Cleveland Sports Forum

It was snowing in Vermont yesterday. Can't wait for Spring.

Akron is the deadzone in our farm system this year. Opening day lineup included only two players making his AA debut: 3rd baseman Yandy Diaz and insginficant 2B Todd Hankins and only two among our top 30 prospects: SS Erik Gonzalez and C Tony Wolters.

Gonzalez debuted with a pair of doubles and 4 rbi; Walter 3 singles and 2 rbi, Diaz two singles and one rbi, 3 hits for Hankinss and a steal.

Enough veterans on hand to win games but as a prospect factory it's irrelevant until promotions come from Lynchburg

Meanwhile the team to watch is Lynchburg most of whose players are new to the Carolina League: Papi, Frazier, Zimmer, Nellie Rodriguez the top 4 in the opening day order as well as 3B Paul Hendrix who homered and 19 year old SS Ivan Castillo. Papi seemed like a strangle leadoff hitter as he has no speed but he drew 3 walks in the opener. Frazier singled twice, Zimmer singled and walked twice, Rodriguez doubled in two runs, Hendrix homered.

Very strange deja vu for the opening day starter Dylan Baker: he pitched opening day for the Carolina Mudcats in 2014, pitched no hit ball and got hurt heading to the mound for his second appearance of the season, and was out much of the rest of the season. So yesterday he did pretty much the same thing: 5 no hit innings with 1 walk and 4 K. Let's hope he can make it safely to the mound next week.

second-oldest player in our entire system [behind Atchison]s, Bruce Chen with 6 shutout innigns for Columbus. Jeff Manship pitches like he did in the spring: 2 scoreless innings, 5 K. At bat: James Ramsey with two singles and a steal. Lindor single and rbi. Tyler Holt 2 hits. Michael Martinez homered.

No one in this lineup was making a AAA debut. [Naquin is on the DL, as is Urshela.] Which tells you that the top of the farm system is very thin outside of super shortstops. The bottom of the system has most of the talent.

Lake County opens tonight.

The Daily BA Prospects reports resume, listing lines for those who were ranked among the teams' top 30 prospects this winter. Roberto Perez still qualifies as a rookie, at least by their definition, so he's on these reports. No other Indians' prospects have graduated to the majors this year, yet.

CLE AA Gonzalez, Erik SS 4 2 2 4 .500 2 2B (2), BB (1)
CLE AA Wolters, Tony C 5 1 3 2 .600
CLE AAA Aguilar, Jesus 1B 4 0 1 0 .250
CLE AAA Lindor, Francisco SS 4 1 1 1 .250 3B (1)
CLE AAA Moncrief, Carlos RF 3 0 0 0 .000 BB (1)
CLE AAA Ramsey, James CF 4 0 2 1 .500 SB (1)
CLE HiA Frazier, Clint RF 5 1 2 0 .400
CLE HiA Papi, Mike LF 2 1 0 0 .000 3 BB (3)
CLE HiA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 5 1 1 2 .200 2B (1)
CLE HiA Zimmer, Bradley CF 3 2 1 0 .333 2 BB (2)
CLE MAJ Perez, Roberto C 4 1 2 2 .500 HR (1)

We have so few pitchers among our top 30 list, that that half of the daily report will always be much shorter. And as a good example, opening day NONE of our pitching was by rated prospects. [Although Dylan Baker perhaps should be on the list.]

Ages of opening day lineups for our clubs:
c,1b,2b,ss,3b,lf,cf,rf,dh

AAA: 31-24-32-21-31-26-25-26-27 avg age: 27
AA: 22-24-24-23-23-25-24-27-24 avg age: 24
Hi A: 22-20-23-19-23-22-20-22-22 avg age: 21.5

Baseball Reference reports avg age for International League opening day lineups is 26.7; Eastern League is 24.7; for Carolina League is 22.4; for Midwest League. So we're a bit young on average at each level but especially in Lynchburg.

3 walks for Papi, 2 for Zimmer.

I absolutely love youngsters with patience and good eye.

those stats certainly did stand out.

Not to mention Bradley & Allen, who I love too.

I don't think I've mentioned this, Civ. But I loved our draft last year.

Allen had more walks than K's last year. I really like his potential at the top of the order.

Papi and Zimmer both K'd more than they walked last year, but it was close enough for me to be happy.

I think this is one of the most important things to look at with minor league hitters.

Someone like Frazier for example, K'd 3 times more than he walked. I have no hopes for him at all.

Great looking draft! There are so many impressive players that even though we know they all won't pan out, we should wind up with a good final tally based on the numbers of prospects.

And it's fair to add outstanding SS/3B Yu Chiang Chang who was an international signee and is jumping up to Lake County along with Allen and Bradley and Mejia.

Walk Watch:

Lindor drew 2 and singled.
Holt drew 3 and doubled.
None for Ramsey but he singled and homered.
Aguillar singled and doubled.
Moncrief took a walk singled and didn't fan.
Salazar walked no one in his 6 shutout innings, fanned 7, allowed 4 hits.
Armstrong no walks in 1, Lee walked 1 in his 1 inning.

Cody Anderson looked much better in his return to Akron. 6 1/3 innings, 1 run on 3 hits, 1 walk 3 K.
Akron managed only 2 hits and took 2 walks. Erik Gonzalez and Tony Wolters and Yandy Diaz were all hitless/walkless.

For Lake County:
Greg Allen walked, singled, doubled and stole a base.
Yu-Cheng Chang did all the same except the steal.
Bobbie Bradley singled and walked.
Francisco Mejia walked.
[K's for those 4 prospects respectively: 1, 2, 1, 0]
On the mound, like Anderson, Kime returns to last year's level. Did OK; 5 innings, 1 walk 3 runs 1 earned, 5 K

Lynchburg rained out.

Salazar didn't walk anybody either.

Bobby Bradley and the Lake County boys getting ready for a double header today.