Cleveland Sports Forum

Morgan's change up has been rated very highly since we signed him. with his fastball now in the low 90’s no wonder he's so effective. Reliever in the majors I assume, but his big league chances keep improving.

I'm stealing this excerpt from TFIR post in Articles, rating Espino No. 15 prospect from this year's draft:

15. Daniel Espino, RHP, Georgia Premier Academy (GA)
Drafted: Round 1, Pick 24 - Cleveland Indians
Like I mentioned above, upside arms aren't as plentiful as they were in last year's draft. However, if you want to put your money on one high-upside arm, I'd recommend Daniel Espino. With a electric mid to upper-90's fastball and two plus breaking pitches, Espino has plenty of upside in his arm. He'll just need to improve his changeup and overall command to capitalize on that potential.

Espino is somewhat akin to Ethan Hankins from last year's draft who feel from the top of the draft to lower first round due to some previous injury concerns; Hankins is pitching superbly as a teen in the NYPL. Espino is much smaller guy but has similar significant upside.

CLE

AA

Clement, Ernie SS

5

0

1

0

.291


CLE

AA

Jones, Nolan 3B

4

1

2

2

.320

HR (2)
CLE

AAA

Chang, Yu SS

4

1

2

0

.262

2B (8)
CLE

AAA

Haase, Eric C

3

0

0

0

.245


CLE

AAA

Johnson, Daniel DH

4

0

1

0

.324


CLE

MAJ

Mercado, Oscar CF

2

1

1

2

.286

HR (7), 2 BB (11), SB (8)
CLE

R

Bracho, Aaron 2B

3

1

1

3

.270

2B (5), 2 BB (16)

Bracho the next big thing

civ ollilavad wrote:Morgan's change up has been rated very highly since we signed him. with his fastball now in the low 90’s no wonder he's so effective. Reliever in the majors I assume, but his big league chances keep improving.

You hear TV guys say all the time you would like, ideally, 10 MPH difference between your fastball and changeup. Morgan sporting like a 16 MPH difference.

He gets some really silly looking swing and misses from hitters some times.

Personally, I don't rate him as high as I did Bieber, but I think I would rate him a notch above Plesac.

With Kluber, Carrasco, Rodriguez, and Salazar all on the road back, hopefully soon, we don't need another bottom of the rotation guy. But with guys like him and Civale in the wings we should have some trade ammo if needed in the next couple weeks.

Also if they trade Bauer they may indeed need a bottom of the rotation guy.

Columbus and Akron played early today.

Clips won 9-4. ... Cam Hill with another shutout inning. He has yet to allow a run in 12 games and 14.1 innings this year. He was a nice looking relief prospect till an injury last year. Seems to be bouncing back nicely. ... Johnson 2-5, HR, RBI, 2 R.

Ducks got beat 6-2. ... Unfortunately Hentges was lit up again. 6 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 4 K. ... Jones was 1-4 with 3 K.

Mahoning Valley game today has been postponed due to rain.

And with Columbus and Akron the DSL games are in the books too.

DSL Tribe won 3-0. ... A kid we signed last year, Steven Perez, is having a fine season. Today he pitched 6 shutout innings, allowed 2 hits and a walk, and had 7 K. On the year he has now threw 36 innings, allowed 27 hits, has a WHIP of 1.11, and ERA of 2.50. He is 18 year old 6'0 155# lefty. Might have to keep an eye on him. ... Angel Martinez was 1-4 with 2 RBI. ... Gabriel Rodriguez 1-2 with a walk and stolen base. ... Burgos 0-3.

DSL Coop lost 3-0. ... Ruviera with an unexpected good day. 4 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 8 K.

Oviedo and Garza on mound for Lake County and Lynchburg tonight.

Lynchburg Hillcats transaction
RHP Juan Mota promoted from Lake County

Columbus Clippers transaction
RHP Eli Morgan assigned to Akron
(that was quick!)

It's not raining in my part of the Mahoning Valley, but the field is probably soaked from rain earlier.
I wonder if the Mota promotion is also a one-shot deal? He's been OK but not really worthy of a promotion.
On the other hand Daniel Johnson has not slowed down [except for the HRs] after his first promotion and I'd be surprised if he doesn't appear in Cleveland before the end of the year.

Lynchburg was rained out too.

Lake County scored 3 in the 9th but fell a little short, 5-4. ... Naylor 0-5. ... Cardenas 2-5, 2 RBI.

AZL Red won 7-4. ... Espino 2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K. ... Diaz 1-4, RBI, R.

AZL Blue lost 6-2. ... Escobedo 0-3, BB. ... Bracho 0-3, BB. ... Tena 2-4, HR, RBI, R.

Lake County is playing early today. Game is under way. Schneeman had an RBI double in 1st to have Captains up 1-0 early.

Scrappers and Hillcats are playing double headers today and starting play a little earlier than normal.

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Indians Prospective @indiansPro

Lake County Captains transaction
OF Quentin Holmes activated off the 7-day IL
OF Billy Wilson assigned to Mahoning Valley

#Indians OF prospect Ka'ai Tom has reached base in 24 straight games & 51 of his last 52 games overall between Akron & Columbus.
During 24 straight: .360 AVG .433 OBP
During (51 of 52) .362 AVG .455 OBP

BA has just posted an updated Top 30 for each team. I will open and post in a bit. Thanks for Tom: he's one guy who certainly deserves a major oblivion to somewhere say lows teens? My own list of top guys before I see what the 'experts identify" would start with Jones Freeman Valera and probably but Valera 1st.

Hankins the top pitcher. Espino just behind. Assume McKenzie isn't dead, he'd still rate around No.. 6-8 since he does pitch well when he does pitch at all. Civale will return around 12ish. Oviedo and Hentges were in the lower half of the top 10; haven't done much to warrant remaining that high. Other young promising pitchers like Vargas and Mejia have also failed to develop.

Bradley and Chang would remain in the 5-10 vicinity. Dennis Johnson should shoot up there with and quite possibly exceed them.
Benson would move up but not too far; all he accomplished is to conquer the level he failed at last season. Rocchio would return around 10; Delgado and Bracho should rise. Other kids in AZ or DR will rate like G.Rod, A.Mart. Curious if they have any love for 400+ hitter for Y Diaz

Plesac wasn't on the top 30 preseason and now he's probably graduated from eligibility.

So enough idle speculation. BA report comes up next.

BA summary:

On the farm, the Indians have continued to see their young position players advance. Third baseman Nolan Jones reached Double-A after playing in the Futures Game. Shortstop Tyler Freeman has risen to high Class A. Outfielder George Valera and shortstop Brayan Rocchio continue to excite having moved up this season to short-season Mahoning Valley. A back injury has kept righthander Triston McKenzie sidelined, a disappointing development for the system’s top pitching prospect, but the system has continued to produce solid pitching, with righthanders Zach Plesac and Aaron Civale both making big league debuts this season.

I note that the scouting reports posted with his player appear to be verbatim, or roughly so, to the preseason reports.

So, BA is far more forgiving for lousy work than I am.
1. Jones
2. McK
3. Freeman
4. Valera
5. Rocchio
6. Naylor; oops I forgot him I'd put him one spot below Hankins
7. Bradley
8. Hankins
9. Espino
10. Oviedo

11. Hentges
12. G.Rod
13. Plesac, I guess he hasn't met the minimum IP yet
14. Chang
15. Vargas
16. Valdes the new SS we picked
17. Civale
18. Johnson REALLY?
19. Benson
20. Bracho

I'll post the rest later but it doesn't really reflect this year's performances

21. JC Mejia
22. Clement
23. Karinchak: ok so he's new
24, OGonzalez
25. L Torres
26. Sandlin
27. Delgado
28. Cairo 2019 draft pick who's doing nothing so far
29. Pastrano, a 28 year old IF we got in a trade
30. Sanquintin

I haven’t done a top 10 in quite a while. I think I will give my worthless 2 pennies. This is gonna be quick, not a ton of thought. Might tweak it a tad bit if I did. ...

1- Valera (this dude, at 18 years old, is already walking in like 20% of his at bats, and has .395 OBP, in what is more or less his first year of pro ball against older competition. Could be special hitter)

2- Jones (if this guy only hit lefties better)

3- Freeman (another on base machine, I love them)

4- McKenzie (can he stay healthy?)

5- Johnson (what drugs are everyone else on? This dude is a ball player)

6- Bradley (still strikes out too much, but oh the power)

7- Civale
8- Morgan

9- Rocchio
10- Bracho
(Need to see more of these last two)

I used to include relievers but few others do so I left out Karinchak. If I were doing my list as I used to do, chances of becoming good every day major leaguer, I’d probably put Karinchak around 4.

Thinking of tuning in Akron - what's the word on Adam Scott?

He’s a big lefty that we drafted relatively early a few years ago. Started off as a reliever but they switched him to starter this year, and he’s done pretty darn good.

He allows too many base runners, but he usually works out of it cause he strikes a lot of guys out. Let me know what his fastball is, and what his big strikeout pitch is, TFIR. I haven’t watched him pitch yet.