Cleveland Sports Forum

Lake County Captains ‏@LCCaptains · 2 minutes ago
Sheffield tonight: 6 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K

Better

Jesus Aguilar (Columbus, 1B): 2-3, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 2 R - The RBI machine came through Thursday and left the evening with 40 RBI's, which is highest on the team by 16. His home run was his eighth, which also is best in Columbus. Despite those honors, Aguilar's ISO sits at just .147, significantly lower than in his .206 mark in 2014. If he wants another shot in Cleveland, Aguilar will need similar performances to Thursday's going forward.

Tyler Naquin (Columbus, CF): 1-3, 1 R, 1 BB - Another solid performance from Naquin, who now is batting .278 with an impressive 6:6 K/BB ratio through nine games in Columbus. His debut in AAA must have some wondering if he will make an appearance in Cleveland in 2015.

Lonnie Chisenhall (Columbus, 3B): 1-2, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 1 BB - Chisenhall has absolutely crushed the pitching in AAA, now hitting .414 through 8 games with the Clippers. However, if Giovanny Urshela continues to hold his own in Cleveland, the Indians' front office may turn a blind eye towards Chisenhall's performance in AAA, at least in the short term.

Michael Roth (Columbus, SP): W (6-2) 5.0 IP, 1 R/ER, 4 K, 3 BB - Roth was the only pitcher the Clippers needed in a rain-shortened game. The 25 year-old lefty's solid performance Thursday, along with an overall decent season (3.19 ERA, 48 K, 19 BB in 79 innings) may mean he is an option to take the open 5th spot in the Indians' rotation.

Justus Sheffield (Lake County, SP): W (6-1), 6 IP, 7 H, 2 R/ER, 7 K, 0 BB - A good bounce-back outing from Sheffield, who allowed seven earned runs in his last start. The only damage done to Sheffield came off a home run, and his offense gave him the support to get the win. Inconsistency is to be expected from a 19-year-old, and nights like Thursday are proof of why the Indians drafted Sheffield in the first round of the 2014 draft.

Greg Allen (Lake County, CF): 2-5, 1 R, 1 SB - On a night when Lake County scored eight runs, only two Captains recorded more than one hit, and Allen was one of them. Allen is in the middle of a hot-streak, having hit in six straight games and batting .300 over his last ten.

Bobby Bradley (Lake County, 1B): 1-4, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 R - After going hitless in his previous two games, Bradley's hit Thursday night was his 36th of the season, tied for most on the team.

Thursday games:

Michael Roth in AAA 5-3-1-1-3-4 3.19 (6-2)
Shawn Morimando in AA 7-6-2-2-2-3 2.94 (4-6)
Justus Sheffield Low A 6-7-2-2-0-7 4.72 (6-1)

Sheffield has had 3 terrible starts and 10 good-excellent ones. In the 3 stinkers: 10 IP 23 H 20 R 17 ER
In the other 10, 51 IP 48 H 18 R 15 ER 2.63
Overall in 61 innings he has walked only 17 while striking out 70

Hitters:

AAA: Aguillar single, homer, 4 rbi; Chisenhall double, walk 2 rbi; Naquin single and walk; Ramsay 2 singles
AA: nothing
High A: rained out
Low A: Greg Allen 2 hits and his 20th steal

civ ollilavad wrote: Sheffield has had 3 terrible starts and 10 good-excellent ones. In the 3 stinkers: 10 IP 23 H 20 R 17 ER
In the other 10, 51 IP 48 H 18 R 15 ER 2.63
Overall in 61 innings he has walked only 17 while striking out 70

Good stuff, Civ. Thanks for breakdown.

They say Roth may be making a play for that 5th starter spot but I dunno man. 48 K in 79 innings? He has far from great stuff. I'm afraid major leaguers will smash him.

everything I've read says he has an under 90 mph fastball. He's some brief very unsuccessful stays in the majors with the Angels:

32 1/3 Innings 40 hits 15 walks 26 strikeouts 1.70 WHIP 7.79 ERA

BA notes from Thursday games:

CLE AA Wolters, Tony C 3 0 1 0 .222
CLE AAA Aguilar, Jesus 1B 3 2 2 4 .256 HR (8)
CLE AAA Naquin, Tyler CF 3 2 1 0 .278 BB (6)
CLE AAA Ramsey, James LF 3 0 2 0 .251
CLE LoA Bradley, Bobby 1B 4 1 1 1 .264 BB (23), SB (1)
CLE LoA Paulino, Dorssys LF 5 1 1 0 .237
CLE MAJ Lindor, Francisco SS 4 1 1 0 .200
CLE MAJ Urshela, Giovanny 3B 3 0 1 1 .273

CLE LoA Sheffield, Justus 6 7 2 2 0 7 4.72 W (6-1)

Tribeinsider ‏@tribeinsider · 47 minutes ago
.@CLBClippers add RHP Tyler Sturdevant to active roster

This young man making his debut with the Scrappers today.

Brock Hartson
‏@bhartson19 First Professional Game today. Thank you Lord

Toolshed: Zimmer playing beyond tools

Indians No. 3 prospect beating expectations at plate, on basepaths

By Sam Dykstra / MiLB.com

06/19/2015 10:00 AM ET

Five-tool players are the holy grails of prospect development and, really, baseball as a whole. It's why we celebrate the career of Willie Mays, why we give Mike Trout award upon award and why we hail the promotion of top overall prospect Byron Buxton. Our idea of five-tool players are human highlight reels that can hit, hit for power, run, catch and throw.

But what if a five-tool players is just slightly above-average across the board? Has all the tools but nothing necessarily as loud as Bryce Harper's power or Alex Gordon's defense?

Enter Bradley Zimmer.

The left-handed-hitting outfielder broke out to receive first-round Draft consideration in 2013 at the University of San Francisco, hitting .320/.437/.512 with seven homers and 19 steals as a sophomore. He was able to leverage that season into a spot on the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team and held his own (.300 average, team-leading 11 steals) on a roster that included A.J. Reed, Kyle Schwarber, Michael Conforto and 2015 second-overall pick Alex Bregman. An impressive junior campaign (.368/.461/.573, seven homers, 21 steals) sealed the deal, making Zimmer a sure-fire first-round pick, coming in at No. 10 in MLB.com's pre-Draft rankings and No. 14 in Baseball America's.

The Indians grabbed the then-21-year-old with the 21st overall pick and signed him for $1.9 million, just $100,000 below the slot value for the pick. He carred his production with him to the pro ranks, batting .302/.400/.492 with six homers and 12 steals in 48 games between Class A Short Season Mahoning Valley and Class A Lake County last summer.

Following those first pro looks, the reviews on Zimmer's prospect package started to pour in during the offseason. In ranking him as the third most-promising prospect in the Indians farm system, MLB.com gave the 6-foot-4 outfielder, who played primarily in center in both college and his first Minor League season, average-to-above-average grades across the board for his hit (55), power (50), run (55), arm (60) and field (55) tools on the 20-80 scale, resulting in a slightly above-average 55 overall evaluation. That's a recipe for a solid, if unspectacular, player.

What's followed in his first full season at Class A Advanced Lynchburg has been, well, rather spectacular.

As of Thursday, Zimmer owns a .302/.401/.496 line with nine homers, three triples, 12 doubles, 26 RBIs and 26 steals in 63 games for the Hillcats. Those numbers would be good enough for a spot on any All-Star team, including either one in the Majors. Therefore, it's no surprise he'll represent the Carolina League in the California/Carolina League All-Star Game in Rancho Cucamonga, California (his home state), next Wednesday.

"He's been a really special player for us," said Lynchburg manager Mark Budzinski. "He can hit for power. He's a tall guy who covers a lot of ground in center field. He can steal bases. He's one of those kinda special guys that don't come along too often. He's really setting himself up for a great career."

That's all possible because, so far, it looks like Zimmer is outperforming the tools he possesses.

Start with the speed.

The go-to stat for this will always be stolen bases, and with 26 to his name this season, Zimmer ranks second in the Carolina League and is tied for 11th in the Minors in the category. What's more, those 26 steals have come in 30 chances, meaning opposing pitchers and catchers are having a devil of a time trying to keep the 22-year-old from advancing on the basepaths.

But we can go a little deeper than that. In the offseason we looked at Spd scores, which use not only stolen base percentages but also factors in how often players attempt a stolen base, how often they collect a triple (the extra-base hit requiring the most speed) and how often they score runs, to determine just how fast players perform on the field. Because players are also given hard grades for their run tools, we're also able to compare their production with what we'd expect, given the quality of the tool.

According to Zimmer's 55 run tool grade, he should be producing a Spd score of about 5.7 this season. Instead, because of his adeptness on the basepaths, his Spd score has actually been 8.5, third-highest among top-100 prospects behind only Boston's Manuel Margot (9.2) and Buxton (8.6). In fact, using standard deviation, that 8.5 Spd is akin to the production of a 70 runner, not a 55. That's the biggest gulf between run tool and Spd score among top-100 prospects still in the Minors.

Top Speed Scores among top-100 Prospects

NAME

Spd

RUN GRADE

Spd STD

Run STD

Difference

Manuel Margot 9.2 65 2.2 1.1 1.1
Byron Buxton 8.6 80 1.9 2.4 -0.5
Bradley Zimmer 8.5 55 1.8 0.3 1.6
Tim Anderson 8.4 70 1.8 1.6 0.2
Ozhaino Albies 8.0 70 1.6 1.6 0.0

Zimmer's skipper doesn't believe anyone will change their evaluations of the outfielder's run tool but would add that there's more to the tool than just a stopwatch.

"Yeah, I'd say slightly above-average is about right," Budzinski said. "But from a baseball standpoint, he uses that speed incredibly well. Think about football: Brian Urlacher could never run a 4.4 or anything like that, but when a ball got to a spot, he was always able to get there with the speed he had.

"For [Zimmer], he gets good jumps and gets to full speed pretty quickly. It doesn't even look like he's running hard. You can watch a ball go the track, and by the time you turn around, he's already gone first to third. With his frame, he has those long strides like a gazelle -- it's hard to teach that."

Even if that's true, Zimmer would add that he's become so efficient because he is becoming a better student of the game.

"A lot of it is just understanding counts, who's hitting at the time, how the catcher throws, how the pitchers move," he said. "There's plenty that goes into whether I go or not and when I choose to go. But now, it all comes back to overall aggressiveness and not being afraid to steal when I get the chance. That's been a big focus."

But would Zimmer disagree with his speed evaluations?

"I wouldn't really get into that," he said. "I feel like scouts or whatever watch, and they can determine what they think. I feel like I'm a good runner, and I'm trying to improve on that from there."

Moving on to power, again the stat that most easily describes the power tool is home run production. On its face, nine homers in 63 games (232 at-bats) is solid, although not necessarily eye-popping. But if we use ISO instead, the stat shines a little more light on how much better Zimmer is doing than his power tool would suggest. Again using standard deviation, Zimmer's .194 ISO is comparable to a slugger with 60 power rather than the 50 power grade he's been given.

If you'd rather keep it simple, put it this way: Among the top 31 Minor Leaguers with more than 20 steals this season, Zimmer is the only to have hit more than four homers. Again, he has nine.

"You don't see a whole lot of that combination in today's game," Budzinski said. "Today, it's more about speed and execution and the hit-and-run. We're lucky to have guys like him and [Nelly Rodriguez] who have got the ability to drive the ball consistently and drive it to any part of the park."

Zimmer, who hit seven homers in each of his last two collegiate season, credits a new approach with why he's able to make the most of his power.

"I've been a little more aggressive here," he said. "In college, we played a little more small ball. Here, it's kinda turned more into a controlled aggression. Make the most out of what you get, and that goes for every aspect -- on the bases, at the plate, defensively."

Biggest positive differences between iso, power grades for top-100 prospects

NAME

AB

H

AVG

TB

SLG

ISO

POWER GRADE

ISO STD

GRADE STD

DIFFERENCE

Brett Phillips 276 91 0.330 166 0.601 0.272 50 2.0 -0.2 2.1
Austin Hedges 71 23 0.324 37 0.521 0.197 40 0.8 -1.0 1.8
Ozhaino Albies 260 82 0.315 105 0.404 0.088 20 -1.0 -2.8 1.8
Trea Turner 236 76 0.322 111 0.470 0.148 35 0.0 -1.5 1.4
Stephen Piscotty 230 60 0.261 104 0.452 0.191 45 0.7 -0.6 1.3
Orlando Arcia 241 75 0.311 107 0.444 0.133 35 -0.3 -1.5 1.2
Domingo Santana 197 63 0.320 115 0.584 0.264 60 1.8 0.7 1.2
Bradley Zimmer 232 70 0.302 115 0.496 0.194 50 0.7 -0.2 0.9
Alen Hanson 256 73 0.285 109 0.426 0.141 40 -0.2 -1.0 0.9
Dilson Herrera 101 38 0.376 52 0.515 0.139 40 -0.2 -1.0 0.8

Speaking of his work in the field, the 2014 first-rounder has split his time between center and right field this season, something the Hillcats have done out of necessity, given 2013 first-rounder Clint Frazier's need to get time in center as well. Budzinski gave Zimmer positive marks for his work in center, though, remarking that it's even more impressive to see a 6-foot-4 player cover so much ground at one of the game's toughest defensive positions. All the same, Zimmer's 60 arm -- he has four outfield assists this season -- and stature probably lends him to a more full-time move to right in the coming seasons.

Displays of speed, power, well-rounded defense -- it's been quite a start to the first full season of Zimmer's promising career. The only caveat thus far has been that he's still just at Class A Advanced. Tougher tests await at Double-A Akron, a promotion likely to come after he get to play in next week's California/Carolina All-Star Game, which he says several California-area friends and family will witness. When the promotion does come, Zimmer's confident he can handle the biggest jump in the Minors.

"That's obviously the goal -- to move up as quickly as possible," Zimmer said. "The Indians have my and their best interests in mind, so I trust them when it comes to that stuff, but I'll definitely be ready when they tell me it's time to go."

Jason Kipnis A.L. 2nd Baseman ranks

1) WAR 4.0
1) wRC+ 159
1) wOBA .394
1) OPS .911
1) AVG .335
1) OBP .413
1) Hits 86
1) BB 31

I suppose this belongs in draft folder since he's not signed but this scouting report from last spring on Aiken is pretty impressive!

He began this outing as a two-pitch pitcher, using his vicious fastball and curveball combination before mixing in a changeup and cutter, ultimately working backwards before exiting in the midst of a no-hitter (passed ball on a strikeout) once he hit his low pitch count limit. He can get over any of his secondary offerings for quality strikes, and double down on them, then freeze hitters by running a mid-90s fastball in on their hands. This kind of aptitude and understanding of pitching is an excellent quality for anyone to have, but it makes hitting against him a daunting task.

He won't struggle against the high school hitters he is currently facing, but he could be getting out minor league hitters right now due to the aforementioned reasons. In regards to the arsenal, it consists of a potential plus-plus fastball-curveball combination, 60-grade changeup, and a cutter to mix in. All of this is coming out of the left hand of an player whom possesses a 6'4" body to dream on and a clean delivery that will allow for at least plus command in the future. To round it off, the player's shown great makeup and mound presence throughout his time in the spotlight.

post deleted

Not quite as exciting a tool as the 5 Zimmer features, but Mike Papi's 46th walk gives him the Carolina League lead. That's five more than his hit total.

Usually hitting about 7th in the order he's amassed a stunning 12 RBI in 240 plate appearances. His lack of homers has a little to do with that of course. He's hitting 196 with RISP but that's only a bit below his overall mark of 211

Scrappers start out hot, hold a 7-1 lead after 3 innings.

Starting lineup:

18 year old SS Willi Castro
22 year old DH Sicnarf Loopstock [a.k.a. Francis Kcootspool]
20 year old RF Anthony Santander [amazed he's only 20; good-- he honestly does have some projectable skills]
19 year old 1B Emmanuel Tapia [894 OPS in 2014 in Rookie league]
21 year old C Li-Jen Chu [1027 OPS in 2014 in rookie league!]
20 year old 3B Gerald Bautista [330! OPS in 2014 in rookie league]
22 year old SS Austin Fisher [487 OPS with Scrappers in 2014, he'll lose his job after Mathias arrives]
21 year old LF D'vone McClure [4th season in rookie/short season ball] Ka'ai Tom will replace him
20 year old CF Silento Sayles
19 year old RFP Casey Shane 6-4 200