Cleveland Sports Forum

Clement has no power. He doesn’t walk. He doesn’t use his good speed to steal bases. Reviews say his arm isn’t good enough to play SS. Almost never strikes out. Great intangibles. Works very hard. Looks like a ball player. Could have a successful career I guess as 26th man.

JC Mejia having a good spring with 4 shutout innings

Juan Mota impressed hitting 100 mph

McKenzie healthy but not sure when to increase the pressure and put him in a spring game.

civ ollilavad wrote:Clement has no power. He doesn’t walk. He doesn’t use his good speed to steal bases. Reviews say his arm isn’t good enough to play SS. Almost never strikes out. Great intangibles. Works very hard. Looks like a ball player. Could have a successful career I guess as 26th man.

I do think Clement is a Pedroia type (ceiling). He is a local kid for me, from Rochester NY area. Had the pleasure of seeing him knock in a run yesterday at Talking Stick ballpark in Scottsdale.

civ ollilavad wrote:JC Mejia having a good spring with 4 shutout innings

Juan Mota impressed hitting 100 mph

McKenzie healthy but not sure when to increase the pressure and put him in a spring game.

Bubble wrap required.

Jose Tena got a couple at bats today

BA lists 15 players who are "turning scouts' heads this spring" Among the 15 is

James Karinchak, RHP, Indians

Scout's Take: "Absolutely filthy. He’s got an 80-grade curveball. You just don’t see that old school 12-to-6 straight downer like this one anymore. He can punch a ticket. He’s really impressive on a short, one-inning deal.”

And on the honorable mention list, despite his poor statistics, Sam Hentges appears.

Indians Prospective @indiansPro

A handful of #Indians Venezuelan players have not been able to return to their home from spring training & are being housed at the teams Dominican Academy. They were stranded in Panama this past weekend after Venezuela suspended all air travel. They arrived at the Academy Monday.

Some of the players include top prospects, Brayan Rocchio, Gabriel Rodriguez, Luis Oviedo.

When Major League Baseball issued its March 15 memo recommending teams send non 40-man roster players home, it created a number of questions regarding the status of minor league players.

Minor leaguers are not paid during spring training. They receive only whatever housing, food and allowances, stipends and/or per diems their teams issue from the time they report to camp through the start of the minor league regular season, when they begin to draw their salaries.

With minor league players sent home, with limited exceptions, they would no longer be receiving the food and housing provided at their spring training complexes. Whether they are still receiving their stipends, allowances or per diems, and the dollar amount of those, varies from team to team.

For example:

The Rays, according to BA correspondent Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, give their minor leaguers $400 a week if they live outside the team hotel or $115 a week if they live at the team hotel as a per diem, plus two meals a day at the field. With all minor league players sent home, the Rays are giving them $400 a week.

The D-backs, according to BA correspondent Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, give their minor leaguers a $300 a week per diem during camp and have housing available at a team hotel. They are giving players one-time deposits of up to $1,500 during the hiatus in addition to their $300 weekly per diems.

The Padres, according to BA correspondent Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune, provide minor leaguers a per diem of about $160 a week, two meals a day at the complex and housing. The Padres are continuing to pay minor leaguers their per diem through April 8, the originally scheduled day before minor league Opening Day.

The Cardinals, according to the family of one minor leaguer, gave their minor leaguers a $37 per week stipend, three meals per day and a room at a local hotel while in camp. With minor leaguers sent home, the Cardinals notified them on March 18 they would be receiving $25 per day ($175 per week) in lieu of the usual arrangement, according to the family. The Cardinals would neither confirm nor deny the amounts.

Again, the stipends, allowances and per diems for minor leaguers only extend through spring training. Minor leaguers begin to receive their salaries once the regular season begins. With the minor league season postponed indefinitely, minor leaguers in every organization are unsure when they will be paid or how much beginning April 9, the originally scheduled minor league Opening Day.

Major League Baseball officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told BA the league plans to issue league-wide guidelines on minor league pay for the regular season after it finishes negotiations with the Major League Baseball Players Association on issues pertaining to 40-man roster players.

With three weeks remaining before the originally scheduled minor league Opening Day, MLB has time to formulate a plan for paying minor leaguers as long as the regular season is postponed.

In the interim, individual clubs are making the decision if—or how—to compensate their minor leaguers until then. Baseball America contacted all 30 teams on March 16 and asked if they were currently paying their minor leaguers at all.

Twelve teams—the Rays, Mets, Dodgers, Red Sox, Marlins, Padres, Cardinals, Tigers, Yankees, Indians, D-backs and Giants—confirmed to BA or other media outlets they are continuing to pay their minor leaguers their spring training stipends, allowances and/or per diems even as camps have shut down.

The Cubs, Angels and Royals said they were working to determine a plan. The Rangers and White Sox referred comment to MLB. The Braves declined to comment.

The remaining 12 teams did not respond. A minor league player with the Nationals informed BA that they were not receiving any stipend or per diem at this time.

The minimum weekly salary for minor leaguers during the 2020 regular season was scheduled to be $290 at the Rookie, short-season and Class A levels, $350 at Double-A and $502 at Triple-A. Some teams, such as the Blue Jays and Giants, previously announced they would pay their minor leaguers higher salaries.

Whether minor leaguers will receive those amounts, or different amounts, while the regular season is delayed is pending until MLB issues its league-wide guidelines, which are expected in the coming weeks.

Until then, minor leaguers are largely living on the spring training stipends, allowances and/or per diems they are receiving from their teams—if they are receiving them at all.

MiLB teams already know that this season will be the most challenging financially that they have ever faced. The numbers vary, but without significant help from the government or others, estimates from people inside MiLB range from 10 to 40 MiLB clubs that may struggle to make it through the season.

Minor League Baseball bills itself as being a vital part of communities where teams are present. When cancellations began to roll out across the country, MiLB teams went from advertising for Opening Day to posting public service announcements which showed their mascots dispensing hand-washing advice to kids. Teams used their social media accounts to spread information about local businesses that had adjusted hours and attempted to be a community bulletin board in many cases.

MiLB teams abruptly began trying to help their communities deal with the quickly spreading health crisis, because that’s what they could do to help. But MiLB teams are hurting in this as well.

In conversations with more than a dozen owners, GMs and league presidents across the country, there was a near universal recognition that some MiLB teams may have trouble surviving this unexpected calamity.

“You couldn’t sit down and say let’s devise a disaster situation any better than this,” said one low Class A owner who requested anonymity to speak freely.

When the novel coronavirus forced all full-season Minor League Baseball teams to delay the start of their seasons, the trepidation that many MiLB teams had already faced because of the expiring Professional Baseball Agreement was replaced by the dismay at how to deal with a nationwide crisis.

“The reality is it’s bad. We’re a small business. There are going to be some really hard decisions made in the next 30-60-90 days that are very uncomfortable,” Memphis Redbirds owner Peter Freund said. “We are realistically looking at a situation where we may not operate this year. I can’t imagine a scenario where our season begins before June. What are the implications for all the people who work in the ballpark—the ushers, the grounds crews? It’s so upsetting. There is only so much we can do as a small business owner to keep the lights on. There are some very harsh realities.”

Every MiLB full-season team knows that it’s going to lose part of its season. Every MiLB team is unsure what the economic and emotional state of its community will be in whenever the COVID-19 pandemic starts to eventually abate.

“It’s a challenging time for everybody,” Frisco RoughRiders president Andy Milovich said. “That extends beyond MiLB to everyone throughout our communities. We become part of the fabric of the community. We support our non-profits and local businesses. When the community is hurting, we’re hurting and vice versa.”

Many leagues have suspended league dues payments for the time being. For teams that rent their stadiums from their local municipalities, there may be some flexibility in paying rent payments in the short term. But for teams that own their ballparks, mortgage payments are still coming due, and payroll, insurance and various other monthly expenses will come due whether the team is playing games (and generating revenue) or not.

At the MLB level, there are a variety of revenue sources, including MLB Advanced Media and television contracts. If there comes a point where MLB teams can play games without fans, they would likely do so for the television revenue and the ability to get the games going. With no significant income from media contracts, fan-less games would only add to MiLB teams’ financial issues—they would have none of the income but some of the costs of putting on a game.




While MiLB teams’ values have grown to the point where clubs change hands for millions of dollars, that valuation, much like that of some MLB teams, is often based more on scarcity (there are only 150 available affiliated MiLB franchises that can be purchased) than the numbers on a financial balance sheet. A number of MiLB teams break even, lose or make a little money each year, depending on how well they sell that year and how lucky they get with the weather.

“Teams will budget for two, three or four rainouts a year. You can take that to the bank. And you hope they are on a Monday or Tuesday. Having 8-to-10 rainouts is the difference between being in the red or being in the black for a lot of clubs,” said MiLB Senior Director of Communications Jeff Lantz. “We need butts in the seats and gates open for our teams to make money. Obviously that’s not going to happen for at least six weeks. It’s looking like (it could be) much more than that.”

At least one owner suggested that the issues will be spread through all levels of the sport. While some of the teams with smaller attendances may have less cash reserves, there are larger teams who have 70-person staffs and large payrolls to meet.

“There are teams who can weather this no problem, but there are a lot of teams who have serious concerns. Everyone has to think about staffing and how we can get through this. And you don’t know what to project,” International League president Randy Mobley said.

Even when MLB has lost games for strikes, MiLB games continued. No one currently working in MiLB has ever faced a significant loss of games as is assured in 2020.

“I’ve been in the front office when we went through the aftermath of 9/11. During the recession in 2008-2009 I was opening up the Bowling Green ballpark, selling a new ballpark when the economy was going the wrong way. Those are blips compared to this,” said Erie Seawolves President Greg Coleman.

Not diminishing the possible health aspects in any way, but economically, the timing of the nationwide shutdown could not have been worse for MiLB teams. If the pandemic had struck earlier in the offseason, open staff slots would have been frozen and purchasing would have likely been curtailed in preparation for a difficult business environment.

But coming just weeks before Opening Day, the shutdown occurred at the point when MiLB teams have already spent significant sums of money in preparation for the season, but the revenues that the season brings have only just started to trickle in.

So from a cash-flow perspective, it’s the perfect storm. For full-season clubs, the uniforms, bats, balls, ticket stock, banners and a thousand other necessary details have all been purchased.

But most of MiLB teams’ revenue is received during the season. There have been some season-ticket sales (which often are paid for in a series of installments) and some sponsorship money has already been received. But many of the wall signs and other advertisements are usually paid over the course of the season. Those advertisements were sold with the expectation of 70 home dates—now there will be fewer. Some of the businesses that sold those signs and bought the group ticket packages or season ticket packages are now unlikely to have the money to pay when the bills come due. And with no season assured, spending ticket revenue is spending money that might have to be refunded.

“You want to do the right thing by your season-ticket holders and your sponsors,” Freund said. “We want to wake up and do the right thing. In the end that’s how you will be remembered,” Freund said. “The right thing is to refund tickets. It’s to work with your supply chain. You want to pay your invoices. But that’s going to be at the expense of people’s livelihoods. I’m never looking for a handout, but I think the government is a big piece of this. Our partners of MLB will have a hand in making sure that MiLB can survive. It’s somewhat ironic (considering the contentious PBA negotiations) but the reality is, we need our MLB partners. They are critical to our survival.”

The lost dates also will have a financial impact for team employees. While full-time staffers continue to work, the part-time gameday staffs only get paid for games they work.

“What rattles me is what’s the effect on so many people? The players are not getting paid. The guy who sells beer and peanuts, we’re missing games. How do we help them? Years ago people worked at ballparks on a part-time basis for walk-around money. Now a lot of our gameday employees are doing it to pay their electric bill. This has far-reaching implications,” said Richmond Vice-President/Chief Operating Officer Todd Parnell.

If MiLB lost its April and May dates, that would be 3,004 lost dates. Those dates drew 11,427,699 fans, which was 27 percent of the total attendance MiLB drew in 2019. A July 1 start date would mean that MiLB lost 4,850 dates and 18,923,687 fans. That was 46 percent of MiLB’s total attendance in 2019.

“That is crushing,” an industry source said. “I wouldn't be surprised if some teams are looking into small business loans. That’s the way to survive right now.”

The lost dates will also affect restaurants and other businesses around ballparks that rely on gameday traffic. Those businesses are also being massively affected by the bans on groups instituted around the country.

No. 2 Tyler Freeman, SS: Cleveland Indians top prospects right now
Today 5:02 AM

6/10/19 Tyler Freeman (Lake County Captains, SS)
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By Joe Noga, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Get to know Cleveland Indians prospect Tyler Freeman, a shortstop from Southern California who is ranked the No. 2 prospect in the Tribe’s farm system.

Name: Tyler Freeman.

Pos: SS.

Age: 20.

Height/weight: 6-0, 170.

Bats/throws: R/R.

Drafted: 2017 (Competitive balance B, 71st overall).



2019: Freeman posted another stellar season, leading all Indians minor leaguers in hits (151) and runs scored (89) while collecting the fourth most steals (19) and the fifth highest batting-average (.306). He was named a Midwest League midseason All-Star with Single-A Lake County before advancing to High-A Lynchburg in the Carolina League.

Outlook: Freeman’s plus tool is his ability to put the bat on the ball. It means he doesn’t draw too many walks, but he can put the ball in play early in the count. Freeman is adept at making line-drive contact and should develop at least average major league power. Defensively, his reliable hands and quick release make up for an average arm. He has average speed but good baserunning instincts.


Freeman appeared in five major league exhibition games before spring training was suspended, batting .333 with an RBI and a run scored. In a March 2 game against Texas Freeman had the chance to take the field against his younger brother, Cody Freeman, a 2019 draft pick of the Rangers. In the seventh inning, Tyler retired his brother on a ground ball to shortstop, but Cody returned the favor in the ninth, catching a pop fly off Tyler’s bat for the final out of the game.

Ranks: Freeman ranks as the Indians’ second overall prospect according to MLB.com and Baseball America. MLB Pipeline rates him the 96th overall prospect in baseball while Baseball America has him at No. 69. Baseball America also ranks freeman as the top hitter for average in the Tribe’s farm system.

2020: Freeman will likely start the season at Lynchburg and move up to Double-A Akron at some point.

Freeman is a kid hard to get excited about since he doesn't have home run power or great speed and may not make the grade at shortstop. But he can flat out hit and has lots of gap power; he broke the Mahoning Valley team doubles record by a mile during his summer in the NYPL. I can see him at 2nd base as early as 2021 or 22 at the latest.

or shortstop in the gap between Lindor and Rocchio

BA keeps posting previews on the draft and the minor league season as if one will happen. Today we get a list of breakout prospects for 2020

The no longer a sleeper among the Indians kids, Aaron Bracho gets their nod as 2B sleeper

2B Aaron Bracho, Indians
Age: 19. Projected level: low Class A Lake County.
Key numbers: 16.6 BB%, 17.2 SO%, 190 OPS+ and 229 XBPA+

A lost 2018 season had no visible impact on Bracho during his 2019 pro debut in which he showed incredible power for a teenage middle infielder and the discerning batting eye of a veteran. Quibble if you must with his lack of speed or limited defensive profile—but the switch-hitting Bracho can hit. His Arizona League manager said it best. "What (Bracho) did, more than anything for a young hitter who was so impressive, was his ability to control the zone, swing at strikes . . . and put himself in good counts to hit,” Larry Day said.

As does potential Really Big Deal George Valera

OF George Valera, Indians
Age: 19. Projected level: low Class A Lake County.
Key numbers: 14.8 BB%, 28.3 SO%, 124 OPS+, 134 SB+ and 170 XBPA+

Even in our enlightened age, we don’t look favorably at a .236 batting average, which is what Valera managed at short-season Mahoning Valley last season before a late bump to the Midwest League. However, he showcased well above-average power production as the youngest position player in the New York-Penn League, and his average should continue to climb given his picturesque lefthanded swing, bat-to-ball skills, pitch recognition and plate discipline.

To get a better understanding of the potential effects of Major League Baseball’s proposed plan to cut the minor leagues to 120 full-season clubs and to reduce the draft to 20 or 25 rounds while moving the draft date back from early June, we asked MLB front office officials for their reactions to the proposals.

Everyone we asked was someone who is directly involved in scouting or player development, and thus will be directly affected by the potential changes. To ensure we were getting a wide variety of opinions, we talked to officials of small-market and low-revenue teams, mid-range teams and large-market, high-revenue clubs. All officials were granted anonymity to ensure candor because this is seen as a sensitive subject where many have not been given permission to speak publicly.

On scaling back the draft


A special assistant to the GM who has been a scouting director:

“I don’t have a problem cutting (the draft) back to 25 to 30 rounds. You’re still drafting enough players to fill out those (short-season) rosters. That creates a much bigger pool of free agent possibilities. Quite honestly, it gets to be nauseating in the 35th round to find a player who is worth a selection. You’re not excited about any of those players. The draft board has been obliterated. It gets worse every year because teams get better and better at the draft. Most teams are increasing staff. Teams are getting better at it. More data is available. There are more looks at kids. Once you get to the 36th round, it’s not good. You’re better off doing a workout a week after the draft where your scouts invite the undrafted players”

A pro scouting director:

“I’d rather have 20 or 30 rounds of draft, fewer teams, more funds allocated to those players and to those facilities and better competition against each other. When you’re playing against a bunch of non-prospects, you should dominate. When you’re playing a more competitive field, I think it just helps the overall quality of the game.”

A longtime scout:

“As far as shrinking (the draft) to, let’s say 25 (rounds), I don’t think it would have that big of an impact. Listen, we’re not taking guys who we’re killing ourselves to sign in rounds 26 to 40.”

A longtime scout:

“As far as moving the draft back, I think it’s worth exploring. We’re the only sport that doesn’t have a combine, doesn’t have something prior to this event where you can go in and get your medical, your ortho, you can get all the MRIs, you can get a lot of stuff there, in a week. Run them all through there. We’re literally making picks and commitments before you get any of that sh-- done. That’s insane.”

A special assistant to the general manager:

“What’s going to happen is we’re going to push the draft back even further, we’re going to have a combine—a medical combine, a physical combine, a tools combine—and we’re going to wait a month until the College World Series is over and then we’re going to send them to a (Rookie) complex league, if we even do that. It’s going to cut scouts, because why do we need 20 area scouts when all the upper-level dudes are going to be eyeballing these dudes at a combine in Omaha? Area scouts are going to lose jobs. 100 percent.”

On cutting from 160 to 120 minor league teams


A special assistant to the GM who has been a scouting director:

“I don’t like cutting back the teams and leagues. I don’t see what’s not working. I don’t think the facilities are, for the most part, that bad ... “Whether short-season ball or the complexes, both (settings) are good places to get acclimated by competition.”

A director of baseball operations:

“There are a ton of players with each team who have no chance to make the big leagues. They are fillers. Houston figured out that in terms of development, why waste resources on guys with no shot of being major leaguers? You only have so many pitching coaches, and only so many analysts. You’re not going to deny the 29-year-old throwing 87 (mph) in Double-A resources. He still wants to get better. So you commit resources to him when you have prospects shagging balls in the outfield.”

A pro scouting director:

“From a competitive lens, I think there’s far too many org players going around and I think that shrinking the draft and contracting minor league teams would help with the development of players. You go to a (Rookie-level) Pioneer League game and you’re in a sh-- park and there’s one dude to focus on instead of 10 dudes. It’s just not a good environment to watch baseball. It’s not a good environment to scout baseball. It’s not a good developmental context. So I do think that there is some benefit to contraction.

“(The other side of it is) the growth of baseball. Taking baseball away from fans when fans are already walking away from baseball for a variety of reasons. I think you remove some of the baseball from these small towns, you’re removing an economic plug.

“I want to see baseball as big as possible. I want to see expansion at the major league level. I want to see more kids playing baseball. I want to see more athletes getting into baseball. I think if you take baseball away, if you’re too extreme about it, I think you run the risk of alienating people from baseball, and I don’t think the sport should do that.

“That said, I don’t know if there is a correct answer here. I scouted every level of minor league baseball and I’m telling you, the Pioneer League serves no purpose. You can’t scout there. The environments are awful. Maybe it’s up to the owners to just pay the players more and have better facilities, better everything, and you can make the case that contracting pushes us closer to that.

“I want to see that needle threaded in the way that we contract to help the quality of minor league baseball, but we put funds into some of these substandard minor league facilities that are contracted and try to keep them afloat in some way, whether it’s through indy ball or some other developmental league and giving them the option to get back into the minor league context.”

A pro scouting director:

“Definitely the realignment is more of what I kind of gravitate to, that I’m really in favor of. The understanding of Major League Baseball taking more advantage of their own development of their players and where and how is probably the next step that I fully have belief in.

“When you reduce the number of players, everybody is always, ‘Well, it’s less jobs for guys to have—it’s less opportunities.’ There is something to be said for that, no doubt. But I often think that the cream will rise to the top with a smaller, condensed player pool.”

A special assistant to the general manager:

“Me, personally, I don’t love it. I understand we’re trying to get more efficient, but I like the current setup, personally. I think there are benefits to it. You’re talking about a lot of jobs. We had a lot of guys who were supposed to be nothing turn into something. People who say, ‘Oh, these teams have no prospects’—it’s a bunch of bullsh--. I get why they’re doing it. It’s money.”

A farm director:

“We’ve been fortunate with the way (our owner) has operated things that we’ve had more teams and thus more players. It’s allowed (us) to sign more players, and there’s been some guys who may have been casualties otherwise—if we had to trim down a lot—who we wouldn’t have been able to hang onto (and) who have turned into productive players. I’ve read about other teams that feel like less is more and we can focus more on individuals if we have less players, but I think we can still get that focus while having more staff, but I recognize that that costs more money. So, I like that we’ve been able to have more people and more players, and I hope that we can continue to do that. I think it sucks for some of the people who have grinded it out.”

A farm director:

“It just really smells like a complete money situation. Teams not wanting to spend and not wanting to invest in player development. And you look around . . . and there are some teams that are, not going through the motions, (but) treating development the same way that it always has been, which is a little bit more of ‘the cream will rise to the top.’ And then there are some teams that are really investing in staff and some of the tech stuff and saying, ‘Let’s see what we can do to get guys better.’ And I know which side of the fence (our owner) lies on, and it’s been awesome to be able to go out to compete to keep staff members, to hunt down what I think are really good staff members and to bring guys on board and kind of change the way we’ve done things.”

No. 3 Bo Naylor, C: Cleveland Indians top prospects right now
Today 5:09 AM

Bo Naylor- C Lake County Captains (Cleveland Indians)
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By Joe Noga, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Get to know Cleveland Indians prospect Bo Naylor, a catcher from Canada who is ranked the No. 3 prospect in the Tribe’s farm system.

Name: Bo Naylor.

Pos: C.

Age: 20.

Height/weight: 6-0, 195.

Bats/throws: L/R.

Drafted: 2018 (1st round, 29th overall).


2019: Naylor spent the entire season at Lake County, batting fourth in the majority of his 107 games for the Captains. Naylor hit .243 with 11 home runs and 65 RBI to go along with a .734 OPS. He struck out 104 times and asked 43, scoring 60 runs in 399 at-bats.

Outlook: Naylor was seen as the most advanced hitter among high school players in his draft class. He has decent raw power that can develop further, but his understanding of the strike zone and ability to make consistent contact is what separates him from other prospects. Behind the plate, Naylor shows a strong arm and is developing into a good pitch framer.


Ranks: Naylor ranks as the Indians’ third overall prospect according to MLB Pipeline and Baseball America. Baseball Prospectus ranks him No. 10 in the Tribe’s farm system. Baseball America’s “best tools” rates Naylor as the best defensive catcher in Cleveland’s farm system.

2020: The Indians challenged Naylor with his assignment to Lake County last year, reasoning that he had played against older competition on the high school showcase circuit and that a stop in Mahoning Valley wouldn’t have helped his development. After an adjustment period in the first half, Naylor proved the organization right by catching fire in the second half. Expect him to open the season at Lake County again before moving up to High-A Lynchburg, perhaps early on.