest of the season. Phillies outfielder Dominic Brown has also reportedly suffered the same injury this spring and is expected to be sidelined for about five weeks.
Pomeranz impressive: Left-handed pitcher Drew Pomeranz continues to impress this spring. He really had a good showing in big league camp and made a name for himself to the big league staff, and in the week he has been in minor league camp he has not skipped a beat. He pitched in a game like situation yesterday during an inter-squad game and aside from one mistake to catcher Chun Chen he pitched well. He averaged 94 MPH with his fastball and was touching 96 MPH.
Stowell, Kluber continue to struggle: Right-handed pitchers Corey Kluber and Bryce Stowell did not have very good showing in big league camp, and their struggles have so far carried over into minor league camp. Yesterday Kluber pitched two innings and allowed three runs on four hits and two walks. He averaged 90 MPH with his fastball and topped out at 92 MPH. Stowell pitched two innings and allowed one run on one hit and three walks, and averaged only 90 MPH with his fastball and touched 94 MPH.
Staying hot: After his big day both at the plate and behind it on Wednesday, catcher Chun Chen was at it again with another big day on Thursday. He made only one plate appearance, but in that lone at bat he hit a three run bomb off top pitching prospect Drew Pomeranz. Chen really broke in as a prospect last year and may be on the verge of a real breakthrough as one of the minor leagues best hitting prospects this season.
Lavisky shows the power: Catcher Alex Lavisky muscled up on a Clayton Cook offering yesterday and deposited it deep into left center for a mammoth home run. The drive ended up hitting the light pole setup about five or six feet behind the fence and about three quarters of the way up. Let’s hope we see a lot more shots like this in Lake County this year.
Soto dinged up: Left-handed pitcher Giovanni Soto has been temporarily sidelined with what is being tabbed as a minor oblique injury. He hurt himself in his second bullpen late last week. The organization is being extremely cautious and he is about a week behind the other pitchers but expected to be back throwing very soon.
Released: The Indians released left-handed pitcher Ryan Morris on Thursday. As is the case with most players who wash out of the system, the injury bug ruined his career. He was always an IPI favorite, and I wish him well in his pursuit to continue to play the game or whatever he ends up doing.
Today: Minor league spring games officially kickoff with Triple-A Columbus and Double-A Akron going to Glendale to play the White Sox, and High-A Kinston and Low-A Lake County in Goodyear to play the White Sox. Some notable pitchers expected to throw are Alex White (Columbus), Nick Hagadone (Columbus), Joe Gardner (Akron), and Kyle Blair (Kinston).
Re: Minor Matters
64What Tony says about Alex White, who despite his pretty bad spring, did pitch well in 2010.
#3 Alex White
Posted by Tony at 2:13 AM
Alex White – Right-handed Pitcher
Born: 08/29/1988 – Height: 6’3” – Weight: 195 – Bats: Right – Throws: Right
(Photo: Ken Carr)
History: White was selected by the Indians in the 1st round of the 2009 Draft out of the University of North Carolina. He signed right at the August deadline for $2.25 million. He was the Atlantic Coast Conference Pitcher of the Year in 2008. Last year he finished 2nd in the organization in ERA (2.45) and tied for 4th in wins. For his efforts last season he won the organization’s Bob Feller Award, which goes to their top minor league pitcher each season. The Indians have known him since he was in high school as area scout Bob Mayer followed and got to know him then.
Strengths: White is a big, strong, durable workhorse kind of pitcher with lots of athleticism featuring an electric plus fastball that sits at 91-94 MPH and has touched 97 MPH. His fastball comes out of his hand free and easy with good life and late, heavy sink to it, and he maintains his velocity well late in games. His plus-plus splitter is his most effective pitch, and one he added to his arsenal in college. It is a strikeout weapon for him as it has great late fade and he eats up left-handers with it. His developing slider sits at 82-85 MPH and is an inconsistent offering that has shown flashes of wipeout potential as an above average offering because of the good tilt and depth he gets when he is on with it.
White has a good feel for pitching and how to get hitters out. He shows a good rhythm and tempo on the mound and really believes in himself and has a lot of confidence in his stuff pitching to contact. He has a loose-armed, athletic delivery and has been a durable pitcher with no injury history. He consistently keeps the ball down in the zone, shows maturity beyond his years, and displays an advanced understanding of how to plan for and attack hitters. He has unbelievable composure with a great track record of being able to pitch when under pressure. He has a great presence and temperament on the mound as he does not try to do too much and nothing seems to speed up on him. He is extremely athletic which helps him field his position well, repeat his delivery, and control a running game exceptionally well. He is a competitor who is a bulldog on the mound that goes right after hitters.
White is a plus-plus makeup guy who is very intelligent, coachable, grounded, and strong in his values. He is very open-minded about suggestions and has handled the progress and process of development as well as anyone the Indians have ever had. He shows an incredible professionalism with how he approaches his bullpens and warm-ups by taking them very seriously. His worth ethic is very consistent and he has a lot of discipline. Off the field he is excellent with his routines, eating habits, and his strength and conditioning.
White had a very successful professional debut last season where he spent a lot of time enhancing his pitching talents by developing other areas of his game. He better solidified his delivery by incorporating more of his lower half, which in turn allowed him to more consistently command his fastball better to both sides of the plate. His refined delivery also helped his two secondary offerings become more effective and repeatable. Since he threw almost an exclusive fastball-splitter mix in college, he spent a lot of time last season incorporating his slider back into his pitch mix. He showed a better feel for it over the course of the season and late in the year it even started to become a weapon for him and one he quickly gained a lot of confidence in. Even though he had two starts left, the Indians shut him down with about a week left in the season. He had already eclipsed his innings pitched threshold of 150 innings, so they opted to protect his arm rather than have him make the final two starts or send him to Triple-A Columbus for their postseason run.
White was seen by some scouts as a power reliever coming out of college because he basically abandoned his breaking ball and his fastball-splitter mix is more conducive to the bullpen. With his makeup, mentality, composure, and stuff he has all the intangibles to be a successful backend reliever down the road. All that said, the Indians really like his athleticism and durability as a starter, especially with how he remains so strong late in his outings, so they will continue to develop him as a starter. Even if he ultimately ends up in the bullpen, by starting him now he can get regular work in games and in side sessions, and have more opportunities to be exposed to various game situations and to develop all of his pitches regularly in an outing. The bullpen option is something the Indians have decided to keep in their back pocket as he is just more valuable if he can start. Considering where he was taken in the draft and three potential above average pitches in his arsenal, they almost have to see him through as a starter first before turning to the bullpen as a fallback option.
Opportunities: The entire key to White remaining a starter is the development of his slider. He is still trying to find a consistent feel for the pitch as it lacks consistency in the zone. It is key for him because it adds a pitch with more side to side movement to change the eye level of the hitters rather than everything going down in the zone, which would make his fastball-splitter combination much more effective. He made strides with it last year, but it is still a below average offering at the moment that the Indians have challenged him to have more consistent shape, be able to throw it for strikes, and also be able to expand the strike zone with it. He is also working through a delivery adjustment mainly to work on repeating and smoothing out his delivery and try to throw all of his pitches for strikes to both sides of the plate. He has had some high pitch count, high effort innings, so he needs to get better with his location and being more efficient with his pitches. While he does a good job of getting groundballs, he needs to develop more swing and miss to his pitches. His fastball command needs more refining, and his splitter needs a little more consistency.
Outlook: White had a very good professional debut across two different levels of the organization last year. He lived up to everything he was billed to be when he was taken in the 1st round of the 2009 Draft as a groundball machine (1.91 GO/AO) with the ability to miss bats and an exceptional work ethic. It was definitely a banner first pro season for him, and could be a great stepping stone to an even better year this season. He has a chance to be a middle of the rotation starter or more, and if his slider does not develop the Indians know he has the ability to impact as a late inning reliever. He will spend most if not all of the 2011 season at Columbus in order to finish him off and make him a full time option in the Cleveland rotation in 2012. Depending on need and his progress, he could debut with the Indians sometime after the All Star break, but there is a chance his debut may not come until 2012 for roster management reasons. He likely will open the 2011 season at Columbus, but there is a chance he could return to Double-A Akron to start the season. Either way, he should spend the majority of his time in Columbus this coming season.
Year Age Team Lvl W L ERA G GS IP H ER HR BB SO AVG BB/9 K/9 WHIP
2010 21 Kinston A+ 2 3 2.86 8 8 44.0 32 14 4 19 41 .204 3.9 8.4 1.16
2010 21 Akron AA 8 7 2.28 18 17 106.2 91 27 8 27 76 .226 2.3 6.4 1.11
MiLB Totals 10 10 2.45 26 25 150.2 123 41 12 46 117 .220 2.7 7.0 1.12
#3 Alex White
Posted by Tony at 2:13 AM
Alex White – Right-handed Pitcher
Born: 08/29/1988 – Height: 6’3” – Weight: 195 – Bats: Right – Throws: Right
(Photo: Ken Carr)
History: White was selected by the Indians in the 1st round of the 2009 Draft out of the University of North Carolina. He signed right at the August deadline for $2.25 million. He was the Atlantic Coast Conference Pitcher of the Year in 2008. Last year he finished 2nd in the organization in ERA (2.45) and tied for 4th in wins. For his efforts last season he won the organization’s Bob Feller Award, which goes to their top minor league pitcher each season. The Indians have known him since he was in high school as area scout Bob Mayer followed and got to know him then.
Strengths: White is a big, strong, durable workhorse kind of pitcher with lots of athleticism featuring an electric plus fastball that sits at 91-94 MPH and has touched 97 MPH. His fastball comes out of his hand free and easy with good life and late, heavy sink to it, and he maintains his velocity well late in games. His plus-plus splitter is his most effective pitch, and one he added to his arsenal in college. It is a strikeout weapon for him as it has great late fade and he eats up left-handers with it. His developing slider sits at 82-85 MPH and is an inconsistent offering that has shown flashes of wipeout potential as an above average offering because of the good tilt and depth he gets when he is on with it.
White has a good feel for pitching and how to get hitters out. He shows a good rhythm and tempo on the mound and really believes in himself and has a lot of confidence in his stuff pitching to contact. He has a loose-armed, athletic delivery and has been a durable pitcher with no injury history. He consistently keeps the ball down in the zone, shows maturity beyond his years, and displays an advanced understanding of how to plan for and attack hitters. He has unbelievable composure with a great track record of being able to pitch when under pressure. He has a great presence and temperament on the mound as he does not try to do too much and nothing seems to speed up on him. He is extremely athletic which helps him field his position well, repeat his delivery, and control a running game exceptionally well. He is a competitor who is a bulldog on the mound that goes right after hitters.
White is a plus-plus makeup guy who is very intelligent, coachable, grounded, and strong in his values. He is very open-minded about suggestions and has handled the progress and process of development as well as anyone the Indians have ever had. He shows an incredible professionalism with how he approaches his bullpens and warm-ups by taking them very seriously. His worth ethic is very consistent and he has a lot of discipline. Off the field he is excellent with his routines, eating habits, and his strength and conditioning.
White had a very successful professional debut last season where he spent a lot of time enhancing his pitching talents by developing other areas of his game. He better solidified his delivery by incorporating more of his lower half, which in turn allowed him to more consistently command his fastball better to both sides of the plate. His refined delivery also helped his two secondary offerings become more effective and repeatable. Since he threw almost an exclusive fastball-splitter mix in college, he spent a lot of time last season incorporating his slider back into his pitch mix. He showed a better feel for it over the course of the season and late in the year it even started to become a weapon for him and one he quickly gained a lot of confidence in. Even though he had two starts left, the Indians shut him down with about a week left in the season. He had already eclipsed his innings pitched threshold of 150 innings, so they opted to protect his arm rather than have him make the final two starts or send him to Triple-A Columbus for their postseason run.
White was seen by some scouts as a power reliever coming out of college because he basically abandoned his breaking ball and his fastball-splitter mix is more conducive to the bullpen. With his makeup, mentality, composure, and stuff he has all the intangibles to be a successful backend reliever down the road. All that said, the Indians really like his athleticism and durability as a starter, especially with how he remains so strong late in his outings, so they will continue to develop him as a starter. Even if he ultimately ends up in the bullpen, by starting him now he can get regular work in games and in side sessions, and have more opportunities to be exposed to various game situations and to develop all of his pitches regularly in an outing. The bullpen option is something the Indians have decided to keep in their back pocket as he is just more valuable if he can start. Considering where he was taken in the draft and three potential above average pitches in his arsenal, they almost have to see him through as a starter first before turning to the bullpen as a fallback option.
Opportunities: The entire key to White remaining a starter is the development of his slider. He is still trying to find a consistent feel for the pitch as it lacks consistency in the zone. It is key for him because it adds a pitch with more side to side movement to change the eye level of the hitters rather than everything going down in the zone, which would make his fastball-splitter combination much more effective. He made strides with it last year, but it is still a below average offering at the moment that the Indians have challenged him to have more consistent shape, be able to throw it for strikes, and also be able to expand the strike zone with it. He is also working through a delivery adjustment mainly to work on repeating and smoothing out his delivery and try to throw all of his pitches for strikes to both sides of the plate. He has had some high pitch count, high effort innings, so he needs to get better with his location and being more efficient with his pitches. While he does a good job of getting groundballs, he needs to develop more swing and miss to his pitches. His fastball command needs more refining, and his splitter needs a little more consistency.
Outlook: White had a very good professional debut across two different levels of the organization last year. He lived up to everything he was billed to be when he was taken in the 1st round of the 2009 Draft as a groundball machine (1.91 GO/AO) with the ability to miss bats and an exceptional work ethic. It was definitely a banner first pro season for him, and could be a great stepping stone to an even better year this season. He has a chance to be a middle of the rotation starter or more, and if his slider does not develop the Indians know he has the ability to impact as a late inning reliever. He will spend most if not all of the 2011 season at Columbus in order to finish him off and make him a full time option in the Cleveland rotation in 2012. Depending on need and his progress, he could debut with the Indians sometime after the All Star break, but there is a chance his debut may not come until 2012 for roster management reasons. He likely will open the 2011 season at Columbus, but there is a chance he could return to Double-A Akron to start the season. Either way, he should spend the majority of his time in Columbus this coming season.
Year Age Team Lvl W L ERA G GS IP H ER HR BB SO AVG BB/9 K/9 WHIP
2010 21 Kinston A+ 2 3 2.86 8 8 44.0 32 14 4 19 41 .204 3.9 8.4 1.16
2010 21 Akron AA 8 7 2.28 18 17 106.2 91 27 8 27 76 .226 2.3 6.4 1.11
MiLB Totals 10 10 2.45 26 25 150.2 123 41 12 46 117 .220 2.7 7.0 1.12
Re: Minor Matters
65Tony reports:
House hoping for a better year
Left-handed pitcher T.J. House is one of the Indians better young pitching prospects. Even though he has been one of the youngest players in the league his first two seasons of pro ball he has pitched well. Last year at High-A Kinston he went 6-10 with a 3.91 ERA in 27 games (135.2 IP, 135 H, 7 HR, 61 BB, 106 K).
Even after another solid season, House feels he can do much better so he spent the offseason shoring up his mechanics and pitches.
“Yeah I worked out [in the offseason] and worked on my delivery,” said House. “I did a lot of mechanical things so I can have a more successful season early on from a mechanical standpoint. I have worked on throwing more strikes, pounding the lower part of the zone, finishing through, and opening my hips up.”
One of the reasons House had some consistency problems last year was he had a tendency to lean backward when he went through his delivery and then he would fall forward. He has worked hard in the offseason to have better balance in his delivery which should help him better command his pitches.
“I wasn’t getting that lower leg push,” said House. “The elbow was up and not down, and when you are leaning and falling you can lose a lot of things as your ball can be flat and does not move planes. It can affect everything from your breaking pitches to your command, so I have been working on that a lot.”
One of the things that House has done to correct his delivery issue is to watch video of left-hander Cliff Lee.
“I have watched Cliff Lee a lot,” said House. “[Pitching coach Tony Arnold and I] watched his side view and front view when he pitches and watched his mechanics and see how he finishes. He doesn’t reach out too far as he just puts his foot down and explodes through his windup. We watched a lot of video and I have tried to replicate that, and it has been pretty successful for me.”
Talking about making an adjustment is one thing. Going out there and actually applying it is another. Any change can feel odd at first and can be tough for a player to adjust to, but for any change to become routine and feel natural it takes time and patience to get used to it.
“I think the toughest part is when you are trying to fix it and you think about it so much and then when it is game time you have to just go out there and play,” said House. “Eventually after so long your body picks it up and it becomes something you are used to and you don’t even realize you are doing it all the time and it becomes easier and easier to do. But at the beginning stages it is always in the back of your mind because you know you have been working on it all week and now when you are out there pitching you don’t want to over think about it, but you have to because you want to make sure you are working on the proper things.”
House also added a curveball to his repertoire last year. It was a pitch that he worked on late in the year and did not unveil in any games, but is a pitch he plans to use this season as more of a show pitch to give hitters a different look.
“I never threw it in games [last year], but I am going to start throwing it this year just to see how it goes,” said House. “It is not something that will be a strikeout pitch, but is just something for show that is a little slower with different planes. It goes up and down rather than my two-seam, slider and changeup that all pretty much go side to side. It is just another weapon to give another look.”
House is hoping to be more consistent this season and improve on his overall performance. He has no control where he may end up to start the season, but he is looking forward to the challenge ahead of him this season be it in a return trip to High-A Kinston or a new journey to Double-A Akron.
“I have had a few good seasons my first two years - I would say on par - but I feel I can do better,” said House. “I know I have it in me to go out there and have a very successful season, and I feel like I need to push myself to do that this year. My goal is to stay consistent from pitch to pitch and outing to outing. As long as I go out there and play, wherever I end up I can only move forward. Just keep pushing forward and I feel like your stuff on the field will show and put you where you belong.”
Goedert hopes to avoid DL
Indians infielder Jared Goedert has been sidelined for about two weeks now with a strained oblique. It was an unfortunate injury as he lost a chance to showcase his talents to the big league staff so that they could not only consider him for a spot on the opening day roster, but also get a good luck at him as a possible callup option later in the year when a need arises.
Goedert is no stranger to oblique injuries as he had one back in the early part of 2009. It was an injury that seemed to linger and affect him all year that season as he never seemed to get back to 100% all year. He says the current injury is a little different this time around, and he hopes that with proper rehab and strengthening he can tackle it so it is no longer a problem once he is cleared to start playing games.
“It is a similar issue [to the one in 2009],” said Goedert. “It is kind of a different area of the abdominal region, but I think the timeline and rehab recovery process is pretty similar. I just have to do the progressions and build up to strengthening and making sure everything is healed up correctly. Just kind of build up and whatever track or program they have me on I will be ready.”
Right now it looks like Goedert may open the season on the disabled list. There is no doubt he will probably be able to play by the end of spring training, but the Indians will probably choose to go the safe route to best ensure he maintains his health and has no setbacks which may mean he spends the first week of two on the Triple-A Columbus disabled list.
“My goal is to not [go on the DL],” said Goedert. “From the experience of others who have worked through this injury, this is something that a lot of people make sure to get it taken care of because it is something you can have setbacks with and it can linger which is what you don’t want. That’s my goal is to not have it delay the season.”
For now Goedert will continue to workout, rehab, and do some conditioning drills. If he does not have a setback it is possible that as early as next weekend he could start to play a few innings in a minor league spring game, maybe even sooner.
“The first few days it was a lot of rest,” said Goedert about the recovery process. “I just kind of let it heal, and from there it has been slowly building it up with conditioning. That [has gone] into strengthening and has just gone from there.”
Once Goedert gets the all clear to play again, the Indians plan to have him move around the diamond this year and fill in at third base, first base, and left field. It is a utility role that the big league team needs, and one which he may be able to carve a niche for himself in Cleveland.
“I think I am going to play a little bit of third [in Columbus] as Lonnie will be the regular third baseman,” said Goedert. “So I will mix in there, first and left. I’m just looking forward to that opportunity. I kind of enjoy getting to mix in the different positions. Hopefully it will help me out and hopefully the Indians too.”
House hoping for a better year
Left-handed pitcher T.J. House is one of the Indians better young pitching prospects. Even though he has been one of the youngest players in the league his first two seasons of pro ball he has pitched well. Last year at High-A Kinston he went 6-10 with a 3.91 ERA in 27 games (135.2 IP, 135 H, 7 HR, 61 BB, 106 K).
Even after another solid season, House feels he can do much better so he spent the offseason shoring up his mechanics and pitches.
“Yeah I worked out [in the offseason] and worked on my delivery,” said House. “I did a lot of mechanical things so I can have a more successful season early on from a mechanical standpoint. I have worked on throwing more strikes, pounding the lower part of the zone, finishing through, and opening my hips up.”
One of the reasons House had some consistency problems last year was he had a tendency to lean backward when he went through his delivery and then he would fall forward. He has worked hard in the offseason to have better balance in his delivery which should help him better command his pitches.
“I wasn’t getting that lower leg push,” said House. “The elbow was up and not down, and when you are leaning and falling you can lose a lot of things as your ball can be flat and does not move planes. It can affect everything from your breaking pitches to your command, so I have been working on that a lot.”
One of the things that House has done to correct his delivery issue is to watch video of left-hander Cliff Lee.
“I have watched Cliff Lee a lot,” said House. “[Pitching coach Tony Arnold and I] watched his side view and front view when he pitches and watched his mechanics and see how he finishes. He doesn’t reach out too far as he just puts his foot down and explodes through his windup. We watched a lot of video and I have tried to replicate that, and it has been pretty successful for me.”
Talking about making an adjustment is one thing. Going out there and actually applying it is another. Any change can feel odd at first and can be tough for a player to adjust to, but for any change to become routine and feel natural it takes time and patience to get used to it.
“I think the toughest part is when you are trying to fix it and you think about it so much and then when it is game time you have to just go out there and play,” said House. “Eventually after so long your body picks it up and it becomes something you are used to and you don’t even realize you are doing it all the time and it becomes easier and easier to do. But at the beginning stages it is always in the back of your mind because you know you have been working on it all week and now when you are out there pitching you don’t want to over think about it, but you have to because you want to make sure you are working on the proper things.”
House also added a curveball to his repertoire last year. It was a pitch that he worked on late in the year and did not unveil in any games, but is a pitch he plans to use this season as more of a show pitch to give hitters a different look.
“I never threw it in games [last year], but I am going to start throwing it this year just to see how it goes,” said House. “It is not something that will be a strikeout pitch, but is just something for show that is a little slower with different planes. It goes up and down rather than my two-seam, slider and changeup that all pretty much go side to side. It is just another weapon to give another look.”
House is hoping to be more consistent this season and improve on his overall performance. He has no control where he may end up to start the season, but he is looking forward to the challenge ahead of him this season be it in a return trip to High-A Kinston or a new journey to Double-A Akron.
“I have had a few good seasons my first two years - I would say on par - but I feel I can do better,” said House. “I know I have it in me to go out there and have a very successful season, and I feel like I need to push myself to do that this year. My goal is to stay consistent from pitch to pitch and outing to outing. As long as I go out there and play, wherever I end up I can only move forward. Just keep pushing forward and I feel like your stuff on the field will show and put you where you belong.”
Goedert hopes to avoid DL
Indians infielder Jared Goedert has been sidelined for about two weeks now with a strained oblique. It was an unfortunate injury as he lost a chance to showcase his talents to the big league staff so that they could not only consider him for a spot on the opening day roster, but also get a good luck at him as a possible callup option later in the year when a need arises.
Goedert is no stranger to oblique injuries as he had one back in the early part of 2009. It was an injury that seemed to linger and affect him all year that season as he never seemed to get back to 100% all year. He says the current injury is a little different this time around, and he hopes that with proper rehab and strengthening he can tackle it so it is no longer a problem once he is cleared to start playing games.
“It is a similar issue [to the one in 2009],” said Goedert. “It is kind of a different area of the abdominal region, but I think the timeline and rehab recovery process is pretty similar. I just have to do the progressions and build up to strengthening and making sure everything is healed up correctly. Just kind of build up and whatever track or program they have me on I will be ready.”
Right now it looks like Goedert may open the season on the disabled list. There is no doubt he will probably be able to play by the end of spring training, but the Indians will probably choose to go the safe route to best ensure he maintains his health and has no setbacks which may mean he spends the first week of two on the Triple-A Columbus disabled list.
“My goal is to not [go on the DL],” said Goedert. “From the experience of others who have worked through this injury, this is something that a lot of people make sure to get it taken care of because it is something you can have setbacks with and it can linger which is what you don’t want. That’s my goal is to not have it delay the season.”
For now Goedert will continue to workout, rehab, and do some conditioning drills. If he does not have a setback it is possible that as early as next weekend he could start to play a few innings in a minor league spring game, maybe even sooner.
“The first few days it was a lot of rest,” said Goedert about the recovery process. “I just kind of let it heal, and from there it has been slowly building it up with conditioning. That [has gone] into strengthening and has just gone from there.”
Once Goedert gets the all clear to play again, the Indians plan to have him move around the diamond this year and fill in at third base, first base, and left field. It is a utility role that the big league team needs, and one which he may be able to carve a niche for himself in Cleveland.
“I think I am going to play a little bit of third [in Columbus] as Lonnie will be the regular third baseman,” said Goedert. “So I will mix in there, first and left. I’m just looking forward to that opportunity. I kind of enjoy getting to mix in the different positions. Hopefully it will help me out and hopefully the Indians too.”
Re: Minor Matters
66And more:
Notebook:
Wolters update: Shortstop Tony Wolters was back at camp on Friday fresh off his Wednesday surgery in Cleveland to remove a broken hamate bone in his right hand. He is wearing a soft cast which will be removed in about two weeks, and he is emphatic that he will be back around then. The Indians obviously will appreciate his excitement and determination, but considering his value as a high profile prospect and how it can take some time to fully come back from the surgery and injury, the Indians will likely be very conservative with him in order to help ensure there are no setbacks. He is going to start the season in extended spring training, but if he proves healthy he could go to Low-A Lake County in May or June. The Indians may also choose to instead send him to short-season Single-A Mahoning Valley when their season starts up in mid-June.
Lofton sighting: Kenny Lofton ventured over to the minor league fields on Friday morning and threw a little batting practice and then sat down and talked to several of the Indians’ young outfielders. He spent a good 15-20 minutes with Delvi Cid and talked about Cid’s approach to stealing bases and how to become a better base stealer. Boy would I have loved to be a fly on the dugout wall for that conversation and all the knowledge Lofton bestowed upon Cid.
Growing Greenwell: It’s always interesting to see a lot of the players in the spring and see who got bigger in the offseason and also see some of the younger players show a more mature look. Since you do not see a lot of these guys for six months from September to March, a lot can change with their physical appearance. One such player is outfielder Bo Greenwell who really made a change from a young kid to a man in the offseason. He has started to really fill out and added some good muscle weight. With his body now starting to really mature, perhaps he can put it all together and have a breakout year and be consistent the entire season. He’s definitely a sleeper to watch this year.
Perez, Rondon update: Right-handed pitchers Alexander Perez and Hector Rondon are expected to soon progress to throwing bullpens. If there are no setbacks they should be pitching sometime in June, likely on a rehab assignment at rookie-level Arizona. Both will likely pitch in Instructional League and maybe in a fall or winter league to make up innings at the end of the year.
Salazar, Valera update: Two other pitchers coming off Tommy John are right-handers Danny Salazar and Francisco Valera. Both are in the early stages of a throwing program and are making about 20-25 throws at 90 feet.
Columbus recap: Columbus lost 11-8 on Friday in their spring debut. Catcher Chun Chen continued his hot week with another outstanding game going 2-for-3 with a HR and 4 RBI. Outfielder John Drennen was the other standout performer at the plate going 2-for-3 with a 2B, HR, and RBI. Right-hander Alex White threw three innings (51 pitches) and allowed one run on three hits, one walk, and had three strikeouts. He was up to 94 MPH and averaged 91 MPH. Left-hander Nick Hagadone went 1.1 innings (3 H, 4 R/ER, 1 BB, 1 K) and averaged 92 MPH and touched 95 MPH.
Akron recap: Akron lost 6-5, and outfielder Abner Abreu led the way offensively going 2-for-4 with a 2B, HR, and 2 RBI. Right-handed pitcher Joe Gardner went two innings (4 H, 1 R/ER, 1 BB, 2 K) and averaged 89 MPH and touched 91 MPH.
Kinston recap: Kinston lost 9-6, and third baseman Giovanny Urshela had a nice debut going 2-for-4 with a 2B, 3B, and 2 RBI. Right-hander Kyle Blair had a stellar outing going two shutout innings and allowed one hit, did not walk anyone, and had a strikeout. He averaged 90 MPH but did touch 95 MPH.
Lake County recap: Lake County played to a 5-5 tie. Shortstop Nick Bartolone led the way for the offense going 1-for-2 with a 2B and RBI. Lefty James Reichenbach started and went two innings and allowed two runs on five hits, one walk, and had four strikeouts. He averaged 88 MPH and touched 91 MPH on the gun.
Today: All four affiliates will be in Goodyear on Saturday against the Reds, though Columbus and Akron will be on the road at the Reds complex and Kinston and Lake County will be at home at the Indians complex.
Notebook:
Wolters update: Shortstop Tony Wolters was back at camp on Friday fresh off his Wednesday surgery in Cleveland to remove a broken hamate bone in his right hand. He is wearing a soft cast which will be removed in about two weeks, and he is emphatic that he will be back around then. The Indians obviously will appreciate his excitement and determination, but considering his value as a high profile prospect and how it can take some time to fully come back from the surgery and injury, the Indians will likely be very conservative with him in order to help ensure there are no setbacks. He is going to start the season in extended spring training, but if he proves healthy he could go to Low-A Lake County in May or June. The Indians may also choose to instead send him to short-season Single-A Mahoning Valley when their season starts up in mid-June.
Lofton sighting: Kenny Lofton ventured over to the minor league fields on Friday morning and threw a little batting practice and then sat down and talked to several of the Indians’ young outfielders. He spent a good 15-20 minutes with Delvi Cid and talked about Cid’s approach to stealing bases and how to become a better base stealer. Boy would I have loved to be a fly on the dugout wall for that conversation and all the knowledge Lofton bestowed upon Cid.
Growing Greenwell: It’s always interesting to see a lot of the players in the spring and see who got bigger in the offseason and also see some of the younger players show a more mature look. Since you do not see a lot of these guys for six months from September to March, a lot can change with their physical appearance. One such player is outfielder Bo Greenwell who really made a change from a young kid to a man in the offseason. He has started to really fill out and added some good muscle weight. With his body now starting to really mature, perhaps he can put it all together and have a breakout year and be consistent the entire season. He’s definitely a sleeper to watch this year.
Perez, Rondon update: Right-handed pitchers Alexander Perez and Hector Rondon are expected to soon progress to throwing bullpens. If there are no setbacks they should be pitching sometime in June, likely on a rehab assignment at rookie-level Arizona. Both will likely pitch in Instructional League and maybe in a fall or winter league to make up innings at the end of the year.
Salazar, Valera update: Two other pitchers coming off Tommy John are right-handers Danny Salazar and Francisco Valera. Both are in the early stages of a throwing program and are making about 20-25 throws at 90 feet.
Columbus recap: Columbus lost 11-8 on Friday in their spring debut. Catcher Chun Chen continued his hot week with another outstanding game going 2-for-3 with a HR and 4 RBI. Outfielder John Drennen was the other standout performer at the plate going 2-for-3 with a 2B, HR, and RBI. Right-hander Alex White threw three innings (51 pitches) and allowed one run on three hits, one walk, and had three strikeouts. He was up to 94 MPH and averaged 91 MPH. Left-hander Nick Hagadone went 1.1 innings (3 H, 4 R/ER, 1 BB, 1 K) and averaged 92 MPH and touched 95 MPH.
Akron recap: Akron lost 6-5, and outfielder Abner Abreu led the way offensively going 2-for-4 with a 2B, HR, and 2 RBI. Right-handed pitcher Joe Gardner went two innings (4 H, 1 R/ER, 1 BB, 2 K) and averaged 89 MPH and touched 91 MPH.
Kinston recap: Kinston lost 9-6, and third baseman Giovanny Urshela had a nice debut going 2-for-4 with a 2B, 3B, and 2 RBI. Right-hander Kyle Blair had a stellar outing going two shutout innings and allowed one hit, did not walk anyone, and had a strikeout. He averaged 90 MPH but did touch 95 MPH.
Lake County recap: Lake County played to a 5-5 tie. Shortstop Nick Bartolone led the way for the offense going 1-for-2 with a 2B and RBI. Lefty James Reichenbach started and went two innings and allowed two runs on five hits, one walk, and had four strikeouts. He averaged 88 MPH and touched 91 MPH on the gun.
Today: All four affiliates will be in Goodyear on Saturday against the Reds, though Columbus and Akron will be on the road at the Reds complex and Kinston and Lake County will be at home at the Indians complex.
Re: Minor Matters
67Surprise!
Code: Select all
#1 Lonnie Chisenhall
Posted by Tony at 12:01 AM
Lonnie Chisenhall – Third Baseman
Born: 10/04/1988 – Height: 6’1” – Weight: 200 – Bats: Left – Throws: Right
(Photo: Ken Carr)
History: Chisenhall was selected by the Indians in the 1st round of the 2008 Draft out of Pitt Junior College. He signed quickly after the draft by agreeing to a $1.1 million bonus. He played his freshman season in 2007 for the University of South Carolina (20 games, .313, 1 HR, 13 RBI), but was kicked off the baseball team in March 2007 because of burglary and grand larceny charges. He plead guilty to the charges and received six months probation, and transferred to Pitt Junior College in 2008 where he hit .410 (68-for-166) with 27 doubles, 8 homers and 66 RBI. He won the Home Run Derby before the Carolina League vs. California League All Star Game in 2009, and last year was named to the Futures Game. Last year he finished tied for 3rd in the organization in home runs (17) and was 1st in RBI (84).
Strengths: Chisenhall has a very impressive low maintenance swing with a very patient, polished approach that has adapted very well to the professional game. His swing has scouts all throughout the game drooling as many consider it the best swing they have seen in the minors in years. He shows good bat-to-ball ability with great ability to consistently square up the baseball with the barrel of the bat. He is quiet in the box and short to the ball with a nice smooth swing that he keeps on a nice level plane. He is a line drive gap-to-gap hitter with plus bat speed and above average power to all fields. He shows great natural ability with his hands and some good pull side power.
Chisenhall is a very advanced hitter who is extremely passionate about hitting. He shows good command of the strike zone, rarely gets fooled, and has very good plate coverage. He has a consistent approach day in and day out where his swing never changes, and it is the consistency of his swing that allows him to avoid long cold or hot streaks. He does a great job of making adjustments at the plate touching up opposing pitchers who try to work him inside, and when they start pitching him away he counters by making the proper adjustment of going with what they are giving him and going the other way.
Chisenhall has shown more power to drive the ball out of the ballpark than what was originally anticipated coming out of the draft, likely the byproduct of his excellent bat speed and the way the ball jumps off his bat. He is still young and developing, so there is the potential for more power down the road. He is very intelligent, loves to play, and has unbelievable poise where he doesn’t feel pressure and is a clutch performer. As a runner, he has below average to average speed but has good instincts, runs the bases hard, and makes good decisions. He came into the draft with some makeup concerns because of the larceny charges, but since joining the Indians has been a model player and proved that the issues in college were just a one time mistake. With his outstanding swing, good hitting skills, and good power, many think he will become a perennial .300+ hitter in the big leagues and hit 20-25 home runs a year.
Chisenhall was a shortstop in college, and the Indians had him play there in his pro debut at short-season Single-A Mahoning Valley in 2008 with the idea that after the season they would have him make the transition to third base. They felt because of his size he would ultimately have to move off of shortstop, and with his bat it fit nicely at third because of his potential to be a run producer at the position. He had the skills and tools to make a seamless transition to third base, and has since developed into an above average defender there. He is a very athletic and instinctual third baseman and shows good actions with his hands, above average range, and an above average arm. He has a lot of confidence in his defensive ability and makes all the routine plays and even makes a lot of harder plays look easy. He goes back on balls well and shows above average arm strength on long throws, and coming in on balls he uses his hands well and makes strong, accurate throws even while throwing off balance. He works diligently with coaches before games to get better and is very receptive to instruction and working hard at applying it in pre-game workouts and in the games. One of the secrets to his success is his unique approach to improving his fielding where he uses an extremely small sized glove during batting practice when he fields fungos so that when he uses his regular full sized glove in games fielding is so much easier.
If there was ever an example of showing how a player played before an injury and how they performed once they got healthier, Chisenhall would be that guy. A lead shoulder issue (impingement) cropped up near the beginning of the season, but he and the Indians decided to try and play through the injury. As a result, the shoulder injury ended up really affecting him the first two months of the season where in his first 27 games of the season he hit .261/.325/.315 with just six doubles and zero home runs in 111 at bats. He went on the disabled list on May 12th and missed two weeks of action before he returned on May 29th. It was a much different story from there on out as in 90 games to finish the season he hit .284/.359/.493 and in 349 at bats had 16 doubles, 3 triples and 17 home runs. The 17 home runs were impressive as they came over a stretch of just three months of games. He was still not completely 100% recovered from the shoulder issue, but it was a lot better than it was in the early stages of the season where he was unable to drive anything, had limited range of motion, and had considerable pain. Through it all his defensive play on the field was never affected by the shoulder injury as he remained on top of his game.
Opportunities: There is not a whole lot of work that Chisenhall needs to do with his swing. Most of his development opportunities involve gaining more experience at the plate facing higher level pitching, and he should get that opportunity this season at the Triple-A level. There he will be able to work on some of the nuances to hitting like not trying to do too much in certain situations and getting more comfortable hitting left-handed pitching. His approach needs refining as even though he showed improvement with his strikeout rate last year he still could stand to shave some more strikeouts off his total and draw more walks. His pitch recognition skills also need more work as he tends to sit on the fastball too much and has some trouble with offspeed pitches. He has only been playing third base for two years, so he needs more experience there. He has had some throwing issues over the past two seasons due to an erratic arm because he tends to double pump when he throws. While he has made strides in fixing this issue, his throwing is really the one main area he still needs to shore up defensively.
Outlook: Chisenhall was on top of his game the final three months of last season, and his strong finish wipes away any thoughts of disappointment that had crept in after he struggled through the first two months of the season with no homers and just six extra base hits. He won’t ever wow anyone with eye-popping numbers, but he is extremely consistent year-to-year (.794 OPS in 2008, .797 in 2009, .801 in 2010). His consistency to go along with his above average defense makes him an exciting third base option for the Indians in the very near future. He may not have the flash of an elite third base prospect like an Evan Longoria, but he has the potential to be a steady offensive and defensive performer and have a long big league career, much like former Indians third baseman Travis Fryman. Bottom line, there is little doubt that Chisenhall will be a big league player, just opinions differ on what kind of impact he will make. He should open the 2011 season at Triple-A Columbus, and has a great chance to make his big league debut in Cleveland later in the summer to get him acclimated for the everyday job at third base to start the 2012 season.
Year Age Team Lvl G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB AVG OBP SLG OPS
2008 19 Mahoning Valley A- 68 276 38 80 20 3 5 45 24 32 7 .290 .355 .438 .793
2009 20 Kinston A+ 99 388 59 107 26 2 18 79 37 80 2 .276 .346 .492 .838
2009 20 Akron AA 24 93 13 17 5 1 4 13 7 16 1 .183 .238 .387 .625
2010 21 Akron AA 117 460 81 128 22 3 17 84 46 77 3 .278 .351 .450 .801
MiLB Totals 308 1217 191 332 73 9 44 221 114 205 13 .273 .342 .456 .798Re: Minor Matters
68Code: Select all
[#2 Jason Kipnis
Posted by Tony at 2:04 AM
Jason Kipnis – Second Baseman
Born: 04/03/1987 – Height: 5’10” – Weight: 175 – Bats: Left – Throws: Right
(Photo: Tony Lastoria)
History: Kipnis was selected by the Indians in the 2nd round of the 2009 Draft out of Arizona State University. He won PAC-10 Player of the Year honors in 2008 and was a first team All-American. He originally enrolled and played for the University of Kentucky, but he was dismissed from the team after his red-shirt freshman season because of a rules violation, so transferred to Arizona State. As a draft eligible sophomore in 2008 he was selected in the 4th round by the San Diego Padres but did not sign. His pro debut in 2009 at short-season Single-A Mahoning Valley was delayed because of a minor elbow injury he suffered when he hyper-extended it while laying out for a ball in the outfield in the College World Series. He played in the Arizona Fall League in the offseason and was named to the Rising Stars team after hitting .295/.337/.628 with 3 HR, 19 RBI and a 5-9 walk to strikeout ratio in 19 games, and 17 of his 23 hits went for extra bases (78 total at bats). Last year he finished tied for 5th in the organization in batting average (.308) and home runs (16). For his efforts the Cleveland Indians named him the recipient of the organization’s Lou Boudreau Award which is given to the top hitter in the organization.
Strengths: Kipnis is an advanced, athletic hitter who has a lot of ability at the plate and stuffs a stat sheet. He has very good bat-to-ball ability, works counts well, can hit with two strikes, gets on base at a good clip, and does not strikeout a lot. He has a polished approach at the plate with a discerning eye that packs a powerful punch in his small frame. He hits the ball where it is pitched, stays on the ball well, and shows good power to all fields. He power comes from some very strong wrists and forearms which help generate excellent bat speed to whip the bat through the hitting zone, but also because he shows a knack for squaring up the ball and the ball just jumps off his bat to all fields. He is not giving at all to left-handers and has an ease to his game with a nice compact, fluid swing. He has an advanced feel for wood bats and has transitioned well to them because he used them a lot in high school tournaments and in college summer leagues. He only has average speed, but has good instincts on the bases and can steal a base. He is an intense competitor who plays the game with passion, goes all out, has exceptional work ethic, and is fun to watch. He has a chance to hit for average with 15-20 home runs a year at the major league level, and has often been compared as having the offensive potential of former Texas Rangers outfielder Rusty Greer.
The Indians left Kipnis in the outfield for his professional debut in Mahoning Valley, but after that season they experimented with a position change to second base in Instructional League. His performance at second base during the instructional period earned him rave reviews not only by the Indians, but from several scouts from other teams as well, and after the impressive performance it was full steam ahead with a permanent move to second base. He has the athleticism and ability to be a solid average defensive outfielder because he has good instincts and gets good jumps on balls, but the move was made because his bat and abilities at second base play up and increase his value tremendously.
Prior to the move Kipnis already had some experience in the infield as he played second base in high school and originally enrolled at the University of Kentucky as a shortstop. Since the move the Indians have been amazed with how quickly he has transitioned to second base and how natural he looks there. He immediately has taken to groundballs well showing good lateral movement, very good instincts, and smooth actions in the field. He makes ranging plays look easy because of his first step quickness, incredible athleticism, and tons of confidence in his abilities. He handles the pivot on the double play well with good footwork, hands, and a sound comfort level. His throwing arm is a tick below average, easily the weakest tool in his arsenal, but is not an issue at second base. Most importantly he likes playing second base and was 100% on board with the position switch, which always helps from a mental aspect when making a change. He played some third base in the AFL, but that was mainly to give him at bats and not as an experiment to move him here in the future. He is already considered an average defender at the position, and the feeling is that he has the ability to grow and become an above average major league quality defender.
Even though Kipnis was making a transition to a new defensive position last year, he put forth an outstanding offensive season. Most players often suffer offensively when they are concentrating so much on a position change, but he really handled himself well from a mental standpoint where all the focus at second base and three promotions to higher levels did not affect his performance at the plate. In fact, his performance improved with each promotion that he had over the course of the season. After hitting .300/.387/.478 with High-A Kinston in 54 games, he was promoted to Double-A Akron and even though a majority of his games were in the cavernous Canal Park he still hit .311/.385/.502 in 79 games. He was a late season addition to the Triple-A Columbus roster during the playoffs and in five postseason games hit .455/.500/.1.045 and hit for the cycle in the International League championship clincher. He proved he can hit at any level and that pressure does not faze him, and he excelled in his transition to a full time second baseman.
A lot of Kipnis’ success at the plate last year was the result of him being in a good rhythm and using his very good, strong hands where he could let it air out when he swings but still keep the bat under good control. He had a real loopy swing his last year in college, so last spring he and the Indians really focused on getting him to come down on the ball, being shorter to the ball, and hitting the ball up the middle. He also worked out hard in the offseason to come into the season about ten pounds stronger and started using a bigger, heavier bat. As a result, with the shortened up swing along with his increased strength and a bigger bat it gave him a little extra thump when he made contact. Overall, his success at second base and the way he settled into the position really impressed the Indians as he far surpassed where they thought he would be with his development at second base.
Opportunities: The bat has never been a question for Kipnis as it has always been where he would fit on the diamond from a position standpoint. The problem coming out of college was his lack of size and a true defensive position, but the move to second base appears to have removed those two issues. He just needs more repetition and experience at second base to continue to become more comfortable there and increase his confidence, especially on the hard shots right at him. He needs to pick up the nuances of the position such as with his pre-pitch positioning on certain pitches and with his positioning on cut offs and relay throws from the outfield. The arm action on his double play pivot still needs more work to get a more consistent slot with his throw, and he needs more experience handling bunting situations. He also needs to continue to refine and develop his feel at second base and become more instinctual with his hands and movement. He has a below average arm, but the move to second base makes that not a concern. At the plate his swing at times can get loopy, so he needs to be more consistent with maintaining his swing by keeping his hands in front of his head to provide a shorter path to the ball. He has a minor uppercut in his swing that he and the Indians have worked on leveling out.
Outlook: The transition to professional baseball is not easy, and teams are unsuccessful quite often with getting their higher level prospects to the major leagues. Kipnis so far has been the exception to that rule as he had an outstanding year last season both from a statistical and developmental perspective, and hopefully it is just the start to a very successful pro career that continues at the big league level. The Indians can certainly use his potent bat in their big league lineup, and hopefully it translates and does not disappoint like so many others have recently. He made extraordinary strides at second base last year and in the process has gone from being just an ordinary big league outfield prospect to now an All Star caliber prospect at second base. He and Dustin Ackley of the Seattle Mariners are the top two second base prospects in baseball and have a chance to be battling it out for All Star votes at the major league level for many years. After producing at the three highest levels of the minors, he is considered the future heir to the throne at second base in Cleveland, and may get an opportunity there at some point this coming season. Due to the presence of a lot of other options at the position and roster management reasons, the Indians may opt to be conservative with promoting him to the big leagues this year and opt to take advantage of the time allowed to finish him off defensively at second base so he is ready to be the everyday second baseman in 2012. He will open the 2011 season at Columbus.
Year Age Team Lvl G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB AVG OBP SLG OPS
2009 22 Mahoning Valley A- 29 111 19 34 8 3 1 19 15 18 3 .306 .388 .459 .847
2010 23 Kinston A+ 54 203 33 61 12 3 6 31 24 46 2 .300 .387 .478 .865
2010 23 Akron AA 79 315 63 98 20 5 10 43 31 61 7 .311 .385 .502 .887
MiLB Totals 162 629 115 193 40 11 17 93 70 125 12 .307 .386 .486 .873/code]Re: Minor Matters
69Tony on Wolters and Washington and more
Code: Select all
Wolters in good spirits in wake of injury
It happens every spring.
With around 150 players in minor league camp, a handful of players are bound to get a few bumps and bruises along the way. The hope is that of the injuries sustained during spring training that none of them are serious and will keep players out for very long.
Shortstop Tony Wolters, 18, is one of those players who has been sidelined with an injury this spring, but is not expected to be out of action for very long.
Last weekend Wolters complained of some discomfort in his right hand after taking some swings and an x-ray revealed he had broken the hamate bone in his hand. He went to Cleveland on Monday and Dr. Tom Graham completed the surgery on Wednesday to remove the hamate bone. He returned to Arizona on Thursday night and remains positive and upbeat that he will be back playing soon.
“I feel pretty good,” said Wolters. “I’m just here to watch the guys play. I am excited for them, but I want to be out there. I’ll be back out there soon.”
Wolters worked hard in the offseason with a personal trainer as it was the first time in his career that he was able to concentrate 100% on baseball. He came into camp in the best shape of his career, but apparently he suffered the hand injury just before the start of camp while taking some swings in the cages.
“I started feeling it about three weeks ago but thought it would go away,” said Wolters about the injury. “I felt some cracking going on during batting practice so I went in and told them about it. I went in and got an x-ray and they said it was broken.”
Wolters is back in camp with a soft cast on his right hand and has been reduced to a spectator’s role while his hand recovers from surgery. He is expected to go back to Cleveland soon to be re-evaluated by Dr. Graham and determine if everything is going as expected post-surgery and what his rehab plan will be.
For now all Wolters knows is that he will be in a soft cast until about the end of the month. Since the injury is to his throwing hand and the bottom hand with his swing, some precaution will surely be taken to ensure he comes back fully healthy and does not have any setbacks.
“They haven’t really given the outline of it, but [the rehab will] probably be strengthening of the hand and rubbing out the scar tissue,” said Wolters. “Just trying to get the feel back is going to be one of the main things.”
Beyond the hand injury for Wolters, his first spring training experience is going well.
“I love coming here and seeing all the guys,” said Wolters. “I have made a lot of friends and I am meeting everyone, so I feel I know almost everyone here. I am getting really comfortable with that. I felt good coming into spring training and feel like I came into camp in the best shape I have ever been in. I am really excited. [The hand injury] was kind of a disappointment, but I am trying to take the positive out of it.”
Wolter’s first spring training pales in comparison to the excitement he had to get his career going last year when he got to play at rookie level Arizona for a few games and then went to short-season Single-A Mahoning Valley for the last week or so of the season. He did not pay with Mahoning Valley but practiced and also travelled with them.
“It was awesome coming out here for the Arizona League and getting to play with some of the guys I knew and playing against some of the guys from the other teams I knew,” said Wolters. “It was amazing and I loved it and it was what I expected. When I went to Mahoning Valley it was an honor to get to go somewhere and have my first road trip.”
Once Wolters is healthy and ready to start playing games – hopefully in about five weeks – he can start getting to work on improving his game as a defender and hitter. His two favorite players growing up that he patterned his game after are Ozzie Smith and Craig Biggio because of how they played the game on and off the field.
“I have been working crazy hard on my defense,” said Wolters. “There are a lot of things that Travis Fryman and Anthony Medrano have been telling me like that I need to start practicing to funnel and go to my core. I practiced that probably more than hitting in the offseason. I really feel like it is coming natural to me now and I am actually getting better at it.”
Wolters knows that he also needs to get better at the plate. He implies it really boils down to him finding his swing again, something that has eluded him since some of the showcase games early last year.
“I have been doing this board thing with my hitting coach and it has actually really helped me with my lower half and staying back,” said Wolters about his hitting. “I can’t wait to go see what my swing is like now because I have been doing it without a bat. I just need to find my swing. I know it’s in there as I had it in the Aflac game and all those other games. I brought my hands from down [low] and up [higher], and I just need to find that timing and everything again. It will come along as I just need at bats.”
The main goal for Wolters right now is to get healthy as hamate procedures can be tricky as they can affect every player differently. He knows this, but is determined to get back on the field and have a good first full season in the organization.
“I just want to get healthy and find out what kind of player I am,” said Wolters. “Just kind of find my swing, get better and stronger, and try to improve all of my skills and try to become the baseball player I want to be. It is a step by step process, but I am really pushing myself.”
Washington temporarily sidelined
Another top pick from the Indians’ 2010 Draft class has been sidelined this spring as outfielder LeVon Washington is working his way back from a minor knee injury.
“My knee just started hurting out of nowhere,” said Washington. “I have been up here since January. I had an MRI on my hip and had a torn labrum [that I hurt in rookie ball]. I played through it in Instructional League. I would be 100% if my knee wouldn’t have started bothering me right now.”
Washington has been rehabbing the knee the past few weeks as he has been limited in the early going this spring where he has not participated in drills or games yet, but is expected to be back in action at the end of the week.
“I’m just doing a lot of stretching and making it stronger,” said Washington. “I’m doing a lot of oval tub, ice, ultrasound, and a lot of medicine to help with the inflammation.”
Washington played shortstop in high school, but an arm injury has relegated him to the outfield and is where the Indians plan to play and develop him going forward. He prefers to play shortstop but knows he can’t because he no longer has the arm strength to play there.
While Washington’s arm strength has declined, he is adamant that his speed has not taken a step back. He knows that there have been some comments over the past year that he may have lost a step, but according to him he just chose not to run as much last year in order to stay healthy for the draft.
“I want to steal a lot of bags this year,” declared Washington. “A lot of people say I can’t run as fast as I did in high school and that I lost a step, but I can still run and that’s what I want to prove this year. I didn’t run by choice as I stole only eight bags in college in order to try and stay healthy for the draft.”
Washington has the tools to be an impact caliber leadoff hitter. He has a tendency to over swing, so one of the early adjustments the organization has asked him to make is to work on keeping his head down on the ball and make more consistent contact. Once he is cleared to start playing in games this spring he plans to start working on that adjustment and just doing whatever he can to improve this season.
“I am liking [pro ball] so far and having fun,” said Washington. “I wish I was playing right now, but my goal it to just be healthy the whole year. I think good things will happen if I am.”
Notebook:
Weglarz out: The injuries are starting to pour in late in spring training, and outfielder Nick Weglarz is the latest to get bitten by the injury bug. He collapsed to the field on Thursday while running the bases and had to be helped off the field. He ended up suffering a torn meniscus to his left knee and is on his way to Cleveland to seek a second opinion from Dr. Rick Parker to determine if surgery is needed or not and how long he will be out. First baseman Jordan Brown suffered the same injury last year and ended up missing about eight weeks, so Weglarz will probably be out at least until mid-May.
Bryson has broken foot: Right-handed pitcher Rob Bryson was back at camp on Saturday with a cast on his right foot. In talking to him he suffered the injury the day before he was set to come to spring training while he was training and running poles at his high school facility when he stepped in a hole. He is expected to be sidelined for six to eight weeks, and then go on a throwing program. Provided he has no setbacks, be will probably be out until sometime around the All Star break. What an unfortunate injury as he looked to be in great shape and got much stronger in his upper half over the offseason.
Columbus recap: Shortstop Ronald Rivas went 1-for-1 with a HR and 2 RBI, and shortstop Juan Diaz went 2-for-3 with a 2B. Right-hander Bryce Stowell was up to 96 MPH but struggled with his control in his two innings of work with three walks and two strikeouts with just one first pitch strike to the nine batters he faced. Left-hander Matt Packer was tagged for three runs on five hits, two walks, and a strikeout in two innings (91 MPH high, 88 MPH average).
Akron recap: Third baseman Kyle Bellows had an impressive day at the plate as he homered in both plate appearances. Right-hander Tyler Sturdevant pitched well and showed a nice cutter going two innings and allowed one run and one hit (94 MPH high, 92 MPH average). Right-hander Kyle Landis is continuing his comeback and went one inning and allowed three runs (one earned) on two hits, two walks, and had one strikeout (92 MPH high, 88 MPH average).
Kinston recap: The offense was quiet for Kinston as only outfielder Brian Heere did anything noteworthy by going 1-for-3 with a 2B and 2 RBI. Oh, and Alex Lavisky was a late sub and had one plate appearance and doubled. Right-hander Tony Dischler threw two innings and allowed one run on no hits, one walk, and had one strikeout (90 MPH high, 87 MPH average).
Lake County recap: First baseman Jesus Aguilar continues to have a very good camp with the bat going 2-for-2 with a walk. Left-hander Elvis Araujo was impressive in his one inning of work by not allowing a run or hit (95 MPH high, 92 MPH average). Right-hander Andrew Shive who is one of the players the Indians acquired in the Kerry Wood trade went one inning of shutout-hitless relief (89 MPH high, 87 MPH average).
Cid is back: Outfielder Delvi Cid had been slowed early in camp because of a mild groin strain, but has been cleared to start participating in games and played a few innings on Sunday.
Ouch!: Infielder Argenis Martinez was blasted with a pitch to his left collar bone and neck area from right-hander Kyle Landis yesterday. He quickly crumpled to the ground and after a minute or two was able to walk off the field under his own power. Hopefully he is okay as it sounded awful.
Davis gonzo: In case anyone missed it, the Indians decided not to sign right-handed pitcher Jason Davis and he left camp on Friday.
Today: It will be my last day out here in Goodyear, and should actually be a rainy one as the forecast is calling for a high in the low-to-mid 60s with 70% chance of rain. I will have one more notebook tomorrow, but the updates will not stop there as I have lots of articles to come over the next few days on players I have talked to in camp. I will also continue to provide more detailed recaps from the spring games.
Re: Minor Matters
70Weglarz, as usual, will miss lots of time with injury:
Nick Weglarz is the latest to get bitten by the injury bug. He collapsed to the field on Thursday while running the bases and had to be helped off the field. He ended up suffering a torn meniscus to his left knee and is on his way to Cleveland to seek a second opinion from Dr. Rick Parker to determine if surgery is needed or not and how long he will be out.
Nick Weglarz is the latest to get bitten by the injury bug. He collapsed to the field on Thursday while running the bases and had to be helped off the field. He ended up suffering a torn meniscus to his left knee and is on his way to Cleveland to seek a second opinion from Dr. Rick Parker to determine if surgery is needed or not and how long he will be out.
Re: Minor Matters
71What would a Top 10 Prospects list of recent signees from the Far East look like? Do any of them have the potential to be regular big leaguers?
John Bettin
Petaluma, Calif.
Two Far East signees since 2008 stand out among the rest as potential big league regulars: Rays shortstop Hak-Ju Lee, No. 92 on our Top 100 Prospects list, and Twins infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka, who won the batting title in Japan's Pacific League last year by hitting .346. The other players on the list below either project as relievers or are too far away from the major leagues at this point.
1. Hak-Ju Lee, ss, Rays
Has classic shortstop tools, was one of the headliners in the Matt Garza trade.
2. Tsuyoshi Nishioka, 2b/ss, Twins
Minnesota gave him a $9.25 million contract so it could add up-the-middle athleticism.
3. Chen Lee, rhp, Indians
His 92-93 mph fastball peaks at 96, has helped him average 10.3 K/9 in pro ball.
John Bettin
Petaluma, Calif.
Two Far East signees since 2008 stand out among the rest as potential big league regulars: Rays shortstop Hak-Ju Lee, No. 92 on our Top 100 Prospects list, and Twins infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka, who won the batting title in Japan's Pacific League last year by hitting .346. The other players on the list below either project as relievers or are too far away from the major leagues at this point.
1. Hak-Ju Lee, ss, Rays
Has classic shortstop tools, was one of the headliners in the Matt Garza trade.
2. Tsuyoshi Nishioka, 2b/ss, Twins
Minnesota gave him a $9.25 million contract so it could add up-the-middle athleticism.
3. Chen Lee, rhp, Indians
His 92-93 mph fastball peaks at 96, has helped him average 10.3 K/9 in pro ball.
Re: Minor Matters
72From Tony lastoria:
Blair ready to go
The Indians made a big splash with a lot of high profile draft signings at the signing deadline date last August 16th. While the position players they signed were able to quickly be assigned to short-season Single-A Mahoning Valley or rookie level Arizona and play right away, pitchers like right-hander Kyle Blair and left-hander Drew Pomeranz had to sit out the rest of the season.
With only three weeks left in the season, by the time either Blair or Pomeranz completed a throwing program to ramp them back up to game speed the season would have been over. As a result, both worked out and hung around with Mahoning Valley for most of the remainder of the season before going to Instructional League later in September to do some throwing and pitch in a handful of exhibition games.
Blair came out for spring training about a week prior to the start of early camp on March 1st and is just excited to be back out on the field throwing and participating. He is also happy that “real” games quickly approaching in about two weeks.
“I actually came about a week early to get settled in,” said Blair. “I haven’t thrown a pitch since the end of the college season. To be honest, I [am] ready to go.”
Blair, 22, spent most of the offseason in Tampa, Florida where he along with Indians’ players Chris Perez and Wes Hodges worked out at Saddlebrook Resort for six weeks. Lots of players from around the game both in the minors and majors went there to get ready for the upcoming season by working out twice a day, doing yoga two times a week, and working on their nutrition.
In addition to keeping himself in shape, Blair spent a lot of time working on improving his fastball command. He roomed with right-handed pitcher Drew Storen of the Washington Nationals, and in doing so was introduced to the pitchers power drive which Storen endorses.
“Working on my fastball command has been my thing since my freshman year,” said Blair. “I worked with the pitchers power drive which is like a plate that helps you keep your balance and centered and get your hips going. It helps with your balance and you have to click it so your hips go and that is when you know you are doing it right. I have been using that and it has been huge. I have been throwing the ball well in my pens which I haven’t done the past three years, so it is just one of those things that has worked out tremendously and I am really excited to get things going.”
In addition to maintaining better balance with his delivery, Blair also wants to become more confident in his ability to throw his fastball for strikes, something that at times was a problem for him in college.
“We took charts in college of percentage of strikes with each pitch and my percentage of strikes with my slider was like 6-7% better than my fastball,” said Blair. “That should never happen. That’s one thing I want to do [better] because you can’t get to the big leagues without a fastball.”
Blair’s best pitches are his plus slider and developing changeup. If his fastball command ever comes around and his changeup develops as hoped, the Indians could have themselves a workhorse for the starting rotation for many years.
“I feel like my changeup has gotten better as I worked on that quite a bit in the offseason too,” said Blair. “In bullpens it feels great, but it only counts when you go out there [in games].”
Blair understands what kind of pitcher he is and does not try to be what he is not. This upcoming season will be a learning experience for him as he adjusts to the pro game on and off the field and progresses with his development path.
“I know my game as a pitcher and that I am not a power pitcher,” said Blair. “I just need to throw good strikes down in the zone with the fastball and not have to go to 3-2 sliders every time. That’s what I have been working on the whole offseason.”
Notebook:
Kluber scare: Right-handed pitcher Corey Kluber was struck in the head with a line drive off the bat of second baseman Jason Kipnis on Monday morning. It was a scary moment for him and all the players and coaches present, and he will no doubt be evaluated further. Hopefully he is okay, and by the sounds of things that seems to be the case.
Released: On Monday the Indians announced that the following players from their minor league system have been released: first baseman Ben Carlson, right-handed pitcher Andrew Shive, left-handed pitcher Nick Kirk, right-handed pitcher Matthew Speake, and right-handed pitcher Alexander Morales.
Blair ready to go
The Indians made a big splash with a lot of high profile draft signings at the signing deadline date last August 16th. While the position players they signed were able to quickly be assigned to short-season Single-A Mahoning Valley or rookie level Arizona and play right away, pitchers like right-hander Kyle Blair and left-hander Drew Pomeranz had to sit out the rest of the season.
With only three weeks left in the season, by the time either Blair or Pomeranz completed a throwing program to ramp them back up to game speed the season would have been over. As a result, both worked out and hung around with Mahoning Valley for most of the remainder of the season before going to Instructional League later in September to do some throwing and pitch in a handful of exhibition games.
Blair came out for spring training about a week prior to the start of early camp on March 1st and is just excited to be back out on the field throwing and participating. He is also happy that “real” games quickly approaching in about two weeks.
“I actually came about a week early to get settled in,” said Blair. “I haven’t thrown a pitch since the end of the college season. To be honest, I [am] ready to go.”
Blair, 22, spent most of the offseason in Tampa, Florida where he along with Indians’ players Chris Perez and Wes Hodges worked out at Saddlebrook Resort for six weeks. Lots of players from around the game both in the minors and majors went there to get ready for the upcoming season by working out twice a day, doing yoga two times a week, and working on their nutrition.
In addition to keeping himself in shape, Blair spent a lot of time working on improving his fastball command. He roomed with right-handed pitcher Drew Storen of the Washington Nationals, and in doing so was introduced to the pitchers power drive which Storen endorses.
“Working on my fastball command has been my thing since my freshman year,” said Blair. “I worked with the pitchers power drive which is like a plate that helps you keep your balance and centered and get your hips going. It helps with your balance and you have to click it so your hips go and that is when you know you are doing it right. I have been using that and it has been huge. I have been throwing the ball well in my pens which I haven’t done the past three years, so it is just one of those things that has worked out tremendously and I am really excited to get things going.”
In addition to maintaining better balance with his delivery, Blair also wants to become more confident in his ability to throw his fastball for strikes, something that at times was a problem for him in college.
“We took charts in college of percentage of strikes with each pitch and my percentage of strikes with my slider was like 6-7% better than my fastball,” said Blair. “That should never happen. That’s one thing I want to do [better] because you can’t get to the big leagues without a fastball.”
Blair’s best pitches are his plus slider and developing changeup. If his fastball command ever comes around and his changeup develops as hoped, the Indians could have themselves a workhorse for the starting rotation for many years.
“I feel like my changeup has gotten better as I worked on that quite a bit in the offseason too,” said Blair. “In bullpens it feels great, but it only counts when you go out there [in games].”
Blair understands what kind of pitcher he is and does not try to be what he is not. This upcoming season will be a learning experience for him as he adjusts to the pro game on and off the field and progresses with his development path.
“I know my game as a pitcher and that I am not a power pitcher,” said Blair. “I just need to throw good strikes down in the zone with the fastball and not have to go to 3-2 sliders every time. That’s what I have been working on the whole offseason.”
Notebook:
Kluber scare: Right-handed pitcher Corey Kluber was struck in the head with a line drive off the bat of second baseman Jason Kipnis on Monday morning. It was a scary moment for him and all the players and coaches present, and he will no doubt be evaluated further. Hopefully he is okay, and by the sounds of things that seems to be the case.
Released: On Monday the Indians announced that the following players from their minor league system have been released: first baseman Ben Carlson, right-handed pitcher Andrew Shive, left-handed pitcher Nick Kirk, right-handed pitcher Matthew Speake, and right-handed pitcher Alexander Morales.
Last edited by civ ollilavad on Tue Mar 22, 2011 8:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Minor Matters
73Monday games cancelled: The Indians afternoon minor league games with the Dodgers were cancelled because of the pouring rain, but they were able to get some work in for their pitchers in the morning. Columbus and Akron squared off for four and a half innings, and Kinston and Lake County played against each other for six innings.
Columbus recap: Third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall hit a solo homer in two at bats and shortstop Ron Rivas stayed hot going 2-for-2 with a 2B and RBI. Right-hander Zach Putnam went 1.1 innings (1 H, 1 R/ER, 2 BB, 2 K) and was up to 95 MPH.
Akron recap: Blazing hot catcher Chun Chen went 2-for-2 with a 2B, and second baseman Justin Toole went 2-for-2. Right-hander Austin Adams went 3.0 innings (4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K) and was up to 95 MPH.
Kinston recap: Outfielder Marcus Bradley went 2-for-3 with a BB and RBI, and second baseman Kyle Smith went 2-for-2 with an RBI. Left-hander T.J. House went 2.0 innings (3 H, 1 R/ER, 1 BB, 3 K) and was up to 91 MPH. Right-hander Trey Haley went 3.0 innings (2 H, 2 R/ER, 4 BB, 1 K) and was up to 96 MPH and threw first pitch strikes to 10 of 15 batters.
Lake County recap: Outfielder Jordan Casas went 2-for-2 with 2 stolen bases, and outfielder Henry Dunn went 1-for-2 with a 2B. Right-hander Michael Goodnight went 3.0 innings (2 H, 1 R/ER, 2 BB, 2 K) and was up to 93 MPH.
Today: I’ll be spending the better part of the day traveling back to Cleveland. The spring training coverage will not end here though as I plan to continue the daily updates and will start posting box scores (I will be posting the box scores for the previous games as well).
Coming soon: In addition to that I have a lot of feature articles coming up that I have not yet posted from interviews with players at camp like Alex Lavisky, Nick Bartolone, Cord Phelps, Roberto Perez, Eric Berger, Mark Brown, and Bo Greenwell. I will also have a pre-draft piece up later this week from a discussion I had on Sunday with Amateur Scouting Director Brad Grant.
And with that….good-bye Goodyear! See you in October for Instructional League and the Arizona Fall League.
Columbus recap: Third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall hit a solo homer in two at bats and shortstop Ron Rivas stayed hot going 2-for-2 with a 2B and RBI. Right-hander Zach Putnam went 1.1 innings (1 H, 1 R/ER, 2 BB, 2 K) and was up to 95 MPH.
Akron recap: Blazing hot catcher Chun Chen went 2-for-2 with a 2B, and second baseman Justin Toole went 2-for-2. Right-hander Austin Adams went 3.0 innings (4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K) and was up to 95 MPH.
Kinston recap: Outfielder Marcus Bradley went 2-for-3 with a BB and RBI, and second baseman Kyle Smith went 2-for-2 with an RBI. Left-hander T.J. House went 2.0 innings (3 H, 1 R/ER, 1 BB, 3 K) and was up to 91 MPH. Right-hander Trey Haley went 3.0 innings (2 H, 2 R/ER, 4 BB, 1 K) and was up to 96 MPH and threw first pitch strikes to 10 of 15 batters.
Lake County recap: Outfielder Jordan Casas went 2-for-2 with 2 stolen bases, and outfielder Henry Dunn went 1-for-2 with a 2B. Right-hander Michael Goodnight went 3.0 innings (2 H, 1 R/ER, 2 BB, 2 K) and was up to 93 MPH.
Today: I’ll be spending the better part of the day traveling back to Cleveland. The spring training coverage will not end here though as I plan to continue the daily updates and will start posting box scores (I will be posting the box scores for the previous games as well).
Coming soon: In addition to that I have a lot of feature articles coming up that I have not yet posted from interviews with players at camp like Alex Lavisky, Nick Bartolone, Cord Phelps, Roberto Perez, Eric Berger, Mark Brown, and Bo Greenwell. I will also have a pre-draft piece up later this week from a discussion I had on Sunday with Amateur Scouting Director Brad Grant.
And with that….good-bye Goodyear! See you in October for Instructional League and the Arizona Fall League.
Re: Minor Matters
74Weglarz not frustrated by injuries
[But everyone else is.]
Indians outfielder Nick Weglarz went down last Thursday with a torn meniscus to his left knee and is still being evaluated as to how long he will be out and if surgery will be required. It is yet another injury added to his growing list of setbacks in his career, and in the wake of the injuries he has done his best to not let frustration creep in.
“It sometimes is frustrating,” said Weglarz in an interview last week just before being hurt. “Since July of last year I have had a couple of injuries pop up here and there, but you just [try to] put it behind you.”
Weglarz, 23, had his season last year come to a premature end in early August when he suffered a sprained ligament to his right thumb when diving for a ball in the outfield. He went out to the Venezuela Winter League to make up some at bats in the offseason, but he got hurt in his fourth game when he threw his back out after a collision with the shortstop. After the back did not get better after some rehab he was shut down the rest of the offseason and went home to be re-evaluated.
The injuries do not stop there for Weglarz as in 2009 a stress fracture in his left shin area resulted in him having to miss about the last two-plus months of that season. He had a steel rod inserted into his shin to help stabilize and speed up the recovery. Also, in 2006 he suffered a broken hamate bone after just one game and missed the rest of that season.
All told Weglarz has missed a lot of time over the last five plus seasons due to injury. Most of the injuries have been out of his control, but when a player gets hurt as much as he has over his career the phrase “injury prone” starts to get passed around.
“For the most part they definitely have been fluke injuries,” said Weglarz. “It definitely is a goal of mine to stay healthy and stay on the field and if I do that I can put myself in a good position this year.”
With all the injuries Weglarz has suffered some wonder if he may be better off moving back to first base, which was the position he played up to the time he was drafted by the Indians back in 2005. At the moment the Indians have no plans to move him from the outfield to first base, and Weglarz himself hopes that the Indians keep him in the outfield.
“I think I am a good defensive outfielder, so there is no need for me to move to first base,” said Weglarz. “I like it out there and I feel like it is a better opportunity for me out there too. I’d like to stay there.”
Whenever Weglarz gets back onto the field he hopes to carry over his success he had last year into this season.
“I still have the same approach; it’s just the consistency,” said Weglarz. “If I can nail down my bat path and be consistent with my pre-game routine, I think that my swing was right where I wanted it last year so if I can continue that this year I will be in a good spot.”
Prior to the injury it was felt that Weglarz could at some point see some time in Cleveland this year, especially if outfielder Grady Sizemore has any issues with his recovery from knee surgery. All that may be out the window now as he probably will not start playing games until mid-May at the earliest, though a quick recovery and good showing at Triple-A Columbus could still earn him a callup sometime after the All Star break or even in September when rosters expand.
“The big goal is to play in the big leagues,” said Weglarz. “The smaller goals are to stay healthy and stay consistent with my swing. Just be ready to play everyday. I would like to think if I have the same year as I had last year [and stay healthy] that I could see time [up] there.”
[But everyone else is.]
Indians outfielder Nick Weglarz went down last Thursday with a torn meniscus to his left knee and is still being evaluated as to how long he will be out and if surgery will be required. It is yet another injury added to his growing list of setbacks in his career, and in the wake of the injuries he has done his best to not let frustration creep in.
“It sometimes is frustrating,” said Weglarz in an interview last week just before being hurt. “Since July of last year I have had a couple of injuries pop up here and there, but you just [try to] put it behind you.”
Weglarz, 23, had his season last year come to a premature end in early August when he suffered a sprained ligament to his right thumb when diving for a ball in the outfield. He went out to the Venezuela Winter League to make up some at bats in the offseason, but he got hurt in his fourth game when he threw his back out after a collision with the shortstop. After the back did not get better after some rehab he was shut down the rest of the offseason and went home to be re-evaluated.
The injuries do not stop there for Weglarz as in 2009 a stress fracture in his left shin area resulted in him having to miss about the last two-plus months of that season. He had a steel rod inserted into his shin to help stabilize and speed up the recovery. Also, in 2006 he suffered a broken hamate bone after just one game and missed the rest of that season.
All told Weglarz has missed a lot of time over the last five plus seasons due to injury. Most of the injuries have been out of his control, but when a player gets hurt as much as he has over his career the phrase “injury prone” starts to get passed around.
“For the most part they definitely have been fluke injuries,” said Weglarz. “It definitely is a goal of mine to stay healthy and stay on the field and if I do that I can put myself in a good position this year.”
With all the injuries Weglarz has suffered some wonder if he may be better off moving back to first base, which was the position he played up to the time he was drafted by the Indians back in 2005. At the moment the Indians have no plans to move him from the outfield to first base, and Weglarz himself hopes that the Indians keep him in the outfield.
“I think I am a good defensive outfielder, so there is no need for me to move to first base,” said Weglarz. “I like it out there and I feel like it is a better opportunity for me out there too. I’d like to stay there.”
Whenever Weglarz gets back onto the field he hopes to carry over his success he had last year into this season.
“I still have the same approach; it’s just the consistency,” said Weglarz. “If I can nail down my bat path and be consistent with my pre-game routine, I think that my swing was right where I wanted it last year so if I can continue that this year I will be in a good spot.”
Prior to the injury it was felt that Weglarz could at some point see some time in Cleveland this year, especially if outfielder Grady Sizemore has any issues with his recovery from knee surgery. All that may be out the window now as he probably will not start playing games until mid-May at the earliest, though a quick recovery and good showing at Triple-A Columbus could still earn him a callup sometime after the All Star break or even in September when rosters expand.
“The big goal is to play in the big leagues,” said Weglarz. “The smaller goals are to stay healthy and stay consistent with my swing. Just be ready to play everyday. I would like to think if I have the same year as I had last year [and stay healthy] that I could see time [up] there.”
Re: Minor Matters
75See Page 83 at following link for Indians 1961 Scouting Reports:
http://books.google.com/books?id=jy8DAA ... &q&f=false
Sam McDowell looks he might a good one.
http://books.google.com/books?id=jy8DAA ... &q&f=false
Sam McDowell looks he might a good one.