Cleveland Sports Forum

Looks like that occurred today, and I was out of range anyway. I'll post Q&A that relate to Tribesmen:

DH (Pittsburgh): Who do you prefer, Frazier or Meadows? Any comp make sense for Frazier?

Bill Mitchell: DH, I haven’t seen Meadows so I can’t compare the two Georgia outfielders. That would be a good question tomorrow for Ben Badler when he covers the Gulf Coast League. As for a comp for Frazier, I can’t think of anyone else with that 80 grade red hair. (Oh yeah, I love the bat speed, too.)

Jim (Annapolis): Why is Francisco Mejia rated so highly? What is special about him?

Bill Mitchell: Jim, thanks for a good question. I was just talking on Saturday with his AZL manager about this same topic. What moved Mejia into the top 10 is the scarcity of young catchers. A 17-year-old in his first pro season with power potential from both sides of the plate and a plus arm is a rarity. Of course, there’s more risk in evaluating young catchers, but I felt safe in putting Mejia in the top 10.

Kelly (Saint Cloud, MN): Who was # 21 on your list, and why did he miss?
Bill Mitchell: Kelly, I just mentioned that I had Victor Gonzalez at 21 or 22. The other player right in there was Indians LHP Sean Brady, who pitched very well and showed above-average pitchability. They were tough to leave off the list, but in both cases scouts question their ultimate projection.

Not sure when the last time one of our guys was rated No. 1 Prospect at any level. Well the answer from now on is: Clint Frazier in 2013 in the Arizona League:

1. Clint Frazier, of, Indians

Age: 18. B-T: R-R. Ht.: 6-1. Wt.: 190. Drafted: HS—Loganville, Ga., 2013 (1).

Scouts flocked to the small town of Loganville this spring, as two of the top high school talents played for rival high schools. Frazier earned top prospect honors in the AZL, while fellow Loganville product Austin Meadows, now with the Pirates, was the No. 1 prospect in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League.

Frazier was the first of the two to be drafted, going fifth overall to the Indians and signing quickly for $3.5 million. It didn’t take long for Frazier to demonstrate his off-the-charts bat speed, which he generates with extremely strong hands and forearms. He homered in his first professional at-bat shortly after joining the AZL Indians and later tripled in the same game.

Frazier is a five-tool player with fast twitch athleticism. He’ll have enough range to stay in center field and his above-average arm would also allow a move to right. Frazier’s arm was a little tender early in the season as a result of the number of pre-draft showcases, but he gained arm strength as the summer progressed.

AZL Indians manager Anthony Medrano confirmed that Frazier needs to improve his plate discipline and learn to swing at strikes to make more consistent contact. But Frazier has all the makings of a future star. “He doesn’t lack confidence,” Medrano said. “Everything we’ve expected we’ve gotten out of him.”

AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS AVG OBP SLG
172 32 51 11 5 5 28 17 61 3 2 .297 .362 .506

7. Francisco Mejia, c, Indians

Age: 17. B-T: B-R. Ht.: 5-10. Wt.: 175. Signed: Dominican Republic, 2012.

Mejia signed for $350,000 at the start of the 2012 international signing period. The Indians challenged him with an initial assignment in the AZL, skipping him over the DSL, and Mejia proved more than capable. The switch-hitter held his own at the plate, showing good bat speed and raw power for his size, and he ought to develop more over-the-fence power as he grows stronger. He needs to improve his strike-zone discipline, as he drew just five walks all summer.

Mejia’s defense stands out foremost among his tools. He has a plus-plus arm and quick feet behind the plate, throwing out 23 percent of basestealers, but like most teenaged catchers he needs to work on improving his receiving skills.

AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS AVG OBP SLG
105 16 32 9 1 4 24 5 18 3 1 .305 .348 .524

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AZL Indians Insider: 2013 season review - The pitchers
Kieran Lovegrove (Photo: IBI)

By Tony Lastoria

September 25, 2013

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Over the next several days I will be providing year-end pieces like this for all of the Indians six minor league affiliates. Due to the size of the rosters at Arizona and Mahoning Valley the pieces will be split into two, while the pieces for the other four full season affiliates in Columbus, Akron, Carolina and Lake County will be one big piece.

Last week I posted the first piece on the rookie level AZL Indians with a look at the hitters. This week I once again sat down with Indians Assistant Director of Player Development Carter Hawkins to get the organization’s thoughts on the performance/development of some of the pitchers there this season. Comments on several pitchers are included, including Kieran Lovegrove, Mitch Brown, Sean Brady, Juan Santana, Casey Shane, Anthony Vizcaya, Thomas Pannone, Luis Gomes, Kyle Bellows, Jordan Milbrath, Jose Zapata and Martin Alcantara.

On Kieran Lovegrove: “The interesting thing about Kieran is he is actually younger than a lot of our draft picks from high school this year, so he is extremely young, which is obviously a good thing from a projection standpoint. I think the experience he has gathered over the last year and a half will build a good foundation going forward. He has gotten a lot stronger just for how much he has worked at his nutrition and his time in the weight room. He is working on his delivery with the coaches in Arizona to just tap into some of that strength and athleticism more efficiently. While he had some tough outings here and there, that is expected from someone who is 17-18 years old. There is certainly a starting pitching arm at the major league level somewhere in there with Kieran, and we fully expect he will reach that potential, especially with the way he worked towards it. We are really happy with his strides he has made over the last year and a half, the foundation he has built himself, and we are looking forward to unleashing him to some other opportunities besides Arizona in the near future.”

On Mitch Brown: “I think this year was a year for Mitch to take a step back and focus on more of the more fundamental aspects of his delivery and just make sure he is healthy physically as well. For a player that young there is no reason to rush anything, and we felt like we should take a step back and make sure we are in a good spot. There are plenty of innings for him to pitch over the course of the next few years, and there is no reason to push him at this point. We just wanted to be comfortable with where he is, and we feel like in that environment in Arizona he had the opportunity to focus on some of that foundational delivery aspect and foundational physical aspect in his game that maybe would have been more difficult to address in Lake County or Carolina. Certainly from a skill standpoint he could have competed there, but I think this was a good year for him to build that base a little more efficiently and in a better environment. We fully expect him to be at the top of his game in 2014.”

On Sean Brady: “Left-handed starters who throw strikes, miss bats, and pitch deep into a ballgame because they are efficient is something everyone is looking for. Sean clearly showed a professional approach right out of the gate despite his age. We will just work to build his physical foundation, increase his arm strength, increase his durability, and really tap into some of the other stuff he already has. He is young. He is not throwing 98 MPH, but he certainly could one day. We are just going to have to work hard on improving his pitches every day and I think that will certainly translate into him becoming the best major leaguer that he can become. He has command of all three pitches his fastball, his breaking ball and changeup. They are good enough pitches to miss bats at that level, and we will just continue on improving them and that is all we can ask out of him. It was a great pro debut he had and we couldn’t be any happier with what he showed us on and off the mound.”

On Juan Santana: “Juan is a guy that our coaches really like because he is athletic, he has a solid delivery, the ball comes out of his hand really well and he has improved over the last few years. The numbers that he has put up have not been outstanding from an objective standpoint, but we are not focused on that. We are not focused on the ERA or any of that stuff; we are focused on guys that we feel like have the potential to be a major leaguer down the road and Juan is one of them. That is why we are giving him the opportunities to start because of that and he has worked hard to take advantage of them. A guy that has put the effort in that Juan has is going to get rewarded for that and we feel like that is going to come soon and the performance numbers too that maybe people outside the organization look at a little bit more and especially in the lower levels. He is a guy that our coaches believe has a good future ahead of him.”

On Casey Shane: “With all of these guys coming out of high school environments it is obviously a huge adjustment going into professional baseball. We are not focused on whether his command was good or he struck guys out. Those are great things to talk about in the media, but it is certainly not something we are focused on with the players. We want guys like Casey just to focus on building that foundation and learning how to really work in the weight room. Learning about nutrition and the way to treat their bodies the best so they can pitch every five days or every day if they are a reliever. Learning what it is like to attack a professional hitter as you can’t just blow fastball by guys anymore or bury breaking balls and get guys to chase them. Those are things that take adjustments. Casey is a guy that our scouts have really liked over the last few years. He has great stuff and a solid delivery and I think if he really builds that foundation and gets comfortable in a professional environment that we are going to see a lot of the talent come out that is already there. He is another guy that the sky is the limit for.”

On Anthony Vizcaya: “He throws strikes, he is efficient, and he can log innings. He did that in the Dominican Summer League over the last couple of years and did that this year as well. It is hard to find those guys in Arizona who really help the staff out. We were probably saying the same thing about Josh Tomlin back in the day, a guy that throws strikes and log innings and knows how to pitch professionally. Those guys that really put the effort and work in to improve their velocity and stuff they show up in the big leagues and are successful in the big leagues. He is right in the mix for one of those types of players that we could see pitching for us for a long time.”

On Thomas Pannone: “We obviously did not start him that much and had him in a relief role, and that is more likely the role he will be in going forward. He is just another young arm that has a lot of potential that we want to expose to the professional environment and start tapping into the skills our scouts saw. Performance-wise he gave up some runs, but we felt like he made some strides and understood the things he needs to work on going forward. That is the reason we have the Arizona Summer League and don’t throw all of these guys out to Lake County or Carolina right out of the gate. We are encouraged by his work he has put in off the field and certainly expect him to be a big part of the organization going forward.”

On Luis Gomez: “He pounded the strike zone, missed bats, and is a left-hander that can handle either role as a starter or reliever and be successful. He has a good slider that he misses bats with and he understands how to attack hitters. If he builds some strength physically I think he is going to really improve everything overall and really have the potential to move up the ladder in our system. He has some stuff and knows how to use it and certainly showed that at the lower levels this year.”

On Kyle Bellows conversion to a pitcher: “The early returns were solid with Kyle. It was an idea he had and we were on board with to see if that was an option with him going forward. It is hard to tell after three or four bullpens and two or three games what his potential is, but he has a strong arm as his velocity was up in the low 90s. He just needs to refine his delivery and secondary stuff. We will give him a shot in spring training to see where he is at after the offseason, but he certainly an exciting project and something we were more than happy to check out with Kyle. He has been a great teammate with us over the years and really worked hard, and has been set back with injuries through no fault of his own. This is an opportunity for him to see where his potential is on the other side of the ball and we are happy help to try and maximize that potential there. We will look at him there as a pitcher first and then make a decision after that.”

On Jose Zapata: “These guys that come out of the Dominican that throw hard and have some breaking stuff, we are just hoping to refine all of these guys into more professional approaches and Zapata is another one of those types of pitchers. One or two of those guys will move up to the next level and then one or two up to the next level, and then they are in the big leagues and a Rodney or Betancourt that have an impact on a major league team. He has a strong pitcher’s frame and good velocity and good breaking stuff. We are just trying to get him to tap into some of his natural ability. We are excited by what we saw both on and off the field with him.”

On Martin Alcantara: “He is another relief arm that has good velocity and a good breaking ball. We are just trying to make sure he is throwing strikes and staying down in the zone, refining his delivery and then giving him the opportunity to tap into the natural abilities that he has.”

On Jordan Milbrath: “He certainly did not come from a baseball hot bed in the Dakotas, but had a strong approach despite that. He is very tall with a large frame and gets good leverage on his pitches. We will work on him getting on that downhill plane to the plate. We really liked the way he went about his business and rewarded him for that by sending him to Lake County at the end of the year just to get a taste of that opportunity. He is just another strong, high velocity, good framed arm. We want as many of those in our system as possible, and hopefully most of them will end up moving through and impacting our major league team at some point in the near future.”

Follow Tony and the Indians Prospect Insider on Twitter @TonyIBI. Also, his new book the 2013 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider which profiles the Indians' Top 100 Prospects and more is available for sale.

On Jose Zapata: “These guys that come out of the Dominican that throw hard and have some breaking stuff, we are just hoping to refine all of these guys into more professional approaches and Zapata is another one of those types of pitchers.

This is why I like to see our players take their winter ball game to the Dominican. Jose Ramirez is one. In the Dominican, those pitchers throw hard and have a good idea of how to pitch and use their breaking pitches.

It would be nice to see some of these guys pick up more experience in a competitive environment this winter.

Indians 2013 Rule 5 Draft eligibles

By Tony Lastoria

September 26, 2013

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The Rule 5 Draft is a few months away, but here is a current up-to-date listing showing the eligible Indians' minor leaguers for the 2013 Draft on December 12, 2013. This list is housed for quick reference in the "Reference" section along the top below the site banner and listed under the "Rule 5 Draft" heading.

Note, to see the future eligibles from 2014 to 2017, go here.

The Rule 5 draft is a draft specific to Major League Baseball and is named for its place in the Professional Baseball Agreement. The regular major league baseball draft is defined in the rulebook as Rule 4, and this draft follows it in the rule book, hence the “Rule 5” moniker it is commonly referred.

The draft itself has three phases: a major league phase, a Triple-A phase, and a Double-A phase where teams select players from the levels below them. A player selected in one of these phases must be placed on the reserve list of the selecting club at the same level of that phase (for example, MLB players must be placed on the 40-man roster, AAA players must be placed on the AAA reserved list, etc). Only players left unprotected in each phase can be selected. In the major league phase, any player that is eligible who is not on the major league 40-man roster can be selected. For the Triple-A and Double-A phase any player eligible who is not on the club’s reserve list and is at a level below Triple-A or Double-A can be selected.

Last updated: September 26, 2013

Abraham, Adam
Adams, Austin
Aguilar, Jesus
Araujo, Elvis
Bellows, Kyle
Blair, Kyle
Brach, Brett
Bryson, Rob (FA)
Cervenka, Martin
Chen, Chun
Colon, Joseph
Cook, Clayton
Cook, Cole
Cooper, Jordan
De La Cruz, Juan
Dew, Owen
Espino, Paolo (FA)
Fedroff, Tim
Flores, Jose (FA)
Gallas, Anthony
Gonzalez, Erik
Goodnight, Michael
Greenwell, Bo (FA)
Guerrero, Harold
Holt, Tyler
Jimenez, Francisco
Lavisky, Alex
Lawson, Matt (FA)
Martinez, Jorge
Moncrief, Carlos
Monsalve, Alex
Murata, Toru
Nilsson, Mitch
Packer, Matt
Perez, Roberto
Price, Bryan
Rayl, Mike
Reichenbach, JD
Rohlinger, Ryan (FA)
Soto, Giovanni
Stowell, Bryce
Sturdevant, Tyler
Tejada, Enosil
Toole, Justin
Urshela, Giovanny
Valera, Francisco
Valerio, Charlie
Washington, LeVon

Follow Tony and the Indians Prospect Insider on Twitter @TonyIBI. Also, his new book the 2013 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider which profiles the Indians' Top 100 Prospects and more is available for sale.

A few of those names will wind up on the 40 man roster, most certainly Aguillar. I assume Moncrief after his breakout season in the offensively challenging Eastern League. I have always liked Urshela and his defense still makes him attractive, although not sure anyone would draft him. Monsalve is a pretty good catching prospect who was hurt a good chunk of 2013 but hit well in his Aero debut. Austin Adams is another of the good relief prospects, but he has not made it beyond AA, has had injury history and has been passed over by others like Lee and the surging Crockett, but I could see protecting him. Jose Flores is another hard throwing reliever, he's younger and sturdier than Adams has been, but Adams has rated on prospect lists while Flores has not. Indians like lefty Soto, who we netted for Peralta, but he missed most of 2013. Matt Packer had a good 2013 at Akron but never has projected highly. Levon Washington has a long long way to go to the majors and misses half of every season with injuries.

Haven't looked at the current roster to see how many obvious spots there will be. But I am sure we have room for at least a few of those named and no real need to protect more than four

NYPL Top Prospects list and chat coming today. I'll probably be too busy to join, but I'd like to hear about all those pitchers who did very well but don't necessarily throw that hard, e.g. Whitehouse and Sulser. Kime didn't get much work in; Crockett was out in a few weeks. The two who are most likely to show up on the prospect ratings would be Lefty Lugo and Slugger Rodriguez.

Wrong day. Oct 1 for the NYPL.

Historical Minors:

BA notes that 20 years ago, when Cliff Floyd and Manny Ramirez were 1-2 in the Eastern League and Manny was our Minor League POY after jumping from Double-A to Triple-A to the #Indians.

Around The Farm: Instructs September 26, 2013
Josh McAdams

By Arthur Kinney

September 27, 2013

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Around the Farm (ATF) takes a quick look at some of the daily performances by Indians prospects throughout the organization. The positions listed below are where the player was playing in the game.

This is a special Instructional League version of ATF that recaps each of the Instructional League games the Indians minor leaguers will play this fall over the next three weeks. All players that played in the game are included in each report. Please note, there is no advanced Instructional League this season.

Game 3 - September 25 at Rangers

Indians won 6-5 and improve to 2-1 on the fall

Josh McAdams (DH) - 2-4, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 K - McAdams is off to a solid start to his fall. More importantly, the home run is GREAT to see as any semblance of power was completely lacking this year at Mahoning Valley. He has the size and strength, but he has played small his first year-plus as a professional so the Indians want him to be more aggressive attacking the baseball. Hopefully, he can carry this momentum over into the spring and the 2014 regular season.

•Ordomar Valdez (2B) - 3-5, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 K - Days like this get you excited to see this guy in NE Ohio next year. Unfortunately, that probably won't be until mid/late-June in Niles.

•Erik Gonzalez (DH) - 0-5, 4 K - There is no doubt that Instructs is about working on stuff and growing as a player, but this was a rough one as he wore the Golden Sombrero striking out four times. He is now just 1-for-8 in three games.

•Jake Lowery (C) - 1-2, 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI - Lowery picks up his first hit of the FIL in grand style with a two-run homer. This is a guy who I am honestly excited about seeing in the Arizona Fall League, though his playing time may be limited.

•Eric Haase (C) - 0-1, 1 BB, 1 K - Haase has appeared in all three games, but has been limited to just a handful of at bats so far.

•Bryson Myles (LF) - 1-2, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K - Bryson Myles seems to be making up for lost time quite well, having scored three runs and a 2.467 OPS in two instructs games so far. Could he be on the verge of a Moncrief-like breakout next season?

•D'Vone McClure (LF) - 0-1 - D'Vone's Instructional League thus far can be summed up in one word: inconsistent. He's still very raw and the Indians are working with him to tap into his natural abilities and develop his approach at the plate.

•Jordan Smith (RF) - 0-3, 1 BB - I'm willing to write off his rough start to instructs (1-for-9 in three games) due to the transition to center field throwing him off, but hopefully there is some visible improvement during the FIL season.

•Clint Frazier (CF) - 0-4, 2 K - Strikeouts continue to be a concern for Clint. Hopefully he can use Instructs to help get a handle on this problem going forward as he has to start somewhere.

•Tony Wolters (SS) - 0-2, 1 BB, 1 K - Still feels a bit strange seeing Wolters in the middle-infield after his recent season playing catcher. He is expected to play both catcher and middle infield in th AFL next month.

•Dorssys Paulino (SS) - 1-1, 1 R, 1 2B - Not quite sure what to make of Paulino's fall season to this point, but it doesn't seem like enough to unseat Erik Gonzalez as the shortstop apparent in Carolina next season.

•Nelson Rodriguez (1B) - 0-2 - Even with this statline, Rodriguez is still batting .333 on the fall. Hopefully, this is the beginning of the consistency that Tony talked about in the first game recap of this year's instricts.

•Jeremy Lucas (1B) - 0-2 - While he doesn't have a hit yet in instructs, it's way too early to be panicking since he's only 0-for-5 (with a walk). If he finishes 0-for-instructs, then I'll be worried.

•Claudio Bautista (3B) - 0-2, 1 K - A rough 2013 FIL debut for Claudio. He should get several more opportunities these next few weeks.

•James Roberts (assuming 3B) - 1-1, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 additional plate appearance - Another player who has been highly inconsistent through his first theree games of this year's Fall Instructional League, but he made the most of his one official at bat.

•Jacob Lee (SP) - 1 IP, perfect, 2 K - Lee rebounds quite nicely from his tough fall debut last Saturday. It is good to see him back on the mound as at this point that is all that matters.

•Shawn Morimando (RP) - 2 IP, 2 H, 3 K - Another two innings of scoreless baseball from Morimando. First pitch strike rate improved slightly, however (up to 3/8 from 2/8 in his first outing of the instructs season).

•Elvis Araujo (RP) - 1 IP, perfect, 1 K - Another solid outing from Araujo, who is 5-for-7 in regards to throwing first-pitch strikes this fall. He's another guy coming back from an injury scare.

•Kieran Lovegrove (RP) - 1.2 IP, 5 H, 4 R (3 earned), 1 BB, 1 K - Lovegrove isn't looking particularly sharp this fall. Not a good sign for a guy who needed to leave a good impression on the Tribe farm system brass this instructs.

•Kyle Crockett (RP) - 2 IP, perfect, 3 K- While his first-pitch strike % dropped from 50% in his first outing to 33% today, the results were better than on Saturday.

•Ben Heller (RP) - 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R (unearned), 2 BB - Heller's otherwise-solid 2013 FIL debut falls victim to poor fielding. He's an interesting arm from a little known college that throws hard.

•Dylan Baker (RP) - 0.1 IP, perfect, 1 K - Kind of hard to read anything into a one-batter performance. Taken together with his dominant debut performance on Monday, however, this fall has been a very good sign about his potential.

Around The Farm: Instructs September 28, 2013
LeVon Washington

By Arthur Kinney

September 30, 2013

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Around the Farm (ATF) takes a quick look at some of the daily performances by Indians prospects throughout the organization. The positions listed below are where the player was playing in the game.

This is a special Instructional League version of ATF that recaps each of the Instructional League games the Indians minor leaguers will play this fall over the next three weeks. All players that played in the game are included in each report. Please note, there is no advanced Instructional League this season.

Game 4: September 28 at Reds

Indians lost 7-6

•LeVon Washington (LF) - 0-3 - LeVon remains hitless (0-for-8 with two walks in three games) on the fall. He is simply making up for lost time, and hopefully some of the one-on-one/small-group coaching that players get during instructs rubs off on him and something clicks soon.

•Josh McAdams (LF) - 0-0, 1 RBI, Additional plate appearance (likely a Sac Fly) - McAdams' year thus far can be best described as uneven. He is back in Goodyear for the very reason of finding more consistency at the plate.

•Erik Gonzalez (SS) - 1-2, 1 R, 1 2B, 2 RBI, Additional plate appearance (Sac Fly?) - Given Gonzalez's instructional league performance thus far, this game was a welcomed sight.

•Yu-Cheng Chang (SS) - 0-1 - It is still too early to make a definitive statement on this international signing making his North American pro debut in instructs. This is all about the player development staff getting their eyes on him in games for the first time.

•Jordan Smith (CF) - 0-2, 2 BB, 1 K - Smith continues to struggle as he drops to 1-for-11 in instructs. Small sample size alert! The numbers don't matter as the organization knows he can hit. It is the transition to center field that they want to see.

•Bryson Myles (RF) - 1-3, Additional plate appearance, 1 E - Myles continues to hit even on a rough day. I'm willing to write off the error as an anomaly at this early stage of instructs.

•Tony Wolters (C) - 1-1, 1 R, 1 2B, Additional plate appearance - While it was nice to see Wolters have a decent day at the plate, the real test of how this fall will benefit him will be his performances in the Arizona Fall League.

•Jeremy Lucas (C) - 0-0, 2 additional plate appearances - I will withhold comment on this outing as I have no idea what the "additional plate appearances" were other than they were not hits, walks, errors, or sacrifice flies.

•Giovanny Urshela (3B) - 0-2 - Urshela remains cold at the plate in the fall, hitting only .167 (1-for-6) in instructs. He is in Goodyear strictly to continue to work on his offense and the numbers probably won't tell the whole story.

•James Roberts (3B) - 0-2 - Roberts remains uneven, but as with all of these guys the sample size is extremely small. Instructs is all about the additional work and instruction and helping some of these guys get used to the spring training environment.

•Nelson Rodriguez (1B) - 1-4, 1 R, 2 K - While Rodriguez's batting average actually fell with this outing, the consistency seems to be continuing to develop.

•Eric Haase (DH) - 1-4, 1 R, 1 3B, 2 RBI - Haase performed well in his first significant playing time of instructs. As Wolters and Lowery depart for the AFL, he should get much more playing time.

•D'Vone McClure (DH) - 0-4, 1 R, 2 K - Again, the raw talent is there, it's just a matter of him being able to tap into it consistently.

•Claudio Bautista (2B) - 1-2, 1 R - Claudio picks up his first hit and first run of the fall; a significant improvement from his rough FIL debut on Wednesday.

•Ordomar Valdez (2B) - 0-1 - He only made it to the plate one time, but the track record overall this fall and especially the summer is solid.

•Will Roberts (SP) - 1.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R (both earned), 1 K - Not really the way he wanted to open his instructs season. This is an outing to get him ready for his AFL debut next week.

•Caleb Hamrick (RP) - 2.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R (earned), 2 K - A solid outing to go along with an earlier solid outing in instructs. He's made some great strides this season.

•Jacob Lee (RP) - 1.2 IP, 2 R (1 earned), 2 BB, 2 K - Lee seems to be settling into a "good outing, bad outing" pattern, which happens for pitchers coming off injury, but right now the fact that he is pitching is a good sign.

•Kieran Lovegrove (RP) - 1.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R (both earned), 1 BB - Lovegrove continues to have problems with his performance and the numbers just are not there, but the Indians still believe in him and that things will eventually click.

•Elvis Araujo (RP) - 1.2 IP, perfect, 5 K - I don't care at what level you do it or how much the game "counts", striking out all five batters you face is still impressive. Oh, and having a 9-for-12 first-pitch strike rate on the fall season is not exactly shabby, either.

•Carlos Melo (RP) - 0.1 IP, perfect, 1 K - Melo continues to impress in limited mound time this fall.

BA keeps me offguard this year with their top 20 lists. I missed the Midwest League yesterday. No Captains made the Top 20 which is no surprise. I would have asked if Paulino's second half puts him back on track as a solid prospect; and what they think of Dylan Baker who had a solid unspectactular season. No one asked anything about Lake County.

Today they post the NYPL list.

No Lugo, No Rodriguez on the NYPL list. None of the college draftees who pitched well but probably have low ceilings. Dice Kaim, or whatever, didn't pitch enough to qualify. The only one of ours on the list isn't ours anymore:

19. Juan Herrera, ss, Mahoning Valley (Indians) / State College (Cardinals)

Age: 20. B-T: R-R. Ht.: 5-11. Wt.: 165. Signed: Dominican Republic, 2010 (Indians).

Herrera played 39 games for Mahoning Valley this summer before the Indians dealt him to the Cardinals for lefty Marc Rzepczynski at the trade deadline. He played four games for State College before being promoted to low Class A Peoria. He stood out as one of the best pure shortstop prospects in the league this summer.

“I think he has a shot to play in the big leagues. There are not many guys like him,” Mahoning Valley manager Ted Kubiak said. “His personality and work ethic couldn’t be any better—he was always smiling. But he used to get pissed off at guys when they weren’t doing things correctly. You don’t see that too often.”

Herrera is just an average runner, but his range at short plays up because of his instincts, and he is a very intelligent baserunner. He has sure hands and good body control, helping him excel at charging slow rollers and throwing on the run. His average to slightly above-average arm is adequate for shortstop, though he sometimes struggles on plays deep in the hole.

Herrera also has a good feel for his barrel and enough bat speed to handle quality fastballs with aplomb. His swing can get wild at times, but he takes his share of walks and can handle situational-hitting tasks. He doesn’t figure to ever hit for power, but he could be an average hitter with some doubles pop.

AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS AVG OBP SLG
164 21 42 9 1 1 11 18 31 2 1 .256 .349 .341

Scouting the Indians 2013 Draft: Part 4

Dace Kime (Photo: Lianna Holub)

By Tony Lastoria

October 1, 2013

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Over the course of the past few weeks I have been posting post-draft pieces like this on all of the players that the Indians drafted and signed from the 2013 Draft.

The Indians signed 24 players in total and also signed two undrafted free agents, and I have comments on each and every player from Indians Amateur Scouting Director Brad Grant. In this piece and in the final piece sometime later this week or next week, I will once again include comments from Grant and a quick summary on each player as well as any stats from the 2013 season.

Rather than just roll down the list of players in order of when they were picked, I have posted these with players at random and mixed the higher and lower profile prospects together. Five players are featured in each article for a total of five post-draft capsules.

Here are the pieces that have posted so far:

Part 1: Clint Frazier, Thomas Pannone, Silento Sayles, Matt Whitehouse, Shane Rowland
Part 2: Kyle Crockett, James Roberts, Grant Fink, Cortland Cox, Mike Giuffre
Part 3: Casey Shane, Adam Plutko, Sicnarf Loopstok, Cole Sulser, Justin Garcia

Dace Kime (Right-handed Pitcher): 3rd round, University of Louisville

2013 stats: 9 GS, 0-2, 2.92 ERA, 24.2 IP, 19 H, 9 R (8 ER), 0 HR, 16 BB, 26 K, .224 BAA

Quick Summary: Kime is a local product out of Defiance, Ohio and finished his junior season at Louisville before signing with the Indians. He was formally drafted out of high school in the 8th round of the 2010 Draft by the Pirates and he really came on this past season at Louisville. He has a live 92-95 MPH fastball and mixes in a curveball and occasional changeup. What really helped him this season was the addition of a cutter-slider which really played up his repertoire. His offspeed stuff is promising and he has the frame to start, and the Indians should initially develop him as a starter.

Brad Grant: “With him the more we looked at him and the more time we spent with him, we truly believe he has a chance to be a starter. At Louisville I think he was put into the closer role out of need. They knew he was one of their best arms and they knew he could start, but they have a philosophy and a way of doing things where they do want one of their best arms in the back of the bullpen. He has a three pitch mix with a fastball, solid average breaking ball and changeup, the ability to attack the zone and throw strikes, and he has size and has some ability to throw a lot of innings, so we see the upside to be a starter. As we make some adjustments delivery-wise with him to put him into a good position as a starter, I think he is going to have a few bumps in the road as he goes through it but there is some upside there. The changes to the delivery are an important thing to his long term success and durability as a starter.”

Trevor Frank (Right-handed Pitcher): 8th round, UC-Riverside (CA)

2013 stats: 20 G, 1-5, 2.83 ERA, 35.0 IP, 31 H, 16 R (11 ER), 1 HR, 2 BB, 39 K, .233 BAA

Quick Summary: The Indians selected Frank astheir first college senior selection in the draft, which allowed them to sign him for underslot so they would ave extra money for their higher upside prep players they drafted in the top ten rounds. He is undersized and throws in the low 90's. He has proven to be a strike thrower and is a player who has been a steady backend guy. The upside is that he is used to pressure since he went to one of the powerhouse high schools in Georgia before becoming a backend pen guy in college and he could end up a solid middle relief option in the big leagues.

Brad Grant: “With these bullpen arms our scouts have done a very good job of finding them and identifying them. This was a guy that was on our radar for a while from the beginning of spring. We saw him early and he is a guy who will be at 92-93 MPH and get up to 94-95 at times and throws a ton of strikes. He is a lot like Kyle Crockett from the right side in that I think he walked one guy in 35 innings this year. He throws a lot of strikes, keeps the ball down in the zone, has good life to it, and has a good slider too. He is a guy that went out and had some success right away and we will see where it takes him.”

Paul Hendrix (Shortstop): 18th round, TCU

2013 stats: 52 G, .258 AVG, 9 R, 10 2B, 2 BB, 0 HR, 13 RBI, 20 BB, 59 K, 1 SB, .663 OPS

Quick Summary: The Indians actually drafted Hendrix last year out of junior college as he was a 32nd round pick, so he jumped up 14 rounds this year. He had a solid year for TCU playing shortstop and putting up an .800 OPS. He adjusted to the jump in levels and showed a little bit of pop as well. His best attributes are his versatility and average tools with his arm and running ability, so he could end up a solid utility-infielder type. As a fun note the last player the Indians drafted in back to back years is current Indian Cody Allen.

Brad Grant: “He is another guy that has some versatility to move around the infield a little bit. We took him the year before and he ended up going to TCU. He is a guy that has solid average arm strength, solid average run, average defense, and some versatility to move around the infield and shows some offensive ability as well.”

Kerry Doane (Right-handed Pitcher): 24th round, East Tennessee State

2013 stats: 9 G, 1-0, 4.15 ERA, 17.1 IP, 19 H, 8 R/ER, 2 HR, 2 BB, 19 K, .264 BAA

Quick Summary: He is another guy who dominated for his college team. He was a shortstop until last year when he was moved to the mound and was near unhittable ever since. He sits in the low 90's and this past season in college gained some notoriety for pitching 11 complete games. He was 13-2 with 2.14 ERA, 77 strikeouts and a better than 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio.

Brad Grant: “He is a guy that again is a smaller right-handed pitcher and 22 years old, but he was a middle infielder most of his college career and then came in and closed. His senior year was his first full time just concentrating on pitching. He is a guy with four pitches who has a little bit of upside to him still. He can throw 87-92 MPH, he has a good feel for his curveball, has a potential average slider and average changeup. He has four pitches to work with and throws a lot of strikes. Unfortunately, he got shut down at the end of the year with a back strain and missed some innings, but there may be something there in the future.”

Jordan Milbrath (Right-handed Pitcher): 35th round, Augustana College (SD)

2013 stats: 14 G, 1-2, 6.10 ERA, 20.2 IP, 15 H, 16 R (14 ER), 0 HR, 17 BB, 17 K, .195 BAA

Quick Summary: Milbrath is an intriguing arm. First off he is huge at 6'6". Second, really did not pitch since high school until this past spring. He is big and raw, and while he sits in the low 90's the Indians bet there is more velocity in that arm. The issue with Milbrath is that he is already 22 years old, so he is at an advanced age where it is hard to be patient with him and develop him as a starter. Thanks to his size and the years he missed he is an interesting player development project that will be interesting to follow going forward.

Brad Grant: “No question, he is another guy who has some upside to him and his development plan for him is to continue to add some strength. He has arm strength. His fastball over the course of the spring we saw it up to 95 MPH. He pitches at 92 MPH. He is another guy with arm strength with good life to the fastball with the ability to locate it. He has a developing curveball with a chance to be average in the future and is a guy with a feel for a changeup. He is a guy we feel has a chance to start. He is a guy with a good three pitch mix with solid secondary that goes along with it and some arm strength. There is some upside to a guy from up north where sometimes you have success with these guys.”

Follow Tony and the Indians Prospect Insider on Twitter @TonyIBI. Also, his new book the 2013 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider which profiles the Indians' Top 100 Prospects and more is available for sale.