Cleveland Sports Forum

didn't post Thursday's line when Brito had two multi hit homer games for Akron. Not that we need another 2B but he looks like a top notich line drive hitter, also gets plenty of walks, which Freeman does not do, neither does Giminez

Brito is a trade candidate currently. Utility in the future. Gimenez would be a lot of teams starting shortstop.

Frias is doing ok, i guess. Tonight he doubled for the Captains only hit in the second game of a double header.

Checking the stats, he leads the team in average and is in the top 5 in most offensive categories.

He has 3 homers, 2 off the team lead. Still looking for more power.

Jason Chourio is hitting .320 in Arizona. Team 5th best. He's doing quite well.

Chourio has big brother expectations but pretty solid prospect writeups himself.
The top teenage prospect we have is Angel Genoa just getting started in full season Lynchburg

There are some other young guys hitting really well in Rookie ball but who knows how they may develop

Our two Dominican teams played each other yesterday and a ridiculous 17-15 game score resulted. The two teams combined for 8 errors and 27 walks.
Remind you f your kids' Little League game?

Jose Pierala 6-3 181 17 year old OF lifted his line to 481/595/841 in 8 games; all he did yesterday was go 4-4 with a double and a homer and two walks and 5 RBI
Luis Aparicio sngle and homer and 3 rbi 375/423/542. [last year at the same league he hit 209 with an OPS of 574]
17 year old SS Yaikel Mijares had a single double and 3 steals.

It did help the hitters that our pitchers in the DR appear to be pretty terrible

Valera back to Columbus 2 singles
Noel 11th homer and single hitting 189 663 OPS Too young and inexperienced for AAA
Oscar with his 5th homer nearly matches his 7 walks. This is the first season in 4 years that his walks do exceed his HR at all

Akron's already got game 1 out of the way, with a 4-2 win.
Brito single and walk is hitting 375 with 1062 OPS. for his time in Lake County and Akron he has 36 walks 32 strikeouts 13 doubles 7 homeruns
J. Rodriguez single hitting 270 OPS 810
He's at 9 homers
A red hot June: 386/478/667
A rare [for Cleveland]RH outfielder.
A decent although not high walk total of 32 vs 63 K.

Yaikel Mijares played a couple of games with LaGuaira in the Venezuelan winter league this past winter as a defensive replacement and pinch runner.

Guardians that played in the regular season for La Guaira and Caracas in Venezuela this past winter but did not show up for the playoffs:

Brayan Rocchio (La Guaira)
AAron Bracho (La Guaira)
Micael Ramirez (La Guaira)
Yaiket Mijares (La Guaira)
Alexfri Planaz (Caracas)

It has been a slow development process for Johnathan Rodriguez since he was drafted as a 17 year old way back in 2017.
His first two seasons were in the Arizona rookie league
2019 he moved up a step to short season Mahoning Valley
2020 vacation time
2021 made to full season Lynchburg and hit 314; finished the summer at Lake County hitting 215
up to that point his career home run total was 14
2022 he returned to Lake County and through the end of May he was hitting 230 with 2 homers
And then something changed: 4 homers in June
9 homers and OPS Of 1225 in July
6 homers and OPS of 1082 in 12 games in August
15 games in Akron to end the year, he added 5 more homers, 5 doubles 2 triples SLG 690 OPS 1001

That was not enough to either get him a spot on the 40 man roster, or to get picked in the Rule 5 draft, or to make any Cleveland top 30 prospect lists

Once again a slow start this season in Akron: April 217/306/290 1 homer
Better in May 235 313 435 5 homers
On fire in June 410 493 770 5 doubles 1 triple 5 homers in 16 games. 8 walks

His strikeouts are high at 63 in 240 at bats but that's not outrageous
He's routinely listed as having best arm in the farm system.

He bats Right which is an unusual skill for a CLE OF.
After all this time is still only 23.
I have to assume he'll be in Columbus soon.
I'll try to get a comment from Baseball America on him

yesterday by the top 30 prospects

CLE MAJ #3 Bo Naylor, C 4 1 0 0 .247 BB (50),
CLE AAA #4 George Valera, OF 3 1 0 0 .267 BB (10),
CLE AAA #5 Brayan Rocchio, SS 4 0 2 1 .290 BB (30), CS (2),
CLE AA #8 Angel Martinez, SS 4 0 0 0 .227 SB (7),
CLE AA #8 Angel Martinez, SS 4 1 1 0 .227 SB (7),
CLE MAJ #10 Will Brennan, OF 5 1 2 1 .271
CLE MAJ #11 Tyler Freeman, 2B 5 1 2 1 .316 2B (10),
CLE MAJ #12 Gabriel Arias, SS 1 0 1 0 .208
CLE AA # 14 Jose Tena, SS 4 1 3 0 .233 2 2B (11), a much improved performance in June
CLE AA #14 Jose Tena, SS 4 0 0 0 .233
CLE HiA #15 Jake Fox, 2B 2 2 1 0 .197 BB (21),
CLE AA #16 Juan Brito, 2B 2 1 1 0 .296 BB (37),
CLE AA #16 Juan Brito, 2B 3 0 0 0 .296 BB (37),
CLE AAA #20 Jhonkensy Noel, OF 4 0 0 0 .186
CLE AA #21 Gabriel Rodriguez, 3B 2 1 1 0 .200 2B (5), BB (24),
CLE LoA #23 Angel Genao, SS 3 0 0 0 .257 BB (8),
CLE AA #25 Petey Halpin, OF 4 0 1 0 .275 SB (6),
CLE HiA #28 Justin Boyd, OF 3 0 0 1 .150
CLE AA #30 Lavastida, C 3 1 0 0 .253

CLE MAJ #7 Tanner Bibee, RHP 5.0 7 3 3 3 6 3.54 W (5-2)
CLE AAA #18 Joey Cantillo, LHP 5.1 10 6 6 1 4 3.93 L (2-1)

I have never heard of most of these guys

Cleveland Guardians
Released: RHP Brett Daniels | C Edgar Gamargo | SS Henyer Gomez | SS Jesus Lara | OF Julian Escobedo | OF Angel Mendoza

Miggy (Chicago): I recall at the end of last season someone at BA mentioning Angel Genao as a guy to keep an eye on, how has he looked so far this year?


Geoff Pontes: The reports have been mixed. The plate skills have shown up well, he's not swinging and missing or chasing but the quality of contact and amount of ground balls are a concern. Still very early and he's extremely young.

Here are the top hitters so far—again, huge caveats apply here—in the Arizona Complex League, with statcast data being applied to the analysis:

No.2 Rafael Ramirez CLE
Born: Jul 22, 2005 in Paterson,
Ht.: 6'0" / Wt.: 159 lbs
Bats: L / Throws: R
AB AVG OBP SLG HR
2023 27 .333 .561 .481 0

Although he hasn't hit a home run yet, Guardians infielder Rafael Ramirez continues to build on his torrid start to the season with a 189 wRC+ as the second youngest hitter in the desert. The contact rates are double plus for the level. Considering his young age, this is absolutely noteworthy. The high contact rate isn’t just a byproduct of only swinging at pitches he can hit: his swing decisions are better than average too. He’s not swinging a limp noodle either; his 90th percentile exit velocities are above the average “maximum exit velocity” for 17 year olds and he’s barreling. In fact, his 90th percentile exit velocity is right at the average for the level, despite being 3 years younger. These two names [the No. 1 guy and Ramirez] thus far, are the class of the ACL.

Honorable Mention include:
Jaison Chourio OF
Born: May 19, 2005 in Venezuela
Ht.: 6'1" / Wt.: 160 lbs
Bats: B / Throws: R

No. 5 ACL Pitcher
Name: Jogly Alfonzo Garcia
Born: Sep 8, 2003 in Maracay,
Ht.: 6'0" / Wt.: 170 lbs
Bats: R / Throws: R
IP ERA WHIP BB/9 SO/9
2023 9 1.00 0.78 2.00 14.00

in the Dominican
No. 3
Name: Welbyn Miguel Francisca
Born: May 17, 2006 in La Romana,
Ht.: 5'0" / Wt.: 148 lbs
Bats: S / Throws: R
AB AVG OBP SLG HR
Career 39 .436 .532 .846 2

—the hottest hitter in Double-A is Cleveland shortstop Juan Brito. Since being promoted to Akron after a 133 wRC+ in Lake County, Brito has put up a 184 wRC+ in his first 73 plate appearances. Since joining the Guardians organization, Brito has added three mph to his 90th-percentile exit velocity while still retaining his plus contact rate and swing decisions. Another hit-over-power middle infielder for the Guardians, Brito is becoming one of my favorites of the bunch because of the potential for more power.