Results tagged ‘ Cleveland Indians ’
OMG: Cleveland Indians
I know I owe you a few OMGs, but please forgive me. I had to fly down to Florida today for Spring Training coverage and had much to do on the home front to get ready. So I’ll play catch-up the next few days, I promise.
So, we’ll start the catch-up with the Indians. Here’s their Top 10 prospects and their OMG (One More Guy):
Nick Hagadone, LHP: The Red Sox’s sandwich pick from the 2007 Draft, Hagadone, of 
course, came over to the Indians in the Victor Martinez trade at the deadline back in 2009. He had missed nearly all of 2008 thanks to Tommy John surgery and 2009 was really just the bounce-back year.
In 2010, his first full season with the Indians, he began with Class A Advanced Kinston. After 10 starts and a 2.39 ERA (to go along with a .206 batting average against), he moved up to Double-A Akron. He made seven starts (5.19 ERA), then spent the rest of the year in the Aeros’ bullpen (3.68 ERA in 12 games).
Hagadone still has a pretty good arm, though he’s not throwing as hard as he was before the elbow surgery. While he did strike out 9.4 per nine innings in 2010, he also walked 6.6. Even if the velocity bounces back to the upper 90s consistently and his slider is always there for him, he’ll need to seriously harness his command. Many think he’s a reliever when all is said and done and they might be right. His 85 2/3 IP last year were a career high, so perhaps the Indians’ decision to let him continue starting in 2011 is as much about getting him needed innings as it is about developing him as a future part of a rotation. This could be the year we find out if a short relief role is really the way to go for him.
Indians sign 4th rounder Kyle Blair
The Cleveland Indians have signed their fourth-round pick,
right-handed pitcher Kyle Blair, MLB.com has learned. The University of San
Diego standout was the No. 120 pick overall of the Draft and it took an
over-slot deal to get it done.
Blair will get $580,000 to sign. The Indians have yet to sign first-rounder
Drew Pomeranz, the lefty out of Ole Miss (No. 5 overall), outfielder LeVon Washington, their 2nd-round
pick and high school shortstop Tony Wolters, their third-round selection.
There was some buzz that a Wolters deal was close to being done.
In case you were curious, you can take a look at the Draft Report we had on Blair before the Draft in June: Kyle Blair, RHP, University of San Diego
More Brewers-Indians trade info
Kevin C. did a bang up job breaking down the young players involved in the A’s-Cubs trade yesterday. Check out his blog as well: Minor Leagues, Major Thoughts. Great insight from there, too.
I figured Matt LaPorta’s gotten enough attention (though you can watch my interview with him in Akron last night on the MiLB.com homepage). What about a guy like Robert Bryson, the low-A RHP included in the deal? How about some love for him?
I’m no stats geek (though I like them to an extent), but I was looking at his performance since he began his pro career and something stuck out: He seemed to have a lot of strikeouts. Seventy in 54 IP for Helena last summer in the Pioneer League, then 73 more in 55 IP in West Virginia prior to the trade. If you’re scoring at home, that’s 143 K’s in 109 IP.
Boy, I thought, that seems like a pretty good rate. I wonder, I pondered aloud (that was strange because I was working in a coffee shop and people turned and stared. But I digress…), where that ranks among Minor League pitchers over the same time frame. So like I did with the LaPorta power numbers, I asked my good friends in the MLBAM stats department to do some crunching for me. They came back with great abs. When I told them I meant for them to crunch the numbers, they said, “Ohhhhh,” punched themselves in the stomach and got the spreadsheet up and running. Lo and behold, this is what they found, using the strikeout per nine inning ratio and using all pitchers from June 22, 2007 (Bryson’s debut) and a minimum of 100 IP:
Santo Luis, Astros/White Sox, 12.62 K/9
Victor Garate, Astros/Dodgers, 12.03
Neftali Feliz, Rangers, 11.83
Rob Bryson, Brewers, 11.81
Jeremy Jeffers, Brewers, 11.78
I almost want to discount Luis and Garate since both are older (Luis is 24; Garate 23) and pitching in low-A ball. Not that they can’t have careers, but they’ve been around since signing in 2001 and 2002 (both by the Astros, who let them go, if that’s telling at all). Feliz is legit and is in Double-A now at age 20. Jeffress has ridiculous arm strength, but has had some off-the-field issues and it remains to be seen what he becomes. But he’s still very young. And there’s Bryson, No. 4 overall in the Minors with his K/9 rate. So while LaPorta is clearly the big fish the Indians wanted to reel in with this trade (C.C. makes for some imposing bait, no?), don’t just relegate Bryson as “some random guy” thrown in. Dude can throw and if he can figure some things out, he could be a nice arm, either in the rotation or more likely as a short reliever, down the line.
Fermer LaPorta
That’s right, it looks like we can just about offically “close the door” on the C.C. Sabathia trade. The biggest part of the trade, as you know by now is Matt LaPorta, whom the Brewers took in the first round of the 2007 draft, No. 7 overall. Young fastballer Robert Bryson and Triple-A lefty Zach Jackson are also part of the deal, with a player-to-be-named to be, well, named later on. Many feel it could be Taylor Green, who’s currently in Brevard County.
LaPorta, who should be able to stay in the outfield according to a scout I spoke with today, has put up tremendous power and run production numbers the moment he entered pro ball. Over his first 114 games, LaPorta has homered 32 times in 417 at-bats. He’s driven in 97 runs in that span, slugging .609 and posting a 1.002 OPS.
I was curious how his numbers compared to others in the same time span. So my good friends in MLBAM’s stats department (thank you, Cory Schwartz) ran them for me. Starting from July 30, 2007 — the date of LaPorta’s pro debut — and going through yesterday’s action, here’s where LaPorta stacks up in a number of offensive categories:<p>
Home Runs
Chris Davis, 35
Matt LaPorta, 32
Greg Halman, 32
Mike Hessman, 31
Dallas McPherson, 31
RBIs
Jesus Guzman, 107
John Lindsay, 103
Chris Davis, 98
Matt LaPorta, 97
Darin Holcomb, 94
Total Bases
Mat Gamel, 281
Jesus Guzman, 273
Chris Davis, 266
John Lindsay, 255
Matt LaPorta, 254
Using a minimum of 300 plate appearances, LaPorta also is eighth in SLG (.609) and 15th in OPS (1.009). So much for the tough transition to the pro game. While at first it seemed like he might be headed up to Triple-A Buffalo, he’s going to at least start his Indians career in Double-A Akron. He’s slated to be a part of the U.S. Team at the Futures Game on Sunday in Yankee Stadium and that shouldn’t change. What could is him going to Beijing for the Olympics. If the Indians want to keep him around for a possible callup, they may decide they want him stateside rather than in China for a couple of weeks.
Jonathan Mayo
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