Cleveland Sports Forum

Tolentino is the kid who may not sign, right? I wonder if the lack of minor league season this summer will play into the decision to sign or go to college? He wouldn't be missing much if there's no arizona summer league. why not go to college, play in the spring; or would he then be ineligible for the draft for 3 years???

as of this morning, Joe Donovan, the C from Michigan sits 6th on Baseball America's list of top NDFAs.

"Michigan product is a stout defender behind the plate, but his bat is a question mark."

Indians have drafted at least one U of M catcher before with a similar profile. If my old friend AG were still in the Forum he'd know who since he's a Michigan resident himself. Whoever it was made it as far as Akron I believe. Saylor, or something like that maybe? Nah.

Boy that was hard to find, Doug Pickens, Round 50, 2007.

So while hunting for him, I looked at all the other catchers we've drafted since 2007 and it's not a very impressive roster. The big star of the show is current Indian Roberto Perez who was a 33rd round pick from Junior College in 2008. The only other guy who saw the majors was Eric Haase, who was a 7th pick from high school in 2011.

No wonder the names of our Class A and AA catchers have confused me: 2010 Alex Lavisky round 8; in 2011 drafted Jake Lowery in round 4; in 2012 Jeremy Lucas in round 12; in 2013 Sicnarf Loopstock in round 13; in 2014 Simeon Lucas in round 7. In 2016 Logan Ice in round 2. Angel Lopez in 2017 round 13; Brian Lavastida round 15 in 2018.

Draft coming up soon; BA has been running mock drafts for awhile; here's their most recent for the Indians:

23
Joe Mack
Williamsville East HS, East Amherst, N.Y. C
Notes:

Flip a coin between Mack and Harry Ford if you want to know who is going to be the first high school catcher off the board. Mack only recently got his season started in upstate New York, but impressed evaluators last summer with his lefthanded bat and arm behind the plate. Think a bit less bat and a bit more glove than Bo Naylor at the time he was drafted, Indians fans.

Nearing the opening of the International Signing Period. BA ranks the top 35 prospects in order of projected signing bonus. One of them at No. 26, is expected to sign with Cleveland, a CF, not a shortstop

26
Jaison Chourio
Venezuela OF
Notes:

Born: May 19, 2005. B-T: B-R. Ht.: 6-1. Wt.: 150.

Jackson Bryan Chourio was one of the top shortstops in the 2020 international class, landing with the Brewers on Jan. 15, 2021. His younger brother, Jaison, is one of the top center fielders for 2021. Jaison is another high-end athlete with plus or better speed underway. He moves around with a little more ease and looseness than his brother, with good outfield instincts and a strong arm. Chourio has good pitch recognition and contact skills against live pitching with gap power right now. There's a split on Chourio's future power projection, with some believing he will be more of a tablesetter with a hit-over-power profile, while others see the physical projection indicators for him to grow into a power/speed threat as he gets older. The Indians are expected

Gavin Williams out of East Carolina is the Tribe's first pick. Starting pitcher he is large - 6 foot 6 inches and 238 lbs.

Throws upper 90s up to 100 - as one of the evaluators said this is not the typical Tribe pitching project - much more upside.

Saw some video and in addition to that velocity he has what Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin called a "strike curveball".

In fact Williams pitched THIS season against Corbin's Vanderbilt team so they asked him what he thought about him.

He had one word. Corbin said, "Monster".

Dan O'Dowd predicted he could end up the best pitcher in this draft. Tall order but interesting pick.

Quick writeup:

Indians selected East Carolina RHP Gavin Williams with the 23rd pick of the 2021 MLB Draft.

Williams went back to school after not being drafted in the shortened draft of 2020, and he had mixed results. When he's at his best, you see a right-hander with a plus-plus fastball that's touched 100 mph, and he shows a plus curve and change along with a useable slider, as well.

The issue is that Williams hasn't shown that stuff on a consistent basis, but he's joining a team that is very, very good at developing these profiles.

At worst, Williams can be a strong reliever, but there's mid-rotation upside -- if not better -- in his right arm, too.

Cleveland Indians draft RHP Gavin Williams with their first pick in MLB Draft 2021
Updated Jul 12, 2021; Posted Jul 11, 2021

By Paul Hoynes, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Indians used their first pick in the 2021 Major League Baseball draft to select right-hander Gavin Williams from East Carolina University.

Williams, 21, went 10-1 with a 1.88 ERA this year. He struck out 130 and walked 21 in 81 innings. He has been selected as a finalist for the Dick Howser and Golden Spikes awards.

The 6-foot-6, 240-pound Williams has a fastball that sits at 94 mph to 97 mph and has touched 100. In his four years at East Carolina, Williams went 11-5 with a 2.64 ERA in 53 games, including 17 starts. He did not join the starting rotation fulltime until this year.


Williams put himself on the map with a strong start against Vanderbilt and Kumar Rocker in the Super Regionals in the NCAA playoffs this year. Williams and East Carolina lost to Vanderbilt, but he struck out 13 and walked two in 7 1/3 innings. On his last pitch, he hit 97 mph.

The Mets took Rocker with the 10th pick in the first round. The Indians took Williams with the 23rd pick in the first round.

“We have a lot of history with Gavin, going back to his time at high school,” said Scott Barnsby, Indians director of amateur scouting. “This guy is a big physical right-hander. It’s been a really impressive progression with his stuff and feel to pitch.

“This year he dominated in college. In his last start of the season, on the biggest stage, he ended up throwing 7 1/3 innings against Vanderbilt and held 97 mph the entire game. He’s just a physical right hander, power arm, up to 100 mph with two power breaking balls.”

Barnsby said the Indians will keep Williams in a starting role.

“He’s shown this year that he can maintain his stuff all year,” said Barnsby. “We envision him as a starter. That goes back to the four-pitch mix he has and his ability to hold his velocity deep in the game. We feel really good about his chances to start.”


Barnsby said it’s difficult to project who is going to be available when you have the 23rd pick in the first round.

“But the people in our draft room were really excited about Gavin being there,” he said.

The Tampa Bay Rays drafted Williams in the 30th round in 2017 out of Cape Fear High School in Fayetteville, N.C. He is on track to graduate this summer with a degree in criminal justice.

The Indians’ signing bonus pool is $7,398,800. The slot price for Williams is $2,926,800.

Williams is listed as a four-year junior, but there’s not much doubt he’s going to sign. He didn’t go into the draft last year to try and improve his standing this year. The strategy worked.

All of which could give the Indians some flexibility to sign the players they select in later rounds Monday and Tuesday if they’re able to sign Williams for below his slot value.

“Knowing Gavin’s intentions, knowing he wants to go out and play. . .yeah, I think we have flexibility,” said Barnsby.

Here are the slot values of the Indians other picks in the first 10 rounds of the draft:


No. 58. $1,214,300;
No. 69. $929,800;
No. 95. $610,800;
No. 125. $455,600;
No. 156. $336,600;
No. 186: $259,400;
No. 216. $203,400;
No. 246 $167,000;
No. 276. $151,600;
and No. 306. $143,500.
The draft, held in July for the first time, will last 20 rounds this year. That’s an increase from five last year because of the pandemic, but it’s a drop from 40 rounds, the traditional length of the draft for years.

Sunday’s portion of the draft lasted 36 selections. On Monday the draft will go from the second through the 10th round. The draft concludes Wednesday with rounds 11 through 20.

Teams have until Aug. 1 to sign their draft picks.

Finally: The Twins, with the 36th and final pick on the first day of the draft, took Noah Miller, a high school shortstop from Wisconsin. He’s the younger brother of Indians infielder Owen Miller.

At worst, Williams can be a strong reliever, but there's mid-rotation upside -- if not better

At worst he could flop. Took a look at the list of Indians' No. 1 picks over the decades.

The last college pitcher who made a serious impact was Greg Swindell in 196
later on Jeremy Guthrie [2002] has a fair career.
jeremy Sowers 2004 had a good season
Alex White didn't do much at all [2009]
Drew Pomeranz 2010 had some solid success in the bullpen currently with San Diego, won 17 for he Red Sox in 2017. His career would be a reasonable target although hampered by injuries off and on he's worked out well.

lots more college pitchers taken today. six of the first 7 picks. and one high school shortstop.
Recognition that we need more pitching at the upper levels.
Last year's draft was balanced with college pitchers 3 of the 6 picked: Tanner Burns 1Supplemental; 2 Logan Allen Jr; 5 Mason Hickman

2019 only 5th and 7th round were college pitchers: Hunter Gaddis in the 5th Xzavion Curry in the 7th

Indians went for 9 more pitchers in today's 10 rounds. all college guys; and a college OF.

I guess we knew that the low minors are flooded with talented infielders. This confirms it.

Since they don't need to field a roster of players in Mahoning Valley they can get by with 15 fewer position players. Not sure where the pitchers will get their work; from early results in the Arizona League it's pretty evident that the current crop of pitchers there is pretty weak; so many of the new 19 will slot in there, or perhaps not get game action until 2022. Now that the draft is a month later perhaps most of the new signings will just stay in camp and make their debuts next year?

One of today's 10 picks [in round 14] is rated No 216 prospect by MLB.com which is far higher than the spot he was drafted; no one else made their top 250 so comes with no writeup on their site.

Denholm was a solid prospect eligible for the 2020 Draft, one who ranked No. 128 on MLB Pipeline's Top 200 thanks to his advanced pitchability and track record of success, both for UC Irvine and in the Cape Cod League. Serving as the Anteaters' Friday starter in 2021, the undersized right-hander wasn't able to replicate his previous success, knocking him down boards a bit in the process. The 5-foot-11 right-hander still displayed the ability to throw three pitches for strikes, though overall command of those offerings suffered a bit. His fastball did touch 93-94 mph a time or two but averaged around 89-90 mph most of the spring and didn't miss many bats. His changeup is his best secondary offering, thrown with good fade that made him more effective against left-handed hitters than righties, who had less trouble picking up the pitch. He didn't throw his breaking ball enough and hitters had success against it. While Denholm continued to largely be around the zone, he was much too hittable within it without missing many bats. If he can tighten up and improve his breaking ball at the next level, he still has the chance to reach his ceiling as a back-end starting pitcher.

One of today's 10 picks [in round 14] is rated No 216 prospect by MLB.com which is far higher than the spot he was drafted; no one else made their top 250 so comes with no writeup on their site.

Denholm was a solid prospect eligible for the 2020 Draft, one who ranked No. 128 on MLB Pipeline's Top 200 thanks to his advanced pitchability and track record of success, both for UC Irvine and in the Cape Cod League. Serving as the Anteaters' Friday starter in 2021, the undersized right-hander wasn't able to replicate his previous success, knocking him down boards a bit in the process. The 5-foot-11 right-hander still displayed the ability to throw three pitches for strikes, though overall command of those offerings suffered a bit. His fastball did touch 93-94 mph a time or two but averaged around 89-90 mph most of the spring and didn't miss many bats. His changeup is his best secondary offering, thrown with good fade that made him more effective against left-handed hitters than righties, who had less trouble picking up the pitch. He didn't throw his breaking ball enough and hitters had success against it. While Denholm continued to largely be around the zone, he was much too hittable within it without missing many bats. If he can tighten up and improve his breaking ball at the next level, he still has the chance to reach his ceiling as a back-end starting pitcher.

No wonder he dropped to 14th round. Perhaps they can turn him around, but they can't make everyone a sar

I read today that the Angels too all pitchers. Every single round a pitcher.

they only beat us by 2. I'll have to read some draft analyses. Maybe the shrunken minors are the cause?