Paul Hendrix (Photo: IBI)
Minor Happenings: Who is this Hendrix guy?
By Tony Lastoria
May 16, 2014
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Minor Happenings" is a bi-weekly column which recaps the important developments and news in the Indians farm system. Information in this report is compiled from my own research and through discussions with industry personnel inside and outside the Cleveland Indians organization. Unless otherwise noted, the intellectual property contained in this report is owned by IndiansBaseballInsider.com LLC, and any unauthorized reproduction of the information is prohibited.
In this week’s edition of Minor Happenings, I take a look at the impressive showing this month from Low-A Lake County infielder Paul Hendrix and provide some insight and information as to what kind of prospect he is, where his strengths lie, and whether he can keep up his torrid play. I also take a look at Low-A Lake County right-handed pitcher Adam Plutko who is having an exceptional pro debut, provide a ton of injury updates with some news of some prospects who could be on the move today, and a lot of information on players such as Justin Sellers, Tyler Sturdevant, Torsten Boss, Eric Haase and others!
Also, in case you missed it, be sure to check out this week’s edition of “IBI on Site” as Hayden Grove was in Columbus for his most recent episode!
Onto the Happenings…
I
BI Minor League Hitter of the Week
(for games from May 8th through May 14th)
Paul Hendrix (Shortstop, Lake County)
.480 AVG (12-25), 7 R, 5 2B, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 3 BB, 6 K, 0 SB, 1.456 OPS
After holding reign to Player of the Week honors for four straight weeks to start the season, Triple-A Columbus finally gave way to another player this week. In fact, they had a pretty poor showing offensively where not even one player was an honorable mention this week. This week the award goes to Low-A Lake County infielder Paul Hendrix.
Hendrix, 22, is having an exceptional showing from a performance perspective at Lake County. In 29 games he is hitting .320 with 5 HR, 15 RBI and .995 OPS along with an 18-30 walk to strikeout ratio. After a so-so April where he received limited playing time hitting .244 with 1 HR, 4 RBI and .793 OPS in 15 games, he replaced Dorssys Paulino as the everyday shortstop on May 1st and has been a regular in the lineup and is hitting .382 with 4 HR, 11 RBI and 1.162 OPS in the 14 games since. Talk about taking advantage of an opportunity.
The performance is great to see and something that will be interesting to follow to see if Hendrix can maintain it over a longer duration than just two-three weeks. He’s a lower end prospect that the scouting community generally views as organizational depth – which means he really is not a prospect right now and is more of a depth guy who fills in where needed. That’s not a knock on him as generally 15 or so spots on every 25-man minor league roster are viewed as such. Only a handful of players in a system are considered prospects while a great majority of the others are essentially just organizational types used to round out rosters.
What will be important is for Hendrix to continue to perform at an above average level. Stats in the minor leagues are not the be-all-end-all they are in the big leagues, but they can help an organizational guy move into the periphery as a prospect. He is going to need to continue to overachieve and play above his scouting report to be taken more seriously as a prospect. Some that are new to the minor league game and how it works don’t realize that these kind of performances do crop up with college-level players at Low-A. We saw it with Tyler Cannon in 2011 when he hit .366 with a 1.069 OPS in 30 games at Lake County and then never really did anything else after a promotion.
To be fair, we also saw the undrafted Brian Barton impress at Lake County and hit .414 with a 1.130 OPS in 35 games in 2005 before a push to High-A Kinston and much more success after that. Barton’s story was unique and there is a reason he went undrafted, but even still, he came in as a non-prospect and quickly became a prospect by overachieving with his performance and making some significant strides with his development. That’s the question with Hendrix. Will he be just another Cannon-type player or could the Indians have struck a bit of luck and unearthed another Barton-type player? The odds are that Hendrix is more of a Cannon-type but time will tell and this is what makes following prospects so fun because there are always great stories in a system beyond the Francisco Lindor’s and Clint Frazier’s of the world.
I actually like the approach that Hendrix shows at the plate as he is a confident hitter with some bat to ball ability and is not afraid to get deep into a count. His defense is average at best by Major League standards, but what makes him so valuable defensively is his versatility as he can play anywhere in the infield and even some outfield if needed. That’s an extremely valuable skillset to have as it will help you stick around for some time even if you don’t perform. That ultimately may be best where he projects, not as an everyday player, but more as a utility type.
The beauty of all this is that Hendrix is performing so it will be interesting to see where he goes from here both offensively and defensively. It will also be interesting to see that if his performance continues how quickly the Indians push him up to High-A Carolina. There really is not an everyday position in the infield open there at the moment, so he could be at Lake County for some time – if not all season – regardless of whether or not he continues to perform at an exceptional level going forward.
Honorable Mentions:
Joe Wendle (2B, AKR): .455 AVG (10-22), 3 R, 5 2B, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 2 BB, 1 K, 1 SB, 1.298 OPS
Ronny Rodriguez (INF, AKR): .348 AVG (8-23), 6 R, 4 2B, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 0 BB, 5 K, 2 SB, 1.158 OPS
Tyler Naquin (OF, AKR): .360 AVG (9-25), 8 R, 2 2B, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 2 BB, 4 K, 2 SB, .953 OPS
Francisco Lindor (SS, AKR): .346 AVG (9-26), 5 R, 3 2B, 1 HR, 8 RBI, 1 BB, 3 K, 0 SB, .947 OPS
Jordan Smith (OF, AKR): .385 AVG (10-26), 4 R, 3 2B, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 5 K, 0 SB, .893 OPS
Tony Wolters (C, AKR): .360 AVG (9-25), 5 R, 1 2B, 0 HR, 3 RBI, 4 BB, 2 K, 0 SB, .867 OPS
Anthony Gallas (OF, CAR): .444 AVG (12-27), 4 R, 6 2B, 1 HR, 8 RBI, 5 BB, 2 K, 0 SB, 1.309 OPS
Torsten Boss (2B, CAR): .375 AVG (6-16), 3 R, 3 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 3 BB, 3 K, 0 SB, 1.224 OPS
Erik Gonzalez (SS, CAR): .353 AVG (12-34), 6 R, 1 2B, 1 3B, 0 HR, 5 RBI, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 SB, .813 OPS
Eric Haase (C, LC): .294 AVG (5-17), 2 R, 0 2B, 2 3B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 2 BB, 5 K, 0 SB, 1.074 OPS
Grant Fink (INF, LC): .222 AVG (5-18), 5 R, 1 2B, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 5 BB, 6 K, 0 SB, 1.002 OPS
Previous Winners:
05/01/14 to 05/07/14 – Matt Carson (OF, Columbus)
04/24/14 to 04/30/14 – Roberto Perez (C, Columbus)
04/17/14 to 04/23/14 – Jose Ramirez (2B, Columbus)
04/03/14 to 04/16/14 - Jesus Aguilar (1B, Columbus)
IBI Minor League Pitcher of the Week
(for games from May 6th through May 12th)
Adam Plutko (Right-handed pitcher, Lake County)
1 GS, 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 HR, 0 BB, 13 K, .115 BAA
The Indians continue to get several good starting pitching and relief pitching performances up and down the system. This may be the most encouraging development this season is how well some of their starting pitching prospects are performing and how suddenly they are starting to accrue some legit starting pitching depth in the upper levels of the system and some legit prospects in the lower levels.
One of those prospects who is legitimizing himself in the lower levels is Low-A Lake County right-handed pitcher Adam Plutko. He had about as memorable a performance as one can have on May 8th when he completely dominated Bowling Green throwing 8.0 shutout innings and allowed just three hits, no walks and piled up an astonishing 13 strikeouts. I can’t remember a more recent dominant performance by an Indians minor league pitcher over the past few years, especially in the lower levels. He unfortunately followed up that performance with a subpar outing on Wednesday when he only went 4.0 innings and allowed seven runs on 11 hits; however, his overall numbers are outstanding as even though he has a 4.58 ERA he has an exceptional 11.7 K/9, 2.3 BB/9, 5.1 K/BB and 1.84 FIP.
Plutko’s performance thus far has been impressive and he is showing his polish and why he was such a big time pitcher in college. Forget the ERA, that can be deceiving, especially when a pitcher’s ERA is often reliant upon so many factors out of his control. You obviously would prefer it to be a lot lower, but the most encouraging thing is his strikeout and walk rate, the solid hit rate and his ability to limit the long ball as he has yet to yield a homer this season.
The key to Plutko’s success has been his ability to establish his fastball early and work the rest of his arsenal off of it. When you can not only throw your fastball consistently for strikes but also have confidence in it, then it just makes the rest of your arsenal so much more effective even if the velocity is only in the low 90s. He is a just a very polished pitcher who knows how to pitch, has a ton of intelligence on the mound and can throw any of his four pitches in any count for a strike. He is so polished that we just need to sit back and see how he performs as he moves up the minor league ladder. For most players it is about development first and performance second, but he kind of is what he is and should be a quick mover, so it really just comes down to seeing how he pitches from here on out. I’d imagine he gets a promotion to High-A Carolina rather soon to continue to challenge him (maybe this weekend).
Honorable Mentions:
T.J. House (LHP, COL): 1 GS, 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 HR, 2 BB, 6 K, .100 BAA
Trevor Bauer (RHP, COL): 1 GS, 1-0, 1.17 ERA, 7.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R/ER, 0 HR, 2 BB, 9 K, .111 BAA
Kyle Davies (RHP, COL): 2 GS, 1-1, 2.08 ERA, 13.0 IP, 8 H, 6 R (3 ER), 0 HR, 2 BB, 4 K, .178 BAA
Travis Banwart (RHP, COL): 2 GS, 1-0, 2.25 ERA, 12.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R/ER, 2 HR, 2 BB, 10 K, .186 BAA
Joseph Colon (RHP, AKR): 1 GS, 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BR, 3 BB, 2 K, .056 BAA
Toru Murata (RHP, AKR): 2 G, 1-0, 1.13 ERA, 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R/ER, 0 HR, 2 BB, 3 K, .207 BAA
Ryan Merritt (LHP, CAR): 2 GS, 1-0, 1.98 ERA, 13.2 IP, 13 H, 5 R (3 ER), 0 HR, 0 BB, 11 K, .241 BAA
Jordan Milbrath (RHP, LC): 1 GS, 0-1, 0.00 ERA, 6.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R (0 ER), 0 HR, 2 BB, 3 K, .238 BAA
Mitch Brown (RHP, LC): 1 GS, 0-0, 1.59 ERA, 5.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R/ER, 1 HR, 4 BB, 3 K, .190 BAA
Previous Winners:
04/29/14 to 05/05/14 - Robbie Aviles (RHP, Lake County)
04/22/14 to 04/28/14 - Jordan Milbrath (RHP, Lake County)
04/10/14 to 04/21/14 - Ryan Merritt (LHP, Carolina)
04/03/14 to 04/14/14 - Duke von Schamann (RHP, Akron)
Infirmary Report
Here is an update on some of the walking wounded in the organization. I have heard that the Indians have made some moves today so I would expect some movement at several levels being announced later today.
Triple-A Columbus right-handed pitcher
Bryan Price is still working through his rehab from a right shoulder injury sustained late in spring training. The Indians are still hesitant to provide any definitive return date but I am hearing a callup is imminent and I would not be surprised if he is activated today.
Triple-A Columbus catcher
Roberto Perez came up lame in his game on Monday and had to be removed because of a pulled left hamstring. He is out for at least a week and maybe a lot more depending on how his hamstring heals.
Double-A Akron catcher
Jake Lowery continue to rehab from an orbital fracture to his right eye. Again, there is no defined return date but he is working his way back. Every player heals differently from injuries, but this is one that will sideline him at least a month, so he is right about at the end of that time period and could be close to a return so long as there are no setbacks.
High-A Carolina catcher
Alex Monsalve was placed on the disabled list this week with a lower back strain. The Indians are monitoring him to determine how his week of rest goes and will re-assess him after it to determine if he comes back right away or needs a more significant amount of time off.
Low-A Lake County left-handed pitcher
Kenny Mathews was placed on the disabled list earlier this week with a left forearm strain. That’s not a good injury and one which typically requires a six week shutdown so we may not be seeing him return anytime soon. The Indians are still in the evaluation process with him.
Random Notes
Triple-A Columbus shortstop Justin Sellers has really underwhelmed in his short time in the organization. In 33 games with Triple-A Columbus he is hitting .222 with 0 HR, 11 RBI and .583 OPS, and has a 14-20 walk to strikeout ratio. The Indians picked him up in early March in a trade with the Dodgers for cash to serve as utility infield depth for the big league team, but mostly to be the main everyday shortstop option at Triple-A Columbus since they really did not have anyone suited for that role at least at the outset of the season. He’s pretty much performed as expected as a guy who gives a lot of effort, plays sound defense, has some versatility to move all over the diamond, but has a very suspect bat. He’s not really much of an option to use in Cleveland except as a very short term fill in as he should not be in games with the limitations his bat brings. His standing is not very firm as Francisco Lindor is expected to be up in Columbus by mid-season and Sellers is likely one of two guys on the 40-man bubble when the Indians need to remove a player in order to add someone else. His future could be short in the organization and if he sticks with the team all season will probably be removed from the 40-man roster in the offseason.
Double-A Akron right-handed pitcher Tyler Sturdevant is having a nice comeback season. In 13 appearances he is 1-1 with a 1.59 ERA, and in 17.0 innings has allowed 12 hits, 1 homer, 5 walks and has 16 strikeouts. This is after missing half of 2012 and all of the 2013 season because of arm issues, and offseason shoulder surgery before the 2013 season appears to have fixed the issue as he came back late last season and did not pitch with an affiliate but made a few appearances in the Arizona Fall League and in winter ball. He has looked strong and the life to his fastball has returned and his cutter is still a pretty consistent and good weapon for him. He no longer looks like a pitcher who is tentative and worried about reinjuring himself, he instead looks confident, his stuff for the most part has been sharp and his command is back. He’s been up to 94-95 MPH with his fastball, still a few ticks below what he was topping out at near the end of the 2011 season, but much better than the 88-92 MPH he was showing in the Arizona Fall League this past offseason. His slurvy slider is a pitch that has been inconsistent for him over the years but is showing some improvement as it has more depth and he is throwing it for more strikes. He is 28-years old and has a long injury history, but with his fastball-cutter combination he is still an interesting guy – particularly if the velocity continues to creep back up to 2011 levels.
may finally be starting to settle in with his new organization after being acquired in a trade with the Orioles for Preston Guilmet last month. In 19 games with Carolina he is now hitting .194 with 2 HR, 5 RBI and .638 OPS along with a 7-13 walk to strikeout ratio. Those are some poor numbers, but are much improved from what they were after the first few weeks in the organization. In his first 11 games he was just 3-for-42 (.071) at the plate but in the eight games since is 10-for-25 (.400) and currently has an 8-game hitting streak. He was a senior signing selected in the 8th round of the 2012 Draft out of Michigan State, and the Indians believe there may still potentially be some upside to him. He does not really have any real tool that stands out and is more of a guy who is just average across the board, but he is viewed more as an offensive player with the potential to have average power and a solid approach where he is patient to draw a decent amount of walks and also wait for a pitch he can drive. The Indians have had him primarily play at second base as they believe that is the position he profiles best at, but they have also played him a little in right field and may also soon play him at third base in order to continue to try and develop his ability to handle those positions and provide some positional flexibility with him going forward.
Low-A Lake County catcher Eric Haase has had a strange season from a numbers perspective. In 28 games this season he is hitting .231 with 7 HR, 13 RBI and .858 OPS along with a 15-31 walk to strikeout ratio. From a batting average standpoint, his .231 mark is disappointing especially considering he is repeating at Lake County; however, his .249 BABIP suggest that he’s been unlucky and when you consider how hard he is hitting the ball with a .305 isolated power you have to believe as some hits fall in that his average will creep back up to around the .250 it was last season or even a little higher. What is most encouraging is of his 24 hits an astonishing 15 of them have gone for extra bases. That’s a good sign and his walk rate has jumped from 9.5% last year to 11.7% this season and his strikeout rate has declined from 27.9% last season to 24.2% this season. So while that batting average may not be pretty there is so much more going on with him that show he is having a rather encouraging season and showing some improvement with his approach and ability to hit for power. It is a testament to how hard he works and the motivation he has to make it to the big leagues. His physical attributes really stand out and he is showing the improvement with the bat to go along with the already established good job he does behind the plate as a leader and game-caller.
Follow Tony and the Indians Baseball Insider on Twitter @TonyIBI. Also, his new book the 2014 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider which profiles the Indians' Top 100 Prospects and more is available for sale.
