Cleveland Sports Forum

BA has updated their top 100 prospects list to reflect the first month of minor league play. With some major adjustments


Nolan Jones' inability to hit AAA pitching has seen him descend from 36th to 55th place.
Tyler Freeman's ability to devour AA pitching has seen him leap from 81st to 26th place and take over as Top Cleveland prospect.

McKenzie has I believe surpassed the qualification minimum to be a prospect any longer.
I believe Naylor was in the bottom of the preseason top 100 or perhaps Valera, but Bo hasn't hit and Valera has not played since the first week

Indians prospect George Valera has been activated at Lake County.

Valera, ranked as the No. 93 prospect in the game by MLB Pipeline, has been sidelined for about a month due to an oblique strain. The 20-year-old was batting just 182/.296/.273 through 27 plate appearances prior to the injury, but he'll look for better results in his return.

Strikeouts have been an issue for him so far in the minors, but he possesses huge power potential.

Big games by two of the most prominent kids at Lake County:

Rocchio's 5th double, 4th homer and a single
Valera's 1st homer a single and a walk

Joe Naranjo added a double and two singles
C Bryan Lavastida also back from injury singled homered and drove in 4.

Hunter Gaddis 5 4 3 3 1 7 for the win, allowed 2 homers

Not just did Nolan Jones's three doubles lead the Clippers to a rare win, he didn't strike out.
Mercado doubled in a pair and walked twice; he's been much better at bat since Zimmer arrived in Cleveland. Ernie Clement 2 singles.

Eli Morgan no good in AAA return: 3 2/3 4 3 3 0 2 a homer
an old favorite of mine Justin Garza still plugging around at age 27 after bunches of injuries pitched 2 shutuout innings; his ERA now 0.56, 19K in 16 IP. Morgan sized right hander

for Akron Benson walked tripled and stole a base. He can't get his avg over 200 [he's at 187] but all the walks and extra base hits give him an 824 OPS
1 hit each by Freeman, Palacios, Gonzalez and Naylor

Singles hitter Yainer Diaz, C at Lynchburg, hit his first homer and walked. Contrast to Benson, his 195 avg equates to 726 OPS

BA noticed the Rocchio-Valera show too; cited them among the top 12 performances of he night:

Brayan Rocchio and George Valera, High-A Lake County (Indians)—The talented 20-year-olds combined for five hits in seven at-bats, including a pair of solo homers, three runs scored and three RBIs in a win over Fort Wayne. Rocchio hit his fourth homer, went 3-for-5 and raised his slash line to .241/.286/.411 with 12 RBIs in 112 at-bats. Valera, meanwhile, hadn't played since May 12 due to a right oblique strain, but wasted no time in hitting his first homer of the season in his return from the injured list.

CLE AAA #2 Nolan Jones, 3B 5 2 3 1 0.194 3 2B (9),
CLE AAA #3 Andres Gimenez, SS4 0 0 0 0.217 E (7),
CLE AA #4 Tyler Freeman, SS 5 1 1 1 0.343 E (4),
CLE AA #5 Bo Naylor, C 5 0 1 0 0.167 SB (2),
CLE HiA #6 George Valera, OF 2 1 2 1 0.250 HR (1), BB (5), CS (2),
CLE AAA #7 Gabriel Arias, SS 4 1 1 0 0.204 BB (17),
CLE HiA #8 Brayan Rocchio, SS 5 2 3 2 0.241 2B (5), HR (4),
CLE HiA #11 Aaron Bracho, 2B 5 0 0 0 0.198
CLE LoA #12 Gabe Rodriguez, SS 4 0 0 0 0.200
CLE MAJ #22 Bobby Bradley, 1B 5 1 0 0 0.215 that includes his AAA below 200 avg
CLE AAA #24 Ernie Clement, SS 4 1 2 1 0.310 SB (2),
CLE LoA #28 Yordys Valdes, SS 3 0 0 0 0.213
CLE LoA #29 Angel Martinez, SS 4 0 0 0 0.275
CLE MAJ #30 Yu Chang, 3B 1 0 0 0 0.179

CLE MAJ #15 Emmanuel Clase, RHP 1.0 1 0 0 1 3 1.05

Great news on Valera!

a list of emerging prospects in May from BA includes:

5. Jhonkensy Noel, 3B/1B, Indians
Low-A Lynchburg (East)

71 PA: .358/.380/.672 (182 OPS+), 5 HR (279 SB+), 0 SB

Hit in the hand by a pitch on May 23, Noel did not play the final week in May, but what he had done in the preceding three weeks marked him as an emerging prospect. The physical righthanded hitter has good bat speed and a short swing that he used to strike almost as many extra-base hits (11) as he had strikeouts (12). He has incredible raw power that he will increasingly access as refines his plate approach with experience. Age: 19

and also:

8. Angel Martinez, 2B/SS, Indians
Low-A Lynchburg (East)

70 PA: .286/.429/.518 (160 OPS+), 2 HR (183 XB+), 5 SB (154 SB+)

The 19-year-old Dominican middle infielder made a large jumps to crack an Opening Day roster this season. Martinez, who is the son of former big league catcher Sandy Martinez, spent 2019 in the Dominican Summer League and began this season in Low-A as a teenager on a very young Lynchburg team. By the end of May, the switch-hitting Martinez had worked his way into the leadoff role that showcased his disciplined approach with some power/speed potential. Age: 19

Good pitching by Danny Espino and by the XMan.

Lynchburg game stopped by rain after 2 innings, but in those 2 Espino went 2 2 0 0 1 4 ERA 1,85 34K in 24IP
Xzavion Curry promoted to Lake County was just as good as in first stop. 5 2 0 0 2 7

for Lake County:
Jose Tena 2 hits and a steal; Aaron Bracho Homered; and who remembers top pick Quentin Holmes with 4 hits he's only 21 so perhaps can return to prospect status.

Clippers win their 2nd in a row. Mercado wants back in Cleveland: hit his 9th double and 3rd homer
Gabriel Arias a 3 run homer
Nolan Jones 2 singles a walk a strikeout

Akron loses a crazy one 14-13.
Surprisingly long outing for closer Nick Mickolojcheck 3 3 3 2 0 5
obviously lots of good hitting lines:
Richie Palacios 3 doubles a single 2 steals; he's another top infield prospect
Will Benson over 200 with 2 singles 2 walks his 7th steal
Bo Naylor 3 walks and a steal
Freeman a single and a steal
https://www.milb.com/gameday/rubberduck ... ame=646463

BA's lines; they don't add names to the list for the daily reports so we won't see Palacios or Curry e.g. here at any point this summer


CLE AAA #2 Nolan Jones, 3B 4 0 2 0 0.206 2B (10), BB (18),
CLE AAA #3 Andres Gimenez, SS 4 0 1 0 0.218 BB (7),
CLE AA #4 Tyler Freeman, SS 6 1 1 0 0.333 SB (4),
CLE AA #5 Bo Naylor, C 3 2 0 0 0.160 3 BB (12), SB (3),
CLE AAA #7 Gabriel Arias, SS 4 1 1 3 0.206 HR (3), BB (18),
CLE HiA #11 Aaron Bracho, 2B 4 1 1 1 0.200 HR (4),
CLE LoA #12 Gabriel Rodriguez, SS 1 0 1 0 0.209
CLE MAJ #19 Owen Miller, SS 1 0 0 0 0.290
CLE AAA #24 Ernie Clement, SS 4 1 1 1 0.306 2B (8),
CLE LoA #29 Angel Martinez, SS 1 0 0 0 0.272
CLE MAJ #30 Yu Chang, 3B 1 0 0 0 0.176

CLE LoA #9 Daniel Espino, RHP 2.0 2 0 0 1 4 1.85

After about one month
Akron hitting stats:
https://www.milb.com/akron/stats/hits

Best numbers are for 26 year old OF Alex Call. Probably no future. Much more interesting are
Freeman 333 average not a lot of walks or power 390 obp 444 slg
Fermin 299 average more walks than strikeouts very little power 400 obp 364 slg
Palacios 309 average lots of walks lots of extra base hits 412 obp 454 slg
Benson 205 average huge number of walks most of hits for extra bases 410 obp 454 slg 7 steals 35K of 62 outs
Gonzalez 286 average rarely walks 7 homers 318 obp 524 slg
I'm rooting for Benson. His secondary numbers are awfully good except for the Ks. He also is a very good RF

lake County has a real solid starting rotation of last year's college draft picks, Tanner Burns, Logan Allen Jr., Mason Hickman and Xzavion Curry

milb.com stupidly only shows pitchers who have enough IP to qualify for league leads; I'll have to look elsewhere for the stats

Good to see Espino looking good.